Job 11:16

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹³ "If you set your heart aright, Stretch out your hands toward him. ¹⁴ If iniquity is in your hand, put it far away, Don't let unrighteousness dwell in your tents. ¹⁵ Surely then shall you lift up your face without spot; Yes, you shall be steadfast, and shall not fear: ¹⁶ For you shall forget your misery; You shall remember it as waters that are passed away, ¹⁷ Life shall be clearer than the noonday; Though there is darkness, it shall be as the morning. ¹⁸ You shall be secure, because there is hope; Yes, you shall search, and shall take your rest in safety. ¹⁹ Also you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; Yes, many shall court your favor. ²⁰ But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, They shall have no way to flee; Their hope shall be the giving up of the spirit."

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Because: Genesis 41:51, Proverbs 31:7, Ecclesiastes 5:20, Isaiah 54:4, Isaiah 65:16, John 16:21, Revelation 7:14-17

as waters: Job 6:15, Genesis 9:11, Isaiah 12:1, Isaiah 12:2, Isaiah 54:9

Cross-References

Genesis 10:21
To Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth, to him also were children born.

Genesis 10:25
To Eber were born two sons. The name of the one was Peleg, for in his days was the earth divided. His brother's name was Joktan.

Numbers 24:24
But ships [shall come] from the coast of Kittim, They shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber; He also shall come to destruction.

1 Chronicles 1:19
To Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother's name was Joktan.

Luke 3:35
the son of Serug, the son of Reu, the son of Peleg, the son of Eber, the son of Shelah

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Because thou shall forget [thy] misery,.... Former afflictions and distresses; having an abundance of prosperity and happiness, and long continued; and so, in process of time, the miseries and distresses before endured are forgotten; thus it was with Joseph in his advanced state, and therefore he called one of his sons Manasseh,

Genesis 41:51; and as it is with convinced and converted persons and believers in Christ, who, under first convictions and awakenings, are filled with sorrow and distress, on a view of their miserable estate by nature; but when Christ is revealed to them as their Saviour and Redeemer, and the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts, and they have faith and hope in Jesus, and a comfortable view of heaven and happiness, and eternal life, by him, they forget their spiritual poverty, and remember their misery no more, unless it be to magnify the riches of the grace of God; see Proverbs 31:6;

[and] remember [it] as waters [that] pass away; either the waters of the stream in a river, which, when gone, are seen and remembered no more or as waters occasioned by floods in the winter season, which when over, and summer is come, are gone and are no more discerned; and as they pass from the places where they were, so from the minds of men: or it may be respect is had to the waters of Noah's flood, which, according to the divine promise and oath, should no more go over the earth, Genesis 9:15; and being past and gone, and no fear or danger of their returning, are forgotten.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And remember it as waters that pass away - As calamity that has completely gone by, or that has rolled on and will return no more. The comparison is beautiful. The water of the river is borne by us, and returns no more. The rough, the swollen, the turbid stream, we remember as it foamed and dashed along, threatening to sweep everything away; but it went swiftly by, and will never come back. So with afflictions. They are soon gone. The most intense pain soon subsides. The days of sorrow pass quickly away. There is an outer limit of suffering, and even ingenuity cannot prolong it far. The man disgraced, and whose life is a burden, will soon die. On the checks of the solitary prisoner doomed to the dungeon for life, a “mortal paleness” will soon settle down, and the comforts of approaching death will soothe the anguish of his sad heart. The rack of torture cheats itself of its own purpose, and the exhausted sufferer is released. “The excess (of grief) makes it soon mortal.” “No sorrow but killed itself much sooner.” Shakespeare. When we look back upon our sorrows, it is like thinking of the stream that was so much swollen, and was so impetuous. Its waters rolled on, and they come not back again; and there is a kind of pleasure in thinking of that time of danger, of that flood that was then so fearful, and that has now swept on to come back no more. So there is a kind of peaceful joy in thinking of the days of sorrow that are now fled forever; in the assurance that those sad times will never, never recur again.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Job 11:16. Because thou shalt forget thy misery — Thou shalt have such long and complete rest, that thou shalt scarcely remember thy labour.

As waters that pass away — Like as the mountain floods, which sweep every thing before them, houses, tents, cattle, and the produce of the field, and are speedily absorbed by the sandy plains over which they run, so shalt thou remember thy sufferings: they were wasting and ruinous for the time, but were soon over and gone.