Job 11:18 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

And thou shalt be secure - You will feel confident that your prosperity will be permanent, and you will be free from the distressing anxieties and fears which you now have.

Thou shalt dig about thee - The Chaldee renders this, “thou shalt prepare for thyself a sepulchre, and shalt lie down in safety.” The word used here (חפר châphar) has two significations. It means,

(1) “to dig” - as, e. g. a well, and under this signification to search out, to explore; and,

(2.) to be ashamed, to blush, Isaiah 1:29.

According to Gesenius, the latter here is the signification. “Now thou art ashamed, then thou shalt dwell in quiet,” Lexicon. So Noyes renders it. Dr. Good translates it, “yea, thou shalt look around;” Rosenmuller, “thou art suffused with shame.” This is, probably, the true sense; and the idea is, that though he was now covered with shame, yet he would lie down in peace and safety if he would return to the Lord.

Job 11:18

18 And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.