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My breath is corrupt - Rather, My spirit is oppressed, חבלה רוחי ruchi chubbalah : My days are extinct, and the sepulchral cells are ready for me - Parkhurst. There is probably a reference here to cemeteries, where were several niches, in Each of which a corpse was deposited. See on Job 17:16; (note). For חבלה chubbalah, corrupted or oppressed, some MSS. have חלה chalah, is made weak; and one has גבלה is worn down, consumed: this is agreeable to the Vulgate, Spiritus meus attenuebatur; "My spirit is exhausted."

My breath is corrupt - Margin or “spirit is spent.” The idea is, that his vital powers were nearly extinct; his breath failed; his power was weakened, and he was ready to die. This is connected with the previous chapter, and should not have been separated from it. There was no necessity of making a new chapter here, and we have one of those unfortunate breaks in the middle of a paragraph, and almost of a sentence, which are too common in the Scriptures.

The graves are ready for me - The Hebrew is plural, but why so used I know not. The Vulgate is singular - sepulchrum. The Septuagint renders it, “I pray for a tomb (singular, ταφῆς taphēs ), but I cannot obtain it.” Possibly the meaning is, “I am about to be united “to the graves,” or “to tombs.”” Schultens remarks that the plural form is common in Arabic poetry, as well as in poetry in general.

Job reflects upon the harsh censures his friends had passed upon him, and, looking on himself as a dying man, he appeals to God. Our time is ending. It concerns us carefully to redeem the days of time, and to spend them in getting ready for eternity. We see the good use the righteous should make of Job's afflictions from God, from enemies, and from friends. Instead of being discouraged in the service of God, by the hard usage this faithful servant of God met with, they should be made bold to proceed and persevere therein. Those who keep their eye upon heaven as their end, will keep their feet in the paths of religion as their way, whatever difficulties and discouragements they may meet with.