Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Is my strength like that of stone, or my flesh made of bronze?

“Disease had so attacked him that his strength would need to be hard as a stone, and his flesh like brass, not to sink under it. But he has only flesh, like other men.”

Is there any help within me now that success is driven from me?

“Is not my help in me?--The interrogation is better omitted. "There is no help in me!" For "wisdom," "deliverance" is a better rendering. "And deliverance is driven quite from me."”

But my brothers are as faithless as wadis, as seasonal streams that overflow,

“Those whom I regarded as "my brethren," from whom I looked for faithfulness in my adversity, have disappointed me, as the streams failing from drought--wadies of Arabia, filled in the winter, but dry in the summer, which disappoint the caravans expecting to find water there.”

For now you are of no help; you see terror, and you are afraid.

“As the dried-up brook is to the caravan, so are ye to me, namely, a nothing; ye might as well not be in existence [UMBREIT]. The Margin "like to them," or "to it" (namely, the waters of the brook), is not so good a reading.”

Do you intend to correct my words, and treat as wind my cry of despair?

“UMBREIT not so well takes the Hebrew for "as wind," as "sentiments"; making formal "sentiments" antithetical to mere "speeches," and supplying, not the word "reprove," but "would you regard," from the first clause.”

You would even cast lots for an orphan and barter away your friend.

“UMBREIT from the Syriac, and answering to his interpretation of the first clause, has, "Would you be indignant against your friend?" The Hebrew in Job 41:6, means to "feast upon." As the first clause asks, "Would you catch him in a net?"”

Reconsider; do not be unjust. Reconsider, for my righteousness is at stake.

“Return--rather, "retract" your charges: let it not be iniquity--that is, (retract) that injustice may not be done me. Yea retract, "my righteousness is in it"; that is, my right is involved in this matter.”

Is there iniquity on my tongue? Can my mouth not discern malice?

“Will you say that my guilt lies in the organ of speech, and will you call it to account? or, Is it that my taste (palate) or discernment is not capable to form a judgment of perverse things?”

When I lie down I think: ‘When will I get up?’ But the night drags on, and I toss and turn until dawn.

“Literally, "When shall be the flight of the night?" [GESENIUS]. UMBREIT, not so well, "The night is long extended"; literally, "measured out" (so Margin).”

Remember that my life is but a breath. My eyes will never again see happiness.

“He is now in a softer mood; a beam from former days of prosperity falling upon memory and the thought of the unseen world, where one is seen no more (Job 7:8), drew from him an expression of regret at leaving this world of light…”

The eye that beholds me will no longer see me. You will look for me, but I will be no more.

“The eye of him who beholds me (present, not past), that is, in the very act of beholding me, seeth me no more. Thine eyes are upon me, and I am not--He disappears, even while God is looking upon him.”

As a cloud vanishes and is gone, so he who goes down to Sheol does not come back up.

“(2Sa 12:23). the grave--the Sheol, or place of departed spirits, not disproving Job's belief in the resurrection. It merely means, "He shall come up no more" in the present order of things.”

Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.

“Therefore, as such is my hard lot, I will at least have the melancholy satisfaction of venting my sorrow in words. The Hebrew opening words, "Therefore I, at all events," express self-elevation [UMBREIT].”

so that I would prefer strangling and death over my life in this body.

“Perhaps the meaning is simply, "My soul chooses (even) strangling (or any violent death) rather than my life," literally, "my bones" (Ps 35:10); that is, rather than the wasted and diseased skeleton, left to him.”

What is man that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart upon him,

“Job ought rather to have reasoned from God's condescending so far to notice man as to try him, that there must be a wise and loving purpose in trial.”

that You attend to him every morning, and test him every moment?

“With each new day (Ps 73:14). It is rather God's mercies, not our trials, that are new every morning (La 3:23). The idea is that of a shepherd taking count of his flock every morning, to see if all are there [COCCEIUS].”

Will You never look away from me, or leave me alone to swallow my spittle?

“How long (like a jealous keeper) wilt thou never take thine eyes off (so the Hebrew for "depart from") me?”

Why do You not pardon my transgression and take away my iniquity?

“It is a figure, from one seeking a sick man in the morning, and finding he has died in the night. So Job implies that, if God does not help him at once, it will be too late, for he will be gone.”

Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?

“The repetition of "pervert" gives an emphasis galling to Job (Job 34:12). "Wouldst thou have God," as thy words imply, "pervert judgment," by letting thy sins go unpunished?”

Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh? Do reeds flourish without water?

“It and the flag, or bulrush, grow only in marshy places (such as are along the Nile). So the godless thrives only in external prosperity; there is in the hypocrite no inward stability; his prosperity is like the rapid growth of water plants.”

If he is uprooted from his place, it will disown him, saying, ‘I never saw you.’

“If He (God) tear him away (properly, "to tear away rapidly and violently") from his place, "then it [the place personified] shall deny him" (Ps 103:16).”

Surely this is the joy of his way; yet others will spring from the dust.

“This then is his "joy" at the last. and out of the earth--others immediately, who take the place of the man thus punished; not godly men (Mt 3:9). For the place of the weeds is among stones, where the gardener wishes no plants.”

Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tent of the wicked will be no more.”

“The haters of Job are the wicked. They shall be clothed with shame (Jer 3:25; 109:29), at the failure of their hope that Job would utterly perish, and because they, instead of him, come to naught.”

“Yes, I know that it is so, but how can a mortal be righteous before God?

“I know it is so of a truth--that God does not "pervert justice" (Job 8:3). But (even though I be sure of being in the right) how can a mere man assert his right--(be just) with God. The Gospel answers (Ro 3:26).”

He commands the sun not to shine; He seals off the stars.

“The sun, at His command, does not rise; namely, in an eclipse, or the darkness that accompanies earthquakes (Job 9:6). sealeth up the stars--that is, totally covers as one would seal up a room, that its contents may not be seen.”