to wall in or around · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
way
אָרְחִ֣י'a.re.Chi
H734
a well-trodden road (literally or figuratively) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
pass
אֶעֱב֑וֹר'e.'e.Vor
H5674
to cross over · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
set
יָשִֽׂיםya.Sim
H7760
to put (used in a great variety of applications · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
darkness
חֹ֣שֶׁךְCho.shekh
H2822
the dark · noun, common masculine singular absolute
paths
נְ֝תִיבוֹתַ֗יne.ti.vo.Tai
H5410
a (beaten) track · noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix
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 3:23 Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
Lamentations 3:7 He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.
Psalms 88:8 Thou hast put away mine acquaintance far from me; thou hast made me an abomination unto them: I am shut up, and I cannot come forth.
Proverbs 4:19 The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble.
Lamentations 3:9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
Hosea 2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
Joshua 24:7 And when they cried unto the LORD, he put darkness between you and the Egyptians, and brought the sea upon them, and covered them; and your…
Job 30:26 When I looked for good, then evil came unto me: and when I waited for light, there came darkness.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 19:8-22
Bildad had very disingenuously perverted Job's complaints by making them the description of the miserable condition of a wicked man; and yet he repeats them here, to move their pity, and to work upon their good nature, if they had any left in them.
I. He complains of the tokens of God's displeasure which he was under, and which infused the wormwood and gall into the affliction and misery. How doleful are the accents of his complaints! "He hath kindled his wrath against me, which flames and terrifies me, which burns and pains me," Job 19:11. 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, bu…
He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass,.... A metaphor taken from travellers, who not only meet with obstacles and obstructions in their way, which make it difficult; but sometimes with such enclosures and fences, that they are at a full stop, and cannot pass on, and know not what course to steer: the people of God are not inhabitants of this world, but pilgrims, strangers, and sojourners in it, and travellers through it; they are bound for another country, and are travelling to it; and though their way for far most part is indeed troublesome, but generally passable, or made so; yet sometimes not only is their way hedged up with afflictions, and they hedged about with them, that they ca…
7 Behold I cry violence, and I am not heard;
I cry for help, and there is no justice.
8 My way He hath fenced round, that I cannot pass over,
And He hath set darkness on my paths.
9 He hath stripped me of mine honour,
And taken away the crown from my head.
10 He destroyed me on every side, then I perished,
And lifted out as a tree my hope.
11 He kindled His wrath against me,
And He regarded me as one of His foes.
He cries aloud חמס (that which is called out regarded as accusa. or as an interjection, vid., on Hab 1:2), i.e., that illegal force is exercised over him. He finds, however, neither with God nor among men any response of sympathy and help; he cries for help (which שׁוּע, perhaps con…
The Church Fathers
"He darkened my face. He has taken away the splendor of my face: it is the fate of those who turn away from him.
"No speech," Job says, "can describe my misfortunes. As those who are surrounded on every side by a wall or are oppressed by darkness, I cannot proceed any further. So, it is impossible for me to escape these calamities."
He hath fenced up my way, that I cannot pass: and He hath set darkness in my paths. He saw his 'way fenced up' with strokes, when anxiously desiring to pass into a state of security, he was not able to escape the scourges, and whereas he saw himself smitten, and yet did not find in himself a life worthy of such smiting, as it were 'in the paths' of the heart he met with 'the darkness' of his own ignorance, in that he could not fathom the cause wherefore he was so scourged. And this is not unfitly applied to the weak members of Holy Church too, when from this which they remember to have done wickedly, they are made backward in good practice as well, and, frightened by their own weakness, do not venture to attempt strong acts of goodness to match them. For they fear to begin great acts of goodness, who call to mind that they are infirm in their ways; and whereas they very often do not know the very good, which they should choose, they, as it were, shrink from the 'darkness placed in their paths.' For the mind often becomes so doubtful of its own doings, as not to know at all which is the virtue and which the fault. Thus he 'finds darkness in his path,' who in those things which he desires to do, is ignorant what he ought to choose. Therefore seeing that there is sin often from infirmity, and sometimes from ignorance, it is said in the person of the members that go weakly, He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass. While in the person of those who see not clear as to the very good work itself which they should choose, it is added; and He hath set darkness in my paths. For it is punishment of sin, to see the good which we ought to do, and yet not to have the power to fulfil it; and again it is in still worse punishment of sin, not even to see what we ought to do; and hence against both of these it is said by the voice of the Psalmist, The Lord is my Light and my Salvation; whom then shall I fear? For against the darkness of ignorance the Lord is a 'Light;' against weakness 'Salvation,' whilst He both shews what ought to be desired for the doing it, and supplies the powers, that what He shews may be fulfilled.
Dictionary and topics
Hedges · Illustrative: Of numerous afflictions — Illustrative: Of numerous afflictions
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).
