an archer · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
about
יָ֘סֹ֤בּוּya.So.bu
H5437
to revolve · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
cleaveth
יְפַלַּ֣חye.fa.Lach
H6398
to slice · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
reins
כִּ֭לְיוֹתַיKil.yo.tai
H3629
a kidney (as an essential organ) · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix
asunder
פָּלַחpâlach
H6398
to slice
spare
יַחְמ֑וֹלyach.Mol
H2550
to commiserate · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
out
יִשְׁפֹּ֥ךְyish.Pokh
H8210
to spill forth (blood · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
gall
מְרֵרָֽתִיme.re.Ra.ti
H4845
bile (from its bitterness) · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
ground
לָ֝אָ֗רֶץla.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · preposition with the article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 20:25 It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him.
Job 6:4 For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array agains…
Lamentations 2:11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; b…
Genesis 49:23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:
Deuteronomy 29:20 The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are writt…
Job 6:10 Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.
Job 19:27 Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
Psalms 7:12-13 If he turn not, he will whet his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 16:6-16
Job's complaint is here as bitter as any where in all his discourses, and he is at a stand whether to smother it or to give it vent. Sometimes the one and sometimes the other is a relief to the afflicted, according as the temper or the circumstances are; but Job found help by neither, Job 16:6. 1. Sometimes giving vent to grief gives ease; but, "Though I speak" (says Job), "my grief is not assuaged, my spirit is never the lighter for the pouring out of my complaint; nay, what I speak is so misconstrued as to be turned to the aggravation of my grief." 2. At other times keeping silence makes the trouble the easier and the sooner forgotten; but (says Job) though I forbear I am never the nearer;…
his archers--The image of Job 16:12 is continued. God, in making me His "mark," is accompanied by the three friends, whose words wound like sharp arrows.
gall--put for a vital part; so the liver (Lam 2:11).
John Gill on Job 16:13
His archers compass me round about,.... Satan and his principalities and powers casting their fiery darts at him; or rather, his friends shooting their arrows, even bitter words, reproaches, and calumnies; or the various diseases of his body, his boils and ulcers, which were so many arrows shot into him, in every part of him all around, and gave him exquisite pain and anguish; besides the arrows of the Almighty, or that painful sensation he had of the wrath of God. This also is true of Christ, the antitype of Job and of Joseph; of the latter of which it is said, "the archers sorely grieved him, and shot at him, but his bow abode in strength", Genesis 49:23; so Satan and his ministers threw t…
12 I was at ease, but He hath broken me in pieces;
And He hath taken me by the neck and shaken me to pieces,
And set me up for a mark for himself.
13 His arrows whistled about me;
He pierced my reins without sparing;
He poured out my gall upon the ground.
14 He brake through me breach upon breach,
He ran upon me like a mighty warrior.
He was prosperous and contented, when all at once God began to be enraged against him; the intensive form פּרפּר (Arab. farfara) signifies to break up entirely, crush, crumble in pieces (Hithpo. to become fragile, Isa 24:19); the corresponding intensive form פּצפּץ (from פּצץ, Arab. fḍḍ, cogn. נפץ), to beat in pieces (Polel of a hammer, Jer 23:29), to dash to…
The Church Fathers
"When I was at peace, he broke me. He delighted me in my repose, or in myself; I was torn by my. enemies, even those who tore themselves apart. "He seized and ripped off my hair; Because of my sins, he put division in me. "He chose me as the goal of their arrows," for them to throw at me. As we place a goal to which must aim the archer who throws his arrows.
Ver. 13. I, the same that was once rich, am crushed on a sudden. Herein, viz. that he declared himself to be 'crushed on a sudden,' he denoted the unguarded mind of weak persons: who, whilst they are not skilled to foresee the evils which are destined to come, find them more severe in proportion as they also undergo them contrary to expectation. But to stedfast minds adversities do not come on a sudden, in that they are foreseen before they come. And this Holy Church too does now undergo in certain backsliding people, who, after the richness of instruction, are sometimes so crushed by sudden assaults of evil, that they fall as deeply in certain wicked practices, as if they had never been vouchsafed the food of the word. It proceeds; He hath held my neck, and broken me in two, and set me up for His mark. As in evil the 'neck' denotes pride, so in good it denotes the lifting up in freedom; whence it is sometimes the case that 'pride' itself is also put for the authority belonging to that lifting up; as when the Lord says by way of promise to Holy Church by the Prophet, I will set thee for the pride of ages. And because in time of persecution some that are weak do not dare to preach with freedom the truths they have a sense of, it is rightly said of this enemy, He hath held my neck, and broken me in two. But perchance those are denoted by the appellation of 'neck,' who, in the season of her peace, are lifted up more than befits, and by occasion of defending the cause of right minister to the evil of self-exalting; which same in time of persecution feel adversity the more sensibly on this account, that they are elevated by prosperity. Concerning whom it is rightly said, He hath held my neck, and broken me in two; i.e. the pride which she had in her weak members, He bowed down by the severity of His smiting. And set me up for His mark. It is known that 'a mark' is for this reason 'set up,' that it may be hit by the sending of the arrow. And so the faithful people is 'set as a mark' to its enemy, in that he is ever assaulting it with his blows and afflicting it with his persecutions: for he that undergoes perpetual ills in this life, as if set for a mark, receives blows from one striking him; and hence the great Preacher, when he was suffering the ills of persecution, and groaning beneath the persecuting efforts of his enemies, to comfort the tender soul of the…
Dictionary and topics
Gall — (1) Heb. mererah, meaning “bitterness” (Job 16:13); i.e., the bile secreted in the liver. This word is also used of the poison of asps (20:14), and of the vitals, the seat of life (25). (2.) Heb.…
Afflictions · Often severe — Often severe
Afflictions And Adversities · .Often severe — .Often severe
Bow · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Gall · Any bitter or poi — Any bitter or poi
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Ver. 13. He hath compassed me about with His lances, He hath wounded my loins together, He hath not spared, and He hath poured out my bowels upon the ground. [MORAL INTERPRETATION] These particulars would seem to accord with blessed Job after the letter, in that it is said, He hath compassed me with His lances, He hath wounded my loins together, He hath not spared; if that were not added, which is not read as written about him, he hath poured out my bowels upon the ground. From which circumstance it follows, that whereas we cannot find this after the letter, we should investigate after the spirit those points, which in his words sound as of the fact of history. Holy Church is 'beset with lances' by her enemy, whensoever she is in her members assaulted by the cunning assailant with the darts of temptation; and it is well said that we are 'encompassed with lances,' in that our old enemy assails us on every side with the wounding of temptation. Thus oftentimes whilst the appetite is restrained, that lust may be brought under, the dart of vainglory strikes the mind; but if the body is not worn down by the infliction of abstinence, the flame of lust kindles itself against the soul: often whilst we strive to observe economy, we fall into stinginess; and often whilst we give profusely the things we possess, we are led into avarice, in that we seek to make up again what we may have to give. Whereas then the darts of the old enemy assail us in every direction, it is rightly said now, he hath compassed me about with his lances. And because, in the case of every sin, the crafty enemy indeed recommends it, but we by consenting to his recommendations execute it, it is fitly subjoined, he hath wounded my loins together, for in the loins lust is seated. Hence he who desired to eradicate the delight of lust from the heart, preached the words, Gird up the loins of your mind. And so when our old enemy draws the faithful people into lust, surely he smites that people 'in the loins;' in which place it is deserving of observation, that he does not say 'he has wounded,' but, he hath wounded my loins together. For as to talk is sometimes an act of one person, but to 'talk together' of two or perhaps of many, so our old enemy, in that he does not hurry us into sin without our own will, is never said 'to wound our loins,' but, 'to wound our loins together:' in that what he prompts…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
