Job 16:14

Job 16:14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.

Ver. 14. He breaketh me with breach upon breach] So that I have hardly any breathing while, Quis tot et tantis ferendis simul par sit? Let no man henceforth say, Never did any one suffer such hard and heavy things as I do. What! did not Job? This story of his is a case book to answer such an objection, since never any before nor since his time was so handled; witness the lamentable moan he maketh here, Non habet in nobis iam nova plaga locum. And yet to show his equanimity under the hand of God, Buxtorf and Amama have observed, that the Hebrew word, Perets, in this text rendered breath, hath a letter lesser than ordinary in the best copies, to signify that Job’s great calamities seemed to him to be but little, because he hoped that God would turn them all to the best unto his soul.

He runneth upon me like a giant] With speed, strength, and courage, fiercely and fearlessly. But now what doth Job? doth he stand stouting and sturdying it out with God? No, but in the next words he telleth us how be was affected with these afflictions; sc. that as God’s hand was heavy upon him, so he held out all the demonstrations and emblems of a heavy heart; and as God had laid him low, so be carried his soul accordingly. God reined him with a rough bit, and he repented.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16:14 Again and again he smashes against me: Job pictures himself as a fortress that God is besieging. Job saw God as a warrior (cp. Exod 15:3; Ps 24:8) who did not defend him or offer him salvation (Jer 20:11; Zeph 3:17) but attacked him as though he were dangerous (Job 6:12; see Isa 42:13).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The image is from storming a fortress by making breaches in the walls (Kg2 14:13).

a giant--a mighty warrior.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

14. Another figure, that of an edifice or fort overthrown by repeated breaches, and stormed by warriors. Giant is a mighty man, or warrior, Isa_42:13.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin,.... Which he very probably put on when he rent his mantle, or sat in ashes, Job 1:20; which actions were usually performed together in times of distress and sorrow, see Gen 37:34; and this was no doubt a voluntary action of his, like that of the king of Nineveh and his subjects Jon 3:5; though some have thought that Job was so reduced that he had no clothes to wear, and was obliged to put on such coarse raiment, which is not probable; and it seems that he put this next to his skin, which must be very uneasy to one that had been used to such soft apparel, as it seems did also the kings of Israel in time of mourning, Kg1 21:27; it is not only observed by several Jewish writers, that the word here used in the Arabic language signifies "skin", as we render it, as Aben Ezra, Ben Melech, and others; but the skin of the wound, the thin skin which is drawn over a wound when it is healing, as Ben Gersom and Bar Tzemach; which, being tender, must be very unfit to bear such rough raiment upon it; nay, Schultens observes, that the Arabic word more properly signifies "torn skin" (h), as Job's skin must be full of ruptures through the boils and ulcers upon him; he himself says, that his "skin was broken, and become loathsome", Job 7:5; now to have sackcloth put on such a skin must be intolerable; the phrase of sewing it to it is very unusual; though it may signify no more than an application of it, a putting it on him, and clothing himself with it; yet it seems to denote its sticking close to him, as if it was sewed to his skin, through the purulent matter of his boils clotting and cleaving to it; for he says in Job 7:5 that his "flesh was clothed with worms and clods of dust"; and those running into one another were like one scab, and, as it were, a garment to him; his "disease bound him about as the collar of his coat", and his "skin was as black" as sackcloth itself, Job 30:18; the design of the expression is both to show the wretched and miserable condition he was in, and his great humiliation on account of his present circumstances; and that he was not that proud and haughty man, or behaved under his affliction in the insolent manner Eliphaz had suggested, Job 15:12; but was one that humbled himself under the mighty hand of God, which is further confirmed by the next clause:

and defiled my horn, in the dust: as he did when he sat in ashes, as he afterwards repented in dust and ashes; and it was usual in the times of mourning to put dust or ashes upon the head; which may be meant by his horn, the horn of a beast, to which the allusion is, being in the head; and this may be put for the whole body, which sometimes, on such occasions, was rolled in dust and ashes, see Jos 7:6; and the horn being an emblem of grandeur, power, and authority, may denote that Job now laid aside all the ensigns of it, and was content to have his honour laid in the dust, and lie low before God, and not lift up his horn unto him, and much less stretch out his hand against him; the Targum is,

"I sprinkled my glory in or with dust.''

(h) "super laceram cutem", Schultens; "cutis eaque laesa et ulceribus percussa", Stockius, p. 188. "cutim percusiit", Hottinger. Smegma Orient. p. 135. Stockius, ib.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

He breaketh me - He crushes me.

With breach upon breach - He renews and repeats the attack, and thus completely overwhelms me. One blow follows another in such quick succession, that he does not give me time to recover.

He runneth upon me like a giant - With great and irresistible force - as some strong and mighty warrior whom his adversary cannot resist. The Hebrew is גבור gı̂bbôr - “a mighty one.” Septuagint, “The mighty - δυνάμενοι dunamenoi - run upon me.” Vulgate, “gigas” - a giant.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Lances. Hebrew, "archers." Septuagint, "they have encompassed me, throwing lances into my veins, or loins, not sparing," &c. (Haydock) --- Bowels. Hebrew and Septuagint, "gall," being afflicted with a dysentery. St. Thomas Aquinas explains it of his children, who were slain. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

My calamities have no interruption, but one immediately succeeds another, as it did Job 1.

Like a giant, who falls upon his enemy with all his might, that he may overthrow and kill him.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

14. Breach upon breach — In the preceding verse the human body was compared to a target pierced through and through with arrows; it is now compared to a citadel of strength which the besiegers have breached again and again.

Giant — Warrior.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He breaketh me with breach upon breach. As an enemy, when he besieges a town, crushes its resistance by means of "breach upon breach." so is Job crushed by one attack after another. He runneth upon me like a giant; i.e. with overwhelming force a force that is quite irresistible.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.