{"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":37,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Hear attentively--the thunder (noise), &c., and then you will feel that there is good reason to tremble. \n\nsound--muttering of the thunder.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["directeth it--however zigzag the lightning's course; or, rather, it applies to the pealing roll of the thunder. God's all-embracing power. \n\nends--literally, \"wings,\" \"skirts,\" the habitable earth being often compared to an extended garment (Job 38:13; Isa 11:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["The thunderclap follows at an interval after the flash. \n\nstay them--He will not hold back the lightnings (Job 37:3), when the thunder is heard [MAURER]. Rather, take \"them\" as the usual concomitants of thunder, namely, rain and hail [UMBREIT] (Job 40:9).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["(Job 36:26; Psa 65:6; Psa 139:14). The sublimity of the description lies in this, that God is everywhere in the storm, directing it whither He will [BARNES]. See Psa 29:1-11, where, as here, the \"voice\" of God is repeated with grand effect. The thunder in Arabia is sublimely terrible.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Be--more forcible than \"fall,\" as UMBREIT translates Gen 1:3. \n\nto the small rain, &c.--He saith, Be on the earth. The shower increasing from \"small\" to \"great,\" is expressed by the plural \"showers\" (Margin), following the singular \"shower.\" Winter rain (Sol 2:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["In winter God stops man's out-of-doors activity. \n\nsealeth--closeth up (Job 9:7). Man's \"hands\" are then tied up. \n\nhis work--in antithesis to man's own work (\"hand\") which at other times engages men so as to make them liable to forget their dependence on God. UMBREIT more literally translates, That all men whom He has made (literally, \"of His making\") may be brought to acknowledgment.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["remain--rest in their lairs. It is beautifully ordered that during the cold, when they could not obtain food, many lie torpid, a state wherein they need no food. The desolation of the fields, at God's bidding, is poetically graphic.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["south--literally, \"chambers\"; connected with the south (Job 9:9). The whirlwinds are poetically regarded as pent up by God in His southern chambers, whence He sends them forth (so Job 38:22; Psa 135:7). As to the southern whirlwinds (see Isa 21:1; Zac 9:14), they drive before them burning sands; chiefly from February to May. \n\nthe north--literally, \"scattering\"; the north wind scatters the clouds.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["the breath of God--poetically, for the ice-producing north wind. \n\nfrost--rather, \"ice.\" \n\nstraitened--physically accurate; frost compresses or contracts the expanded liquid into a congealed mass (Job 38:29-30; Psa 147:17-18).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["How the thunderclouds are dispersed, or else employed by God, either for correction or mercy. \n\nby watering--by loading it with water. \n\nwearieth--burdeneth it, so that it falls in rain; thus \"wearieth\" answers to the parallel \"scattereth\" (compare, see on Job 37:9); a clear sky resulting alike from both. \n\nbright cloud--literally, \"cloud of his light,\" that is, of His lightning. UMBREIT for \"watering,\" &c., translates; \"Brightness drives away the clouds, His light scattereth the thick clouds\"; the parallelism is thus good, but the Hebrew hardly sanctions it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["it--the cloud of lightning. \n\ncounsels--guidance (Psa 148:8); literally, \"steering\"; the clouds obey God's guidance, as the ship does the helmsman. So the lightning (see on Job 36:31-32); neither is haphazard in its movements. \n\nthey--the clouds, implied in the collective singular \"it.\" \n\nface of the world, &c.--in the face of the earth's circle.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Literally, \"He maketh it (the rain-cloud) find place,\" whether for correction, if (it be destined) for His land (that is, for the part inhabited by man, with whom God deals, as opposed to the parts uninhabited, on which rain is at other times appointed to fall, Job 38:26-27) or for mercy. \"If it be destined for His land\" is a parenthetical supposition [MAURER]. In English Version, this clause spoils the even balance of the antithesis between the \"rod\" (Margin) and \"mercy\" (Psa 68:9; Gen. 7:1-24).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["(Psa 111:2).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["when--rather, \"how.\" \n\ndisposed them--lays His charge on these \"wonders\" (Job 37:14) to arise. \n\nlight--lightning. \n\nshine--flash. How is it that light arises from the dark thundercloud?\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["Hebrew, \"Hast thou understanding of the balancings,\" &c., how the clouds are poised in the air, so that their watery gravity does not bring them to the earth? The condensed moisture, descending by gravity, meets a warmer temperature, which dissipates it into vapor (the tendency of which is to ascend) and so counteracts the descending force. \n\nperfect in knowledge--God; not here in the sense that Elihu uses it of himself (Job 36:4). \n\ndost thou know--how, &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["thy garments, &c.--that is, dost thou know how thy body grows warm, so as to affect thy garments with heat? \n\nsouth wind--literally, \"region of the south.\" \"When He maketh still (and sultry) the earth (that is, the atmosphere) by (during) the south wind\" (Sol 4:16).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["with him--like as He does (Job 40:15). \n\nspread out--given expanse to. \n\nstrong pieces--firm; whence the term \"firmament\" (\"expansion,\" Gen 1:6, Margin; Isa 44:24). \n\nmolten looking glass--image of the bright smiling sky. Mirrors were then formed of molten polished metal, not glass.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["Men cannot explain God's wonders; we ought, therefore, to be dumb and not contend with God. If Job thinks we ought, \"let him teach us, what we shall say.\" \n\norder--frame. \n\ndarkness--of mind; ignorance. \"The eyes are bewilderingly blinded, when turned in bold controversy with God towards the sunny heavens\" (Job 37:18) [UMBREIT].\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["What I a mortal say against God's dealings is not worthy of being told HIM. In opposition to Job's wish to \"speak\" before God (Job 13:3, Job 13:18-22). \n\nif . . . surely he shall be swallowed up--The parallelism more favors UMBREIT, \"Durst a man speak (before Him, complaining) that he is (without cause) being destroyed?\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["cleanseth--that is, cleareth the air of clouds. When the \"bright light\" of the sun, previously not seen through \"clouds,\" suddenly shines out from behind them, owing to the wind clearing them away, the effect is dazzling to the eye; so if God's majesty, now hidden, were suddenly revealed in all its brightness, it would spread darkness over Job's eyes, anxious as he is for it (compare, see on Job 37:19) [UMBREIT]. It is because now man sees not the bright sunlight (God's dazzling majesty), owing to the intervening \"clouds\" (Job 26:9), that they dare to wish to \"speak\" before God (Job 37:20). Prelude to God's appearance (Job 38:1). The words also hold true in a sense not intended by Elihu, but perhaps included by the Holy Ghost. Job and other sufferers cannot see the light of God's countenance through the clouds of trial: but the wind will soon clear them off, and God shall appear again: let them but wait patiently, for He still shines, though for a time they see Him not (see on Job 37:23).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["Rather, \"golden splendor.\" MAURER translates \"gold.\" It is found in northern regions. But God cannot be \"found out,\" because of His \"Majesty\" (Job 37:23). Thus the twenty-eighth chapter corresponds; English Version is simpler. \n\nthe north--Brightness is chiefly associated with it (see on Job 23:9). Here, perhaps, because the north wind clears the air (Pro 25:23). Thus this clause answers to the last of Job 37:21; as the second of this verse to the first of Job 37:21. Inverted parallelism. (See Isa 14:13; Psa 48:2). \n\nwith God--rather, \"upon God,\" as a garment (Psa 104:1-2). \n\nmajesty--splendor.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["afflict--oppressively, so as to \"pervert judgment\" as Job implied (see on Job 8:3); but see on Job 37:21, end of note. The reading, \"He answereth not,\" that is, gives no account of His dealings, is like a transcriber's correction, from Job 33:13, Margin.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["do--rather, \"ought.\" \n\nwise--in their own conceits.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Job Chapter 38\n\n"]}],"introduction":"(Job 37:1-24)\n\nAt this--when I hear the thundering of the Divine Majesty. Perhaps the storm already had begun, out of which God was to address Job (Job 38:1).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/37.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":37},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/38.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":38},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/36.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":36},"numberOfVerses":23}