Job 3:24

24 Before I eat I sigh: and as overflowing waters, so is my roaring:

Job 3:24 Meaning and Commentary

Job 3:24

For my sighing cometh before I eat
Or, "before my bread", or "food" F7; before he sat down to eat, or had tasted of his food, there were nothing but sighing and sobbing, so that he had no appetite for his food, and could take no delight in it; and, while he was eating, his tears mingled with it, so that these were his meat and his drink continually, and he was fed with the bread and water of affliction; and therefore what were light and life to such a person, who could not have the pleasure of one comfortable meal?

and my roarings are poured out like the waters;
he not only wept privately and in secret, and cried more publicly both to God and in the presence of men, but such was the force and weight of his affliction, that he even roared out, and that like a lion; and his afflictions, which were the cause of these roarings, are compared to waters and the pouring of them out; for the noise these waterspouts made, and for the great abundance of them, and for their quick and frequent returns, and long continuance, one wave and billow rolling upon another.


FOOTNOTES:

F7 (ymxl ynpl) "ante cibum meum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "ante panem meum", Cocceius, Schmidt, Michaelis.

Job 3:24 In-Context

22 And they rejoice exceedingly when they have found the grave?
23 To a man whose way is hidden, and God hath surrounded him with darkness?
24 Before I eat I sigh: and as overflowing waters, so is my roaring:
25 For the fear which I feared, hath come upon me: and that which I was afraid of, hath befallen me.
26 Have I not dissembled? have I not kept silence? have I not been quiet? and indignation is come upon me.
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