Job 16:7

But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) But now he hath made me weary.—He turns again, in his passionate plaint, to God, whom he alternately speaks of in the third person and addresses in the second. “Thou hast made desolate all my company,” by destroying all his children and alienating the hearts or his friends.

Benson Commentary

Job 16:7. But now he — Namely, God; hath made me weary — Either of complaining, or of my life. “He hath long since quite tired me with one trouble upon another.” — Bishop Patrick. Thou hast made desolate all my company — “Thou hast not ceased, O God, till thou hast left me neither goods nor children, no, nor a friend to comfort me.” He speaks in the second person, to God, as in the former clause in the third person, of God: such a change of persons is very usual in Scripture, and “is esteemed,” says Chappelow, “a singular ornament in poetry.”

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:6-16 Here is a doleful representation of Job's grievances. What reason we have to bless God, that we are not making such complaints! Even good men, when in great troubles, have much ado not to entertain hard thoughts of God. Eliphaz had represented Job as unhumbled under his affliction: No, says Job, I know better things; the dust is now the fittest place for me. In this he reminds us of Christ, who was a man of sorrows, and pronounced those blessed that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But now he hath made me weary - That is, God has exhausted my strength. This verse introduces a new description of his sufferings; and he begins with a statement of the woes that God had brought on him. The first was, that he had taken away all his strength.

All my company - The word rendered "company" (עדה ‛êdâh) means properly an assembly that comes together by appointment, or at stated times; but here it is evidently used in the sense of the little community of which Job was the head and father. The sense is, that all his family had been destroyed.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7. But now—rather, "ah!"

he—God.

company—rather, "band of witnesses," namely, those who could attest his innocence (his children, servants, &c.). So the same Hebrew is translated in Job 16:8. Umbreit makes his "band of witnesses," himself, for, alas! he had no other witness for him. But this is too recondite.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

But; or, surely, as this Hebrew particle most commonly signifies. He, i.e. God, as appears by the following words and verses.

Hath made me weary; either of complaining, or of my life.

Thou; he speaks in the second person to God, as in the former clause in the third person of God. Such change of persons are very usual in Scripture, and elsewhere.

Hast made desolate all my company; hast turned my society into desolation, by destroying my children and servants.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But now he hath made me weary,.... Or "it hath made me weary" (u), that is, "my grief", as it may be supplied from Job 16:6; or rather God, as appears from the next clause, and from the following verse, where he is manifestly addressed; who by afflicting him had made him weary of the world, and all things in it, even of his very life, Job 10:1; his afflictions were so heavy upon him, and pressed him so hard, that his life was a burden to him; they were heavier than the sand of the sea, and his strength was not equal to them; he could scarcely drag along, was ready to sink and lie down under the weight of them:

thou hast made desolate all my company, or "congregation" (w); the congregation of saints that met at his house for religious worship, as some think, which now through his affliction was broke up, whom Eliphaz had called a congregation of hypocrites, Job 15:34; which passage Job may have respect unto; or rather his family, his children, which were taken away from him: the Jews say (x), ten persons in any place make a congregation; this was just the number of Job's children, seven sons and three daughters; or it may be he may have respect to his friends, that came to visit him, who were moved and stupefied as it were at the sight of him and his afflictions, as the word (y) is by some translated, and who were alienated from him; were not friendly to him, nor administered to him any comfort; so that they were as if he had none, or worse.

(u) "Dolor meus", V. L. so Aben Ezra & Cocceius. (w) "meam congregationem", Pagninus; "conventum meum", Montanus, Bolducius. (x) Vid. Drusium in loc. (y) "Stupefe isti", Tigurine version; so Jarchi.

Geneva Study Bible

But now {g} he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my {h} company.

(g) Meaning, God.

(h) That is, destroyed most of my family.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. made me weary] i. e. exhausted me; and now describes the new situation which he realizes. The second clause indicates in what way he had been wearied or exhausted, all his “company,” his familiar friends, all on whom he could rely, or hope in, had been removed from him, and turned into his enemies and haters, cf. ch. Job 19:13-19; every resource was taken from him, cf. ch. Job 15:34. In the first clause he is God, to whom as his emotion rises the speaker turns directly in the second clause—thou hast made desolate.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 7. - But now. These words mark a transition. Job turns from complaints against his "comforters" to an enumeration of his own sufferings. He hath made me weary. God has afflicted him with an intolerable sense of weariness. He is tired of life; tired of disputing with his friends; tired even of pouring out his lamentations and complaints and expostulations to God. His one desire is rest. So I have seen in the piombi of Venice, where political prisoners were tortured by cold and heat, and hunger and thirst, for long weeks or months, and brought to despair, such scratchlags as the following: "Luigi A. implora pace, Giuseppe B. implore eterna quiete." Job has entreated for this boon of rest repeatedly (Job 3:13; Job 6:9; Job 7:15; Job 10:18, etc.). Thou hast made desolate all my company. The loss of his children has desolated his household; his other afflictions have alienated his friends. Job 16:7

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

6 If I speak, my pain is not soothed;

And if I forbear, what alleviation do Iexperience?

7 Nevertheless now hath He exhausted me;

Thou hast desolated all my household,

8 And Thou filledst me with wrinkles - for a witness was it,

And my leanness rose up against me

Complaining to my face.

9 His wrath tore me, and made war upon me;

He hath gnashed upon me with His teeth,

As mine enemy He sharpeneth His eyes against me.

אם stands with the cohortative in the hypothetical antecedent clause Job 16:6, and in 6b the cohortative stands alone as Job 11:17; Psalm 73:16; Psalm 139:8, which is more usual, and more in accordance with the meaning which the cohortative has in itself, Ngelsbach, 89, 3. The interrogative, What goes from me? is equivalent to, what ( equals nothing) of pain forsakes me. The subject of the assertion which follows (Job 16:7) is not the pain - Aben-Ezra thinks even that this is addressed in v. 7b - still less Eliphaz, whom some think, particularly on account of the sharp expressions which follow, must be understood, but God, whose wrath Job regards as the cause of his suffering, and feels as the most intolerable part of it. A strained connection is obtained by taking אך either in an affirmative sense (Ew.: surely), as Job 18:21, or in a restrictive sense: only ( equals entirely) He has now exhausted me (Hirz., Hahn, also Schlottm.: only I feel myself oppressed, at least to express this), by which interpretation the עתּה, which stands between אך and the verb, is in the way. We render it therefore in the adversative signification: nevertheless (verum tamen) now he seeks neither by speaking to alleviate his pain, nor by silence to control himself; God has placed him in a condition in which all his strength is exhausted. He is absolutely incapable of offering any resistance to his pain, and care has also been taken that no solacing word shall come to him from any quarter: Thou hast made all my society desolate (Carey: all my clan); עדה of the household, as in Job 15:34. Jerome: in nihilum redacti sunt omnes artus mei (כל אברי, as explained by the Jewish expositors, e.g., Ralbag), as though the human organism could be called עדה. Hahn: Thou hast destroyed all my testimony, which must have been אדתי (from עוּד, whereas עדה, from ועד, has a changeable Ssere). He means to say that he stands entirely alone, and neither sees nor hears anything consolatory, for he does not count his wife. He is therefore completely shut up to himself; God has shrivelled him up; and this suffering form to which God has reduced him, is become an evidence, i.e., for himself and for others, as the three friends, an accusation de facto, which puts him down as a sinner, although his self-consciousness testifies the opposite to him.