Job 3:23

Why is light given to a man whose way is hid,.... Some of the Jewish writers connect this with Job 3:22, thus; "who rejoice [and] are glad when they find a grave for a man", c.

Why is light given to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in? Whose way is hid.

Why is light given? these words are conveniently supplied out of , where they are, all the following words hitherto being joined in construction and sense with them. Whose way is hid, to wit, from him who knows not his way, i.e. which way to turn himself, what course to take to comfort himself in his miseries, or to get out of them; what method to use to please and reconcile that God who is so angry with him, seeing his sincere and exact piety, to which God is witness, doth not satisfy him; or what the end of these calamities will be. Whom God hath hedged in; not with a hedge of defence, like that , but of offence and restraint, i.e. whom God hath put as it were in prison or pound, or like cattle in grounds enclosed with a high and strong hedge, over or through which they cannot get; so that he can see no way nor possibility to escape, but all refuge fails him.

Job 3:23 [Why is light given] to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?Ver. 23. Why is light given to a man whose way is hid?] i.e. Why is the light of life continued to him who is in a maze or labyrinth of miseries, whereof he can see no cause, and whereout he can descry no issue? no hope at all appeareth of ever either mending or ending. Therefore Vale lumen amicum, as he in St Jerome said, Sweet light, adieu; Quin morere ut merita es, as she in the poet, Be thine own death’ s man. Seneca counts it a mercy to a man in misery that he may, by commiting suicide, let out his life when he will; and this he calls valour and manhood. But we have not so learned Christ, neither may we leave our station till called for by our Captain, but must stand to our arms, and, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, suffer hardship, 2 Timothy 2:4. His word to us is the same as the king’ s was to his son, the Black Prince, Either vanquish or die (Speed.); and as she in the story said to her son when she gave him his target, See that thou either bring this back with thee, or else be thou brought back dead upon it out of the battle, τανηεπιταν. It troubled Job that he could not see his way, and that God had hedged him in, viz. with a thorn hedge of afflictions, Lamentations 3:7; Lamentations 3:9 Hosea 2:6, so that he could find no way out. But what if he could not, nor any man alive? yet the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, 2 Peter 2:9. He hath his way in the whirlwind, and his judgments are a great deep, Psalms 36:6. Sometimes secret they are, but ever just. Surely it had been more meet for Job to have said unto God, "That which I see not, teach thou me," Job 34:32. "Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have I waited for thee; the desire of my soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee," Isaiah 26:8.

(23) Hedged in.—The same expression was used in an opposite sense in Job 1:10.

Verse 23. To a man whose way is hid] Who knows not what is before him in either world, but is full of fears and trembling concerning both. God hath hedged in?] Leaving him no way to escape; and not permitting him to see one step before him. There is an exact parallel to this passage in Lamentations 3:7; Lamentations 3:9: He hath hedged me about that I cannot get out. He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone. Mr. Good translates the verse thus: To the man whose path is broken up, and whose futurity God hath overwhelmed. But I cannot see any necessity for departing from the common text, which gives both an easy and a natural sense.

23. whose way is hid] Job now narrows his view from the general sorrows of mankind to himself. His way is hid or lost, the clear path of his former life has suddenly broken off, or as the second clause of the verse expresses it, has been shut in by a hedge, set by God across it. The reference is not merely to his physical calamities, but much more to the speculative and religious perplexities which his calamities wove about his mind, and from which he can find no outlet, cf. Job 19:8.

Why is light given “to a man uhose way is hid?” That is, who does not know what way to take, and who sees no escape from the misery that surrounds him. Whom God hath hedged in - See Notes, Job 1:10.

b. By making an application to himself of the preceding monody, Job brings his generalization to an end, Job 3:23-26.23. To a man — Job means himself, as is seen in the following verse. The antecedent is in Job 3:20.