Verse 1

My soul is a weary of my life; I will leave my b complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

(a) I am more like a dead man, than to one that lives.

(b) I will make an ample declaration of my torments, accusing myself and not God.

Verse 2

I will say unto God, Do not c condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.

(c) He would not that God would proceed against him by his secret justice, but by the ordinary means that he punishes others.

Verse 3

[Is it] d good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the e work of thine hands, and shine upon the f counsel of the wicked?

(d) Is it agreeable to your justice to do me wrong?

(e) Will you be without compassions?

(f) Will you gratify the wicked and condemn me?

Verse 4

Hast thou eyes of g flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

(g) Do you do this of ignorance.

Verse 5

[Are] thy days as the h days of man? [are] thy years as man's days,

(h) Are you inconstant and changeable as the times, today a friend, tomorrow an enemy?

Verse 7

Thou knowest that I am not i wicked; and [there is] none that can deliver out of thine hand.

(i) By affliction you keep me as in a prison, and restrain me from doing evil, neither can any set me free.

Verse 8

Thine k hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

(k) In these eight verses following he describes the mercy of God, in the wonderful creation of man: and on it grounds that God should not show himself rigorous against him.

Verse 9

Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as l the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

(l) As brittle as a pot of clay.

Verse 12

Thou hast granted me life and m favour, and thy n visitation hath preserved my spirit.

(m) That is, reason and understanding, and many other gifts, by which man excels all earthly creatures.

(n) That is, the fatherly care and providence by which you preserved me, and without which I would perish immediately.

Verse 13

And these [things] hast thou hid in thine heart: I know o that this [is] with thee.

(o) Though I am not fully able to comprehend these things, yet I must confess that it is so.

Verse 15

If I be wicked, woe unto me; and [if] I be righteous, [yet] will I not p lift up my head. [I am] full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

(p) I will always walk in fear and humility, knowing that no one is just before you.

Verse 16

For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself q marvellous upon me.

(q) Job being sore assaulted in this battle between the flesh and the spirit, breaks out into these affections, wishing rather for short days than long pain.

Verse 17

Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; r changes and war [are] against me.

(r) That is, diversity of diseases and in great abundance; showing that God has infinite means to punish man.

Verse 20

[Are] not my days few? s cease [then, and] let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

(s) He wishes that God would leave off his affliction, considering his great misery and the shortness of his life.

Verse 21

Before I go [whence] I shall not t return, [even] to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

(t) He speaks this in the person of a sinner, that is overcome with passions and with the feeling of God's judgments and therefore cannot apprehend in that state the mercies of God, and the comfort of the resurrection.

Verse 22

A land of darkness, as darkness [itself; and] of the shadow of death, without any u order, and [where] the light [is] as darkness.

(u) No distinction between light and darkness but where there is very darkness itself.