Job 30:27

My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) My bowels boiled.—The sense is better expressed by the present, “My bowels boil, and rest not. Days of affliction have overtaken me unawares.” (See last verse.)

Benson Commentary

Job 30:27-28. My bowels boiled — Namely, with the violence of my disorder; and rested not — Hebrew,ולא דמו, velo damu, and were not silent. The days of affliction prevented me — Came upon me suddenly and unexpectedly, when I promised myself peace and prosperity. I went mourning without the sun — Hebrew, קדר הלכתי, koder hillacti, I walked black, not by the sun. My very countenance became black, but not by the sun, which makes many other persons black, but by the force of my disease. I stood up, I cried in the congregation — I was not able to lie still, nor to refrain from cries in the greatest assemblies.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

30:15-31 Job complains a great deal. Harbouring hard thoughts of God was the sin which did, at this time, most easily beset Job. When inward temptations join with outward calamities, the soul is hurried as in a tempest, and is filled with confusion. But woe be to those who really have God for an enemy! Compared with the awful state of ungodly men, what are all outward, or even inward temporal afflictions? There is something with which Job comforts himself, yet it is but a little. He foresees that death will be the end of all his troubles. God's wrath might bring him to death; but his soul would be safe and happy in the world of spirits. If none pity us, yet our God, who corrects, pities us, even as a father pitieth his own children. And let us look more to the things of eternity: then the believer will cease from mourning, and joyfully praise redeeming love.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My bowels boiled - Or rather, My bowels boil - for he refers to his present circumstances, and not to the past. It is clear that by this phrase he designs to describe deep affliction. The bowels, in the Scriptures, are represented as the seat of the affections. By this is meant the upper bowels, or the region of the heart and the lungs. The reason is, that deep emotions of the mind are felt there. The heart beats quick; or it is heavy and pained; or it seems to melt within us in the exercise of pity or compassion; compare the notes at Isaiah 16:11. The idea here is, that the seat of sorrow and of grief was affected by his calamities. Nor was the feeling slight. His emotions he compared with agitated, boiling water. It is possible that there is an allusion here to the inflammatory nature of his disease, producing internal heat and pain; but it is more probable that he refers to the mental anguish which he endured.

The days of affliction prevented me - literally, "have anticipated me" - for so the word prevent was formerly used, and so it is uniformly used in the Bible; see the notes at Job 3:12; compare Psalm 59:10; lxxix. 8; Psalm 88:13; Psalm 119:148; 1 Thessalonians 4:15. There is in the Hebrew word (קדם qâdam) the idea that days of anguish came in an unexpected manner, or that they anticipated the fulfillment of his plans. All his schemes and hopes of life had been anticipated by these overwhelming sorrows.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27. bowels—regarded as the seat of deep feeling (Isa 16:11).

boiled—violently heated and agitated.

prevented—Old English for "unexpectedly came upon" me, "surprised" me.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

My inward parts boiled without ceasing. The bowels are the seat of passion and of compassion; and therefore this may be understood, either,

1. Of his compassionate and deep sense of others’ miseries; which is oft expressed by bowels, as Isaiah 16:11 Colossians 3:12, and elsewhere, of which he spoke Job 30:25, to which he subjoins the contrary usage which he met with, Job 30:26. And then, in this first part of Job 30:27, he renews the mention of his compassion to others, and in the latter part he adds, by way of antithesis or opposition, that his mercy was requited with cruel afflictions. Or,

2. Of the grievousness of his troubles, which is sometimes expressed by the troubling or boiling of the bowels, or inward parts; as Lamentations 1:20.

Prevented me, i.e. came upon me suddenly and unexpectedly, when I promised to myself peace and prosperity, as the usual recompence which God promiseth and giveth to such as fear and please him, as I have done.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

My bowels boiled, and rested not,.... All contained within him, his heart, lungs, and liver, in a literal sense, through a violent fever burning within him; or figuratively, being under great distress and trouble, by reason of his afflictions, outward and inward, see Jeremiah 4:19;

the days of affliction prevented me; came sooner upon him than he thought; he did not expect the evil days to come, and the years draw nigh in which he should have no pleasure, until he was more advanced in years, and the time of his dissolution was at hand; they came at once, and unawares, upon him, when he looked not for them: some render the word "met me" (o), unexpectedly; or rather, they "rushed upon me" (p), in an hostile way; came in troops, and invaded and surrounded him, see Job 19:12.

(o) "occurrerunt mihi", Piscator, Cocceius. (p) "Incursarunt me", Schultens.

Geneva Study Bible

My bowels boiled, and rested not: the days of affliction prevented me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

27. My bowels boiled] Rather, boil.

prevented me] i. e. are come before me, have overtaken me. The bowels are the seat of feeling; and the words “my bowels boil” describe the tumult of feelings, griefs, regrets and pains, that worked within him.

27–30. Further details of his sufferings in his time of affliction. The tenses should be put in the present.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - My bowels boiled, and rested not; rather, boil and rest not (see the Revised Version). It is his present condition of which Job speaks from ver. 27 to ver. 31. His "entrails," i.e. his whole innermost nature, is disturbed, tormented, thrown into confusion. The days of affliction prevented me; rather, are come upon me (comp. ver. 16). Job 30:27

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The further progress of the thoughts seems to be well carried out only by our rendering of Job 30:24. The manifestation of feeling - Job means to say - which he himself felt at the misfortune of others, will be still permitted to him in his own misfortune, the seeking of compassion from the sympathising: or have I not wept for the hard of day? i.e., him whose lot in life is hard (comp. Arab. qası̂y, durus, miser); did not my soul grieve for the needy? Here, also, לא from Job 30:25 continues its effect (comp. Job 3:10; Job 28:17); עגם is ἅπ. γεγρ., of like signification with אגם, whence אגם Isaiah 19:10, אגמה (sadness) b. Mod katan 14b, Arab. agima, to feel disgust. If the relation of Job 30:25 to Job 30:24 is confirmatory, Job 30:26 and what follows refers directly to Job 30:24 : he who felt sympathy with the sufferings of others will nevertheless dare in his own affliction to stretch out his hand for help in the face of certain ruin, and pour forth his pain in lamentation; for his affliction is in reality inexpressibly great: he hoped for good (for the future from his prosperous condition, in which he rejoiced),

(Note: lxx Aldina: ἐγὼ δὲ ἀπέχων ἀγαθοῖς, which Zwingli rightly corrects ἐπέχων (Codd. Vat., Alex., and Sinait.).)

then came evil; and if I waited for light, deep darkness came. Ewald (232, h) regards ואיחלה as contracted from ואיחלה, but this shortening of the vowel is a pure impossibility. The former signifies rather καὶ ἤλπιζον or ἐβουλόμην ἐλπίζειν, the latter καὶ ἤλπισα, and that cohortative fut. logically forms a hypothetical antecedent, exactly like Job 19:18, if I desire to rise (אקומה), they speak against me (vid., Ew. 357, b). In feverish heat and anxiety his bowels were set boiling (רתח as Job 41:23, comp. Talmud. רתחן, a hot-headed fellow), and rested not (from this boiling). The accentuation Tarcha, Mercha, and Athnach is here incorrect; instead of Athnach, Rebia mugrasch is required. Days of affliction came upon him (קדּם as Psalm 18:6), viz., as a hostile power cutting off the previous way of his prosperity.