Ishodad of Merv
Medieval · AD 800–1500 · 173 passages across 12 books
Commentary
Job 19:16-19
I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
“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.
Job 20:11-14
His bones are full of the sin of his youth, which shall lie down with him in the dust.
“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.
Job 21:34
How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?
“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.
Job 22:15-20
Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden?
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.”
Job 24:6-8
They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.
“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].
Job 26:10
He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end.
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.
Job 27:5-7
God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
“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.
Job 28:5
As for the earth, out of it cometh bread: and under it is turned up as it were fire.
“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.”
Job 29:18-19
Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
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.”
Job 30:5-8
They were driven forth from among men, (they cried after them as after a thief;)
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.
Job 31:27-28
And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:
“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.
Job 32:7-9
I said, Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.
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.
Job 33:17-18
That he may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.
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.
Job 34:21-26
For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.
“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.
Job 35:8
Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
“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.
Job 36:32-33
With clouds he covereth the light; and commandeth it not to shine by the cloud that cometh betwixt.
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.
Job 37:2-4
Hear attentively the noise of his voice, and the sound that goeth out of his mouth.
[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.
Job 38:8-9
Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?
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.
Job 38:36
Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
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?
Job 40:15
Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
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.