“And now my soul is poured out within me; days of affliction have taken hold of me.
Job has spoken of his past greatness. Now he turns to his present misery, and describes how the suffering feels from the inside. The verse raises a question: what does a man do with his own soul when it drains away?
The picture in the verse
One writer walks through the scene Job paints, and then points out what Job never says:
Samuel RidoutHis soul is poured out, and days of suffering are his portion. The nights are no better, for the gnawing disease does not sleep as it bares his bones out of his very flesh. His clothing is no longer a decoration. It hangs on his wasted body, and his collar shows the poor bony neck. The whole scene is as vivid as a picture, and just as sickening. Job lays all this at God's door. It is His great power that has worn him away like this and laid his honour in the dust... Do we hear him taking counsel with his soul in this time of suffering? — "Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God" (Ps. 42:11). No; instead of encouraging himself in this way, he accuses his Maker.
Days that take hold
The second half of the verse uses the language of capture. One rendering of the Hebrew brings out that the days of pain have Job in their grip and will not let him go:
William KellyAnd now my soul pours itself out upon me; days of suffering hold me fast.
Pain and pride together
The pain in Job's body is not his only wound. One writer hears something else running through the whole chapter:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinHe had spoken of his past greatness and now he describes his present misery. Ah, the bitterness of it — those younger than I laugh at me! Sadly, through it all we hear nothing but pride. He scorns those who were so much beneath him. Then he describes his affliction: days of affliction have taken hold of him, and the pains that gnaw him take no rest.
Tracing the trouble to God
Job traces his suffering to God. One writer calls that instinct half right and half wrong:
Leslie M. GrantIt is good that he recognises this: whatever suffering he has, and whatever its source, God is the One who has allowed it. But Job ought to have realised that God would not allow it if it was not going to be of pure blessing to Job in the end. Later he did realise the truth of Romans 8:28: "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." But at that moment his disaster so overwhelmed him that he would not give God credit for being who He is.
Why the sorrow was not yet over
Job's sorrow was not over yet. One writer puts the reason in Job himself:
William KellyHe mourns over his terrible state. Up to now he could not stop saying that, in his view, God was treating him harshly and acting without reason. He could not understand His ways at all. He did not take in the motive God had — the gracious purpose. In short, he had not reached the end of the Lord, because he had not done with himself. That is the real secret of it.
The love behind the emptying
One writer describes the tenderness at work behind Job's sorrow, which Job could not yet see:
W. H. WestcottPoor Job. He little knew the tenderness of the heart that was leading him to sound the depths of his own mind.
Summary
- Poured out. Job's soul drains away and days of suffering are his portion; here he turns from past greatness to present misery.
- Poured where? Instead of taking counsel with his soul as the psalm does — "Hope in God" — he accuses his Maker.
- Pride under the pain. His bitterness is not only in the body. Younger men now laugh at him, and pride runs through all he says.
- The right instinct. Job is right to trace everything back to God's hand. But he will not credit God with the goodness behind it.
- The delay explained. He had not reached the end of the Lord because he had not yet done with himself. The tenderness leading him there was the one thing he could not see.