He keepeth back his soul from the pit By these gracious admonitions, whereby God leads men to humiliation of soul before him, and to repentance, he preserves their lives from death and the grave, and their souls from eternal destruction. From perishing by the sword By some dreadful judgment which was ready to fall upon them. He is chastened also with pain With some painful and dangerous disease, which is the second way whereby God instructs men and excites them to repentance, which also was Job's case. So that his life abhorreth bread
In which languishing condition he loathes his food, yea, nauseates that very meat which formerly was his greatest delight. His flesh is consumed away Through pain and pining sickness. That it cannot be seen Because there is little or none left to be seen, but he who before was fat and flourishing is now become a mere skeleton. His soul draweth near unto the grave He seems to himself and others to be past all hopes of recovery: which he adds for Job's comfort in his desperate condition. And his life to the destroyers To the instruments of death and destruction, namely, diseases, which, by God's appointment, are ready to give the fatal blow.