Job 16:9

He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(9) He teareth me in his wrath.—Terrible as the language is that Job has used against God, he seems here almost to exceed it, for he calls Him his adversary. It is hardly possible not to understand the expression of God, for though he immediately speaks of his friends, yet just afterwards he openly mentions God.

Benson Commentary

Job 16:9. He teareth me in his wrath — Hebrew, אפו שׂר, appo tarap, His wrath teareth me in pieces, properly, as a lion or other savage beast tears his prey, of which the word tarap is peculiarly used; who hateth me — וישׂשׂמני, vajistemeni, rather, and hateth me; that is, pursues me with hatred, or as if he hated me. Some render it, adversatus est mihi, is hostile to me; or, acts as mine enemy. He gnasheth upon me with his teeth — A strong figurative expression, denoting extreme anger; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me — That is, looks upon me with a fierce and sparkling eye, as enraged persons are wont to look on those who have provoked them. It is a great question among commentators what enemy Job meant. Sol. Jarchi writes, Hasatan hu hatzar: Satan, he is the enemy. Certainly Satan was Job’s greatest enemy, and, by the divine permission, had brought all his sufferings upon him, and perhaps now frequently terrified him with apparitions. “It is not improbable,” says Henry, “that this is the enemy he means.” Many think that Eliphaz, who spoke last, and to whose speech Job is now replying, is intended. He had showed himself very much exasperated against Job; and might express himself with such marks of indignation as are here mentioned, rending Job’s good name, as Bishop Patrick expresses himself, and preaching nothing but terror against him. His eyes might be said to be sharpened to spy out matter of reproach against him, and very unkindly, yea, cruelly, both he and his friends had used him. Others, however, think that the expressions, though harsh, and apparently unbecoming to be applied to God, were, nevertheless, intended of him by Job, and are capable of being so interpreted as not to imply any reflection on the divine perfections. “The expressions,” says Chappelow, “are really not stronger than those which we read in other places, particularly in the eleventh and four following verses; as also 19:11, 30, 31.” The reader must observe, that the melancholy state of Job’s mind, and his dreadful sufferings under the chastising hand of God, which his friends never ceased to represent as the effects of divine wrath, had caused him to entertain distressing ideas of God’s terrors, and to view him, if not as an enemy, yet as a severe and inexorable judge, who was extreme to mark all his iniquities and failings.

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

He teareth me in his wrath - The language here is all taken from the ferocity of wild beasts; and the idea is, that his enemy had come upon him as a lion seizes upon its prey. Rosenmuller, Reiske, and some others suppose that this refers to God. Cocceius refers it to Satan. Schultens, Dr. Good, and some others, to Eliphaz, as the leading man among his adversaries. I have no doubt that this is the true reference. The connection seems to demand this; and we ought not to suppose that Job would charge this upon God, unless there is the clearest evidence. The whole passage is a description of the manner in which Job supposed his friends had come upon him. He says they had attacked him like wild beasts. Yet it must be admitted that he sometimes attributes these feelings to God, and says that he came upon him like a roaring lion see Job 10:16-17.

Who hateth me - Or rather, "and persecutes me, or is become my adversary," for so the word used here (שׂטם śâṭam) means; see the notes at Job 30:21.

He gnasheth upon me with his teeth - As an enraged wild animal does when about to seize upon its prey. A similar figure occurs in Otway, in his "Orphan:"

- For my Castalio's false;

False as the wind, the water, or the weather:

Cruel as tigers o'er their trembling prey:

I feel him in my breast, he tears my heart,

And at each sigh he drinks the gushing blood.

And so Homer, when he describes the wrath of Achilles as he armed himself to avenge the death of Patroclus, mentions among other signs of wrath his gnashing his teeth:

Τοῦ καὶ ὀδόντων μὲν καναχὴ πέλε.

Tou kai odontōn men kanachē pele.

Iliad xix. 364.

So Virgil describes his hero as

furens animis, dentibus infrendens.

continued...

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. Image from a wild beast. So God is represented (Job 10:16).

who hateth me—rather, "and pursues me hard." Job would not ascribe "hatred" to God (Ps 50:22).

mine enemy—rather, "he sharpens, &c., as an enemy" (Ps 7:12). Darts wrathful glances at me, like a foe (Job 13:24).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

He teareth me in his wrath, Heb. his wrath teareth me in pieces, as a lion doth his prey.

Who hateth me, Heb. and he hateth me, i.e. he pursueth me with a deadly hatred and rage. Or, and he is become mine enemy; or, he sets himself against me with all his might; or, he treats me like an implacable enemy. He gnasheth upon me with his teeth; which is a gesture and sign of extreme anger and fury, as Psalm 35:16 37:12 Lamentations 2:16; as elsewhere of grievous pain, as Luke 13:28.

Mine enemy; either,

1. God, who of a friend is now become my implacable enemy. Or,

2. Eliphaz, who deals with me more like an enemy than a friend.

Sharpeneth his eyes upon me, i.e. looks upon me with a fierce and sparkling eye, as enraged persons uso to do.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me,.... By whom is meant not Satan, as Jarchi, though he is an enemy to, and an hater of mankind, especially of good men; nor Eliphaz, as others, who had fallen upon Job with a great deal of wrath and fury, tearing his character in pieces, which Job attributed to his hatred of him; but it rather appears from the context that God himself is intended, of whom Job had now a mistaken notion and apprehension; taking him for his enemy, being treated by him, as he thought, as if he had an aversion to him, and an hatred of him; whereas God hates none of his creatures, being his offspring, and the objects of his tender care, and providential regard: indeed sin is hateful to him, and makes men odious in his sight, and he hates all the workers of iniquity, and those whom he passed by, when he chose others; though they are said to be hated by him as Esau was, yet not with a positive but a negative hatred; that is, are not loved by him; and considered as profane and ungodly persons, and as such foreordained to condemnation; for sin may be said to be hated, but good men never are; God's chosen ones, his children and special people, are the objects of his everlasting love; and though he may be angry with them, and show a little seeming wrath towards them, yet never hates them; hatred and love are as opposite as any two things can possibly be; and indeed, strictly and properly speaking, there is no wrath nor fury in God towards his people; though they deserve it, they are not appointed to it, but are delivered from it by Christ; and neither that nor any of the effects of it shall ever light on them; but Job concluded this from the providence he was under, in which God appeared terrible to him, like a lion or any such fierce and furious creature, to which he is sometimes compared, and compares himself, which seizes on its prey, and tears and rends it to pieces; Isaiah 38:13; thus God permitted Job's substance to be taken from him by the Chaldeans and Sabeans; his children by death, which was like tearing off his limbs; and his skin and his flesh to be rent and broken by boils and ulcers: Job was a type of Christ in his sorrows and sufferings; and though he was not now in the best frame of mind, the flesh prevailed, and corruptions worked, and he expressed himself in an unguarded manner, yet perhaps we shall not find, in any part of this book, things expressed, and the language in which they are expressed, more similar and to be accommodated to the case, and sorrows, and sufferings of Christ, than in this context; for though he was the son of God's love, his dear and well beloved son, yet as he was the surety of his people, and bore and suffered punishment in their stead, justice behaved towards him as though there was a resentment unto him, and an aversion of him; yea, he says, "thou hast cast off and abhorred, thou hast been wroth with thine Anointed" or "Messiah", Psalm 89:38; and indeed he did bear the wrath of God, the vengeance of justice or curse of the righteous law; and was suffered to be torn in every sense, his temples with a crown of thorns, his cheeks by those that plucked off the hair, his hands and feet by the nails driven in them, and his side by the spear; and his life was torn, snatched, and taken away from him in a violent manner:

he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; as men do when they are full of wrath and fury: this is one way of showing it, as the enemies of David, a type of Christ, and the slayers of Stephen, his protomartyr, did, Psalm 35:16; and as beasts of prey, such as the lion, wolf, do:

mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me; the Targum adds, as a razor. Here again Job considers God as his enemy, though he was not, misinterpreting his dealings with him; he represents him as looking out sharp after him, inspecting narrowly into all his ways, and works, and actions, strictly observing his failings and infirmities, calling him to an account, and afflicting him for them, and dealing rigidly and severely with him for any small offence: his eyes seemed to him to be like flames of fire, to sparkle with wrath and revenge; his thee, as he imagined, was set against him, and his eyes upon him to destroy him; and thus the eye of vindictive justice was upon Christ his antitype, when he was made sin and a curse for his people, and the sword of justice was awaked against him, and thrust in him.

Geneva Study Bible

{k} He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

(k) That is, God by his wrath: and in this diversity of words and high style, he expresses how grievous the hand of God was on him.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. Picture of God’s hostility to him. The figure is that of a beast of prey.

who hateth me] lit. and hateth me, or, and is hostile to me, i. e. assaileth me. The picture of the lion-like assailant, his rending fury, and gnashing teeth, and flashing eyes, is graphic.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me; literally, his wrath teareth and he hateth me. God treats Job as severely as if he hated him. That he is actually hated of God Job does not believe; otherwise he would long since have ceased to call upon him, and pour out his heart before him. He gnasheth upon me with his teeth (comp. Psalm 35:16; Psalm 37:12). Mine enemy (or rather, adversary) sharpeneth his eyes upon me; i.e. makes me a whetstone on which he sharpens his angry glances. Job 16:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The verb קמט (Aram. קמט), which occurs only once beside (Job 22:16), has, like Arab. qmṭ (in Gecatilia's transl.), the primary meaning of binding and grasping firmly (lxx ἐπελάβου, Symm. κατέδησας, Targ. for לכד, תּמך, lengthened to a quadriliteral in Arab. qmṭr, cogn. קמץ),

(Note: On the other hand, קטם, Arab. qṭm, abscindere, praemordere, has no connection with קמט, with which Kimchi and Reiske confuse it. This is readily seen from the opposite primary distinction of the two roots, קם and קט, of which the former expresses union, the latter separation.)

constringere, from which the significations comprehendere and corrugare have branched off; the signification, to wrinkle (make wrinkled), to shrivel up, is the most common, and the reference which follows, to his emaciation, and the lines which occur further on from the picture of one sick with elephantiasis, show that the poet here has this in his mind. Ewald's conjecture, which changes היה into היּה, Job 6:2; Job 30:13 equals הוּה, as subject to ותקמטני (calamity seizes me as a witness), deprives the thought contained in לעד, which renders the inferential clause לעד היה prominent, of much of its force and emphasis. In Job 16:8 this thought is continued: כּחשׁ signifies here, according to Psalm 109:24 (which see), a wasting away; the verb-group כחשׁ, כחד, Arab. jḥd, kḥt, qḥṭ, etc., has the primary meaning of taking away and decrease: he becomes thin from whom the fat begins to fail; to disown is equivalent to holding back recognition and admission; the metaphor, water that deceives equals dries up, is similar. His wasted, emaciated appearance, since God has thus shrivelled him up, came forth against him, told him to his face, i.e., accused him not merely behind his back, but boldly and directly, as a convicted criminal. God has changed himself in relation to him into an enraged enemy. Schlottm. wrongly translates: one tears and tortures me fiercely; Raschi erroneously understands Satan by צרי. In general, it is the wrath of God whence Job thinks his suffering proceeds. It was the wrath of God which tore him so (like Hosea 6:1, comp. Amos 1:11), and pursued him hostilely (as he says with the same word in Job 30:21); God has gnashed against him with His teeth; God drew or sharpened (Aq., Symm., Theod., ὤξυνεν לטשׁ like Psalm 7:13). His eyes or looks like swords (Targ. as a sharp knife, אזמל, σμίλη) for him, i.e., to pierce him through. Observe the aorr. interchanging with perff. and imperff. He describes the final calamity which has made him such a piteous form with the mark of the criminal. His present suffering is only the continuation of the decree of wrath which is gone forth concerning him.