Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Hast thou not made an hedge about him? - Dr. Good remarks, that to give the original word here its full force, it should be derived from the science of engineering, and be rendered, "Hast thou not raised a "palisado" about him?" The Hebrew word used here ( ּׂ śûk ) properly means "to hedge" ; to hedge in or about; and hence, to protect, as one is defended whose house or farm is hedged in either with a fence of thorns, or with an enclosure of stakes or palisades. The word in its various forms is used to denote, as a noun, "pricks in the eyes" Numbers 33:55; that is, that which would be like thorns; "barbed irons" Job 41:7, that is, the barbed iron used as a spear to take fish; and a hedge, and thorn hedge, Micah 7:4; Proverbs 15:19; Isaiah 5:5. The idea here is, that of making an enclosure around Job and his possessions to guard them from danger. The Septuagint renders it ́ periephracas , to make a defense around," to "circumvallate" or inclose, as a camp is in war. In the Syriac and Arabic it is rendered, "Hast thou not protected him with thy hand? The Chaldee, "Hast thou protected him with thy word? The Septuagint renders the whole passage, "Hast thou not encircled the things which are without him" ( ̀ ̓́ ̓͂ ta exō autou ) that is, the things abroad which belong to him, "and the things within his house." The sense of the whole passage is, that he was eminently under the divine protection, and that God had kept himself, his family, and property from plunderers, and that therefore he served and feared him.
Thou hast blessed the work of his hands - Thou hast greatly prospered him.
And his substance is increased in the land - His property, Job 1:3. Margin, "cattle." The word "increased" here by no means expresses the force of the original. The word pârats means properly to break, to rend, then to break or burst forth as waters do that have been pent up; II Samuel 5:20, compare Proverbs 3:10, "So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses "shall burst out" pârats with new wine;" that is, thy wine-fats shall be so full that they shall overflow, or "burst" the barriers, and the wine shall flow out in abundance. The Arabians, according to Schultens, employ this word still to denote the mouth or "embouchure" - the most; rapid part of a stream. So Golius, in proof of this, quotes from the Arabic writer Gjanhari, a couplet where the word is used to denote the mouth of the Euphrates:
"His rushing wealth o' er flowed him with its heaps;
So at its mouth the mad Euphrates sweeps."
According to Sehultens, the word denotes a place where a river bursts forth, and makes a new way by rending the hills and rocks asunder. In like manner the flocks and herds of Job had burst, as it were, every barrier, and had spread like an inundation over the land; compare Genesis 30:43; II Chronicles 31:5; Exodus 1:7; Job 16:14.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Job 1:10:
Job 1:17
Job 2:3
Job 3:23
Psalms 41:6
Daniel 3:30
Zechariah 3:1
Matthew 4:1
Luke 22:31
1 Thessalonians 3:5
1 Timothy 3:11
James 5:11
Revelation 12:10
Revelation 12:10
Revelation 12:10
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