Job 16:11

11 God hath closed me together at the wicked, and hath given me to the hands of wicked men. (God hath enclosed me with the wicked, and hath given me into the hands of the wicked.)

Job 16:11 Meaning and Commentary

Job 16:11

God hath delivered me up to the ungodly
The evil or wicked one, for it is in the singular number; and designs either Satan, into whose hands God had not only delivered his substance, but his person, excepting his life; though it may be, and which is an objection to this sense, Job as yet knew it not; or else Eliphaz, or, the singular number being put for the plural, as the next clause explains it, all his friends, whom he in turn calls evil and wicked men, because of their treatment of him; or else the Sabeans and Chaldeans are intended, who were suffered to plunder him of his substance; the words are very applicable to Christ, who was delivered to the Gentiles, and into the hands of sinners and wicked men, and that by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, who with wicked hands took him, and crucified him, ( Matthew 20:19 ) ( 26:45 ) ( Acts 2:23 ) ; or God "shut [him] up", or "delivered [him] bound" F4, as the word signifies; which was literally true of Christ, who was bound by the Jews, and delivered first to the high priest, and then to the Roman governor, in such circumstances, ( John 18:12 John 18:13 ) ( Matthew 27:2 ) ;

and turned me over into the hands of the wicked;
signifying the same as before, unless it should be rendered, "and caused me to decline", or "come down by the hands of the wicked" F5 that is, from his former state of prosperity and happiness, into the low circumstances in which he was, and which he was brought into by the means of wicked men, God suffering it so to be.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 (ynrygoy) "vinctum me tradidit", Grotius, Michaelis, Schultens.
F5 (ynjry) "divertere fecit a vita", Pagninus; "declinare me facit", Beza, Drusius, Mercerus.

Job 16:11 In-Context

9 He gathered together his strong vengeance in me, and he menaced me, and he gnashed against me with his teeth; mine enemy hath beheld me with fearedful eyes. (He gathered together his strong vengeance against me, and he threatened me, and he gnashed against me with his teeth; my enemy hath looked at me with eyes full of hatred.)
10 They opened their mouths upon me, and they said shame to me, and they smote my cheek; and they be filled with my pains (and they gathered themselves together against me).
11 God hath closed me together at the wicked, and hath given me to the hands of wicked men. (God hath enclosed me with the wicked, and hath given me into the hands of the wicked.)
12 I, that rich man and famous sometime, am all-broken suddenly; he held my noll; he hath broken me, and hath set me as into a sign. (I, that rich and sometimes famous man, am suddenly all-broken; he held me by the neck; he hath altogether broken me, and hath set me up like a target.)
13 And he hath (en)compassed me with his spears, he hath wounded altogether my loins; he hath not spared me, and he hath shed out mine entrails into the earth. (And he hath surrounded me with his spears, he hath deeply wounded my loins; he hath not spared me, and he hath poured out my bowels upon the ground.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.