For my sighing cometh before I eat— My groaning cometh like my daily bread. Heath. In presence of my meat, or at my meals, says Peters. And my roarings are poured out like the waters; i.e. which I then drink. After which it immediately follows: For the fear which I feared is come upon me. Now, why should Job's grief and sighs recur at his meals particularly, but because these would naturally put him in mind of his sons and daughters being met together at their banquets, when the house fell upon them and destroyed them? The Chaldee paraphrast thought this to be the fear which Job feared, as appears from his interpretation of the 26th verse, which he reads interrogatively, was I not, &c.? The paraphrase is to this purpose: Job could easily suppress his grief when he heard of the loss of his oxen and asses, nor did the other pieces of bad news disturb his rest or quiet much, till it was told him of the death of his children, and then trouble came upon him indeed. This is but following the history, which gives exactly such a description of the behaviour of Job. See ch. Job 1:5. And thus, understanding the fear here mentioned as a fear for his children, and the hope and confidence which he expresses in other places as flowing from a consciousness of his own integrity, and sincere endeavour to discharge his duty, there will be found no discordance in the passages, as some would suppose. See ch. Job 29:18 Job 30:26 and Peters.
REFLECTIONS.—1st, At last the solemn silence breaks. Big sorrows flow into his lips; and, feeling his wretchedness, Job cursed the day which first brought into life a miserable being, doomed to such tormenting anguish. Herein corruption prevailed; he stumbled, yet not so as to fall. In general, he still appears our admiration; and we shall see him recovering his resignation, his sin pardoned, his soul restored, and Satan's accusation of him as a hypocrite clearly confuted; and, though compassed with infirmities, in the main he is found faithful and upright, and fixed in his adherence to God. Note; The day of our birth had need be kept with humiliation, when we remember the sin of our conception, and the evil of our years; but should never be curst, since there is so blessed a hope set before us, in that Child who to us is born, and through whom we have now a prospect of endless glory. If, indeed, we should look no farther than the grave, and full in view behold those miseries which flesh is heir to, it might lead us to join Job's imprecation; but beyond the grave the prospect brightens to the eye of faith, and enables the soul, amidst its sorrows, to rejoice in hope.
2nd, 1. Tired of life, in love with death, impatiently Job expostulates, Why he died not, as an abortion, or was suffered to survive the hour of his birth? Why the knees supported him, the breasts suckled him, and robbed him of an infant grave? Note; (1.) Man is, of all creatures, born the most helpless; and, without the tenderest care and kind providence, he could never survive the days of helpless infancy. (2.) To quarrel with the life that God bestows, is to sin against our own mercies; and if ever in hell we curse the day of our birth, we shall have none but ourselves to blame. (3.) Fretfulness and impatience at our lot are foolish as well as sinful, and can only aggravate instead of alleviating our burdens. (4.) To desire death to be with Christ, and delivered from sin, is commendable; but to be tired of the burdens of mortality, is selfish and evil.
2. He speaks of the grave, as the desirable asylum for the wretched. There he should have enjoyed rest and ease; and, in his bed of dust, slept (as he could not now, through raging anguish) as it were on a bed of down. There he should have lain down with kings and counsellors, no longer distinguished in this cold mansion, unless by the desolate habitations, those sepulchral monuments which they built for themselves. There, like an untimely birth, or the still-born infant, carried from the womb to the grave, he should know no sorrow: There the wicked cease from troubling; Satan no more tempts, nor wicked men vex and persecute: there the weary pilgrim reposes: the prisoners are there at ease, nor hear the clamorous voice of their oppressor or creditor; and the slave ceases his labour, free from his cruel master's yoke: the small and great are there mixed promiscuously, and no distinction marks the wise man from the fool. Note; (1.) Though the troubles of life must not make us impatient under them, the shadows of death will be welcome to the afflicted believer. (2.) Death is the terror of many of those called the great, because their honours cannot follow them: happy only and truly great are they who, after death, expect their crown. (3.) It is a comfort to the holy soul which dwells in this disordered world, troubled with the communication of the wicked, that yet a moment, and they will for ever cease from troubling.