O earth, cover not thou my blood - This is evidently an allusion to the murder of Abel, and the verse has been understood in two different ways:

1. Job here calls for justice against his destroyers. His blood is his life, which he considers as taken away by violence, and therefore calls for vengeance. Let my blood cry against my murderers, as the blood of Abel cried against Cain. My innocent life is taken away by violence, as his innocent life was; as therefore the earth was not permitted to cover his blood, so that his murderer should be concealed, let my death be avenged in the same way.

2. It has been supposed that the passage means that Job considered himself accused of shedding innocent blood; and, conscious of his own perfect innocence, he prays that the earth may not cover any blood shed by him. Thus Mr. Scott: -

"O earth, the blood accusing me reveal;

Its piercing voice in no recess conceal."

And this notion is followed by Mr. Good. But, with all deference to these learned men, I do not see that this meaning can be supported by the Hebrew text; nor was the passage so understood by any of the ancient versions. I therefore prefer the first sense, which is sufficiently natural, and quite in the manner of Job in his impassioned querulousness.

O earth

Jeremiah 22:29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

cover not

Genesis 4:11 And now are you cursed from the earth, which has opened her mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand;

Nehemiah 4:5 And cover not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from before you...

Isaiah 26:21 For, behold, the LORD comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity...

Ezekiel 24:7 For her blood is in the middle of her; she set it on the top of a rock; she poured it not on the ground, to cover it with dust;

let my cry

Job 27:9 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?

Psalm 66:18,19 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me...

Isaiah 1:15 And when you spread forth your hands, I will hide my eyes from you: yes, when you make many prayers, I will not hear...

Isaiah 58:9,10 Then shall you call, and the LORD shall answer; you shall cry, and he shall say, Here I am...

James 4:3,4 You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it on your lusts...

The Birth of Jesus Proclaimed by Angels to the Shepherds.
(Near Bethlehem, b.c. 5.) ^C Luke II. 8-20. ^c 8 And there were shepherds in the same country [they were in the same fields from which David had been called to tend God's Israel, or flock] abiding in the field, and keeping watch by night over their flock. [When the flock is too far from the village to lead it to the fold at night, these shepherds still so abide with it in the field, even in the dead of winter.] 9 And an angel of the Lord stood by them [He stood upon the earth at their side, and did …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel