Job 36:8
And if men are bound with chains, caught in cords of affliction,
BSB
ASV
And if they be bound in fetters, And be taken in the cords of affliction;
KJV
And if they be bound in fetters, and be holden in cords of affliction;
And if they shall be in chains, and bound with the cords of poverty, He will shew them their works, and their wickednesses, because they have been violent. The chains of bondage, are the very detention of their present pilgrimage. Paul had seen, that he was bound by these chains, when he was saying, I have a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. [Phil. 1, 23] He perceived that he was bound with the cords of poverty, when, beholding the true riches, he entreated them also for his disciples.
And if they be bound in fetters - That is, if the righteous are thrown into prison, and are subjected to oppressions and trials, or if they are chained down, as it were, on a bed of pain, or crushed by heavy calamities, the eye of God is still upon them. Their sufferings should not be regarded either as proof that they are hypocrites, or that God is regardless of them, and is indifferent whether people are good or evil.
If they be afflicted, it is no proof that they are hypocrites, as the friends maintain, or that God disregards them, and is indifferent whether men are good or bad, as Job asserts: God is thereby "disciplining them," and "showing them their sins," and if they bow in a right spirit under God's visiting hand, the greatest blessings ensue.
Rare words are the text's own signal of a deliberate thread: the fewer the occurrences, the more the places it appears belong together.
The walk8
Follow this verse’s cross-references two steps out. Each card is a verse this one points to, and beneath it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several different paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it. Every stop shows its own words, and every stop is a page.
Through
Psalms 107:10Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, prisoners in affliction and chains,
leads to
to shine on those who live in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.
the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.”
Through
Psalms 116:3The ropes of death entangled me; the anguish of Sheol overcame me; I was confronted by trouble and sorrow.
leads to
The cords of death encompassed me; the torrents of chaos overwhelmed me.
I am bent and brought low; all day long I go about mourning.
You have laid me in the lowest Pit, in the darkest of the depths.
When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.
And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.