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collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per phrase)
Wesley: Job 3:25 - -- Even in the time of my prosperity, I was full of fears, considering the variety of God's providences, the changeableness of this vain world, God's jus...
Even in the time of my prosperity, I was full of fears, considering the variety of God's providences, the changeableness of this vain world, God's justice, and the sinfulness of all mankind. And these fears of mine, were not in vain, but are justified by my present calamities.

Wesley: Job 3:26 - -- I did not misbehave myself in prosperity, abusing it by presumption, and security, but I lived circumspectly, walking humbly with God, and working out...
I did not misbehave myself in prosperity, abusing it by presumption, and security, but I lived circumspectly, walking humbly with God, and working out my salvation with fear and trembling. Therefore in this sense also, his way was hid, he knew not why God contended with him.
JFB: Job 3:25 - -- In the beginning of his trials, when he heard of the loss of one blessing, he feared the loss of another; and when he heard of the loss of that, he fe...
In the beginning of his trials, when he heard of the loss of one blessing, he feared the loss of another; and when he heard of the loss of that, he feared the loss of a third.

JFB: Job 3:25 - -- Namely, the ill opinion of his friends, as though he were a hypocrite on account of his trials.
Namely, the ill opinion of his friends, as though he were a hypocrite on account of his trials.

JFB: Job 3:26 - -- Referring, not to his former state, but to the beginning of his troubles. From that time I had no rest, there was no intermission of sorrows. "And" (n...
Referring, not to his former state, but to the beginning of his troubles. From that time I had no rest, there was no intermission of sorrows. "And" (not, "yet") a fresh trouble is coming, namely, my friends' suspicion of my being a hypocrite. This gives the starting-point to the whole ensuing controversy.
Clarke: Job 3:25 - -- For the thing which I greatly reared - Literally, the fear that I feared; or, I feared a fear, as in the margin. While I was in prosperity I thought...
For the thing which I greatly reared - Literally, the fear that I feared; or, I feared a fear, as in the margin. While I was in prosperity I thought adversity might come, and I had a dread of it. I feared the loss of my family and my property; and both have occurred. I was not lifted up: I knew that what I possessed I had from Divine Providence, and that he who gave might take away. I am not stripped of my all as a punishment for my self-confidence.

Clarke: Job 3:26 - -- I was not in safety - If this verse be read interrogatively, it will give a good and easy sense: Was I not in safety? Had I not rest? Was I not in c...
I was not in safety - If this verse be read interrogatively, it will give a good and easy sense: Was I not in safety? Had I not rest? Was I not in comfort? Yet trouble came. It is well known that, previously to this attack of Satan, Job was in great prosperity and peace. Mr. Good translates, I had no peace; yea, I had no rest. Yea, I had no respite, as the trouble came on; and refers the whole to the quick succession of the series of heavy evils by which he was tried. There is a similar thought in the Psalmist: Deep crieth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts; all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me; Psa 42:7. One evil treads on the heels of another
In this chapter Job’ s conflict begins. Now, and not before, Satan appears to have access to his mind. When he deprived him of his property, and, what was still dearer, of his sons and his daughters, the hope of his family, he bore all with the most exemplary patience, and the deepest resignation to the Divine will. When his adversary was permitted to touch his body, and afflict it in the most grievous and distressing manner, rendered still more intolerable by his being previously deprived of all the comforts and necessaries of life; still he held fast his integrity; no complaint, no murmur was heard. From the Lord’ s hand he received his temporal good; and from that hand he received his temporal evil, the privation of that good. Satan was, therefore, baffled in all his attempts; Job continued to be a perfect and upright man, fearing God, and avoiding evil. This was Job’ s triumph, or rather the triumph of Divine grace; and Satan’ s defeat and confusion
It is indeed very seldom that God permits Satan to waste the substance or afflict the body of any man; but at all times this malevolent spirit may have access to the mind of any man, and inject doubts, fears, diffidence, perplexities, and even unbelief. And here is the spiritual conflict. Now, their wrestling is not with flesh and blood - with men like themselves, nor about secular affairs; but they have to contend with angels, principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places. In such cases Satan is often permitted to diffuse darkness into the understanding, and envelope the heavens with clouds. Hence are engendered false views of God and his providence, of men, of the spiritual world, and particularly of the person’ s own state and circumstances. Every thing is distorted, and all seen through a false medium. Indescribable distractions and uneasiness are hereby induced; the mind is like a troubled sea, tossed by a tempest that seems to confound both heaven and earth. Strong temptations to things which the soul contemplates with abhorrence are injected; and which are followed by immediate accusations, as if the injections were the offspring of the heart itself; and the trouble and dismay produced are represented as the sense of guilt, from a consciousness of having, in heart, committed these evils. Thus Satan tempts, accuses, and upbraids, in order to perplex the soul, induce skepticism, and destroy the empire of faith. Behold here the permission of God, and behold also his sovereign control: all this time the grand tempter is not permitted to touch the heart, the seat of the affections, nor offer even the slightest violence to the will. The soul is cast down, but not destroyed; perplexed, but not in despair. It is on all sides harassed; without are fightings, within are fears: but the will is inflexible on the side of God and truth, and the heart, with all its train of affections and passions, follows it. The man does not wickedly depart from his God; the outworks are violently assailed, but not taken; the city is still safe, and the citadel impregnable. Heaviness may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. Jesus is soon seen walking upon the waters. He speaks peace to the winds and the sea: immediately there is a calm. Satan is bruised down under the feet of the sufferer, the clouds are dispersed, the heavens re-appear, and the soul, to its surprise, finds that the storm, instead of hindering, has driven it nearer to the haven whither it would be
The reader who closely examines the subject will find that this was the case of Job. The following chapters show the conflict of the soul; the end of the book, God’ s victory and his exaltation. Satan sifted Job as wheat, but his faith failed not.
Defender -> Job 3:25
Defender: Job 3:25 - -- Job confesses that, even during his former days of prosperity and esteem, he had realized that things could change. God may bless a righteous man with...
Job confesses that, even during his former days of prosperity and esteem, he had realized that things could change. God may bless a righteous man with prosperity, but it is all of grace. No man - not even righteous Job - deserves God's favor, for "all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Rom 3:23). Job realized he was innately a sinner, and offered sacrifices to cover his sins, as God had instructed, but he still realized God had every right to withhold His blessings."

collapse allCommentary -- Word/Phrase Notes (per Verse)
Barnes: Job 3:25 - -- For the thing which I greatly feared - Margin, As in the Hebrew "I feared a fear, and it came upon me."This verse, with the following, has rece...
For the thing which I greatly feared - Margin, As in the Hebrew "I feared a fear, and it came upon me."This verse, with the following, has received a considerable variety of exposition. Many have understood it as referring to his whole course of life, and suppose that Job meant to say that he was always apprehensive of some great calamity, such as that which had now come upon him, and that in the time of his highest prosperity be had lived in continual alarm lest his property should be taken. away, and lest he should be reduced to penury and suffering. This is the opinion of Drusius and Codurcus. In reply to this, Schultens has remarked, that such a supposition is contrary to all probability; that there was no reason to apprehend that such calamities as he now suffered, would come upon him; that they were so unusual that they could not have been anticipated; and that, thercfore, the alarm here spoken of, could not refer to the general tenor of his life.
That seems to have been happy and calm, and perhaps, if anything, too tranquil and secure. Most interpreters suppose that it refers to the state in which he was "during"his trial, and that it is designed to describe the rapid succession of his woes. Such is the interpretation of Rosenmuller, Schultens, Drs. Good, Noyes, Gill, and others. According to this, it means that his calamities came on him in quick succession. He had no time after one calamity to become composed before another came. When he heard of one misfortune, he naturally dreaded another, and they came on with overwhelming rapidity. If this be the correct interpretation, it means that the source of his lamentation is not merely the greatness of his losses and his trials considered in the "aggregate,"but the extraordinary rapidity with which they succeeded each other, thus rendering them much more difficult to be borne; see Job 1: He apprehended calamity, and it came suddenly.
When one part of his property was taken, he had deep apprehensions respecting the rest; when all his property was seized or destroyed, he had alarm about his children; when the report came that they were dead, he feared some other affliction still. The sentiment is in accordance with human nature, that when we are visited with severe calamity in one form, we naturally dread it in another. The mind becomes exquisitely sensitive. The affections cluster around the objects of attachment which are left, and they become dear to us. When one child is taken away, our affections cling more closely to the one which survives, and any little illness alarms us, and the value of one object of affection is more and more increased - like the Sybil’ s leaves - as another is removed. It is an instinct of our nature, too, to apprehend calamity in quick succession when one comes "Misfortunes seldom come alone;"and when we suffer the loss of one endeared object, we instinctively feel that there may be a succession of blows that will remove all our comforts from us. Such seems to have been the apprehension of Job.

Barnes: Job 3:26 - -- I was not in safety - That is, I have, or I had no peace. שׁלה shâlâh Septuagint, οὔτε εἰρήνευσα oute ...
I was not in safety - That is, I have, or I had no peace.
Neither had I rest - Trouble comes upon me in every form, and I am a stranger wholly to peace. The accumulation of phrases here, all meaning nearly the same thing, is descriptive of a state of great agitation of mind. Such an accumulation is not uncommon in the Bible to denote any thing which language can scarcely describe. So in Isa 8:22 :
And they shall look upward; And to the earth shall they look; And lo!
rouble and darkness, Gloom, oppression, and deepened darkness.
So Job 10:21-22 :
To the land of darkness and the death-shade,
The land of darkness like the blackness of the death-shade,
Where is no order, and where the light is as darkness.
Thus, in the Hamasa (quoted by Dr Good), "Death, and devastation, and a remorseless disease, and a still heavier and more terrific family of evils."The Chaldee has made a remarkable addition here, arising from the general design in the author of that Paraphrase, to explain everything. "Did I not dissemble when the annunciation was made to me respecting the oxen and the asses? Was I not stupid (unalarmed, or unmoved,
Yet trouble came - Or rather, "and trouble comes."This is one of the cumulative expressions to denote the rapidity and the intensity of his sorrows. The word rendered "trouble"(
In regard to this chapter, containing the first speech of Job, we may remark, that it is impossible to approve the spirit which it exhibits, or to believe that it was acceptable to God. It laid the foundation for the reflections - many of them exceedingly just - in the following chapters, and led his friends to doubt whether such a man could be truly pious. The spirit which is manifested in this chapter, is undoubtedly far from that calm submission which religion should have produced, and from that which Job had before evinced. That he was, in the main, a man of eminent holiness and patience, the whole book demonstrates; but this chapter is one of the conclusive proofs that he was not absolutely free from imperfection. From the chapter we may learn,
(1) That even eminently good men sometimes give utterance to sentiments which are a departure from the spirit of religion, and which they will have occasion to regret. Such was the case here. There was a language of complaint, and a bitterness of expression, which religion cannot sanction, and which no pious man, on reflection, would approve.
(2) We see the effect of heavy affliction on the mind. It sometimes becomes overwhelming. It is so great that all the ordinary barriers against impatience are swept away. The sufferer is left to utter language of complaining, and there is the impatient wish that life was closed, or that he had not existed.
(3) We are not to infer that because a man in affliction makes use of some expressions which we cannot approve, and which are not sanctioned by the word of God, that therefore he is not a good man. There may be true piety, yet it may be far from perfection; there may be in general submission to God, yet the calamity may be so overwhelming as to overcome the usual restraints on our corrupt and fallen nature: and when we remember how feeble is our nature at best, and how imperfect is the piety of the holiest of men, we should not harshly judge him who is left to express impatience in his trials, or who gives utterance to sentiments different from those which are sanctioned by the word of God. There has been but one model of pure submission on earth - the Lord Jesus Christ; and after the contemplation of the best of men in their trials, we can see that there is imperfection in them, and that if we would survey absolute perfection in suffering, we must go to Gethsemane and to Calvary.
(4) Let us not make the expressions used by Job in this chapter our model in suffering. Let us not suppose that because he used such language, that therefore we may also. Let us not infer that because they are found in the Bible, that therefore they are right; or that because he was an unusually holy man, that it would be proper for us to use the same language that he did. The fact that this book is a part of the inspired truth of revelation, does not make such language right. All that inspiration does, in such a case, is to secure an exact record of what was actually said; it does not, of necessity, sanction it any more than an accurate historian can be supposed to approve all that he records. There may be important reasons why it should be preserved, but he who makes the record is not answerable for the truth or propriety of what is recorded. The narrative is true; the sentiment may be false. The historian may state exactly what was said or done: but what was said or done, may have violated every law of truth and justice; and unless the historian expresses some sentiment of approbation, he can in no sense be held answerable for it. So with the narratives in the Bible. Where a sentiment of approbation or disapprobation is expressed, there the sacred writer is answerable for it; in other cases he is answerable only for the correctness of the record. This view of the nature of inspiration will leave us at liberty freely to canvass the speeches made in the book of Job, and make it more important that we compare the sentiments in those speeches with other parts of the Bible, that we may know what to approve, and what was erroneous in Job or his friends.
Poole: Job 3:25 - -- This is another reason why he is weary of his life, and why he repents that ever he was born, because he never enjoyed any solid and secure comfort....
This is another reason why he is weary of his life, and why he repents that ever he was born, because he never enjoyed any solid and secure comfort.
The thing which I greatly feared is come upon me . Heb. I feared a fear , (i.e. a danger or mischief in one kind or other, the act being here put for the object, as joy and love are oft put for the things rejoiced in, or loved, and here fear for the thing feared. Or, I feared with fear , i.e. I feared greatly ,) and it came . Even in the time of my peace and prosperity I was full of fears, considering the variety of God’ s providences, the course and changeableness of this vain world, the infirmities and contingencies of human nature and life, God’ s justice, and the sinfulness of all mankind. And these fears of mine were not vain, but are justified by my present calamities. So that I have never enjoyed any sound tranquillity since I was born; and therefore it hath not been worth my while to live, since all my days have been evil, and full of vexation and torment, either by the fear of miseries, or by the sufferance of them.

Poole: Job 3:26 - -- The three expressions note the same thing, which also was signified in the next foregoing verse, to wit, that even in his prosperous days he never w...
The three expressions note the same thing, which also was signified in the next foregoing verse, to wit, that even in his prosperous days he never was secure or at rest from the torment of fear and anxiety. Others, I did not misbehave myself in prosperity, abusing it by presumption, and security, and voluptuousness, whereby I might have provoked God thus to afflict me; but I lived soberly and circumspectly, walking humbly with God, and working out my salvation with fear and trembling, little expecting that God would be so fierce an enemy against me.
Yet trouble came Heb. and trouble came , as I feared it would. So between fear and calamity my whole life hath been miserable, and I had reason to repent of it.
Haydock: Job 3:25 - -- Fear. In prosperity he feared the assaults of pride. Now he is in danger of yielding to impatience and despair. (Calmet)
Fear. In prosperity he feared the assaults of pride. Now he is in danger of yielding to impatience and despair. (Calmet)

Haydock: Job 3:26 - -- Dissembled my sufferings, making no complaint, not only during the seven days that his friends had been with him, but long before. Hebrew and Septua...
Dissembled my sufferings, making no complaint, not only during the seven days that his friends had been with him, but long before. Hebrew and Septuagint, "I was not in safety, nor at rest; neither was I indolent: (Haydock; in the administration of affairs. Calmet) yet trouble came." (Haydock) ---
I have enjoyed no peace, since the wrath of the Lord has found me. (Calmet) ---
In such a situation, Job might well beg to be delivered, (Haydock) and to pray that those things which obstructed his repose in God might be removed; considering them not so much as the works of God, as the effects of sin. (Pineda) (Worthington) ---
In this light he cursed his birth-day, and will no longer look upon it as a joyful and happy day. (Du Hamel)
Gill: Job 3:25 - -- For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me,.... Some refer this to his fears about his children, lest they should sin and offend God, and br...
For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me,.... Some refer this to his fears about his children, lest they should sin and offend God, and bring down his judgments on them, and now what he feared was come to pass, Job 1:5; others take in all his sorrows and troubles; which, through the changeableness of the world, and the uncertainty of all things in it, and the various providences of God, he feared would come upon him at one time or another; and this he mentions to justify his expostulation, why light and life should be continued to such a man, who, by reason of his fear and anxiety of mind, never had any pleasure in his greatest prosperity, destruction from the Almighty being a terror to him; Job 31:23; but I think it is not reasonable to suppose that a man of Job's faith in God, and trust in him, should indulge such fears to such a degree; nor indeed that he could ever entertain such a thought in him, nor even surmise that such shocking calamities and distresses should come upon him as did: but this is to be understood not of his former life, in prosperity, but of the beginning of his afflictions; when he heard of the loss of one part of his substance, he was immediately possessed with a fear of losing another; and when he heard of that, he feared the loss of a third, and even of all; then of his children, and next of his health:
and that which I was afraid of is come unto me: which designs the same, in other words, or a new affliction; and particularly the ill opinion his friends had of him; he feared that through these uncommon afflictions he should be reckoned an ungodly man, an hypocrite; and as he feared, so it was; this he perceived by the silence of his friends, they not speaking one word of comfort to him; and by their looks at him, and the whole of their behaviour to him.

Gill: Job 3:26 - -- I was not in safety,.... This cannot refer to the time of his prosperity; for he certainly then was in safety, God having set an hedge about him, so t...
I was not in safety,.... This cannot refer to the time of his prosperity; for he certainly then was in safety, God having set an hedge about him, so that none of his enemies, nor even Satan himself, could come at him to hurt him:
neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; which also was not true of him before his afflictions, for he did then enjoy great peace, rest, and quietness; he lay in his nest at ease, and in great tranquillity; and thought and said he should die in such a state, see Job 29:18, &c. nor is the sense of these expressions, that he did not take up his rest and satisfaction in outward things, and put his trust and confidence in his riches, and yet trouble came upon him; but this relates to the time of the beginning of his troubles and afflictions, from which time he was not in safety, nor had any rest and peace; there was no intermission of his sorrows; but as soon as one affliction was over, another came:
yet trouble came; still one after another, there was no end of them; or, as Mr. Broughton renders it, "and now cometh a vexation"; a fresh one, a suspicion of hypocrisy; and upon this turns the whole controversy, managed and carried on between him and his friends in the following part of this book.

expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes: Job 3:25 The final verb is יָבֹא (yavo’, “has come”). It appears to be an imperfect, but since it is parallel t...

NET Notes: Job 3:26 The last clause simply has “and trouble came.” Job is essentially saying that since the trouble has come upon him there is not a moment of...
Geneva Bible: Job 3:25 For the thing which I greatly ( p ) feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.
( p ) In my prosperity I looked for a fal...

Geneva Bible: Job 3:26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; ( q ) yet trouble came.
( q ) The fear of troubles that would ensue, caused my prosperi...

expand allCommentary -- Verse Range Notes
TSK Synopsis -> Job 3:1-26
TSK Synopsis: Job 3:1-26 - --1 Job curses the day and services of his birth.13 The ease of death.20 He complains of life, because of his anguish.
MHCC -> Job 3:20-26
MHCC: Job 3:20-26 - --Job was like a man who had lost his way, and had no prospect of escape, or hope of better times. But surely he was in an ill frame for death when so u...
Matthew Henry -> Job 3:20-26
Matthew Henry: Job 3:20-26 - -- Job, finding it to no purpose to wish either that he had not been born or had died as soon as he was born, here complains that his life was now cont...
Keil-Delitzsch -> Job 3:24-26
Keil-Delitzsch: Job 3:24-26 - --
24 For instead of my food my sighing cometh,
And my roarings pour themselves forth as water.
25 For I fear something terrible, and it cometh upon ...
Constable -> Job 3:1-26; Job 3:20-26
Constable: Job 3:1-26 - --A. Job's Personal Lament ch. 3
The poetic body to the book begins with a soliloquy in which Job cursed t...
