Then I said, ‘I will die in my own house, I will count my days as the sand.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 18. Nest, in security, and among my children. Calmet.—Palm-tree. Septuagint “But I said, my youth shall grow old like the shoot of the palm-tree: I shall live a long time.” This is clearly the meaning of this version, ( Bible.) as appears from the word στελεχος, “a shoot ( Calmet.) or trunk.” Menochius.—Yet as φοινιξ, signifies also “a Phœnician, and the phœnix,” some have explained this passage of the latter, which seems agreeable to the mention of a nest. Many fabulous accounts have been given of this bird, of which only one is supposed to exist at a time, rising from its parent’s ashes; which, if true, ( Calmet.) would have been very ( Bible.) beautifully applicable to a future resurrection. Saint Clement ep. 1 Cor. Saint Ambrose de fide Res. ii. 59, and so forth See Solin, xlii. Tacit. Ann. vi. This uncertain bird may have been confounded with the bird of Paradise. Palm-trees live a long time, and multiply shoots all round them surprisingly. Pliny xiii. 4. and xvi. 44.—Yet the Scripture never elsewhere uses the term eul for this tree. The moderns generally translate, “I shall multiply my days like the sand,” which is a very common expression. Calmet. Diss.—The following verse seems, however, favourable to the sense of the Septuagint and Vulg. though the heavy nature of sand, which “remains” in its place, might serve to express the confidence which Job had of continuing for a long time in the midst of prosperity. Bible.