Job 5:25

Job 5:25 Thou shalt know also that thy seed [shall be] great, and thine offspring as the grass of the earth.

Ver. 25. Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great] Thou shalt live to see thy children (whereof thou art now bereft) not only restored, but increased. Children are the seed, parents are but the husk, as it were: to have these multiplied is no small mercy, Psa 128:3, especially when the wife is as the vine, and the children like olive plants, two of the best fruits, the one for sweetness, the other for fatness, Jdg 9:13; when they prove to be as arrows of a strong man, such as whose natural knottiness is reformed and smoothed by grace, such as for the workmanship of grace and holiness in their hearts and lives are become like the graving of a king’s palace, Psa 144:12. What can better preserve Jacob (Job) from confusion, or his face from waxing pale, than if he might see his children, the work of God’s hands, framed and fitted by the word in regeneration, and the duties of new obedience? this would make religious parents to sanctify God’s name, even to sanctify the Holy One, and with singular encouragement from the God of Israel, Isa 29:22-23.

And thine offspring as the grass of the earth] Thy nephews shall be not only numerous, but innumerable, they shall also flourish, as grass in its prime.

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 5:25. Thou shalt know — By assurance from God’s promises, the impressions of his Spirit, and by experience, in due time, that thy seed shall be great — Thy posterity, which God shall give thee, instead of those whom thou hast lost, shall be high, and honourable, and powerful: or, shall be many, as רב, rab, often signifies. And thine offspring — The fruit of thy body; (for he speaks of his natural, not of his spiritual seed, as Abraham’s seed is in part to be understood;) as the grass of the earth —

Both for its plentiful increase, and for its flourishing greenness.

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

5:25 descendants . . . as plentiful as grass: See Gen 22:17; Lev 26:9; Deut 28:4, 11-12.

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

as the grass-- (Psa 72:16). Properly, "herb-bearing seed" (Gen 1:11-12).

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 25. Thine offspring as the grass] Thou shalt have a numerous and permanent issue.

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

(25) Great.—The word means also numerous, which seems to suit the parallelism better here. The whole description is a very beautiful and poetical one of the perfect security of faith, though it is to a certain extent vitiated by its want of strict correspondence with facts, of which the very case of Job was a crucial instance. This was the special problem with which his friends had to deal, and which proved too hard for them. May we not learn that the problem is one that can only be solved in practice and not in theory?

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

25. Another much-desired joy he shall feel that God has given him, a numerous offspring.

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.

Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great,.... Not his seed sown in the earth, and the increase of that, but his children, as the next clause explains it, as Bar Tzemach well observes; and designs either their greatness in worldly things, in wealth and riches, in honour and dignity, in power and authority, or else their numbers; for the word may be rendered "much" or "many" (n), a multitude of children being reckoned a great temporal blessing; but this seems rather intended in the following words:

and thine offspring as the grass of the earth; as numerous as the spires of grass, which can no more be told than the stars of the heavens, or the sand of the sea, by which the same thing, a numerous progeny, is sometimes illustrated: this is to be understood not of his immediate offspring, but his descendants in successive ages and generations, and which should be as beautiful as the grass of the earth when in its verdure; pointing at the comeliness of their persons, their honour and dignity raised unto, the largeness of their substance, the greatness of their prosperity, and flourishing circumstances they should be in; though it may also denote the original of them, amidst all, being of the earth and earthy, and their frailty and fading condition; for which reason all flesh is said to be as grass, and men are frequently compared unto it, see Psa 90:5.

(n) "multum", Pagninus, Montanus, Vatablus, Mercerus, Piscator, Schmidt, Michaelis.

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

Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great - Margin, “much.” That is, thy posterity shall be numerous. This was one of the blessings supposed to be connected with the favor of God; see the notes at Isa 53:10.

And thine offspring as the grass of the earth - On the meaning of the word here rendered offspring, see the notes at Isa 48:19. Nothing is more common in the Scriptures, than to compare a prosperous and a happy man to a green and flourishing tree; see Psa 1:3; Psa 92:12-14. The idea here is, that the righteous would have a numerous and a happy posterity, and that the divine favor to them would bc shown by the blessing of God on their children; compare Psa 128:1, Psa 128:3.

Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord,

That walketh in his ways.

Thy wife shall be a fruitful vine by the side of thine house;

Thy children like olive-plants round about thy table.

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

Thou shalt know; partly by assurance from God’s promises, and the impressions of his Spirit; and partly by experience in due time.

Thy seed shall be great; thy posterity, which God will give thee instead of those which thou hast lost, shall be high, and honourable, and powerful. Or, shall be many.

Thine offspring; which shall come out of thy own loins as branches out of a tree, as the word signifies. And this word seems added to the former to restrain and explain it, by showing that he did not speak of his spiritual seed, as Abraham’s seed is in part understood, but of the fruit of his own body. As the grass of the earth; both for its plentiful increase, and for its flourishing greenness.

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

Thou shalt know also that thy seed shall be great. Little by little Eliphaz passes from a general description of the blessedness of those faithful ones who "despise not the chastening of the Almighty" (ver. 17) to a series of allusions which seem specially to touch Job"s case. Without claiming prophetical inspiration, he ventures to promise him in the future "the exact reverse of all that he had experienced" in the past safe home, flocks untouched, a happy and prosperous family, a peaceful old age" (Cook). The promises may have sounded in Job"s ears as "a mockery" (ibid.); but it is creditable to the sagacity of Eliphaz that he ventured to make them. And thine offspring as the grass of the earth. The ordinary symbols for multitudinousness the sand of the sea, and the stars of heaven are here superseded by an entirely new one, "the grass of the earth." Undoubtedly it is equally appropriate, and perhaps more natural in a pastoral community.

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

Know - By assurance from God's promises, and the impressions of his Spirit; and by experience in due time.

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