Job 30:14-23
14. waters—(So 2Sa 5:20). But it is better to retain the image of Job 30:12, 13. "They came [upon me] as through a wide breach," namely, made by the besiegers in the wall of a fortress (Isa 30:13) [MAURER].
in the desolation—"Amidst the crash" of falling masonry, or "with a shout like the crash" of, &c.15. they—terrors.
soul—rather, "my dignity" [UMBREIT]. welfare—prosperity. cloud— (Job 7:9; Isa 44:22).16-23. Job's outward calamities affect his mind.
poured out—in irrepressible complaints (Ps 42:4; Jos 7:5).17. In the Hebrew, night is poetically personified, as in Job 3:3: "night pierceth my bones (so that they fall) from me" (not as English Version, "in me"; see Job 30:30).
sinews—so the Arabic, "veins," akin to the Hebrew; rather, "gnawers" (see on Job 30:3), namely, my gnawing pains never cease. Effects of elephantiasis.18. of my disease—rather, "of God" (Job 23:6).
garment changed—from a robe of honor to one of mourning, literally (Job 2:8; Joh 3:6) and metaphorically [UMBREIT]. Or rather, as SCHUTTENS, following up Job 30:17, My outer garment is changed into affliction; that is, affliction has become my outer garment; it also bindeth me fast round (my throat) as the collar of the inner coat; that is, it is both my inner and outer garment. Observe the distinction between the inner and outer garments. The latter refers to his afflictions from without (Job 30:1-13); the former his personal afflictions (Job 30:14-23). UMBREIT makes "God" subject to "bindeth," as in Job 30:19.19. God is poetically said to do that which the mourner had done to himself (Job 2:8). With lying in the ashes he had become, like them, in dirty color.
20. stand up—the reverential attitude of a suppliant before a king (1Ki 8:14; Lu 18:11-13).
not—supplied from the first clause. But the intervening affirmative "stand" makes this ellipsis unlikely. Rather, as in Job 16:9 (not only dost thou refuse aid to me "standing" as a suppliant, but), thou dost regard me with a frown: eye me sternly.16-23. Job's outward calamities affect his mind.
poured out—in irrepressible complaints (Ps 42:4; Jos 7:5).22. liftest . . . to wind—as a "leaf" or "stubble" (Job 13:25). The moving pillars of sand, raised by the wind to the clouds, as described by travellers, would happily depict Job's agitated spirit, if it be to them that he alludes.
dissolvest . . . substance—The marginal Hebrew reading (Keri), "my wealth," or else "wisdom," that is, sense and spirit, or "my hope of deliverance." But the text (Chetib) is better: Thou dissolvest me (with fear, Ex 15:15) in the crash (of the whirlwind; see on Job 30:14) [MAURER]. UMBREIT translates as a verb, "Thou terrifiest me."23. This shows Job 19:25 cannot be restricted to Job's hope of a temporal deliverance.
death—as in Job 28:22, the realm of the dead (Heb 9:27; Ge 3:19).