Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply my days as the sand.
All Commentaries on Job 29:18 Go To Job 29
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
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, (Haydock) as appears from the word stele hos, "a shoot (Calmet) or trunk. "(Menochius)
Yet as phoinix, signifies also "a Phoenician, and the phoenix "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 (Haydock) beautifully applicable to a future resurrection. (St. Clement, ep. 1 Cor.; St. Ambrose, de fide Res. ii. 59) See Solin, xlii.; Tacitus, 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 éul 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 Vulgate, 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. (Haydock)
