Job 3:18

[There] the prisoners rest together,.... "Are at ease", as Mr.

There the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor. There the prisoners rest - from their chains. Voice of the oppressor - driving them with threats to task work (cf. an instance, Exodus 5:13-19).

The prisoners rest together, i.e. one as well as another; they who were kept in the strongest chains and closest prisons, and condemned to the most hard and miserable slavery, rest as well as those who were captives in much better circumstances. Or, in like manner, ( as this word oft signifies,) as those oppressors and oppressed do. The oppressor, or, exacter, or taskmaster, who urgeth and forceth them by cruel threatenings and stripes to greater diligence in the works to which they are condemned. See 5:6,10,13. Job meddles not here with their eternal state after death, or the sentence and judgment of God against wicked men, of which he speaks hereafter; but only speaks of their freedom from worldly troubles, which is the only matter of his complaint and present discourse.

Job 3:18 [There] the prisoners rest together; they hear not the voice of the oppressor.Ver. 18. There the prisoners rest together] Or alike, as do their cruel creditors and hard taskmasters. There, that is, in the state of the dead, whether by land or sea, the prisoners, or bound persons, the miserable captives, rest; such as were those poor Christians, shut up so close (by Barbarossa, the Turkish general, returning toward Constantinople) under hatches among the excrements of nature, that all the way as he went almost every hour, some of them were cast dead over board. Such were many of the martyrs, kept fast shut up in Lollard’ s tower, in the bishop of London’ s coal house, a dark and ugly prison, said Mr Philpot, as any is about London; but I thank the Lord, I am not alone, but have six other faithful companions, who in our darkness do lightsomely sing psalms and praises to God for his great goodness, but especially for this, that I am so near the apprehension of eternal bliss. God forgive me mine unthankfulness and unworthiness of so great glory (Acts and Mon. 1669, 1670). What pitiful hard usage God’ s poor prisoners met with in the late troubles, at Oxford especially (from which death God graciously delivered me when I was in their hands) and in the western parts, see Mr Bonas’ Sermon called Job in the West, where he compareth the enemies’ cruelty to that of the American cannibals, who, when they take a prisoner, feed upon him alive, and by degrees, to the unutterable aggravation of his horror and torment. They hear not the voice of the oppressor] Their harsh and hard speeches, Judges 1:15, that were as a murdering weapon in the poor prisoner’ s bones, Psalms 42:10. Send me back to my frogs and toads again, where I may pray for your conversion, said one of the martyrs to his railing adversaries. Art thou come, thou villain? how darest thou look me in the face for shame? said Stephen Gardiner to Dr Taylor the martyr, who told him his own freely, but fairly: for the spirit of grace is nec mendax, nec mordax. neither lying nor deceitful. Est autem Satanae pectus faecundissimum convitiis, Moreover, there is in the heart of Satan most fruitful vice,saith Luther; the devil and his agents are bitter railers, fetching their words as far as hell, to break the hearts of God’ s prisoners, Psalms 69:20. But besides that they have their cordial of a good conscience by them, 2 Corinthians 1:12, in the grave they hear not the voice of the oppressor, nor the barkings of these dead dogs, any more.

(18) The oppressor.—As this is the word rendered taskmaster in Exodus, some have thought there may be an allusion to that history here.

Verse 18. The prisoners rest together] Those who were slaves, feeling all the troubles, and scarcely tasting any of the pleasures of life, are quiet in the grave together; and the voice of the oppressor, the hard, unrelenting task-master, which was more terrible than death, is heard no more. They are free from his exactions, and his mouth is silent in the dust. This may be a reference to the Egyptian bondage. The children of Israel cried by reason of their oppressors or task-masters.

18. the prisoners rest together] The “prisoners” are not those immured in prison, but captives driven to forced labour. the oppressor] The taskmaster, Exodus 3:7. The prisoners are there all together, and they hear not the voice, the shouts and curses of the driver ch. Job 39:7).

There the prisoners rest together - Herder translates this, “There the prisoners rejoice in their freedom.” The Septuagint strangely enough, “There they of old (ὁαἰώνιοι hoi aiōnioi) assembled

18. Rest — ωׁ ?ΰππε, an intensive form of the verb, expressive of deep and abiding rest. The oppressor — πβωׂ, taskmaster. The same word appears in Exodus 5:6.