{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"JOB","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Job","commonName":"Job","introduction":"JOB A REAL PERSON.--It has been supposed by some that the book of Job is an allegory, not a real narrative, on account of the artificial character of many of its statements. Thus the sacred numbers, three and seven, often occur. He had seven thousand sheep, seven sons, both before and after his trials; his three friends sit down with him seven days and seven nights; both before and after his trials he had three daughters. So also the number and form of the speeches of the several speakers seem to be artificial. The name of Job, too, is derived from an Arabic word signifying repentance.\n\nBut Eze 14:14 (compare Eze 14:16, Eze 14:20) speaks of \"Job\" in conjunction with \"Noah and Daniel,\" real persons. St. James (Jam 5:11) also refers to Job as an example of \"patience,\" which he would not have been likely to do had Job been only a fictitious person. Also the names of persons and places are specified with a particularity not to be looked for in an allegory. As to the exact doubling of his possessions after his restoration, no doubt the round number is given for the exact number, as the latter approached near the former; this is often done in undoubtedly historical books. As to the studied number and form of the speeches, it seems likely that the arguments were substantially those which appear in the book, but that the studied and poetic form was given by Job himself, guided by the Holy Spirit. He lived one hundred and forty years after his trials, and nothing would be more natural than that he should, at his leisure, mould into a perfect form the arguments used in the momentous debate, for the instruction of the Church in all ages. Probably, too, the debate itself occupied several sittings; and the number of speeches assigned to each was arranged by preconcerted agreement, and each was allowed the interval of a day or more to prepare carefully his speech and replies; this will account for the speakers bringing forward their arguments in regular series, no one speaking out of his turn. As to the name Job--repentance (supposing the derivation correct)--it was common in old times to give a name from circumstances which occurred at an advanced period of life, and this is no argument against the reality of the person.\n\nWHERE JOB LIVED.--\"Uz,\" according to GESENIUS, means a light, sandy soil, and was in the north of Arabia-Deserta, between Palestine and the Euphrates, called by PTOLEMY (Geography, 19) Ausitai or Aisitai. In Gen 10:23; Gen 22:21; Gen 36:28; and Ch1 1:17, Ch1 1:42, it is the name of a man. In Jer 25:20; Lam 4:21; and Job 1:1, it is a country. Uz, in Gen 22:21, is said to be the son of Nahor, brother of Abraham--a different person from the one mentioned (Gen 10:23), a grandson of Shem. The probability is that the country took its name from the latter of the two; for this one was the son of Aram, from whom the Arameans take their name, and these dwelt in Mesopotamia, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Compare as to the dwelling of the sons of Shem in Gen 10:30, \"a mount of the East,\" answering to \"men of the East\" (Job 1:3). RAWLINSON, in his deciphering of the Assyrian inscriptions, states that \"Uz is the prevailing name of the country at the mouth of the Euphrates.\" It is probable that Eliphaz the Temanite and the Sabeans dwelt in that quarter; and we know that the Chaldeans resided there, and not near Idumea, which some identify with Uz. The tornado from \"the wilderness\" (Job 1:19) agrees with the view of it being Arabia-Deserta. Job (Job 1:3) is called \"the greatest of the men of the East\"; but Idumea was not east, but south of Palestine: therefore in Scripture language, the phrase cannot apply to that country, but probably refers to the north of Arabia-Deserta, between Palestine, Idumea, and the Euphrates. So the Arabs still show in the Houran a place called Uz as the residence of Job.\n\nTHE AGE WHEN JOB LIVED.--EUSEBIUS fixes it two ages before Moses, that is, about the time of Isaac: eighteen hundred years before Christ, and six hundred after the Deluge. Agreeing with this are the following considerations: 1. Job's length of life is patriarchal, two hundred years. 2. He alludes only to the earliest form of idolatry, namely, the worship of the sun, moon, and heavenly hosts (called Saba, whence arises the title \"Lord of Sabaoth,\" as opposed to Sabeanism) (Job 31:26-28). 3. The number of oxen and rams sacrificed, seven, as in the case of Balaam. God would not have sanctioned this after the giving of the Mosaic law, though He might graciously accommodate Himself to existing customs before the law. 4. The language of Job is Hebrew, interspersed occasionally with Syriac and Arabic expressions, implying a time when all the Shemitic tribes spoke one common tongue and had not branched into different dialects, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. 5. He speaks of the most ancient kind of writing, namely, sculpture. Riches also are reckoned by cattle. The Hebrew word, translated \"a piece of money,\" ought rather be rendered \"a lamb.\" 6. There is no allusion to the exodus from Egypt and to the miracles that accompanied it; nor to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (PATRICK, however, thinks there is); though there is to the Flood (Job 22:17); and these events, happening in Job's vicinity, would have been striking illustrations of the argument for God's interposition in destroying the wicked and vindicating the righteous, had Job and his friends known of them. Nor is there any undoubted reference to the Jewish law, ritual, and priesthood. 7. The religion of Job is that which prevailed among the patriarchs previous to the law; sacrifices performed by the head of the family; no officiating priesthood, temple, or consecrated altar.\n\nTHE WRITER.--All the foregoing facts accord with Job himself having been the author. The style of thought, imagery, and manners, are such as we should look for in the work of an Arabian emir. There is precisely that degree of knowledge of primitive tradition (see Job 31:33, as to Adam) which was universally spread abroad in the days of Noah and Abraham, and which was subsequently embodied in the early chapters of Genesis. Job, in his speeches, shows that he was much more competent to compose the work than Elihu, to whom LIGHTFOOT attributes it. The style forbids its being attributed to Moses, to whom its composition is by some attributed, \"whilst he was among the Midianites, about 1520 B.C.\" But the fact, that it, though not a Jewish book, appears among the Hebrew sacred writings, makes it likely that it came to the knowledge of Moses during the forty years which he passed in parts of Arabia, chiefly near Horeb; and that he, by divine guidance, introduced it as a sacred writing to the Israelites, to whom, in their affliction, the patience and restoration of Job were calculated to be a lesson of especial utility. That it is inspired appears from the fact that Paul (Co1 3:19) quotes it (Job 5:13) with the formula, \"It is written.\" Our Savior, too Mat 24:28), plainly refers to Job 29:30. Compare also Jam 4:10 and Pe1 5:6 with Job 22:29; Rom 11:34-35 with Job 15:8. It is probably the oldest book in the world. It stands among the Hagiographa in the threefold division of Scripture into the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa (\"Psalms,\" Luk 24:44).\n\nDESIGN OF THE BOOK.--It is a public debate in poetic form on an important question concerning the divine government; moreover the prologue and epilogue, which are in prose, shed the interest of a living history over the debate, which would otherwise be but a contest of abstract reasonings. To each speaker of the three friends three speeches are assigned. Job having no one to stand by him is allowed to reply to each speech of each of the three. Eliphaz, as the oldest, leads the way. Zophar, at his third turn, failed to speak, thus virtually owning himself overcome (Job 27:1-23). Therefore Job continued his reply, which forms three speeches (Job 26:1-14; Job 27:1-23; Job 28:1-28; Job 29:1-31:40). Elihu (Job 32:1-37:24) is allowed four speeches. Jehovah makes three addresses (Job 38:1-41:34). Thus, throughout there is a tripartite division. The whole is divided into three parts--the prologue, poem proper, and epilogue. The poem, into three--(1) The dispute of Job and his three friends; (2) The address of Elihu; (3) The address of God. There are three series in the controversy, and in the same order. The epilogue (Job 42:1-17) also is threefold; Job's justification, reconciliation with his friends, restoration. The speakers also in their successive speeches regularly advance from less to greater vehemence. With all this artificial composition, everything seems easy and natural.\n\nThe question to be solved, as exemplified in the case of Job, is, Why are the righteous afflicted consistently with God's justice? The doctrine of retribution after death, no doubt, is the great solution of the difficulty. And to it Job plainly refers in Job 14:14, and Job 19:25. The objection to this, that the explicitness of the language on the resurrection in Job is inconsistent with the obscurity on the subject in the early books of the Old Testament, is answered by the fact that Job enjoyed the divine vision (Job 38:1; Job 42:5), and therefore, by inspiration, foretold these truths. Next, the revelations made outside of Israel being few needed to be the more explicit; thus Balaam's prophecy (Num 24:17) was clear enough to lead the wise men of the East by the star (Mat 2:2); and in the age before the written law, it was the more needful for God not to leave Himself without witness of the truth. Still Job evidently did not fully realize the significance designed by the Spirit in his own words (compare Pe1 1:11-12). The doctrine, though existing, was not plainly revealed or at least understood. Hence he does not mainly refer to this solution. Yes, and even now, we need something in addition to this solution. David, who firmly believed in a future retribution (Psa 16:10; Psa 17:15), still felt the difficulty not entirely solved thereby (Psa. 83:1-18). The solution is not in Job's or in his three friends' speeches. It must, therefore, be in Elihu's. God will hold a final judgment, no doubt, to clear up all that seems dark in His present dealings; but He also now providentially and morally governs the world and all the events of human life. Even the comparatively righteous are not without sin which needs to be corrected. The justice and love of God administer the altogether deserved and merciful correction. Affliction to the godly is thus mercy and justice in disguise. The afflicted believer on repentance sees this. \"Via crucis, via salutis\" [\"The way of the cross, the way of deliverance\"]. Though afflicted, the godly are happier even now than the ungodly, and when affliction has attained its end, it is removed by the Lord. In the Old Testament the consolations are more temporal and outward; in the New Testament, more spiritual; but in neither to the entire exclusion of the other. \"Prosperity,\" says BACON, \"is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity that of the New Testament, which is the mark of God's more especial favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost has labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.\" This solution of Elihu is seconded by the addresses of God, in which it is shown God must be just (because He is God), as Elihu had shown how God can be just, and yet the righteous be afflicted. It is also acquiesced in by Job, who makes no reply. God reprimands the \"three\" friends, but not Elihu. Job's general course is approved; he is directed to intercede for his friends, and is restored to double his former prosperity.\n\nPOETRY.--In all countries poetry is the earliest form of composition as being best retained in the memory. In the East especially it was customary for sentiments to be preserved in a terse, proverbial, and poetic form (called maschal). Hebrew poetry is not constituted by the rhythm or meter, but in a form peculiar to itself: 1. In an alphabetical arrangement somewhat like our acrostic. For instance, Lam. 1:1-22. 2. The same verse repeated at intervals; as in Psa 42:1-11; Psa. 107:1-43. 3. Rhythm of gradation. Psalms of degrees, Psa. 120:1-134:3, in which the expression of the previous verse is resumed and carried forward in the next (Psa 121:1-8). 4. The chief characteristic of Hebrew poetry is parallelism, or the correspondence of the same ideas in the parallel clauses. The earliest instance is Enoch's prophecy (Jde 1:14), and Lamech's parody of it (Gen 4:23). Three kinds occur: (1) The synonymous parallelism, in which the second is a repetition of the first, with or without increase of force (Psa 22:27; Isa 15:1); sometimes with double parallelism (Isa 1:15). (2) The antithetic, in which the idea of the second clause is the converse of that in the first (Pro 10:1). (3) The synthetic, where there is a correspondence between different propositions, noun answering to noun, verb to verb, member to member, the sentiment, moreover, being not merely echoed, or put in contrast, but enforced by accessory ideas (Job 3:3-9). Also alternate (Isa 51:19). \"Desolation and destruction, famine and sword,\" that is, desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword. Introverted; where the fourth answers to the first, and the third to the second (Mat 7:6). Parallelism thus often affords a key to the interpretation. For fuller information, see LOWTH (Introduction to Isaiah, and Lecture on Hebrew Poetry) and HERDER (Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, translated by Marsh). The simpler and less artificial forms of parallelism prevail in Job--a mark of its early age. \n\n\n\nNext: Job Chapter 1\n\n","order":18,"numberOfChapters":42,"sha256":"e28c73d19b068ae7148f623bfa79b3c43dd6e60e7a803672cdd5f8a7d5080b3a","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":42,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/42.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":42},"totalNumberOfVerses":954},"chapter":{"number":16,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["\"Words of wind,\" Hebrew. He retorts upon Eliphaz his reproach (Job 15:2). \n\nemboldeneth--literally, \"What wearies you so that ye contradict?\" that is, What have I said to provoke you? &c. [SCHUTTENS]. Or, as better accords with the first clause, \"Wherefore do ye weary yourselves contradicting?\" [UMBREIT].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["heap up--rather, \"marshal together (an army of) words against you.\" \n\nshake . . . head--in mockery; it means nodding, rather than shaking; nodding is not with us, as in the East, a gesture of scorn (Isa 37:22; Jer 18:16; Mat 27:39).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["strengthen . . . with . . . mouth--bitter irony. In allusion to Eliphaz' boasted \"consolations\" (Job 15:11). Opposed to strengthening with the heart, that is, with real consolation. Translate, \"I also (like you) could strengthen with the mouth,\" that is, with heartless talk: \"And the moving of my lips (mere lip comfort) could console (in the same fashion as you do)\" [UMBREIT]. \"Hearty counsel\" (Pro 27:9) is the opposite.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["eased--literally, \"What (portion of my sufferings) goes from me?\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["But now--rather, \"ah!\" \n\nhe--God. \n\ncompany--rather, \"band of witnesses,\" namely, those who could attest his innocence (his children, servants, &c.). So the same Hebrew is translated in Job 16:8. UMBREIT makes his \"band of witnesses,\" himself, for, alas! he had no other witness for him. But this is too recondite.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["filled . . . with wrinkles--Rather (as also the same Hebrew word in Job 22:16; English Version, \"cut down\"), \"thou hast fettered me, thy witness\" (besides cutting off my \"band of witnesses,\" Job 16:7), that is, hast disabled me by pains from properly attesting my innocence. But another \"witness\" arises against him, namely, his \"leanness\" or wretched state of body, construed by his friends into a proof of his guilt. The radical meaning of the Hebrew is \"to draw together,\" whence flow the double meaning \"to bind\" or \"fetter,\" and in Syriac, \"to wrinkle.\" \n\nleanness--meaning also \"lie\"; implying it was a \"false witness.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Image from a wild beast. So God is represented (Job 10:16). \n\nwho hateth me--rather, \"and pursues me hard.\" Job would not ascribe \"hatred\" to God (Psa 50:22). \n\nmine enemy--rather, \"he sharpens, &c., as an enemy\" (Psa 7:12). Darts wrathful glances at me, like a foe (Job 13:24).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["gaped--not in order to devour, but to mock him. To fill his cup of misery, the mockery of his friends (Job 16:10) is added to the hostile treatment from God (Job 16:9). \n\nsmitten . . . cheek--figurative for contemptuous abuse (Lam 3:30; Mat 5:39). \n\ngathered themselves--\"conspired unanimously\" [SCHUTTENS].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["the ungodly--namely, his professed friends, who persecuted him with unkind speeches. \n\nturned me over--literally, \"cast me headlong into the hands of the wicked.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["I was at ease--in past times (Job 1:1-3). \n\nby my neck--as an animal does its prey (so Job 10:16). \n\nshaken--violently; in contrast to his former \"ease\" (Psa 102:10). Set me up (again). \n\nmark-- (Job 7:20; Lam 3:12). God lets me always recover strength, so as to torment me ceaselessly.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["his archers--The image of Job 16:12 is continued. God, in making me His \"mark,\" is accompanied by the three friends, whose words wound like sharp arrows. \n\ngall--put for a vital part; so the liver (Lam 2:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["The image is from storming a fortress by making breaches in the walls (Kg2 14:13). \n\na giant--a mighty warrior.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["sewed--denoting the tight fit of the mourning garment; it was a sack with armholes closely sewed to the body. \n\nhorn--image from horned cattle, which when excited tear the earth with their horns. The horn was the emblem of power (Kg1 22:11). Here, it is \n\nin the dust--which as applied to Job denotes his humiliation from former greatness. To throw one's self in the dust was a sign of mourning; this idea is here joined with that of excited despair, depicted by the fury of a horned beast. The Druses of Lebanon still wear horns as an ornament.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["foul--rather, \"is red,\" that is, flushed and heated [UMBREIT and NOYES]. \n\nshadow of death--that is, darkening through many tears (Lam 5:17). Job here refers to Zophar's implied charge (Job 11:14). Nearly the same words occur as to Jesus Christ (Isa 53:9). So Job 16:10 above answers to the description of Jesus Christ (Psa 22:13; Isa 50:6, and Job 16:4 to Psa 22:7). He alone realized what Job aspired after, namely, outward righteousness of acts and inward purity of devotion. Jesus Christ as the representative man is typified in some degree in every servant of God in the Old Testament.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["my blood--that is, my undeserved suffering. He compares himself to one murdered, whose blood the earth refuses to drink up until he is avenged (Gen 4:10-11; Eze 24:1, Eze 24:8; Isa 26:21). The Arabs say that the dew of heaven will not descend on a spot watered with innocent blood (compare Sa2 1:21). \n\nno place--no resting-place. \"May my cry never stop!\" May it go abroad! \"Earth\" in this verse in antithesis to \"heaven\" (Job 16:19). May my innocence be as well-known to man as it is even now to God!\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["Also now--Even now, when I am so greatly misunderstood on earth, God in heaven is sensible of my innocence. \n\nrecord--Hebrew, \"in the high places\"; Hebrew, \"my witness.\" Amidst all his impatience, Job still trusts in God.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["Hebrew, \"are my scorners\"; more forcibly, \"my mockers--my friends!\" A heart-cutting paradox [UMBREIT]. God alone remains to whom he can look for attestation of his innocence; plaintively with tearful eye, he supplicates for this.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["one--rather, \"He\" (God). \"Oh, that He would plead for a man (namely, me) against God.\" Job quaintly says, \"God must support me against God; for He makes me to suffer, and He alone knows me to be innocent\" [UMBREIT]. So God helped Jacob in wrestling against Himself (compare Job 23:6; Gen 32:25). God in Jesus Christ does plead with God for man (Rom 8:26-27). \n\nas a man--literally, \"the Son of man.\" A prefiguring of the advocacy of Jesus Christ--a boon longed for by Job (Job 9:33), though the spiritual pregnancy of his own words, designed for all ages, was but little understood by him (Psa 80:17). \n\nfor his neighbour--Hebrew, \"friend.\" Job himself (Job 42:8) pleaded as intercessor for his \"friends,\" though \"his scorners\" (Job 16:20); so Jesus Christ the Son of man (Luk 23:34); \"for friends\" (Joh 15:13-15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["few--literally, \"years of number,\" that is, few, opposed to numberless (Gen 34:30).\n\n\n\n\nNext: Job Chapter 17\n\n"]}],"introduction":"JOB'S REPLY. (Job 16:1-22)\n\n(Job 13:4).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/16.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":16},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/17.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":17},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/15.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":15},"numberOfVerses":19}