Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 9:23
If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.
23. Further illustration of this character of God.
the scourge ] i. e. the plague, as pestilence, famine, war, and the like, Isa 28:15.
will laugh at the trial ] Or, mocks at the despair, cf. Job 6:14.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
If the scourge slay suddenly – If calamity comes in a sudden and unexpected manner. Dr. Good, following Reiske, translates this, if he suddenly slay the oppressor, understanding the word scourge shot as meaning an oppressor, or one whom God employs as a scourge of nations. But this is contrary to all the ancient versions. The word shot means properly a whip, a scourge (compare the notes at Job 5:21), and then calamity or affliction sent by God upon men. Such is clearly the case here.
He will laugh at the trial of the innocent – That is, he seems to disregard or to be pleased with their trials. He does not interpose to rescue them. He seems to look calmly on, and suffers them to be overwhelmed with others. This is a poetic expression, and cannot mean that God derides the trials of the innocent, or mocks their sufferings. It means that he seems to be inattentive to them; he suffers the righteous and the wicked to be swept away together as if he were regardless of character.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
If the scourge slay suddenly; either,
1. If some common and deadly judgment come upon a people, which destroys both good and bad. Or,
2. If God inflicts some grievous and unexpected stroke upon an innocent person, as it follows. He will laugh at the trial of the innocent; as he doth at the destruction of the wicked, Psa 2:4. His outward carriage is the same to both; he neglects the innocent, and seems not to answer their prayers, and suffers them to perish with others, as if be took pleasure in their ruin also. But withal, he intimates the matter and cause of his laughter or complacency which God takes in their afflictions, because to them they are but trials of their faith, and patience, and perseverance, which tends to Gods honour, and their own eternal advantage.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
23. IfRather, “While(His) scourge slays suddenly (the wicked, Job9:22), He laughs at (disregards; not derides) the pining away ofthe innocent.” The only difference, says Job, between theinnocent and guilty is, the latter are slain by a suddenstroke, the former pine away gradually. The translation,”trial,” does not express the antithesis to “slaysuddenly,” as “pining away” does [UMBREIT].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If the scourge slay suddenly,…. Not Satan, as Jarchi and Bar Tzemach; but any sore calamity which surrounds a man, lashes, cuts, and distresses him, as a whip or scourge; such as any of God’s sore judgments, the sword, famine, pestilence, or evil beasts, which sometimes come suddenly, unawares, unthought of, and unexpected; and are sometimes only chastisements in love, the scourgings of a father, though generally in wrath and hot displeasure, and are an overflowing scourge, which carry all before them; and therefore some restrain it to wicked men, as the Septuagint version; and some understand it as if they were more mildly and gently dealt with, by being suddenly and at once slain with such a scourge, in their persons, families, and substance, while others have their afflictions protracted, and linger long under them, as in the next clause:
he will laugh at the trial of the innocent; not that are free from sin entirely; for there are none such, no, not newborn infants; though they may be comparatively so, yet they are not in an absolute sense, being conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity: besides, here it means adult persons, good men, that are truly gracious, sincere, upright, harmless in their lives and conversations, whose afflictions are “trials” of their faith and patience, and other graces; and when God is said to “laugh” at them, who seems to be designed here, this must be understood consistent with his pity to his people, his sympathy with them under all their afflictions, he not willingly afflicting or grieving the children of men; nor can it be thought that he has them in derision and contempt, or laughs at their calamities, or in reality, as he does at wicked men; but that he carries it so oftentimes, in the dispensations of his providence, as if he made no difference between them, but mocked at the one as well as the other; seemingly giving no heed to their cries; not hastening to their help and deliverance, but lengthening out their troubles for the trial of their graces; and so indeed is greatly delighted with the exercise of them under them, and with seeing them bear them with so much patience, courage, and greatness of mind and submission to his will. Some interpret this of a wicked man laughing at the calamities of the righteous, as the Ammonites and Edomites rejoiced at the destruction of the Jews; the church’s enemy at her fall, and as the Papists will at the witnesses being slain; but the former sense seems best; rather the scourge itself laughs at the trial of the innocent; so Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(23) The scourge slay suddenly.Probably meaning that in the case of hidden calamity overtaking an innocent man, He, God, will laugh at it: that is to say, take no more notice of it than if it furnished Him with sport. The very fact of such calamity befalling, as it often does, the innocent is at all events, in one view, a proof of His indifference to it who, by the exercise of His providence, could easily interpose to prevent it, and so looks as if He verily winked at it. Jobs argument is the argument of a man who wilfully shuts out faith in his estimate of Gods dealings; not that Job is devoid of faith, but in the course of arguing with his friends, who maintain the strict, rigid justice of God, he confronts them with the severe logic of facts, which they can neither contradict nor explain. Of course, for the very requirements of argument, he takes the pessimist view of the Divine providence, and declares even that the earth is given over into the hands of the wicked man. He covereth the face of the judges thereof; and if it is not He that doeth this, who is it? there can be none other. He either doeth the evil Himself, or He permits it to be done; and what is the difference, supposing Him able to prevent it? When we review the disorders of the earthand how much more in Jobs days was it soall must admit that faith is sorely tried; and even faith can render but a very partial explanation of them, so that such a line as this is fully justified, when the adversary is determined to maintain that all is rose-coloured, happy, and equal as Jobs friends did. They had before them an instance of inequality in the Divine conduct, and they must either make it square with the Divine justice or give up the contest. They could not do the one, and were unwilling to do the other; it only remained, therefore, for Job to assert the inequality of the Divine dealings, and he puts the case as strongly as he can, all the time, it must never be forgotten, holding fast his faith in God, so that at the last he is even justified by God, who says to his friends, Ye have not spoken of me that which is right, like my servant (Job. 42:8).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
23. Jerome remarks that “in the whole book Job says nothing more bitter than this” a volcanic outbreak of unspeakable misery.
He will laugh Schultens and others read, it will laugh, referring to the scourge. Though the figure be not too bold for poetry, the text is better.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 9:23 If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.
Ver. 23. If the scourge slay suddenly ] By scourge here is meant a common calamity, such as rides circuit, compassing a country as a scourge doth a man’s body round about. Any sweeping judgment is a swinging scourge in God’s hands; such as is the sword, Isa 10:26 , which when it rides circuit (as a judge) it is in commission, Eze 14:17 Jer 47:6-7 , devouring flesh and drinking blood. Thus Attila, the Hun, styled himself God’s scourge. Tamerlane was commonly called the wrath of God, the terror of the world. Think the same of famine, pestilence, wild beasts, Eze 14:12 , &c., these oft slay suddenly, Isa 30:13 Jer 18:22 , as did the sweating sickness here in England, the massacre of France, and that later of Ireland, that scourge, if ever any, slew suddenly the perfect and the wicked. When an overflowing storm sweeps away the wicked, the tail of it may dash their best neighbours.
He laugheth at the trial of the innocent
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
If the: Job 1:13-19, Job 2:7
he will: Job 4:7, Job 8:20, 2Sa 14:15, 2Sa 14:17, Psa 44:22, Eze 14:19-21, Eze 21:13, Heb 11:36, Heb 11:37
Reciprocal: Gen 14:12 – who Gen 18:25 – that the Job 1:8 – a perfect Job 22:19 – innocent Job 33:9 – innocent Job 34:9 – It Ecc 7:15 – there is a just
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
9:23 If the scourge {q} slay suddenly, he will {r} laugh at the trial of the innocent.
(q) That is, the wicked.
(r) This is spoken according to our apprehension, as though he would say, If God destroyed only the wicked, Job 5:3, why would he allow the innocent to be so long tormented by them?