Then Job answered,
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Then Job answered and said,
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John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 9:1 Then Job answered and said,
Job 9:1 Then Job answered and said,
Ver. 1. Then Job answered and said] He answered to his two friends who had formerly spoken; first, to Eliphaz’s speech, Job 4:17, and next to that of Bildad, Job 8:3. Bildad had interrupted him when he would have excused himself, that he did by no means deny the justice of God, as they mistook him. Now, therefore, that Bildad had spoken his utmost, Job beginneth to dispute and to declare his judgment concerning that subject; and this he doth longe magnificentius et augustius quam socii, saith Mercer, far more magnificently and majestically than his two friends had done, proving that God is just, even then when he affiicteth the innocent; neither have such any just cause to except against his proceedings in that behalf, since he fetcheth not the causes of his decrees and purposes from the things which he governeth; but his will, which is before all things, is the rule of all justice. St Paul also had respect unto this, Rom 9:20; Rom 11:32, rising a great deal higher, namely, to the eternal decree of election and reprobation: after this, Job setteth forth what is the condition of men, and what poor things they are in comparison of God, thereby to bring himself and others to the true knowledge of God, and of themselves, which is the highest wisdom in the world.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain Bildad began with a rebuke to Job for talking…
Bildad began with a rebuke to Job for talking so much, Job 8:2. Job makes no answer to that, though it would have been easy enough to retort it upon himself; but in what he next lays down as his principle, that God never perverts judgment, Job agrees with him: I know it is so of a truth, Job 9:2. Note, We should be ready to own how far we agree with those with whom we dispute, and should not slight, much less resist, a truth, though produced by an adversary and urged against us, but receive it in the light and love of it, though it may have been misapplied. "It is so of a truth, that wickedness brings men to ruin and the godly are taken under God's special protection. These are truths which I subscribe to; but how can any man make good his part with God?" In his sight shall no flesh living be justified, Psa 143:2. How should man be just with God? Some understand this as a passionate complaint of God's strictness and severity, that he is a God whom there is no dealing with; and it cannot be denied that there are, in this chapter, some peevish expressions, which seem to speak such language as this. But I take this rather as a pious confession of man's sinfulness, and his own in particular, that, if God should deal with any of us according to the desert of our iniquities, we should certainly be undone.
I. He lays this down for a truth, that man is an unequal match for his Maker, either in dispute or combat.
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1. In dispute (Job 9:3): If he will contend with him, either at law or at an argument, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. (1.) God can ask a thousand puzzling questions which those that quarrel with him, and arraign his proceedings, cannot give an answer to. When God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind he asked him a great many questions (Dost thou know this? Canst thou do that?) to none of which Job could give an answer, ch. 38, 39. God can easily manifest the folly of the greatest pretenders to wisdom. (2.) God can lay to our charge a thousand offences, can draw up against us a thousand articles of impeachment, and we cannot answer him so as to acquit ourselves from the imputation of any of them, but must, by silence, give consent that they are all true. We cannot set aside one as foreign, another as frivolous, and another as false. We cannot, as to one, deny the fact, and plead not guilty, and, as to another, deny the fault, confess and justify. No, we are not able to answer him, but must lay our hand upon our mouth, as Job did (Job 40:4, Job 40:5), and cry, Guilty, guilty.
2. In combat (Job 9:4): "Who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered?" The answer is very easy. You cannot produce any instance, from the beginning of the world to this day, of any daring sinner who has hardened himself against God, has obstinately persisted in rebellion against him, who did not find God too hard for him and pay dearly for his folly. Such transgressors have not prospered or had peace; they have had no comfort in their way nor any success. What did ever man get by trials of skill, or trials of titles, with his Maker? All the opposition given to God is but setting briers and thorns before a consuming fire; so foolish, so fruitless, so destructive, is the attempt, Isa 27:4; Eze 28:24; Co1 10:22. Apostate angels hardened themselves against God, but did not prosper, Pe2 2:4. The dragon fights, but is cast out, Rev 12:9. Wicked men harden themselves against God, dispute his wisdom, disobey his laws, are impenitent for their sins and incorrigible under their afflictions; they reject the offers of his grace, and resist the strivings of his Spirit; they make nothing of his threatenings, and make head against his interest in the world. But have they prospered? Can they prosper? No; they are but treasuring up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath. Those that roll this will find it return upon them.
II. He proves it by showing what a God he is with whom we have to do: He is wise in heart, and therefore we cannot answer him at law; he is mighty in strength, and therefore we cannot fight it out with him. It is the greatest madness that can be to think to contend with a God of infinite wisdom and power, who knows every thing and can do every thing, who can be neither outwitted nor overpowered. The devil promised himself that Job, in the day of his affliction, would curse God and speak ill of him, but, instead of that, he sets himself to honour God and to speak highly of him. As much pained as he is, and as much taken up with his own miseries, when he has occasion to mention the wisdom and power of God he forgets his complaints, dwells with delight, and expatiates with a flood of eloquence, upon that noble useful subject. Evidences of the wisdom and power of God he fetches,
1. From the kingdom of nature, in which the God of nature acts with an uncontrollable power and does what he pleases; for all the orders and all the powers of nature are derived from him and depend upon him.
(1.) When he pleases he alters the course of nature, and turns back its streams, Job 9:5-7. By the common law of nature the mountains are settled and are therefore called everlasting mountains, the earth is established and cannot be removed (Psa 93:1) and the pillars there of are immovably fixed, the sun rises in its season, and the stars shed their influences on this lower world; but when God pleases he can not only drive out of the common track, but invert the order and change the law of nature. [1.] Nothing more firm than the mountains. When we speak of removing mountains we mean that which is impossible; yet the divine power can make them change their seat: He removes them and they know not, removes them whether they will or no; he can make them lower their heads; he can level them, and overturn them in his anger; he can spread the mountains as easily as the husbandman spreads the molehills, be they ever so high, and large, and rocky. Men have much ado to pass over them, but God, when he pleases, can make them pass away. He made Sinai shake, Psa 68:8. The hills skipped, Psa 114:4. The everlasting mountains were scattered, Hab 3:6. [2.] Nothing more fixed than the earth on its axletree; yet God can, when he pleases, shake the earth out of its place, heave it off its centre, and make even its pillars to tremble; what seemed to support it will itself need support when God gives it a shock. See how much we are indebted to God's patience. God has power enough to shake the earth from under that guilty race of mankind which makes it groan under the burden of sin, and so to shake the wicked out of it (Job 38:13); yet he continues the earth, and man upon it, and does not make it, as once, to swallow up the rebels. [3.] Nothing more constant than the rising sun, it never misses its appointed time; yet God, when he pleases, can suspend it. He that at first commanded it to rise can countermand it. Once the sun was told to stand, and another time to retreat, to show that it is still under the check of its great Creator. Thus great is God's power; and how great then is his goodness, which causes his sun to shine even upon the evil and unthankful, though he could withhold it! He that made the stars also, can, if he pleases, seal them up, and hide them from our eyes. By earthquakes and subterraneous fires mountains have sometimes been removed and the earth shaken: in very dark and cloudy days and nights it seems to us as if the sun were forbidden to rise and the stars were sealed up, Act 27:20. It is sufficient to say that Job here speaks of what God can do; but, if we must understand it of what he has done in fact, all these verses may perhaps be applied to Noah's flood, when the mountains of the earth were shaken, and the sun and stars were darkened; and the world that now is we believe to be reserved for that fire which will consume the mountains, and melt the earth, with its fervent heat, and which will turn the sun into darkness.
(2.) As long as he pleases he preserves the settled course and order of nature; and this is a continued creation. He himself alone, by his own power, and without the assistance of any other, [1.] Spreads out the heaven (Job 9:8), not only did spread them out at first, but still spreads them out (that is, keeps them spread out), for otherwise they would of themselves roll together like a scroll of parchment. [2.] He treads upon the waves of the sea; that is, he suppresses them and keeps them under, that they return not to deluge the earth (Psa 104:9), which is given as a reason why we should all fear God and stand in awe of him, Jer 5:22. He is mightier than the proud waves Psa 93:4; Psa 65:7. [3.] He makes the constellations; three are named for all the rest (Job 9:9), Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and in general the chambers of the south. The stars of which these are composed he made at first, and put into that order, and he still makes them, preserves them in being, and guides their motions; he makes them to be what they are to man, and inclines the hearts of man to observe them, which the beasts are not capable of doing. Not only those stars which we see and give names to, but those also in the other hemisphere, about the antarctic pole, which never come in our sight, called here the chambers of the south, are under the divine direction and dominion. How wise is he then, and how mighty!
2. From the kingdom of Providence, that special Providence which is conversant about the affairs of the children of men. Consider what God does in the government of the world, and you will say, He is wise in heart and mighty in strength. (1.) He does many things and great, many and great to admiration, Job 9:10. Job here says the same that Eliphaz had said (Job 5:9), and in the original in the very same words, not declining to speak after him, though now his antagonist. God is a great God, and doeth great things, a wonder-working God; his works of wonder are so many that we cannot number them and so mysterious that we cannot find them out. O the depth of his counsels! (2.) He acts invisibly and undiscerned, Job 9:11. "He goes by me in his operations, and I see him not, I perceive him not. His way is in the sea," Psa 77:19. The operations of second causes are commonly obvious to sense, but God does all about us and yet we see him not, Act 17:23. Our finite understandings cannot fathom his counsels, apprehend his motions, or comprehend the measures he takes; we are therefore incompetent judges of God's proceedings, because we know not what he does or what he designs. The arcana imperii - secrets of government, are things above us, which therefore we must not pretend to expound or comment upon. (3.) He acts with an incontestable sovereignty, Job 9:12. He takes away our creature-comforts and confidences when and as he pleases, takes away health, estate, relations, friends, takes away life itself; whatever goes, it is he that takes it; by what hand so ever it is removed, his hand must be acknowledged in its removal. The Lord takes away, and who can hinder him? Who can turn him away? (Margin, Who shall make him restore?) Who can dissuade him or alter his counsels? Who can resist him or oppose his operations? Who can control him or call him to an account? What action can be brought against him? Or who will say unto him, What doest thou? Or, Why doest thou so? Dan 4:35. God is not obliged to give us a reason of what he does. The meanings of his proceedings we know no now; it will be time enough to know hereafter, when it will appear that what seemed now to be done by prerogative was done in infinite wisdom and for the best. (4.) He acts with an irresistible power, which no creature can resist, Job 9:13. If God will not withdraw his anger (which he can do when he pleases, for he is Lord of his anger, lets it out or calls it in according to his will), the proud helpers do stoop under him; that is, He certainly breaks and crushes those that proudly help one another against him. Proud men set themselves against God and his proceedings. In this opposition they join hand in hand. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, to throw off his yoke, to run down his truths, and to persecute his people. Men of Israel, help, Act 21:28; Psa 83:8. If one enemy of God's kingdom fall under his judgment, the rest come proudly to help that, and think to deliver that out of his hand: but in vain; unless he pleases to withdraw his anger (which he often does, for it is the day of his patience) the proud helpers stoop under him, and fall with those whom they designed to help. Who knows the power of God's anger? Those who think they have strength enough to help others will not be able to help themselves against it.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Then Job answered and said. Without taking notice of…
Then Job answered and said. Without taking notice of Bildad's harsh expressions and severe censures, or his unfriendliness to him; he enters directly into the argument, grants some things, confutes others, and defends himself and his conduct.
Then Job answered and said. Without taking notice of Bildad's harsh expressions and severe censures, or his unfriendliness to him; he enters directly into the argument, grants some things, confutes others, and defends himself and his conduct.
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Job 9:2
job 9:2
job 9:2
job 9:2I know it is so of a truth,.... That is, that God is just, and does not pervert justice and judgment, as Bildad had observed, Job 8:3; Job was a man of great natural parts and capacity; he had a large share of knowledge of things, natural, civil, and moral; and he was a good man, in whom the true light of grace shined; and being, enlightened by the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of divine things, he knew much of God, of his being and perfections, and of the methods of his grace, especially in the justification of men, as appears by various passages in this chapter; he knew that God was just and holy in all his ways and works, whether of providence or grace; and this he kept in sight amidst all his afflictions, and was ready to acknowledge it: he knew this "of a truth"; that is, most certainly; for there are some truths that are so plain and evident that a man may be assured of, and this was such an one with Job; he had no need to be instructed in this article; he was as knowing in this point, as well as in others, as Bildad or any of his friends; nor did he need to be sent to the ancients to inquire of them, or to prepare himself for the search of the fathers, in order to acquire the knowledge of this, to which Bildad had advised; yet, though this was so clear a point, about which there was no room for further contest; but then the matter is:
how should man be just with God? if not angels, if not man in his best estate, in which he was vanity when compared with God; then much less frail, feeble, mortal, sinful men, even the best of men, considered in themselves, and with respect to their own righteousness: for, to "be just" is not to be so through an infusion of righteousness and holiness into men, which in the best of men is their sanctification and not their justification; but this is a legal term, and stands opposed to condemnation, and signifies a man's being condemned and pronounced righteous in a judiciary way; so a man cannot be adjudged, reckoned, or accounted by God upon the foot of works of righteousness done by him; since his best works are imperfect, not answerable to the law, but very defective, and so not justifying; are opposite to the grace of God, by which, in an evangelic sense, men are justified; these would encourage boasting, which is excluded in God's way of justifying sinners; and could justification be by them, the death of Christ would be in vain, and there would have been no need of him and his justifying righteousness: especially, it is a certain thing, that a man can never be "just", or "justified with God", in such a way, or through any righteousness wrought out by him; that is, either he is not and cannot be just in comparison of God; for, if the inhabitants of the heavens are not pure in his sight, the holy angels; and if man, at his best estate, was altogether vanity when compared with him, what must sinful mortals be? or not be just at his bar; should he mark their iniquities, enter into judgment with them, or an action against them, summon them before him to answer to charges he has to exhibit; they could not stand before him, or go off acquitted or discharged: or in his account; for his judgment is according to truth; he can never reckon that a perfect righteousness which is an imperfect one: or in his sight; for, though men may be just in comparison of others, or at an human bar, in an human court of judicature, and in the account of men, and in their sight, to whom they may appear outwardly righteous, as well as in their own sight; yet not in the sight of God, who sees all things, the heart and all in it, every action, and the spring of it; see Psa 143:2 Rom 3:20; in this sense, a man can only be just with God through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, accounting that to him, putting it upon him, and clothing him with it, and so reckoning and pronouncing him righteous through it; and which is entirely consistent with the justice of God, since by it the law is fulfilled, magnified, and made honourable, and justice satisfied; so that God is just, while he is the justifier of him that believes in Jesus, Rom 3:26.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain God's justice, wisdom, power and sovereignty, ver. 1-13. Job…
God's justice, wisdom, power and sovereignty, ver. 1-13. Job condemns himself, as not able to contend with God, ver. 14-21. Shews that we cannot judge men by their outward condition, ver. 22-24. And complains of the greatness of his troubles, and the loss he was at, what to say or do, ver. 25-35.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Job acknowledges God's justice and man's sinfulness, 1-3.
CHAPTER IX
Job acknowledges God's justice and man's sinfulness, 1-3.
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Celebrates his almighty power as manifested in the earth and
in the heavens, 4-10.
Maintains that God afflicts the innocent as well as the wicked,
without any respect to their works: and hath delivered the
earth into the hands of the wicked, 11-24.
Complains of his lot, and maintains his innocence, 25-35.
NOTES ON CHAP. IX
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 9:1. Then Job answered and said — “In…
Job 9:1. Then Job answered and said — “In reply to Bildad, Job begins with hinting, that their opinions seemed a little to clash; Eliphaz had insisted, from revelation, that the common failings of men were a sufficient justification of providence, even in the most afflicting dispensations. Bildad says, if he were pure and upright, God would interpose in his behalf. Job replies, that all this is very true; but the difficulty is, to be thus pure and upright: ‘for I am not exempt from the common failings of men: if, therefore, they are sufficient to account for the great calamities which have befallen me, I am still without a remedy. As to God’s power and wisdom, I am as thoroughly convinced, and can give as many instances of it as you; and, therefore, I know it is in vain for me to contend with him, Job 9:2-13. I have nothing left but to acknowledge my own vileness, and to make my supplication to him, Job 9:14-19. But yet, as to any heinous crimes, beyond the common infirmities of human nature, these I disclaim; and let the event be what it will, I will rather part with my life than accuse myself wrongfully. And whereas you affirm, that affliction is an infallible mark of guilt, you quite mistake the matter; for afflictions are indifferently assigned to be the portion of the innocent and the guilty. God, indeed, sometimes in his anger destroys the wicked; but, doth he not as frequently afflict the innocent? The dispensations of providence, in this world, are frequently such, that, were it not that God now and then lets loose his fury against them, one would be almost tempted to imagine the rule of this world was delivered over into the hands of wicked men, Job 9:21-24. As for my own part, my days are almost come to an end: it is therefore labour lost for me to plead the cause of my innocence: besides, that in the sight of God I must appear all vileness; so that it is not for such a one as me to pretend to put myself on a level with him. And, even though I were able to do so, there is no one that hath sufficient authority to judge between us, Job 9:25-33. Yet, were it his pleasure to grant me a little respite, I could say a great deal in my own vindication; but, as matters stand, I dare not; for which reason my life is a burden to me, and my desire is, it may speedily come to an end, chap. 10. Job 9:1, to the end. I would, however, expostulate a little with the Almighty.’ And here he enters into the most beautiful and tender pleading which heart can conceive; ending, as before, with a prayer, that his sufferings and life might soon come to a period; and that God would grant him some little respite before his departure hence.” — Heath and Dodd.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain B.—Job’s reply: Assertion of his innocence and a mournful…
B.—Job’s reply: Assertion of his innocence and a mournful description of the incomprehensibleness of his suffering as a dark horrible destiny
Job 9-10
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1. God is certainly the Almighty and Ever-Righteous One, who is to be feared; but His power is too terrible for mortal man:
Job_9:2-12
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 I know it is so of a truth:
but how should man be just with God?
3 If he will contend with Him,
he cannot answer Him one of a thousand.
4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength;
who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?
5 Which removeth the mountains, and they know not:
which overturneth them in His anger;
6 which shaketh the earth out of her place,
and the pillars thereof tremble;
7 which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not;
and sealeth up the stars;
8 Which, alone spreadeth out the heaven,
and treadeth upon the waves of the sea;
9 which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades,
and the chambers of the South;
10 which doeth great things, past finding out;
yea, and wonders without number.
11 Lo, He goeth by me, and I see Him not;
He passeth on also, but I perceive Him not.
12 Behold, He taketh away, who can hinder Him?
who will say unto Him, What doest Thou?
2. The oppressive effect of this Omnipotence and Arbitrariness of God impels him, as an innocent sufferer, to presumptuous speeches against God:
Job_9:13-35
13 If God will not withdraw His anger,
the proud helpers do stoop under Him.
14 How much less shall I answer Him,
and choose out my words to reason with Him?
15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer,
but I would make supplication to my judge.
16 If I had called, and He had answered me,
yet would I not believe that He had hearkened to my voice.
17 For He breaketh me with a tempest,
and multiplieth my wounds without cause.
18 He will not suffer me to take my breath,
but filleth me with bitterness.
19 If I speak of strength—lo, He is strong!
and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?
20 If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me;
If I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
21 Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul;
I would despise my life.
22 This is one thing, therefore I said it,
He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
23 If the scourge slay suddenly,
He will laugh at the trial of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked:
He covereth the faces of the judges thereof;
if not, where, and who is He?
25 Now my days are swifter than a post;
they flee away, they see no good.
26 They are past away as the swift ships;
as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.
27 If I say, I will forget my complaint,
I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself;
28 I am afraid of all my sorrows,
I know that Thou wilt not hold me innocent.
29 If I be wicked,
Why then labor I in vain?
30 If I wash myself with snow water,
and make my hands never so clean,
31 yet shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch,
and mine own clothes shall abhor me.
32 For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him,
and we should come together in judgment.
33 Neither is there any daysman betwixt us,
that might lay his hand upon us both.
34 Let Him take His rod away from me,
and let not His fear terrify me;
35 then would I speak, and not fear Him;
but it is not so with me.
3. A plaintive description of the merciless severity with which God rages against him, although as an Omniscient Being, He knows that he is innocent:
10:1–22
1 My soul is weary of my life;
I will leave my complaint upon myself;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say unto God, Do not condemn me;
show me wherefore Thou contendest with me.
3 Is it good unto Thee, that Thou shouldest oppress,
that thou shouldest despise the work of Thine hands,
and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
4 Hast Thou eyes of flesh?
or seest Thou as man seeth?
5 Are Thy days as the days of man?
are Thy years as man’s days,
6 that Thou inquirest after mine iniquity,
and searchest after my sin?
7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked;
and there is none that can deliver out of Thy hand.
8 Thine hands have made me and fashioned me
together round about—yet Thou dost destroy me!
9 Remember, I beseech Thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay;
and wilt Thou bring me into dust again?
10 Hast Thou not poured me out as milk,
and curdled me as cheese?
11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh,
and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
12 Thou hast granted me life and favor,
and Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
13 And these things hast Thou hid in Thine heart;
I know that this is with Thee.
14 If I sin, then Thou markest me,
and Thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
15 If I be wicked, woe unto me!
and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head:
I am full of confusion; therefore see Thou mine affliction.
16 For it increaseth. Thou hauntest me as a fierce lion:
and again Thou shewest Thyself marvellous upon me.
17 Thou renewest Thy witnesses against me,
and increasest Thine indignation upon me;
changes and war are against me.
18 Wherefore then hast Thou brought me forth out of the womb?
Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
19 I should have been as though I had not been;
I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not my days few? Cease then,
and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,
21 before I go whence I shall not return,
even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death;
22 a land of darkness, as darkness itself;
and of the shadow of death, without any order,
and where the light is as darkness!
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. As we have seen, Eliphaz and Bildad had alike made the attempt, on the basis of their common places, such as the fact of the universal sinfulness of men, and that of the invariable justice of God’s dealings, to extort from Job the confession of His own ill-desert as the cause of his suffering. Neither of them had heeded his request to render a more reasonable and just decision concerning his case (Job_6:28-30). In this new reply accordingly he addresses himself to both at once, and maintains most emphatically, and even with impassioned vehemence that their propositions, true as they were in general, were not applicable to his case. These propositions which they advanced concerning God’s unapproachable purity, and inexorable justice he admits, but only in order “satirically to twist them into a recognition of that which is for mortal man a crushing, overpowering omnipotence in God, disposing of him with an arbitrariness which admits of no reply” (Job_9:2-12). He then, in daring and presumptuous language, arraigns this terrible Being, this arbitrary Divine disposer, who, as he thinks, notwithstanding his innocence, is resolved to hold and treat him as guilty (Job_9:13-35). And finally, under the influence of these gloomy reflections he falls back into his former strain of doubt and lamentation (in Job 3), closing with a sentiment repeated verbally from that lamentation, although in a condensed form, and casting a gloomy look toward that Hereafter, which promises him nothing better, nothing but an endless prolongation of his present misery (Job_10:1-22). [Dillmann calls attention to the fact that while in the former discourse Job had directed one entire section against his friends, here he says nothing formally against them, but soliloquizes, as it were in their hearing, leaving them to infer whither their assaults are driving him]. The first of these three tolerably long divisions embraces four short strophes (the first three consisting of three verses each, the last of two); the second division consists of two equal sub-divisions (Job_9:13-24 and Job_9:25-35) each of three strophes, and each strophe of four verses: the third division comprises, after an exordium of three lines (ch 10:1) two double-strophes (Job_9:2-22) the first formed of one strophe of 6, and one of 5 verses, the second of two strophes, each of five verses.
2. First Division: Job concedes the propositions of his opponents regarding God’s immutable justice and absolute purity, but shows that for that very reason His power is all the more to be dreaded by mortals; Job_9:2-12.
First Strophe: Job_9:2-4. [Impossibility of maintaining one’s cause before God].
Job_9:2. Of a truth [ironical as also in 12:2] I know that it is so, viz., that what Bildad has set forth is quite true: that God ever does only that which is right, and that whatever proceeds from him must for that very reason be right. It is only to this leading proposition of Bildad’s discourse (Job_8:3) that Job’s remark here can refer, and not also to the discourse of Eliphaz, to which reference is first made in the following member: [It seems hardly worth while to make this distinction between two members of the same verse. Formally it is more natural indeed to suppose the opening remark to be addressed to Bildad, materially it doubtless refers to both. “In his former reply to Eliphaz,” says Hengstenberg, “he had sought to work rather on the feelings of his friends. Having failed in this, as the discourse of Bildad shows, he now makes all that the friends had spoken the subject of his criticism.”]—And how should a mortal [אֱנוֹשׁ, man in his weakness and mortality] be right before God?i.e., how should it be otherwise than as Eliphaz has declared in his fundamental proposition (Job_4:17), to wit, that “no man is just before God;” which proposition moreover Job here changes into one somewhat differing in sense: “no man is right before God.”
Job_9:3. Should he desire to contend with Him, he could not answer Him one of a thousand.—The subject in both members of the verse is man, not God, as Schlottman, Delitzsch, Kamphausen, explain. By “contending” is meant seeking to establish by controversy or discussion the right of man which is denied. The meaning of the second member of the verse is, that God, as infinitely man’s superior, would overwhelm him with such a multitude of questions that he must stand before Him in mute embarrassment and shame, as was actually the case at last with Job, when God began to speak (Job_38:1 sq.).
Job_9:4. The wise of heart and mighty in strength—who has braved Him and remained unhurt?—The absolute cases חכם לב and אמיץ כח are resumed in אֵלָיו, and refer accordingly to God, and not to מִי (as Olshausen thinks). With הִקְשָׁה is to be supplied ערֶֹף: “who has hardened his neck against Him,” (Deu_10:16; 2Ki_17:14), i.e., bid Him defiance?
Second Strophe: Vss. 5–7. A lofty poetic description of the irresistibleness of God’s omnipotence, beginning with its destructive manifestations in nature. [“Job having once conceived the power of God becomes fascinated by the very tremendousness of it—the invincible might of his and man’s adversary charms his eye and compels him to gaze and shudder, and run over it feature after feature, unable to withdraw his look from it. This alone, and not any superficial desire (Ewald) to emulate Eliphaz (to whom there is no particular reference in the speech as most comm. think), accounts for this piece of sublime picturing. Ewald has however finely remarked that the features Job fastens on are the dark and terror-inspiring, as was natural from the attitude in which he conceived God to stand to him.” Davidson].
Job_9:5. Who removeth mountains, and they are not aware that (אֲשֶׁר as in Exo_11:7; Eze_20:26) He hath overturned them in His wrath.—[In favor of thus regarding אֲשֶׁו as a conjunction rather than a relative, may be urged (1) The Perf. הפן, which would otherwise be Imperf.; comp. יַחְתֹּם Job_9:7. (2). The introduction of a relative construction in a coordinate clause, and ו being absent would be a violation of the present participial construction of the strophe. The use of the Imperf. in 6b and 7b is different: those clauses being introduced by ו and subordinate.—E.]. The activity of the Divine wrath bursts upon them so quickly and suddenly that they are quite unconscious of the mighty change which has been effected in them.
Job_9:6. Who maketh the earth to tremble out of her place:viz., by earthquakes, comp. Isa_13:13; Psa_46:3 [2], 4 [3]; and touching the climactic advance from the mountains to the earth, see Psa_90:2.—And her pillars are shaken [lit., rock themselves. The fundamental meaning of פלץ, which is akin to פלם and פלש, is as Dillmann says, to waver, to rock, not to break, as Ges. and Fürst explain, connecting it with פרץ]. The pillars of the earth (comp. Psa_75:4 [3]; 104:5), are, according to the poetic representation prevalent in the O. T. the subterranean roots of her mountains [or according to Schlottmann the foundations on which the earth rests suspended over nothing: Job_26:7; Job_38:6], not their summits, lifted above the earth, which are rather (according to Job_26:11; comp. 38:6) to be thought of as the pillars of the heavenly vault, like Atlas in the Greek mythology.
Job_9:7. Who bids the sun (חֶוֶם, a rare poetic term for the sun, as in Isa_19:18; comp. חַּרְסָה, Jdg_14:18) [“perhaps (says Delitz.), from the same root as חָרוּץ, one of the poetical names of gold,” seeing that in Isaiah l. c. ’Ir ha-Heres is a play upon עִיר הַחֶרֶם, ‘Ηλιούπολις], and it riseth not, i.e., so that it does not shine forth (comp. Isa_58:10), and so appears eclipsed.—And setteth a seal round about the stars, seals them, i.e., veils them behind thick clouds, so that through their obscuration the night is darkened in the same measure as the day by an eclipse of the sun. In regard to obscurations of the heavenly bodies in general as indications of the Divine Power manifesting itself in destruction and punishment, comp. Exo_10:21; Joe_3:4 (2:31); Eze_32:7 seq.; Rev_6:12; Rev_16:10.
Third Strophe: Job_9:8-10. The description of the Divine Omnipotence continued, more especially in respect to its creative operations in nature. [To be noted is the absence of the article with the participles in each of these three verses, which alike with its presence in each of the three preceding verses, is clearly a sign of the strophic arrangement.—E.]
Job_9:8. Who spreadeth out the heavens alone.נֹטֶה according to parallel passages, such as Isa_40:22; Isa_44:24; Psa_104:2, where the heavenly vault is represented as an immense tent—canvass, is to be explained: “who stretcheth out, spreadeth out,” not with Jerome, Ewald [Noyes, Davidson], etc., “who bows down, lets down.” With the latter interpretation the clause לְבַדּוֹ would not agree; nor again the contents of Job_9:9, where clearly God’s activity as Creator, not as Destroyer, or as one shaking the firmament and the stars, is more fully set forth.—And treads upon the heights of the sea, i.e., upon the high-dashing waves of the sea agitated by a storm, over which God marches as its ruler and controller (Job_38:10 sq.) with sure and majestic tread, as upon the heights of the earth, according to Amo_4:13; Mic_1:3; Comp. Hab_3:15, also the excellent translation of the passage before us in the Sept.: περιπατῶν ἔπὶ θαλάσσης ὡς ἐπ’ ἐδάφους. Hirzel and Schlottmann [Merx] understand the reference to be to the waters of the firmament, the heavenly cloud-vessels, or thunder-clouds (Gen_1:6 sq.; Psa_104:3; Psa_18:12 (10); Psa_29:3; Nah_1:3). But these cloud-waters of the heavens are never elsewhere in the Holy Scripture called “sea” (יָם); also not in Job_36:30 (see on the passage), and still less in Rev_4:6; Rev_15:8; Rev_22:1, where the θάλασσα of glass in the heavenly world signifies something quite different from a sea of rain-clouds. [“The objection that this view of sea interferes with the harmony of description, mixing earth and heaven, is obviated by the consideration that the passage is a description of a storm where earth (sea) and heaven are mixed.” Davidson].
Job_9:9. Who createth the Bear and Orion and Pleiades.—עשֶֹׁה is taken by Umbreit and Ewald as synonymous with עֹטֶה; “who darkens the Bear, etc.”, against which however may be urged the use of עשה in Job_9:10, likewise the description flowing out of the present passage in Amo_5:8, and finally the lack of evidence that עשה means tegere (which remark holds true also of Job_15:27; and Job_23:9). Moreover the connection decidedly requires a verb of creating or making. [“This as well as all the other participles from Job_9:5 on to be construed in the present, for the act of creation is conceived as continuous, renewing itself day by day.” Dillmann.—“Job next describes God as the Creator of the stars, by introducing a constellation of the northern (the Bear), one of the southern (Orion), and one of the eastern sky (the Pleiades).” Delitzsch]. Of the three names of northern constellations, which occur together in Job_38:31-32, עָשׁ, or as it is written in that later passage עַיִשׁ, denotes unmistakably the Great Bear, or Charles’s Wain, the Septentrio of the Romans, and the n’ash (נעש), i.e., “bier” of the Arabians. Whether the word is etymologically related to this Arabic term, which is suggested by the resemblance of the square part of the constellation to a bier, the three trailing stars, the benath na’ash, “daughters of the bier,” being imagined to be the mourners, is doubtful. [The current form עיש decisively contradicts the derivation from נעש]—כְסִיל in that case, lit. “the fool,” is certainly Orion, who, according to the almost universal representation of the ancient world, was conceived of as a presumptuous and fool-hardy giant, chained to the sky; comp. the mention of the מוֹשְׁכוֹת, i.e., the “bands,” or “fetters” of Orion in Job_38:31, as well as the accordant testimony of the ancient versions (LXX.: ’Ωρίων, at least in the parallel passages Job_38:31 and Isa_13:10; similarly the Pesh., Targ., etc.). Against the reference to the star Canopus (Saad. Abulwalid, etc.), may be urged, apart from the high antiquity of the tradition which points to Orion, the context of the present passage as well as of Job_38:31, and Amo_5:8, which indicates groups of stars, and not a single star.—The third constellation כִּימָהi.e., the heap, is rendered “the Hyades” only in the Vulgate; the remaining ancient versions however (also Saadia), and the Vulg. itself in the parallel passage, 38:31, render by πλειάς, Pleiades, so that beyond doubt it is to be understood of the group of seven stars in the neck of Taurus (known in German as the “clucking hen”); comp. Amo_5:8.—And the chambers of the South;i.e., the secret rooms or spaces (penetralia) of the constellations of the southern heavens, which to the inhabitant of the northern zones are visible only in part, or not at all. In any case תֵּמָן (defectively written for תֵּימָן) points to the southern heavens, and since חֲדָרִים predominantly signifies “apartments, chambers, halls,” less frequently “store-rooms, reservoirs,” the reference to the “reservoirs of, the south wind” (LXX.: ταμεῖα νότου; some modern interpreters also, as Ges., etc.) is less natural, especially as the description continues to treat of the objects of the southern skies. [Dillmann, after recognizing the rendering of the LXX. as admissible, remarks: “On the other side the author certainly knew nothing of the constellations of the southern hemisphere; at the same time as one who had travelled (or at least: as one familiar with the results attained in his day by the observation of physical phenomena,—E.) he might well be acquainted with the fact that the further South men travel, the more stars and constellations are visible in the heavens; these are to the man who lives in the North, secluded as it were in the inmost chambers of the heavenly pavilion, and are for that reason invisible; it is of these ‘hidden spaces’ (Hirzel) of the South, with their stars, that we are here to think”].
Job_9:10. Who doeth great things, past finding out, and marvelous things without number: agreeing almost verbatim with what Eliphaz had said previously, Job_5:9, in describing the wondrous greatness of the Divine Power—an agreement, indeed, which is intentional, Job being determined to concede as fully as possible the affirmations of his friends respecting this point.
Fourth Strophe: Job_9:11-12. God puts forth this irresistible omnipotence not only in nature, both in earth and in heaven, but also in that which befalls individual human lives, as Job himself had experienced.—[“There is great skill in making Job touch merely the outstanding points, illuminate only with a single ray the heaven-reaching heights of the Divine power; that in itself is not his immediate theme—it is the crushing effect this power has on feeble man; and to this he hastens on with sudden strides.” Dav. “After the extended description [just given] of the Divine omnipotence (which Ewald wrongly characterizes as “altogether too much of a digression,” whereas it is entirely pertinent to the subject, and all that follows proceeds out of it), the short hasty glance which in this and the following verse is cast on miserable mortal man, makes an impression so much the more pointed.” Schlottman.]
Job_9:11. Lo! [הֵן in this and the following verse, vividly descriptive, and also strongly individualizing himself as the victim of the irresistible omnipotence just described] He passes by me [and I see Him not; He sweeps before me, and I perceive Him not.—The imperfect verb for present, “being an exclamation of felt, though unseen, nearness of God.” Dav.—יחלף in Job_4:16 of “a spirit;” here of the Infinite Spirit, sweeping past him on His career of destruction.—E.] חלף, synonymous with עבו as in Job_4:15, forms an assonance with the parallel חתף of the following verse.
Job_9:12. [Lo! He snatches away (scil. His prey)], who will hold Him back; or: “turn Him back” (יְשִׁיבֶנּוּ), viz. from His course: hence equivalent to: “who will put himself as an obstacle in His way?” (comp. Job_11:10; Job_23:13).
3. Second Division: The oppressive thought of God’s overwhelming and arbitrary power incites him, the innocent sufferer, to speak defiantly against God: Job_9:13-35.
First Section: Job_9:13-24 : A general complaint of the severity and arbitrariness with which God abuses the exercise of His illimitable omnipotence towards man.
First Strophe: Job_9:13-16. [The mightiest cannot withstand Him, how much less I?]
Job_9:13. [By some put in strophic connection with the verses preceding; but Job_9:12 appropriately closes the first division, while Job_9:13 is the basis of what follows. Observe especially the contrast between the “helpers of Rahab” in 13b, and “I” in 14a.—E.]—Eloah ceases not from His wrath [Eng. Ver. incorrectly begins with “if”]: lit. “does not cause it to return,” i.e. does not recall it [“it is as a storm wind sweeping all before it, or a mounting tide bearing down all resistance and strewing itself with wrecks.” Dav.].—An affirmation the decided one-sidedness of which sufficiently appears from other passages, e.g., from Psa_78:38.—The helpers of Rahab stoop under Him.—So far as רַהַב in and of itself denotes only “a violent, insolent and stormy nature” (comp. Job_26:12), עֹזְרֵי־ר׳ may be simply rendered, as by Luther, Umbreit, and most of the older expositors: “insolent,” or “proud helpers” [and so E. V., Con., Dav., Hengst.]. But apart from the colorless, tame signification which thus results [to which add the vague generality of the description, weakening the contrast between 13b and 14a; and the incompleteness of the expression, whether we translate, “proud helpers,” which suggests the query—helpers of what? or “helpers of pride.”—E.], the Perf. שָׁחֲחוּ, lit. “have stooped,” leads us to conjecture a definite historical case [“a case of signal vengeance on some daring foe, who drew around him many daring helpers, would be more telling in this connection.” Dav.] Moreover רהב in fact appears elsewhere in a more concrete sense than that of “violent, presumptuous raging” (so also in Job_26:12, where see Com.). It signifies, to wit, as Isa_51:9; Psa_89:11 [10] show, essentially the same with תַּנִּין, hence a sea-monster (κῆτος), and by virtue of this signification is used as a mythological and symbolical designation of Egypt (as well in the two passages just mentioned, as also in Isa_30:7 and Psa_87:4), the same country which elsewhere also is symbolically designated as תַּנִּין or לִוְיָתָן. We are thus left to one of two significations for רהב in the present passage. We may, on the one hand, find in the passage a special reference to Egypt, and an allusion to some extraordinary event in the history of that country, whereby its rulers or allies were over-whelmed with defeat. In this case, it would be more natural with Hahn to think of the overthrow of Pharaoh and his mighty ones in the time of Moses [so Jarchi who understands by the “helpers” the guardian angels of the Egyptians, who came to their assistance, but were restrained by God], than with Olshausen to think of some unknown event in the history of Ancient Egypt, or even with Böttcher of the reign of Psammetich. Or, on the other hand, setting aside any special reference to Egypt, we can (with Ewald, Hirzel, Schlottmann, Delitzsch, Dillmann) regard it as an allusion to some legend, current among the nations of the East, according to which some gigantic sea-monster with its helpers was subdued by the Deity (comp. the Hindu myth of Indra’s victory over the dusky demon Britras). In favor of this interpretation may be urged the parallel passage in Job_26:12, which certainly contains no reference to Egypt, as well as the rendering of the LXX., kήτη τὰ ὑπ’ οὐρανόν, which evidently points to an old tradition of the correct interpretation. [“Jerome translates qui portant orbem, probably following a Jewish tradition concerning giants which had been overcome by God and sentenced to bear the pillars of the earth.” Schlott. Dillmann argues forcibly, that the common application of these three terms, תנין ,רהב, and לויתן, to Egypt can be explained only by supposing that the first was related in signification to the other two names, being used like them of a sea-monster. He further remarks: “that the legend was widely known and possessed great vitality among the people is indicated by the fact that poets and prophets used it as a symbol of the imperial power of Egypt. It is not strange, accordingly, to find such a popular legend used for his purpose by a poet who elsewhere also derives his material on all sides from popular conceptions.”] Add that it is more natural to seek the basis of this legend of Rahab either in obscure reminiscences which lingered among the ancients touching the gigantic sea-monsters of the primitive world (plesiosauri, ichthyosauri, etc.), or in a symbolical representation of the billowy swelling of the raging ocean, resembling an infuriated monster, than to assign to it an astronomical basis, and to take רהב to be at the same time the name of a constellation such as Κῆτος or Πρίστις [Balæna Pistrix); for the context by no means points of necessity to such an astronomical application of the term (the mention of the constellations in Job_9:9 being too remote), and moreover in Job_26:12 there is nothing of the kind indicated, as Dillmann correctly observes, against Ewald, Hirzel, Delitzsch.
Job_9:14. How should I answer Him?—I, an impotent, weak, sorely suffering mortal. On אַף כִּי comp. Job_4:19; on עָנָה, “to answer, respond,” see above on Job_9:3.—Choose out my words against Him?i.e. weigh my words against Him (עִם as in Job_10:17; Job_11:5; Job_16:21) with such care and skill [the ה in אֶבְחֲרָה indicating the mental effort involved], that I should always hit on the right expression, and thus escape all censure from Him.
Job_9:15. Whom I (even) if I were in the right (צָדַקְתִּי, sensu forensi) [“innocent, judicially free from blame”], could not answer, I must make supplication to Him as my judge, viz. for mercy (התחנן with לְ as in Est_4:8). The Partic. Poel מְשׁפֵט is not essentially different in signification from the Partic. Kal שֹׁפֵט, although it does differ somewhat from it, in so far as it denotes lit. an “assailant” or “adversary” (judicial opponent: שֹׁפֵט, [Poel, expressing aim, endeavor], judicando vel litigando aliquem petere, comp. Ewald, § 125, a). [“So overpowering is God’s might that Job would be brought in litigating with Him to the humiliation of beseeching His very adversary—an idea which sufficiently answers Conant’s charge, that to render מְשֹׁפֵטassailant has very little point.” Dav.]
Job_9:16. Should I summon Him, and He answered me (if accordingly the case supposed to be necessary in 15b should actually happen, and be followed with results favorable to the suppliant), I would not believe that He would listen to me:i.e. I should not be able to repress the painful and awful though that He, the heavenly and all-powerful Judge of the world, would grant me no hearing at all. [“The answer of God when summoned is represented in Job_9:16 a as an actual result (præt. followed by fut. consec.), therefore Job_9:16 b cannot be intended to express: I could not believe that he answers me, but: I could not believe that He, the answerer, would hearken to me; His infinite exaltation would not permit such exaltation.” Delitzsch.] The whole verse is thus an advance in thought upon the preceding.
Second Strophe: Job_9:17-20. Continuing the description of Job’s utter hopelessness of victory in his controversy with God, clothed in purely hypothetical statements.
Job_9:17. He who would overwhelm me in a tempest, and multiply my wounds without cause;i.e., who would pursue me with assaults and calamities, even if I were innocent. [אֲשֶׁר may be taken either as relative, or as conj. “for,” (E. V. Con.) the one meaning really blends with the other, as in Job_9:15 = quippe qui]. With the rendering of יְשׁוּפֶנִּי here adopted, “would overwhelm me” (so also Vaih.) we can leave unsolved the question, so difficult of decision, whether, following the Aram. שְׁפָא, and the testimony of the Ancient Versions (LXX. ἐκτρίψῃ; Vulg. conteret), we render שוּף “to crush, to grind;” or, following the Arab, sâfa, and the Hebr. שָׁאַף; we render it “to snatch up, seize,” (inhiare). Hirzel, Ewald, Umbreit, Dillmann, favor the latter rendering; but on the other side Delitzsch successfully demonstrates that neither Gen_3:15 nor Psa_139:11 (the only passages outside of the present in which שׁוּף appears) necessarily requires the sense of “snatching,” certainly not that of “sniffing.”
Job_9:18. Would not suffer me to draw my breath (comp. Job_7:19), but would surfeit me with bitterness [lit. plur. “bitternesses”]. For כִּי in the sense of “but, rather,” comp. Job_5:7; for the form. מַמְּרֹרִים, with Dagh. dirimens [“which gives the word a more pathetic expression,” Del.], comp. Ges., § 20, 2, b.
Job_9:19. If it be a question of the strength of the strong [others (E. V. Conant, Carey, Schlott.) connect אַמִּיץ with the following הִנֵּה; but as the latter is always followed by the predicate, and such an exclamation in the mouth of God (see below) would be less natural than the simple interjection, the connection given in the text is to be preferred. The accents are not decisive,—E.]—lo, here (am I): [הִנֵה for הֵנִּנִי, as אַיֵּה Job_15:23, is for אַיּוֹ]—i.e. “would He say”: He would immediately present Himself, whenever challenged to a trial of strength with His human antagonist. Similar is the sense of the second member:—Is it a question of right who will cite me (before the tribunal); viz., “would He say.” [Whichever test of strength should be chosen, whether of physical strength in a trial-at-arms, or of moral strength, in a trial-at-law, what hope for weak and mortal man?—E.] The whole verse, consisting of two elliptical conditional clauses, with two still shorter concluding clauses (also hypothetical), reminds us in a measure by its structure of Rom_8:33-34.
Job_9:20. Were I (even) right, my mouth would condemn me:i.e., from simple confusion I should not know how to make the right answer, so that my own mouth (פּי, with logical accent on suffix, as in Job_15:6) would confess me guilty, though I should still be innocent—(צדק, as in Job_9:15).—Were I innocent—He would prove me perverse [וַיַּעְקְשֵׁנִי, with Chiriq of Hiphil shortened to Sheva: comp. Ges. § 53 [§ 52] Rem. 4]. The subject is “God,” not “my mouth” (Schlottmann) [Wordsworth, Davidson, Carey]; God would, even in case of my innocence, put me down as one עִקֵּשׁ, one morally corrupt, and to be rejected. “Thus brooding over the thought, true in itself, that the creature when opposed to the heavenly Ruler of the Universe must always be in the wrong, Job forgets the still higher and more important truth that God’s right in opposition to the creature is always the true objective right.” Delitzsch.
Third Strophe: Job_9:21-24. Open arraignment of God as an unrighteous Judge, condemning alike the innocent and the guilty.
Job_9:21. I am innocent! In thus repeating the expression תָּם אֲנִי, Job asserts solemnly and peremptorily that which in Job_9:20 b he had in the same words stated only conditionally.—I value not my soul:i.e., I give myself no concern about the security of my life, I will give free utterance to that confession, cost what it may. So rightly most commentators, while Delitzsch, against the connection (see especially the 2d member) explains: “I know not myself, I am a mystery to myself, and therefore have no desire to live longer.” [Hengstenberg: “We might explain: ‘I should not know my soul,’ if I were to confess to transgressions, of which I know myself to be innocent; ‘I should despise my life,’ seeing I have nothing with which to reproach myself. Better however: ‘I know not my soul,’ so low is it sunk, I am become altogether alius a me ipso; ‘I must despise my life,’ I am so unspeakably wretched, that I must wish to die”].
Job_9:22. It is all one: thus beyond question must the expression אַחַת־הִיא be rendered; not: “there is one measure with which God rewards the good and the wicked” (Targ., Rosenm., Hirzel); nor: “it is all the same whether man is guilty or innocent” (Delitzsch).—Therefore I will say it out: [Dav. “I will out with it”]. He destroys the innocent and the wicked:viz., God, whom Job intentionally avoids naming; comp. Job_3:20.
Job_9:23-24. Two illustrations confirming the terrible accusation just brought against God (Job_9:22 b) that He destroys alike the innocent and the guilty.
Job_9:23. If (His) scourge slays suddenly, viz., men. By שׁוֹט “scourge” is meant here not of course the scourge of the tongue (Job_5:21) but a general calamity, such as pestilence, war, famine, etc. (Isa_28:15).—Then He mocks at the despair of the innocent:i.e., He does not allow Himself to be disturbed in His blessed repose when those who are afflicted with those calamities faint away from despondency and despair: comp. Psa_2:4; Psa_59:9.—מַסָּה, from מָסַם, Job_6:14. [E. V., Conant, Dav., Renan, Hengst., Carey, Rod., etc., give to מַסָּה here its customary sense of “trial,” from נסה. Jerome remarks that in the whole book Job says nothing more bitter than this.] The interpretation of Hirzel and Delitzsch, founded on Job_22:19 : “His desire and delight are in the suffering of the innocent,” gives a meaning altogether too strong, and not intended by the poet here.
Job_9:24. [“In this second illustration there is an advance in the thought, in so far as here a part at least of the wicked are excepted from the general ruin, nay, appear even as threatening the same to the pious.” Schlott.]—A land [or better, because more in harmony with the sweeping and strong expressions here assigned to Job: the earth] is given over to [lit., into the hand of] the wicked, and the face of its judges He veileth:viz., while that continues, while the land is delivered to the wicked, so that they are able to play their wicked game with absolute impunity.—If (it is) not (so) now, who then does it?אֵפוֹ (so written also Job_17:15; Job_19:6; Job_19:23; Job_24:25, but outside of the book of Job generally אֵפוא) belongs according to the accents to the preceding conditional particles אִס־לֹא (comp. Job_24:25 and Gen_27:37); lit., therefore, “now then if not, who does it?” [Hirz., Con. and apparently Ew. connect אֵפוֹ with the interrogative following—“who then?” quis quæso (Heiligst.) Davidson also takes this view, although admitting that “the accentuation is decidedly the other way,” אפואֹ being used, as he says, “in impatient questions (Ew., § 105, d) Gen_27:33; Job_17:15; Job_19:23”]. That the present illustration of a land ill-governed and delivered into the hands of the wicked had, as Dillmann says, “its justification in the historic background of the composition,” cannot be affirmed with certainty in our ignorance of the details of this “historic background:” though indeed it is equally true that we can no more affirm the contrary.
4. Second Division.—Second Section: Job_9:25-35. Special application of that which is affirmed in the preceding section concerning God’s arbitrary severity to his (Job’s) condition.
First Strophe: Job_9:25-28. [The swift flight of his days, and the unremitting pressure of his woes, make him despair of a release].
Job_9:25. For my days are swifter than a runner. [“וְ introducing a particular case of the previous general: in this infinite wrong under which earth and the righteous writhe and moan, I also suffer.” Dav.—“Days” here poetically personified. קַלּוּ, Perf., a deduction from past experience continuing in the present.—E.]. רָץ might, apparently, comparing this with the similar description in Job_7:6, denote a part of the weaver’s loom, possibly the threads of the woof which are wound round the bobbin, (which the Coptic language actually calls “runners”). This signification however is by no means favored by the usage elsewhere in Hebrew of the word רָץ: this rather yields the signification “swift runner, courier”(ἡμεροδρόμος) compare Jer_51:31; 2Sa_15:1; 2Ki_11:13; Est_3:13; Est_3:15.—They are fled away, without having seen good (טוֹבָה, prosperity, happiness, as in Job_21:25). Job thinks here naturally of the same “good,” which he (according to Job_7:7) would willingly enjoy before his end, but which would not come to him before then. He has thus entirely forgotten his former prosperity in view of his present state of suffering, or rather, he does not regard it as prosperity, seeing that he had to exchange it for such severe suffering. Quite otherwise had he formerly expressed himself to his wife, Job_2:10.
Job_9:26. They have swept past like skiffs of reed; lit., “with [עִם] skiffs of reed,” i.e., being comparable with them (Job_37:18; Job_40:15). אֳנִיּוֹת אֵבָה are most probably canoes of rushes or reeds, the same therefore as the כְּלֵי גֹמֶא (“vessels of bulrush”) mentioned Isa_18:2, whose great lightness and swiftness are in that passage also made prominent. אֵבָה is accordingly a synonym, which does not elsewhere appear, of גמא, reed; for which definition analogy may also be produced out of the Arabic. It has however nothing to do with אֵב (so the Vulg., Targ.: naves poma portantes) [“fruit ships hurrying on lest the fruit should injure”]; nor with אָבָה, to desire, [“ships eagerly desiring to reach the haven”]. (Symm. νῆες σπεύδουσαι) comp. Gekatilia in Gesenius, Thes. Suppl., p. 62; nor with אֵיבָה, “enmity” (Pesh., “ships of hostility,” comp. Luther: “the strong ships,” by which are meant pirate ships); nor with the Abyssin. abâi, the name of the Nile; nor with a supposed Babylonian name of a river, having the same sound, and denoting perhaps the Euphrates (so Abulwalid, Rashi, etc., who make the name denote a great river near the region where the scene of our book is laid). The correct signification was given by Hiller, Hierophyt. II., p. 302, whom most modern critics have followed.—Like the eagle, which darts down on its prey(comp. Job_39:29; Pro_30:19; Hab_1:8, etc.). This third comparison adds to that which is swiftest on the earth, and that which is swiftest in the water, that which is swiftest in the air, in order to illustrate the hasty flight of Job’s days.
Job_9:27-28. If I think (lit., if my saying be; comp. Job_7:13): I will forget my complaint (see on the same passage), will leave off my countenance (i.e. give up my look of pain, my morose gloomy-looking aspect, comp. 1Sa_1:18), and look cheerful (הבליג, as in Job_10:20; Ps. 39:14 (Psa_39:13) [the three cohortative futures here are, as Davidson says, “finely expressive—If I say—rousing myself from my stupor and prostration—I will, etc.”]; then I shudder at all my pains, I know that Thou wilt not declare me innocent.—These words are addressed to God, not to Bildad. Although Job felt himself to be forsaken and rejected by God, he nevertheless turns to Him; he does not speak of Him and about Him, without at the same time prayerfully looking up to Him.
Second Strophe: Job_9:29-31. [He must be guilty, and all his strivings to free himself from his guilt are in vain.]
Job_9:29. I am to be guilty:i.e. according to God’s arbitrary decree [אֲנֹכִי, emphatic—I, I am accounted guilty, singled out for this treatment. The fut. ארשע here expressing that which must be, from which there is no escape.—E.] רָֹשַׁע here not “to act as a wicked or a guilty person” (Job_10:15), but “to be esteemed, to appear” such, as in Job_10:7 (comp. the Hiph. הִרְשִׁיַע, to treat any one as guilty, to condemn, above in Job_9:20).—Wherefore then weary myself in vain, viz. to appear innocent, to be acquitted by God. This wearying of himself is given as an actual fact, consisting in humbly supplicating for mercy, as he had been repeatedly exhorted to do by Eliphaz and Bildad; Job_5:8; Job_5:17; Job_8:5.—הֶבֶל, adverbially, as in Job_21:34; Job_35:16; lit. like a breath, evanescent, here—“fruitlessly, for naught, in vain.” [That notwithstanding his present mood, he does subsequently renew his exertions, “impelled by an irresistible inward necessity, is psychologically perfectly natural.”—Schlottman.]
Job_9:30-31. If I should wash myself in snow-water (read with the K’ri בְּמֵי־ instead of with the K’thibh בְּמוֹ־שֶׁלֶג; bathing immediately in undissolved snow is scarcely to be thought of here) [an unnecessary refinement: for washing the hands, which is what the verse speaks of, snow can be used, and is scarcely less efficacious for cleansing than lye. The K’thibh is to be preferred.—E.], and cleanse my hands with lye (בּוֹר fully written for בֹר, Isa_1:25, signifies precisely as in this parallel passage lye, a vegetable alkali, not: purity [as E. V.: “make my hands never so clean’, for “make clean in purity”], which rendering would give a much tamer signification [besides “destroying, the literality of the parallelism”]), then Thou wouldest plunge me into the ditch (שַׁחַת, here a sink, sewer), so that my clothes would abhor me.—In these latter words, it is naturally presupposed that the one who has been bathed and thoroughly cleansed as to the entire body while still naked is again plunged into a filthy ditch, and that in consequence of this, he becomes a terror to his own clothes, which are personified, so that they as it were start back and resist, when it is sought to put them on him. So correctly most modern expositors. On the contrary, Ewald and Gesenius—Rödiger take the Piel תִּעֵב in a causative sense: “so that my clothes would cause me to be abhorred,”—a rendering in favor of which, indeed, Eze_16:25 can be brought forward, but not the usus loguendi of our book (comp. Job_19:19; Job_30:10) which knows no causative sense for תִּעֵב. [The thought expressed by the two verses is that “not even the best-grounded self-justification can avail him, for God would still bring it to pass that his clearly proved innocence should change to the most horrible impurity.” Delitzsch.]
Third Strophe: Job_9:32-35. [“The cause of Job’s inability to make out his innocence—not his guilt, but the character and conditions of his accuser,” who has no superior to overrule Him, to mediate between Him and Job. Let Him lay aside His terrors, and Job would plead his cause without fear.]
Job_9:32. For [He is] not a man like me, that I should answer Him:viz, before a tribunal, with a view to the settlement of the controversy. Hirzel translates אִיש כָּמֹגִי as though it were accusative to אֶעֱנֶנּוּ: “for I cannot answer Him as a man who is my equal;’ but this is altogether too artificial. [“God is not his equal standing on the same level with him. He, the Absolute Being, is accuser and judge in one person; there is between them no arbitrator, etc.” Delitzsch.]
Job_9:33. There is no arbiter between us who might lay his hand on us both: so that accordingly we should both have to betake ourselves to him, and accept his decision. מוֹכִיחַ is one who gives a decision, an arbitrator who weighs the pleas put in by both the contending parties, and pronounces the award. Not inaptly John Pye Smith, Four Discourses on the Sacrifice and priesthood of Jesus Christ, 5th Ed. p. 98: “There is between us no arguer, who might fully represent the cause, and state, judge and arbitrate fairly for each party.” Observe how emphatically is expressed here, although indeed only indirectly and negatively, the postulate of a true mediator and priestly proprietor between God and sinful humanity! [“It is singular how often Job gives utterance to wants and aspirations which under the Christian economy are supplied and gratified. It was the purpose of the writer to let us hear these voices crying in the wilderness, forerunning the complete manifestation of the Messiah, and therefore the Church is well authorized in using this language of Christ. Job out of his religious entanglement proclaimed the necessity of a mediator to humanize God two thousand years before he came.” Dav.] The optative form [“Would that there might be”] which the LXX. and the Pesh. give to the verse by changing לֹא to לוּ (לֻא), is unnecessary and disturbs the connection with the preceding verse [the thought of which is completed only in this verse. This rendering is, moreover, not suited to the יֵשׁ following. The jussive form יָשֵׁתdoes however reflect the yearning which breathes through his pathetic declaration of the fact that there is no arbiter.—E.].
Job_9:34-35 are related to each other as antecedent and consequent. The two optatives in Job_9:34 are followed by the cohortative אֲדַבְּרָה without וְ as the apodosis (comp. Ewald, § 347, b, 357, b).—Let Him take away from me His rod (with which He smites me, comp. Job_13:21, equivalent therefore to שׁוֹט, scourge, calamity, comp. Job_9:23), and let not His terror overawe [or stupefy] me (אֵמָתוֹ in the objective sense, that which is awful in His appearance, the terror which proceeds from His majestic presence): then will I speak without fear before Him; for not thus am I with myself:i.e. for not thus does it stand with me in my inward man, I am not conscious of anything within me of such a character that I must be afraid before Him. עִם therefore points to that which is within, the consciousness or conscience, as in Job_10:13; Job_15:9; Job_23:14, etc. That לֹא כֵן here expresses so much as: “not so small, not so contemptible,” is a conjecture of Delitzsch’s, which is supported neither by the connection, nor by Hebrew usage elsewhere. [Delitzsch imagines the expression to be “accompanied by a gesture expressive of the denial of such contempt.” Not dissimilar in this respect is Renan’s explanation: “ ‘For in the depths of my heart I am not such as I seem.’ The conscience of Job is tranquil: the cause of his trouble is without himself. It is God, who by a treacherous maneuvre has arrayed against him His terrors, in order to take away from him the freedom of spirit necessary for his defense.”]
5. Third Division: Job 10.—A plaintive description of the pitiless severity with which God rages against him, although by virtue of His omniscience He knows his innocence.
Job_10:1-12 : Exordium (Job_10:1) and First Double Strophe (Job_10:2-12): developing the motive to this new complaint.
Job_10:1. [“With brief preface of words which force themselves from the heart in three convulsive sobs (1 a b c), like the sparse large drops before the storm … the patriarch opens his cause in the ear of heaven.” Dav.]—My soul is weary of my life.—נָֽקְטָה, equivalent to נָקֹטָּה. Eze_6:9, Perf. Niph. of קטט, which is synonymous with קוּט or קוּץ, to feel disgust. [Ges. and Fürst give a root נקט, from which Delitzsch also says it may be derived as a secondary verb formed from the Niph. נָקטֹ—a form which is also supported by the Aramaic] For the thought comp. Job_7:15-16; Job_9:21.—Therefore will I give free course to my complaint: עָלַי, lit. “with me, in me” (comp. Job_30:16; Psa_42:6 [5], 12 [11]; Jer_8:18), not “over me.” [The cohortative futures are to be noted as expressive of the strength of Job’s feeling and purpose.] In regard to the rest of the verse [I will speak in the bitterness of my soul], comp. Job_7:11; Psa_55:18 [17]. [“Job continues to believe that the boldness of his speech will be punished with death.” Renan.]
First Strophe: Job_10:2-11. An appeal to God not to deal so severely with him, seeing that his innocence is already well known to Him.
Job_10:2-3. [“God’s dealing with Job was derogatory to the divine character, and dangerous and confounding to the interests of religion, and the first principles of religious men.”—Dav.]
Job_10:2. I will say to Eloah: condemn (comp. Job_9:20)me not. Observe that Job addresses this complaint also to God, like that in Job_9:28. Let me know wherefore Thou contendest with me (as adversary and judge (רִיב with Accus. as in Isa_27:8; Isa_49:25.
Job_10:3. Doth it please Thee that Thou oppressest, that Thou rejectest the work of Thy hands?—In this question Job touches on a first possibility which might be supposed to determine God to treat him as guilty. He inquires whether it may perchance “please” God, be agreeable to Him, give Him joy, thus to deal with himself. For הטוב לך in this sense, comp. Job_13:9; Deu_23:17 [16]. The interpretation adopted by Dillmann and others is also possible: “is it becoming for Thee,” etc., for which comp. Exo_14:12; Jdg_9:2.—[So besides Dillmann (who argues that this sense is better suited to the remonstrance with God), Ewald, Schlottmann, and Davidson, who says: “טוֹבdecet, not as others juvat. The argument is that God’s treatment of Job, a righteous man, with such severity, was unbecoming a righteous God, and that the world expected other things, and that such things tended to the consternation of religious men, and the confusion of all fixed religious principles”]. Job here calls himself “the work of God’s hands,” not in order to excite sympathy in God, nor in order to touch, as it were, the honor of Him who had so elaborately and carefully formed him in his mother’s womb (Psa_139:15), but principally in order to call attention to his innocence, in order to indicate that he had essentially persevered in that status integritatis in which God had created him. [Job seems in this designation of himself to have had two things in view, closely associated in his mind, as the connection shows: first, the elaborate workmanship of his body (conveyed by the term יְגִיעַ, lit. the product of toilsome labor), which God had dishonored by the loathsome disease which He had sent upon him; and next the moral perfection, which he claimed still to possess, but which God had likewise dishonored by treating him as a sinner.—E.] This view is favored, not only by Job_10:7-8, but also by the circumstantial clause which immediately follows [shown to be a circumstantial clause by the fact that the verses following are the expansion of the preceding part of the verse]: While Thou shinest on the counsel of the wicked;i.e. favorest it, and causest it to succeed, comp. Psa_31:17 [16]; 67:2 [1]; Num_6:25.
Job_10:4. Hast Thou eyes of flesh (i.e., eyes limited to objects of sense, perceiving only the surface of things; comp. Isa_31:3), or seest Thou as man seeth?i.e., with a vision shortsighted and superficial as man’s (comp. 1Sa_16:7). By this question a second possible reason why God might be supposed to treat Job as guilty is indicated as being in reality out of the question; or, in other words: an appeal is taken to His omniscience, to His infallible knowledge of that which lies before Him in men’s hearts.
Job_10:5. Are Thy days as the days of a mortal, or Thy years as the days of a man?—A third possibility is here indicated: that God might be, like men, short-lived; that in general He might be, like them, a mortal, a limited, changeable creature. This third and last possible reason is obviously related to both the preceding (not simply to that which immediately precedes, as Welte and Hahn think) as cause to effect, or as that which is deepest and most fundamental to that which belongs rather to the outward appearance.
Job_10:6. That Thou (so zealously) seekest after my guilt, and searchest after my sins?i.e., that Thou doest what short-sighted men would do, seekest to extort from me the confession of a guilt which has escaped Thy vision, by the application of inquisitorial tortures, viz., by decreeing that I should suffer. [“Such a mode of proceeding may be conceived of in a mortal ruler, who, on account of his short-sightedness, seeks to bring about by severe measures that which was at first only conjecture, and who, from the apprehension that he may not witness that vengeance in which he delights, hastens forward the criminal process as much as possible, in order that his victim may not escape him. God, however, to whom belongs absolute knowledge and absolute power, would act thus, although,” etc. (see next verse). Delitzsch. And Schlottmann (after Wolfssohn) quotes the following from the Sifri on Deu_32:40 : “And I say, I live for ever. It is in my power at once to recompense the wicked, but I live for ever, and hasten not the retribution. A king of flesh and blood hastens the retribution, for he fears that he or his enemy may die, but I live for ever.”]
Job_10:7. Although Thou knowest (עַל here equivalent to “notwithstanding, although” [“lit. upon, or over and above, in addition to, in spite of”], as in Job_16:17; Job_34:6; Isa_53:9) that I am not guilty (comp. Job_9:29) and there is no one who delivers out of Thy hand—i.e., that Thou, in any case, whether we men are guilty or not, hast us completely in Thy power, and canst do with us what Thou wilt: hence Thou actest strangely in seeking so zealously for reasons why Thou shouldst condemn us.
Second Strophe. Job_10:8-12. The severe treatment which God inflicts on Job stands in cruel contradiction not only to His omniscience, but also to His paternal goodness and love. [“The feeling of contradiction between the Deity’s past and present rises ever in intensity in Job’s breast, and in amazement he sets the two in blank opposition to each other before God Himself—let Him reconcile Himself with Himself if He may. While there is fearful keenness of dialectic here, there is also irresistible tenderness of expostulation. The appeal is from God to God: Thy hands have made me, and Thou destroyest me.” Dav
Job_10:8. Thy hands have carefully formed and perfected me.—[“The hinge of connection with the last strophe is מִיָּדְךָ nor can deliver from Thy hand—Thy hands have made me.” Dav.]. The thought conveyed by the phrase יְגִיעַ כַּפֶּיךָ is here again resumed from Job_10:3 and expanded in a description in which there are several points of agreement with Psa_139:13-16.—עִצְּבוּנִי, lit. “have carved me” (עִצֵּב, a Piel intensive, cognate with חצב ,קצב), i.e., elaborately formed [“especially appropriate as describing the fashioning of the complicated nature of man.” Del.]. The following עָשָׂה bears the same relation to this עִצֵּב as perficere, consummare bears to the simple fingere. The clause added in b, יַחַד סָבִיב, “altogether round about” (Vulg.: me totum in circuitu) represents the fashioning and perfecting activity of God as concerned with man’s entire organism, including all his limbs and parts. [And yet (ו consec. with strong adversative sense) Thou destroyest me!—An exclamation of amazement and reproach.]
Job_10:9. Remember now [the particle נָא is expressive of a yearning plaintiveness here—Oh, remember!] that as clay Thou hast perfected me: to wit, formed me out of the crude earth-material with the same skill and care as the potter a vessel of clay. For the use of this favorite figure of the Holy Scriptures, especially of the Old Testament, comp. Job_33:6; Isa_29:16; Isa_45:9; Jer_18:6; Rom_9:20-21. That the same figure serves to illustrate not merely the wise skill and the loving care of the Creator, but also and above all His arbitrary fullness of power, and His unconditional right in His creatures (the jus absolutum Creatoris in creaturas), is evident from the second member: “and wilt Thou turn me gain into dust?” which at the same time reminds us of Gen_2:7; Gen_3:19 and of Jeremiah 18. [That the Divine Arbitrariness, which is the conception held by a perverted mind of the Divine Sovereignty, enters into Job’s train of thought here is plain enough. But that it is the prominent notion may certainly be doubted. This is scarcely consistent with the urgent pathos of the plea: “Oh! remember that thou hast formed me as the clay!” The central thought as expressed by the verbs in Job_10:8, especially עִצֵּב, by the adverbial clause יַחַד סָבִיב, and by the detailed description of Job_10:10-11, is that of the exquisite elaborate workmanship involved in his creation, and the wonder that the Divine Artist should be so regardless of His work as wantonly to ruin it.—E.]
Job_10:10. Didst Thou not pour me out as milk—viz.: in the act of conception, when my body received its development out of a purely liquid material.—[The Imperfects in this verse and the following have their time determined by the Perfects of Job_10:8-9. The use of the Imperf. may be explained with Ewald: “because the wonder is so vividly present to Job’s mind;” or, as Davidson expresses it: “Job again feels the Divine hand upon him.”—E.] And curdled me like cheese?—to wit, into the formless mass of the embryo, which in Psa_139:16 is called גֹלֶם, but here is compared with גְבִינָה, i.e., cheese (lit. curd, the pap-like material of cheese not yet hardened, not “cream” (Schlott.) nor “whey” (Hahn and Ewald) [neither of these definitions being suitable for the reason that the material is not coagulated]). For הִתִּיךְ, to pour out, comp. 2Ki_22:9 (likewise the Kal above in Job_3:24). “To pour into a mould” is a signification which belongs to the word neither here nor in the parallel passage just given (against Seb. Schmidt and Delitzsch): this would be rather נסךְ or יצק [“The development of the embryo was regarded by the Israelitish Chokma as one of the greatest mysteries.” Ecc_11:5; 2Ma_7:22 sq. Del.]
Job_10:11. With skin and flesh Thou didst clothe me, and with bones and sinews Thou didst interweave me.—(שׂוֹכֵךְ from שׂוּךְ, Job_1:10, synonymous with סכך in the parallel passage, Psa_139:13.) [The verse may be regarded as a continuation of the question in Job_10:10. So Con., Dav., etc.] Grotius rightly observes that the description here given of the development of the fœtus is in general true to nature, and corresponds to the actual process (hic ordo in genitura est: primum pellicula fit, deinde in ea caro, duriora paulatim accedunt). With equal correctness most modern expositors remark that this agreement of the description with the natural processes of conception and development is only of a general sort, and that the passage must not be pressed, as is done by Scheuchzer, Oetinger, etc. [as “including and going beyond all systemata generationis”] seeing that this is to attribute to the Holy Scriptures a purpose which is foreign to it.
Job_10:12. Life and favor [“this combination does not occur elsewhere.” Del.] hast Thou shown me (lit. “done to me”—עשׂה, referring at the same time by zeugma to the first object, “life”), and Thy oversight (Thy providence,) has preserved my breath: has done this, to wit, not only during the embryonic state, but through the whole time from my birth to the present. By רוּחַ are designated at the same time both the breath as the outward sign of life, and the spirit as its inward principle; comp. Job_17:1; Ecc_3:19.
Third Division. Second Half (Double Strophe). Job_10:13-22. Continuation of the complaint, and a further advance in the same to the point of wishing that he had never been born.
First Strophe. Job_10:13-17. [God’s goodness in the past simulated, his secret purpose having from the first contemplated the infliction of suffering on Job, whether guilty or innocent.—E.]
Job_10:13. And (nevertheless) Thou didst hide these things in Thy heart.—[וְ strongly adversative: yet, notwithstanding all Thy care in my creation, and all Thy apparent kindness in the past, Thy hidden purpose all the time contemplated my destruction. The connection of this verse is evidently with what follows, and its place is at the beginning of the present strophe. אֵלֶּה and זֹאת cannot refer to the care and favor bestowed on him in his creation and preservation, for it could not be said of these that God had “hidden them in His heart;” they must refer to the present and coming manifestations of the Divine displeasure, which are about to be detailed, and which Job here charges as the consummation of God’s secret eternal plan.—E.] Since the discourse, after the mild conciliatory turn which it had taken in the last division, especially in Job_10:12, here evidently falls back into the bitter tone of complaint, it follows that the וְ at the beginning of this verse is to be taken adversatively. I know that this was in Thy mind—i.e., that this determination had long been formed by Thee (זֹאת עִמָּךְ as in Job_23:14; Job_27:11), viz., to assail me, and visit me with the direst calamities, in the manner described in the following verses, 14–17.
Job_10:14. If I should sin, Thou wouldest watch me.—וּשְׁמַרְתָּנִי, lit., custodies me, here custoditurus eras me, as these verses in general exhibit that which, in Job’s opinion, God had long since determined, and had the disposition to do. שמר here moreover is not “to keep in remembrance, to bear anything in mind” (Stickel, Hirzel, Delitzsch, for then the accus, of the thing kept ought to have been expressed (comp. Pro_4:21; Pro_7:1).—The meaning is rather to watch one carefully, to hold under observation, rigide observare s. custodire aliquem; comp. Job_7:12; Job_13:27.
Job_10:15. If I should be wicked—woe unto me!—As is evident from this exclamation אללי לי, “woe unto me!” which takes the place of a clause expressing the consequence in the future, רשעתי is a stronger expression than חטאתי in the verse preceding. [“אללי very strongly expressive of terror or pain, Mic_7:1; words would fail to describe the violence of the punishment.” Dav. As much stronger therefore as אללי is than שמר, so much stronger, it may be inferred, is רשע here than חטא.—E.]. It must not therefore be weakened by rendering it (with Schlottmann and Olshausen) “being found guilty;” it expresses the idea of gross, presumptuous sinning, deserving of a punishment indescribably severe (here indicated only by an exclamation of woe).—And were I righteous (the opposite case of the two hitherto mentioned) I should not then (according to God’s plan and purpose) lift up my head:i.e., I should not dare to enjoy my righteousness, nor to profit toy my good conscience so as to look up with freedom and confidence: comp. Job_11:15; Job_22:26; Luk_21:28. Rather would he even then go his way like one who had an evil conscience: filled with shame, and in sight of my misery.—רְאֵה is either to be taken as constr. state of an adj. רָאֶה, not elsewhere occurring (of a like structure with קָשֶׁה ,יָפֶה, etc., so Gesenius, Fürst, Welte, Hahn, Del. [Schult., Schlot., Dav.] etc.), or we are to read רֹאֶה (Piscator, Ewald, Hirz., Böttch., Dillm. [Ren., Hengst.] etc.): for to take it as Imper. [E. V., “therefore see thou mine affliction”] (De Wette), or as Infin. (Umbreit, Rosenm.) [Carey] makes the construction altogether too hard.
Job_10:16. And should it (my head) lift itself up:i.e., should I, although condemned by Thee, still exhibit a cheerful courage and a proud self-consciousness. This accordingly is not a new case, but an expansion of that just supposed in Job_10:15 b. On יִגְֹאֶה comp. Job_8:11; on the omission of אִם see Ewald, § 357, b.As a lion Thou wouldest (then) hunt me and again show Thy wondrous power in me: to wit, by means of the most exquisite tortures, and the most violent persecutions, with which Thou wouldest then visit me. [“Thou wast wonderful in my creation (Job_10:8-12); and now Thou art wonderful in inventing new means of destroying me.” Words.]. כַּשַּׁחַל certainly belongs to God as the subj. addressed, not to Job as obj. (as Schlottmann [and Davidson] think). We find God in His anger compared to a beast of prey also in Job_16:9; He is in particular described as a lion tearing His prey in Hos_5:14; Hos_13:7; comp. Isa_31:4; Isa_38:13; Jer_25:38; Lam_3:10; Amo_3:12. On the use of שׁוּב with a finite verb following to express the adverbial notion “again, repeatedly”—a construction similar to that above in Job_6:28—comp. Ewald, § 285, b. On תִּתְפַּלָּא, with final vowel â, although not in pause (as also in Num_19:12), see Ewald, § 141, c. [Ewald. who is followed by Davidson, finds in the details of the Divine Plan against Job as here unfolded “a cruel tetralemma, a fearful fourfold net,” to compass the ruin of Job whichever way he should turn. (1) Were he to err—and to err is human—God would watch him with the keenest eye, and punish him without pity. (2). Should he sin heinously, his punishment would be commensurate with his guilt, transcending all description. (3). Should he however be innocent he must still be doomed to bear about with him a guilty look, and seem and feel like a criminal. (4). Should he be unable from pride, or conscious innocence thus to belie his integrity, and dare to hold up his head, God would in His wrath hunt him like a lion.—The scheme is ingenious and plausible, and has not yet been successfully disproved. Schlottmann argues against it: (1). That the distinction it makes between רשע and חטא is forced, to which what has been said above is a sufficient answer. (2). That the mention in Job_10:15 of the possibility of being righteous along with that of being wicked is wholly superfluous! a remark which it is difficult to understand. Job is enumerating all the moral possibilities of his condition, and showing that whichever course he takes his Omnipotent Adversary is there to meet him with a flaming sword of vengeance. Assuming therefore Ewald’s view to be not unfounded, the following additional remarks suggest themselves concerning it. 1. In the first two hypotheses, in which the guilt of Job is assumed, the hypothetical element is made distinct and strong by the use of אִם; in the last two, which assume his innocence the אִם is omitted. 2. Each pair of hypotheses presents a climax, the second hypothesis being an advance upon the first, both in the protasis and apodosis; the fourth upon the third, especially in the apodosis.—E.].
Job_10:17. Thou wouldest renew Thy witnesses against me: i.e., ever cause new witnesses to appear against me, viz., ever new sufferings and calamities: comp. Job_16:8, where may be found the same personification of sufferings as witnesses which, in the eyes of men, ever rise up to testify against him and his innocence,—And increase Thy displeasure against me (עִם here the same as contra; comp. Job_13:19; Job_23:6; Job_31:13); ever new troops and an army against me. The phrase ,חֲִליכוֹת וְצָבָא is not to be understood as a hendiadys, as if it denoted “ever new hosts, alternating hosts” [“with host succeeding host against me”: Con., Dav., Ren., Words., Schlott., Ges., Noy., etc.], for this idea would be more simply expressed by חֲלִיכוֹת צָבָא (against Hirzel and most moderns). Rather does צבא denote the main body of the army, while חֲלִֹיכוֹת, lit., “exchanges” are fresh advancing reserves, or reinforcements. With the former, the original main army, are compared Job’s principal sufferings, while the latter the reserve troops, denote the new species of pains and tortures with which God continually afflicts and vexes him (Job being represented as a fortress, the object of God’s hostile attack; comp. Job_19:12; Job_30:12). [חליכות stands first as being the prominent element, Job’s mind dwelling principally, though not altogether, on the new tortures with which God assailed him, as is evident also from תתדשׁ and תרב just before.—E.]. Moreover it will be seen that every verse—member from Job_10:14 to Job_10:18 inclusive ends in the vowel î, a fact already noted by Böttcher, which can scarcely be accidental. The impression that the Divine wrath has especial reference to the single individuality (the one 1) of the lamenting Job is strongly intensified by this continuous repetition of the rhyme from the pronominal inflection (Delitzsch).
Second Strophe: Job_10:18-22, consisting of two thoughts: a. Curse of his own existence
Job_10:18-19 (a condensed repetition of Job_3:11-16); b. Prayer for a short respite before going down into the dark realm of the dead (repeated out of Job_7:16-19).
Job_10:18. Why then didst Thou bring me forth out of the womb? I should have died, etc. “The Imperfects אוּבַל ,אֶהְיֶח ,אֶגוְעַ have a hypothetic coloring, being strictly the conclusion of a pre-supposition indicated by the preceding question. They indicate what would have happened, if God had not called him into being out of his mother’s womb, in his opinion, which he, as a wise man, here puts in opposition to the Divine treatment” (Dillmann). [The Eng. Ver. “Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!” is feeble, and destroys the unity of the passage formed by this member, and the verse following, represented as above indicated by the three conditional Imperfects.—E.].
Job_10:19. הוּבַל expresses the idea of being borne in slow solemn procession, as is customary in burial; so also in Job_21:32.
Job_10:20. Are not my days few? Let Him cease then,—let Him let me alone.—Thus are the words to be rendered according to the K’thibh יֶחְדָּל and יָשִׁית not as a petition addressed to God, but as a request expressed concerning Him in the third person, as one who had withdrawn. The K’ri, in giving instead the Imperf. וַחֲדַל and וְשִׁית: “cease,” and “let me alone” (so also most of the Ancient Versions), [F. V.], is a change of the original text, suggested by Job_7:16, which passage is here imitated, although indeed only freely. [This use of the 3d person here, following the K’thibh which undoubtedly is the correct reading, is a noticeable and masterly stroke, expressing the helpless, exhausted prostration of Job’s spirit at the close of his discourse.—The vehement Titanic energy of his previous defiance has expended itself: he no more ventures to stand up face to face with God, and with head uplifted pour forth his bitter remonstrances: he now lies low in the dust, panting with the weary strife, with no hope but in death, and with averted, down-cast eye, exclaims of God—“Let Him cease for a little while!” Another indication of his mental exhaustion is found in the fact that the remainder of his discourse is made to consist of a repetition of phrases from Job 7.—He can only repeat, mechanically almost, what he has said, although even in this there is inimitable pathos.—E.]. שִׁית מִן, to turn away the attention from any one, like שָׁעָה with מִן, Job_7:19; Ps. 39:14 [ Psa_39:13]; to supply לֵב, or עֵינַיִם, or יָד (after Job_13:21) is not really necessary.—That I may be cheerful a little while, lit., look up brightly, as in Job_9:27; Ps. 39:14 [Psa_39:13]
Job_10:21. Before I go hence and return not: [second clause וְלֹא אָשוּב adverbial, = not to return]. Comp. Job_7:7-10. An צלמות, comp. on Job_3:6.
Job_10:22. Into the land of darkness, like to midnight.—So Ewald, Dillmann, etc., in order to express the idea of an intensified degree of darkness, indicated by אֹפֶל (lit., “covering”: see Job_3:6; Job_23:17; Job_28:3; Psa_91:6).—Of the shadow of death, and of confusion.—לֹא סְרָרִים [סדריםἄπ. λεγ in the Old Testament, but a common word in the later Hebrew, Del.], lit., “no ranks,” i.e., disorder, chaotic confusion (Tohuvabohu, Gen_1:2). For this use of לֹא, as a terse negation of the conception of a noun, like our prefix un-, or dis-, comp. Job_8:11; Job_26:2-3.—Where it is bright like midnight. וַתֹּפַע, lit., “so that it shines forth, is bright (comp. Job_3:4; Job_10:3). The subj. of this verb is certainly אֶרֶץ (Hirzel, Delitzsch, etc.); the neuter use of the fern. תפע is less probable. אֹפֶל here again signifying the most intense darkness, the most sunless gloom, (ipsum medullitium umbrœ mortis, ejusque intensissimum, Oetinger). “To be bright like midnight” (the direct opposite of Psa_139:12) is a strong terribly vivid description of superlative darkness, as it rules in the under-world. Compare Milton’s: “not light, but darkness visible,” in his description of hell.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The fundamental thought, around which all the discussions of this new discourse of Job 3 resolve, is that of absolute power in God, and of that power acting in a merciless arbitrary manner, entirely regardless of all human right and innocence. “He destroys the innocent as well as the guilty;”—such is the harsh utterance against God as a tyrant, raging in anger, trampling down all right under His feet (Job_9:22), to which Job advances from the concession which he has previously made to both his opponents, that God’s action is always and uniformly just (comp. Exeget and Crit. Rem’s., No. 1). He concedes to them, especially to Bildad, without further question: “what God does must be right, just because God, the Righteous One, does it.” But with bitter sarcasm he resolves this into the proposition: “God does just what He pleases, whether it is really righteous or not!” Thus, instead of the God of absolute justice, whom the friends had held up before him and defended (in a way that was one-sided and narrow enough, to be sure), he forms for himself a gloomy, horrible representation of a God of absolute power, who rules and directs not according to objective standards of right, but according to the promptings of an arbitrary will, subject to no restraint. It is the θεὸς δίκαιος of Marcion, who is absolutely and in essence disjoined from all kindness and love; nay, more, it is the God of the pre-destinatianists and extreme (supra-lapsarian) Calvinists, disposing of the destinies of men in accordance with an unconditional, arbitrary decree (decretum absolutum), irrespective of all moral worthiness or unworthiness—such is the Being whom Job here delineates, and before whose hostile assaults on his person, guiltless as he knows himself to be, he recoils in shuddering anguish. Instead of dwelling as he had formerly done (Job_2:10) on the remembrance of the manifold goodness which he had experienced from God, and bowing in patience beneath His hand, and confidently awaiting the explanation in the near or remote future of the dark destiny which according to an inscrutable decree overshadowed him, he here thrusts away from himself all such comfort, writhes like a worm under the crushing pressure of that horrible spectre into which his perverted imagination had transformed the only just and holy God, imputes to Him the severe treatment which although innocent he had endured as a long-cherished and well-contrived plan (ch.10:13–17), and finally relapses into that tone of deepest despair and most disconsolate woe which he had heretofore struck upon, by cursing his existence (Job_10:18 seq.) and beseeching God for just one thing—that before he should depart hence into the eternally dark and joyless Hereafter, He would once again let him alone, that he might have one short last respite in this life. In short it is the sorely tried sufferer, who is not indeed really forsaken by God, but who has nevertheless given himself up, who here pours out his grief without restraint in a lamentation which is at the same time throughout an arraignment of God. Comp. Luther in his Preface to our book: “For before that Job Cometh into the pangs of death, he praiseth God concerning the spoiling of his goods, and the death of his children. But when death is before his eyes, and God withdraweth Himself, then do his words show what manner of thoughts a man, however holy he be, may have against God; how it seemeth to him that God is not God, but a mere judge and an angry tyrant, who exerciseth His power, and careth for no man’s well-being. This is the most extreme part of this book. Only those can understand it, who also feel and know what it is to endure God s wrath and judgment, and to have His mercy hid from them.”
2. Under the rough shell of this abstract predestinatianist way of thinking, the discourse conceals a rich store of glorious religious truths, and powerful testimonies in behalf of a living saving faith, which show to us that Job has been sorely afflicted indeed, but not rejected; nay, more, that bright beams of Divine light pierce the thick darkness, and line with glory the edges of the black clouds of doubt which have come between him and the gracious face of his Heavenly Father. As Brentius beautifully says: “Here you have the blasphemies of hell, into which those are tempted who are for any time judicially forsaken by the Lord;… but Job argues his cause according to his feelings: for in such dread of the judgment as possesses him he feels God to be not a Father, but an executioner.… But mark, at this point the faith of Job lifts up its head even in the midst of judgment! For as Christ, our Lord, when cast into the midst of hell, cries out that He is forsaken, yet at the same time acknowledges God to be His God—for He says: My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? so Job, overwhelmed with all evils, wondering how God, who was before so generous, can now be so cruel a Judge, recounts in the spirit of faith the mercies of the past from the time before his birth until his growth to manhood; for unless a spark of faith had been left in him, he would not have been able to recognize the mercies which he enumerates (Job_10:8-12).” Among these testimonies to the fact that in the midst of all the darkness and judicial terrors which assailed him he still maintained his faith, may be mentioned:
a. The glorious description which he gives in Job_9:5-12 of the Omnipotence and greatness of God, as the same is manifested in the works of His creation, both on earth and in heaven—one of the most elevated descriptions which the poetic literature of the Old Testament has anywhere produced on this topic.
b. The strikingly beautiful description which he gives of the special care and the infinite skill and wisdom exercised by the providence of God in its influence on man’s generation, on the earliest development of the individual human life in the womb, and on every subsequent stage of that development up to mature manhood: Job_10:8-12.—This, too, like the former, is one of the noblest contributions of this book to physico-theology, and to the Bible doctrine of the creation of the individual human life, and of the origin of the soul. Like the parallel passage in Psa_139:13-16, this description seems decidedly to favor the theory of creationism, according to which the generation of each individual man presupposes a concurrent act of immediate creation on the part of the Divine omnipotence (comp. Lactantius. De opif Dei, c. 19). At the same time it is evident, especially from Job_10:10, with the strong emphasis which it lays on the participation of the parents in the origination of the human organism, that the fundamental idea of traducianism, or generationism, is not foreign to the writer’s thought, but is to be included in it as a presupposition which is not to be ignored. So then these two methods of representation, that of creationism and that of generationism, must always and everywhere go hand in hand, mutually supplementing and rectifying one another, (comp. Nitzsch, Syst. of Christ. Doct. § 107, Rem. 2; Rothe, Elk. § 124, Rem. 1; Frohschammer, Ueber Ursprung der menschlichen Seele, 1854).
c. Again, the absolute superiority of the Divine intelligence to the human, and hence the infinite knowledge and unapproachable wisdom of God, are described in Job_9:3-4 (comp. Job_9:14 seq.; Job_10:4) with an impressive power and beauty, rivalling the most important of those Old Testament passages (e.g. Psalms 139.) where this theme is unfolded.
d. When in contrast with all this Job comes to speak of the weakness, vanity, and transitoriness of human existence, his words are not less impressive and eloquent. They resemble (especially Job_9:25 seq. “For my days are swifter than a runner, etc.”, comp. Job_10:20. “Are not my days few,” etc.) those passages in Job’s earlier lament, at the beginning of Job 7., where he describes the transiency and vanity of man’s life on earth; but they also resemble similar passages in the preceding discourses of Eliphaz and Bildad. Thus it is that this complaint over the hasty flight and the misery of human life, presents itself as a constant theme with all the speakers of this book, and is indeed a characteristic property of all the Chokmah poets and teachers of the Old Testament generally.
e. With this repeated emphasizing of human weakness is closely connected the prominence given to the consciousness, characteristic of the Old Testament stand-point of faith and life, of such superiority in God over man as makes it absolutely impossible for the latter to contend, or to come into comparison with Him, there being no arbiter or judicial mediator between both (Job_9:32 seq.). The recognition of this both indirectly postulates such a mediator and prompts to an expression of the yearning felt for him; comp. above on Job_9:33.
f. Finally, it is a noticeable trait of Job’s profound piety that repeatedly, in the midst of his sorrowful complaint, he addresses himself directly to God. Indeed, from Job_9:28 on, he no longer speaks in the third person of God, but in the second person to Him. This tone of entreaty, which the sorely afflicted sufferer maintains, even where he utters the bitterest complaints and accusations against God, is instructive in regard to that which should be regarded as in general the fundamental frame of his soul (comp. on Job_9:28, and on Job_10:2). According to this, he appears as one whom God had in truth not forsaken, but only afflicted for the sake of proving him. Indeed, far from being objectively forsaken of God, he is not once guilty of forsaking God in the subjective sense (i.e. in a spirit of self-will, through doubt, disobedience or open apostasy). In the inmost depths of his praying heart, he does not once believe that he is forsaken or rejected by God; he only fears such a doom in passing, but every time springs shuddering back with hope, or at least with longing to God, and (like a child, severely chastised, which nevertheless knows no other refuge and no other comfort than may be found with its father) does not stop clinging to the Heavenly Author of his being, ever renewing his complaints and petitions to Him for help. “It is true that Job, so long as he regards his sufferings as a dispensation of divine judgment, is as unjust towards God as he believes God to be unjust towards him; but if we bear in mind that this state of conflict and temptation does not preclude the idea of a temporal withdrawal of faith, and that, as Baumgarten (Pentat. i. 209) aptly expresses it, the profound secret of grayer is this, that man can prevail with the Divine Being, then we shall understand that this dark cloud need only be removed, and Job again stands before the God of love as His saint” (Del.).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The survey given above (No. 2 a-f) of those portions of the preceding section having the greatest doctrinal and ethical value will show where the most fruitful themes for homiletic discussion may be found. In any case the separate treatment of these themes commends itself in proportion to the richness of their contents and their high significance, in preference to the homiletic treatment of the whole discourse through all its length as a unit. If a comprehensive text is sought for, either one of the three sections, into which the whole discourse is divided, may be chosen. Or combining the first two sections into one of greater length, the division by chapters may be followed. In this case the theme of a homily on Job 9. might run: “The saint of the Old Testament groaning under the pressure of the Divine omnipotence, not having as yet the consciousness of an atonement.” The theme for Job 10. might be stated: “The pious sufferer of the Old Testament on the brink of despair,” or “wavering between a child-like, thankful, trustful recognition of the Father-love of God (Job_10:8-12) and disconsolate complaint because of His apparent merciless severity.”—As shorter texts the following present themselves: Job_9:2-12—God’s Omnipotence; Job_9:13-24—The apparent injustice of the Divine government of the world; Job_9:25-35—The cheerless and helpless condition of the suffering righteous under the Old Dispensation, who as yet knew no mediator between God and men; Job_10:1-7—The contradiction which shows itself between the fact of God’s omniscience, and that of the innocent suffering of the godly; Job_10:8-12.—God’s fatherly love, and His merciful all-including care as exhibited in the creation and preservation of human life; Job_10:13-22.—God as the hostile persecutor of the sufferer, who fancies himself to be forsaken by Him, and who is deprived of all earthly comfort.
Particular Passages
Job_9:5 sq.: Oecolampadius: The levelling of mountains, the shakings of the earth, eclipses of the sun and of the stars, and in short the movements of the universe are testimonies to the power of God. It must needs be that He is mighty who hurls mountains into the sea with such ease, that it is scarcely noticed.… Hence believers derive the hope that nothing is so terrible or so grievous but God can alleviate it, especially when He says: “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove” (Mat_17:20). By which saying it is testified that the highest power belongs to those who believe.—Starke: If God has the power to remove mountains, He certainly has the power to deliver out of all troubles (Ps. 50:25).—The heavens are a mirror of the infinite and incomprehensible Wisdom, Goodness and Omnipotence of God. Even the heathen have learned from their reflections, that there must be a supreme intelligent Being, who rules over all. Every star is our schoolmaster, and testifies to us that there is a God.
Job_9:10 sq. Brentius: God’s judgments are hidden: at first sight they seem to men either unjust or foolish, but in the end His counsel is understood, and His back is seen, though not His face (Jer_18:17).… Hence if God should pass before thee, i.e. if He should carry on some wondrous work before thine eyes, although at first thou shouldst be ignorant what it is, or what He wills by His wonderful work, nevertheless thou canst not doubt in the least that He is good and wise and just.—Tuebing. Bible: God as omnipresent is continually around us and with us, although we see Him not.—Osiander: Although God is without the least varying disposed towards us as a Father, it may nevertheless seem to us in trouble as though He had changed towards us (Ps. 67:10; Is. 64:16).
Job_9:21 sq. Zeyss: Although it seems to pious believers when in deep affliction and trial, as though God observed no measure and no discrimination in the infliction of punishment, it is nevertheless not so with Him; but such thoughts proceed from flesh and blood, yea, they are temptations of Satan (comp. Brentius above, Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks, No. 2).—Hengstenberg: To this result (viz. of regarding God as the author of evil and as absolutely unjust) we must come in our investigation of evil, if we look at the subject with carnal eyes. The matter looks differently, however, to him who is capable of spiritual discernment, which is true only of him who can bring his own processes and experiences into accord with God’s justice. He sees that the triumph of evil is always only apparent and transient, only the means of preparing the way for the triumph of the good. He sees that the righteous need suffering for temptation and purification, that so long as sin dwells in them, they cannot yet be exalted to glory, but that, as the Apostle says of himself, they must be “troubled on every side, yet not distressed” (2Co_4:8); otherwise they would soon be a dead reed. “The staff of affliction beats our loins down to the grave,” etc., etc.
Job_9:30 seq. Œcolampadius: The most potent kind of comfort is that which comes from a pure conscience, which is as it were a perpetual outcry. But neither from that do we derive any benefit, if we look back at our works. For we shall never thus be purified, who in the strict judgment of God would be pronounced abominable, and defiled with filth.—Zeyss: The guilt of sin can be washed away by no snow-water, ye, or soap, i.e., by no outward works, or self-elected service of God, or papistic holy water. It is quite another washing that serves for that, to wit, the blood of Jesus Christ; 1Jn_1:7.
Job_9:33. œcolamvadius: Without Christ we are such creatures as Job has described above. If however Christ is our arbiter and mediator (1Ti_2:5) He Himself will remove the rod.
Job_10:2 seq. Hengstenberg: The needless and aimless cruelty towards an innocent person, of which Job accuses God, seems all the more inexcusable if this innocent one is at the same time wholly helpless. It would be revolting to see omnipotence sporting with impotence.—To such cheerless results are we driven, when, like Job, we look into ourselves as into a golden cup. If in severe suffering we fail to recognize our own darkness, the Father of Lights must change into darkness.
Job_10:8 seq. Cramer: In affliction there is no better comfort than to remember that we are sprung from God (Psa_22:10).—Chr. Scriver (in the hymn: “Jesu, meiner Seele Leben”):
“Thy loving-kindness was around me flung,
Ere yet the world did lie around my way;
On Thee in my weak infancy I hung,
While helpless on my mother’s breast I lay.
• • • • • • •
Along the wayward paths of early youth
Thy loving-kindness ever followed me.
• • • • • • •
It is in Thee each moment I do live,
Thy Spirit ever with me doth abide;
All that I have is but what Thou dost give,
Thy light has ever been my journey’s guide.”
Hengstenberg: It is worthy of note, what a fund of knowledge of God Job still possesses, even when he seems to have completely forsaken God. With one who is penetrated, as he is, by the consciousness that every whiff of breath belongs to God, faith must, sooner or later, fight its way through all temptations and dark clouds.
Job_10:13 seq. Cramer: God does not afflict and trouble men willingly (Lam_3:33), and although in affliction He seems to frown, He yet smiles on us in His heart. He stands behind the wall, and looks through the lattice; Son_2:9.—Hengstenberg: Nothing tends more strongly to lead human nature astray, than the discovery that one whom you have been accustomed to love and to honor as your benefactor, has used his beneficence only as means to gratify the deepest malignity. Job thinks that his experience in relation to God is of this character. How under such circumstances must the Fountain of all consolation be changed into a poisonous spring!
Job_10:18 seq. Osiander: His great ingratitude if we do not thank God for the use of light in this life; and it is a heathenish speech to say—it were best never to have been born, or to have died immediately after birth.—Zeyss (on Job_10:20 seq.): Terrible as are death and the grave to natural eyes, they are no less sweet and comforting to the eyes of faith (Luk_2:29; Php_1:21).—Starke: Those who are tried are wont to long greatly that God, if He will not altogether remove their suffering, would yet send some relief (Isa_38:14).—Vict. Andreae: Do we not see in these two chapters (9. and 10.) how the human heart in truth wavers to and fro between the proudest presumption and the most pusillanimous despair?
5. Third Division: Job 10.—A plaintive description of the pitiless severity with which God rages against him, although by virtue of His omniscience He knows his innocence.
Job_10:1-12 : Exordium (Job_10:1) and First Double Strophe (Job_10:2-12): developing the motive to this new complaint.
Job_10:1. [“With brief preface of words which force themselves from the heart in three convulsive sobs (1 a b c), like the sparse large drops before the storm … the patriarch opens his cause in the ear of heaven.” Dav.]—My soul is weary of my life.—נָֽקְטָה, equivalent to נָקֹטָּה. Eze_6:9, Perf. Niph. of קטט, which is synonymous with קוּט or קוּץ, to feel disgust. [Ges. and Fürst give a root נקט, from which Delitzsch also says it may be derived as a secondary verb formed from the Niph. נָקטֹ—a form which is also supported by the Aramaic] For the thought comp. Job_7:15-16; Job_9:21.—Therefore will I give free course to my complaint: עָלַי, lit. “with me, in me” (comp. Job_30:16; Psa_42:6 [5], 12 [11]; Jer_8:18), not “over me.” [The cohortative futures are to be noted as expressive of the strength of Job’s feeling and purpose.] In regard to the rest of the verse [I will speak in the bitterness of my soul], comp. Job_7:11; Psa_55:18 [17]. [“Job continues to believe that the boldness of his speech will be punished with death.” Renan.]
First Strophe: Job_10:2-11. An appeal to God not to deal so severely with him, seeing that his innocence is already well known to Him.
Job_10:2-3. [“God’s dealing with Job was derogatory to the divine character, and dangerous and confounding to the interests of religion, and the first principles of religious men.”—Dav.]
Job_10:2. I will say to Eloah: condemn (comp. Job_9:20)me not. Observe that Job addresses this complaint also to God, like that in Job_9:28. Let me know wherefore Thou contendest with me (as adversary and judge (רִיב with Accus. as in Isa_27:8; Isa_49:25.
Job_10:3. Doth it please Thee that Thou oppressest, that Thou rejectest the work of Thy hands?—In this question Job touches on a first possibility which might be supposed to determine God to treat him as guilty. He inquires whether it may perchance “please” God, be agreeable to Him, give Him joy, thus to deal with himself. For הטוב לך in this sense, comp. Job_13:9; Deu_23:17 [16]. The interpretation adopted by Dillmann and others is also possible: “is it becoming for Thee,” etc., for which comp. Exo_14:12; Jdg_9:2.—[So besides Dillmann (who argues that this sense is better suited to the remonstrance with God), Ewald, Schlottmann, and Davidson, who says: “טוֹבdecet, not as others juvat. The argument is that God’s treatment of Job, a righteous man, with such severity, was unbecoming a righteous God, and that the world expected other things, and that such things tended to the consternation of religious men, and the confusion of all fixed religious principles”]. Job here calls himself “the work of God’s hands,” not in order to excite sympathy in God, nor in order to touch, as it were, the honor of Him who had so elaborately and carefully formed him in his mother’s womb (Psa_139:15), but principally in order to call attention to his innocence, in order to indicate that he had essentially persevered in that status integritatis in which God had created him. [Job seems in this designation of himself to have had two things in view, closely associated in his mind, as the connection shows: first, the elaborate workmanship of his body (conveyed by the term יְגִיעַ, lit. the product of toilsome labor), which God had dishonored by the loathsome disease which He had sent upon him; and next the moral perfection, which he claimed still to possess, but which God had likewise dishonored by treating him as a sinner.—E.] This view is favored, not only by Job_10:7-8, but also by the circumstantial clause which immediately follows [shown to be a circumstantial clause by the fact that the verses following are the expansion of the preceding part of the verse]: While Thou shinest on the counsel of the wicked;i.e. favorest it, and causest it to succeed, comp. Psa_31:17 [16]; 67:2 [1]; Num_6:25.
Job_10:4. Hast Thou eyes of flesh (i.e., eyes limited to objects of sense, perceiving only the surface of things; comp. Isa_31:3), or seest Thou as man seeth?i.e., with a vision shortsighted and superficial as man’s (comp. 1Sa_16:7). By this question a second possible reason why God might be supposed to treat Job as guilty is indicated as being in reality out of the question; or, in other words: an appeal is taken to His omniscience, to His infallible knowledge of that which lies before Him in men’s hearts.
Job_10:5. Are Thy days as the days of a mortal, or Thy years as the days of a man?—A third possibility is here indicated: that God might be, like men, short-lived; that in general He might be, like them, a mortal, a limited, changeable creature. This third and last possible reason is obviously related to both the preceding (not simply to that which immediately precedes, as Welte and Hahn think) as cause to effect, or as that which is deepest and most fundamental to that which belongs rather to the outward appearance.
Job_10:6. That Thou (so zealously) seekest after my guilt, and searchest after my sins?i.e., that Thou doest what short-sighted men would do, seekest to extort from me the confession of a guilt which has escaped Thy vision, by the application of inquisitorial tortures, viz., by decreeing that I should suffer. [“Such a mode of proceeding may be conceived of in a mortal ruler, who, on account of his short-sightedness, seeks to bring about by severe measures that which was at first only conjecture, and who, from the apprehension that he may not witness that vengeance in which he delights, hastens forward the criminal process as much as possible, in order that his victim may not escape him. God, however, to whom belongs absolute knowledge and absolute power, would act thus, although,” etc. (see next verse). Delitzsch. And Schlottmann (after Wolfssohn) quotes the following from the Sifri on Deu_32:40 : “And I say, I live for ever. It is in my power at once to recompense the wicked, but I live for ever, and hasten not the retribution. A king of flesh and blood hastens the retribution, for he fears that he or his enemy may die, but I live for ever.”]
Job_10:7. Although Thou knowest (עַל here equivalent to “notwithstanding, although” [“lit. upon, or over and above, in addition to, in spite of”], as in Job_16:17; Job_34:6; Isa_53:9) that I am not guilty (comp. Job_9:29) and there is no one who delivers out of Thy hand—i.e., that Thou, in any case, whether we men are guilty or not, hast us completely in Thy power, and canst do with us what Thou wilt: hence Thou actest strangely in seeking so zealously for reasons why Thou shouldst condemn us.
Second Strophe. Job_10:8-12. The severe treatment which God inflicts on Job stands in cruel contradiction not only to His omniscience, but also to His paternal goodness and love. [“The feeling of contradiction between the Deity’s past and present rises ever in intensity in Job’s breast, and in amazement he sets the two in blank opposition to each other before God Himself—let Him reconcile Himself with Himself if He may. While there is fearful keenness of dialectic here, there is also irresistible tenderness of expostulation. The appeal is from God to God: Thy hands have made me, and Thou destroyest me.” Dav
Job_10:8. Thy hands have carefully formed and perfected me.—[“The hinge of connection with the last strophe is מִיָּדְךָ nor can deliver from Thy hand—Thy hands have made me.” Dav.]. The thought conveyed by the phrase יְגִיעַ כַּפֶּיךָ is here again resumed from Job_10:3 and expanded in a description in which there are several points of agreement with Psa_139:13-16.—עִצְּבוּנִי, lit. “have carved me” (עִצֵּב, a Piel intensive, cognate with חצב ,קצב), i.e., elaborately formed [“especially appropriate as describing the fashioning of the complicated nature of man.” Del.]. The following עָשָׂה bears the same relation to this עִצֵּב as perficere, consummare bears to the simple fingere. The clause added in b, יַחַד סָבִיב, “altogether round about” (Vulg.: me totum in circuitu) represents the fashioning and perfecting activity of God as concerned with man’s entire organism, including all his limbs and parts. [And yet (ו consec. with strong adversative sense) Thou destroyest me!—An exclamation of amazement and reproach.]
Job_10:9. Remember now [the particle נָא is expressive of a yearning plaintiveness here—Oh, remember!] that as clay Thou hast perfected me: to wit, formed me out of the crude earth-material with the same skill and care as the potter a vessel of clay. For the use of this favorite figure of the Holy Scriptures, especially of the Old Testament, comp. Job_33:6; Isa_29:16; Isa_45:9; Jer_18:6; Rom_9:20-21. That the same figure serves to illustrate not merely the wise skill and the loving care of the Creator, but also and above all His arbitrary fullness of power, and His unconditional right in His creatures (the jus absolutum Creatoris in creaturas), is evident from the second member: “and wilt Thou turn me gain into dust?” which at the same time reminds us of Gen_2:7; Gen_3:19 and of Jeremiah 18. [That the Divine Arbitrariness, which is the conception held by a perverted mind of the Divine Sovereignty, enters into Job’s train of thought here is plain enough. But that it is the prominent notion may certainly be doubted. This is scarcely consistent with the urgent pathos of the plea: “Oh! remember that thou hast formed me as the clay!” The central thought as expressed by the verbs in Job_10:8, especially עִצֵּב, by the adverbial clause יַחַד סָבִיב, and by the detailed description of Job_10:10-11, is that of the exquisite elaborate workmanship involved in his creation, and the wonder that the Divine Artist should be so regardless of His work as wantonly to ruin it.—E.]
Job_10:10. Didst Thou not pour me out as milk—viz.: in the act of conception, when my body received its development out of a purely liquid material.—[The Imperfects in this verse and the following have their time determined by the Perfects of Job_10:8-9. The use of the Imperf. may be explained with Ewald: “because the wonder is so vividly present to Job’s mind;” or, as Davidson expresses it: “Job again feels the Divine hand upon him.”—E.] And curdled me like cheese?—to wit, into the formless mass of the embryo, which in Psa_139:16 is called גֹלֶם, but here is compared with גְבִינָה, i.e., cheese (lit. curd, the pap-like material of cheese not yet hardened, not “cream” (Schlott.) nor “whey” (Hahn and Ewald) [neither of these definitions being suitable for the reason that the material is not coagulated]). For הִתִּיךְ, to pour out, comp. 2Ki_22:9 (likewise the Kal above in Job_3:24). “To pour into a mould” is a signification which belongs to the word neither here nor in the parallel passage just given (against Seb. Schmidt and Delitzsch): this would be rather נסךְ or יצק [“The development of the embryo was regarded by the Israelitish Chokma as one of the greatest mysteries.” Ecc_11:5; 2Ma_7:22 sq. Del.]
Job_10:11. With skin and flesh Thou didst clothe me, and with bones and sinews Thou didst interweave me.—(שׂוֹכֵךְ from שׂוּךְ, Job_1:10, synonymous with סכך in the parallel passage, Psa_139:13.) [The verse may be regarded as a continuation of the question in Job_10:10. So Con., Dav., etc.] Grotius rightly observes that the description here given of the development of the fœtus is in general true to nature, and corresponds to the actual process (hic ordo in genitura est: primum pellicula fit, deinde in ea caro, duriora paulatim accedunt). With equal correctness most modern expositors remark that this agreement of the description with the natural processes of conception and development is only of a general sort, and that the passage must not be pressed, as is done by Scheuchzer, Oetinger, etc. [as “including and going beyond all systemata generationis”] seeing that this is to attribute to the Holy Scriptures a purpose which is foreign to it.
Job_10:12. Life and favor [“this combination does not occur elsewhere.” Del.] hast Thou shown me (lit. “done to me”—עשׂה, referring at the same time by zeugma to the first object, “life”), and Thy oversight (Thy providence,) has preserved my breath: has done this, to wit, not only during the embryonic state, but through the whole time from my birth to the present. By רוּחַ are designated at the same time both the breath as the outward sign of life, and the spirit as its inward principle; comp. Job_17:1; Ecc_3:19.
Third Division. Second Half (Double Strophe). Job_10:13-22. Continuation of the complaint, and a further advance in the same to the point of wishing that he had never been born.
First Strophe. Job_10:13-17. [God’s goodness in the past simulated, his secret purpose having from the first contemplated the infliction of suffering on Job, whether guilty or innocent.—E.]
Job_10:13. And (nevertheless) Thou didst hide these things in Thy heart.—[וְ strongly adversative: yet, notwithstanding all Thy care in my creation, and all Thy apparent kindness in the past, Thy hidden purpose all the time contemplated my destruction. The connection of this verse is evidently with what follows, and its place is at the beginning of the present strophe. אֵלֶּה and זֹאת cannot refer to the care and favor bestowed on him in his creation and preservation, for it could not be said of these that God had “hidden them in His heart;” they must refer to the present and coming manifestations of the Divine displeasure, which are about to be detailed, and which Job here charges as the consummation of God’s secret eternal plan.—E.] Since the discourse, after the mild conciliatory turn which it had taken in the last division, especially in Job_10:12, here evidently falls back into the bitter tone of complaint, it follows that the וְ at the beginning of this verse is to be taken adversatively. I know that this was in Thy mind—i.e., that this determination had long been formed by Thee (זֹאת עִמָּךְ as in Job_23:14; Job_27:11), viz., to assail me, and visit me with the direst calamities, in the manner described in the following verses, 14–17.
Job_10:14. If I should sin, Thou wouldest watch me.—וּשְׁמַרְתָּנִי, lit., custodies me, here custoditurus eras me, as these verses in general exhibit that which, in Job’s opinion, God had long since determined, and had the disposition to do. שמר here moreover is not “to keep in remembrance, to bear anything in mind” (Stickel, Hirzel, Delitzsch, for then the accus, of the thing kept ought to have been expressed (comp. Pro_4:21; Pro_7:1).—The meaning is rather to watch one carefully, to hold under observation, rigide observare s. custodire aliquem; comp. Job_7:12; Job_13:27.
Job_10:15. If I should be wicked—woe unto me!—As is evident from this exclamation אללי לי, “woe unto me!” which takes the place of a clause expressing the consequence in the future, רשעתי is a stronger expression than חטאתי in the verse preceding. [“אללי very strongly expressive of terror or pain, Mic_7:1; words would fail to describe the violence of the punishment.” Dav. As much stronger therefore as אללי is than שמר, so much stronger, it may be inferred, is רשע here than חטא.—E.]. It must not therefore be weakened by rendering it (with Schlottmann and Olshausen) “being found guilty;” it expresses the idea of gross, presumptuous sinning, deserving of a punishment indescribably severe (here indicated only by an exclamation of woe).—And were I righteous (the opposite case of the two hitherto mentioned) I should not then (according to God’s plan and purpose) lift up my head:i.e., I should not dare to enjoy my righteousness, nor to profit toy my good conscience so as to look up with freedom and confidence: comp. Job_11:15; Job_22:26; Luk_21:28. Rather would he even then go his way like one who had an evil conscience: filled with shame, and in sight of my misery.—רְאֵה is either to be taken as constr. state of an adj. רָאֶה, not elsewhere occurring (of a like structure with קָשֶׁה ,יָפֶה, etc., so Gesenius, Fürst, Welte, Hahn, Del. [Schult., Schlot., Dav.] etc.), or we are to read רֹאֶה (Piscator, Ewald, Hirz., Böttch., Dillm. [Ren., Hengst.] etc.): for to take it as Imper. [E. V., “therefore see thou mine affliction”] (De Wette), or as Infin. (Umbreit, Rosenm.) [Carey] makes the construction altogether too hard.
Job_10:16. And should it (my head) lift itself up:i.e., should I, although condemned by Thee, still exhibit a cheerful courage and a proud self-consciousness. This accordingly is not a new case, but an expansion of that just supposed in Job_10:15 b. On יִגְֹאֶה comp. Job_8:11; on the omission of אִם see Ewald, § 357, b.As a lion Thou wouldest (then) hunt me and again show Thy wondrous power in me: to wit, by means of the most exquisite tortures, and the most violent persecutions, with which Thou wouldest then visit me. [“Thou wast wonderful in my creation (Job_10:8-12); and now Thou art wonderful in inventing new means of destroying me.” Words.]. כַּשַּׁחַל certainly belongs to God as the subj. addressed, not to Job as obj. (as Schlottmann [and Davidson] think). We find God in His anger compared to a beast of prey also in Job_16:9; He is in particular described as a lion tearing His prey in Hos_5:14; Hos_13:7; comp. Isa_31:4; Isa_38:13; Jer_25:38; Lam_3:10; Amo_3:12. On the use of שׁוּב with a finite verb following to express the adverbial notion “again, repeatedly”—a construction similar to that above in Job_6:28—comp. Ewald, § 285, b. On תִּתְפַּלָּא, with final vowel â, although not in pause (as also in Num_19:12), see Ewald, § 141, c. [Ewald. who is followed by Davidson, finds in the details of the Divine Plan against Job as here unfolded “a cruel tetralemma, a fearful fourfold net,” to compass the ruin of Job whichever way he should turn. (1) Were he to err—and to err is human—God would watch him with the keenest eye, and punish him without pity. (2). Should he sin heinously, his punishment would be commensurate with his guilt, transcending all description. (3). Should he however be innocent he must still be doomed to bear about with him a guilty look, and seem and feel like a criminal. (4). Should he be unable from pride, or conscious innocence thus to belie his integrity, and dare to hold up his head, God would in His wrath hunt him like a lion.—The scheme is ingenious and plausible, and has not yet been successfully disproved. Schlottmann argues against it: (1). That the distinction it makes between רשע and חטא is forced, to which what has been said above is a sufficient answer. (2). That the mention in Job_10:15 of the possibility of being righteous along with that of being wicked is wholly superfluous! a remark which it is difficult to understand. Job is enumerating all the moral possibilities of his condition, and showing that whichever course he takes his Omnipotent Adversary is there to meet him with a flaming sword of vengeance. Assuming therefore Ewald’s view to be not unfounded, the following additional remarks suggest themselves concerning it. 1. In the first two hypotheses, in which the guilt of Job is assumed, the hypothetical element is made distinct and strong by the use of אִם; in the last two, which assume his innocence the אִם is omitted. 2. Each pair of hypotheses presents a climax, the second hypothesis being an advance upon the first, both in the protasis and apodosis; the fourth upon the third, especially in the apodosis.—E.].
Job_10:17. Thou wouldest renew Thy witnesses against me: i.e., ever cause new witnesses to appear against me, viz., ever new sufferings and calamities: comp. Job_16:8, where may be found the same personification of sufferings as witnesses which, in the eyes of men, ever rise up to testify against him and his innocence,—And increase Thy displeasure against me (עִם here the same as contra; comp. Job_13:19; Job_23:6; Job_31:13); ever new troops and an army against me. The phrase ,חֲִליכוֹת וְצָבָא is not to be understood as a hendiadys, as if it denoted “ever new hosts, alternating hosts” [“with host succeeding host against me”: Con., Dav., Ren., Words., Schlott., Ges., Noy., etc.], for this idea would be more simply expressed by חֲלִיכוֹת צָבָא (against Hirzel and most moderns). Rather does צבא denote the main body of the army, while חֲלִֹיכוֹת, lit., “exchanges” are fresh advancing reserves, or reinforcements. With the former, the original main army, are compared Job’s principal sufferings, while the latter the reserve troops, denote the new species of pains and tortures with which God continually afflicts and vexes him (Job being represented as a fortress, the object of God’s hostile attack; comp. Job_19:12; Job_30:12). [חליכות stands first as being the prominent element, Job’s mind dwelling principally, though not altogether, on the new tortures with which God assailed him, as is evident also from תתדשׁ and תרב just before.—E.]. Moreover it will be seen that every verse—member from Job_10:14 to Job_10:18 inclusive ends in the vowel î, a fact already noted by Böttcher, which can scarcely be accidental. The impression that the Divine wrath has especial reference to the single individuality (the one 1) of the lamenting Job is strongly intensified by this continuous repetition of the rhyme from the pronominal inflection (Delitzsch).
Second Strophe: Job_10:18-22, consisting of two thoughts: a. Curse of his own existence
Job_10:18-19 (a condensed repetition of Job_3:11-16); b. Prayer for a short respite before going down into the dark realm of the dead (repeated out of Job_7:16-19).
Job_10:18. Why then didst Thou bring me forth out of the womb? I should have died, etc. “The Imperfects אוּבַל ,אֶהְיֶח ,אֶגוְעַ have a hypothetic coloring, being strictly the conclusion of a pre-supposition indicated by the preceding question. They indicate what would have happened, if God had not called him into being out of his mother’s womb, in his opinion, which he, as a wise man, here puts in opposition to the Divine treatment” (Dillmann). [The Eng. Ver. “Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!” is feeble, and destroys the unity of the passage formed by this member, and the verse following, represented as above indicated by the three conditional Imperfects.—E.].
Job_10:19. הוּבַל expresses the idea of being borne in slow solemn procession, as is customary in burial; so also in Job_21:32.
Job_10:20. Are not my days few? Let Him cease then,—let Him let me alone.—Thus are the words to be rendered according to the K’thibh יֶחְדָּל and יָשִׁית not as a petition addressed to God, but as a request expressed concerning Him in the third person, as one who had withdrawn. The K’ri, in giving instead the Imperf. וַחֲדַל and וְשִׁית: “cease,” and “let me alone” (so also most of the Ancient Versions), [F. V.], is a change of the original text, suggested by Job_7:16, which passage is here imitated, although indeed only freely. [This use of the 3d person here, following the K’thibh which undoubtedly is the correct reading, is a noticeable and masterly stroke, expressing the helpless, exhausted prostration of Job’s spirit at the close of his discourse.—The vehement Titanic energy of his previous defiance has expended itself: he no more ventures to stand up face to face with God, and with head uplifted pour forth his bitter remonstrances: he now lies low in the dust, panting with the weary strife, with no hope but in death, and with averted, down-cast eye, exclaims of God—“Let Him cease for a little while!” Another indication of his mental exhaustion is found in the fact that the remainder of his discourse is made to consist of a repetition of phrases from Job 7.—He can only repeat, mechanically almost, what he has said, although even in this there is inimitable pathos.—E.]. שִׁית מִן, to turn away the attention from any one, like שָׁעָה with מִן, Job_7:19; Ps. 39:14 [Psa_39:13]; to supply לֵב, or עֵינַיִם, or יָד (after Job_13:21) is not really necessary.—That I may be cheerful a little while, lit., look up brightly, as in Job_9:27; Ps. 39:14 [ Psa_39:13]
Job_10:21. Before I go hence and return not: [second clause וְלֹא אָשוּב adverbial, = not to return]. Comp. Job_7:7-10. An צלמות, comp. on Job_3:6.
Job_10:22. Into the land of darkness, like to midnight.—So Ewald, Dillmann, etc., in order to express the idea of an intensified degree of darkness, indicated by אֹפֶל (lit., “covering”: see Job_3:6; Job_23:17; Job_28:3; Psa_91:6).—Of the shadow of death, and of confusion.—לֹא סְרָרִים [סדריםἄπ. λεγ in the Old Testament, but a common word in the later Hebrew, Del.], lit., “no ranks,” i.e., disorder, chaotic confusion (Tohuvabohu, Gen_1:2). For this use of לֹא, as a terse negation of the conception of a noun, like our prefix un-, or dis-, comp. Job_8:11; Job_26:2-3.—Where it is bright like midnight. וַתֹּפַע, lit., “so that it shines forth, is bright (comp. Job_3:4; Job_10:3). The subj. of this verb is certainly אֶרֶץ (Hirzel, Delitzsch, etc.); the neuter use of the fern. תפע is less probable. אֹפֶל here again signifying the most intense darkness, the most sunless gloom, (ipsum medullitium umbrœ mortis, ejusque intensissimum, Oetinger). “To be bright like midnight” (the direct opposite of Psa_139:12) is a strong terribly vivid description of superlative darkness, as it rules in the under-world. Compare Milton’s: “not light, but darkness visible,” in his description of hell.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. The fundamental thought, around which all the discussions of this new discourse of Job 3 resolve, is that of absolute power in God, and of that power acting in a merciless arbitrary manner, entirely regardless of all human right and innocence. “He destroys the innocent as well as the guilty;”—such is the harsh utterance against God as a tyrant, raging in anger, trampling down all right under His feet (Job_9:22), to which Job advances from the concession which he has previously made to both his opponents, that God’s action is always and uniformly just (comp. Exeget and Crit. Rem’s., No. 1). He concedes to them, especially to Bildad, without further question: “what God does must be right, just because God, the Righteous One, does it.” But with bitter sarcasm he resolves this into the proposition: “God does just what He pleases, whether it is really righteous or not!” Thus, instead of the God of absolute justice, whom the friends had held up before him and defended (in a way that was one-sided and narrow enough, to be sure), he forms for himself a gloomy, horrible representation of a God of absolute power, who rules and directs not according to objective standards of right, but according to the promptings of an arbitrary will, subject to no restraint. It is the θεὸς δίκαιος of Marcion, who is absolutely and in essence disjoined from all kindness and love; nay, more, it is the God of the pre-destinatianists and extreme (supra-lapsarian) Calvinists, disposing of the destinies of men in accordance with an unconditional, arbitrary decree (decretum absolutum), irrespective of all moral worthiness or unworthiness—such is the Being whom Job here delineates, and before whose hostile assaults on his person, guiltless as he knows himself to be, he recoils in shuddering anguish. Instead of dwelling as he had formerly done (Job_2:10) on the remembrance of the manifold goodness which he had experienced from God, and bowing in patience beneath His hand, and confidently awaiting the explanation in the near or remote future of the dark destiny which according to an inscrutable decree overshadowed him, he here thrusts away from himself all such comfort, writhes like a worm under the crushing pressure of that horrible spectre into which his perverted imagination had transformed the only just and holy God, imputes to Him the severe treatment which although innocent he had endured as a long-cherished and well-contrived plan (ch.10:13–17), and finally relapses into that tone of deepest despair and most disconsolate woe which he had heretofore struck upon, by cursing his existence (Job_10:18 seq.) and beseeching God for just one thing—that before he should depart hence into the eternally dark and joyless Hereafter, He would once again let him alone, that he might have one short last respite in this life. In short it is the sorely tried sufferer, who is not indeed really forsaken by God, but who has nevertheless given himself up, who here pours out his grief without restraint in a lamentation which is at the same time throughout an arraignment of God. Comp. Luther in his Preface to our book: “For before that Job Cometh into the pangs of death, he praiseth God concerning the spoiling of his goods, and the death of his children. But when death is before his eyes, and God withdraweth Himself, then do his words show what manner of thoughts a man, however holy he be, may have against God; how it seemeth to him that God is not God, but a mere judge and an angry tyrant, who exerciseth His power, and careth for no man’s well-being. This is the most extreme part of this book. Only those can understand it, who also feel and know what it is to endure God s wrath and judgment, and to have His mercy hid from them.”
2. Under the rough shell of this abstract predestinatianist way of thinking, the discourse conceals a rich store of glorious religious truths, and powerful testimonies in behalf of a living saving faith, which show to us that Job has been sorely afflicted indeed, but not rejected; nay, more, that bright beams of Divine light pierce the thick darkness, and line with glory the edges of the black clouds of doubt which have come between him and the gracious face of his Heavenly Father. As Brentius beautifully says: “Here you have the blasphemies of hell, into which those are tempted who are for any time judicially forsaken by the Lord;… but Job argues his cause according to his feelings: for in such dread of the judgment as possesses him he feels God to be not a Father, but an executioner.… But mark, at this point the faith of Job lifts up its head even in the midst of judgment! For as Christ, our Lord, when cast into the midst of hell, cries out that He is forsaken, yet at the same time acknowledges God to be His God—for He says: My God, why hast Thou forsaken me? so Job, overwhelmed with all evils, wondering how God, who was before so generous, can now be so cruel a Judge, recounts in the spirit of faith the mercies of the past from the time before his birth until his growth to manhood; for unless a spark of faith had been left in him, he would not have been able to recognize the mercies which he enumerates (Job_10:8-12).” Among these testimonies to the fact that in the midst of all the darkness and judicial terrors which assailed him he still maintained his faith, may be mentioned:
a. The glorious description which he gives in Job_9:5-12 of the Omnipotence and greatness of God, as the same is manifested in the works of His creation, both on earth and in heaven—one of the most elevated descriptions which the poetic literature of the Old Testament has anywhere produced on this topic.
b. The strikingly beautiful description which he gives of the special care and the infinite skill and wisdom exercised by the providence of God in its influence on man’s generation, on the earliest development of the individual human life in the womb, and on every subsequent stage of that development up to mature manhood: Job_10:8-12.—This, too, like the former, is one of the noblest contributions of this book to physico-theology, and to the Bible doctrine of the creation of the individual human life, and of the origin of the soul. Like the parallel passage in Psa_139:13-16, this description seems decidedly to favor the theory of creationism, according to which the generation of each individual man presupposes a concurrent act of immediate creation on the part of the Divine omnipotence (comp. Lactantius. De opif Dei, c. 19). At the same time it is evident, especially from Job_10:10, with the strong emphasis which it lays on the participation of the parents in the origination of the human organism, that the fundamental idea of traducianism, or generationism, is not foreign to the writer’s thought, but is to be included in it as a presupposition which is not to be ignored. So then these two methods of representation, that of creationism and that of generationism, must always and everywhere go hand in hand, mutually supplementing and rectifying one another, (comp. Nitzsch, Syst. of Christ. Doct. § 107, Rem. 2; Rothe, Elk. § 124, Rem. 1; Frohschammer, Ueber Ursprung der menschlichen Seele, 1854).
c. Again, the absolute superiority of the Divine intelligence to the human, and hence the infinite knowledge and unapproachable wisdom of God, are described in Job_9:3-4 (comp. Job_9:14 seq.; Job_10:4) with an impressive power and beauty, rivalling the most important of those Old Testament passages (e.g. Psalms 139.) where this theme is unfolded.
d. When in contrast with all this Job comes to speak of the weakness, vanity, and transitoriness of human existence, his words are not less impressive and eloquent. They resemble (especially Job_9:25 seq. “For my days are swifter than a runner, etc.”, comp. Job_10:20. “Are not my days few,” etc.) those passages in Job’s earlier lament, at the beginning of Job 7., where he describes the transiency and vanity of man’s life on earth; but they also resemble similar passages in the preceding discourses of Eliphaz and Bildad. Thus it is that this complaint over the hasty flight and the misery of human life, presents itself as a constant theme with all the speakers of this book, and is indeed a characteristic property of all the Chokmah poets and teachers of the Old Testament generally.
e. With this repeated emphasizing of human weakness is closely connected the prominence given to the consciousness, characteristic of the Old Testament stand-point of faith and life, of such superiority in God over man as makes it absolutely impossible for the latter to contend, or to come into comparison with Him, there being no arbiter or judicial mediator between both (Job_9:32 seq.). The recognition of this both indirectly postulates such a mediator and prompts to an expression of the yearning felt for him; comp. above on Job_9:33.
f. Finally, it is a noticeable trait of Job’s profound piety that repeatedly, in the midst of his sorrowful complaint, he addresses himself directly to God. Indeed, from Job_9:28 on, he no longer speaks in the third person of God, but in the second person to Him. This tone of entreaty, which the sorely afflicted sufferer maintains, even where he utters the bitterest complaints and accusations against God, is instructive in regard to that which should be regarded as in general the fundamental frame of his soul (comp. on Job_9:28, and on Job_10:2). According to this, he appears as one whom God had in truth not forsaken, but only afflicted for the sake of proving him. Indeed, far from being objectively forsaken of God, he is not once guilty of forsaking God in the subjective sense (i.e. in a spirit of self-will, through doubt, disobedience or open apostasy). In the inmost depths of his praying heart, he does not once believe that he is forsaken or rejected by God; he only fears such a doom in passing, but every time springs shuddering back with hope, or at least with longing to God, and (like a child, severely chastised, which nevertheless knows no other refuge and no other comfort than may be found with its father) does not stop clinging to the Heavenly Author of his being, ever renewing his complaints and petitions to Him for help. “It is true that Job, so long as he regards his sufferings as a dispensation of divine judgment, is as unjust towards God as he believes God to be unjust towards him; but if we bear in mind that this state of conflict and temptation does not preclude the idea of a temporal withdrawal of faith, and that, as Baumgarten (Pentat. i. 209) aptly expresses it, the profound secret of grayer is this, that man can prevail with the Divine Being, then we shall understand that this dark cloud need only be removed, and Job again stands before the God of love as His saint” (Del.).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The survey given above (No. 2 a-f) of those portions of the preceding section having the greatest doctrinal and ethical value will show where the most fruitful themes for homiletic discussion may be found. In any case the separate treatment of these themes commends itself in proportion to the richness of their contents and their high significance, in preference to the homiletic treatment of the whole discourse through all its length as a unit. If a comprehensive text is sought for, either one of the three sections, into which the whole discourse is divided, may be chosen. Or combining the first two sections into one of greater length, the division by chapters may be followed. In this case the theme of a homily on Job 9. might run: “The saint of the Old Testament groaning under the pressure of the Divine omnipotence, not having as yet the consciousness of an atonement.” The theme for Job 10. might be stated: “The pious sufferer of the Old Testament on the brink of despair,” or “wavering between a child-like, thankful, trustful recognition of the Father-love of God (Job_10:8-12) and disconsolate complaint because of His apparent merciless severity.”—As shorter texts the following present themselves: Job_9:2-12—God’s Omnipotence; Job_9:13-24—The apparent injustice of the Divine government of the world; Job_9:25-35—The cheerless and helpless condition of the suffering righteous under the Old Dispensation, who as yet knew no mediator between God and men; Job_10:1-7—The contradiction which shows itself between the fact of God’s omniscience, and that of the innocent suffering of the godly; Job_10:8-12.—God’s fatherly love, and His merciful all-including care as exhibited in the creation and preservation of human life; Job_10:13-22.—God as the hostile persecutor of the sufferer, who fancies himself to be forsaken by Him, and who is deprived of all earthly comfort.
Particular Passages
Job_9:5 sq.: Oecolampadius: The levelling of mountains, the shakings of the earth, eclipses of the sun and of the stars, and in short the movements of the universe are testimonies to the power of God. It must needs be that He is mighty who hurls mountains into the sea with such ease, that it is scarcely noticed.… Hence believers derive the hope that nothing is so terrible or so grievous but God can alleviate it, especially when He says: “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and it shall remove” (Mat_17:20). By which saying it is testified that the highest power belongs to those who believe.—Starke: If God has the power to remove mountains, He certainly has the power to deliver out of all troubles (Ps. 50:25).—The heavens are a mirror of the infinite and incomprehensible Wisdom, Goodness and Omnipotence of God. Even the heathen have learned from their reflections, that there must be a supreme intelligent Being, who rules over all. Every star is our schoolmaster, and testifies to us that there is a God.
Job_9:10 sq. Brentius: God’s judgments are hidden: at first sight they seem to men either unjust or foolish, but in the end His counsel is understood, and His back is seen, though not His face (Jer_18:17).… Hence if God should pass before thee, i.e. if He should carry on some wondrous work before thine eyes, although at first thou shouldst be ignorant what it is, or what He wills by His wonderful work, nevertheless thou canst not doubt in the least that He is good and wise and just.—Tuebing. Bible: God as omnipresent is continually around us and with us, although we see Him not.—Osiander: Although God is without the least varying disposed towards us as a Father, it may nevertheless seem to us in trouble as though He had changed towards us (Ps. 67:10; Is. 64:16).
Job_9:21 sq. Zeyss: Although it seems to pious believers when in deep affliction and trial, as though God observed no measure and no discrimination in the infliction of punishment, it is nevertheless not so with Him; but such thoughts proceed from flesh and blood, yea, they are temptations of Satan (comp. Brentius above, Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks, No. 2).—Hengstenberg: To this result (viz. of regarding God as the author of evil and as absolutely unjust) we must come in our investigation of evil, if we look at the subject with carnal eyes. The matter looks differently, however, to him who is capable of spiritual discernment, which is true only of him who can bring his own processes and experiences into accord with God’s justice. He sees that the triumph of evil is always only apparent and transient, only the means of preparing the way for the triumph of the good. He sees that the righteous need suffering for temptation and purification, that so long as sin dwells in them, they cannot yet be exalted to glory, but that, as the Apostle says of himself, they must be “troubled on every side, yet not distressed” (2Co_4:8); otherwise they would soon be a dead reed. “The staff of affliction beats our loins down to the grave,” etc., etc.
Job_9:30 seq. Œcolampadius: The most potent kind of comfort is that which comes from a pure conscience, which is as it were a perpetual outcry. But neither from that do we derive any benefit, if we look back at our works. For we shall never thus be purified, who in the strict judgment of God would be pronounced abominable, and defiled with filth.—Zeyss: The guilt of sin can be washed away by no snow-water, ye, or soap, i.e., by no outward works, or self-elected service of God, or papistic holy water. It is quite another washing that serves for that, to wit, the blood of Jesus Christ; 1Jn_1:7.
Job_9:33. œcolamvadius: Without Christ we are such creatures as Job has described above. If however Christ is our arbiter and mediator (1Ti_2:5) He Himself will remove the rod.
Job_10:2 seq. Hengstenberg: The needless and aimless cruelty towards an innocent person, of which Job accuses God, seems all the more inexcusable if this innocent one is at the same time wholly helpless. It would be revolting to see omnipotence sporting with impotence.—To such cheerless results are we driven, when, like Job, we look into ourselves as into a golden cup. If in severe suffering we fail to recognize our own darkness, the Father of Lights must change into darkness.
Job_10:8 seq. Cramer: In affliction there is no better comfort than to remember that we are sprung from God (Psa_22:10).—Chr. Scriver (in the hymn: “Jesu, meiner Seele Leben”):
“Thy loving-kindness was around me flung,
Ere yet the world did lie around my way;
On Thee in my weak infancy I hung,
While helpless on my mother’s breast I lay.
• • • • • • •
Along the wayward paths of early youth
Thy loving-kindness ever followed me.
• • • • • • •
It is in Thee each moment I do live,
Thy Spirit ever with me doth abide;
All that I have is but what Thou dost give,
Thy light has ever been my journey’s guide.”
Hengstenberg: It is worthy of note, what a fund of knowledge of God Job still possesses, even when he seems to have completely forsaken God. With one who is penetrated, as he is, by the consciousness that every whiff of breath belongs to God, faith must, sooner or later, fight its way through all temptations and dark clouds.
Job_10:13 seq. Cramer: God does not afflict and trouble men willingly (Lam_3:33), and although in affliction He seems to frown, He yet smiles on us in His heart. He stands behind the wall, and looks through the lattice; Son_2:9.—Hengstenberg: Nothing tends more strongly to lead human nature astray, than the discovery that one whom you have been accustomed to love and to honor as your benefactor, has used his beneficence only as means to gratify the deepest malignity. Job thinks that his experience in relation to God is of this character. How under such circumstances must the Fountain of all consolation be changed into a poisonous spring!
Job_10:18 seq. Osiander: His great ingratitude if we do not thank God for the use of light in this life; and it is a heathenish speech to say—it were best never to have been born, or to have died immediately after birth.—Zeyss (on Job_10:20 seq.): Terrible as are death and the grave to natural eyes, they are no less sweet and comforting to the eyes of faith (Luk_2:29; Php_1:21).—Starke: Those who are tried are wont to long greatly that God, if He will not altogether remove their suffering, would yet send some relief (Isa_38:14).—Vict. Andreae: Do we not see in these two chapters (9. and 10.) how the human heart in truth wavers to and fro between the proudest presumption and the most pusillanimous despair?
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain JOB’S SECOND REPLY. Chaps. 9, 10.
JOB’S SECOND REPLY. Chaps. 9, 10.
1. Job answered — He admits that man cannot answer for his sins before God. The mighty Monarch over nature and man, unseen and irresistibly accomplishes his implacable will, overpowering even “the helpers of Rahab.” Blinded and staggering, Job can neither see nor grasp aught but an absolute God, with whom power overtops every other attribute. He dares not appear before such a Being, since his own arm would be impotent, and all attempts at self-justification would be perverted into his own condemnation. Thoughts of the triumphant wicked, and the sufferings of the righteous, sweep him away into defiant, if not blasphemous, charges against God — and yet there is not altogether a defection of the soul, for in the midst of his despair he recounts in the spirit of faith the mercies and love of the Lord in his creative and preserving care. Job_10:8-12. His despair is intensified by the thought that no daysman between God and man had yet appeared competent to meet the emergencies of evil. Chapter 10. Having nothing more to hope for in life, he boldly calls in question the eternal and all powerful One, who, having the wicked in safe custody, needs not to make such speedy and painful inquisition for human iniquity. Sinking in the quicksands of doubt, he finds some solace in the thought that the divine Artificer cannot destroy the work of his own hand. In faith and strength of heart Job has advanced but little beyond the despair of his first great lamentation. Chap. 3. This is evinced by his condensed repetition, in Job_9:18-19, of a part of the lamentation, (Job_9:11-16.) “Do we not see in these two chapters (9, 10) how the human heart is indeed tossed hither and thither between the proudest presumption and the most pusillanimous despair?” — Andrea.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 2. It is not quite easy to see what…
2. It is not quite easy to see what form of the maxim of the friends it is to which Job gives his sneering assent in this verse, when he says, To be sure I know that it is so. In Job_9:10 he quotes words from Eliphaz, ch. Job_5:9, verbatim, and he may refer to the form in which this speaker put forward the principle common to them all, Shall man be righteous before God? ch. Job_4:17. In this case the second member of the verse merely explains the words that it is so,
Of a truth I know that it is so:
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How shall man be righteous with God?
Job, however, gives a different turn to the words, meaning by them, How shall man substantiate his righteousness, and make it to appear, when he has to maintain it in the face of the overpowering might of God? (Job_9:3). Or, Job may attach his reply to Bildad’s question, Will God pervert right? (ch. Job_8:3). To which he replies: Of course—but how shall man have right with God? God’s power makes right. Job does not quibble with words. He speaks from the point of view of his own circumstances and the construction which he put on them. His afflictions were proof that God held him guilty, while his own conscience declared his innocence. But he was helpless against God’s judgment of him. In the view of his friends and all men, and even himself, his afflictions were God’s verdict against him. And his answer is that man must be guilty before God because he cannot contend with an omnipotent power resolved to hold him guilty.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 1-35. Job, in answer to Bildad, admits the…
Vers. 1-35. Job, in answer to Bildad, admits the truth of his arguments, but declines to attempt the justification which can alone entitle him to accept the favourable side of Bildad"s alternative. Man cannot absolutely justify himself before God. It is in vain to attempt to do so. The contest is too unequal. On the one side perfect wisdom and absolute strength (ver. 4); on the other, weakness, imperfection, ignorance. guilt (vers. 17-20). And no "daysman," or umpire, between them; no third party to hold the balance even, and preside authoritatively over the controversy, and see that justice is done (vers. 33-35). Were it otherwise, Job would not shrink from the controversy; but he thinks it ill arguing with omnipotent power. "What he seems to lack is the absolute conviction expressed by Abraham in the emphatic words Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?". (Gen_18:25)
Vers. 1, 2. And Job answered and said, I know it is so of a truth. "I freely admit," is., "all that has been said." God would not cast away a perfectly righteous man; (Job_8:20) and, of course, he punishes evildoers. But, applied practically, what is the result? How should man be just with God? or, before God? Apart from any knowledge of the doctrine of original or inherited sin, each man feels, deep in his heart, that he is sinful chief of sinners." Bradford looks upon the murderer as he mounts the scaffold, and says, "But for the grace of God, there goes John Bradford!" Job has a similar conviction, that in the sight of God, righteousness, such as it is, shrinks away into insignificance, and is as nothing, cannot anyhow be relied upon. Such must be the attitude before God of every human soul that is not puffed up with pride or utterly insensate and sunk in apathy.
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Vers. 1-4. Job to Bildad: 1. Bildad"s theology refuted.
I AN IRONICAL CONCESSION. "I know that it is so of a truth." The doctrine propounded by Bildad, (Job_8:3) that in God"s dealings with mankind such a thing as either a perversion or miscarriage of justice was impossible, Job in a certain sense allows. Abstractly considered, the sentiment was one which Job cheerfully admitted. As expounded by Bildad, that the Divine government of the world was one of visible retributive justice, he expressly impugned its truth. Yet, in order to expose its fallacious character as well as to demonstrate its worthlessness, he is willing to proceed on the assumption of its truth
II A PERTINENT INTERROGATION. "How should man literally, "frail, perishable man be just," i.e. maintain his righteousness, establish his innocence, "with God?" Supposing, for the sake of argument, that such a sufferer possessed the inward, ineradicable conviction that he was innocent (i.e. free from notorious transgression): by what process could he vindicate his personal integrity so as to arrest the punitive hand of the Almighty? By none that would be availing, Job proceeds to show. In a profounder sense than is here employed, the question of the patriarch possesses a momentous significance for man. How shall man, the frail, sinful, and perishing, establish his righteousness before God? As in Job"s case, so in every man"s, the attempt to do so is a wild imagination, and can only result in failure, Not, however, because of the impossibility of establishing what really exists, as in Job"s view, but because the thing, the righteousness, is not there to be maintained; all the world being in inward consciousness, as well as in outward fact, guilty before God.
III AN EXTRAORDINARY SUPPOSITION. "If he will contend with him;" i.e. if the individual arraigned by Divine providence should propose to impeach the Divine equity, and even undertake to demonstrate his own innocence; or, as others interpret the pronouns, if God should be willing to enter into controversy with him, i.e. weak and imperfect man. According to the former explanation, the language is suggestive of sinful presumption; according to the latter, of gracious condescension; according to either, the subject of debate is not the question of man"s sinfulness in general, but of man"s guiltiness in respect of particular offences.
IV A HOPELESS CONTENTION. On two grounds Job protests that any such litigation with the Almighty as to man"s innocence of individual transgressions (much more, therefore, as to the question of man"s sinful condition) would be unavailing.
1. Man"s ignorance and frailty would disqualify him from replying to God"s accusations. Infinite in subtlety and endless in succession, the charges that by such an assailant might be brought against him would simply confound and paralyze him. Overpowered by terror at the ineffable majesty of his Divine opponent, he would entirely lose command of his poor faculties, such as they were, and would be utterly unable to repel so much as one charge in a thousand, even were they all untrue. (ver. 3; cf. Psa_130:3)
2. God"s wisdom and strength would render it impossible for any one engaging in such an enterprise to escape unhurt. "Wise in heart, and mighty in strength, who hath braved him and been successful?" (ver. 4). The wisdom of the Almighty, which enables him to search the heart, (1Ch_28:9 Psa_7:9) to understand the thoughts, (Psa_139:2) to know the works, (Job_34:25) to consider the ways, (Job_34:21) of men; and the power of the Omniscient, which secures that his counsel shall stand (Isa_46:10) and his purpose shall be fulfilled, (Job_23:13, Job_23:14) clearly present a combination, (Job_36:5 Job_37:23 Dan_2:20) against which it is not only needless, but must for ever be positively ruinous, to strive.
Learn.
1. It becomes good men to acknowledge and confide in the righteousness of God.
2. The higher man"s ideas use of God"s holiness and equity, the lower fall his thoughts concerning his own impurity and iniquity.
3. As them can be no unrighteousness with God, so neither can there be any righteousness with man.
4. Though it is hopeless to contend with God in argument, it is not so to wrestle with him in prayer.
5. The best attitude for a frail and sinful man to assume before God is that of self-abasement and penitence.
6. Man"s ignorance and weakness are no match for God"s wisdom and might.
7. God"s wisdom and might have, for man"s advantage, been deposited in Christ, who is the Power and the Wisdom of God.
Vers. 1-4. A gospel outline.
I A SUBLIME TRUTH. Them is no unrighteousness with God (ver. 1), in either:
1. Permitting sin. (Psa_92:5)
2. Afflicting man. (Deu_8:5)
3. Saving the penitent. (Rom_3:26 1Jn_1:9)
4. Punishing the wicked. (Rom_3:5 2Th_1:6)
II A MELANCHOLY FACT. It is impossible for man to establish his righteousness before God (ver. 2), his guiltiness being:
1. Declared by Scripture. (Psa_143:2 Pro_20:9 Ecc_7:20 Isa_53:6 Rom_3:19, Rom_3:23)
2. Attested by conscience. (Rom_2:15)
3. Confirmed by experience. (Psa_58:3 Eph_4:17, 18 Jam_3:2)
III A HUMILIATING DISCOVERY. That man is utterly unable to answer God"s accusations against him (ver. 3), in respect of either:
(1) their numbers, man"s sins being as numerous as the hairs of his head; (Psa_40:12) or
(2) their character, being infinitely heinous in the sight of God; (Pro_15:9 Isa_43:24 Jer_44:4) or
(3) their proof, the evidence in support of God"s charges being clear and overwhelming. (Gen_18:21 Jer_17:10)
IV A CHEERING EVANGEL. That salvation may be found by yielding to God (ver. 4).
1. Nothing but hurt can arise from braving and opposing God. (Isa_27:4)
2. Certain salvation springs from humble submission to God. (Psa_76:9 Isa_27:5)
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Ver. Rom_3:22) Christ brings forgiveness of past sin and recovery to God. Thus he puts us in right relations with our Father.
4. It is realized by means of faith. (Rom_3:28) When we put our trust in Christ, we receive from him the grace of pardon and renewal. The condition of faith is absolutely necessary. We must avoid the mistake of supposing that this is faith in our own state of justification, i.e. a believing ourselves to be justified. It is not that; but it is a personal trust and loyalty in relation to Christ himself.
5. This condition results in a real state of right relations with God. Justification is not a legal judgment, a mere pretence, affirming that we are what we are not. That would be a lie. It is an actual fact; a putting as in right relations with God. Thus it is the root and promise of righteousness. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Then Job answered and said.
Job_9:1-4
Then Job answered and said.
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Jobs answer to Bildad
Job was utterly unaware of the circumstances under which he was suffering. If Job had known that he was to be an example, that a great battle was being fought over him, that the worlds were gathered round him to see how he would take the loss of his children, his property, and his health, the circumstances would have been vitiated, and the trial would have been a mere abortion. Under such circumstances Job might have strung himself up to an heroic effort. If everything with us were plain and straightforward, everything would be proportionately easy and proportionately worthless. Trials, persecutions, and tests are meant for the culture of your strength, the perfecting of your patience, the consolidation of your hope and love. God will not explain the causes of our affliction to us, any more than He explained the causes of Jobs affliction to the patriarch. But history comes to do what God Himself refrains from doing. What course does Job say he will take? A point of departure is marked in the tenth chapter. Now he speaks to Heaven. He will speak in the bitterness of his soul. That is right. Let us hear what Jobs soul has to say. Do not be harsh with men who speak with some measure of indignation in the time of sorrow. We are chafed and vexed by the things which befall our life. Yet even in our very frankness we should strive at least to speak in chastened tones. Job says he will ask for a reason.
Shew me wherefore Thou contendest with me? Job will also appeal to the Divine conscience, if the expression may be allowed (Job_10:3). We must have confidence in the goodness of God. Job then pleads himself--his very physiology, his constitution (Job_10:8-11). What lay so heavily upon Adam and upon Job, was the limitation of their existence. This life as we see it is not all; it is an alphabet which has to be shaped into a literature, and a literature which is to end in music. The conscious immortality of the soul, as that soul was fashioned in the purpose of God, has kept the race from despair. Job said, if this were all that we see, he would like to be extinguished. He would rather go out of being than live under a sense of injustice. This may well be our conviction, out of the agonies and throes of individual experience, and national convulsions, there shall come a creation fair as the noonday, quiet as the silent but radiant stars! (J. Parker, D. D.)
Jobs idea of God
I. He regarded Him as just. I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? His language implies the belief that God was so just, that He required man to be just in His sight. Reason asserts this; the Infinite can have no motive to injustice, no outward circumstance to tempt Him to wrong. Conscience affirms this; deep in the centre of our moral being, is the conviction that the Creator is just. The Bible declares this. Job might well ask how can man be just before Him? He says, not by setting up a defence, and pleading with Him; if he will contend with Him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. What can a sinner plead before Him?
1. Can he deny the fact of his sinfulness?
2. Can he prove that he sinned from a necessity of his nature?
3. Can he satisfactorily make out that although he has sinned, sin has been an exception in his life, and that the whole term of his existence has been good and of service to the universe? Nothing in this way can he do; no pleading will answer. He must become just before he can appear just before God.
II. He regarded Him as wise. He is wise in heart. Who doubts the wisdom of God? The whole system of nature, the arrangements of Providence, and the mediation of Christ, all reveal His manifold wisdom. He is wise, so that--
1. You cannot deceive Him by your falsehoods; He knows all about you, sees the inmost depths of your being.
2. You cannot thwart Him by your stratagems. His purposes must stand.
III. As strong. Mighty in strength. His power is seen in the creation, sustenance, and government of the universe. The strength of God is absolute, independent, illimitable, undecayable, and always on the side of right and happiness.
IV. He regarded him as retributive. There is a retributive element in the Divine nature--an instinct of justice. Retribution in human governors is policy. The Eternal retributes wrong because of His instinctive repugnance to wrong. Hence the wrong doer cannot succeed. The great principle is, that if a man desires prosperity, he must fall in with the arrangements of God in His providence and grace; and wisdom is seen in studying these arrangements, and in yielding to them. (Homilist.)
But how should man be just with God.
On justification
With respect to the relation in which man stands with God, two considerations are essential: the one regarding ourselves, the other regarding our Maker. We are His creatures, and therefore wholly and undividedly His, and owe Him our full service. Our employing any part of ourselves in anything contrary to His wish, is injustice towards Him; and therefore no one who does so can be just with Him in this. But since our wills and thoughts are not in our own power, whatever we do, it is hopeless to endeavour to bring the whole man into the service of God. Such a perfect obedience as we confess we owe as creatures to our Creator, is utterly unattainable. Are we then to lower, not indeed our efforts, but our standard? Will God be satisfied with something less than absolute perfection? Since we are Gods creatures, we owe Him a perfect and unsinning obedience in thought, word, and deed. And God cannot be satisfied with less. If His holiness and His justice were not as perfect as His mercy and His love, He would not be perfect, or in other words He would not be God.
1. That man cannot be justified by the law--that is, by his obedience to the law, or the performance of its duties,--is clear from its condition, This do, and thou shalt live. It makes no abatement for sincerity; it makes no allowance for infirmity. Mercy is inadmissible here; it just asks its due, and holds out the reward upon the payment of it.
2. Neither can he be justified by a mitigated law; that is, by its being lowered till it is within reach.
3. Nor yet can he be absolved by the passing by of his transgressions through the forgetfulness (so to speak) of God; as if He would not be extreme to mark what was done amiss.
4. How then shall man be just with God? It must be in a way that will honour the law. Christ hath magnified the law, and made it honourable--
(1) By keeping it entire and unbroken; and
(2) By enduring its curse, as if He had broken it; becoming sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. (George Jeans, M. A.)
The mode of the sinners justification before God
How is man justified before God? We speak of man as he is now found in the world--fallen, guilty, and polluted. Man was made upright at the first. The first action of his nature, in its several parts, was in harmony with the laws pertaining to each, and so for a short time it continued. When I speak of the laws pertaining to each part, I mean those of matter and of mind, of body, sense, and intellect. God had laid a prohibition upon him, and to the observance of this He had promised His continued favour, and to the non-observance He attached the forfeiture of that favour. The trial here was not whether man would attain to the Divine favour, but whether he should retain it. The danger to be apprehended, for danger is involved in the very notion of a probation, was, that Adam might fall, not that he might not rise, as is the case with us, his descendants. How was Adam kept, as long as he stood in a state of acceptance before God; i.e., how Adam was justified, so far as the term justification can be predicated of him? He continued in the Divine favour as long as he obeyed the law. He was justified by works. There is nothing evil necessarily in the idea of justification by works. Conscience naturally knows of no other mode of justification, and where that is impossible, she gives the offender over to condemnation and despair. Conscience knows of no justification but that of works. When it is possible, the first, the obvious, and the legitimate, the natural mode of securing the Divine favour is by a perfect obedience, in ones own person, to the Divine commands as contained in the moral law. How are Adams posterity justified? Not in the same way that he was. Their circumstances are so different. He was innocent, they are guilty; he was pure, they are impure; he was strong, they are weak. The Gospel mode of justification cannot be by works. But what is it positively? A knowledge of this subject must embrace two things, namely, what God has done to this end--to make justification possible; and what man does when it is become actual. It has pleased God to save us, not arbitrarily, but vicariously. He has not cancelled our sin, as a man might cancel the obligation of an indebted neighbour, by simply drawing his pen across the record in his ledger. This may do for a creature in relation to his fellows. We are told in Holy Writ that God the Father has given His Son to be a ransom for us, a sacrifice for our sins, a mediator between Him and us, the only name under heaven amongst men whereby we can be saved. The Father hath laid in His atoning death the foundation of our hopes, the elect cornerstone of our salvation. By the Holy Spirit and through that Son, He hath also granted to mankind, besides an offer of pardon, an offer of assistance, yea, assistance in the very offer. The mediatorship of the Spirit began the moment the Gospel was first preached to fallen Adam. So indeed did the Mediatorship of Christ, i.e., God began immediately to have prospective regard to the scene one day to be enacted upon Calvary. But the mediatorship of the Spirit could not be one moment deferred. In order to render the salvation of men subjectively possible, the Spirit must be actually and immediately given. What then is necessary on the part of man? This may appear to some a dangerous way of viewing the subject. I am not about to establish a claim of merit on the part of man. When a man is justified, as justification takes place on the part of God, there must be something correlative to it on the part of man--man must do something also. This great act of God must find some response in the heart of man. There must needs be, in a fallen, guilty, and polluted creature, emotions which were at first unknown in Paradise. Deep penitence befits him, pungent sorrow, bitter self-reproach, and utter self-loathing. If we look to the honour of God, or the exigencies of His moral government, we come to the same conclusion. As His honour requires that the obedient should continue obedient, so does it require that, having disobeyed, they should repent, and cease to be disobedient: it is, in truth, the Same spirit in both cases, only adapted to the adversity of the circumstances. If God should, in mercy, justify the ungodly, it must be in such a manner as shall not conflict with these first and manifest principles; and the Gospel, therefore, must have some contrivance by which men may attain to justification without impairing the Divine government, or degrading the Divine character, or thinking highly of themselves. What then is that contrivance? It is not the way of works. What suits Adam in Paradise cannot suit us, driven out into the wilderness of sin and guilt. We are inquiring, as the correlative to justice and law on the part of God is obedience on the part of man, what is the correlative to merely and atonement? it cannot be that self-satisfied feeling which belongs to him who has fulfilled the law. His present obedience, however perfect, could not undo past disobedience. The correlative to the Divine acts of justification cannot be human acts in obedience to law. By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. But may not man be justified by obedience to a mitigated law? Is not the Gospel, after all, only the moral law with some abatements designed to bring it down to the level of our infirmity? This is the most plausible and deceptive supposition that could be made. It suits exactly mans natural pride, his fondness for his idols, and has withal an air of mingled mercy and justice. But, however specious, it is utterly unfounded in reason or Scripture. It supposes the law, which we regard as a transcript of the Divine character, to be found faulty, and its requirements in consequence to be cut down to the true level. Neither the violation of the law, nor yet its observance in its original or any mitigated form, can be the ground of our justification before God, in our present state, what way then remains to this infinitely desirable object? Are we not shut up to the way of faith? Being justified by faith. Nothing that is morally good either precedes justification, or is simultaneously instrumental of it; all real good follows it. By faith we understand a reliance upon Christ as our atoning sacrifice, and the Lord our righteousness, for acceptance before God. It is reliance on another. There is no self-reliance or self-complacence here. This principle consults and provides for every interest involved in a dispensation of mercy to fallen creatures through a Divine Redeemer. It humbles the sinner. It exalts the Saviour. Holiness is promoted. If such then be the nature and tendency of faith, if it be the sole instrument of justification, and if it is only in a state of justification that man can render real and acceptable obedience, how earnest and ceaseless ought to be our prayer, Lord, increase our faith! (W. Sparrow, D. D.)
Atonement and modern thought
What extorted this cry from Job was a crushing consciousness of Gods omnipotence. How could I, the impotent creature I am, stand up and assert my innocence before Him? What prompts the exclamation now is something quite different. We have lost even Jobs sense of a personal relation to God. The idea of immediate individual responsibility to Him seems in this generation to be suffering eclipse. The prevailing modern teaching outside Christianity makes man his own centre, and urges him from motives of self-interest to seek his own well-being, and the good of the whole as contributory to his own. In the last resort he is a law unto himself. Such moral rules as he finds current in the world are only registered experiences of the lines along which happiness can be secured. They have a certain weight, as ascertained meteorological facts have weight with seamen, but that is all. He is under no obligation in the strict moral sense. The whole is a question of interest. Now we hold that all this is not true to fact. Obligation pressing upon us from without establishes an authority over us; and conscience, recognising obligation, yea, stamping the soul with an instinctive self-judgment, as it fulfils or refuses to fulfil obligations--these go with us wherever we go, into school, college, business, social relations, public duty. If we recognise our obligations, and conscientiously meet them, we secure our highest interests. But that by no means resolves obligation into interest. The two positions are mutually exclusive. If a man from mere self-interest were to do all the things which another man did from a sense of obligation, not a shadow of the peace and righteous approval of the latter would be his. The selfish aim would evacuate the acts of all their ennobling qualities. While the conscientious man would find himself by losing himself, the selfish man would be shut up in a cold isolation, losing himself--having no real hold on any other soul--because his aim all along has been to save and serve himself. But if this is the true view of life, we must accept all that flows from it. Let us trust our moral nature as we do that part of our nature which looks out to the world of sense. If I be really under obligation then I am free. Obligation has no meaning such as we attach to it, unless we pre-suppose freedom. If the moral is highest in me, if every faculty and interest of right is subject to its sway, then in simple allegiance to facts I must infer that the highest order of this world is a moral order. But once grant that, and you are in the region of personality at once. The moment you feel yourself under duty you know yourself a person, free, moral, self-conscious. You are face to face with a Divine Moral Governor, in whom all your lower moral obligations find their last rest, since He established them; and who, as your author and sustainer, has a right to the total surrender of your whole being. The supreme meaning of life for you is, meeting your obligations to your God. Being made by a God of holiness, we must suppose that we have been called into existence as a means of exemplifying and glorifying the right. The right is supreme over every merely personal interest of our own. We exist for the right. The man can be justified with himself only as he pleases God: With the consciousness of disobedience comes guilt, fear, estrangement. When this unfortunate ease ensues, as it has ensued in the ease of all, the first point is settling this question of right as between man and God. Before anything and everything else in religion, before sanctification, before even we consider in detail how our life is to be brought into union with God, comes the great question of our meeting and fulfilling the claims of Gods law. Atonement is our first and most pressing concern. The Bible commits itself to three statements about you. Take the last first. By the works of the law, or by your own actions, you cannot be counted a perfectly just man in Gods sight. Secondly, you cannot clear yourself of guilt for this result. Thirdly, you see the Bible occupies ground of its own, and you must judge it on its own ground Now consider the chief difficulty exercising mens minds at this hour. We live in a practical rather than in a theoretical age. We say--How can a mere arrangement, such as the atonement, rectify my relations with God, separate me from sin, and secure my actual conformity to Gods will? Taking the Gospel way as it stands, I go on to show what a real root and branch all-round redemption and restoration it confers. Where men err is that they leave out of view the great personality of Christ. They forget that the redemption is in Him. (John Smith, M. A.)
The demand of human nature for the atonement
1. Our subject is the atonement, and facts in human nature which demand it. Religion can account for all its principles and doctrines by an appeal to the facts of our being. The doctrine of reconciliation with God through the atoning death of Jesus is confessedly the chief and, in some respects, the most obscure doctrine of the Christian religion. Nevertheless, belief in its general features is essential to any honest acceptance of the Gospel. Without discussing obscurities, I wish, in aid of faith, simply to point out how true it is to all the facts of human nature.
2. How should man be just with God? It is not a question that is raised by recent ethical culture or by the progress of man in moral development, as some have thought. It is as old as the human soul, as ancient as the sense of sin, as universal as humanity, and is heard in all the religions. Beneath the burning skies of primeval Arabia this mighty problem is debated by an Arab sheik and his three friends. First--
(1) Bildad, the Shuhite, states the incontrovertible premise from which the discussion starts--a premise grounded in universal consciousness, and axiomatic in its truth: Behold, God will not east away a perfect man, neither will He help the evildoer. That is to say, God makes an everlasting distinction between and a difference in His treatment of righteous and unrighteous men.
(2) Then up speaks Job: I know it is so of a truth. But how should man be just with God? If he will contend with Him, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand! There is none that doeth good; no, not one.
(3) Despondently, Job continues: If God will not withdraw His anger, the proud helpers do stoop under Him. How much less shall I answer Him, and choose out nay words to reason with Him? That is to say, all our repentances and righteousnesses, upon which we so much rely, are, for the nakedness of our need, but as filthy rags. The cry for mercy, instead of justice, must be our only plea.
(4) Then Job continues again: I am afraid of all my sorrows. I know Thou wilt not hold me innocent. All my sorrows. There is the remorse, the hell that is in me, the sense of justice unsatisfied, I am afraid of them!
(5) Then Job resumes once more: Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that he might lay his hand upon both! Ah, the blessed Christ, the Mediator, our Daysman, laying one hand on Justice and the other on our guilty heads, our Atonement, making God and man to be at one in peace--He had not come! Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that He might lay His hand upon both! Do you see now why Abraham and Job and all the ancient kings and prophets longed to see the day of Christ, and how hard it was for them to die without the sight? We have no daysman! Oh, the abysmal depth of longing in that word, We have no daysman, and How should man be just with God? And then, for all we are told, that desert colloquy stopped there, in utter sadness and gloom. Oh, if some one of us had only been there, and had been able to smite out and drop into the abyss the years that intervened between Jobs day and Christs. Or, if we could have led John the Apostle up to that company of Job and his three friends, and could have bidden John speak up, with clear tone, on their debate, and had him say to those, ancient Arabs, as he said to us: If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. And He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world! But Paul says it again, in his exact, positive way, and insists upon it. To declare, I say, at this time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus! And then they are satisfied. And now Job, and Bildad, and Zophar, and Elihu spring to their feet upon the desert sands, and with John and Paul lift their eyes and hands heavenward, and cry with one voice: Unto Him that hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood--to Him be glory and dominion, and honour, and power, forever and ever. Amen.
3. I affirm, as a matter of Christian experience, that all the necessary features and implications of the orthodox doctrine of the atonement are true to the facts of human nature. When I say the orthodox view, I mean that view in the highest form of its statement, the substitutional view, namely, that Christs death becomes an actual satisfaction to justice, to that sense of justice which exists in our own bosoms and in the bosoms of all intelligent creatures, and which, in the nature of things, must be a duplication of the sense of justice within the bosom of God Himself; that Christs sufferings and death become an actual satisfaction to justice for our sins that are past, when we accept it as such by faith. And the proof that it is a satisfaction, the evidence that it does take away the sense of demerit, the feeling that we owe something to justice, is that we are conscious it does. The philosophers have sometimes voted consciousness down and out by large majorities, but it refuses to stay down and out. It comes back and asserts itself. A man just knows it, sir, as Dr. Johnson said, and that is all there is about the matter. All that we Christians can do, all that we need to do, is to have the experience of it, and then stand still, and magnificently and imperiously declare that it does, for we feel it to be so. Men may tell us that it ought not to be so; we will rejoin that it is so. They may say that our sense of right and wrong is very imperfectly developed, or we could not derive peace from the thought that an innocent Being has suffered in our stead. Against our experience the world can make no answer. We aver that man feels his sin needs propitiation, and that, if he will, he may find that the death of Christ meets that need.
4. Let us go outside distinctively Christian experience, and note some facts in human nature which show its trend toward the atonement in Jesus.
(1) We aver that repentance and reformation alone will not satisfy the sense of right in man. Twenty-five years ago a friend of mine, a boy, under circumstances of great temptation, stole, and then had to lie to conceal the theft. He did not afterward have courage to confess and restore. The opportunity to own his sin and to make restitution soon passed away forever. Within a few years, he has assured me that the memory of that early, only theft yet lies heavily upon his soul, and that he can never feel at ease until that matter is somehow made right. Standing by this blazing fact in experience, I aver that the moral sense demands satisfaction, Repentance is not enough--he has repented. Reformation is not enough--he has never stolen since. Still he cannot answer God nor himself. He is not innocent, and the proud helpers do stoop under him. Propitiation of his own sense of right was necessary. He and my friend go and stand beside Job in the desert yonder, and say with him, I am afraid of my sorrows. I know that Thou wilt not hold me innocent. They do not hold themselves innocent. Let me add some more specimens of the innermost feelings of representative men which look in the same direction. Byron was not a man given to superstition or flightiness. In his Manfred, he is known to have spoken out the facts of his own guilty heart. There he says--
There is no power in holy men,
Nor charms in prayer, nor purifying form
Of penitence, nor outward look, nor fast,
Nor agony, nor, greater than them all,
The innate tortures of that deep despair
Which is Remorse without the fear of hell,
But all in all sufficient of itself
Would make a hell of heaven--can exorcise
From out the unbounded spirit the quick sense
Of its own sins, sufferings, and revenge
Upon itself.
Now, recollect that this is poetry. In poetry we get the deepest philosophy--there the heart speaks. It has no voice but the voice of nature. Byron speaks true to nature when he declares not prayer, nor fast, nor agony, nor remorse, can atone for sin or satisfy the soul. Is there not in the confession of that volcanic spirit a fact which looks toward mans need of Calvary? I take down my Shakespeare and open it at Macbeth, that awfulest tragedy of our tongue, matchless in literature for its description of the workings of a guilty conscience, to be studied evermore. Lady Macbeth--King Duncan having been murdered--walks in her sleep through her husbands castle at night bearing a taper in her hands. Physician: How came she by that light? Servant: Why, it stood by her; she has light by her continually; tis her command. As she walks, she rubs her hands. A servant explains: It is an accustomed action with her to seem thus washing her hands; I have known her to continue in this a quarter of an hour. Then Lady Macbeth speaks: Yet heres a spot. What! will these hands neer be clean?. . .Heres the smell of the blood still; all the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand! Is there not something there which sounds like the echo of Jobs words in the desert: I am afraid of all my sorrows? Does not Lady Macbeth, walking at night and repenting of her crime and washing her hands in dreams from Duncans blood, look as if an accusing conscience and the sense of justice unsatisfied could make its own hell?
(2) Still further, I aver that the moral sense is never appeased until atonement is somehow made. The atoning stroke must fall somewhere, even though it be upon himself, before a man can be at peace with himself. That is a profoundly instructive, because profoundly true, series of passages in Coleridges tragedy of Remorse, which sets out this fact. The guilty and guilt-smitten Ordonio is stabbed by Alhadra, the wife of the murdered Isadore. As the steel drinks his hearts blood, he utters the one single word, Atonement! His self-accusing spirit, which is wrung with its remorseful recollections, and which the warm and hearty forgiveness of his injured brother has not been able to soothe in the least, actually feels its first gush of relief only as the avenging knife enters, and crime meets penalty. Ordonio, shortly dying, expires saying--
I stood in silence, like a slave before her,
That I might taste the wormwood and the gall,
And satiate this self-accusing heart
With bitterer agonies than death can give.
That seems to say to me that nothing will give the soul peace but atonement of some kind.
5. I think, therefore, that if you could bring Job and his three friends, and my acquaintance who stole in his youth, and Byron, and Shakespeare, and Coleridge here today, they would see eye to eye, and agree upon some things in the name of facts in human nature.
(1) They would agree that repentance alone does not make a man to be at peace. All this company had most bitterly repented.
(2) They would agree that reformation was not sufficient.
(3) They would agree that the guilty souls remorse, its biting back upon itself, was its own hell, enough for its punishment.
(4) They would agree that the mind so sternly demands that atonement be made, somewhere and somehow, that it will sooner offer its own bosom, as Ordonio did, than that its own sense of justice should go unsatisfied.
(5) They would probably agree with Socrates, when he says to Plato, as some of you may have said today, Perhaps God may forgive sin, but I do not see how He can, for I do not see how He ought. That is to say, I do not see how the man who has sinned can ever be at peace.
(6) And then I aver that, if the years between could be dropped out and Paul could join that company and say, Behold the Lamb of God, whom God set forth to be a propitiation by His blood, to show His righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, that He might Himself be just and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus--if Paul could say that to them, and that company could accept Christ as their Daysman, transferring by sincere repentance and faith their guilt to Him, and consenting in their minds that He should discharge its penalty by His body and blood, then I aver, in the name of millions of Christians, that they would find peace. And I aver that this feeling of indebtedness to justice, which is alike in the bosom of God and the bosom of man, being satisfied, Job and his friends, and Byron, and Shakespeare, and Coleridge, and all sinful men would spring to their feet and say, with John and Paul and all that other company of the saved in heaven, Unto Him that hath loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be glory and dominion and honour and power, forever and ever. Amen! Such are a few of the facts in the consciousness of men which a brief survey enables us to notice. The logic of human nature is Christ. No Humboldt, or Cuvier, or Darwin, with keen scientific eye, ever noted such an array of physical facts, all bearing toward one end in the physical world, as we find in the moral realm, all tending toward Jesus. Tertullian claimed that the testimony of the mind was naturally Christian. His claim is just. Men may raft at these facts in consciousness; they may declare that they make God a Moloch, and that the doctrine of the atonement is the bloody invention of gross minded men, but the facts remain still, and their scientific trend and drift is wholly toward the Blessed Man of Calvary. If anyone does not feel so now, he is drugged with sin; he has taken opiates; he is not himself. (J. C. Jackson, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Job 9, 10
X.
THE THOUGHT OF A DAYSMAN
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Job 9, 10
JOB SPEAKS
IT is with an infinitely sad restatement of what God has been made to appear to him by Bildads speech that Job begins his reply. Yes, yes; it is so. How can man be just before such a God? You tell me my children are overwhelmed with destruction for their sins. You tell me that I, who am not quite dead as yet, may have new prosperity if I put myself into right relations with God. But how can that be? There is no uprightness, no dutifulness, no pious obedience, no sacrifice that will satisfy Him. I did my utmost; yet God has condemned me. And if He is what you say, His condemnation is unanswerable. He has such wisdom in devising accusations and in maintaining them against feeble man, that hope there can be none for any human being. To answer one of the thousand charges God can bring, if He will contend with man, is impossible. The earthquakes are signs of His indignation, removing mountains shaking the earth out of her place. He is able to quench the light of the sun and moon, and to seal up the stars. What is man beside the omnipotence of Him who alone stretched out the heavens, whose march is on the huge waves of the ocean, who is the Creator of the constellations, the Bear, the Giant, the Pleiades, and the chambers or spaces of the southern sky? It is the play of irresistible power Job traces around him, and the Divine mind or will is inscrutable.
"Lo, He goeth by me and I see Him not:
He passeth on, and I perceive Him not.
Behold, He seizeth. Who will stay Him?
Who will say to Him, What doest Thou?"
Step by step the thought here advances into that dreadful imagination of Gods unrighteousness which must issue in revolt or in despair. Job, turning against the bitter logic of tradition, appears for the time to plunge into impiety. Sincere earnest thinker as he is, he falls into a strain we are almost compelled to call false and blasphemous. Bildad and Eliphaz seem to be saints, Job a rebel against God. The Almighty, he says, is like a lion that seizes the prey and cannot be hindered from devouring. He is a wrathful tyrant under whom the helpers of Rahab, those powers that according to some nature myth sustain the dragon of the sea in its conflict with heaven, stoop and give way. Shall Job essay to answer Him? It is vain. He cannot. To choose words in such a controversy would be of no avail. Even one right in his cause would be overborne by tyrannical omnipotence. He would have no resource but to supplicate for mercy like a detected malefactor. Once Job may have thought that an appeal to justice would be heard, that his trust in righteousness was well founded. He is falling away from that belief now. This Being whose despotic power has been set in his view has no sense of mans right. He cares nothing for man.
What is God? How does He appear in the light of the sufferings of Job?
"He breaketh me with a tempest,
Increaseth my wounds without cause.
If you speak of the strength of the mighty, Behold Me, saith He;
If of judgment-Who will appoint Me a time?"
No one, that is, can call God to account. The temper of the Almighty appears to Job to be such that man must needs give up all controversy. In his heart Job is convinced still that he has wrought no evil. But he will not say so. He will anticipate the wilful condemnation of the Almighty. God would assail his life. Job replies in fierce revolt, "Assail it, take it away, I care not, for I despise it. Whether one is righteous or evil, it is all the same. God destroys the perfect and the wicked" (Job_9:22).
Now, are we to explain away this language? If not, how shall we defend the writer who has put it into the mouth of one still the hero of the book, still appearing as a friend of God? To many in our day, as of old, religion is so dull and lifeless, their desire for the friendship of God so lukewarm, that the passion of the words of Job is incomprehensible to them. His courage of despair belongs to a range of feeling they never entered, never dreamt of entering. The calculating world is their home, and in its frigid atmosphere there is no possibility of that keen striving for spiritual life which fills the soul as with fire. To those who deny sin and pooh pooh anxiety about the soul, the book may well appear an old-world dream, a Hebrew allegory rather than the history of a man. But the language of Job is no outburst of lawlessness; it springs out of deep and serious thought.
It is difficult to find an exact modern parallel here; but we have not to go far back for one who was driven like Job by false theology into bewilderment, something like unreason. In his "Grace Abounding," John Bunyan reveals the depths of fear into which hard arguments and misinterpretations of Scripture often plunged him, when he should have been rejoicing in the liberty of a child of God. The case of Bunyan is, in a sense, very different from that of Job. Yet both are urged almost to despair of God; and Bunyan, realising this point of likeness, again and again uses words put into Jobs mouth. Doubts and suspicions are suggested by his reading, or by sermons which he hears, and he regards their occurrence to his mind as a proof of his wickedness. In one place he says: "Now I thought surely I am possessed of the devil: at other times again I thought I should be bereft of my wits; for, instead of lauding and magnifying God with others, if I have but heard Him spoken of, presently some most horrible blasphemous thought or other would bolt out of my heart against Him, so that whether I did think that God was, or again did think there was no such thing, no love, nor peace, nor gracious disposition could I feel within me." Bunyan had a vivid imagination. He was haunted by strange cravings for the spiritually adventurous. What would it be to sin the sin that is unto death? "In so strong a measure," he says, "was this temptation upon me, that often I have been ready to clap my hands under my chin to keep my mouth from opening." The idea that he should "sell and part with Christ" was one that terribly afflicted him; and, "at last," he says, "after much striving, I felt this thought pass through my heart, Let Him go if He will. . . . After this, nothing for two years together would abide with me but damnation and the expectation of damnation. This thought had passed my heart-God hath let me go, and I am fallen. Oh, thought I, that it was with me as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me."
The Book of Job helps us to understand Bunyan and those terrors of his that amaze our composed generation. Given a man like Job or like Bunyan, to whom religion is everything, who must feel sure of Divine justice, truth, and mercy, he will pass far beyond the measured emotions and phrases of those who are more than half content with the world and themselves. The writer here, whose own stages of thought are recorded, and Bunyan, who with rare force and sincerity retraces the way of his life, are men of splendid character and virtue. Titans of the religious life, they are stricken with anguish and bound with iron fetters to the rock of pain for the sake of universal humanity. They are a wonder to the worldling, they speak in terms the smooth professor of religion shudders at. But their endurance, their vehement resolution, break the falsehoods of the time and enter into the redemption of the race.
The strain of Jobs complaint increases in bitterness. He seems to see omnipotent injustice everywhere. If a scourge (Job_9:23) such as lightning, accident, or disease slayeth suddenly, there seems to be nothing but mockery of the innocent. God looks down on the wreck of human hope, from the calm sky after the thunderstorm, in the evening sunlight that gilds the desert grave. And in the world of men the wicked have their way. God veils the face of the judge so that he is blinded to the equity of the cause. Thus, after the arguments of his friends, Job is compelled to see wrong everywhere, and to say that it is the doing of God. The strophe ends with the abrupt fierce demand, -If not, who then is it?
The short passage from the twenty-fifth verse to the end of chapter 9 (Job_9:25-35) returns sadly to the strain of personal weakness and entreaty. Swiftly Jobs days go by, more swiftly than a runner, in so far as he sees no good. Or they are like the reed skiffs on the river, or the darting eagle. To forget his pain is impossible. He cannot put on an appearance of serenity or hope. God is keeping him bound as a transgressor. "I shall be condemned whatever I do. Why then do I weary myself in vain?" Looking at his discoloured body, covered with the grime of disease, he finds it a sign of Gods detestation. But if he could wash it with snow, that is, to snowy whiteness, if he could purify those blackened limbs with lye, the renewal would go no further. God would plunge him again into the mire; his own clothes would abhor him.
And now there is a change of tone. His mind, revolting from its own conclusion, turns towards the thought of reconciliation. While as yet he speaks of it as an impossibility there comes to him a sorrowful regret, a vague dream or reflection in place of that fierce rebellion which discoloured the whole world and made it appear an arena of injustice. With that he cannot pretend to satisfy himself. Again his humanity stirs in him:-
"For He is not a man, as I, that I should answer Him,
That we should come together in judgment.
There is no daysman between us
That might lay his hand upon us both.
Let Him take away His rod from me,
And let not His terror overawe me;
Then would I speak and not fear Him:
For I am not in such case in myself."
If he could only speak with God as a man speaks with his friend the shadows might be cleared away. The real God, not unreasonable, not unrighteous nor despotic, here begins to appear; and in default of personal converse, and of a daysman, or arbiter, who might lay reconciling hands upon both and bring them together, Job cries for an interval of strength and freedom, that without fear and anguish he may himself express the matter at stake. The idea of a daysman, although the possibility of such a friendly helper is denied, is a new mark of boldness in the thought of the drama. In that one word the inspired writer strikes the note of a Divine purpose which he does not yet foresee. We must not say that here we have the prediction of a Redeemer at once God and man. The author has no such affirmation to make. But very remarkably the desires of Job are led forth in that direction in which the advent and work of Christ have fulfilled the decree of grace. There can be no doubt of the inspiration of a writer who thus strikes into the current of the Divine will and revelation. Not obscurely is it implied in this Book of Job that, however earnest man may be in religion, however upright and faithful (for all this Job was), there are mysteries of fear and sorrow connected with his life in this world which can be solved only by One who brings the light of eternity into the range of time, who is at once "very God and very man," whose overcoming demands and encourages our faith.
Now, the wistful cry of Job-"There is no daysman between us"-breaking from the depths of an experience to which the best as well as the worst are exposed in this life, an experience which cannot in either case be justified or accounted for unless by the fact of immortality, is, let us say, as presented here, a purely human cry. Man who "cannot be Gods exile," bound always to seek understanding of the will and character of God, finds himself in the midst of sudden calamity and extreme pain, face to face with death. The darkness that shrouds his whole existence he longs to see dispelled or shot through with beams of clear revealing light. What shall we say of it? If such a desire, arising in the inmost mind, had no correspondence whatever to fact, there would be falsehood at the heart of things. The very shape the desire takes-for a Mediator who should be acquainted equally with God and man, sympathetic toward the creature, knowing the mind of the Creator-cannot be a chance thing. It is the fruit of a Divine necessity inwrought with the constitution and life of the human soul. We are pointed to an irrefragable argument; but the thought meanwhile does not follow it. Immortality waits for a revelation.
Job has prayed for rest. It does not come. Another attack of pain makes a pause in his speech, and with the tenth chapter begins a long address to the Most High, not fierce as before, but sorrowful, subdued.
"My soul is weary of my life.
I will give free course to my complaint;
I will speak in bitterness of my soul."
It is scarcely possible to touch the threnody that follows without marring its pathetic and profound beauty. There is an exquisite dignity of restraint and frankness in this appeal to the Creator. He is an Artist whose fine work is in peril, and that from His own seeming carelessness of it, or more dreadful to conceive, His resolution to destroy it.
First the cry is, "Do not condemn me. Is it good unto Thee that Thou shouldest despise the work of Thine hands?" It is marvellous to Job that he should be scorned as worthless, while at the same time God seems to shine on the counsel of the wicked. How can that, O Thou Most High, be in harmony with Thy nature? He puts a supposition, which even in stating it he must refuse, "Hast Thou eyes of flesh? or seest Thou as man seeth?" A jealous man, clothed with a little brief authority, might probe into the misdeeds of a fellow creature. But God cannot do so. His majesty forbids; and especially since He knows, for one thing, that Job is not guilty, and, for another thing, that no one can escape His hands. Men often lay hold of the innocent, and torture them to discover imputed crimes. The supposition that God acts like a despot or the servant of a despot is made only to be east aside. But he goes back on his appeal to God as Creator, and bethinks him of that tender fashioning of the body which seems an argument for as tender a care of the soul and the spirit life. Much of power and lovingkindness goes to the perfecting of the body and the development of the physical life out of weakness and embryonic form. Can He who has so wrought, who has added favour and apparent love, have been concealing all the time a design of mockery? Even in creating, had God the purpose of making His creature a mere plaything for the self-will of Omnipotence?
"Yet these things Thou didst hide in Thine heart."
These things-the desolate home, the outcast life, the leprosy. Job uses a strange word: "I know that this was with Thee." His conclusion is stated roughly, that nothing can matter in dealing with such a Creator. The insistence of the friends on the hope of forgiveness, Jobs own consciousness of integrity go for nothing.
"Were I to sin Thou wouldst mark me,
And Thou wouldst not acquit me of iniquity.
Were I wicked, woe unto me;
Were I righteous, yet should I not lift up my head."
The supreme Power of the world has taken an aspect not of unreasoning force, but of determined ill-will to man. The only safety seems to be in lying quiet so as not to excite against him the activity of this awful God who hunts like a lion and delights in marvels of wasteful strength. It appears that, having been once roused, the Divine Enemy will not cease to persecute. New witnesses, new causes of indignation would be found; a changing host of troubles would follow up the attack.
I have ventured to interpret the whole address in terms of supposition, as a theory Job flings out in the utter darkness that surrounds him. He does not adopt it. To imagine that he really believes this, or that the writer of the book intended to put forward such a theory as even approximately true, is quite impossible. And yet, when one thinks of it, perhaps impossible is too strong a word. The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is a fundamental truth; but it has been so conceived and wrought with as to lead many reasoners into a dream of cruelty and irresponsible force not unlike that which haunts the mind of Job. Something of the kind has been argued for with no little earnestness by men who were religiously endeavouring to explain the Bible and professed to believe in the love of God to the world. For example: the annihilation of the wicked is denied by one for the good reason that God has a profound reverence for being or existence, so that he who is once possessed of will must exist forever; but from this the writer goes on to maintain that the wicked are useful to God as the material on which His justice operates, that indeed they have been created solely for everlasting punishment in order that through them the justice of the Almighty may be clearly seen. Against this very kind of theology Job is in revolt. In the light even of his world it was a creed of darkness. That God hates wrongdoing, that everything selfish, vindictive, cruel, unclean, false, shall be driven before Him-who can doubt? That according to His decree sin brings its punishment yielding the wages of death-who can doubt? But to represent Him who has made us all, and must have foreseen our sin, as without any kind of responsibility for us, dashing in pieces the machines He has made because they do not serve His purpose, though He knew even in making them that they would not-what a hideous falsehood is this; it can justify God only at the expense of undeifying Him.
One thing this Book of Job teaches, that we are not to go against our own sincere reason nor our sense of justice and truth in order to square facts with any scheme or any theory. Religious teaching and thought must affirm nothing that is not entirely frank, purely just, and such as we could, in the last resort, apply out and out to ourselves. Shall man be more just than God, more generous than God, more faithful than God? Perish the thought, and every system that maintains so false a theory and tries to force it on the human mind! Nevertheless, let there be no falling into the opposite error; from that, too, frankness will preserve us. No sincere man, attentive to the realities of the world and the awful ordinances of nature, can suspect the Universal Power of indifference to evil, of any design to leave law without sanction. We do not escape at one point; God is our Father; righteousness is vindicated, and so is faith.
As the colloquies proceed, the impression is gradually made that the writer of this book is wrestling with that study which more and more engages the intellect of man-What is the real? How does it stand related to the ideal, thought of as righteousness, as beauty, as truth? How does it stand related to God, sovereign and holy? The opening of the book might have led straight to the theory that the real, the present world charged with sin, disaster, and death, is not of the Divine order, therefore is of a Devil. But the disappearance of Satan throws aside any such idea of dualism, and pledges the writer to find solution, if he find it at all, in one will, one purpose, one Divine event. On Job himself the burden and the effort descend in his conflict with the real as disaster, enigma, impending death, false judgment, established theology and schemes of explanation. The ideal evades him, is lost between the rising wave and the lowering sky. In the whole horizon he sees no clear open space where it can unfold the day. But it remains in his heart; and in the night sky it waits where the great constellations shine in their dazzling purity and eternal calm, brooding silent over the world as from immeasurable distance far withdrawn. Even from that distance God sends forth and will accomplish a design. Meanwhile the man stretches his hands in vain from the shadowed earth to those keen lights, ever so remote and cold.
Show me wherefore Thou strivest with me.
Is it pleasant to Thee that Thou shouldst oppress,
That Thou shouldst despise the work of Thy hands
And shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
Hast Thou eyes of flesh?
Or seest Thou as man seeth?
Thy days-are they as the days of man?
Thy years-are they as mans days,
That Thou inquirest after fault of mine,
And searchest after my sin,
Though Thou knowest that I am not wicked,
And none can deliver from Thy hand?
Thine hands have made and fashioned me
Together round about; and Thou dost destroy me. {Job_10:2-8}
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Strongly affirms the truth of Bildad’s speech as to…
JOB’S REPLY TO BILDAD
Strongly affirms the truth of Bildad’s speech as to God’s justice (Job_9:1). Declares the impossibility of fallen man establishing his righteousness with God. The same, already acknowledged in reference to himself (ch. Job_7:20-21). Only maintains, as before, his freedom from such sins as to make him specially obnoxious to God’s judgments. Enlarges on the majesty, power and sovereignty of God, as exhibited in His works of creation and providence. Again complains of his severe and unmerited sufferings, and his inability to plead his own cause with God.
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I. Acknowledgement of man’s sinfulness and guilt in the sight of God (Job_9:2). “But (or, ‘and’) how should a man (a fallen, mortal man, ‘enosh’) be just with God? if he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand” [of the charges to be brought against him]. The language suggests the
Way of a Sinner’s acceptance with God
1. Man’s state and necessity as a sinner the foundation of the Gospel. Man is a sinner, unable to justify himself before God. The Gospel reveals a Saviour, and shows how man can obtain the justification he needs. In the Gospel is revealed “the righteousness of God”—a righteousness provided by God for man’s justification; or, God’s righteous way of justifying a sinner; viz., by the obedience and death of His own Son as the sinner’s substitute (Rom_1:17). To show this necessity of man and the provision made in the Gospel to meet it, Paul’s object in the Epistle to the Romans.
2. The necessity acknowledged by Job; the provision unnoticed by him as not bearing on the present controversy, and as not yet clearly known. The way of forgiveness through vicarious suffering understood, as constantly exhibited in the sacrifices. That of a sinner standing accepted and righteous before God through the active and passive obedience of another not yet fully revealed. The “righteousness of God” better known in the time of David—“I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only” (Psa_71:16). Still more clearly revealed by Isaiah—“Surely shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness and strength; in him shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory” (Isa_45:24-25). The light still advancing in the time of Jeremiah, a century later: “I will raise unto. David a righteous branch—and this is his name whereby he shall be called, the Lord our Righteousness” (Jer_23:5-6). Clearer still in the time of Daniel: “We do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies”—“for the Lord’s (Adonai’s) sake;” “Seventy weeks are determined to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness;” “Messiah shall be cut off, but not for himself” (Dan_9:17-18; Dan_9:24; Dan_9:26).
3. That provision “witnessed to by the law and the prophets,” but only “now,” in the Gospel dispensation, “manifested” (Rom_3:21). Described as “the righteousness of God without the law, which is by faith in Jesus Christ, unto all, and upon all them that believe” (Job_9:22). The same ground and necessity of it alleged as confessed by Job: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Job_9:23). The “righteousness of God” to show that God is “just, and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus,” declared “at this time” in the “remission (or passing over) of sins that were past” (in previous generations) (Job_9:26).
4. “HOW CAN A MAN BE JUST WITH GOD?”—the great question for humanity. The great concern for a dying hour, therefore the great concern now. How we stand with men a trifle in comparison. Without the Gospel, man’s views regarding it false, and his efforts vain. Men look for it—
(1) From their own virtues;
(2) From the efficacy of sacrifices, ceremonies, and penances;
(3) From the merits and intercession of others. But men’s greatest virtues still leave them sinners. No efficacy in the temporary sufferings of man or beast to atone for sin. No sinner can have merit or power with God to procure his neighbour’s acceptance any more than his own. “The sufficiency of my merit is to know that my merit is insufficient” [Augustine].
5. God’s way of acceptance every way suited to meet the case. Salvation and acceptance through a substitute according to reason and analogy. Common among men to allow the merit of one to avail on behalf of another. The eye of Zaleucus admitted as sufficient satisfaction to justice for that of his son. The uplifted stump of Æschylus, in testimony of his services to his country, allowed to prevail for his brother’s acquittal. One permitted to take another’s place in serving his country in time of war. Elements in the substitution of Christ:—
(1) The Divine law receives its perfect fulfilment and righteous penalty for man’s transgression in man’s nature;
(2) The man Christ constituted by God a second Adam and head of the race;
(3) As man fell by the disobedience of one, the first Adam, he rises by the obedience of one, the second Adam;
(4) The dignity of the Substitute, as the Son of God, sufficient to impart to His merits all necessary efficacy;
(5) His Divine nature and supernatural birth exempted Him from sin and the liability of the race;
(6) Christ, with a human mother and a Divine Father, placed both within the race and outside of it, as necessary for substitution.
6. Righteous in the righteousness of another,—the only way left for a sinner’s acceptance with God. RIGHTEOUS IN CHRIST, the Gospel plan and the believer’s glory. Sufficient for the acceptance and justification of the entire race. A man who is now not just and accepted before God is so only from—
(1) Ignorance of God’s plan of making a sinner righteous;
(2) Unwillingness to accept of it; (3; Inability to trust in it; or
(4) Indifference in regard to his salvation.
II. The folly of contending against God (Job_9:4).
“He is wise in heart and mighty in strength; who hath hardened himself against Him and prospered?” Men harden themselves against God—
(1) While resisting His authority and disobeying his commands;
(2) Rebelling and murmuring against His dealings in Providence;
(3) Refusing the offers of His mercy in the Gospel. Man possessed of the fearful power of hardening himself against God. The folly of such contention seen—
1. From the attributes of God. God “wise in heart and mighty in strength.” “Wise” to convict the offender and know how to deal with him; “Mighty” to arrest him and inflict the merited punishment. “Wise” to know and choose what is best to do; “Mighty” to accomplish it. Strength may prevail against wisdom, and wisdom against strength; but who can prevail against both combined? Almighty strength safe in the hands of infinite wisdom. Strength without wisdom makes a tyrant; strength with wisdom, a God. In Christ the wisdom and strength of God are both employed on our behalf. To His wisdom and power, as well as to His love, is due the plan of man’s salvation (Eph_3:10; Eph_1:19-20). Christ both “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (1Co_1:24).
2. From the facts of history. “Who hath hardened himself against Him and prospered?” The sinning angels, Pharaoh, Sennacherib’s army, the infidel leaders in the first French Revolution, referred to for an answer. For a creature to oppose God is for briars and thorns to do battle against fire. Success certain in falling in with God’s plan and procedure; certain ruin in opposing it. Prosperity for a time sometimes the apparent result of opposing God. That prosperity generally only the precursor of ultimate ruin. Pharaoh never appeared nearer his object than when he met with destruction.
Magnificent description of the
Power and Majesty of God
As exhibited in the works of creation and providence (Job_9:5-10). The description unequalled for poetic grandeur. Its elements—
1. The sudden overthrow of mountains (Job_9:5). “Which removeth the mountains, and they know not (or, before ever they are aware), and overthroweth them in his anger” (as in righteous judgment for the sins of the people). “To remove mountains,” synonymous with an impossibility. Nothing impossible with God. Hannibal celebrated for making a passage over the mountains; God removes them out of the way. Through the secret operation of natural causes, as in earthquakes and otherwise, mountains sometimes split, and portions torn away from the rest, with destruction of human life. All nature under God’s control, and employed by Him in mercy or in judgment.
2. Trembling of the earth’s foundations, and disappearance of portions of its surface. (Job_9:6). “Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof (or, its foundations,—the earth represented as a fabric or building) tremble.” Nothing apparently more firm m its place than the earth; yet islands and other large portions of it frequently made to disappear, through subterraneous agencies in earthquakes, subsidences, and submersions, what was once land now becoming sea. Earthquakes and all apparently natural convulsions and changes entirely under God’s control.
3. The sun withholding its beams in obedience to His command (Job_9:7). “Which commandeth the sun and it riseth not,”—sends not forth its rays; as in eclipses, dense fogs, the darkness frequently accompanying earthquakes, or when clouds and tempests darken the sky. The Divine command as powerful as at the beginning (Gen_1:3). Joshua’s command but an echo of his Master’s (Jos_10:12).
4. The starry sky sealed up as a folded scroll. “And sealeth up the stars.” The starry heavens God’s volume nightly spread open before us (Psa_19:1). Its characters sometimes entirely hidden by clouds, fogs, or tempests, as in Act_27:20. The nocturnal sky usually clear in the East, and the stars peculiarly brilliant. Hence the obscuration of it much more striking than with us. The clouds God’s seal, not to be broken by any earthly power. The scroll to be one day folded up (Isa_34:4; 2Pe_3:10; Rev_6:14).
5. The firmament spread out as a canopy, and the clouds made His chariot (Job_9:8). “Which alone (by His unaided power,—the one only Creator and Preserver of all) spreadeth out (or boweth) the heavens.” Spread out the firmament at the beginning, still keeps it spread, and spreads it out afresh every morning as a curtain (Psa_104:2; Isa_40:22). Employs the clouds as His chariot, bowing the heavens beneath Him, and putting darkness under His feet (Psa_18:9; Psa_144:5). Probably a further description of a tempest. The verse a miniature of the scene so sublimely described in Psa_18:7-15.
6. The towering billows made a pathway for His feet. “And treadeth on the waves (margin, ‘heights’) of the sea.” Sublimely expresses His control over the mountain billlows of the ocean, treading on them as a Conquerer and Ruler, restraining their fury, and keeping them from returning and again deluging the earth. So Christ visibly walked on the stormy lake of Galilee (Mat_14:26). Comfort for the tempest-tossed mariner, to remember that the God who is love both walks on the wings of the wind and the waves of the sea. A man walking on the waves, the Egyptian hieroglyphic for impossibility. “With God all things are possible.”
7. The constellations of heaven, as His creatures, rising and setting at His will Job_9:9). “Which maketh Arcturus (or the Great Bear), Orion, and the Pleiades (or Seven Stars), and the chambers of the south” (or the Constellations in the Southern Hemisphere, appearing to the Arabs only in summer). Preserves them in their original places, marshals them as His hosts, sustains and directs their apparent motions through all the successive seasons of the year.
8. His acts wonderful, innumerable, and unsearchable (Job_9:10). “Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.” In creation, His works wondrous and unsearchable, both in their multitude and magnitude, their complexity and minuteness. A drop of water and a dusky spot hardly visible on the face of the sky, each reveals suchwonders; the one, millions of perfectly-formed living creatures; the other millions of worlds, each world a sun. In Providence and the government of the universe, His works equally great and marvellous, innumerable and beyond our power of investigation. “His thoughts a great deep.” “Deep in unfathomable mines,” &c.
Lessons from this description:—
1. Ruinous to resist a Being of such power and majesty.
2. Blessed to have such a Being for our friend; miserable to have Him for a foe.
3. Our duty and happiness to trust Him in the most trying and apparently hopeless situations.
4. His appointment and dispensations to be meekly submitted to.
5. A Being of such perfections to be reverenced, adored, and obeyed.
III. God’s Perfections and Dealings viewed by Job in relation to Himself
1. Job declares God’s incomprehensibleness in His dealings with him (Job_9:11). “Lo, he goeth by me (is near me, in the dealings of his Providence), and I see him not; he passeth on also (from one stroke to another, or ‘passeth through like a whirlwind,’ Isa_21:1), but I perceive him not” (do not apprehend either His meaning or His love). A great part of Job’s trial, that while God was so painfully visiting him he was entirely in the dark as to His meaning. Contrasted with his experience in former trials (chap. Job_29:3). Observe—
(1) A child of God sometimes entirely in the dark as to the meaning of God’s dealings with Him. Perplexity and bewilderment as to the cause of our trials on God’s side, sometimes no small part of them. One of the greatest trials of a believer to be under trouble, and not to apprehend God’s love in it.
(2) God’s incomprehensibleness an exercise for faith. His children to trust Him in the dark. God most glorified by such confiding faith. Abraham an example (Rom_4:19-21; Heb_11:8; Heb_11:17-19).
(3) Incomprehensibleness a feature in God’s character and conduct. His ways in the sea, and His footsteps not known (Psa_77:19). His ways past finding (Rom_11:33). The glory of God is to conceal a thing (Psa_25:2). God’s dealings incomprehensible to us—(i.) as to their reasons; (ii.) as to their ends. “What I do thou knowest not now” (Joh_13:7). Part of the darkness, of sin that God is near and yet not perceived. His close and constant nearness a matter for praise and adoration (Psa_139:5). Analogy between God’s dealings in nature and in Providence. The operations and effects obvious, the agent Himself unseen. The operation of natural causes manifest; the moving power behind and under these entirely hidden (Act_17:22).
2. Job acknowledges God’s sovereignty and irresistible power (Job_9:12). “Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? (margin ‘turn him away’). Who will say unto him, ‘What doest thou?’ ” Observe—
(1) God takes away as He pleases. Already acknowledged by Job in his calamities (ch. Job_1:21; Job_2:10). Good to recognize God’s hand in our losses. No evil but from God, either directly or indirectly (Isa_45:7; Amo_3:6). Satan rather than God, the immediate author of Job’s calamities. Yet Satan’s action is not without God’s permission. Satan only God’s instrument in accomplishing His purpose of trying His people.—
(2) When God takes away, none can hinder Him. God possesses not only the right but the might to do as He pleases. Our comfort to know that both are exercised in wisdom, goodness, and holiness. Good to remember that when God takes away, that—(i.) He only takes away His own; (ii.) He takes away for our good. Job a greater gainer by his losses than he had ever been by his gains. To say to God, What doest Thou? is as ignorant as it is wicked. What God does, He does because it is best. God gives no reason to impenitent sinners either as to what He does or why He does it. A child of God would not hinder Him even if he could.—
(3) Opposition to God and His will as useless as it is wicked (Job_9:13). “If God will not withdraw his anger (or simply, ‘God will not withdraw,’ &c.), the proud helpers do stoop under Him.” God’s anger not to be turned away by man’s opposition, but by repentance, submission, and faith (Psa_2:10-12). His “anger” put for the rod which is the expression of it. All creature help against God and His chastisements utterly vain. Israel’s sin, that when under the rod they went to Egypt for help (Isa_30:2; Isa_31:1). Egypt in their pride, ready to render that help (Isa_30:4). Both helpers and helped obliged in the end to stoop under the rod. (Isa_31:3). Not uncommon for the ungodly to agree to mutual help in resisting God and His purposes (Psa_2:1-3; Psa_83:5-8; Act_21:28; Act_23:12). Such confederacies frequent in the time of the Reformation. Combinations against the Protestant religion combinations against God and his truth. Pride the characteristic of such confederacies (Exo_5:2; Exo_15:9). Their end seen in the overthrow of sinning angels and the destruction of Pharaoh’s host (Jud_1:6; Exo_15:9). The final destruction of anti-christian combinations yet to be exhibited (Rev_17:12-14; Rev_19:11-21). The essence of pride to oppose oneself to God’s purposes.—
(4) Good to take warning from others not to fall into their sin (Job_9:15). “How much less shall I answer him [in his charges against me], and choose out my words to reason with him” [as defendant in my cause]. Humility learned by consideration of God’s mightiness. If the proudest opposers of God and His purposes must stoop, how then shall I dispute with Him?—
(5) Silence and submission under God’s rebuke our interest as well as our duty (Job_9:15). “Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer [at his bar], but I would make supplication to my judge” (or to him debating with me). Man’s wisdom not to dispute with God, but to submit to Him. God ever ready to hear the sinner when he supplicates, but never when he disputes. However blameless his conduct, or good his conscience, fallen man still a sinner before God. “FOUND WANTING,” written on man’s best performances. God better acquainted with our character and conduct than we are ourselves (1Co_4:4; 1Jn_3:20). Constant reason for humiliation and faith (Psa_19:12; Psa_139:23-24).—
(6) The tried soul ready to fall back into despondency and unbelief (Job_9:16). “If I had (or have) called [on Him to answer my complaints], and he had (or hath) answered me [by condescending to take the place of a defendant], yet would (or will) I not believe that he had (or hath) hearkened to my voice.” Unbelief made the continuance of Job’s sufferings an argument that God had not hearkened to his prayer. The part of the flesh, to reason from the dealings of God’s hand to the purposes of God’s heart. Prayer often heard before the proof of it is apparent. Faith required to believe this (Mar_11:24). Unbelief must see the answer before it believes in it; faith believes in it before seeing it. Prayer, like seed, which for a time lies buried in the earth. God’s time for answering prayer reserved in His own hand. Prayer attended to, and prayer answered, two different things. The former usually followed sooner or later by the latter. Receiving an answer to be distinguished from the actual enjoying of it (Mar_11:24). Faith believes that it receives the blessing asked before it sees it: the seeing comes in God’s time.—
(7) Unbelief eyes outward dealings (Job_9:17-18). “For he breaketh me with a tempest (or, ‘crusheth me as in a whirlwind’), he multiplieth my wounds without cause. He will not suffer me to take my breath (enjoy the least respite or relief), but filleth me with bitterness.” The ground of Job’s despondency and unbelief. Continued suffering forbids him to believe God regards His prayers. Hard to believe in God’s love when so terribly crushed with successive strokes of His Providence. A tragic but true description of Job’s sufferings. “Broken”—crushed, or “bruised,” as in Gen_3:15. “With a tempest,” or “in a whirlwind”—suddenly—violently—irresistibly, like one continually lifted up and then dashed down again forcibly to the ground. This as suffered “without cause” known to himself, only all the more painful. His suffering “without cause,” God’s own account of the matter (ch. Job_2:3). The thing denied by the friends, but persistently maintained by Job, while yet acknowledging himself a sinner before God. Job ignorant of God’s purpose in the affliction. What was really done by Satan, Job in his ignorance ascribes to God. Ignorant of Satan’s malice, he can only think of God’s arbitrariness. Satan having destroyed Job’s children by one “whirlwind,” thinks to destroy Job himself by another of a different nature. Sufferings long continued and without intermission terribly exhausting and crushing to the human spirit. The “bitterness” of Job’s outward sufferings only the counterpart of the bitterness in his soul. Heroic faith to believe in God’s gracious regard in such terribly distressing circumstances. Such experience and faith that of Jesus Himself (Mat_26:38; Mat_27:46). Job’s faith also at times triumphant (ch. Job_19:25; Job_23:10).
IV. Job’s mental agitation in respect to his case (Job_9:19-21).
1. His inability to plead with God (Job_9:19).—“If I speak of strength (—if the question be one of strength), lo! he is strong (or, ‘a strong One is here’; or, ‘the strong One saith, here am I’); and if of judgment—(if the question be of one of right), who shall set me a time to plead” (or, ‘who shall bring him [or us] into court’ [that as umpire, we may debate the case before him]. Though conscious of innocence, Job feels there is no possibility of pleading his case against God. As regards power, God is the Mighty One, with whom no creature may contend. He is sovereign and supreme, so that there can be no umpire to summon both parties to trial. No creature therefore may dispute with God. Happily, no creature needs. Every one’s case left safe in His hands. Only agitation and unrest till this is done. Job atlast, after all his tumults and tossings, is brought to this, and then has peace. The lesson for Job and all tried ones,—not to dispute with God, but to leave the case confidingly in His hands, assured that the Judge of all the earth will do right. The lesson that of the 37th Psalm. “Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and he shall bring it to pass. And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday” (Psa_37:5-6).
2. His certainty of condemnation notwithstanding His conscious integrity (Job_9:20). “If I justify myself (or, ‘although I be righteous’), mine own mouth shall condemn me (—by its very utterances will shew me guilty), if I say, I am perfect (or, ‘although I am upright’), it shall also prove me perverse” (or, ‘He, i.e. God, shall declare me guilty’). A great truth felt, though unwillingly acknowledged by the “perfect” man. However upright and consciously innocent, a fallen man must yet stand condemned before his Maker. To exhibit this, one of the great objects of the book of Job. Fallen man, at his best estate, a sinner, and so guilty before God. The Apostle’s declaration, as shewing the necessity for the Gospel scheme (Rom_3:23). No flesh living capable of being justified in God’s sight (Psa_140:3). “No just man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not” (Ecc_7:20). To be justified before God on the ground of his own merits, a man must be absolutely sinless (Gal_3:10; Jas_2:10). Such a person nowhere to be found (1Jn_1:8). The mouth that pleads “Not guilty” before God condemns itself. Its very language proves the man a sinner by convicting him—
(1) Of pride;
(2) Of rebelliousness;
(3) Of falsehood. Self-righteousness in a sinner sufficient to condemn him. The object of the law not to justify but to silence (Rom_3:19). A man’s salvation and peace is found—
(1) in acknowledging guilt and taking the place of a lost sinner before God;
(2) In casting himself entirely on His mercy as flowing through a Saviour’s atoning blood (Rom_3:24).
3. His resolution to maintain his integrity at all costs (Job_9:21). “Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul (or, I am blameless and sincere, I care not for myself’); I would despise (or, I ‘despise’) my life.” As an honest man, conscious of sincerity and uprightness, Job refuses to confess himself a hypocrite and secret transgressor, in order to obtain the restoration to temporal prosperity held out by his friends. A contest maintained by Job with his friends as well as with God. As against God, he was wrong; as against men, he was right. Before God, he must and does acknowledge himself a sinner; before men, he maintains his integrity. In asserting himself “perfect” (blameless, sincere, upright), he only does what God had done for him (chap. Job_1:8; Job_2:3). A man may boldly maintain his integrity before his fellow men, while he humbly abases himself as a sinner before God. In the sight of God, Paul bows as “the chief of sinners” (1Ti_1:15); before a human tribunal, he declares—“I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day” (Act_23:1).
V. Perplexed thoughts as to the Divine procedure in the present world (Job_9:22-24).
1. Its indiscriminateness (Job_9:22). “This is one thing (or, ‘it is all one’); therefore I said it, he destroyeth the perfect (the blameless or upright) and the wicked.” Both classes treated, as a rule, without discrimination in the present life. Maintained by Job—
(1) As against the friends. Calamities not confined to the wicked;
(2) As against God Himself. No special regard had to those who serve Him. Such indiscriminate procedure maintained in the Book of Ecclesiastes (chap. Job_9:2-3). One of the facts in the Divine government observed by thoughtful and good men. Both classes suffer alike, as in war, famine, pestilence, earthquake, tempests, &c. Both share equally in the ills and calamities of life. A mystery and a stumblingblock. To be regarded—
(1) As an argument for a future state. The difference between the righteous and the wicked reserved for a future day (Mal_3:18).—
(2) As a trial for faith in the Divine character. Hence the murmurings of unbelieving professors (Mal_3:13; Mal_3:15).
2. Its apparent indifference to the sufferings of the godly (Job_9:23). “If the scourge slay suddenly (or, indiscriminately), he will laugh (or, it laugheth) at the trial of the innocent.” The supposed case already asserted (Job_9:22). Job’s own case before his view. Providence often has the appearance of cruel indifference to the sufferings of the innocent. The feelings of God’s heart not to be judged by the dealings of His hand. Divine “love and hatred” not known by any mere outward dispensation (Ecc_9:1). The godly sometimes “accounted as sheep for the slaughter” (Psa_44:22). The Divine sympathy for the suffering exhibited in the character of Jesus. For a time Jesus Himself also sometimes appeared indifferent to suffering (Mat_15:23-26; Mar_4:38; Joh_11:6). The Divine dealings in the present life are—
(1) Probative;
(2) Disciplinary. The trial of the righteous found at last unto praise, and honour, and glory (1Pe_1:7). Precious metal proved as well as purified by the fire. The scourge that destroys the guilty only tries the good (So Psa_11:5; Psa_7:11).
3. Its apparently unjust partiality (Job_9:24). “The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covereth the faces of the judges thereof.” Two anomalies—
(1) The wicked are exalted to power, while godly men are depressed;
(2) Tyrants are allowed to reign while rightful rulers are treated with ignominy and put to death (Est_7:8. Same sentiment (Psa_12:8). The ungodly styled “the man of the earth” (Psa_10:18). Satan himself the “prince of this world.” He and his host the “rulers of the darkness of this world.” Godly men in Christ earth’s proper judges and rulers (1Co_6:2-3; Rev_1:5). Such often treated in the providence of God as malefactors. Job himself an example (ch. Job_29:7-17; Job_29:25; Job_30:10-23). God the author of civil government. The earth with its various states and governments in His hand. Given over by Him to others according to His will. Often in judgment to bad men (Dan_4:17). By Him kings reign. He putteth down one and setteth up another (Psa_75:7; Dan_2:21). Ruleth in the kingdom of men, and appointeth over it whomsoever he will (Dan_4:17; Dan_4:25; Dan_5:21). Does this in His invisible and mysterious providence, without infringement on man’s free will or the operation of second causes. This fact one of the elements in the doctrine of “wisdom,” exhibited in this and other inspired books of the same period.
4. The mysterious certainly connected with it. “If not (—if the case be not so), where and who is he [who does these things]?” Or, “if the case be not thus [viz., that God does these things], who is it [that does them]?” The facts undeniable; who but One can be the author of them? Acknowledged mystery in these anomalies in the government of a righteous God. Yet none but God can be the author of them. Earth necessarily under a Supreme Ruler. That Ruler necessarily righteous. The doctrine of two co-ordinate principles not to be admitted. God the author both of good and evil—light and darkness (Isa_45:7). The existence and prevalence of evil in the world, including the elevation of wicked rulers, one of the mysteries in Divine Providence. God the author of evil—
(1) By permission;
(2) By predestination;
(3) By Providence. Satan the author of evil—
(1) Actually;
(2) Subordinately;
(3) Instrumentally. Evil under the Divine government permitted for wise and benevolent purposes. His wisdom and benevolence seen—
(1) In restraining the evil;
(2) In overruling it for good;
(3) In employing it for the exhibition of His own perfections (Psa_76:10). God displays His glory, while “from seeming evil still educing good.” Tyrants and evil rulers God’s scourge to a guilty land. The terrible and destructive thunderstorm the purifier of the atmosphere. The rainbow the offspring of the dark cloud behind it. The grandest scenery the product of earth’s terrible convulsions. The stars shine out most brilliantly from the blackest sky: Deep shadows give effect to the picture—an occasional discord to the music. Old and fractured instruments often yield the sweetest tones. Wicked hands the agencies in man’s redemption (Act_2:23).
VI. Reflections on his own pitiful condition (Job_9:25-35).
1. The rapid termination of his prosperity and his life (Job_9:25). “Now my days are (or, have been) swifter than a post (or, runner,—a state-courier carrying letters or despatches, sometimes travelling a hundred and fifty miles in less than twenty-four hours; dromedaries, able to outrun the fleetest horses, also employed (Est_8:14); they flee (or, have fled) away; they see (or, have seen) no good.” Job had not reached the meridian of life. Lived after his troubles a hundred and forty years. His present age probably not more than the half of that. His death, which appeared at hand, therefore sadly premature. His past prosperity accordingly short-lived. In the presence of his now accumulated miseries, his days appear to have witnessed no happiness. Present misery apt to make us overlook past mercy. Two more comparisons to represent the swiftness with which his life had sped to its close—
(1) A reed-skiff or canoe, formed of the papyrus of the Nile, remarkable for its lightness and swiftness (Job_9:26). “They are (or have) passed away as the swift ships” (margin, “ships of desire,” or, “ships of Ebeh;” more probably “ships of papyrus,” like Isa_18:2.)
(2) An eagle, swiftest of birds, eagerly pouncing down on its prey. “As the eagle hasteth,” &c. A frequent comparison. (Sec Deu_28:49; Jer_4:13; 1Sa_4:19.)
Human Life a Voyage
Each individual’s life fitly compared to a swift sailing vessel speeding onwards on her voyage.—
1. Constant and rapid progress. No stoppage till we reach the place of destination.—
2. The precise length of the voyage various in each case.—
3. The length of the voyage and the time of its termination previously unknown.—
4. The voyage a most important one to each. All others comparatively insignificant. Its issue an eternity of happiness or woe.—
5. The freight an immortal spirit with boundless capacities.—
6. The place of destination one or other of only two, widely remote from each other in character and situation—a paradise of bliss and a home of glory, or a region of darkness and despair.—
7. Each vessel under the direction of an invisible power that presides at the helm. The helmsman in each case, either the Prince of Life, or the Prince of Darkness. The object of the former is to steer the vessel to glory; that of the latter to wreck it on the shores of death. The first human vessel launched with the former at the helm. Man listening to the flattering proposals of the latter accepted him for his pilot. Since then human life has been started under the influence of the Prince of Darkness, the “god of this world.” The choice made by Adam of a pilot, confirmed by his offspring who are born in his likeness. Man might have been hopelessly left to his miserable and ungrateful choice. Mercy, however, places again within his reach a change of pilots. The Prince of Life, having atoned for man’s rebellion, offers again to take charge of the vessel. Conscious of their sin and misery, many thankfully accept His offer and safely reach the port of peace. Others, rejecting it, are wrecked on the rocks of eternal ruin.—Two important questions—
(1) Whither am I bound? For heaven or for hell?
(2) Who is my pilot? Christ or the Wicked One?
2. The inability of his efforts to overcome his heaviness (Job_9:27-28). “If I say, I will forget my complaint (lay aside my lamentation); I will leave off my heaviness and comfort myself (or, I will put away my sorrowful countenance and brighten up), I am afraid of all my sorrow (—I shudder at my accumulated griefs). I know that thou wilt not hold (or, treat me as) innocent” (whatever I may be or may deem myself). A painful struggle between the enlightened spirit, and the flesh aided by the depressing nature of disease and the buffetings of the invisible adversary. Similar struggle in David—“Why art thou cast down?” &c. (Psa_42:5; Psa_42:11; Psa_43:5). The believer often conscious that he ought to rejoice when unbelief forbids him. Much more under the New than the Old Testament to make a child of God “lay aside his sorrowful countenance and brighten up.” To “rejoice in the Lord” in the midst of trials, made much easier now than in the days of Job. The aim of Jesus to give his people ground to “rejoice in tribulation,” (Joh_14:27; Joh_15:11; Joh_16:33). Enjoined on them (Php_4:1). Their actual experience (Rom_5:3; 1Pe_1:6). Job kept from “brightening up” by the thought that, though conscious of innocence, God would still hold and treat him as guilty. The believer able now to rejoice in the thought that, though conscious of guilt, God for Christ’s sake will hold and treat him as innocent, making him accepted in the beloved.”
3. His despair of being able to obtain acquittance with God (Job_9:29). “If I be wicked (or simply, ‘I am,’ or ‘shall be wicked;’ i.e., must be held and treated as such), why then labour I in vain” [to maintain a good conscience or attempt to prove my innocence]? A hard and unbelieving thought of God, suggested by his own carnal nature, and by the enemy who sought to bring him to curse his Maker as arbitrary, tyrannical, and unjust. Satan’s old trade (Gen_3:1; Gen_3:4-5). The bitter and ungenerous thought too fondly dwelt upon by Job. Perhaps some secret consciousness of inward corruption, and of the truth as regarded himself (Job_9:30). “If I wash myself with snow-water (the purest to be got), and make my hands never so clean (or, ‘cleanse my hands with lye’—used with oil instead of soap), yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch (or pit), and mine own clothes shall abhor me” (margin, “make me to be abhorred”). The idea: All my attempts to make my heart and life pure will with Thee be utterly vain,—Thou wilt still regard me as impure and abominable. The thought probably suggested by—
(1) his conscious endeavours to maintain purity of heart and life;
(2) his treatment at God’s hands being such as apparently to indicate the Divine condemnation. Should have been awakened by—
(1) Conscious corruption;
(2) Apprehension of the Divine purity. So Isaiah (Isa_6:5). So Job himself afterwards (ch. Job_40:4; Job_42:5-6). The language probably now dictated by peevishness and bitterness. Yet true, though in a different sense from that intended. All man’s attempts to justify and purify himself before God in vain. He still remains wicked, guilty, and abominable in the sight of a holy God. Man, as a fallen child of Adam, in his very nature corrupt and opposed to God. All self-attempts leave his nature unchanged and polluting all his actions. Such attempts themselves only the offspring of pride and self-righteousness, therefore abominable. Humility and love the only things in a creature acceptable to God. Man’s self-attempts leave him destitute of both. Guilt not to be effaced but by an atonement, or satisfaction to Divine justice. The waters of the ocean unable to wash out a single blood-spot of guilt. Only Almighty power able to remove the leopard’s spots or whiten the Ethiopian’s skin. In Christ provision made both for the removal of guilt and impurity. His blood removes the one, His Spirit’s grace the other. From His pierced side came forth both “blood and water” (Joh_19:34; Joh_5:6; Joh_5:8). The true posture of each fallen child of man in Luk_18:13. The prayer (Psa_51:7). The invitation (Isa_1:18. The promise (Eze_36:25). The acceptance (1Jn_1:7. The thanksgiving (Rev_1:5). A gracious plunging of the self-purified into the ditch, in the Divinely awakened consciousness of guilt and corruption. Saul carefully washed at Jerusalem; blessedly plunged in the ditch at Damascus (Act_9:9-11; Act_26:4-5).
4. Job’s inability to plead his cause before God (Job_9:32). “For he is not a man as I am, that I should answer him [as defendant at the bar], and that we should come together in judgment” [to plead our respective causes]. Job thinks he has a case against God, as God appears to have one against him. Wishes he could have them tried, but feels that the distance between him and God precludes the thought (Job_9:33). “Neither is there any daysman betwixt us (margin, “one that should argue;” or, “an umpire;” properly, an arbitrator with authority to restrain each party, and to bind them to his decision) that might lay his hand [authoritatively] upon us both.” Hence the supposed impossibility of an equal contest. What Job desiderated has, in a much better sense, been provided for sinful man. A daysman, or Mediator, has been found in the person of Jesus Christ—the fellow both of God and man (Zec_13:7). Not to afford man an opportunity of vainly pleading his innocence against God, but of humbly acknowledging his guilt and obtaining mercy (1Jn_2:1; 1Ti_2:5-6). Job imagines he could make good his case but for the Divine power and majesty that overawe him (Job_9:34). “Let him take his rod away from me (—his power, and perhaps the effect of it, his affliction), and let not his fear (or terrible majesty) terrify me. Then, would I speak and not ar him: but it is not so with me” (margin but I am not so with myself;” or, “for I am not so in mind,”—as to fear him in the controversy from any consciousness of guilt). The fear of the Divine majesty the common feeling of humanity. Even the seraphim cover their faces with their wings before God. The doors of the temple and the foundations of Sinai shook at His presence. “A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” The “rod” of God seen removed in the person and work of Him who was “meek and lowly in heart,” and who “suffered for our sins, the Just one in the room of the unjust.” The rays of Divine majesty softened in the God-man, Christ Jesus. The Father seen in him who was the “man of sorrows” (Joh_14:9). Jesus the way to the Father. Through Him we enter with boldness into the holiest of all (Joh_14:6; Heb_10:19-22). Christ the true Jacob’s ladder. The foot on the earth, and the top reaching to heaven (Joh_1:51; Gen_28:12).
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain Job 9:32-33
Job 9:32-33
I. This desire of Job’s is to be studied, not merely as the experience of an individual under peculiar circumstances, but as a human experience, the germs of which are in man as man; in other words, Job’s craving for a mediator is the craving of humanity.
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II. The demand for a mediator is backed and urged by two great interlinked facts: sin and suffering.
III. Job’s longing is literally and fully met. To the cry which comes from that far-off wreck of earthly happiness, "He is not a man as I am," we can answer today, "He is a Man." To the words, "There is no daysman to lay his hand upon us both," we answer, "There is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus."
M. R. Vincent, God and Bread, p. 265.
References: Job 9:20.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., p. 350. Job 9:33.—Ibid., vol. xi., No. 661. Job 9-10—S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. v., pp. 36 and 113; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 118. Job 10:2.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 283; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 49. Job 10:8.—H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2342; Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 290.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain Job's Second Speech (Job 9, 10)
Job's Second Speech (Job 9, 10)
Job 9, 10 are, perhaps, in their religious and moral aspects the most difficult in the book.
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Driver in his 'Introduction to the Literature of the OT.' analyses them as follows:—'Job as well as his friends believes suffering to be a mark of God's displeasure for some grave sin. Job, however, is conscious that he has not so sinned. Hence the terrible dilemma in which he finds himself and which forces him to the conclusion that God, though He knows him to be innocent (Job_10:7), is determined to treat him as guilty, and that it is hopeless for him to attempt to clear himself.' Davidson characterises the leading features of the speech as 'awe before an Omnipotent Power, and moral terror and indignation, mixed with piteous despair at the indiscriminate severity with which it crushes men!' The strange blending of conflicting emotions is one of the most striking features in this and some other of Job's speeches. With great skill and psychological insight the poet has shown us the rebellion which, springing from God's apparent cruelty, gives place for the moment to a softened mood as the sufferer recalls his former life in God's favour. Then this, in turn, is brushed aside to make way for a darker accusation than ever; God had deliberately led him on to believe in His love that He might make all the bitterer the revelation of His hate. Then the mood changes once more and he appeals to the pity of that God, whose pitilessness he has just asserted.
2-13. Job admits that it is impossible for him to maintain his righteousness before God. But this he implies is not due to his consciousness of guilt, but to the hopelessness of attempting to defend himself against God's irresistible power which is manifested throughout creation.
3. If he will] RM 'If one should desire to.'
Contend] argue his cause. One of a thousand] viz. charges against him, or questions with which he might be entrapped.
5. And they know not: which overturneth] RV 'And they know it not when he overturneth.' The catastrophe is so sudden.
6. The v. describes an earthquake. The roots of the mountains were thought of as pillars supporting the earth: cp. Job_26:11; Psa_75:3.
7. It riseth not] because of darkness or eclipse. Sealeth up] i.e. in the abode where the stars were thought to dwell, and where they were brought forth by night to shine in the sky (Isa_40:26).
8. Cp. Isa_40:22. The points of resemblance between the book of Job and the latter part of Isaiah are striking and frequent.
9. Arcturus] RV 'the Bear.' The Heb. names in this v. are supposed to refer to three well-known constellations, the Bear, the Pleiades, and Orion. Chambers of the south] the southern heavens. So the Babylonians divided the sky into 'lunar mansions.'
11. Job is baffled by the suddenness and mystery of God's actions. There is no escaping Him.
13. RV 'God will not withdraw his anger; the helpers of Rahab do stoop under him.' The word 'Rahab,' which means 'pride,' occurs again in Job_26:12 RV, and is there evidently applied to the raging sea. 'This stormy sea, assaulting heaven with its waves, was personified in ancient myth as a monster leading his helpers on to wage war with heaven' (Davidson). Rahab is the same as Tiâmat (see on Job_7:12). The myth relates that she brought forth a brood of monsters to help her in her battle. To this the term 'helpers of Rahab' alludes. See also Isa_51:9.
14-21. God, Job feels, is resolved to regard him as guilty. It is therefore vain to assert his innocence, yet while he can assert it he will.
15. Would I not] i.e. 'would I not dare to.' I would make supplication] rather, 'I must ask mercy.' It would be useless to attempt to establish his innocence. Judge] rather, 'adversary-at-law.'
16. 'If God allowed me to plead my cause, I cannot believe He would condescend to attend to me.' Job feels that God is indifferent to his cry for justice.
17, 18. Breaketh.. multiplieth.. will not suffer.. filleth] rather, 'would break.. would multiply.. would not suffer.. would fill.'
19. God is represented as speaking. 'If it be a question of strength, it is I who am strong; if of judgment, who would dare appoint me a day?' 'The words imply the irresponsibility and superiority to all law of the speaker' (Davidson).
20. Job speaks. Render, 'Though I am innocent, a word may put me in the wrong; though I am upright, He can pervert me.' It is therefore useless to plead.
21. RV 'I am perfect; I regard not myself; I despise my life.' Job now boldly asserts that he is innocent, even though it may cost him his life.
22-24. Job boldly arraigns the morality of the divine government of the world.
22. This is one thing] RV 'It is all one.' Apparently he means, 'It makes no difference whether I live or die.' God destroys indiscriminately both innocent and guilty. This directly controverts the friends' view (Job_8:20). There is no such thing as a moral government of the world.
23. Scourge] e.g. famine, etc.
Trial] RM 'calamity.'
24. He covereth the faces, etc.] so that they are blind to justice.
If not, where, etc.] RV 'If it be not he, who then is it?' To whom but God can this state of things be ascribed?
25-31. Job's life speeds away; God will make him out to be guilty however pure he may be.
25, 26. Cp. Wis_5:9-10, where two of the same metaphors are similarly used.
25. A post] RM a 'runner' with messages.
26. Swift ships] Heb. 'ships of reed,' light boats made from the papyrus reed, and very swift.
28. Since God is determined to hold Job guilty, it is useless for him to try and establish his innocence. I am afraid of all my sorrows] because they seem to be evidences of God's anger. Apparently there were times when the pain was less acute, but the cheerfulness he might have felt was checked by the knowledge that it would come back again.
29. If I be wicked] RV 'I shall be condemned.'
30. And make, etc.] RM 'And cleanse my hands with lye,' or potash. He means that he is really righteous, but God is deteimined to make him seem wicked.
32-35. Job is conscious that he cannot meet God on his own level and plead his cause on equal terms, nor is there any one to act as mediator.
33. Daysman] an Old English word meaning 'umpire,' or 'arbitrator'; one who mediates between two parties.
33-35. Translate (with Cox): 'There is no arbiter between us to lay his hand upon us both, who would remove His (God's) rod from me so that the dread of Him should not overawe me. If there were, I would speak and not fear Him.' Job laments that there is no being, having power with God and man, who would interpose and arbitrate between him and God, and make both parties yield to his decision.
This passage is the first occurrence of the idea of intervention on his behalf, which takes more definite shape in Job_16:19 and Job_19:25-27. But in those passages Job advances to the thought that, since he has no umpire to vindicate him, God Himself will be bis umpire, and vindicate Job even against Himself. This longing of pious men of old for some mediator who would bring about peace between them and God has been satisfied in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, both God and man.
34. His fear] i.e. the fear He causes, as in Exo_23:27.
35. But it is not so with me] RV 'For I am not so in myself,' i.e. In my own soul I am not guilty.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain CHAPTERS 9-10 Job Answers Bildad
CHAPTERS 9-10 Job Answers Bildad
1. The supremacy and power of God (Job 9:1-10)
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2. How then can Job meet Him? (Job 9:11-21)
3. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked (Job 9:22-24)
4. Confession of weakness and the need of a daysman (Job 9:25-35)
5. Murmuring against God (Job 10:1-17)
6. Welcoming death (Job 10:18-22)
Job 9:1-10. The final words of Bildad seemed to have had a momentary soothing effect upon Job. Of a truth it is so. But here is the question, How can a man be just with God? And what a God He is! If a man contend in argument with Him, of a thousand things he could not answer one. Even if it is the wisest among men, and strongest, who stood up against Him, he did not prosper. He moveth and overturneth mountains; He makes the earth to tremble, bids the sun and it does not shine. He made the mighty constellations in the sky, Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades--
Who doeth mighty things works, past finding out,
And wondrous things, in number infinite.
How then can a man be just with such a God of power and greatness?
Job 9:11-21. And such a Being Job declares is for him inaccessible.
Behold, He passeth, but I see Him not,
He sweepeth by, but is invisible.
LO, He doth seize; who then can hold Him back?
Or who shall say to Him, What doest Thou?
Should God at length His anger not avert,
Helpers of pride must stoop beneath His hand
How then can I address and answer Him?
Or choose my words in argument with Him?
How can Job confront such a one? Should he attempt to justify himself, his own mouth and lips would instantly condemn him; and if he were to say, I am perfect and blameless, He would only prove his perverseness.
Job 9:22-24. But the words which follow sound almost like the ravings of a madman. He speaks out, but not in the fear of God. He assumes indifference and says that it is all the same to him, whether he is right or wrong, for God destroyeth the perfect and the wicked alike; in other words He is an unjust God. When the pestilential scourge marcheth through the land and slays suddenly, He but mocks at the innocent who are taken away. The earth is given by Him into the hands of the wicked; injustice reigns everywhere. If God has not done all this, who then is it? Horrible words these which must have been whispered in his despairing soul by that being who is as much the accuser of God to the brethren, as the accuser of the brethren before God.
Job 9:25-35. Then he confesseth his impotence. His days are swiftly passing. He cannot clear himself. He expresses his fear that God will not hold him innocent; He will account him guilty. If then he is wicked all his labours are in vain. Whatever he does cannot change matters. Even if he bathed himself in water pure as snow, and washed his hands with soap, so as to be as clean as he never was before, yet God would surely plunge him into the ditch. All self-help, and self-improvement is in vain. But then a ray of light. He needs another to help him, to bring him in touch with God, to make him just with God. He calls for a daysman, an umpire, one that might lay His hand on God and on him, the sinner, so that the rod be taken from him and he be freed from fear. The daysman we find later in this book foreshadowed. But He has come; Christ Jesus our Lord.
Job 10:1-17. And now the darkest of all. Not so much is it the physical agony, the boils and running sores, torturing him, as it is the bitter consciousness that he is loosing hold on God, that he begins to look upon Him no longer as a loving friend, but as a harsh, unmovable tyrant. It is a death struggle through which he passeth. His soul is weary of his life and so he tells out the bitterness of his heart. What accusations are here! Bold language indeed for the creature of the dust, and such an afflicted creature as he was--”I will say unto God--Show me wherefore Thou contend with me.” He charges God that He planned his calamity and destruction (Job 10:6-13). It is as if Job confesseth in his blindness by his words that he is in the hands of an all-powerful, merciless being, not a God of love and justice, but an enemy.
Job 10:18-22. What then is the use of living? Oh, if he only had been carried from the womb to the grave!
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain Job’s Defense Against Suspicion.
Job’s Defense Against Suspicion.
Both Eliphaz and Bildad had attempted to fasten upon Job some specific wrong, seeking from him a confession to that effect. He therefore defends himself against this manner of drawing conclusions in his case.
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v. 1. Then Job answered and said,
v. 2. I know it is so of a truth, namely, that God is righteous in all His doing, that He never perverts justice; but how should man, a mortal being, man in his mortality and weakness, be just with God? Even if mortal man should, in his own opinion, be in the right over against God, his own judgment is without value; for no man, as God plainly states. can be just in His sight.
v. 3. If he will contend with Him, if mortal man should dare to enter into litigation with the great God, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand; if man’s case were brought to trial, God could and would so quickly embarrass and overwhelm him with questions that he would quickly stand there in mute shame, unable to justify himself in one item.
v. 4. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength; those are two outstanding attributes of God. Who hath hardened himself against Him, stiffening his neck in foolish opposition, bidding Him defiance, and hath prospered? With His wisdom the Lord can confuse man, and with His strength He can overcome him; so no mortal can maintain his cause before God.
v. 5. Which removeth the mountains and they know not, without their being aware of the fact; which overturneth them in His anger; His wrath strikes them with such sudden fury that they are not even conscious of the change effected by His power until all has been done.
v. 6. Which shaketh the earth out of her place, causing not only the mountains, but the entire earth to tremble in mighty earthquakes, and the pillars thereof tremble, its very foundations are rocked and shaken, Psa 75:3; Isa 24:20.
v. 7. Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not, withholding his golden rays from the earth; and sealeth up the stars, setting a seal round about them, veiling them by thick clouds and darkening the night as well as the day, as He chooses.
v. 8. Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, like an immense tent, Isa 40:22, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea, He is their Master; though they rise up in threatening heights, Psa 107:26, at His almighty command they must serve Him with meekness.
v. 9. Which maketh Arcturus, the constellation of the Great Bear, in the northern part of the sky, Orion, a constellation of the southern sky, and Pleiades, a constellation of the eastern sky, and the chambers of the south, the secret places of the Antarctic sky, for in that direction the endless spaces of the heavens were hidden from the sight of the Arabian astronomers.
v. 10. Which doeth great things past finding out, yea, and wonders without number. Job cheerfully agreed with his friend, 5:9, on the absolute power and the inexpressible majesty of God. The Lord’s great power is put forth not only in the kingdom of nature, but also in His government of man.
v. 11. Lo, He goeth by me, and I see Him not; He passeth on also, but I perceive Him not. Though his eyes cannot see the great and mighty God, his spirit perceives His nearness, as He sweeps by like a destructive wind before which no man can stand.
v. 12. Behold, He taketh away, snatching away His victim and all the spoil He chooses to take; who can hinder Him, holding Him back from His course, placing hindrances in His way? Who will say unto Him, What doest Thou? This thought of God’s overwhelming and often apparently arbitrary power now prompts Job to speak in an almost defiant manner.
v. 13. If God will not withdraw His anger, rather, affirmatively, "He will not cause it to return," He will not recall it, the proud helpers do stoop under Him, literally, "the helpers of Rahab cringe before Him," the reference being to a historical or a legendary defeat of some mighty enemies of Jehovah.
v. 14. How much less shall I answer Him, namely, than such great and mighty adversaries, and choose out my words to reason with Him? No matter how carefully he might choose his words, attempting to get just the right expression, he could not escape rebuke on the part of God.
v. 15. Whom, though I were righteous, even if Job were in the right, free from blame according to standards of right as commonly accepted, yet would I not answer, that is, Job could not answer, but I would make supplication to my Judge, being brought to the humiliating position of beseeching the Judge, who was his adversary, accuser, and judge in one person.
v. 16. If I had called, and He had answered me, if Job’s pleading would apparently find favor, yet would I not believe that He had hearkened unto my voice; he feared that God’s infinite exaltation would keep Him from showing such kindness.
v. 17. For He breaketh me with a tempest, that is, He would overwhelm Job with a storm, should he attempt such a course, and multiplieth my wounds without cause, in spite of Job’s innocence He would pursue him with calamities.
v. 18. He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness, this being considered the food with which Job should satisfy his soul.
v. 19. If I speak of strength, lo, He is strong, in a trial of strength Job would, of course, not stand a show; and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead? If it were a question of right and judgment, the mighty word of God would be thundered at him: Who will cite Me? In either case, there was no hope for weak and mortal man.
v. 20. If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me; even if he were right, the confusion of his speech would condemn him; if I say, I am perfect, innocent, without guilt, it shall also prove me perverse, set him forth as guilty.
v. 21. Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul, he had reached the point where he no longer knew himself; I would despise my life, it had become a burden to him. He felt so unspeakably wretched that he wished to die. In all this Job forgot that even the breath of an accusation against God as though He were not just and righteous in all His works is an insult to His glorious majesty.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 I truly know that this is so
I truly know that this is so
"I know that what you say is true"
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this is so
Here the word "this" refers to what Bildad said.
how can a person be in the right with God?
"how can anyone be innocent before God?"
argue
dispute
he cannot answer him once in a thousand times
"Once in a thousand times" here is an idiom that means "at all." Possible meanings are 1) "he cannot give any answer to God" or 2) "God will not answer him at all" (See: Idiom)
a thousand times
"1,000 times"
translationWords
amen
God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 9:1-35 Job responded to Bildad by describing God’s cosmic…
9:1-35 Job responded to Bildad by describing God’s cosmic and judicial power. His speech sounds like a complicated legal case, with a summons and response (9:3, 14-16, 19b, 32), the possibility of self-incrimination (9:20), an arbiter (9:33-34), an accusatory question (9:12), a legal sentence (9:22), and a declaration of guilt (9:28-30).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.