Which rejoice exceedingly, and are glad, when they can find the grave?
Job belongs to the oldest book written, composed in Midian in ancient wording found in no other part of Scripture. The word for grave is a burial place, literally a cavern or place of covering, and denotes the grave itself rather than the common state of death shared by all the dead. The verse stands in the early affliction of Job, after trials that did not shake his faith, within the discussion between Job and his three friends in chapters 3-31 about the cause and purpose of human suffering.
Job speaks it while regretting his birth and imagining the rest he would have had if laid in the grave, led almost to despair by perplexing and unrelenting pain from his boils and still more by the talk of his friends. He speaks while knowing his own integrity yet unable to understand God's dealings with him, without foolishly accusing God. It is also an expression of despair and rebellion in which people are described as rejoicing greatly when they find the grave, showing that even one held up as a model of patience had a heart deeply disturbed by severe trouble.
The exceeding joy and gladness in finding the grave is because the grave is rest, where the wicked stop causing trouble, the weary are at rest, and its prisoners rest together unaware of the oppressor, lying still and quiet in sleep. The dead are therefore not alive and active in heaven, but silent in ear and heart in the grave. The verse raises the enduring human problems of overruling providence and of sin and suffering, teaching how God deals with His children while people misunderstand His purposes.
God was disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction, seeing the end from the beginning and working through it what would glorify Himself, bless Job, give comfort and hope to thousands of sufferers, and benefit those who would live afterward. The friends insisted that Job's sufferings were because of sin, treating prosperity as proof of divine favor and accusing him of secret and other sins, and humanity remains prone to misjudge fellow sufferers in the same way.
Job belongs to the oldest book written, composed in Midian in ancient wording found in no other part of Scripture. The word for grave is a burial place, literally a cavern or place of covering, and denotes the grave itself rather than the common state of death shared by all the dead. The verse stands in the early affliction of Job, after trials that did not shake his faith, within the discussion between Job and his three friends in chapters 3-31 about the cause and purpose of human suffering.
Job speaks it while regretting his birth and imagining the rest he would have had if laid in the grave, led almost to despair by perplexing and unrelenting pain from his boils and still more by the talk of his friends. He speaks while knowing his own integrity yet unable to understand God's dealings with him, without foolishly accusing God. It is also an expression of despair and rebellion in which people are described as rejoicing greatly when they find the grave, showing that even one held up as a model of patience had a heart deeply disturbed by severe trouble.
The exceeding joy and gladness in finding the grave is because the grave is rest, where the wicked stop causing trouble, the weary are at rest, and its prisoners rest together unaware of the oppressor, lying still and quiet in sleep. The dead are therefore not alive and active in heaven, but silent in ear and heart in the grave. The verse raises the enduring human problems of overruling providence and of sin and suffering, teaching how God deals with His children while people misunderstand His purposes.
God was disciplining Job and bringing him through the fire of affliction, seeing the end from the beginning and working through it what would glorify Himself, bless Job, give comfort and hope to thousands of sufferers, and benefit those who would live afterward. The friends insisted that Job's sufferings were because of sin, treating prosperity as proof of divine favor and accusing him of secret and other sins, and humanity remains prone to misjudge fellow sufferers in the same way.