Job 16:12

12 I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized [me] by the scruff of the neck and smashed me to pieces. He set me up as His target;[a]

Job 16:12 Meaning and Commentary

Job 16:12

I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder
He was in easy and affluent circumstances, abounding with the good things of this life, lay in his nest, as his expression is, ( Job 29:18 ) ; quietly and peaceably, where he expected he should have died; and he was easy in his mind, had peace of conscience, being a good man that feared God, and trusted in his living Redeemer, enjoying the presence of God, the light of his countenance, and the discoveries of his love, see ( Job 39:2-5 ) ; but now he was broken to pieces, he was stripped of his worldly substance; his family was broken up, and not a child left him; his body broken, and full of ruptures through boils and ulcers; and his spirits were broken with his afflictions, and a sense of divine displeasure; the arrows of God's wrath, in his apprehension, stuck in him, and the poison thereof drank up his spirits. Mr. Broughton renders it, "I was wealthy, [and] he hath undone me"; though once so opulent, he was now broken, and become a bankrupt. It may be applied to Christ, his antitype, who, though rich, became poor to make his people rich, ( 2 Corinthians 8:9 ) ; and whose body was broken for them; and he was wounded and bruised for their transgressions, and whose heart was broken with reproach:

he hath also taken me by the neck, and shaken me to pieces;
as a combatant in wrestling, who is stronger than his antagonist, uses him; or as a giant, who takes a dwarf by his neck or collar, and shakes him, as if he would shake him to pieces, limb from limb; or "hath dashed" or "broken me to pieces" F6; or to shivers; as glass or earthen vessels dashed against a wall, or struck with a hammer, fly into a thousand pieces, can never be put together again; so Job reckoned of his state and condition as irrecoverable, that his health, his substance, his family, could never be restored as they had been:

and set me up for his mark;
to shoot at, of which he complains ( Job 7:20 ) ; a like expression is used by the church in ( Lamentations 3:12 Lamentations 3:13 ) ; and a phrase similar to this is used of Christ, ( Luke 2:34 ) ; and in consequence of this are what follow.


FOOTNOTES:

F6 (ynupupy) "confregit me", V. L. Pagninus; "minutatim confregit me", Tigurine version; so Schultens, Jarchi, & Ben Gersom.

Job 16:12 In-Context

10 They open their mouths against me and strike my cheeks with contempt; they join themselves together against me.
11 God hands me over to unjust men; He throws me into the hands of the wicked.
12 I was at ease, but He shattered me; He seized [me] by the scruff of the neck and smashed me to pieces. He set me up as His target;
13 His archers surround me. He pierces my kidneys without mercy and pours my bile on the ground.
14 He breaks through my defenses again and again; He charges at me like a warrior.

Footnotes 1

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