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Selected Verse: Job 3:13 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Job 3:13 |
King James |
For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I should have slept: then had I been at rest, |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
lain . . . quiet . . . slept--a gradation. I should not only have lain, but been quiet, and not only been quiet, but slept. Death in Scripture is called "sleep" (Psa 13:3); especially in the New Testament, where the resurrection-awakening is more clearly set forth (Co1 15:51; Th1 4:14; Th1 5:10). |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
For now should I have lain still - In this verse Job uses four expressions to describe the state in which be would have been if he had been so happy as to have died when an infant. It is evidently a very pleasant subject to him, and he puts it in a great variety of form. He uses thc words which express the most quiet repose, a state of perfect rest, a gentle slumber; and then in the next verses he says, that instead of being in the miserable condition in which he then was, he would have been in the same state with kings and the most illustrious men of the earth.
I should have lain still - - שׁכב shâkab. I should have been "lying down," as one does who is taking grateful repose. This is a word of less strength than any of those which follow.
And been quiet - - שׁקט shâqaṭ. A word of stronger signification than that before used. It means to rest, to lie down, to have quiet. It is used of one who is never troubled, harassed, or infested by others, Jdg 3:11; Jdg 5:31; Jdg 8:25; and of one who has no fear or dread, Psa 76:9. The meaning is, that he would not only have lain down, but; would have been perfectly tranquil. Nothing would have harassed him, nothing would have given him any annoyance.
I should have slept - - ישׁן yâshên. This expression also is in advance of those before used. There would not only have been "quiet," but there would have been a calm and gentle slumber. Sleep is often representcd as "the kinsman of death." Thus, Virgil speaks of it:
"Tum consanguineus Leti sopor - "
Aeneid vi. 278.
So Homer:
Enth' hupnō cumblēto chasignēto thanatoio -
Iliad, 14:231.
This comparsion is an obvious one, and is frequently used in the Classical writers. It is employed to denote the calmness, stillness, and quiet of death. In the Scriptures it frequently occurs, and with a significancy far more beautiful. It is there employed not only to denote the tranquility of death, but also to denote the Christian hopes of a resurrection and the prospect of being awakened out of the long sleep. We lie down to rest at night with the hopes of awaking again. We sleep calmly, with the expectation that it will be only a temporary repose, and that we shall be aroused, invigorated for augmented toil, and refreshed for sweeter pleasure. So the Christian lies down in the grave. So the infant is committed to the calm slumber of the tomb. It may be a sleep stretching on through many nights and weeks and years and centuries, and even cycles of ages, but it is not eternal. The eyes will be opened again to behold the beauties of creation; the ear will be unstoppod to hear the sweet voice of fricndship and the harmony of music; and the frame will be raised up beautiful and immortal to engage in the service of the God that made us; compare Psa 13:3; Psa 90:5; Joh 11:11; Co1 15:51; Th1 4:14; Th1 5:10. Whether Job used the word in this sense and with this understanding, has been made a matter of question, and will be considered more fully in the examination of the passage in Job 19:25-27.
Then had I been at rest - Instead of the troubles and anxieties which I now experience. That is, he would have been lying in calm and honorable repose with the kings and princes of the earth. |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
13 So should I now have lain and had quiet,
I should have slept, then it would have been well with me,
14 With kings and councillors of the earth,
Who built ruins for themselves,
15 Or with princes possessing gold,
Who filled their houses with silver:
16 Or like a hidden untimely birth I had not been,
And as children that have never seen the light.
The perf. and interchanging fut. have the signification of oriental imperfecta conjunctivi, according to Ges. 126, 5; עתּה כּי is the usual expression after hypothetical clauses, and takes the perf. if the preceding clause specifies a condition which has not occurred in the past (Gen 31:42; Gen 43:10; Num 22:29, Num 22:33; Sa1 14:30), the fut. if a condition is not existing in the present (Job 6:3; Job 8:6; Job 13:19). It is not to be translated: for then; כי rather commences the clause following: so I should now, indeed then I should. Ruins, הרבות, are uninhabited desolate buildings, elsewhere such as have become, here such as are from the first intended to remain, uninhabited and desolate, consequently sepulchres, mausoleums; probably, since the book has Egyptian allusions, in other passages also, a play upon the pyramids, in whose name (III-XPAM, according to Coptic glossaries) III is the Egyptian article (vid., Bunsen, Aeg. ii. 361); Arab. without the art. hirâm or ahrâm (vid., Abdollatf, ed. de Sacy, p. 293, s.).
(Note: We think that חרבות sounds rather like חרמות, the name of the pyramids, as the Arabic haram (instead of hharam), derived from XPAM, recalls harmân (e.g., beith harmân, a house in ruins), the synonym of hhardân (חרבאן).)
Also Renan: Qui se btissent des mausoles. Bttch. de inferis, 298 (who, however, prefers to read רחבות, wide streets), rightly directs attention to the difference between החרבות בנה (to rebuild the ruins) and לו בנה ח (to build ruins for one's self). With או like things are then ranged after one another. Builders of the pyramids, millionaires, abortions (vid., Ecc 6:3), and the still-born: all these are removed from the sufferings of this life in their quiet of the grave, be their grave a "ruin" gazed upon by their descendants, or a hole dug out in the earth, and again filled in as it was before. |
Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
For now should I have lain still - In that case I had been insensible; quiet - without these overwhelming agitations; slept - unconscious of evil; been at rest - been out of the reach of calamity and sorrow. |
10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
25 For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
10 Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.
14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,
11 These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.
5 Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death;
9 When God arose to judgment, to save all the meek of the earth. Selah.
25 And they answered, We will willingly give them. And they spread a garment, and did cast therein every man the earrings of his prey.
31 So let all thine enemies perish, O LORD: but let them that love him be as the sun when he goeth forth in his might. And the land had rest forty years.
11 And the land had rest forty years. And Othniel the son of Kenaz died.
3 If a man beget an hundred children, and live many years, so that the days of his years be many, and his soul be not filled with good, and also that he have no burial; I say, that an untimely birth is better than he.
19 Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost.
6 If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
3 For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up.
30 How much more, if haply the people had eaten freely to day of the spoil of their enemies which they found? for had there not been now a much greater slaughter among the Philistines?
33 And the ass saw me, and turned from me these three times: unless she had turned from me, surely now also I had slain thee, and saved her alive.
29 And Balaam said unto the ass, Because thou hast mocked me: I would there were a sword in mine hand, for now would I kill thee.
10 For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time.
42 Except the God of my father, the God of Abraham, and the fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely thou hadst sent me away now empty. God hath seen mine affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesternight.