(8) В¶ He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. (9) He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head. (10) He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree. (11) He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies. (12) His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle. (13) He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me. (14) My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me. (15) They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight. (16) I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth. (17) My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body. (18) Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me. (19) All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me. (20) My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
There seems to be much of that which is, and ever will be true gospel in those verses. They are not only of a bodily complaint, but of the anguish of the soul. First, Job eyes GOD'S hand in all. It is the LORD, Saith Job, that hath fenced up my way. When the awakened sinner not only feels the affliction, but eyes the LORD'S hand in that affliction; this is a sweet token that the visitation is beheld spiritually. Reader! recollect how JESUS, when he undertook to place himself in the sinner's room, and to become sin and a curse for his people, felt and uttered his dolorious cries in consequence thereof. Thy reproach, saith JESUS, hath broken my heart. Psalms 69:20. Secondly, the complaint Job makes of having his brethren put far from him. Here the mourner is a lively type also of the LORD JESUS: who is represented as a stranger unto his brethren, and an alien unto his mother's children. Psalms 69:8; John 7:5. Thirdly, the extremity of his bodily sufferings, his bones cleaving to his skin, and like one escaped with the skin of his teeth. Who can read this and overlook what is said of JESUS, whose tongue cleaved to his jaws, and all whose bones were out of joint. Psalms 5:1-12; Psalms 5:1-12.