---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible"
author: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown"
languages: [en]
shelf: "Commentaries"
section: 162 of 927
url: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/162/
cite: "Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, section 162. Scriptura (scriptura.si), https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/162/"
---

# Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

*Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown*

The Victorian standard commentary, critical and practical, from Genesis to Revelation.

## 162. Job · 5 of 36

Source: https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/162/ · cite a paragraph as https://scriptura.si/works/jamieson-fausset-brown-commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/162/#p-N

[¶0] stream of brooks--rather, "the brook in the ravines which passes away." It has no perpetual spring of water to renew it (unlike "the fountain of living waters," [Jr 2:13]; [Is 33:16], at the end); and thus it passes away as rapidly as it arose.

[¶1] 16. blackish--literally, "Go as a mourner in black clothing" ([Psa 34:14]). A vivid and poetic image to picture the stream turbid and black with melted ice and snow, descending from the mountains into the valley. In the [second] clause, the snow dissolved is, in the poet's view, "hid" in the flood [Umbreit].

[¶2] 17. wax warm--rather, "At the time when." ("But they soon wax") [Umbreit]. "they become narrower (flow in a narrower bed), they are silent (cease to flow noisily); in the heat (of the sun) they are consumed or vanish out of their place. First the stream flows more narrowly--then it becomes silent and still; at length every trace of water disappears by evaporation under the hot sun" [Umbreit].

[¶3] 18. turned aside--rather, "caravans" (Hebrew, "travellers") turn aside from their way, by circuitous routes, to obtain water. They had seen the brook in spring full of water: and now in the summer heat, on their weary journey, they turn off their road by a devious route to reach the living waters, which they remembered with such pleasure. But, when "they go," it is "into a desert" [Noyes and Umbreit]. Not as English Version, "They go to nothing," which would be a tame repetition of the drying up of the waters in [Job 6:17]; instead of waters, they find an "empty wilderness"; and, not having strength to regain their road, bitterly disappointed, they "perish." The terse brevity is most expressive.

[¶4] 19. the troops--that is, "caravans."

[¶5] Tema--north of Arabia-Deserta, near the Syrian desert; called from Tema son of Ishmael ([Ge 25:15]; [Is 21:14]; [Jr 25:23]), still so called by the Arabs. [Job 6:19], give another picture of the mortification of disappointed hopes, namely, those of the caravans on the direct road, anxiously awaiting the return of their companions from the distant valley. The mention of the locality whence the caravans came gives living reality to the picture.

[¶6] Sheba--refers here not to the marauders in North Arabia-Deserta ([Job 1:15]), but to the merchants ([Eze 27:22]) in the south, in Arabia-Felix or Yemen, "afar off" ([Jr 6:20]; [Mt 12:42]; [Ge 10:28]). Caravans are first mentioned in [Ge 37:25]; men needed to travel thus in companies across the desert, for defense against the roving robbers and for mutual accommodation.

[¶7] The companies ... waited for them--cannot refer to the caravans who had gone in quest of the waters; for [Job 6:18] describes their utter destruction.

[¶8] 20. literally, "each had hoped"; namely, that their companions would find water. The greater had been their hopes the more bitter now their disappointment;

[¶9] they came thither--to the place.

[¶10] and were ashamed--literally, "their countenances burn," an Oriental phrase for the shame and consternation of deceived expectation; so "ashamed" as to disappointment ([Ro 5:5]).

[¶11] 21. As the dried-up brook is to the caravan, so are ye to me, namely, a nothing; ye might as well not be in existence [Umbreit]. The Margin "like to them," or "to it" (namely, the waters of the brook), is not so good a reading.

[¶12] ye see, and are afraid--Ye are struck aghast at the sight of my misery, and ye lose presence of mind. Job puts this mild construction on their failing to relieve him with affectionate consolation.

[¶13] 22. And yet I did not ask you to "bring me" a gift; or to "pay for me out of your substance a reward" (to the Judge, to redeem me from my punishment); all I asked from you was affectionate treatment.

[¶14] 23. the mighty--the oppressor, or creditor, in whose power the debtor was [Umbreit].

[¶15] 24-25. Irony. If you can "teach me" the right view, I am willing to be set right, and "hold my tongue"; and to be made to see my error. But then if your words be really the right words, how is it that they are so feeble? "Yet how feeble are the words of what you call the right view." So the Hebrew is used (in [Mi 2:10]; 1:9). The English Version, "How powerful," &c., does not agree so well with the last clause of the verse.

[¶16] 26. Do you imagine--or, "mean."

[¶17] to reprove words and (to reprove) the speeches of one desperate, (which are) as wind?--mere nothings, not to be so narrowly taken to task? Umbreit not so well takes the Hebrew for "as wind," as "sentiments"; making formal "sentiments" antithetical to mere "speeches," and supplying, not the word "reprove," but "would you regard," from the first clause.

[¶18] 27. literally, "ye cause" (supply, "your anger") [Umbreit], a net, namely, of sophistry [Noyes and Schuttens], to fall upon the desolate (one bereft of help, like the fatherless orphan);

[¶19] and ye dig (a pit) for your friend--that is, try to ensnare him, to catch him in the use of unguarded language [Noyes]. ([Psa 57:6]); metaphor from hunters catching wild beasts in a pit covered with brushwood to conceal it. Umbreit from the Syriac, and answering to his interpretation of the first clause, has, "Would you be indignant against your friend?" The Hebrew in [Job 41:6], means to "feast upon." As the first clause asks, "Would you catch him in a net?" so this follows up the image, "And would you next feast upon him, and his miseries?" So the Septuagint.

[¶20] 28. be content--rather, "be pleased to"--look. Since you have so falsely judged my words, look upon me, that is, upon my countenance: for (it is evident before your faces) if I lie; my countenance will betray me, if I be the hypocrite that you suppose.

[¶21] 29. Return--rather, "retract" your charges:

[¶22] let it not be iniquity--that is, (retract) that injustice may not be done me. Yea retract, "my righteousness is in it"; that is, my right is involved in this matter.

[¶23] 30. Will you say that my guilt lies in the organ of speech, and will you call it to account? or, Is it that my taste (palate) or discernment is not capable to form a judgment of perverse things? Is it thus you will explain the fact of my having no consciousness of guilt? [Umbreit].

### Chapter 7

### Job 7:1-21. Job Excuses His Desire for Death

[¶26] 1. appointed time--better, "a warfare," hard conflict with evil (so in [Is 40:2]; [Da 10:1]). Translate it "appointed time" ([Job 14:14]). Job reverts to the sad picture of man, however great, which he had drawn ([Job 3:14]), and details in this chapter the miseries which his friends will see, if, according to his request ([Job 6:28]), they will look on him. Even the Christian soldier, "warring a good warfare," rejoices when it is completed ([1Ti 1:18]; [2Ti 2:3]; , ).

[¶27] 2. earnestly desireth--Hebrew, "pants for the [evening] shadow." Easterners measure time by the length of their shadow. If the servant longs for the evening when his wages are paid, why may not Job long for the close of his hard service, when he shall enter on his "reward?" This proves that Job did not, as many maintain, regard the grave as a mere sleep.

[¶28] 3.--Months of comfortless misfortune.

[¶29] I am made to possess--literally, "to be heir to." Irony. "To be heir to," is usually a matter of joy; but here it is the entail of an involuntary and dismal inheritance.

[¶30] Months--for days, to express its long duration.

[¶31] Appointed--literally, "they have numbered to me"; marking well the unavoidable doom assigned to him.

[¶32] 4. Literally, "When shall be the flight of the night?" [Gesenius]. Umbreit, not so well, "The night is long extended"; literally, "measured out" (so Margin).

[¶33] 5. In elephantiasis maggots are bred in the sores ([Ac 12:23]; [Is 14:11]).

[¶34] clods of dust--rather, a crust of dried filth and accumulated corruption ([Job 2:7], ).

[¶35] my skin is broken and ... loathsome--rather, comes together so as to heal up, and again breaks out with running matter [Gesenius]. More simply the Hebrew is, "My skin rests (for a time) and (again) melts away" ([Psa 58:7]).

[¶36] 6. ([Is 38:12]). Every day like the weaver's shuttle leaves a thread behind; and each shall wear, as he weaves. But Job's thought is that his days must swiftly be cut off as a web;

[¶37] without hope--namely, of a recovery and renewal of life ([Job 14:19]; [1Ch 29:15]).

[¶38] 7. Address to God.

[¶39] Wind--a picture of evanescence ([Psa 78:39]).

[¶40] shall no more see--rather, "shall no more return to see good." This change from the different wish in [Job 3:17], &c., is most true to nature. He is now in a softer mood; a beam from former days of prosperity falling upon memory and the thought of the unseen world, where one is seen no more ([Job 7:8]), drew from him an expression of regret at leaving this world of light ([Ec 11:7]); so Hezekiah ([Is 38:11]). Grace rises above nature ([2Co 5:8]).

[¶41] 8. The eye of him who beholds me (present, not past), that is, in the very act of beholding me, seeth me no more.

[¶42] Thine eyes are upon me, and I am not--He disappears, even while God is looking upon him. Job cannot survive the gaze of Jehovah ([Psa 104:32]; [Re 20:11]). Not, "Thine eyes seek me and I am not to be found"; for God's eye penetrates even to the unseen world ([Psa 139:8]). Umbreit unnaturally takes "thine" to refer to one of the three friends.

[¶43] 9. ([2Sa 12:23]).

[¶44] the grave--the Sheol, or place of departed spirits, not disproving Job's belief in the resurrection. It merely means, "He shall come up no more" in the present order of things.