Job 11:18 Komentář

Poor Job's wound's were yet bleeding, his sore still runs and ceases not, but none of his friends bring him any oil, any balm; Zophar, the third, pours into them as much vinegar as the two former had done. I. He exhibits a very high charge against Job, as proud and false in justifying himself (Job 11:1-4). II. He appeals to God for his conviction, and begs that God would take him to task (Job 11:5) and that Job might be made sensible, 1. Of God's unerring wisdom and his inviolable justice (Job 11:6). 2. Of his unsearchable perfections (Job 11:7-9). 3. Of his incontestable sovereignty and uncontrollable power (Job 11:10). 4. Of the cognizance he takes of the children of men (Job 11:11, Job 11:12). III. He assures him that, upon his repentance and reformation (Job 11:13, Job 11:14), God would restore him to his former prosperity and safety (Job 11:15-19); but that, if he were wicked it was in vain to expect it (Job 11:20).

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 11 In this chapter Zophar the Naamathite, Job's third friend, attacks him, and the with great acrimony and severity, and with much indecency; he charges him not only with loquacity, and vain babbling, but with lying, and with scoffing at God, and good men, Job 11:1; which he attempts to support by some things Job had said, misrepresented by him, Job 11:4; and wishes that God would take him in hand, and convince him of the wisdom of the divine proceedings with him, and of his lenity and mercy to him, Job 11:5; and then discourses of the unsearchableness of God in his counsels, and conduct; of his sovereignty, and of his power, and of the vanity and folly of men, Job 11:7; and as his friends before him, having insinuated that Job was guilty of some heinous sin, or sins, and especially of hypocrisy, advises him to repentance and reformation, and then it would be well with him; and he should enjoy much comfort, peace, and safety, even to old age, Job 11:13; and concludes it should go ill with the wicked man and the hypocrite, such as he suggests Job was, Job 11:20.

And thou shall be secure,.... From coming into like darkness, difficulties, and distress again, and from every evil and enemy; nothing shall come nigh to disturb and hurt, nothing to be feared from any quarter, all around: or "shalt be confident" (y); have a strong faith and full assurance of it, in the love of God, in the living Redeemer, and in the promises which respect the life that now is, and that which is to come: because there is hope; of the mercy of God, of salvation by Christ, and of eternal glory and happiness, as well as of a continuance of outward prosperity; faith and hope mutually assist each other; faith is the substance of things hoped for, and hope of better and future things on a good foundation encourages faith and confidence: yea, thou shalt dig about thee; to let in stakes for the pitching and fixing of tents to dwell in, and for more commodious pasturage; or for wells of water, for the supply both of the family and the flocks; or rather, for ditches and trenches to secure from thieves and robbers, or for drains to carry off floods of water: and thou shalt take thy rest in safety; lie down on the bed and sleep in the night season in peace and quietness, having nothing to fear; being well entrenched, and secure from depredations and inundations; and, more especially being hedged about and protected by the power and providence of God; see Psa 3:5; the Targum is, "thou shall prepare a grave, and lie down, and sleep secure.'' (y) "et confides", Mercerus, Piscator, Schmidt; "et habebis fiduciam", V. L.

And when thou thinkest thyself consumed, thou shalt arise like the morning star. And thou shalt have confidence, because hope is set before thee. For it often comes to pass that so many temptations beset our path, that the very multitude of them almost inclines us to the downfall of desperation. Hence for the most part, when the mind is turned to weariness, it scarce takes account even of the hurts that its virtue sustains, and notwithstanding that it is wholly filled with pain, it is as if it were now dislocated from the sense of pain, and were unable to reckon up with what a tumult of thoughts it is overrun. It sees itself momentarily on the point of falling headlong, and grief itself withstands it worse, that it should not lay hold of the arms of resistance. Mists encompass the eyes, wherever turned about, and whereas darkness ever obstructs the sight, the sad soul sees nought else than darkness; but with the merciful Judge it often happens that this very sadness, which even weighs down the effect of prayer, intercedes for us the more piercingly. For then our Creator sees the blackness of our sorrow, and pours back again the rays of the light withdrawn, so that the mind being immediately braced up by His gifts becomes full of vigour, which same a little before contending evil propensities kept down under the heel of pride. At once it shakes off the load of torpor, and bursts with the light of contemplation after the darkness of its troubled state. At once that is raised to the joy of advancement, which amidst temptations was well nigh driven by despair to a sorer fall. Without a conflict of the heart it looks down upon present things, without let of misgiving it trusts in the retribution to come. Therefore when the righteous man 'thinks himself consumed, he arises like the morning star,' in that so soon as he has begun to be benighted with the blackness of temptations, he is restored anew to the light of grace, and he in himself manifests the day of righteousness, who the moment before, on the point to fall, dreaded the night of guiltiness. Now the life of the righteous is rightly compared to the 'morning star.' For the morning star, being precursor of the sun, proclaims the day. And what does the innocency of the Saints proclaim to us, saving the brightness of the Judge, That cometh after? For in our admiration of them we see what we are to account of the Majesty of the true Light. We do not yet behold the power of our Redeemer, but we admire His goodness in the characters of His Elect. Therefore in that the life of the good presents to our eyes on the consideration of it the force of Truth, the 'morning star' arises bright to us heralding the sun. But be it known that all that we have made out, proceeding upon the opposition of spiritual temptations, may without hindrance be interpreted by external ills, for holy men, because they love the things above from the bottom of their heart, encounter hardships in things below; but at the end they find the light of joy, which in the span of this passing life they care not to have. Whence it is said on this occasion by Zophar, And the noonday splendour shall arise to thee at eventide. For the sinner's light in the daytime is dimness at eventide, in that he is buoyed up with good fortune in the present life, but is swallowed up by the darkness of calamity at the end; but to the righteous man the noonday splendour ariseth at eventide, in that he knows what exceeding brightness is in store for him when he has already begun to set. Hence it is written; Whoso feareth the Lord, it shall go well with him at the last. Hence it is declared by the Psalmist; When He giveth His beloved sleep, this is the heritage of the Lord. He, while he is still set in the strife of this present life as well, 'when he thinketh himself consumed, ariseth like the morning star;' because whilst falling outwardly he is renewed inwardly. And the more that he encounters crosses without, the more richly he gleams with the light of his virtues within, as Paul testifies, who saith, Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And it ought to be observed, that he never says, 'when thou art consumed,' but, 'when thou thinkest thyself consumed,' in that both that which we see is doubtful, and that which we hope for certain. Whence too the same Paul did not know, but thought, that he was consumed, who even when falling headlong into sufferings and tribulations, shone bright like the morning star, saying, As dying, and, behold, we live; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich. And we should know that the worse plight the mind of the good is reduced to for the love of the truth, the more sure and certain its hope of the rewards of eternity. For hope lifts itself the more firmly rooted in God, in proportion as a man has suffered harder things for His sake, since the joy of the recompensing is never gathered in eternity, which is not first sown here below in religious sorrowing. Hence the Psalmist saith, They went forth and wept as they went, bearing precious seed, but they shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them. Hence Paul saith, If we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. Hence he warns his disciples, saying, And that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. Hence the Angel, shewing the glory of the Saints to John, saith, These are they that came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore because we now sow in tribulation that we may afterwards reap the fruit of joy, the heart is strengthened with the larger measure of confidence in proportion as it is pressed with the heavier weight of affliction for the Truth's sake. Whence it is therefore fitly added, Yea, being dug to the bottom, thou shalt rest secure. For just as present security begets toil to the wicked, so present toil begets perpetual security to the good. Hence he already knew that it was his 'to rest secure after he had been dug to the bottom,' who said, For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course: I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day. For as he had striven without giving over against transitory ills, doubtless he reckoned without misgiving on enduring joys. Not but that the expression, 'been dug to the bottom,' may be understood in another sense also: for oftentimes being busied with transitory matters, we neglect to consider in what great things we go wrong; but if the eye of reflection being brought in, the pile of earthly thoughts be discharged from the recesses of the heart, what lay hid from sight within is disclosed to view; whence holy men never cease to explore the secret hiding places of their souls; minutely searching themselves, they throw off the cares of earthly things, and their thoughts being thoroughly dug up from the bottom, when they find that they are not cankered in any wise by the guilt of sin, they rest secure in themselves as upon the bed of the heart. For they desire to be hid apart from the courses of this world. They are always thinking on their own concerns, and when they are not at all tied by the harness of government, they decline to pass judgment on what concerns others. Therefore 'having been dug to the bottom they rest secure,' in that whilst with wakeful eye they dive into their inmost recesses, they withdraw themselves from the toilsome burthens of this world under the disengagement of repose.

As Job had said a second time above that his days had been used up, "without any hope," (7:6) Sophar then says, "You will have confidence when hope has been proposed to you." Because Job also had rejected above the opinion of those who said that man returns again after death, after the passage of many centuries, to this same kind of life (7:16 ff.), he does not say that this hope is proposed to him, but hope of the kind in which men live after death in the memories of men. This happens in two ways: In one way in the graves in which the bodies of the dead are placed, so that the memory of the dead is preserved. So they are even called monuments, and to show this he says, "When you have been buried, you will sleep safe in the grave," as if to say: No one will violate your tomb nor should you even be afraid that anyone may try.

Give alms to all, Ecc 11:1-4. The works of God unknown to man, Ecc 11:5. Diligence necessary, Ecc 11:6. Prosperity frequently succeeded by adversity, Ecc 11:7, Ecc 11:8. There will be a day of judgment, Ecc 11:9, Ecc 11:10.

And thou shalt be secure - Thou shalt not fear any farther evils to disturb thy prosperity, for thou shalt have a well-grounded hope and confidence that thou shalt no more be visited by adversity. Yea, thou shalt dig - I believe this neither refers to digging his grave, nor to curiously investigating surrounding circumstances; but to the custom of digging for water in the places where they pitched their tents. It was a matter of high importance in Asiatic countries to find good wells of wholesome water; and they were frequently causes of contention among neighboring chiefs, who sometimes stopped them up, and at other times seized them as their own. Through envy of Isaac's prosperity the Philistines stopped up all the wells which Abraham had digged, Gen 26:12-16. And we find the herdsmen of Gerar contending with Isaac's servants about the wells which the latter had digged; so that they were obliged to abandon two of the chief of them, and remove to a distance in order to dig and find quiet possession. See Gen 31:17-22. Zophar, in reference to all these sorts of contentions and petty wars about wells and springs, tells Job that in the state of prosperity to which he shall be brought by the good providence of God, he shall dig - find wells of living water; none shall contend with him; and he shall rest in safety, all the neighboring chieftains cultivating friendship with him; see on Job 5:23 (note), Job 5:24 (note); and that this is the meaning of the passage the following verse shows: Thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid; yea, many shall make suit unto thee. Thou shalt be in perfect security; no enemy shall molest thee, and many shall seek thy friendship.

FIRST SPEECH OF ZOPHAR. (Job 11:1-20) Zophar assails Job for his empty words, and indirectly, the two friends, for their weak reply. Taciturnity is highly prized among Orientals (Pro 10:8, Pro 10:19).

The experience of thy life will teach thee there is hope for man in every trial. dig--namely, wells; the chief necessity in the East. Better, "though now ashamed (Rom 5:5, opposed to the previous 'hope'), thou shalt then rest safely" [GESENIUS];