Why did the knees prevent me? i.e. "Why did my mother take me on her knees and nurse me, instead of casting me on the ground, where I should have perished?" There seems to be an allusion to the practice of parents only bringing up a certain number of their children. Or why the breasts that I should suck? i.e. "Why were breasts offered to me, that I should suck them? How much better would it have been if I had been allowed to perish of inanition!" read more
For now should I have lain still and been quiet . "In that case, I should now ( עתָּה ) have been lying still and resting myself," instead of tossing about, and being full of restlessness and suffering." I should have slept . The life in the intermediate state is called "sleep," even in the New Testament ( Matthew 9:24 ; John 11:11 ; Acts 7:60 ; 1 Corinthians 15:18 , 1 Corinthians 15:51 , etc.). Job, perhaps, imagined it to be, actually, a sound, dreamless slumber. Then... read more
The grave. I. A REGION OF IMPENETRABLE DARKNESS . II. A REALM OF UNBROKEN SILENCE . III. AN ABODE OF DEEP TRANQUILLITY . IV. A BED OF PEACEFUL SLUMBER . V. A WORLD OF ABSOLUTE EQUALITY . VI. A PLACE OF UNIVERSAL RENDEZVOUS . VII. A HOUSE OF TEMPORARY LODGING . LESSONS . 1 . Humility. 2 . Contentment. 3 . Diligence. 4 . Watchfulness. read more
The grave a rest. In the toil and sorrow of life men long for rest. They lighten the toils and brighten the darkness of the present by the hope of repose and gladness in the future. Without such a hope life's burdens would be much heavier than they are; and in some cases almost insupportable. As the worn labourer longs for the rest of the even-tide, so does the over-wrought spirit of the sad desire the rest of the grave. It is proper to consider if this is a healthy, a just, a well-grounded... read more
With kings and counsellers of the earth . As a great man himself, nobly born probably, Job expects that his place in another world would have been with kings and nobles (see Isaiah 14:9-11 , where the King of Babylon, on entering Sheol, finds himself among "all the kings of the nations"). Which built desolate places for themselves . Some understand "restorers of cities which had become waste and desolate;" others, "builders of edifices which, since they built them, have become desolate;"... read more
The pyramids. The rock-tombs, mausoleums, and pyramids, which are most striking features of Eastern and especially of Egyptian architecture, are noted by Job with some feeling of envy. It is not that the splendour of these strange works excites his admiration. His thought dwells rather on their desolation, but this desolation is brought out the more vividly by contrast with their vastness and original magnificence. To be associated with such imposing embodiments of the idea of death is just... read more
Or with princes that had gold, who filled their houses with silver . This may either mean simply," princes who were rich in silver and gold during their lifetime," or "princes who have gold and silver buried with them in their tombs." It was the custom in Egypt, in Phoenicia, and elsewhere throughout the East, to bury large quantities of treasure, especially gold and silver vessels, and jewellery, in the sepulchres of kings and other great men. A tomb of a Scythian king in the Crimea, opened... read more
Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been; as infants which never saw light . This is added as another way in which Job might have escaped his misery. Though conceived and brought to the birth, he might have been still-born, and so have known no suffering. read more
To be or not to be. I. AGAINST BEING AND IN FAVOUR OF NOT - BEING . 1 . Life is little other than a capacity for suffering affliction. 2 . At the best, life is so short, and man's powers so feeble, that nothing he undertakes can attain to perfection. 3 . In every instance life involves the terrible necessity and painful experience of dying. 4 . Life always carries in its bosom the possibility of coming short of everlasting felicity. II. IN FAVOUR OF ... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Job 3:11-19
The stricken patriarch's lament: 2. Bewailing his life. I. THE DESPISED GIFT — LIFE . In bitterness of soul, Job not only laments that ever he had entered on the stage of existence at all, but with the perverse ingenuity of grief which looks at all things crosswise, he turns the very mercies of God into occasions of complaint, despising God's care of him: 1 . Before birth. "Why died I not from the womb?" i.e. while I was yet unborn; surely a display of monstrous ingratitude,... read more