Giobbe 30:13 Commento

It is a melancholy "But now" which this chapter begins with. Adversity is here described as much to the life as prosperity was in the foregoing chapter, and the height of that did but increase the depth of this. God sets the one over-against the other, and so did Job, that his afflictions might appear the more grievous, and consequently his case the more pitiable. I. he had lived in great honour, but now he had fallen into disgrace, and was as much vilified, even by the meanest, as ever he had been magnified by the greatest; this he insists much on (Job 30:1-14). II. He had had much inward comfort and delight, but now he was a terror and burden to himself (Job 30:15, Job 30:16) and overwhelmed with sorrow (Job 30:28-31). III. He had long enjoyed a good state of health, but now he was sick and in pain (Job 30:17-18, Job 30:29, Job 30:30). IV. Time was when the secret of God was with him, but now his communication with heaven was cut off (Job 30:20-22). V. He had promised himself a long life, but now he saw death at the door (Job 30:23). One thing he mentions, which aggravated his affliction, that it surprised him when he looked for peace. But two things gave him some relief: - 1. That his troubles would not follow him to the grave (Job 30:24). 2. That his conscience witnessed for him that, in his prosperity, he had sympathized with those that were in misery (Job 30:25).

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 30 Job in this chapter sets forth his then unhappy state and condition, in contrast with his former state of prosperity described in the preceding chapter: things had taken a strange turn, and were just the reverse of what they were before; he that was before in such high esteem and credit with all sorts of men, young and old, high and low, rich and poor, now is had in derision by the meanest and basest of men, whose characters are described, Job 30:1; and the instances of their contempt of him by words and gestures are given, Job 30:9; he who enjoyed so much ease of mind, and health of body, is now filled with distresses of soul, and bodily diseases, Job 30:15; and he who enjoyed so much of the presence of God, and communion with him, and of his love and favour, was now disregarded, and, as he thought, cruelly used by him, who not only had destroyed his substance, but was about to bring him to the grave, Job 30:20; all which came upon him, though he had a sympathizing heart with the poor, and them that were in trouble, and when he expected better things, Job 30:25; and he close the chapter, lamenting his sad and sorrowful circumstances, Job 30:29.

They mar my path,.... Hindered him in the exercise of religious duties; would not suffer him to attend the ways and worship of God, or to walk in the paths of holiness and righteousness; or they reproached his holy walk and conversation, and treated it with contempt, and triumphed over religion and godliness: they set forward my calamity; added affliction to affliction, increased his troubles by their reproaches and calumnies, and were pleased with it, as if it was profitable as well as pleasurable to them, see Zac 1:15; they have no helper; either no person of note to join them, and, to abet, assist, and encourage them; or they needed none, being forward enough of themselves to give him all the distress and disturbance they could, and he being so weak and unable to resist them; nor there is "no helper against them" (q); none to take Job's part against them, and deliver him out of their hands, see Ecc 4:1. (q) "adversus illos", Beza, Schmidt, Michaelis; so Noldius, p. 514.

You see what especially afflicts him is to be mocked by those who reproach him for the evil actions that they commit. Some “thieves,” he says, some wicked, some criminals, some robbers have made us the subject of their proposals and conversations.

They did away with my paths, they plotted against me, and prevailed, and there was not any to bring help. Let blessed Job tell these things of evil spirits, i.e. of secret enemies. Let the Church Universal speak them of bad men persecuting, i.e. of open adversaries. For these 'do away with her paths,' when in the souls of certain weak ones they interrupt the ways of truth by crafty persuading. These in 'plotting prevail, when those, whom they cannot openly force to evil, they turn aside by pretending what is good, but that is very wonderful, which he subjoins, And there was not any one to bring help, when the Psalmist exclaims touching the help of God; A helper in seasons, in tribulation. And, Let them hope in Thee, who know Thy Name, for Thou, Lord, wilt not forsake those that seek Thee. And when it is written again, Did ever any trust in the Lord and was confounded? or did any abide in His commandments, and was forsaken? Or whom did He ever despise, that called upon Him? On what principle, then, is it now said; And there was not any to bring help, excepting that those, whom Almighty God loves for all eternity, He sometimes leaves for a time? Whence it is written; For a small moment have I forsaken thee, and with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid My face from thee for a moment, and with everlasting kindness will I have mercy upon thee. Hence too the Psalmist besought, saying, O forsake me not utterly. He then knew that he might be left for a little while with advantage, who prayed that he might not be 'utterly forsaken.' For the Lord by coming helps His Saints, by 'leaving' puts them to the proof, by gifts he establishes, by tribulations he tries. Whence too it is rightly said by one of Wisdom, For at the first she will walk with him by crooked ways, and bring fear and dread upon him, and torment him with her discipline until she try him in his thoughts. Since the soul of the righteous grace calls, trial puts to the question. And Almighty God allows the adversaries of His Elect to grow to a height in time, that the life of the good may be purified by the pitilessness of the bad. Since the Lord would never suffer them to be hostile to the good except he also saw what great good they did. For whilst the unrighteous deal cruelly, the righteous are purified, and the life of the wicked is enlisted to the advantage of the innocent, in that this same both by bearing down it abases, and by abasing ever fashions to better. Hence too it is rightly said by Solomon; the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart. And yet we often see the wise subordinate, and fools occupying the stronghold of dominion, wise men paying obedience in servitude, and fools lording it with tyrannical exultation. How then by the marking out of God's sentence is 'the fool servant to the wise,' when generally speaking he keeps him down by the right of temporal dominion? But it is to be borne in mind, that whilst against the life of the wise man the fool being uppermost enforces the terribleness of power, whilst he wearies him out with labours, rends him with insults, such a person surely by burning he purges from all the rust of bad habits. Thus the fool even in ruling is 'servant to the wise,' in that by bearing him down he advances him to a better state.

Since his feet (his faculties) have been ruined, the consequence is that his progress is also impeded, and so here the text continues, "They have demolished my routes," all the progress of my works. Further they also crushed me in person with deceit, which he intimates when he continues, "they have lain in ambushes for me," and with power, in what he adds, "and they prevailed," without any objection, because no one obstructed them in doing it. So he then says, "and there was no one who brought aid," to me when I was oppressed by them, nor even someone who obstructed them from approaching me.

Agur's confession of faith, Pro 30:1-6. His prayer, Pro 30:7-9. Of wicked generations, Pro 30:10-14. Things that are never satisfied, Pro 30:15, Pro 30:16. Of him who despises his parents, Pro 30:17. Three wonderful things, Pro 30:18-20. Three things that disquiet the land, Pro 30:21-23. Four little but very intelligent animals, Pro 30:24-28. Four things that go well, Pro 30:29-31. A man should cease from doing foolishly, and from strife, Pro 30:32, Pro 30:33.

They mar my path - They destroy the way-marks, so that there is no safety in travelling through the deserts, the guide-posts and way-marks being gone. These may be an allusion here to a besieged city: the besiegers strive by every means and way to distress the besieged; stopping up the fountains, breaking up the road, raising up towers to project arrows and stones into the city, called here raising up against it the ways of destruction, Job 30:12; preventing all succor and support. They have no helper - "There is not an adviser among them." - Mr. Good. There is none to give them better instruction.

(Job 30:1-31) younger--not the three friends (Job 15:10; Job 32:4, Job 32:6-7). A general description: Job 30:1-8, the lowness of the persons who derided him; Job 30:9-15, the derision itself. Formerly old men rose to me (Job 29:8). Now not only my juniors, who are bound to reverence me (Lev 19:32), but even the mean and base-born actually deride me; opposed to, "smiled upon" (Job 29:24). This goes farther than even the "mockery" of Job by relations and friends (Job 12:4; Job 16:10, Job 16:20; Job 17:2, Job 17:6; Job 19:22). Orientals feel keenly any indignity shown by the young. Job speaks as a rich Arabian emir, proud of his descent. dogs--regarded with disgust in the East as unclean (Sa1 17:43; Pro 26:11). They are not allowed to enter a house, but run about wild in the open air, living on offal and chance morsels (Psa 59:14-15). Here again we are reminded of Jesus Christ (Psa 22:16). "Their fathers, my coevals, were so mean and famished that I would not have associated them with (not to say, set them over) my dogs in guarding my flock."

Image of an assailed fortress continued. They tear up the path by which succor might reach me. set forward-- (Zac 1:15). they have no helper--Arabic proverb for contemptible persons. Yet even such afflict Job.

13 They tear down my path, They minister to my overthrow, They who themselves are helpless. 14 As through a wide breach they approach, Under the crash they roll onwards. 15 Terrors are turned against me, They pursue my nobility like the wind, And like a cloud my prosperity passed away. - They make all freedom of motion and any escape impossible to him, by pulling down, diruunt, the way which he might go. Thus is נתסוּ (cogn. form of נתץ, נתע, נתשׁ) to be translated, not: they tear open (proscindunt), which is contrary to the primary signification and the usage of the language. They, who have no helper, who themselves are so miserable and despised, and yet so feelingless and overbearing, contribute to his ruin. הועיל, to be useful, to do any good,to furnish anything effective (e.g., Isa 47:12), is here united with ל of the purpose; comp. עזר ל, to help towards anything, Zac 1:15. היה (for which the Keri substitutes the primary form הוּה), as was already said on Job 6:2, is prop. hiatus, and then barathrum, pernicies, like הוּה in the signification cupiditas, prop. inhiatio. The verb הוה, Arab. hwy, also signifies delabi, whence it may be extended (vid., on Job 37:6) in like manner to the signification abyss (rapid downfall); but a suitable medium for the two significations, strong passion (Arab. hawa) and abyss (Arab. hâwije, huwwe, mahwa), is offered only by the signification of the root flare (whence hawâ, air). לא עזר למו is a genuine Arabic description of these Idumaean or Hauranite pariahs. Schultens compares a passage of the Hamsa: "We behold you ignoble, poor, laisa lakum min sâir-in-nâsi nasirun, i.e., without a helper among the rest of men." The interpretations of those who take למו for לו, and this again for לי (Eichh., Justi), condemn themselves. It might more readily be explained, with Stick.: without any one helping them, i.e., with their own strong hand; but the thought thus obtained is not only aimless and tame, but also halting and even untrue (vid., Job 19:13). Job 30:14 The figure of a siege, which is begun with Job 30:12 and continued in Job 30:13, leaves us in no doubt concerning פּרץ רחב and שׁאה. The Targ. translates: like the force of the far-extending waves of the sea, not as though פּרץ could in itself signify a stream of water, but taking it as = פרץ מים, Sa2 5:20 (synon. diffusio aquarum). Hitzig's translation: (Note: Vid., Deutsche Morgenlnd. Zeitschr. ix. (1855), S. 741, and Proverbs, S. 11.) "like a broad forest stream they come, like a rapid brook they roll on," gives unheard-of significations to the doubtful words. In Job 16:14 we heard Job complain: He (Eloah) brake through me על־פני־פרץ פרץ, breach upon breach, - by the divine decrees of sufferings, which are completed in this ill-treatment which he receives from good-for-nothing fellows, he is become as a wall with a wide-gaping breach, through which they rush in upon him (instar rupturae, a concise mode of comparison instead of tanquam per rupt.), in order to get him entirely into their power as a plaything for their coarse passions. שׁאה is the crash of the wall with the wide breaches, and תּחת שׁאה signifies sub fragore in a local sense: through the wall which is broken through and crashes above the assailants. There is no ground in Job 30:15 for dividing, with Umbreit, thus: He hath turned against me! Terrors drove away, etc., although this would not be impossible according to the syntax (comp. Gen 49:22, בּנות צעדה). It is translated: terrors are turned against me; so that the predicate stands first in the most natural, but still indefinite, personal form, Ges. 147, a, although בּלּהות might also be taken as the accus. of the object after a passive, Ges. 143, 1. The subj. of Job 30:15 remains the same: they (these terrors) drive away my dignity like the wind; the construction is like Job 27:20; Job 14:19; on the matter, comp. Job 18:11. Hirz. makes כּרוּח the subj.: quasi ventus aufert nobilitatem meam, in which case the subj. would be not so much ventus as similitudo venti, as when one says in Arabic, 'gani kazeidin, there came to me one of Zeid's equals, for in the Semitic languages כּ has the manner of an indeclinable noun in the signification instar. But the reference to בלהות is more natural; and Hahn's objection, that calamity does not first, if it is there, drive away prosperity, but takes the place of that which is driven away, is sophisticated and inadequate, since the object of the driving away here is not Job's prosperity, but Job's נדיבה, appearance and dignity, by which he hitherto commanded the respect of others (Targ. רבּנוּתי). The storms of suffering which pass over him take this nobility away to the last fragment, and his salvation - or rather, since this word in the mouth of an extra-Israelitish hero has not the meaning it usually otherwise has, his prosperous condition (from Arab. wasi‛a, amplum esse) - is as a cloud, so rapidly and without trace (Job 7:9; Isa 44:22), passed away and vanished. Observe the music of the expression כּעב עברה, which cannot be reproduced in translation.