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Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:7

But now he hath made me weary - The Vulgate translates thus: - Nunc autem oppressit me dolor meus; et in nihilum redacti sunt omnes artus mei ; "But now my grief oppresses me, and all my joints are reduced to nothing." Perhaps Job alluded here to his own afflictions, and the desolation of his family. Thou hast made me weary with continual affliction; my strength is quite exhausted; and thou hast made desolate all my company, not leaving me a single child to continue my name, or to comfort... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:8

Thou hast filled me with wrinkles - If Job's disease were the elephantiasis, in which the whole skin is wrinkled as the skin of the elephant, from which this species of leprosy has taken its name, these words would apply most forcibly to it; but the whole passage, through its obscurity, has been variously rendered. Calmet unites it with the preceding, and Houbigant is not very different. He translates thus: - "For my trouble hath now weakened all my frame, and brought wrinkles over me: he is... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:9

He teareth me in his wrath - Who the person is that is spoken of in this verse, and onward to the end of the fourteenth, has been a question on which commentators have greatly differed. Some think God, others Eliphaz, is intended: I think neither. Probably God permitted Satan to show himself to Job, and the horrible form which he and his demons assumed increased the misery under which Job had already suffered so much. All the expressions, from this to the end of the fourteenth verse, may be... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:13

His archers compass me - רביו rabbaiv "his great ones." The Vulgate and Septuagint translate this his spears; the Syriac, Arabic, and Chaldee, his arrows. On this and the following verse Mr. Heath observes: "The metaphor is here taken from huntsmen: first, they surround the beast; then he is shot dead; his entrails are next taken out; and then his body is broken up limb by limb." read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:15

I have sewed sackcloth - שק sak , a word that has passed into almost all languages, as I have already had occasion to notice in other parts of this work. Defiled my horn in the dust - The horn was an emblem of power; and the metaphor was originally taken from beasts, such as the urus, wild ox, buffalo, or perhaps the rhinoceros, who were perceived to have so much power in their horns. Hence a horn was frequently worn on crowns and helmets, as is evident on ancient coins; and to this... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:16

On my eyelids is the shadow of death - Death is now fast approaching me; already his shadow is projected over me. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:17

Not for any injustice - I must assert, even with my last breath, that the charges of my friends against me are groundless. I am afflicted unto death, but not on account of my iniquities. Also my prayer is pure - I am no hypocrite, God knoweth. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:18

O earth, cover not thou my blood - This is evidently an allusion to the murder of Abel, and the verse has been understood in two different ways: Job here calls for justice against his destroyers. His blood is his life, which he considers as taken away by violence, and therefore calls for vengeance. Let my blood cry against my murderers, as the blood of Abel cried against Cain. My innocent life is taken away by violence, as his innocent life was; as therefore the earth was not permitted to... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:19

My witness is in heaven - I appeal to God for my innocence. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Job 16:20

My friends scorn me - They deride and insult me, but my eye is towards God; I look to him to vindicate my cause. read more

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