Job 36:16

β . AN APPLICATION TO JOB OF THE PRECEDING PRINCIPLES, ENFORCED BY A POINTED EXHORTATION, Job 36:16-21.

Strophe a An affectionate God seeks to lure the soul out of the narrow straits of trouble into the broad and rich experiences of spiritual prosperity: but if the soul prove contumacious against God, and be filled with the counsel of the wicked, then there is danger of destruction, from which no ransom shall avail to deliver, Job 36:16-18.

16. Even so… thee Literally, “God also allures [ urges ] thee from the jaws of trouble into a broad place, [with] no straitness beneath it,” which stands as a figure for greater glory and happiness. The rendering of the Authorized Version is substantially that of Furst, Delitzsch, and Umbreit. On improbable grounds Ewald makes unbounded prosperity the subject of the sentence; prosperity having had the effect to seduce Job from hearkening to the voice of afflictions.

Out of the strait מפי צר , literally, from the mouth of trouble. Distress is conceived of as a monster out of whose mouth God is seeking to deliver Job.

Table A well-filled table among the Orientals was an image of the highest earthly bliss. It is also frequently employed in the Scriptures to denote spiritual enjoyment and salvation. Psalms 22:26-29; Psalms 23:5; Isaiah 25:6; Isaiah 55:1-5, etc. Rich ( Nineveh 1:117) describes the table at which he sat with the Pasha as an oblong tray, with feet raising it a few inches from the floor. Such dishes as it would not contain were put beside it on the ground.