Job 19:18

Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Job 19:18. Yea, young children despised me — Or, the wicked, as in the margin; and as the word עויליםalso signifies, being derived from עול, gniv-vel, inique egit, he acted unjustly. Some render it, fools, reading

אוילים, evilim, from אול. If we take the word in any of these senses, we must think that Job had good reason to complain, whether he was despised by children, by wicked men, or by fools. I arose, and they spake against we — To show my respect to them, though they were my inferiors, I rose from my seat, or I stood up, as the word אקומה, akumah, means. I did not disoblige, or provoke them, by any uncivil behaviour toward them; but was very courteous and condescending to them, and yet they made it their business to speak against me, and give me abusive words in return for my courtesy.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

19:8-22 How doleful are Job's complaints! What is the fire of hell but the wrath of God! Seared consciences will feel it hereafter, but do not fear it now: enlightened consciences fear it now, but shall not feel it hereafter. It is a very common mistake to think that those whom God afflicts he treats as his enemies. Every creature is that to us which God makes it to be; yet this does not excuse Job's relations and friends. How uncertain is the friendship of men! but if God be our Friend, he will not fail us in time of need. What little reason we have to indulge the body, which, after all our care, is consumed by diseases it has in itself. Job recommends himself to the compassion of his friends, and justly blames their harshness. It is very distressing to one who loves God, to be bereaved at once of outward comfort and of inward consolation; yet if this, and more, come upon a believer, it does not weaken the proof of his being a child of God and heir of glory.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Yea, young children - Margin, or "the wicked." This difference between the text and the margin arises from the ambiguity of the original word - עוילים ‛ăvı̂ylı̂ym. The word עויל ‛ăvı̂yl (whence our word "evil") means sometimes the wicked, or the ungodly, as in Job 16:11. It may also mean a child, or suckling, (from עוּל ‛ûl - to give milk, to suckle, 1 Samuel 7:7-10; Genesis 22:13 : Psalm 77:71; Isaiah 40:11; compare Isaiah 49:15; Isaiah 65:20,) and is doubtless used in this sense here. Jerome, however, renders it "stulti - fools." The Septuagint, strangely enough, "They renounced me forever." Dr. Good renders it, "Even the dependents." So Schultens, Etiam clientes egentissimi - "even the most needy clients." But the reference is probably to children who are represented as withholding from him the respect which was due to age.

I arose, and they spake against me - "When I rise up, instead of regarding and treating me with respect, they make me an object of contempt and sport." Compare the account of the respect which had formerly been shown him in Job 29:8.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. young children—So the Hebrew means (Job 21:11). Reverence for age is a chief duty in the East. The word means "wicked" (Job 16:11). So Umbreit has it here, not so well.

I arose—Rather, supply "if," as Job was no more in a state to stand up. "If I stood up (arose), they would speak against (abuse) me" [Umbreit].

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Young children; or, fools; the most contemptible persons. I arose, to wit, from my seat, to show my respect to them, though they were my inferiors; to show my readiness to comply with that mean and low condition, into which God had now brought me. Or, I stood up; for so this word sometimes signifies. I did not disoblige or provoke them by any uncivil and uncomely carriage towards them, but was very courteous to them; and yet they make it their business to rail against me, as you also do.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Yea, young children despised me,.... Having related what he met with within doors from those in his own house, the strangers and proselytes in it, his maidens and menservants, and even from his own wife, he proceeds to give an account of what befell him without; young children, who had learned of their parents, having observed them to treat him with contempt, mocked and scoffed at him, and said, there sits old Job, that nasty creature, with his boils and ulcers; or using some such contemptuous expression, as "wicked man"; so some translate the word (k); he was scorned and condemned by profane persons, who might tease him with his religion, and ask, where was his God? and bid him observe the effect and issue of his piety and strict course of living, and see what it was all come to, or what were the fruits of it: the Vulgate Latin version renders it "fools", that is, not idiots, but such as are so in a moral sense, and so signifies as before; and as these make mock at sin, and a jest of religion, it is no wonder that they despised good men: the word is rendered by a learned man (l), the "most needy clients", who were dependent on him, and were supported by him; but this coincides with Job 19:15;

I arose, and they spoke against me: he got up from his seat, either to go about his business, and do what he had to do; and they spoke against him as he went along, and followed him with their reproaches, as children will go after persons in a body they make sport of; or he rose up in a condescending manner to them, when they ought to have rose up to him, and reverenced and honoured him; and this he did to win upon them, and gain their good will and respect; or to admonish them, chastise and correct them, for their insolence and disrespect to him; but it signified nothing, they went on calling him names, and speaking evil against him, and loading him with scoffs and reproaches.

(k) "iniqui", Pagninus, Montanus; "homines nequam", Tigurine version; so Ben Gersom. (l) "Clientes egentissimi", Schultens.

Geneva Study Bible

Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. Another affecting touch—the little children mock his ineffectual attempts to rise from the ground.

children despised] Better, despise.

I arose, and they spake] Better, if I would arise they speak—they jeer at his painful efforts to rise.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - Yea, young children despised me. (So Rosenmuller, Canon Cook, and the Revised Version.) Others translate, "the vile," or "the perverse" (comp. Job 16:11). But the rendering of the Authorized Version receives support from Job 21:11. The forwardness of rude and ill-trained children to take part against God's saints appears later in the history of Elisha (2 Kings 2:23, 24). I arose, and they spake against me; or, when I arise they speak against me (compare. the Revised Version). Job 19:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

16 I call to my servant and he answereth not,

I am obliged to entreat him with my mouth.

17 My breath is offensive to my wife,

And my stench to my own brethren.

18 Even boys act contemptuously towards me;

If I will rise up, they speak against me.

19 All my confidential friends abhor me,

And those whom I loved have turned against me.

20 My bone cleaveth to my skin and flesh,

And I am escaped only with the skin of my teeth.

His servant, who otherwise saw every command in his eyes, and was attent upon his wink, now not only does not come at his call, but does not return him any answer. The one of the home-born slaves (vid., on Genesis 14:14),

(Note: The (black) slaves born within the tribe itself are in the present day, from their dependence and bravery, accounted as the stay of the tribe, and are called fadwje, as those who are ready to sacrifice their life for its interest. The body-slave of Job is thought of as such as יליד בית.)

who stood in the same near connection to Job as Eliezer to Abraham, is intended here, in distinction from גרי ביתי, Job 19:15. If he, his master, now in such need of assistance, desires any service from him, he is obliged (fut. with the sense of being compelled, as e.g., Job 15:30, Job 17:2) to entreat him with his mouth. התחנּן, to beg חן of any one for one's self (vid., supra, p. 365), therefore to implore, supplicare; and בּמו־פּי here (as Psalm 89:2; Psalm 109:30) as a more significant expression of that which is loud and intentional (not as Job 16:5, in contrast to that which proceeds from the heart). In Job 19:17, רוּחי signifies neither my vexation (Hirz.) nor my spirit equals I((Umbr., Hahn, with the Syr.), for רוח in the sense of angry humour (as Job 15:13) does not properly suit the predicate, and Arab. rûḥy in the signification ipse may certainly be used in Arabic, where rûḥ (perhaps under the influence of the philosophical usage of the language) signifies the animal spirit-life (Psychol. S. 154), not however in Hebrew, where נפשׁי is the stereotype form in that sense. If one considers that the elephantiasis, although its proper pathological symptom consists in an enormous hypertrophy of the cellular tissue of single distinct portions of the body, still easily, if the bronchia are drawn into sympathy, or if (what is still more natural) putrefaction of the blood with a scorbutic ulcerous formation in the mouth comes on, has difficulty of breathing (Job 7:15) and stinking breath as its result, as also a stinking exhalation and the discharge of a stinking fluid from the decaying limbs is connected with it (vid., the testimony of the Arabian physicians in Stickel, S. 169f.), it cannot be doubted that Jer. has lighted upon the correct thing when he transl. halitum meum exhorruit uxor mea. רוחי is intended as in Job 17:1, and it is unnecessary to derive זרה from a special verb זיר, although in Arab. the notions which are united in the Hebr. זוּר .r, deflectere and abhorrere (to turn one's self away from what is disgusting or horrible), are divided between Arab. zâr med. Wau and Arab. ḏâr med. Je (vid., Frst's Handwrterbuch).

In Job 19:17 the meaning of חנּותי is specially questionable. In Psalm 77:10, חנּות is, like שׁמּות, Ezekiel 36:3, an infinitive from חנן, formed after the manner of the Lamed He verbs. Ges. and Olsh. indeed prefer to regard these forms as plurals of substantives (חנּה, שׁמּה), but the respective passages, regarded syntactically and logically, require infinitives. As regards the accentuation, according to which וחנותי is accented by Rebia mugrasch on the ultima, this does not necessarily decide in favour of its being infin., since in the 1 praet. סבּתי, which, according to rule, has the tone on the penultima, the ultima is also sometimes (apart from the perf. consec.) found accented (on this, vid., on Psalm 17:3, and Ew. 197, a), as סבּוּ, קוּמה, קוּמי, also admit of both accentuations.

continued...