Job 10 His life a burden; his complaint that he could not see the cause or end of God’s punishment: God delighteth not to oppress; nor was his innocence, though suspected by men, hid from God, Job 10:1–7.

So the sense is, My soul is weary of dwelling in this rotten and miserable carcass. Or, I am from my heart, or with my very soul, weary of my life; and therefore I may be excused if I complain. Or, My soul is cut off while I live, i.e. I am dead whilst I live; I am in a manner buried alive.

Do not condemn me; or, Pronounce me not to be a wicked man, as my friends do; neither deal with me as such, as I confess thou mightest do by thy sovereign power and in rigorous justice. O discover my integrity by removing this stroke, for which my friends so highly censure and condemn me.

Dost thou take any pleasure in it? Hast thou any advantage or honour by it? Dost thou think it right and just, and becoming the Ruler of the world? That thou shouldest oppress, by thy absolute and irresistible power, without any regard to that justice, and equity, and clemency by which thou usest…

Of flesh, i.e. of a man, who is called flesh, as Gen. 6:13, Isa. 40:6. Seest thou as man seeth? Man seeth outsides only, and judgeth by appearances, and is liable to many mistakes, and cannot search out secret faults without forcing men by cruel usage to accuse themselves: but thou needest none of…

Man’s time is short and uncertain, and therefore he must improve his time whilst he hath it, and diligently search out the crimes of malefactors, and punish them whilst he may, lest by death he lose the opportunity of doing justice, and the criminal get out of his power.

Keeping me so long as it were upon the rack to compel me to accuse myself, as men sometimes do.

I am not wicked, i.e. a hypocrite, or an ungodly man, as my friends account me; and therefore deal not with me as such. There is none that can deliver out of thine hand: the sense is, either, 1.

Together round about, i.e. all of me; all the faculties of my soul, and all the parts of my body, which are now overspread with sores and ulcers; I am wholly thy creature and workmanship, made by thee and for thee.

As the clay, i.e. of the clay; the note of similitude here expressing the truth of things, as it doth John 1:14, and elsewhere, as hath been before observed.

Thus he modestly and accurately describes God’s admirable work in making man out of a small and liquid, and as it were milky, substance, by degrees congealed and condensed into that exquisite frame of man’s body.

Clothed me, i.e. covered my inward and more noble parts; which, as philosophers and physicians observe, are first formed. So he proceeds in describing man’s formation gradually.

Thou didst not only give me a curious body, but also a living and a reasonable soul: thou didst at first give me life, and then maintain it in me; both when I was in the womb, (which is a marvellous work of God,) and afterward, when I was unable to do any thing to preserve my own life.

This place may be understood either, 1. Of Job’s present afflictions. So the sense is this, Yet in the midst of all those manifestations of thy grace and kindness to me, thou didst retain a secret purpose of changing thy course and carriage towards me, and of bringing these dreadful calamities upon…

If I commit the least sin, (as who is there that liveth, and sinneth not?) thou dost not wink at or pass by my sins, as thou usually dost other men’s, but dost severely and diligently observe them all, that thou mayst punish them: compare Job 14:16, Job 31:4.

If I be wicked, i.e. an ungodly hypocrite, as my friends esteem me, then I am truly and extremely, and must be eternally, miserable. Righteous, i.e. an upright and good man: so, whether good or bad, all comes to one; I have no relief.

As a fierce lion; which hunteth after his prey with great eagerness, and when he overtakes it, falls upon it with great fury. And again thou showest thyself marvellous upon me, Heb. and thou returnest and showest thyself marvellous upon, or in, or against me.

Thy witnesses, i.e. thy judgments, which are the witnesses and evidences, both of my sins, and of thy wrath. Thy indignation, i.e. my miseries, the effects of thine anger. These words are added to explain what he meant by renewing witnesses.

To wit, alive, i.e. that I had never been born alive.

I should have been, or, Oh that I had been! and so in the following branch, Oh that I had been carried! For why should not these verbs of the future tense be so rendered here, as that Job 10:18 is, the reason being wholly the same?

My life is short, and of itself hastens apace to an end; there is no need that thou shouldst push it forward, or grudge me some ease for so small a moment. Let me alone; or, lay aside, or remove, thy hand or anger from me.

To the place whence I shall not return into this world and life: see Job 7:9–10. Darkness and the shadow of death, i.e. a dark and dismal shade: See Poole “Job 3:5”.

A land of darkness; either in things, without any succession of day and night, winter and summer; or among persons, where great and small are in the same condition, Job 3:19.