Ishodad of Merv

Medieval · AD 800–1500

173 passages across 12 books of the Bible · Who was this?

Commentary

20 of 173
  1. Job 19:16-19
    “When I rise, they speak against me.” Like a target, Job says, I rise before them, and they will spit upon me all the words of abuse that they want to say.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 19:18

  2. Job 20:11-14
    “Their bones are full of marrow and will lie down in the dust with them.” By the “marrow” that is inside the bones, the author signifies prosperity. That is, from his former prosperity he will pass to a profound abasement, so that he will not be inferior to the dead.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 20:11

  3. Job 21:34
    “There is nothing left of your answers but emptiness,” that is, you, he says, have brought me suffering and torments instead of consolation; and what I gain from speaking a great deal is only emptiness. Your answers, he says, are vanity to me.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 21:34

  4. Job 22:15-20
    These words mean, “You imitate the actions of the ancestors.” [The author] is alluding to the Cainites, those who lived at the time of the deluge, to the Sodomites, etc.; these are those whom he calls “the way of the world.”

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 22:15

  5. Job 24:6-8
    “They reap in a field not their own” … as wild asses tread underfoot the fields of others and browse on their grass, so the impious, with their impudent violence, reap in fields that are not theirs and steal them from their owners. “They glean in the vineyard of the wicked.” This means it is not enough for the wicked to steal from the poor, who have worked without a wage in the fields from the beginning to the end, [but also from the rich].

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 24:6

  6. Job 26:10
    So God has gathered the waters that were spread on earth at the beginning and has imposed a limit on them. His command has surrounded them like a circle, so that they might not exceed it. He has set a “boundary between light and darkness.” This means that he has ordered the light and the darkness to occupy their given times in good harmony and not to prevail on one another.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 26:10

  7. Job 27:5-7
    “My heart does not reproach me for any of my days.” Job has no resentment in himself, and his conscience does not reproach him for any shameful act that he might have committed.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 27:6

  8. Job 28:5
    “They have uncovered the earth, from which nourishment comes,” through the art of agriculture, [the author] says; [humans] produce what is necessary for nourishment which the earth offers according to the divine precept by which it received. Therefore, as the fire takes hold of the wood, so the earth acts in the same manner when the seeds are scattered on it; they drive their roots in it, and thanks to the power that they receive from it, they spring up. This is the meaning of the words “underneath it is turned up as by fire.”

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 28:5

  9. Job 29:18-19
    The words “I shall be perfected like the reeds,” that is, I will end my days [by becoming full] of riches, by germinating and growing like the palm tree and the reeds and the [vegetables] planted along the edge of water. Henana says, “As the reeds spring up and reach a great height in a short time, so I shall be completed and perfected.”

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 29:18

  10. Job 30:5-8
    The words “under the rocks and the thorny bushes,” that is, those, who are on the prowl in the mountains and the deserts, live on the fruits of thorny bushes because of their destitution.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 30:6-7

  11. Job 31:27-28
    “My mouth has kissed my hand” … is said in analogy with those who have the habit to bring their hands [to their mouth] and to kiss [them] when they meet people who are dear to them.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 31:27

  12. Job 32:7-9
    The words “but truly it is the spirit in mortals,” [indicate] a rational soul. The words “the breath of the Almighty that makes them intelligent,” [indicate] that if we need to find a superior wisdom in human beings, we will recognize it in those who have received the virtue from God.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 32:8

  13. Job 33:17-18
    The words “that he may turn them aside from their deeds” means this: by way of those [dreams and visions] God keeps people from shameful actions. The words “he covers the body of man” [mean] sometimes he brings on righteous diseases and pains as well, in order to preserve him in this manner from the punishment of perdition.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 33:17

  14. Job 34:21-26
    “For he has not appointed a time for anyone to go before God in judgment,” that is, recognize the power of God and do not consider him as a man, and do not desire to be with him in judgment, as he brings afflictions to many criminals as their punishment but makes the righteous prosper and increase instead of them.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 34:23

  15. Job 35:8
    “Your wickedness affects others like you.” If one asks, “Why does God judge [the wicked] if their sin does not harm him personally?” [the author] brings forward the reason and says, “Because of the multitude of oppressions people cry out; they call for help.” It is not for him, he says, that the [impious] are punished, but because of those who are oppressed and robbed and cry out to him, so that he may take revenge on those who compel them to suffer afflictions.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 35:8

  16. Job 36:32-33
    The words, “He will cover the light with his hands” [mean] that when he wants to make the rain fall for the sake of earth, he condenses the air as if with his hands and covers the sun with clouds. And the words “he will go toward them so that they may come to meet him” [mean] that in the same instant in which his command goes to his works, they promptly come to meet him, that is, the performance instantly follows the command.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 36:32

  17. Job 37:2-4
    [By] the words “the judgment that comes from his mouth; under the whole heaven he will be praised,” [the author] speaks about the thunder that is produced in the instant itself, in which punishment is inflicted on sinners; it is heard everywhere and everyone who hears it praises God.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 37:2

  18. Job 38:8-9
    The sea is like a baby who gets out after being fashioned in the womb and is wrapped in clothes of wool. After bringing it into existence from nothing, God gathers the sea together from the place where it was and delimits, shuts and encircles it in the womb of the earth.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 38:8

  19. Job 38:36
    The words “Who has put wisdom in the inwards parts?” means who else [but God] has secretly put the wisdom of reason in the souls of mortals?

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 38:36

  20. Job 40:15
    The Behemoth is a dragon without equal. The Interpreter calls it “an imaginary dragon” that the author [of the book of Job] has poetically invented by himself. He has reported many statements in the name of Job, of his friends and in the name of God himself that are not appropriate to them, that appear to be unlikely. In the whole creation, he says, there is no animal that is unique and not male or female, because all animals have been created in pairs. On the other hand, those who assert that this book was written by the divine Moses maintain the reality of the Behemoth. It is a figure of Satan, they say, and as this animal destroys everything it sees, so Satan does the same thing secretly, and therefore it has been made Satan’s accomplice in crime. Both in its name and in its action it is the figure of Satan, because, according to the sense of the word, Behemoth means “through it death,” that is, death has entered among people through it. But the Jews assert that it is an ox, and, some day they will eat it and the Leviathan as well when they come back.

    COMMENTARY ON JOB 40:10(15)

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