42 matching verse commentaries
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Job's Character and Possessions. (b. c. 1520.) 1 There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil. 2 And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters. 3 His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
We left Job honourably acquitted upon a fair trial between God and Satan concerning him. Satan had leave to touch, to touch and take, all he had, and was confident that he would then curse God to his face; but, on the contrary, he blessed him, and so he was proved an honest man and Satan a false accuser. Now, one would have thought, this would be...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
"You have heard of the patience of Job," says the apostle, Jam. v. 11. So we have, and of his impatience too. We wondered that a man should be so patient as he was (ch. i. and ii.), but we wonder also that a good man should be so impatient as he is in this chapter, where we find him cursing his day, and, in passion, I. Complaining that he was...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Job having warmly given vent to his passion, and so broken the ice, his friends here come gravely to give vent to their judgment upon his case, which perhaps they had communicated to one another apart, compared notes upon it and talked it over among themselves, and found they were all agreed in their verdict, that Job's afflictions certainly...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Eliphaz, in the foregoing chapter, for the making good of his charge against Job, had vouched a word from heaven, sent him in a vision. In this chapter he appeals to those that bear record on earth, to the saints, the faithful witnesses of God's truth in all ages, ver. 1. They will testify, I. That the sin of sinners is their ruin, ver. 2-5. II....
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Eliphaz concluded his discourse with an air of assurance; very confident he was that what he had said was so plain and so pertinent that nothing could be objected in answer to it. But, though he that is first in his own cause seems just, yet his neighbour comes and searches him. Job is not convinced by all he had said, but still justifies himself...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Job, in this chapter, goes on to express the bitter sense he had of his calamities and to justify himself in his desire of death. I. He complains to himself and his friends of his troubles, and the constant agitation he was in, ver. 1-6. II. He turns to God, and expostulates with him (ver. 7, to the end), in which, 1. He pleads the final period...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Job's friends are like Job's messengers: the latter followed one another close with evil tidings, the former followed him with harsh censures: both, unawares, served Satan's design; these to drive him from his integrity, those to drive him from the comfort of it. Eliphaz did not reply to what Job had said in answer to him, but left it to Bildad,...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this and the following chapter we have Job's answer to Bildad's discourse, wherein he speaks honourably of God, humbly of himself, and feelingly of his troubles; but not one word by way of reflection upon his friends, or their unkindness to him, nor in direct reply to what Bildad had said. He wisely keeps to the merits of the cause, and makes...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Job owns here that he was full of confusion (ver. 15), and as he was so was his discourse: he knew not what to say, and perhaps sometimes scarcely knew what he said. In this chapter, I. He complains of the hardships he was under (ver. 1-7), and then comforts himself with this, that he was in the hand of the God that made him, and pleads that, ver....
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Poor Job's wound's were yet bleeding, his sore still runs and ceases not, but none of his friends bring him any oil, any balm; Zophar, the third, pours into them as much vinegar as the two former had done. I. He exhibits a very high charge against Job, as proud and false in justifying himself, ver. 1-4. II. He appeals to God for his conviction,...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this and the two following chapters we have Job's answer to Zophar's discourse, in which, as before, he first reasons with his friends (see ch. xiii. 19) and then turns to his God, and directs his expostulations to him, from thence to the end of his discourse. In this chapter he addresses himself to his friends, and, I. He condemns what they...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Job here comes to make application of what he had said in the foregoing chapter; and now we have him not in so good a temper as he was in then: for, I. He is very bold with his friends, comparing himself with them, notwithstanding the mortifications he was under, ver. 1, 2. Condemning them for their falsehood, their forwardness to judge, their...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Job had turned from speaking to his friends, finding it to no purpose to reason with them, and here he goes on to speak to God and himself. He had reminded his friends of their frailty and mortality (ch. xiii. 12); here he reminds himself of his own, and pleads it with God for some mitigation of his miseries. We have here an account, I. Of man's...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Perhaps Job was so clear, and so well satisfied, in the goodness of his own cause, that he thought, if he had not convinced, yet he had at least silenced all his three friends; but, it seems he had not: in this chapter they begin a second attack upon him, each of them charging him afresh with as much vehemence as before. It is natural to us to be...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This chapter begins Job's reply to that discourse of Eliphaz which we had in the foregoing chapter; it is but the second part of the same song of lamentation with which he had before bemoaned himself, and is set to the same melancholy tune. I. He upbraids his friends with their unkind usage of him, ver. 1-5. II. He represents his own case as very...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter, I. Job reflects upon the harsh censures which his friends had passed upon him, and looking upon himself as a dying man (ver. 1), he appeals to God, and begs of him speedily to appear for him, and right him, because they had wronged him, and he knew not how to right himself, ver. 2-7. But he hopes that, though it should be a...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
In this chapter Bildad makes a second assault upon Job. In his first discourse (ch. viii.) he had given him encouragement to hope that all should yet be well with him. But here there is not a word of that; he has grown more peevish, and is so far from being convinced by Job's reasonings that he is but more exasperated. I. He sharply reproves Job...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
This chapter is Job's answer to Bildad's discourse in the foregoing chapter. Though his spirit was grieved and much heated, and Bildad was very peevish, yet he gave him leave to say all he designed to say, and did not break in upon him in the midst of his argument; but, when he had done, he gave him a fair answer, in which, I. He complains of...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
One would have thought that such an excellent confession of faith as Job made, in the close of the foregoing chapter, would satisfy his friends, or at least mollify them; but they do not seem to have taken any notice of it, and therefore Zophar here takes his turn, enters the lists with Job, and attacks him with as much vehemence as before. I. His...