Job to Eliphaz: 1. Apologies and prayers. I. A DESPERATE MAN 'S DEFENCE . 1. Job ' s calamities surveyed. 2 . Job ' s grief justified. II. A MISERABLE MAN 'S PRAYER . 1 . Job ' s urgent request. "Oh that I might have my request; and that God would grant me the thing that I long for!" (verse 8)—that thing being death (cf. Job 3:21 ). Job longed for death as a release from his sufferings ( Job 3:13 ); Elijah, under a sense of weariness and... read more
The sufferer's self-justification. ( Job 6:1-30 ; Job 7:1-21 .) We have seen that Eliphaz's counsels, though well-meant, were ill-timed. They were right words ' but not fitly spoken as to person, time, and place. They cause the poor sufferer to wince afresh instead of soothing his pain. The tumult of his spirit is now aggravated into a very tempest of woe. The human spirit is a thing of moods. We have watched the marvellous changes that pass over the surface of a lake beneath a... read more
A true estimate of grief under the severities of affliction. Even the strong man cries for help and release. Job, in his extreme sufferings, desires that a fair judgment may be formed of them and of his complaint. Put this into one seals, and them into the other, and behold which of them is the lighter. Thus he describes them— I. THE INSUFFERABLE WEIGHT OF HIS AFFLICTION . It is as the unknown weight of the sand of the seashore. Affliction is truly as the pressure of a great... read more
Oh that I might have my request! Here the second point is taken up. Eliphaz has threatened Job with death, representing it as the last and most terrible of punishments ( Job 4:9 , Job 4:20 , Job 4:21 ; Job 5:2 ). Job's reply is that there is nothing he desires so much as death. His primary wish would have been never to have been born ( Job 3:3-10 ); next to that, he would have desired an early death—the earlier the more acceptable ( Job 3:11-19 ). As both these have been denied... read more
The prayer of despair. This is an awful prayer. Job longs for death, and prays God to crush him. Then there will be an end to his agonies. He has rejected his wife's temptation to suicide ( Job 2:9 ); but he begs that God will take his life. I. IT IS WELL TO BRING THE DESPAIR OF THE SOUL TO GOD . The despair is not utter and complete if it has not stifled the fountains of prayer. When it can be said of any one, "Behold, he prayeth," all hope is not yet gone.... read more
Even that it would please God to destroy me; or, to crush me (Revised Version)—"to break me in pieces" (Lee). That he would let loose his hand ; or, put forth his hand— stretch it out against me threateningly." And cut me off . "Cut me off bit by bit " (Lee); comp. Isaiah 38:12 , where the same word is used of a weaver, who cuts the threads of his loom one by one, until the whole is liberated and comes away. read more
Then should I yet have comfort . First, the comfort that the end was come, and that he would be spared further sufferings; and further, the still greater comfort that he had endured to the end, and not. denied nor renounced his trust in religion and in all the "words of the Holy One." Professor Lee sees here "the recognition of a future life, expressed in words as plain and obvious as possible". But to us it seems that, if the idea is present at all, it is covered up, latent; only so far... read more
What is my strength, that I should hope? Eliphaz had suggested that Job might recover and be restored to his former prosperity ( Job 5:18-26 ). Job rejects this suggestion. His strength is brought too low; it is not conceivable that he should be restored, he cannot entertain any such hope. And what is mine end, that I should prolong my life? rather, that I should stretch out my spirit. Job cannot look forward to such an "end" as Eliphaz prophesies for him; therefore he cannot bring... read more
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Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 6:12
Is my strength the strength of stones? - I am neither a rock, nor is my flesh brass, that I can endure all these calamities. This is a proverbial saying, and exists in all countries. Cicero says, Non enim est e saxo sculptus, aut e Robore dolatus Homo; habet corpus, habet animum; movetur mente, movetur sensibus . "For man is not chiselled out of the rock, nor hewn out of the oak; he has a body, and he has a soul; the one is actuated by intellect, the other by the senses." Quaest. Acad. iv.... read more