Attributed commentary excerpt
John Gill's Exposition on Job 1:21
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Exposition of the Old and New Testament
John Gill (1697–1771) · 18th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
And said, naked came I out of my mother’s womb, etc.] Either literally, where he was conceived and lay, and from whence he came into the world, though he afterwards wishes he never had, or had died as soon as he did, (<180310>Job 3:10-12), and so it is expressive of his birth, and the circumstance of it; or figuratively, his mother earth, from whence the first man sprang, and so all his posterity with him, being as he of the earth, earthly, (see <211207>Ecclesiastes 12:7), which sense is mentioned by Jarchi and Aben Ezra; but the first sense seems best: the nakedness referred to is not of the mind or soul, being destitute of righteousness and holiness, with which the following clause will by no means agree, but nakedness of body; and therefore as soon as a child is born, one of the first things done to it is to wrap it in clothes provided for it, (see <261604>Ezekiel 16:4 <420207>Luke 2:7) and also a being without the things of this life; the apostle’s words are a proper comment on these, and explain them, and perhaps these are referred to by him, “we brought nothing into this world”, (<540607>1 Timothy 6:7), this shows the necessity of the early care of Providence over us, and what reason we have to be thankful for unknown mercies at the time of birth, and in the state of infancy, (<192209>Psalm 22:9 71:6) and what obligations children lie under to parents, and what benefits they receive from them at their first entrance into the world, and which they should religiously requite when through old age they stand in need of their assistance, (<540504>1 Timothy 5:4), and this may also serve to abate the pride of man, who will have no reason to boast of his riches, nor of his fine clothes, when he considers his original nakedness; and more especially the use of it may be, and which seems to be the use Job made of it, to make the mind easy under the greatest losses. Job considered he did not bring his substance, his servants, and his children into the world with him; and now they were taken from him, he was but as he was when he came into the world, and not at all the worse; he knew how to be abased, and to abound, and in both was content: and naked shall I return thither; not into his mother’s womb in a literal sense, which was impossible, (<430304>John 3:4), but to the earth, and to the dust of it, (<010319>Genesis 3:19 <211207>Ecclesiastes 12:7), pointing to it with his finger, on which he now lay; meaning that he should go to the place appointed for him, the grave, the house of all living, (<183023>Job 30:23), and so the Targum here has it, ``to the house of the grave,” where he should lie unseen, as in his mother’s womb, till the resurrection morn; which would be a kind of a regeneration of him, when he should be delivered up from thence, and enjoy a state of happiness and glory: he should descend into the grave as naked as he was born, respecting not so much the nakedness of his body, as being stripped of all worldly enjoyments, (see <210515>Ecclesiastes 5:15) and he says this in his present view of things; he thought once he should have died in his nest, (<182918>Job 29:18), in the midst of all his prosperity, and left a large substance to his children; but now all was taken away, and for the present had no hope or expectation of a restoration, as afterwards was; but whereas he was now naked and bare of all, he expected he should continue and die so: or this is said with respect to the common case of men, who it is certain cannot ca…
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