Job 3:23
in Job 3Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, And whom God hath hedged in?
KJV
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
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This verse in Job 3
Commentary
13 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Why is light given “to a man uhose way is hid?” That is, who does not know what way to take, and who sees no escape from the misery that surrounds him. Whom God hath hedged in - See Notes, Job 1:10. The meaning here is, that God had surrounded him as with a high wall or hedge, so that he could not move freely. Job asks with impatience, why light, that is, life, should be given to such a man? Why should he not be permitted to die?
This site's exposition
Why is light given to the miserable
on Job 3:20-23
The words "whom God has hedged in" return Satan's word from 1:10 in the opposite sense, the protection the accuser envied becoming the prison. Barnes notes that the echo is the reader's alone to see, since Job never heard the word that opened the case against him.
This site's exposition
Why is life given to a man whose way is hidden
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown picture a traveller who has lost his road and finds every exit closed, the figure of Hosea 2:6. Barnes reads the hidden way as a path Job cannot see, with no escape from his misery. Job asks why God keeps such a man alive.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
"Death is rest for man." This is what Job declares. Now if death brings rest, why don't the majority of people rush to it? Because God has made life desirable in order to prevent us from running to death. "Its way is hidden." In my opinion Job is speaking about death, but by pretending that his words are about the way of humankind. This indicates that Job's words concerning death are what has been said before, especially in the expression, "they dig for it more than for hidden treasures," things that are evidently hidden. Our future is unknown, Job says. We do not uncover it. Please do not speak to me about those who hang themselves, because Job speaks about what conforms to nature and the commandments of God. "God has surrounded it," he says, "with a wall." As the gospel states, "The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night." To avoid the response, "Why do you not choose death?" Job answers, "The Lord has surrounded it with a wall." Its doors are closed.
The Medieval Church2 voices
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath encompassed with darkness? For 'man's way is hid to him,' in that though he already takes cognizance of the kind of life that he is leading, he does not yet know to what issue it tends. Though his affections are now fixed on things above, though he seeks them with all his longings, he is yet ignorant whether he shall persevere in the same longings.
Someone could object that although life is useless if given to miserable men, yet it is useful if given to those who enjoy prosperity. He removes this possibility saying, "Why are they (i.e. light and life) given to man whose way is hidden?" The way …
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
It was Job's folly and weakness to curse his day. We must say of it, This was his infirmity; but good men have sometimes failed in the exercise of those graces which they have been most eminent for, that we may understand that when they are said to be perfect it is meant that they were upright, not that they were sinless.
He saw no way open of deliverance, nor knew he what course to take; his way was hedged up with thorns, that he could not find his path. Even in his former prosperous state troubles were continually feared; so that then he was never easy,
5 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,....
The Nineteenth Century4 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
whose way is hid--The picture of Job is drawn from a wanderer who has lost his way, and who is hedged in, so as to have no exit of escape (Ho 2:6;
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A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2666: “The Sorrowful Man's Question” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
I AM very thankful that so many of you are glad and happy. There is none too much joy in the world and the more that any of us can create, the better. It should be a part of our happiness and a main part of it, to try to make other people glad. "Comfort you, comfort you My people," is a commission which many of us ought to feel is entrusted to us. If your own cup ofjoy is full, let it run over to others who have a more trying experience. If you, yourself, are privileged to have flashing eyes and elastic steps, and a bounding heart, be mindful to speak words of good cheer to such as are in bonds! Feel as if you were bound with them and try to revive their drooping spirits. That is what I am going to aim at, tonight, so you will excuse me if I bid, "good-bye," for a while to you joyous ones! I want to seek after those who have no such delight as you now possess—those who are, on the contrary, suffering from extreme depression of spirit. Sometimes, we must single out the wounded ones of the flock. That is what I am about to do, yet I feel sure that while some few will be distinctly sought after, there will be something that may be of use to the many who are in a less sorrowful condition. The 99 shall get their full portion although the shepherd goes especially after the lost one. The question of our text was put by Job when he first opened his mouth in the extreme bitterness of his anguish. "Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, and whom God has hedged in?" His case was so sad and so trying that life itself became irksome to him. I suppose that by, "light," here, he means the power to see the Light of God, the life which lives in the light.
A commentator
Charles Spurgeon1834–1892
The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2666: “The Sorrowful Man's Question” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) · Written before 1892.
proposed
I AM very thankful that so many of you are glad and happy. There is none too much joy in the world and the more that any of us can create, the better. It should be a part of our happiness and a main part of it, to try to make other people glad. "Comfort you, comfort you My people," is a commission which many of us ought to feel is entrusted to us. If your own cup ofjoy is full, let it run over to others who have a more trying experience.
To a man whose way is hid - Who knows not what is before him in either world, but is full of fears and trembling concerning both. God hath hedged in? - Leaving him no way to escape; and not permitting him to see one step before him. There is an exact parallel to this passage in Lam 3:7, Lam 3:9: He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone. Mr. Good translates the verse thus: To the man whose path is broken up, and whose futurity God hath overwhelmed. But I cannot see any necessity for departing from the common text, which gives both an easy and a natural sense.
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| לְ֭גֶבֶר | legever | to a man | H1397 → | 65 times |
| אֲשֶׁר־ | ʾasher- | whom | H834 → | 5497 times |
| דַּרְכּ֣וֹ | darko | way his | H1870 → | 707 times |
| נִסְתָּ֑רָה | nistarah | it is hidden | H5641 → | 80 times |
| וַיָּ֖סֶךְ | vaiyasekh | and he has made inaccessible | H5526 → | 24 times |
| אֱל֣וֹהַּ | ʾeloah | God | H433 → | 57 times |
| בַּעֲדֽוֹ׃ | baado | behind him | H1157 → | 105 times |
לְ֭גֶבֶרto a man
legeverH1397 →65 times
אֲשֶׁר־whom
ʾasher-H834 →5497 times
דַּרְכּ֣וֹway his
darkoH1870 →707 times
נִסְתָּ֑רָהit is hidden
nistarahH5641 →80 times
וַיָּ֖סֶךְand he has made inaccessible
vaiyasekhH5526 →24 times
אֱל֣וֹהַּGod
ʾeloahH433 →57 times
בַּעֲדֽוֹ׃behind him
baadoH1157 →105 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Job 19:8He has blocked my way so I cannot pass; He has veiled my paths with darkness.
it leads to
- Psalms 88:8
You have removed my friends from me; You have made me repulsive to them; I am confined and cannot escape.
Reached by 2 separate paths from here.
- Lamentations 3:7
He has walled me in so I cannot escape; He has weighed me down with chains.
- Psalms 88:8
Through
Psalms 31:8You have not delivered me to the enemy; You have set my feet in the open.
it leads to
- Job 36:16
Indeed, He drew you from the jaws of distress to a spacious and broad place, to a table full of richness.
- Deuteronomy 32:30
How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- Psalms 18:19
He brought me out into the open; He rescued me because He delighted in me.
- Psalms 4:1
Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have relieved my distress; show me grace and hear my prayer.
- Job 36:16
Through
Isaiah 40:27Why do you say, O Jacob, and why do you assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my claim is ignored by my God”?
it leads to
- Isaiah 49:4
But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent My strength in futility and vanity; yet My vindication is with the LORD, and My reward is with My God.”
- Isaiah 49:4
Through
Job 19:12His troops advance together; they construct a ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
it leads to
- Job 30:12
The rabble arises at my right; they lay snares for my feet and build siege ramps against me.
- Job 30:12
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Job
This page draws on 12 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Job; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Charles Spurgeon, The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2666: “The Sorrowful Man's Question” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition); Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book V; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 3:20-23; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.