Albert Barnes Commentary Job 11:16

"For thou shalt forget thy misery; Thou shalt remember it as waters that are passed away," — Job 11:16 (ASV)

And remember it as waters that pass away - As a calamity that has completely passed, or that has rolled on and will return no more. The comparison is beautiful. The water of the river flows past 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 to suffering, and even ingenuity cannot prolong it much. The disgraced man, whose life is a burden, will soon die.

On the cheeks 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 on our sorrows, it is like thinking of the stream that was so swollen and so impetuous.

Its waters rolled on, and they do not come 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 return 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.