Job 3

14. With kings . . . which built desolate places for themselves--who built up for themselves what proved to be (not palaces, but) ruins! The wounded spirit of Job, once a great emir himself, sick of the vain struggles of mortal great men, after grandeur, contemplates the palaces of kings, now desolate heaps of ruins. His regarding the repose of death the most desirable end of the great ones of earth, wearied with heaping up perishable treasures, marks the irony that breaks out from the black clouds of melancholy [UMBREIT]. The "for themselves" marks their selfishness. MICHAELIS explains it weakly of mausoleums, such as are found still, of stupendous proportions, in the ruins of Petra of Idumea.

15. filled their houses with silver--Some take this to refer to the treasures which the ancients used to bury with their dead. But see Job 3:26 .

16. untimely birth--( Psalms 58:8 ); preferable to the life of the restless miser ( Ecclesiastes 6:3-5 ).

17. the wicked--the original meaning, "those ever restless," "full of desires" ( Isaiah 57:20 Isaiah 57:21 ).
the weary--literally, "those whose strength is wearied out" ( Revelation 14:13 ).

18. There the prisoners rest--from their chains.

19. servant--The slave is there manumitted from slavery.

Job 3:20-26 . HE COMPLAINS OF LIFE BECAUSE OF HIS ANGUISH.

20. Wherefore giveth he light--namely, God; often omitted reverentially ( Job 24:23 , Ecclesiastes 9:9 ). Light, that is, life. The joyful light ill suits the mourners. The grave is most in unison with their feelings.

23. whose way is hid--The picture of Job is drawn from a wanderer who has lost his way, and who is hedged in, so as to have no exit of escape ( Hosea 2:6 , Lamentations 3:7 Lamentations 3:9 ).

24. my sighing cometh before I eat--that is, prevents my eating [UMBREIT]; or, conscious that the effort to eat brought on the disease, Job must sigh before eating [ROSENMULLER]; or, sighing takes the place of good ( Psalms 42:3 ) [GOOD]. But the first explanation accords best with the text.
my roarings are poured out like the waters--an image from the rushing sound of water streaming.

25. the thing which I . . . feared is come upon me--In the beginning of his trials, when he heard of the loss of one blessing, he feared the loss of another; and when he heard of the loss of that, he feared the loss of a third.
that which I was afraid of is come unto me--namely, the ill opinion of his friends, as though he were a hypocrite on account of his trials.

26. I was not in safety . . . yet trouble came--referring, not to his former state, but to the beginning of his troubles. From that time I had no rest, there was no intermission of sorrows. "And" (not, "yet") a fresh trouble is coming, namely, my friends' suspicion of my being a hypocrite. This gives the starting-point to the whole ensuing controversy.