Clarke's Bible Commentary - Job 16:22
Verse 22. When a few years are come ] I prefer Mr. Good's version: - "But the years numbered to me are come. And I must go the way whence I shall not return." Job could not, in his present circumstances, expect a few years of longer life; from his own conviction he was expecting death every hour. The next verse, the first of the following chapter, should come in here: My breath is corrupt, &c. - He felt himself as in the arms of death: he saw the grave as already digged which was to receive his dead body. This verse shows that our translation of the twenty-second verse is improper, and vindicates Mr. Good's version. I HAVE said on ver. 9 that a part of Job's sufferings probably arose from appalling representations made to his eye or to his imagination by Satan and his agents. I think this neither irrational nor improbable. That he and his demons have power to make themselves manifest on especial occasions, has been credited in all ages of the world; not by the weak, credulous, and superstitious only, but also by the wisest, the most learned, and the best of men. I am persuaded that many passages in the Book of Job refer to this, and admit of an easy interpretation on this ground.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 17-22 - Job's condition was very deplorable; but he had the testimony of his conscience for him, that he never allowed himself in any gross sin. N one was ever more ready to acknowledge sins of infirmity. Eliphaz ha charged him with hypocrisy in religion, but he specifies prayer, the great act of religion, and professes that in this he was pure, thoug not from all infirmity. He had a God to go to, who he doubted not too full notice of all his sorrows. Those who pour out tears before God though they cannot plead for themselves, by reason of their defects have a Friend to plead for them, even the Son of man, and on him we must ground all our hopes of acceptance with God. To die, is to go the way whence we shall not return. We must all of us, very certainly, an very shortly, go this journey. Should not then the Saviour be preciou to our souls? And ought we not to be ready to obey and to suffer for his sake? If our consciences are sprinkled with his atoning blood, an testify that we are not living in sin or hypocrisy, when we go the way whence we shall not return, it will be a release from prison, and a entrance into everlasting happiness __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
כי 3588 שׁנות 8141 מספר 4557 יאתיו 857 וארח 734 לא 3808 אשׁוב 7725 אהלך׃ 1980
