to yoke or hitch · verb, qal passive participle, masculine plural absolute
fetters
בַּזִּקִּ֑יםba.zi.Kim
H2131
properly · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
holden
יִ֝לָּכְד֗וּןyi.la.khe.Dun
H3920
to catch (in a net · verb, niphal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural + paragogic nun
cords
בְּחַבְלֵיbe.chav.lei-
H2256
a rope (as twisted) · preposition + noun, common both genders plural construct
affliction
עֹֽנִי'O.ni
H6040
depression · noun, common masculine 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
Psalms 107:10 Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron;
Proverbs 5:22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
Job 13:27 Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet.
Job 19:6 Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
Job 33:18-19 He keepeth back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.
Psalms 18:5 The sorrows of hell compassed me about: the snares of death prevented me.
Psalms 116:3 The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.
Lamentations 3:9 He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 36:5-14
Elihu, being to speak on God's behalf, and particularly to ascribe righteousness to his Maker, here shows that the disposals of divine Providence are all, not only according to the eternal counsels of his will, but according to the eternal rules of equity. God acts as a righteous governor, for,
I. He does not think it below him to take notice of the meanest of his subjects, nor does poverty or obscurity set any at a distance from his favour. If men are mighty, they are apt to look with a haughty disdain upon those that are not of distinction and make no figure; but God is mighty, infinitely so, and yet he despises not any, Job 36:5. He humbles himself to take cognizance of the affairs of the…
If they be afflicted, it is no proof that they are hypocrites, as the friends maintain, or that God disregards them, and is indifferent whether men are good or bad, as Job asserts: God is thereby "disciplining them," and "showing them their sins," and if they bow in a right spirit under God's visiting hand, the greatest blessings ensue.
Adam Clarke on Job 36:8
And if they be bound in fetters - These are means which God uses, not of punishment, but of correction.
John Gill on Job 36:8
And if they be bound in fetters,.... Not the wicked, as the Targum, but the righteous spoken of in Job 36:7, with which this is closely connected; and this is not to be understood of righteous kings on the throne in particular, or their special favourites, but of the righteous in general; and not in a literal sense, of their bonds and imprisonment for religion and righteousness sake, which is sometimes their lot; but in a figurative sense, of afflictions, as chastenings and corrections for sin, as appears by the next clause; and the design is to obviate an objection, and to show that the eye of God is upon them, and his heart towards them; and they are not the less objects of his love and de…
"They have their feet chained," by those bonds which St. Paul wishes to be delivered to be with Jesus Christ (3), that is to say, those shackles of the present life, where the body corrupt becomes a burden to the soul (4). "They will be surrounded by the bonds of poverty; Seized and restrained by the inveterate habit of sensual enjoyment, excited by the very poverty of the goods which sustain and lead man in this life.
And if they shall be in chains, and bound with the cords of poverty, He will shew them their works, and their wickednesses, because they have been violent. The chains of bondage, are the very detention of their present pilgrimage. Paul had seen, that he was bound by these chains, when he was saying, I have a desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ. [Phil. 1, 23] He perceived that he was bound with the cords of poverty, when, beholding the true riches, he entreated them also for his disciples. That ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the Saints. [Eph. 1, 18] But after this it is rightly added, He will shew them their works, and their wickednesses, because they have been violent. For when, by loving, we learn more of heavenly glory, we then feel the sins we have committed to have been more burdensome. Whence also Paul, after having felt the grace of heavenly things, found that what he had believed to be in him a zeal for virtue, was but wickedness; saying, Who before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. [l Tim. l, 13] Or certainly, when saying, But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. [Phil. 3, 7] ...
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Afflictions Made Beneficial · In convincing us of sin — In convincing us of sin
Cord · .Token in mourning — .Token in mourning
Rope · .Of affliction — .Of affliction
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 36:8-10
8 And if they are bound with chains,
Holden in cords of affliction:
9 Then He declareth to them their doing
And their transgressions, that they have been vainglorious;
10 Then He openeth their ear to warning,
And commandeth them to turn from iniquity.
The subj. is in no case the רשׁעים (Hahn), but the צדיקים, or those who are as susceptible to discipline as it is needful to them, just as in Ps 107, which in general presents many instances for an extensive comparison with the speeches of Elihu. The chains, Job 36:8, are meant literally, and the bands, Job 36:8, figuratively; the Psalmist couples both in אסירי עני וברזל, Psa 107:10. The conclusion begins with Job 36:9, and is repeated in anoth…
The biblical principle that God never takes his eyes off the innocent (2 Chr 16:9; Pss 33:18; 34:15; 1 Pet 3:12) answered Job’s frustration about divine surveillance (Job 7:17-21).
Rashi on Job 36:8
And if you see righteous men who are bound with chains of suffering and ailments, or caught with ropes of poverty. In an expression of lots or ropes, they are called חבלים, in an expression of worry, they are called חֶבְלֵי יוֹלֵדָה, pangs of a childbearing woman. with ropes of poverty Heb. בחבלי cordes in French. It is only because they sinned before Him, and He comes to requite them for their own good, to cleanse them and to admonish them to return to Him.
