Job 3:26

Job 3:26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came.

Ver. 26. I was not in safety] i.e. I counted not myself simply the safer and happier man, because of creature comforts; but knowing their uncertainty, I held at a distance, and hung loose to them all.

Neither had I rest] I set not up my rest here, as did Nebuchadnezzar, Dan 4:4, and that rich fool, Luk 12:20, and the purple whore, who sitteth and saith, I shall see no sorrow. Once indeed Job said (but not so well), "I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand," Job 29:18. And so (by a like error, which was quickly confuted) David said in his prosperity, "I shall never be moved," Psa 30:6-7. But for the main and the most part Job was otherwise minded. A godly man may be master of and busied about these paltrements of this present world, but not satisfied in them as adequate objects: he looks upon them all in their greatest lustre, as Hiram did on the cities Solomon had given him, which he called Chabul, that is, land of dirt. He minds the things above most of all.

Yet trouble came] Although I ever kept myself within the bounds of humility and modesty, and so took the safest and wisest course to secure that I had, and to gain a settled estate; yet all is gone, and I am left a mirror of misery. What can any one make of this? This is a riddle to me; here I am gravelled and benighted.

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.

Job_3:26

Yet trouble came.

Trouble and usefulness

What a heathen would have called the blind and infamous dispensations of fortune, Christians speak of as the unlikelihoods and inequalities of the providence of God. The facts, however, are not altered, though you may alter their representation This world of ours, in its moral aspects, is not a likely world. Not that even in the absence of a special revelation, still less with this in our hands, it giveth us the idea of terrestrial affairs being left to take their chance; but that there is, on the part of a Superior Power, a design to regulate these affairs so differently from as at times to be the reverse of what might have been expected. Design there is, but it is not in those directions in which we should look for it. It does not appear with what intent men, whether philosophers or theologians, have been so anxious to frame apologies for Gods providence; bending the stubborn truths of human history to some theory of their own devising, and using worse for better reasons to support that theory. This hath been called, after Milton, the justification of the ways of God to man. It is a very supererogatory work. Man need not be more anxious to justify God than God is to justify Himself. God will be justified by and by; but, at present He requireth not us to assist Him by explaining away appearances. God is love. Believe it always; question it never. You throw a doubt over it the moment you set about proving it. Let us take the facts, and forego the apology. To write books to the sons and daughters of affliction, from comfortable parlours and luxurious drawing rooms, in vindication of the providence of God, is worse than impertinent. No, take the facts of providence as they are. They will do our minds good, not harm, in the contemplation. Men are not to be argued into resignation to Gods will; nor are they to be reasoned into affection for His chastisements. All they need to believe is that what happeneth unto them is Gods will; then will there be resignation: to see that God doth chastise them; then will they love His chastisements. We do not in any degree oppose this view, by returning to our remark, that this world of ours is an unlikely world. Neither to the righteous nor to the wicked is it such as we should expect it to be. Its order is apparent confusion; its rule a seeming misdirection. God, here and there, appears as though He were opposing Himself; frustrating purposes in one direction, which He appears to be forwarding in another. Look at the victims of trial, at the heirs of suffering, at the children of sorrow, on every side: how capricious, how unaccountable, how incomprehensible, so far as we can judge, the selection! The heaviest burdens laid oftentimes upon the weakest shoulders; the greatest sinners often the slightest sufferers; they who for God have been called to do the most, disabled frequently by their trials from doing aught--powers of usefulness, to our judgment, paralysed for lack of aids which perish with the using there; while, yonder, uselessness and incapacity are overwhelmed with means and opportunities. Are these things chances, caprices, accidents? Their seeming to be all these prohibits the supposition of their really being either. We speak of the providence of God as though it were synonymous with momentary interference; whereas, the etymology showeth that it is such a foresight on Gods part as to render such interference unnecessary. Considering the case of Gods servant Job, though God cleared up this case at the last,--making Jobs righteousness as clear as the light, and his just dealing as the noonday,--to what self-reproaches, to what mistakes of friends, to what hard speeches of foes, during its progress, must it have given rise! Seemed it right, we might ask, to hazard all these for the sake of some spiritual advantage which might accrue to the tried child of God? Hardly. Seemeth it wise for God to punish those, in the sight of men, whose hope is full of immortality? We know not now, we shall know hereafter. (Alfred Bowen Evans.)

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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 3:26. I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet — Three expressions denoting the same thing, which was also signified in the verse immediately preceding, namely, that even in his prosperous days he never esteemed himself secure, or was perfectly free from the torment of fear and anxiety. Or, his meaning is, I did not misbehave myself in prosperity, abusing it by presumption and security; but I lived circumspectly, walking humbly with God, and working out my salvation with fear and trembling. Yet trouble came — As I feared it would. So that between fear and calamity my whole life has been uncomfortable, and I had reason to repent of it. Therefore, in this sense also his way was hid, and he knew not why God contended with him.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The fear of troubles that should ensue, caused my prosperity to seem to me as nothing, and yet I am not exempted from trouble.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

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.

Next: Job Chapter 4

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

Verse 26. I was not in safety] If this verse be read interrogatively, it will give a good and easy sense: Was I not in safety? Had I not rest? Was I not in comfort? Yet trouble came. It is well known that, previously to this attack of Satan, Job was in great prosperity and peace. Mr. Good translates, I had no peace; yea, I had no rest. Yea, I had no respite, as the trouble came on; and refers the whole to the quick succession of the series of heavy evils by which he was tried. There is a similar thought in the Psalmist: Deep crieth unto deep at the noise of thy water-spouts; all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me; Ps 42:7. One evil treads on the heels of another.

IN this chapter Job's conflict begins. Now, and not before, Satan appears to have access to his mind. When he deprived him of his property, and, what was still dearer, of his sons and his daughters, the hope of his family, he bore all with the most exemplary patience, and the deepest resignation to the Divine will. When his adversary was permitted to touch his body, and afflict it in the most grievous and distressing manner, rendered still more intolerable by his being previously deprived of all the comforts and necessaries of life; still he held fast his integrity; no complaint, no murmur was heard. From the Lord's hand he received his temporal good; and from that hand he received his temporal evil, the privation of that good. Satan was, therefore, baffled in all his attempts; Job continued to be a perfect and upright man, fearing God, and avoiding evil. This was Job's triumph, or rather the triumph of Divine grace; and Satan's defeat and confusion.

It is indeed very seldom that God permits Satan to waste the substance or afflict the body of any man; but at all times this malevolent spirit may have access to the mind of any man, and inject doubts, fears, diffidence, perplexities, and even unbelief. And here is the spiritual conflict. Now, their wrestling is not with flesh and blood - with men like themselves, nor about secular affairs; but they have to contend with angels, principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places. In such cases Satan is often permitted to diffuse darkness into the understanding, and envelope the heavens with clouds. Hence are engendered false views of God and his providence, of men, of the spiritual world, and particularly of the person's own state and circumstances. Every thing is distorted, and all seen through a false medium. Indescribable distractions and uneasiness are hereby induced; the mind is like a troubled sea, tossed by a tempest that seems to confound both heaven and earth. Strong temptations to things which the soul contemplates with abhorrence are injected; and which are followed by immediate accusations, as if the injections were the offspring of the heart itself; and the trouble and dismay produced are represented as the sense of guilt, from a consciousness of having, in heart, committed these evils. Thus Satan tempts, accuses, and upbraids, in order to perplex the soul, induce skepticism, and destroy the empire of faith. Behold here the permission of God, and behold also his sovereign control: all this time the grand tempter is not permitted to touch the heart, the seat of the affections, nor offer even the slightest violence to the will. The soul is cast down, but not destroyed; perplexed, but not in despair. It is on all sides harassed; without are fightings, within are fears: but the will is inflexible on the side of God and truth, and the heart, with all its train of affections and passions, follows it. The man does not wickedly depart from his God; the outworks are violently assailed, but not taken; the city is still safe, and the citadel impregnable. Heaviness may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning. Jesus is soon seen walking upon the waters. He speaks peace to the winds and the sea: immediately there is a calm. Satan is bruised down under the feet of the sufferer, the clouds are dispersed, the heavens re-appear, and the soul, to its surprise, finds that the storm, instead of hindering, has driven it nearer to the haven whither it would be.

The reader who closely examines the subject will find that this was the case of Job. The following chapters show the conflict of the soul; the end of the book, God's victory and his exaltation. Satan sifted Job as wheat, but his faith failed not.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

I was not in safety,.... This cannot refer to the time of his prosperity; for he certainly then was in safety, God having set an hedge about him, so that none of his enemies, nor even Satan himself, could come at him to hurt him:

neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; which also was not true of him before his afflictions, for he did then enjoy great peace, rest, and quietness; he lay in his nest at ease, and in great tranquillity; and thought and said he should die in such a state, see Job 29:18, &c. nor is the sense of these expressions, that he did not take up his rest and satisfaction in outward things, and put his trust and confidence in his riches, and yet trouble came upon him; but this relates to the time of the beginning of his troubles and afflictions, from which time he was not in safety, nor had any rest and peace; there was no intermission of his sorrows; but as soon as one affliction was over, another came:

yet trouble came; still one after another, there was no end of them; or, as Mr. Broughton renders it, "and now cometh a vexation"; a fresh one, a suspicion of hypocrisy; and upon this turns the whole controversy, managed and carried on between him and his friends in the following part of this book.

Next: Job Chapter 4

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

I was not in safety - That is, I have, or I had no peace. שׁלה shâlâh Septuagint, οὔτε εἰρήνευσα oute eirēneusa - “I had no peace.” The sense is, that his mind had been disturbed with fearful alarms; or perhaps that at that time he was filled with dread.

Neither had I rest - Trouble comes upon me in every form, and I am a stranger wholly to peace. The accumulation of phrases here, all meaning nearly the same thing, is descriptive of a state of great agitation of mind. Such an accumulation is not uncommon in the Bible to denote any thing which language can scarcely describe. So in Isa 8:22 :

And they shall look upward; And to the earth shall they look; And lo!

rouble and darkness, Gloom, oppression, and deepened darkness.

So Job 10:21-22 :

To the land of darkness and the death-shade,

The land of darkness like the blackness of the death-shade,

Where is no order, and where the light is as darkness.

Thus, in the Hamasa (quoted by Dr Good), “Death, and devastation, and a remorseless disease, and a still heavier and more terrific family of evils.” The Chaldee has made a remarkable addition here, arising from the general design in the author of that Paraphrase, to explain everything. “Did I not dissemble when the annunciation was made to me respecting the oxen and the asses? Was I not stupid (unalarmed, or unmoved, שדוכית), when the report came about the conflagration? Was I not quiet, when the report came respecting the camels? And did not indignation come, when the report was made respecting my sons?”

Yet trouble came - Or rather, “and trouble comes.” This is one of the cumulative expressions to denote the rapidity and the intensity of his sorrows. The word rendered “trouble” (רגז rôgez) means properly trembling, commotion, disquiet. Here it signifies such misery as made him tremble. Once the word means wrath Hab 3:2; and it is so understood here by the Septuagint, who renders it ὀργή orgē.

In regard to this chapter, containing the first speech of Job, we may remark, that it is impossible to approve the spirit which it exhibits, or to believe that it was acceptable to God. It laid the foundation for the reflections - many of them exceedingly just - in the following chapters, and led his friends to doubt whether such a man could be truly pious. The spirit which is manifested in this chapter, is undoubtedly far from that calm submission which religion should have produced, and from that which Job had before evinced. That he was, in the main, a man of eminent holiness and patience, the whole book demonstrates; but this chapter is one of the conclusive proofs that he was not absolutely free from imperfection. From the chapter we may learn,

(1) That even eminently good men sometimes give utterance to sentiments which are a departure from the spirit of religion, and which they will have occasion to regret. Such was the case here. There was a language of complaint, and a bitterness of expression, which religion cannot sanction, and which no pious man, on reflection, would approve.

(2) We see the effect of heavy affliction on the mind. It sometimes becomes overwhelming. It is so great that all the ordinary barriers against impatience are swept away. The sufferer is left to utter language of complaining, and there is the impatient wish that life was closed, or that he had not existed.

(3) We are not to infer that because a man in affliction makes use of some expressions which we cannot approve, and which are not sanctioned by the word of God, that therefore he is not a good man. There may be true piety, yet it may be far from perfection; there may be in general submission to God, yet the calamity may be so overwhelming as to overcome the usual restraints on our corrupt and fallen nature: and when we remember how feeble is our nature at best, and how imperfect is the piety of the holiest of men, we should not harshly judge him who is left to express impatience in his trials, or who gives utterance to sentiments different from those which are sanctioned by the word of God. There has been but one model of pure submission on earth - the Lord Jesus Christ; and after the contemplation of the best of men in their trials, we can see that there is imperfection in them, and that if we would survey absolute perfection in suffering, we must go to Gethsemane and to Calvary.

(4) Let us not make the expressions used by Job in this chapter our model in suffering. Let us not suppose that because he used such language, that therefore we may also. Let us not infer that because they are found in the Bible, that therefore they are right; or that because he was an unusually holy man, that it would be proper for us to use the same language that he did. The fact that this book is a part of the inspired truth of revelation, does not make such language right. All that inspiration does, in such a case, is to secure an exact record of what was actually said; it does not, of necessity, sanction it any more than an accurate historian can be supposed to approve all that he records. There may be important reasons why it should be preserved, but he who makes the record is not answerable for the truth or propriety of what is recorded. The narrative is true; the sentiment may be false. The historian may state exactly what was said or done: but what was said or done, may have violated every law of truth and justice; and unless the historian expresses some sentiment of approbation, he can in no sense be held answerable for it. So with the narratives in the Bible. Where a sentiment of approbation or disapprobation is expressed, there the sacred writer is answerable for it; in other cases he is answerable only for the correctness of the record. This view of the nature of inspiration will leave us at liberty freely to canvass the speeches made in the book of Job, and make it more important that we compare the sentiments in those speeches with other parts of the Bible, that we may know what to approve, and what was erroneous in Job or his friends.

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

Dissembled my sufferings, making no complaint, not only during the seven days that his friends had been with him, but long before. Hebrew and Septuagint, "I was not in safety, nor at rest; neither was I indolent: (Haydock; in the administration of affairs. Calmet) yet trouble came." (Haydock) --- I have enjoyed no peace, since the wrath of the Lord has found me. (Calmet) --- In such a situation, Job might well beg to be delivered, (Haydock) and to pray that those things which obstructed his repose in God might be removed; considering them not so much as the works of God, as the effects of sin. (Pineda) (Worthington) --- In this light he cursed his birth-day, and will no longer look upon it as a joyful and happy day. (Du Hamel)

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).

The three expressions note the same thing, which also was signified in the next foregoing verse, to wit, that even in his prosperous days he never was secure or at rest from the torment of fear and anxiety. Others, I did not misbehave myself in prosperity, abusing it by presumption, and security, and voluptuousness, whereby I might have provoked God thus to afflict me; but I lived soberly and circumspectly, walking humbly with God, and working out my salvation with fear and trembling, little expecting that God would be so fierce an enemy against me.

Yet trouble came, Heb. and trouble came, as I feared it would. So between fear and calamity my whole life hath been miserable, and I had reason to repent of it.

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

26. I was not in safety — I was not at rest, nor was 1 secure; I rested not, yet trouble came. The common interpretation of this passage is, trouble came upon trouble, without any intermission or respite between them. Hitzig follows the Targum in supposing that the four clauses correspond to the four messengers of misfortune, who, by their quick succession, gave Job no opportunity for resting and recovering from the crushing effect of these continual strokes. The Septuagint, however, renders it, I was not at peace nor quiet, nor had I rest; yet WRATH came upon me; which justifies the view that this verse strikes the keynote of self-justification, heard now for the first time; a note to which the rest of the book resounds. He had lived for God, yet trouble came. He had not, like others, been at rest; in no sense had he sunk into spiritual torpor. The lowest depth is now disclosed: God had afflicted one who had been faithful to him. “Job’s self-justification as a man, after the measure of men, and before men, was just; but, as St. Paul says of Abraham, ‘not before God.’ Hence, when in a subsequent chapter God appears and speaks, he is condemned by both God and himself.” Nothing else in this lamentation justifies the apparent assault of Eliphaz, Job_4:6-7.

The chapter thus concludes with a few startling sentences, each one in the original consisting of two words. The first three are quite the same in meaning, and partake of the tumult of mind through which the servant of God is now passing. Such redundancy or pleonasm is an embellishment common among poets of every age and country, and is often used to express mental perturbation. Comp. Isa_8:22.

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

I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was I quiet; yet trouble came. Some Hebraists give quite a different turn to this passage, rendering it as follows: "I am not at ease, neither am I quiet, neither have I rest; but trouble cometh" (see the Revised Version, and compare Canon Cook"s rendering in the "Speaker"s Commentary," vol. 4. p. 29, "I have no peace, nor quiet, nor rest; but trouble cometh"). Professor Lee, however, certainly one of the most eminent of modern Hebraists, maintains that the far more pregnant meaning of the Authorized Version gives the true sense. "If I rightly apprehend," he says, "the drift of the context here, Job means to have it understood that he is conscious of no instance in which he has relaxed from his religious obligations; of no season in which his fear and love of God have waxed weak; and, on this account, it was the more perplexing that such a complication of miseries had befallen him" ("The Book of Job" pp. 201, 202); and he translates the passage (ibid., p. 121), "I slackened not, neither was I quiet, neither took I rest; yet trouble came." Job"s complaint is thus far more pointedly terminated than by a mere otiose statement that, "without rest or pause, trouble came upon trouble."

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

Quiet - I did not misbehave myself in prosperity, abusing it by presumption, and security, but I lived circumspectly, walking humbly with God, and working out my salvation with fear and trembling. Therefore in this sense also, his way was hid, he knew not why God contended with him.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

I was not at ease from this worry, and behold, trouble has come.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.