Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 10:1
My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
1. leave my complaint upon myself ] Rather, give free course to my complaint, cf. ch. Job 7:11 seq.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
My soul is weary of my life – compare the note at Job 7:16. The margin here is, Or, cut off while I live. The meaning in the margin is in accordance with the interpretation of Schultens. The Chaldee also renders it in a similar way: – my soul is cut off. But the more correct interpretation is that in our common version; and the sense is, that his soul, that is, that he himself was disgusted with life. It was a weary burden, and he wished to die.
I will leave my complaint upon myself – Noyes, I will give myself up to complaint. Dr. Good, I will let loose from myself my dark thoughts. The literal sense is, I will leave complaint upon myself; that is, I will give way to it; I will not restrain it; compare Job 7:11.
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul – See the notes, Job 7:11.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 10:1
My soul is weary of my life.
On the causes of mens being weary of life
A sentiment which surely, if any situation can justify it, was allowable in the case of Job. Let us examine in what circumstances this feeling may be deemed excusable; in what it is to be held sinful; and under what restrictions we may, on any occasion, be permitted to say, My soul is weary of my life.
I. As the sentiment of a discontented man. With whom it is the effusion of spleen, vexation, and dissatisfaction with life, arising from causes neither laudable nor justifiable.
1. This weariness of life is often found among the idle. They have so many vacant hours, and are so much at a loss how to fill up their time, that their spirits utterly sink. The idle are doomed to suffer the natural punishment of their inactivity and folly.
2. Among the luxurious and dissipated, such complaints are still more frequent. They have run the whole race of pleasure, but they have run it with such inconsiderate speed that it terminates in weariness and vexation of spirit. Satiated, weary of themselves, the complaint bursts forth of odious life and a miserable world. Their weariness is no other than the judgment of God overtaking them for their vices and follies. Their complaints of misery are entitled to no compassion. They are the authors of their own misery.
3. Then there are those who have embittered life to themselves by the consciousness of criminal deeds. There is no wonder that such persons should lose their relish for life. To the complaints of such persons no remedy can be furnished, except what arises from the bitterness of sincere and deep repentance.
II. As the sentiment of those in situations of distress. These are so variously multiplied in the world, and are often so oppressive, that assuredly it is not uncommon to hear the afflicted complain that they are weary of life. Their complaints, if not always allowable, yet certainly are more excusable than those which flow from the sources of dissatisfaction already mentioned. They are sufferers, not so much through their own misconduct, as through the appointment of Providence; and therefore to persons in this situation it may seem more needful to offer consolation than to give admonition. However, as the evils which produce this impatience of life are of different sorts, a distinction must be made as to the situations which can most excuse it.
1. The exclamation may be occasioned by deep and overwhelming grief. As of bereavement.
2. Or by great reverses of worldly fortune. To persons under such calamities, sympathy is due.
3. Continuance of long and severe disease. In this case Jobs complaint may assuredly be forgiven more than in any other.
III. As the sentiment of those who are tired of the vanity of the world. Tired of its insipid enjoyments, and its perpetually revolving circle of trifles and follies. They feel themselves made for something greater and nobler. In this view the sentiment of the text may sometimes be that of a devout man. But, however sincere, their devotion is not altogether of a rational and chastened kind. Let us beware of all such imaginary refinements as produce a total disrelish of our present condition. They are for the most part grafted on disappointed pursuits, or on a melancholy and splenetic turn of mind. This life may not compare with the life to come, but such as it is, it is the gift of God. One great cause of mens becoming weary of life is grounded on the mistaken views of it which they have formed, and the false hopes which they have entertained from it. They have expected a scene of enjoyment, and when they meet with disappointments and distresses, they complain of life as if it had cheated and betrayed them. God ordained no such possession for man on earth as continued pleasure. For the wisest purposes He designed our state to be chequered with pleasure and pain. As such let us receive it, and make the best of what is doomed to be our lot. (Hugh Blair, D. D.)
Weariness of life and its remedies
There is a love of life which depends not upon ourselves at all, and which we cannot help feeling at all times. It is the pure instinct of our mortal nature. And life is well worthy of our estimation and care. And yet there is such a thing as weariness of life. Men may be ready to say, My soul is weary of my life.
I. From their own sinful abuse of life and its blessings. Mankind usually expect too much from the present life. Some try to find this unwarranted enjoyment in earthly things, by carrying every gratification to excess, by giving themselves wholly to the love of present pleasures. They of course experience disappointment in this vain and sinful pursuit, as God intended they should do. They become weary of themselves and weary of life; and all this purely owing to their own folly in perverting their way, and abusing the good gifts of God. Others desire only lawful gratifications, and seek them in an orderly manner. They propose even to themselves to be useful in life. They plan very wisely, and proceed very commendably in all respects but one, and that one is, that they are merely looking to the creature, and leaving God, in great measure, out of view. They seek their happiness more in the enjoyment of His gifts, than in making it their aim to please the gracious Bestower of them all. These also are disappointed. Their schemes misgive; or, if they succeed, they themselves do not find in them anything like satisfaction to their immortal nature. They begin to blame this world, to blame their fellow creatures, and to become weary even of life. So did Solomon, Ahab, and Haman. This weariness of life would not be blamable if it was seen to have the good effect of checking mens immoderate expectations from present enjoyments. But it does not usually serve such salutary purposes. This weariness is one of mans own creating. Men try to make the animal part of their nature supply the wants also of their spiritual part.
II. From their sorrows in life and from their loss or want of its blessings. When the objects of our care and affection are suffering distress, or are taken away from us, we must sorrow severely, and we are not forbidden to do so. But we are cautioned against being overcome of much sorrow, and there is danger of indulging even excusable griefs, till we become ready to say, My soul is weary of my life. Then we show that we are forgetting the use of these afflictions and sorrows, and we defeat the very end of these sorrows. The furnace of affliction is the refining of our souls.
III. From their inability to enjoy the blessings of life. Bodily pains, diseased and decaying health, not only cause distress to our natural feelings, they also disable us from discharging those duties in which we might find relief from many griefs and troubles of mind. In extreme agonies of pain, life cannot be felt as anything else than a burden. Many, though free from excessive bodily tortures, are nevertheless made to possess months of vanity, and have wearisome nights. To bear such trials without being weary of life is no easy duty. But it never can become anyone to express weariness of that life which God, in His wisdom, sees meet to prolong. The continued sufferer may have much to do, and much to learn. Be not weary of life while you are in the way of acquiring greater meetness for heaven.
IV. From spiritual desires of a better life and its better blessings. There is a weariness of life that flows from a powerful feeling of religion itself, which we are too much inclined to excuse, or even desirous to indulge. It is found in emotional young persons under first serious impressions; and in those who are occasionally visited with high satisfactions of a spiritual nature; and in those oppressed with the power of an evil nature, and witnessing much of the wickedness of the world. They are defeated in the good which they wished to accomplish, and they are distressed by the prevalence in their own hearts of the evil which they wished to overcome. They are ready to say with the Psalmist, Oh that I had wings like a dove! then would I flee away, and be at rest. But it is unwarrantable to prefer heaven to earth, merely for the sake of your own ease and gratification. To do so is more a token of selfishness than sanctification of spirit. (J. Brewster.)
Great music uncomplaining
In a charming essay on music, a recent writer has gathered up a great deal in one telling sentence. He speaks of the various moods of the worlds masterpieces of music–the romance, the sorrow, the aspiration, the joy, the sublimity expressed in them, and he adds that there is only one mood forever unrepresented, for, Great music never complains. At first, this seems too sweeping. We remember so many minor keys, so many tragic chords, in the best music. But, as we think over it longer, it becomes truer and truer. Great music has its minor keys, its pathetic passages, its longing, yearning notes; but they always lead on to aspiration, to hope, or to resignation and peace. Mere complaint is not in them. The reason, after all, is simple. Complaint is selfish, and high music, like any other great art, forgets self in larger things. The complaining note has no possible place in noble harmonies, even though they be sad. So, if we want to make music out of our lives, we must learn to omit complaint. Some young people think it rather fine and noble to be discontented, to complain of narrow surroundings, to dwell on the minor notes. But it is well to remember that the one thing to avoid in singing is a whine in the voice; and whining is perilously close to any form of pathos. Great music never complains. That is a good motto to hang up on the wall of ones mind, over our keyboard of feeling, so to speak. The harmonies of our lives will be braver and sweeter the more we follow this thought. Without it, fret and discord will come, and mar the music that might be, and that is meant to be. (Christian Age.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER X
Job is weary of life, and expostulates with God, 1-6.
He appeals to God for his innocence; and pleads on the weakness
of his frame, and the manner of his formation, 7-13.
Complains of his sufferings, and prays for respite, 14-20.
Describes the state of the dead, 21, 22.
NOTES ON CHAP. X
Verse 1. My soul is weary of my life] Here is a proof that nephesh does not signify the animal life, but the soul or immortal mind, as distinguished from chai, that animal life; and is a strong proof that Job believed in the distinction between these two principles; was no materialist; but, on the contrary, credited the proper immortality of the soul. This is worthy of observation. See Job 12:10.
I will leave my complaint] I still charge myself with the cause of my own calamities; and shall not charge my Maker foolishly: but I must deplore my wretched and forlorn state.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
So the sense is, My soul is weary of dwelling in this rotten and miserable carcass. Or, I am from my heart, or with my very soul, weary of my life; and therefore I may be excused if I complain. Or,
My soul is cut off while I live, i.e. I am dead whilst I live; I am in a manner buried alive.
I will leave my complaint upon myself: so the sense is, I will complain, and the burden or hazard of so doing I will take upon myself, and be willing to bear it; I must give my sorrows vent, let come on me what will, as he saith, Job 13:13. But the words may be read interrogatively, Shall I then (or how can I then) leave my complaint (i.e. give over complaining) within or concerning (as the Hebrew al oft signifies) myself? Or they may be rendered thus, I will strengthen (as this verb signifies, Neh 3:8) my complaint against myself; whereby he implies that he would not complain against God so as to accuse him of injustice, but only against himself, or against his own life; or, concerning myself, i.e. I must renew and increase my complaints, as God renews and increases my sorrows.
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul; my extreme misery forceth my complaints from me.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. leave my complaint uponmyselfrather, “I will give loose to my complaint”(Job 7:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
My soul is weary of my life,…. And yet nothing of a temporal blessing is more desirable than life; every man, generally speaking, is desirous of life, and of a long life too; soul and body are near and intimate companions, and are usually loath to part; but Job was weary of his life, willing to part with it, and longed to be rid of it; he “loathed” it, and so it may be here rendered x, he would not live always, Job 7:15; his “soul” was uneasy to dwell any longer in the earthly tabernacle of his body, it being so full of pains and sores; for this weariness was not through the guilt of sin pressing him sore, or through the horror of conscience arising from it, so that he could not bear to live, as Cain and Judas; nor through indwelling sin being a burden to him, and a longing desire to be rid of it, and to be perfectly holy, to be with Christ in heaven, as the Apostle Paul, and other saints, at certain times; or through uneasiness at the sins of others, as Isaac and Rebekah, Lot, David, Isaiah, and others; nor on the account of the temptations of Satan, his fiery darts, his buffetings and siftings, which are very distressing; but on account of his outward afflictions, which were so very hard and pressing, and the apprehension he had of the anger and wrath of God, he treating him, as he thought, very severely, and as his enemy, together with the ill usage of his friends. The Targum renders it,
“my soul is cut off in my life;”
or I am dying while I live; I live a dying life, being in such pain of body, and distress of mind; and so other versions y:
I will leave my complaint upon myself: not that he would leave complaining, or lay it aside, though some z render it to this sense; rather give a loose to it, and indulge it, than attempt to ease himself, and give vent to his grief and sorrow by it; but it should be “upon himself”, a burden he would take upon himself, and not trouble others with it; he would not burden their ears with his complaints, but privately and secretly utter them to himself; for the word a used signifies “meditation”, private discourse with himself, a secret and inward “bemoaning” of his case; but he did not continue long in this mind, as appears by the following clause: or since I can do no other but complain; if there is any blame in it, I will take it wholly upon myself; complain I must, let what will be the consequence of it; see
Job 13:13; though the phrase may be rendered, as it is sometimes, “within myself”, see Ho 11:8; b; and then the sense may be, shall I leave my inward moan within myself, and no longer contain? I will give myself vent; and though I have been blamed for saying so much as I have, I will say yet more:
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul: as one whose life is made bitter, against whom God had wrote and said bitter things, and had brought bitter afflictions upon him, which had occasioned bitter complaints in him, as well as he had been bitterly used by his friends; and amidst all this bitterness he is determined to speak out his mind freely and fully; or to speak “of the bitterness” c of his soul, and declare, by words, what he in his mind and body endured.
x “fastidit anima mea vitam meam”, Beza, Junius Tremellius, Piscator. y “Excisa est anima mea in vita mea”, Pagninus, Vatablus so Ben Gersom & Ben Melech. z So Junius & Tremellius. a “meditationem meam”, Schindler, col. 1823. “my sighing”, Broughton. b “intra me”. Vid. Noldium, p. 701. c “in vel de a maritudine”, Mercerus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1 My soul is full of disgust with my life,
Therefore I will freely utter my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say to Eloah: Condemn me not;
Let me know wherefore Thou contendest with me!
His self-consciousness makes him desire that the possibility of answering for himself might be granted him; and since he is weary of life, and has renounced all claim for its continuance, he will at least give his complaints free course, and pray the Author of his sufferings that He would not permit him to die the death of the wicked, contrary to the testimony of his own conscience. is equivalent to ot tnel , Eze 6:9, after the usual manner of the contraction of double Ayin verbs (Gen 11:6-7; Isa 19:3; Jdg 5:5; Eze 41:7; vid., Ges. 67, rem. 11); it may nevertheless be derived directly from , for this secondary verb formed from the Niph. is supported by the Aramaic. In like manner, in Gen 17:11 perhaps a secondary verb , and certainly in Gen 9:19 and Isa 23:3 a secondary verb (1Sa 13:11), formed from the Niph. (Gen 10:18), is to be supposed; for the contraction of the Niphal form into is impossible; and the supposition which has been advanced, of a root = in the signification diffundere, dissipare is unnecessary. His soul is disgusted ( fastidio affecta est , or fastidit ) with his life, therefore he will give free course to his plaint (comp. Job 7:11). is not super or de me, but, as Job 30:16, in me; it belongs to the Ego, as an expression of spontaneity: I in myself, since the Ego is the subject, , of his individuality ( Psychol. S. 151f.). The inner man is meant, which has the Ego over or in itself; from this the complaint shall issue forth as a stream without restraint; not, however, a mere gloomy lamentation over his pain, but a supplicatory complaint directed to God respecting the peculiar pang of his suffering, viz., this stroke which seems to come upon him from his Judge ( , seq. acc., as Isa 27:8), without his being conscious of that for which he is accounted guilty.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Job’s Reply to Bildad. | B. C. 1520. |
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 enquirest 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 thine hand.
Here is, I. A passionate resolution to persist in his complaint, v. 1. Being daunted with the dread of God’s majesty, so that he could not plead his cause with him, he resolves to give himself some ease by giving vent to his resentments. He begins with vehement language: “My soul is weary of my life, weary of this body, and impatient to get clear of it, fallen out with life, and displeased at it, sick of it, and longing for death.” Through the weakness of grace he went contrary to the dictates even of nature itself. We should act more like men did we act more like saints. Faith and patience would keep us from being weary of our lives (and cruel to them, as some read it), even when Providence has made them most wearisome to us; for that is to be weary of God’s correction. Job, being weary of his life and having ease no other way, resolves to complain, resolves to speak. He will not give vent to his soul by violent hands, but he will give vent to the bitterness of his soul by violent words. Losers think they may have leave to speak; and unbridled passions, as well as unbridled appetites, are apt to think it an excuse for their excursions that they cannot help them: but what have we wisdom and grace for, but to keep the mouth as with a bridle? Job’s corruption speaks here, yet grace puts in a word. 1. He will complain, but he will leave his complaint upon himself. He would not impeach God, nor charge him with unrighteousness or unkindness; but, though he knew not particularly the ground of God’s controversy with him and the cause of action, yet, in the general, he would suppose it to be in himself and willingly bear all the blame. 2. He will speak, but it shall be the bitterness of his soul that he will express, not his settled judgment. If I speak amiss, it is not I, but sin that dwells in me, not my soul, but its bitterness.
II. A humble petition to God. He will speak, but the first word shall be a prayer, and, as I am willing to understand it, it is a good prayer, v. 2. 1. That he might be delivered from the sting of his afflictions, which is sin: “Do not condemn me; do not separate me for ever from thee. Though I lie under the cross, let me not lie under the curse; though I smart by the rod of a Father, let me not be cut off by the sword of a Judge. Thou dost correct me; I will bear that as well as I can; but O do not condemn me!” It is the comfort of those who are in Christ Jesus that, though they are in affliction, there is no condemnation to them, Rom. viii. 1. Nay, they are chastened of the Lord that they may not be condemned with the world, 1 Cor. xi. 32. This therefore we should deprecate above any thing else, when we are in affliction. “However thou art pleased to deal with me, Lord, do not condemn me; my friends condemn me, but do not thou.” 2. That he might be made acquainted with the true cause of his afflictions, and that is sin too: Lord, show me wherefore thou contendest with me. When God afflicts us he contends with us, and when he contends with us there is always a reason. He is never angry without a cause, though we are; and it is desirable to know what the reason is, that we may repent of, mortify, and forsake the sin for which God has a controversy with us. In enquiring it out, let conscience have leave to do its office and to deal faithfully with us, as Gen. xlii. 21.
III. A peevish expostulation with God concerning his dealings with him. Now he speaks in the bitterness of his soul indeed, not without some ill-natured reflections upon the righteousness of his God.
1. He thinks it unbecoming the goodness of God, and the mercifulness of his nature, to deal so hardly with his creature as to lay upon him more than he can bear (v. 3): Is it good unto thee that thou shouldst oppress? No, certainly it is not; what he approves no in men (Lam. iii. 34-36) he will not do himself. “Lord, in dealing with me, thou seemest to oppress thy subject, to despise thy workmanship, and to countenance thy enemies. Now, Lord, what is the meaning of this? Such is thy nature that this cannot be a pleasure to thee; and such is thy name that it cannot be an honour to thee. Why then dealest thou thus with me? What profit is there in my blood?” Far be it from Job to think that God did him wrong, but he is quite at a loss how to reconcile his providences with his justice, as good men have often been, and must wait until the day shall declare it. Let us therefore now harbour no hard thoughts of God, because we shall then see there was no cause for them.
2. He thinks it unbecoming the infinite knowledge of God to put his prisoner thus upon the rack, as it were, by torture, to extort a confession from him, v. 4-6. (1.) He is sure that God does not discover things, nor judge of them, as men do: He has not eyes of flesh (v. 4), for he is a Spirit. Eyes of flesh cannot see in the dark, but darkness hides not from God. Eyes of flesh are but in one place at a time, and can see but a little way; but the eyes of the Lord are in every place, and run to and fro through the whole earth. Many things are hidden from eyes of flesh, the most curious and piercing; there is a path which even the vulture’s eye has not seen: but nothing is, or can be, hidden from the eye of God, to which all things are naked and open. Eyes of flesh see the outward appearance only, and may be imposed upon by a deceptio visus–an illusion of the senses; but God sees every thing truly. His sight cannot be deceived, for he tries the heart, and is a witness to the thoughts and intents of that. Eyes of flesh discover things gradually, and, when we gain the sight of one thing, we lose the sight of another; but God sees every thing at one view. Eyes of flesh are soon tired, must be closed every night but the keeper of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps, nor does his sight ever decay. God sees not as man sees, that is, he does not judge as man judges, at the best secundum allegata et probata–according to what is alleged and proved, as the thing appears rather than as it is, and too often according to the bias of the affections, passions, prejudices, and interest; but we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth, and that he knows truth, not by information, but by his own inspection. Men discover secret things by search, and examination of witnesses, comparing evidence and giving conjectures upon it, wheedling or forcing the parties concerned to confess; but God needs not any of these ways of discovery: he sees not as man sees. (2.) He is sure that as God is not short-sighted, like man, so he is not short-lived (v. 5): “Are thy days as the days of man, few and evil? Do they roll on in succession, or are they subject to change, like the days of man? No, by no means.” Men grow wiser by experience and more knowing by daily observation; with them truth is the daughter of time, and therefore they must take time for their searches, and, if one experiment fail, must try another. But it is not so with God; to him nothing is past, nothing future, but every thing present. The days of time, by which the life of man is measured, are nothing to the years of eternity, in which the life of God is wrapped up. (3.) He therefore thinks it strange that God should thus prolong his torture, and continue him under the confinement of this affliction, and neither bring him to a trial nor grant him a release, as if he must take time to enquire after his iniquity and use means to search after his sin, v. 6. Not as if Job thought that God did thus torment him that he might find occasion against him; but his dealings with him had such an aspect, which was dishonourable to God, and would tempt men to think him a hard master. “Now, Lord, if thou wilt not consult my comfort, consult thy own honour; do something for thy great name, and do not disgrace the throne of thy glory,” Jer. xiv. 21.
3. He thinks it looked like an abuse of his omnipotence to keep a poor prisoner in custody, whom he knew to be innocent, only because there was none that could deliver him out of his hand (v. 7): Thou knowest that I am not wicked. He had already owned himself a sinner, and guilty before God; but he here stands to it that he was not wicked, not devoted to sin, not an enemy to God, not a dissembler in his religion, that he had not wickedly departed from his God, Ps. xviii. 21. “But there is none that can deliver out of thy hand, and therefore there is no remedy; I must be content to lie there, waiting thy time, and throwing myself on thy mercy, in submission to thy sovereign will.” Here see, (1.) What ought to quiet us under our troubles–that it is to no purpose to contend with Omnipotence. (2.) What will abundantly comfort us–if we are able to appeal to God, as Job here, “Lord, thou knowest that I am not wicked. I cannot say that l am not wanting, or I am not weak; but, through grace, I can say, I am not wicked: thou knowest I am not, for thou knowest I love thee.“
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JOB – CHAPTER 10
JOB’S REPLY TO BILDAD CONTINUED
Verses 1-22:
Verse 1 continues Job’s complaint about his afflictions. He vows that his soul is weary of living if the circumstances that have befallen him. He adds that he will let loose, make known, not bottle up, his bitterness of soul. He was not bitter against God, but against the afflictions of life that had worn him down, Job 7:11; Job 30:16; Psa 42:4-5.
Verse 2 recounts Job’s call upon God to condemn him, or further assign to him the kind of suffering he had been enduring, without at least showing him the reason for his sufferings, Rom 5:3; Rom 8:28-29.
Verse 3 Is a rhetorical inquiry of Job to the Lord. It is not good that God should despise, depress, or take lightly the work of his hands while shining upon the wicked, is It? That God should oppress, the work of His own hands and prosper the wicked was to Job unthinkable, v. 8; Psa 138:8.
Verses 4.6 Inquire if God has “eyes of flesh,” as feeble as man? Does God look upon Job with uncharitable eyes and mistaken judgment of the heart, as Eliphaz and Bildad have? He wonders aloud, 1Sa 16:7; Luk 16:15. “Are your days as short, limited in years as mortal men?” They are not, are they? Job appeals, as if the Lord were seeking to extract a confession of guilt from him that he did not feel he had committed. Job seems to think that these so-called friends, who inquired of him, searching for sin and iniquity, were from the Lord, not understanding, while he suffered.
Verse 7 states that Job affirmed that “God knew he was not wicked,” and that he knew that there was no one able to deliver any man out of the hand of the Lord, for blessing or for judgment, as God in sovereignty willed it to be, Psa 139:1-2; Dan 5:19.
Verse 8 affirms that Job acknowledged the Lord had made and fashioned him in every part of his body and soul of life. Yet the Lord was now destroying him, bringing him to great suffering and pain, as a masterpiece of his own handiwork, Psa 119:73. To understand it, Job was perplexed; It was perhaps much like Joseph in the pit in Israel, cast there by his own brethren of the flesh, and as cast in prison from Potiphars’ house. Yet God was in it all, to receive glory, Gen 45:7-8; Gen 50:20-21.
Verses 9, 10 constitute an appeal .from Job for the Lord to remember that he had made or formed him as the clay, as the Divine, Sovereign potter, to make and do of and with him as he wills, but surely He had not made Job just to see him perish, had He? Gen 2:7; Gen 3:19; Isa 64:8; Jer 18:6. Then he adds that the Lord had “poured him out like lactic-milk, melted him, and curdled him like cheese,” had He not? Psa 139:14. Job was theologian enough to know that all that came to him was by the direct or permissive will of God, Job 2:6; La 3:22; Act 17:28.
Verse 11 witnesses that it was the Lord who fenced or stablized Job with bones and sinews, then clothed him outwardly, daily, with skin and flesh; As man is fearfully and wonderfully made and daily sustained, Psa 8:4-6; Psa 139:14.
Verses 12, 13 continue Job’s testimony that he knew God had granted him life and favor and the visitation or sustaining presence of God’s spirit, had preserved him in health and in afflictions. Note that though he was bitter with suffering he was not bitter toward God, through whose mercies he yet lived; He further stated that what had come to befall him was with God, with God’s permission, Job 2:6. All this was within the counsel and purpose and will of God, even though like Joseph and the children of Israel, who often suffered in innocence, as also did our Lord, Job accepted it and was the better for it, Psa 139:16; Act 15:18; Ecc 3:11; Rom 8:28.
Verse 14 recounts Job’s concession that if he sinned God marked or took note of it, and would not acquit him of the consequence of his sins, or justify him in his sins, whether his sins be those he did without forethought, that is impulsively or those he wickedly did with intent of purpose, Jas 4:17; 1Jn 1:8-9; Gal 6:7-8.
Verse 15 adds that if Job sinned wickedly woe surely was due him. Yet, if he were righteous, in the sense that he erred without desire or purpose of doing wrong, he would not lift up his head in absolute innocence, knowing the Lord could not condone or endorse sin of any kind, Jas 4:17; Psa 3:3; See also Job 9:29; Job 27:7; Psa 9:17; Isa 3:11; Isa 6:5; Mal 3:18; Rom 2:8-9; Job 9:12; Isa 64:5-6; Luk 17:10.
Verse 16 continues Job’s lament that he is “full of confusion,” and asks the Lord to look upon his increasing affliction (with compassion). He appeals for mercy, Exo 3:7; Psa 25:18; La 1:20; 5:1. Job added that the Lord hunted him, like a fierce or vicious lion, to stalk and devour its prey. The Lord showed himself marvelous upon Job, permitting Satan to test him in this beastly way, Job 2:6; 1Pe 5:8; Isa 31:4; Isa 38:13; La 3:10.
Verse 17 states that the Lord renewed His witnesses or plaques of affliction against Job as Job complained that such wore him out. It was as if an accused criminal had witness after witness appear in court to prove ones guilt as trials and plagues increased upon him, Rth 1:21; Mal 3:5. Changes and a war of wave after wave of reproach came from his friends, Job 6:4; Job 19:12.
Verses 18,19 recount Job’s lament that he had not died, given up the spirit from birth and no eye had ever beheld him. He added that he should have been better off, with his loss of all, had he been carried as a still born birth from the womb to the grave, Job 3:11-17. His was a human emotion in deathly depression, 1Co 10:13.
Verses 20, 21 add that since Job was given over to this at the hand of Satan, he asked that he might be left alone, given room to breathe, during the few days of life, left to him, Job 2:6; Job 7:16; Job 9:34; Job 13:21; Psa 39:13. After this he affirmed that he would go to the land of darkness and shadow of death from which he would not return to natural life, Psa 88:12; Psa 23:4.
Verse 22 describes death and the grave of v. 19 as a coming shadow of unorganized darkness. It was in contrast with light, order, and hope of the resurrection and after life, Job 14:14-15; Job 19:25; See also Rev 21:23; Rev 22:5; 2Ti 1:10.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
THE PHILOSOPHY OF AFFLICTION
My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore Thou contendest with me (Job 10:1-2).
PERHAPS in all literature there is not another production that has a more universal character than the Book of Job. You may argue as to when, where, and by whom this Book came, but whether you take the position of an outright infidel that this is a comparatively modern production palmed off; or the position of the higher critic who would make it simply a philosophical discussion with an ideal hero; or that of the conservative who sees in it the inspired record of the personal experience of the man whose name it wears, the fact remains that this Book has an unchanging value for every century, an indisputable application in every locality; yea, even for every individual life.
The great point in the Book of Job is not the peril of prosperity, not the dark deeds of the devil, not the question, Is birth a blessing?, but rather, the significance of sufferingthe philosophy of affliction.
Why? is its underlying question. It is addressed to God. Show me wherefore Thou contendest with me? And it is asked not by this Ancient only, but by every man and woman and child who must walk in the shadows, who experiences physical suffering, who is involved in mental anguish, or is visited by an intolerable spiritual darkness. Why? It is a hard question. Yet it is a question so often raised that no pulpit can afford to pass it in silence.
THE PROBLEM OF AFFLICTION
To ask whence affliction conies is to necessitate the answer already given in this series.
Its originating source is with the Evil Spirit. It was Satan! Let us never forget that according to this inspired record Jobs troubles began upon Satans appearance, and in consequence of Satanic strokes. It was when Satan went forth from the presence of Jehovah that the Sabeans fell upon the oxen and asses of Job and carried them away; that the fires came from heaven and burned up the sheep and the servants; that the Chaldeans took the camels and slew the servants with the edge of the sword, and that a great wind from the wilderness smote the four corners of the house and instantly destroyed the children.
Its bitterest experience is along natural lines. It seemed natural enough that Sabeans should steal the patriarchs property; it seemed likely enough that lightning should strike his barns and burn up the sheep and kill the shepherds; it seemed natural enough that Chaldeans should carry away the camels, and while they were about this robbery, kill the defending servants, and it seemed to be according to one of natures whims that a cyclone should smite the four corners of the house and send its timbers down upon the heads of the festive children and leave them dead. In fact it was all natural! The world is full of peculiar fads and philosophies. No one of them is more high-sounding, and at the same time more inane, than that which formulates itself into Odes to Nature; into sentimental expressions about Mother Nature; into pious phrases about the great tender heart of Nature, and so forth. It might be well for such sentimentalists to remember that Natures heart is a blazing caldron, that Natures hand is as likely to hurl the thunder bolt as to frame a flower; that Natures voice storms as well as whispers; that Natures lips are found to be as often covered with the poison of death as they are warmed by the breath of life. When the babe of my dear friends fell from the dock into the Jake that looked like a jewel on Natures bosom it was found that its sparkling surface opened, and instantly choked from the lips that would fain have uttered it, the babes cry for help, and never released its relentless hold until the heart ceased to beat. When the Johnstown flood occurred, what did Nature care for the thousands she left in her desolating track? and when the Galveston storm transpired, with what indifference Nature sent her rolling tides over a dying city; and when the great earthquake smote San Francisco, the very men who fell upon the bosom of Earth, about which some of them had talked glibly, naming her Mother, found that she laughed at their sickly patronage, and, writhing like a fiend, she throttled and crushed and killed. To say of any sorrow, It is a natural result, is to speak a truth; and yet, is not to explain the problem of affliction.
To say further, But God permits all this to come to pass, is to assert a fact, but not to present a solution of the difficulty. Job believed that God permitted it; yea, mistakenly, believed that God originated it; and so long as he was its subject, he saw no solution.
That is not so strange as seems upon first suggestion. The storms that sweep the earth have alike their beauty and their necessity, but the man who is being drenched to the skin, or being pelted with hail, and the woman who is being terrified with lightning flashes and the near strokes of thunder bolts is not likely to think upon the utility of the storm, and is in no position whatever to see its beauty. When once it is passed and the landscape about you is in clean dress, quickend into renewed life, glorified by the touch of an unclouded sun, adorned with ten thousand diamonds that lie upon the leaves, or hang like pendants from the blades of grass, then we break into praises concerning both its beauty and its utility; but who ever did such a thing while yet he was being buffeted by the winds, drenched by the rains, pelted by the hail, blinded by the snow, or terrified with the roar of thunder and the flashes of flame? It is no unnatural thing that the subjects of suffering cannot understand. It would be unnatural if they did. The same Christ who said, with reference to His own approaching death, and the sorrow consequent upon it, What I do thou knowest not now added, Thou shalt know hereafter.
THE PROGRESS OF AFFLICTION
What did affliction do for Job? What may it do for you and for me?
It often results in the purification of the personal life. Job was a good man before he was afflicted; Job was a much better one afterwards. The fires that God kindles about His saints are commonly intended to burn some of the sins out of their lives. David saw it so. Listen to him while he sings concerning his very experience in this matter, Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept Thy Word (Psa 119:67). Hear him justifying God in the whole course of his correction, I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me. Let, I pray Thee, Thy merciful kindness be for my comfort, according to Thy Word unto Thy servant (Psa 119:75-76). The saint who lives in known sin can never be surprised when suffering overtakes him; he expects it. He would question Gods righteousness in dealing with sin, and Gods lack of interest in his spiritual health if He withheld the same.
By it a mans social sympathies are enlarged. Thomas Dixon never said a truer thing than when he remarked, There sits a broken-hearted mother beside her dead. She rocks to and fro and talks about the little bright-faced girl that lies cold in death. She says it was all she had. She tells how the little thing had just begun to say Mother, and it revealed such sweetness that to give her up is the greatest sorrow that could ever have smitten her; and through her tears she looks up to say, Oh, what have I done that God should punish me so? Nothing, perhaps. God may not be so much punishing you as enlarging your sympathies and giving to your life a deeper and sweeter meaning. Hereafter, in your life, there will be more than one cradle; there will be in the world more than one child; even every little urchin you pass on the street corner will enjoy your sympathy, receive your smile, know something of your love.
How beautifully Father Ryan, the good priest of Louisville, and the great Southern poet, expresses this idea:
The summer rose the sun has flushed
With crimson glory, may be sweet
Tis sweeter when its leaves are crushed
Beneath the winds and tempests feet.
The rose, that waves upon its tree,
In life, sheds perfume all around
More sweet the perfume floats to me
Of roses trampled on the ground.
The waving rose, with every breath
Scents carelessly the summer air
The wounded rose bleeds forth in death
A sweetness far more rich and rare.
It is a truth beyond our ken
And yet a truth that all may read
It is with roses as with men,
The sweetest hearts are those that bleed.
The flower which Bethlehem saw bloom
Out of a heart all full of grace,
Gave never forth its full perfume
Until the cross became its vase.
In consequence of it, a mans social contributions increase. When you have discovered the worlds greatest givers you have made yourself acquainted with the worlds great sufferers. Jenny Lind gave to the world such singing as the world never heard before. Jenny Lind, in her childhood, suffered and struggled; in her young womanhood braved what seemed to be unbearable disappointment.
Peter Cooper became Americas first benefactor; but his youth was trained in the school of adversity, and in that school his sympathies were drawn out toward the worlds great social needs.
Abraham Lincoln, Americas first and greatest man, was molded by the combination of poverty, hardship, homeliness of appearance, unjustified opposition, slander and reproach. Death at the hands of Wilkes Booth was not his first experience; he had died again and again. But God looked after the place where his enemies buried him, and by the word of Divine command, in the hour of human need, brought this benefactor forth again.
The rich people of the world are not those who have the most, but those who give most. If history is reliable, the Duke of Brunswick, when he possessed his millions, dwelt in a kennel, gave himself to the caring for his diamonds, and was positively more poverty-stricken than the dogs who foraged back of his home; while the widow who brought in two mites as her offering toward the relief of the poor, possessed, in her Masters eyes, a wealth that erected for her an eternal memorial.
THE PROVIDENCE IN AFFLICTION
Follow Job and see what purposes God was working out in his life.
The first effect of his affliction is a personal communion with the Father. Heretofore he had prayed for his family, that his children might be upright.
Apparently there was with him no great sense of personal need, and in him no great desire for Divine blessing upon others, but when affliction falls, Job talks with God about his own estate; and before he has finished with affliction, Job begins to pray for his friends also. Oh, prayerless men and women, let me remind you that you will not finish your life without prayer. If you propose to go on from day to day without talking with God, the time and the experience will come when you would forfeit everything else of value for a face to face communion with the Father, for the privilege of ordering your cause before him. Father Ryan, the great priest-poet, seems to have understood this also, for when he wrote, The Song of the Mystic and spoke of the Valley of Silence he said,
Do you ask me the place of the Valley,
Ye hearts that are harrowed by care?
It lieth afar between mountains,
And God and His angels are there:
And one is the dark mount of Sorrow,
And one the bright mountain of Prayer!
Many people never enter into the light of the latter, until they have been compelled to endure the darkness of the former.
It clarifies the spiritual vision of its subjects. There are so many things we can never see clearly; so many we can never understand perfectly until we have looked at them through our tears; until we have measured them by our sorrows.
As Beecher once said, God washes the eyes by tears until they can behold the otherwise invisible land where tears shall be no more.
J. Wilbur Chapman declared that heaven was never so near him, nor did its portals ever seem to open so wide, as on the night when his first born lay dead and through his tears he looked upward to God. There are some great revelations of His love for which God can never get our ears until they have been circumcised by suffering.
It was Job himself who wrote, He delivereth the poor in his affliction, and openeth their ear in oppression (Job 36:15).
But best of all, God often employs suffering to the end of both social and personal salvation. Sixty years ago the South was in the throes of affliction. The Northern armies had swept it with sword and fagot. But through that sorrow its salvation had been wrought. Its slaves were liberated and their masters were equally emancipated; and the very land that was drenched with blood was destined to break into richer beauty, so that, in the course of time, its sons and daughters were constrained to sing with her own first poet:
Yes, give me the land of the wreck and the tomb,
Theres a grandeur in graves, theres a glory in gloom;
For out of the gloom future brightness is born,
As after the darkness looms the sunrise of mom!
What God does, through sorrow, for a multitude He accomplishes also for the single man. Let Mr. Moody illustrate. He tells us that he went down once into Illinois to talk before a Sunday School Convention. A gentleman met him at the train, took him to his palatial home, put him in a comfortable room, and then excused himself on the ground that there were important duties to which he must attend.
Mr. Moody was too tired and restless to read, and he says, I wondered where the children were. He walked through two or three rooms of the mansion listening for their voices in the hope that he might decoy them to his companionship; but he listened in vain. The good man returned. Dinner was announced. As they were about to step out to the table Mr. Moody said, Have you no children? Yes, Moody, I have one, but thank God, she is in Heaven. That is a strange speech, said Mr. Moody, are you glad she has gone? Yes; glad, in spite of my grief. She was my idol! My heart broke when she was taken, and I did not want to live, and begged for death, and it was not given. One day I flung myself on the couch on which you have been resting, and sobbed myself to sleep. I dreamed. In that dream I saw her again; but she was not on the earth. Oh, in what a land! Such beauty, I shall not attempt it! Such music! I could never describe it. Such throngs! But the great river swept between where I stood and where the waited resplendent in her glory. Looking across its dark and murky waters I saw her smiling face, and with uplifted hand, she beckoned, saying Come this way, Papa, come this way! I knew that she was in the land of light and life, a Heaven God had prepared for them that love Him, and I set out to go. Had she not gone before, Mr. Moody, I would not now be on the way. That is why I say I am glad she is gone. Yes, glad in spite of my grief.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
JOBS REPLY TO BILDAD
Job 9, 10.
BILDAD rests and Job replies. It is interesting to see these healthy men spelling one another in argument while the man sick unto death continues unabated. This is due to the fact that Job is the individual involved; the others speak as outsiders, talk as philosophers, if you please; but Jobs utterance is under the pressure of affliction. They weary easily, but however great his weariness, he cannot forbear.
The ninth chapter contains a confession.
JOB FEARS TO FACE GOD
He is too high and mighty for man.
Then Job answered and said,
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.
He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?
Which removeth the mountains, and they know not; which overturneth them in His anger;
Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble;
Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars;
Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea;
Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south;
Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.
Lo, He goeth by me, and I see Him not: He passeth on also, but I perceive Him not.
Behold, He taketh away, who can hinder Him? who will say unto Him, What doest Thou?
If God will not withdraw His anger, the proud helpers do stoop under Him.
How much less shall I answer Him, and choose out my words to reason with Him?
Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge (Job 9:1-15).
How much of wisdom is in this speech! How should a man be just with God? He cannot answer Him one of a thousand. He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against Him and hath prospered? He moves mountains, shakes the earth, commands the sun, spreads out the heavens, treads the waves of the seas. He doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number. His enemies fall before Him, and in His sight there is none righteous, no not one. Little wonder that Job feared to face Him!
Job feels his unfitness to even pray.
If I had called, and He had answered me; yet would I not believe that He had hearkened unto my voice.
For He breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.
He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.
If I speak of strength, lo, He is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?
If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.
This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
If the scourge slay suddenly, He will laugh at the trial of the innocent.
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?
Now my days are swifter than a. post: they flee away, they see no good.
They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.
If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself;
I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that Thou wilt not hold me innocent (Job 9:16-28).
Who shall approach into His presence? With what words shall we order our cause before Him? Who dare boast his righteousness, or even to anticipate his right of approach?
Jobs fear rests in the fact that he finds no daysman.
If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;
Yet shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.
For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, and we should come together in judgment.
Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay His hand upon us both.
Let Him take his rod away from me, and let not His fear terrify me:
Then would I speak, and not fear Him; but it is not so with me (Job 9:29-35).
In the thirty-three verses of this pathetic confession, the great man of God expresses his need of a daysman, one who could stand between him and God, and by laying the hand of faith upon the Father, and the hand of conquest upon the sinner, could bring them together. Truly, Jesus Christ was a necessity. He is the only open way into the Divine presence. He is the only possibility of peace between God and man, and He, and He alone, could effect reconciliation.
JOBS SOUL WEARIES AND IS WITHOUT HOPE
There are times when prayer can amount to nothing more than self-condemnation. In this tenth chapter Job has reached such a state. However, he attempts to turn even that to his own account.
He proposes an argument in appeal.
My soul is weary of my life: I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; show me wherefore Thou contendest with me.
It is good unto Thee that Thou shouldest oppress, that Thou shouldest despise the work of Thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
Hast Thou eyes of flesh? or seest Thou as man seeth?
Are Thy days as the days of man? are Thy years as mans days,
That Thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and sear chest after my sin?
Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of Thine hand.
Thine hands have made me, and fashioned me together round about; yet Thou dost destroy me.
Remember, I beseech Thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt Thou bring me into dust again?
Hast Thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
Thou hast granted me life and favour, and Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
And these things hast Thou hid in Thine heart: I know that this is with Thee (Job 10:1-13).
He admits the justice of judgment against the wicked.
If I sin, then Thou markest me, and Thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
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;
For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion; and again Thou showest Thyself marvellous upon me.
Thou renewest Thy witnesses against me, and increasest Thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me (Job 10:14-17).
He desires only an obliteration of life.
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?
I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Are not my days few? cease then, and let me atone, that I may take comfort a little,
Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death;
A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness (Job 10:18-22).
It must be confessed that any mans estate is miserable when he has reached the point where life makes no favorable appeal to him, and when he prefers not only death, and end of lifes experience, but wishes that he never had an existence.
America is just now being shocked again and again by the suicides of college students. These young men are going from health to an unknown and untried eternity. The modern college philosophy of bestiality and materialism has effected in them the same ennui that affliction wrought for Job. With no God before their faces, they dare in their infidelity to end it all; but Job, having known God, prizes life and even under the almost infinite pressure of an indescribable affliction, can only continue, unless God Himself cut off his days.
Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley
JOBS REPLY TO BILDADCONTINUED
His speech takes the form rather of an expostulation with God in regard to his afflictions. The vehemence of his spirit reaches its height in this chapter. Does not renounce God, but takes great liberty in addressing Him. The liberty, however, rather that of a child with a father whose clouded and averted face he can neither understand nor endure.
I. His impatience of life, and his resolution to give free vent to his complaints (Job. 10:1).
My soul is weary of (or, loathes, or bursts in) my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself (I will give loose reins to my complaint): I will speak, &c. The language of a deeply distressed and even desperate man. Contrasted with Psa. 39:1, and Lam. 3:39; and especially with New Testament experience (Php. 4:5-7; Rom. 5:3; 1Pe. 1:6-8). In Jobs words we have
(1) An unhappy state of mind allowedMy soul is weary of my life. So Rebekah (Gen. 27:46); Elijah (1Ki. 19:4); and Jonah (Job. 4:3). Believers in trouble are to possess their souls in patience. A mind stayed on God is kept in perfect peace.
(2) An unwise resolution formedI will leave my complaint upon myself, &c. Safer and wiser to check than to indulge complaints regarding Gods dealings with us. The impatience of the flesh makes men sit under Elijahs juniper tree and Jonahs gourd. Yet a troubled soul, familiar with God, pours out its complaints into His ear without sin (Psa. 42:6-11). Life in itself a mercy; yet sometimes would be little better than hell but for the hopes of heaven [Trapp].
II. His desire not to be treated as guilty, without knowing the grounds of it (Job. 10:2).
I will say unto God. Implies
(1) Deep distress, extorting the language.
(2) A childlike confidence and freedom towards God.
(3) Peevishness and want of reverence.Do not condemn me (or, treat me as a guilty person). A fathers displeasure is a generous childs greatest grief. A single sin sufficient to make us guilty before God (Jas. 2:10; Gal. 3:10). Only one way for a sinner to be freed from condemnation (Rom. 8:1; Rom. 8:34). Christ the Righteous suffers in the place of the condemned sinner (2Co. 5:21). A believer, however, still sometimes either really or apparently under Gods displeasure (Isa. 54:7-9; Isa. 57:17-18).Show me wherefore thou contendest with me. Jobs trial, that God seemed to have a controversy with him while he was ignorant of the cause. A spiritually enlightened man apprehends God has a controversy with him when there is none; an unrenewed man does not believe in it when it actually exists.With different classes and individuals God may have various
Grounds of Controversy
1. With nations and unconverted men. The grounds
(1) Rebellion against his authority;
(2) Unthankfulness for His mercies;
(3) Apostacy from His religion;
(4) Persecution of His cause and people;
(5) Contempt of His ordinances;
(6) Rejection of His Son.
2. With churches and individual Christians. The grounds may be
(1) Departure from first love (Rev. 2:4-5);
(2) Formality and hypocrisy (Rev. 3:1);
(3) Pride and self-satisfaction (Rev. 3:1-7);
(4) Lukewarmness (Rev. 3:15-16);
(5) Unfaithfulness and unfruitfulness (Joh. 15:2);
(6) Covetousness and wordly-mindedness (Isa. 57:17). Troubles laid on believers may be
(1) On account of past or present sin;
(2) For trial and manifestation of grace;
(3) For purification and spiritual growth;
(4) For exhibition of Divine support.
III. Appeal to God against His present treatment (Job. 10:3-12).
The grounds of this appeal:
1. Its inconsistency with Gods nature and honour (Job. 10:3). Is it good unto thee that thou shouldst oppress, that thou shouldst despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked? Three things apparently involved in Jobs afflictions:
(1) Oppression on the part of God;
(2) Contempt of His own works;
(3) Countenance given to the sentiments and practice of ungodly men who deny His providence if not His very existence, and maintain the uselessness of religion. In Jobs case there appeared no ground for such severe treatment. Though Gods own creature, he seemed to be treated as unworthy of regard. As a religious man, his great afflictions might give occasion to the ungodly to harden themselves in their irreligion. All this is inconsistent with Gods nature and honour. Gods nature is love. A God of truth and without iniquity. Afflicts none willingly. Despises not any. Ungodliness His abomination. Observe:
(1) Gods procedure sometimes apparently at variance with His nature and character.
(2) That inconsistency only in appearance. God cannot act but in accordance with His nature, which is love and light, goodness, purity, and justice.
(3) Gods glory and honour involved in His dealings with His creatures, and especially with His servants.
(4) Gods nature and character a rock for our feet under the most trying dispensations.
2. Gods Omniscience (Job. 10:4). Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth? (Job. 10:7) Thou knowest that I am not wicked. Conscious of innocence we can appeal to Divine omniscience for a favourable verdict. Man looks on the outward appearance; Gods eyes penetrate the heart (1Sa. 16:7). Man deceived by appearances. Sees imperfectly into character and conduct. Requires lengthened observation to arrive at the truth. Often swayed by passion and partiality. God takes all into one view at once (Act. 15:18). His eyes a flame of fire (Rev. 1:14). His servants character and conduct often misjudged by men. Perfectly known to God. Jobs comfort (ch. Job. 16:19; Job. 23:10). His trial that his friends read his character in his sufferings. His Antitype similarly misjudged (Isa. 53:4; Joh. 7:23). Gods knowledge of Jobs innocence already shewn in the history. Jobs own knowledge of it as yet only from his own consciousness. This consciousness his confidence towards God. If our hearts condemn us not, &c. (1Jn. 3:21). Job a sinner, but not a wicked sinner. Sinned not deliberately and from choice. Not guilty of hypocrisy and secret sin. Not to love sin or allow ourselves in it, is with God not to sin at all (1Jn. 3:6; 1Jn. 3:8-9).
3. Gods eternity (Job. 10:5). Are thy days as the days of man? Are thy years as mans days? [Gods eternity marked by years in contrast with mans days.] (Job. 10:6).That thou inquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin. Shortlived man requires haste to investigate and punish crime. His few years afford him but few opportunities of fully ascertaining character. The judge may die or the criminal escape. Gods eternity excludes all need of haste, and secures all opportunity for knowledge. No need with God of torture to elicit confession. The severity, rapid succession, and long continuance of Jobs afflictions, apparently inconsistent with this.
4. His omnipotence (Job. 10:7). Thou knowest (or, Although thou knowestmargin,It is upon thy knowledge) that I am not wicked, and there is (or, and that there is) none that can deliver out of thine hand. No fear of a rescue on behalf of Gods prisoners. Hence no need of vehement urgency in inflicting punishment. Solemn truth for the impenitent. How shall we escape, &c? (Heb. 2:3). Consider this, all ye that forget God, &c. (Psa. 9:17). Precious comfort for Christs sheep. None able to pluck them out of his hand (Joh. 10:29-30).
5. His relation to man as his Creator (Job. 10:8). Thine hands have made me (or, elaborated me,margin, took pains with me), and fashioned (exquisitely moulded and adorned) me together round about (every part of me); yet thou dost destroy me. Powerful plea. Workmen respect their own work. The more pains bestowed, the more regard will be shown. The heavens the work of Gods fingers; man the work of his hands. Man the most exquisite piece of Divine workmanship even in his body, still more in his soul, most of all in the union of both. The human face Divine an example of this exquisite moulding and adorning. The head apparently designed by nature as the cupola to the most glorious of her works [Addison]. Galen, the physician, converted to the belief of a Divine Creator by the wisdom displayed in the structure of the human frame. Man Gods glory as His work in creation; still more as his work in redemption (Isa. 29:23; Isa. 45:11; Isa. 60:21).
6. Mans frailty and mortality (Job. 10:9). Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou (or, thou wilt) bring me unto dust again? Reference to the Creation, and to the sentence pronounced on man at the Fall. Similar terms to those in Gen. 2:7; Gen. 3:19. Written documents or traditionary records of the events probably then in existence, and afterwards employed by Moses. Mans frail and shortlived existence used by Job as a plea for milder treatment. Similar plea in Psa. 89:47. An availing one with God (Psa. 103:14; Gen. 6:3). Gods nature compassion. Our frailty pleads with God for forbearance, with man himself for earnestness (Ecc. 9:10).
7. Gods kindness already manifested.
(1) In our conception (Job. 10:10). Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? God the careful and beneficent Agent in our conception (Psa. 139:15-16; Ecc. 11:5). The process of nature in the womb His own, as instituted, sustained and controlled by Him. Milk coagulated into cheese an image of the formation of the embryo of the future man.
(2) In the growth of the ftus (Job. 10:11). Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and fenced me with bones and sinews. The development of the embryo another of Gods mysterious and beneficent operations. The order in the text that of Nature,first the skin, then the flesh, lastly the harder parts gradually added, Among other important purposes, bones and sinews serve for protection to the more vital parts.
(3) In the bestowment of life (Job. 10:12). Thou has granted me life. Life imparted to the embryo in the womb as a gift of God. Natural life a precious gift; how much more spiritual and eternal! That life also originally imparted to man, but lost in Adam (Rom. 5:17; 1Co. 15:21). Restored in Christ who is the Life (Joh. 14:6; Joh. 11:25; 1Co. 15:21; Rom. 5:17; Rom. 5:21; 1Jn. 5:11-12.
(4) In the favour and kindness accompanying life. Life and favour. The kindness of God visible in every stage of our natural life. Conspicuous in infancy. Cast upon him from the womb. Kindly watched over in a long-continued period of helplessness. Beneficent provision made in parental affection. Each individual the recipient of ten thousand mercies every day he lives. Divine goodness smiles on us in every sunbeam, and fans in every breeze.
(5) In the continued presercation of life. And thy visitation (providential care) hath preserved my spirit. Natural life preserved by a careful and watchful Providence. The hand that put the heart in motion sustains its pulsations. Provides the means necesary for lifes support. The petition answered even before it is offeredGive us this day our daily bread. Protects life and organs from constantly surrounding dangers. An unseen hand averts a thousand accidents each day we live. The mind preserved from derangement and disease as well as the body. The same Divine care that protected the brain, the seat of life and thought, by a strong, spherical, bony skull, still continued in preserving the spirit. Sleep, as needful for the mind as the body, the daily gift of a beneficent Providence.An object of so much regard not likely to be soon despised or lightly cast away. Neither natural nor becoming for so much kindness to terminate in cruelty.
IV. Complaints against God and His procedure (Job. 10:13-18).
1. That his sufferings were in Gods secret purpose amidst all His past kindness (Job. 10:13). And these things hast thou hid in thine heart; I know that this is with thee. The comfort of believers that all events in our lot are part of Gods secret counsel (Psa. 139:16; Ecc. 3:14). A truth of natural religion that what God does in time He purposed in eternity (Act. 15:18). Necessary and desirable in a Being infinite, eternal, and unchangeable; omnipresent, omniscient, and almighty; holy, wise, and good. Jobs predetermined afflictions in his view an apparent contradiction to Gods former kindness. Life seemed given only to make him miserable. Such ungenerous thoughts his own infirmity. God neither fickle nor cruel. All things made, according to His purpose, to work together for good to them that love Him (Rom. 8:28). Predestined sufferings no contradiction to experienced kindness. Josephs imprisonment under a false abominable charge was in Gods secret counsel while delivering him from the pit and placing him in Potiphars palace. Observe
(1) The nature of the flesh is to put a wrong construction upon Gods dealings.
(2) The object of Satan is to misrepresent God, as arbitrary, cruel and tyrannical.
(3) Hard thoughts of God a special temptation in time of trouble.
2. Complains of Gods excessive strictness in marking and punishing offences (Job. 10:14). If I sin (rather, have sinned), then Thou markest (or hast marked) me, and Thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity. This perhaps the secret counsel complained of in preceding verse. In ignorance Job views his afflictions as the effect of Gods strictness in marking his sin. As yet no frank and humble confession. Observe
(1) Sin often brought to mind in time of affliction.
(2) As a fact, the sins of Gods children often visited when those of others are not so.
(3) The views of the flesh in regard to God always perverted. According to the flesh, God is either
(1) Indifferent to mens conduct; soft and indulgent to their sins; or
(2) Stern and inexorable; strict in marking and punishing every offence.
(4) In a believer, the flesh speaks at one time, and the spirit at another. Jobs present language uttered under the influence of the flesh and the promptings of Satan. Yet, in itself, in a certain sense true, as
(1) Mens sins are observed and marked by God. Men judged at last out of those things which are written in the books. For every idle word account to be given in the day of judgment. Men receive according to the things done in the bodygood or bad. The secrets of men to be one day judged by Jesus Christ (Rom. 2:16). Every evil work and secret thing to be brought into judgment.
(2) The guilty by no means acquitted by God. Yet sin is forgiven and the guilty are pardoned. The gracious provision of the scheme of Redemption. Through the substitution and satisfaction of Christ, God can punish and yet pardon. God a just God and yet a Saviour; just and the justifier of the ungodly that believe in Jesus. Millions of sins forgiven, yet not one unpunished. The iniquities of men laid on the one righteous man, Christ Jesus. The Just One bruised and put to grief as a sacrifice for the sins of the unjust. The guiltless takes the place of the guilty, and the guilty that of the guiltless (2Co. 5:21). The blood of Jesus able to cleanse from all sin, because the blood of Gods Son (1Jn. 1:7). Every sin marked against the sinner answered and atoned for by the Surety. The only thing now required for the sinners pardon is his humble and hearty acceptance of the Substitute. God is satisfied with the Surety. It only remains that the sinner be so too. Confessing his guilt and accepting the Substitute, he is at once forgiven (1Jn. 1:9-10). Observe
(1) The peculiarity of the Gospel age is that its provision is revealed with a clearness and fulness before unknown.
(2) The Gospel a blessed contradiction to the latter part of Jobs present utterance. The Law declares, God cannot and will not acquit the guilty; the Gospel points to Calvary and says, the guiltless One became the guilty and suffered the penalty.
(3) The sinner who refuses the Surety retains his guilt, and suffers himself the punishment of it.
3. Complains of being treated as he is though a righteous man (Job. 10:15). If I be wicked (sin deliberately; or, be guilty) woe unto me: if I be righteous, yet will I (or may I) not lift up my head. A dictate of natural religion that the guilty transgressor must be punished. This man is a murderer whom vengeance suffereth not to live (Act. 28:4). Also the teaching of nature that the just man may lift up his head with confidence and joy. Be just, and fear not. None, however, in himself, able to do this before God. The most upright still guilty in Gods sight. Standing righteous in Christ, a man lifts up his head before God. Job unable at present to do this
(1) As not realizing his standing in the Surety;
(2) Keeping his eyes on his affliction;
(3) His sufferings, according to the popular view, seemed to proclaim him a guilty man.I am full (or, being full) of confusion (reproach or ignominy); therefore see thou (or, seeing as I do) mine affliction. Jobs other trials greatly aggravated by reproaches from his friends. Confusion, perplexity and shame, natural results of his affliction, especially in the time in which he lived. A natural tendency to judge of a man from his circumstances. An aggravation to a good mans sufferings, that himself and religion are misjudged from them. Hence Pauls anxiety in regard to his sufferings as an apostle (Eph. 3:13; 2Ti. 1:8). Himself not ashamed of them (2Ti. 1:12).
4. Complains that his sufferings only increased in number and intensity. Three trying circumstances in Jobs afflictions.
(1) Their continual increase from the commencement (Job. 10:16). For it increaseth (rears itself up like a swelling wave; or, should it [my head] lift itself up). Terrible climax in Jobs sufferings. Commenced with loss of oxen and asses, and increased to extreme bodily affliction, inward darkness, and apprehension of Divine wrath. Probably his disease itself increased in violence as it continued.
(2) Their intensity. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion; and again thou showest thyself marvellous upon me? Gods purpose seemed to be to hunt him down as a dangerous animal; or as if He Himself were a fierce lion intent on tearing him to pieces, as Isa. 38:13; Hos. 5:14; Hos. 13:7; Psa. 50:22. His afflictions appeared like a display of what God could inflict. His plagues made wonderful (Deu. 28:59).
(3) Their variety and constant change (Job. 10:17). Thou renewest thy witnesses (or, weapons; margin, plagues) against me; and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war (or, successions and a host, i.e., one host scuceeding another) are against me. God appeared to be employing all his weapons against him, each attack a fresh witness produced to confront and confound him as a guilty man. One troop of troubles seemed only to succeed another, equally bent on his destruction. Observe
(1.) A child of God views all his troubles as from the Divine hand.
(2.) This often an exaggeration rather than an alleviation of them.
(3.) A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
(4.) Blessed to have God for a friend, terrible to have him for an enemy.
(5.) Believers not to be staggered at the heaviest troubles succeeding each other.
(6.) No troubles to a believer but what a Fathers love permits and a Fathers hand metes out.
V. A piteous lament (Job. 10:18-22) embraces
(1) A regret that he had ever been born, or permitted to live (Job. 10:18-19). Wherefore then hast Thou brought me out of the womb? O that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. The feeling and thoughts of his first outburst return upon him (ch. Job. 3:10-16). An advance in the complaint; his birth directly ascribed to God, and charged upon him as an evil. The idea of God extracting the infant from the womb familiar in the Psalms, as Psa. 22:9; Psa. 71:6. With David a matter of praise; with Job one of regret. Unbelief and passion cast reproach on the Author both of our being and our well-being. Job has long ago regretted the blindness and haste which dictated these irreverent and ungrateful words.
2. An impassioned request for a short relief from suffering, on the grounds of his speedy departure (Job. 10:20). Are not my days few? Cease then, and let me alone; that I may take comfort (brighten up, as ch. Job. 9:27) a little before I go. Same sentiment in the conclusion of his reply to Eliphaz (ch. Job. 7:19; Job. 7:21). Observe
(1) A saint, though sad and sinning, cannot be restrained from praying. The flesh only lifts up its voice when that of the spirit is silent. The boon of a short relief testifies the depth of Jobs distress.
(2) Brief respite in suffering a mercy to the sufferer. Enables him(i.) To rally his strength; (ii.) To collect his thoughts; (iii.) To recover calmness; (iv.) To prepare himself for further suffering.
(3) Terrible doom of the lost, which admits of no such respite (Luk. 16:24; Mar. 9:44; Rev. 14:10-11.
3. Gloomy description of the
State of the Dead
as viewed by Old Testament saints (Job. 10:21-22).
1. A place of perpetual exile (Job. 10:21). I go whence I shall not return; a land, &c. Viewed as a land or country; its inhabitants the shades or spirits of deceased men. Hence the sublime description in Isa. 14:9-10; Eze. 32:21. A land from which is no return to the present world.
2. A place without attraction. Return from it to the present world desirable, but not practicable. Much inferior to the present life for enjoyment. Banishment to it an evil. Hence Hezekiahs sorrow and regret at the prospect of having so soon to enter it (Isa. 38:3-18).
3. A place of confusion and disorder (Job. 10:22). Without any order.
(1) No distinction of classes, as on earth. [Hence Davids prayer, Psa. 26:9.] A place of indiscriminate gathering (1Sa. 28:19).
(2) No pleasing vicissitude of day and night, summer and winter.
(3) No beauty or orderly arrangement. Chaotic confusion, as on the earth before the six days creation (Gen. 1:2).
(4) No exercise of religious worship. No praise or thanksgiving. This part of the prospect especially deplored by the godly (Psa. 6:5; Psa. 30:9; Psa. 88:10-12; Psa. 115:17; Isa. 38:18).
4. A place of darkness and gloom (Job. 10:21). The land of darkness and the shadow of death, &c. A funeral pall of midnight darkness ever resting on it. Any light that penetrates it only darkness,The light is as darkness. The view probably borrowed from the places of Oriental sepulture, subterranean grottoes. The darkness of these sepulchral chambers transferred to the spirit world. The experience of the disembodied spirit supposed to bear affinity to the circumstances of the body. The Sun of righteousness had not yet irradiated the world beyond the grave. The Forerunner in human nature had not yet entered within the veil. A blissful Paradise, as a home for the disembodied just, not yet known. The doctrine of a happy intermediate state reserved for the teaching of Him who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Perhaps the enjoyment of it reserved for the time when He Himself should return to glory, having finished the work of our Redemption (Luk. 23:43). It was left for Jesus to dispel the darkness that brooded over the spirit world, and show beyond the grave the hills of celestial bliss. Life and immortality brought to light by Jesus Christ through the Gospel (2Ti. 1:10). Jesus carried light into the darksome grave and world beyond
(1) By His teachings (Luk. 16:22; Luk. 23:43; Joh. 14:2).
(2) By His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven. By His lying in the grave He has left there a perpetual light for the comfort of all His dying people [Caryl]. Blessed contrast between the prospect of death to believers now, and that to those of Old Testament times. The kingdom of heaven with all its glory and beauty, its joy and song, its inhabitants and employments, opened to believers by the death and resurrection of Jesus. Instead of the dreary and confused abode of half-conscious spirits, the world beyond is now the believers bright and happy home in his Fathers house. Jesus has taught believers joyously to sing on the bed of death, as well as amid the enjoyments of life: Yonders my house and portion fair, &c. Hence a threefold duty lying on New Testament believers:
(1) Thankfulness;
(2) Joyfulness;
(3) Heavenly-mindedness.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
5. He would ask the Almighty the reason for the change in his treatment of His creature. (Job. 10:1-22)
TEXT 10:122
10 My soul is weary of my life;
I will give free coarse to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say onto God, Do not condemn me;
Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.
3 Is it good onto thee that thou shouldest oppress,
That thou shouldest despise the work of thy 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 man seeth?
Or thy years as mans days,
6 That thou inquirest after mine iniquity,
And searchest after my sin,
7 Although thou knowest that I am not wicked,
And there is none that can deliver out of thy hand?
8 Thy hands have framed me and fashioned me
Together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.
9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast fashioned me as clay;
And wilt thou bring me into dust again?
10 Hast thou not poured me out as milk,
And curdled me like cheese?
11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh,
And knit me together with bones and sinews.
12 Thou hast granted me life and lovingkindness;
And thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
13 Yet these things thou didst hide In thy 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 shall I not lift up my head;
Being filled with ignominy,
And looking upon mine affliction.
16 And if my heart exalt itself, thou huntest me as a lion;
And again thou showest thyself marvellous upon me.
17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me,
And increasest thine indignation upon me:
Changes and warfare are with me.
18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb?
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 of the shadow of death;
22 The land dark as midnight,
The land of the shadow of death, without any order.
COMMENT 10:122
Now Job addresses himself to the real God. His three friends misunderstand his case. Job begins to theorize on the motives for his sufferingis God sadistic? Job. 10:4; is He making a mistake? Job. 10:5; is He jealous of mens pleasure and happiness? All restraint is removed.
Job. 10:1My complaint is that my soul is sick of life. Job is conversing with himself. Does God have a secret motive for afflicting him?
Job. 10:2Do not condemn me reveals that Job as well as his friends concluded from his suffering that God holds him guilty.
Job. 10:3Dhorme translates Is it profitable to thee? Job here charges God with injustice. Can there be any justification for such a state of affairs? Because God made both the righteous and the unrighteous, Job requests to know why men are not treated with equity.[136]
[136] For the critical issues in this verse, see G. R. Driver, Die Welt des Orients, I, 194752, 411; and R. Bergmeier, Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, LXX1X, (pp. 229ff.)
Job. 10:4Jobs basic question is not does God have limitations, but can He really understand the human condition? The Hebrew Epistle declares that God not only is capable of identification with man but that His incarnation is proofsee also Php. 2:5 ff; 1Sa. 16:7.
Job. 10:5Are Gods days as limited as mans; is that why He is quick to exact punishment, even before Job does evil?
Job. 10:6He does not believe that God has found any sin in his life, even though He continually searches for it.
Job. 10:7If God knows that Job is innocent, then why does He seek to extract a confession of guilt? He knows that no one can take Job from His hand. Why is He punishing Job, as though he is about to slip through His fingers?
Job. 10:8-9You formed me with your hands; why are you destroying your own creation? The potter-clay parallel is found in Gen. 3:19; Psa. 90:3; Isa. 45:9; Jer. 18:4 ff; and Rom. 9:20.[137]
[137] See my essay, Theology of Promise and Universal History, in Grace Unlimited, esp. pp. 199ff.
Job. 10:10-11The imagery alludes to the formation of the embryo in the womb. Semen poured like milk into the womb, is coagulated like cheese, and finally bones and muscles are formedPsa. 139:13-16 and Ecc. 11:5.[138]
[138] Pope, Job, p. 80.
Job. 10:12By using imagery from the miracle of conception and birth, perhaps Job is affirming his belief in the providential order of God, before the suffering and pain befell him. This verse is of crucial importance for the understanding of chapters 910. It shows that, although Job wrestles with God, he is conscious of his absolute dependence upon him (Buttenweiser, Book of Job). The Hebrew text declares that Gods grace and covenant love, i.e., life and hesed[139]Psa. 63:4 a, are gifts for which he could never be adequately grateful. Hesed means piety, mercy, love, grace, and expresses relationships within the context of covenant. Another Hebrew word, hen, expresses similar connotations with the exception of the covenant relationship. In this verse hesed conveys the marks of divine favor. God cares (literally visits) for Job. Care is also used in a negative sense of visit for punishmentHos. 9:7, but here it means a gracious visitation. Before Jobs unbearable punishment came upon him, God graciously, providentially visited his life in constant watch-care.
[139] See Kittel article Dike; N. H. Snaith, The Distinctive Ideas in the Old Testament, 1944, pp. 95ff; see also his The Book of Job, 1968; and Nelson Glueck, Hesed in the Bible (Ktav Pub. House), an indispensable study.
Job. 10:13Jobs present condition has convinced him that God concealed His true attitude toward His servant Job. Job mournfully contrasts his life when he thought that God truly cared for him in his present state. God was all along preparing a victim for sacrifice.[140] Gods calculated cruelty was part of His ultimate purpose.
[140] See Calvins response in his Institutes, HI, 23, 7. He admits that Jobs condition calls for a response of horror at Gods dealings with man. See again Grace Unlimited for response to Calvin and his views of the Sovereignty of God, Providence of God, and the human condition.
Job. 10:14God was watching every act and thought of Job and had already determined to deal cruelly with Job. The word translated mark (same as preserved in Job. 10:12) means guard or protectively watch over. Gods gracious (Hesed) watch has turned to hostility. God is no longer his protector; He is now his cruel accuserJob. 7:18-20.
Job. 10:15Does Job merit all this misfortune? He is sated with ignominy, guilt, shame, and miserybut why? Has God determined that Job suffer whether he is wicked or righteous? Job has no pride left; he cannot lift up his headJdg. 8:28; Jdg. 11:15; Judges 22:26.[141] Job receives nothing from God but trouble and more trouble.
[141] For problems in this verse, see G. R. Driver, Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses. XXVI, 1950, 351; and R. de Vaux, Revue Biblique, XLVIII, 1939, 594.
Job. 10:16If my pride (the sense of R. S. V. is best) causes me to lift up my head (Heb. he lifts himself up), God would immediately attack me as though I were unrighteous. Gods wonders in creation are now contrasted with His wonders (A. V. marvelous) in torturing Job.
Job. 10:17His bitterness now overflows in irony. Gods witnesses against Job are his sufferings. God is ever bringing fresh attacks, hosts, warfaresabaagainst him. There is no relief; God is hounding him to his graveJob. 7:1; Job. 14:14.[142]
[142] For various solutions to critical problems present in this verse, see A. B. Ehrlich, Randglossen zur hebraischen Bibel, VI, 1913, 180ff, but esp. on this verse.
Job. 10:18-19He now returns to his lament over being bornJob. 3:1 ff. Note the emphatic lamah, why? This is the same word our Lord cried from the cross, quoting Psa. 22:1; Mat. 27:46. This haunting theme opened the discourse. But since not being born is not a live option for Job, he just suffers. Still we see the supreme value of life. In all his suffering, Job shows no sympathy with the idea of Schopenhauer and Camus, et. at, that the ultimate philosophical problem confronting man isWhy not commit suicide, if we live in a meaningless, amoral universe?
Job. 10:20The Hebrew literally states that my days cease. In this verse as a whole, Job asks God to take His attention (watch-care) away from him, in order that he might find comfort. This verse and Job. 10:21 a virtually quote Ps. 39:14 (or vice versa).
Job. 10:21Job aspires to go into deep darknessJob. 3:5; Psalms 23.
Job. 10:22This verse contains an abundance of synonyms for darkness. In Sheol, light is but darkness. He is wearing his shroud of despair as he describes the miserable prospects of deathJob. 7:21; Job. 14:20 ff; Job. 17:13 ff; Job. 21:32 ff. Job vainly attempts to harmonize the God of his past and present experience. Chaos[143] (literally without order) reigns in Sheol as well as here. This presents bleak prospects indeed; even death will not help his situation. He is not prepared to pull his cloak about him and lie down to pleasant dreams, but to be or not to be that is still the question. Still No light but darkness visible.[144]
[143] God created order; man sinned and disordered the universeGenesis 1-3. Disorder reigns between: (1) Man and God; (2) Man and himself; (3) Man and others; and (4) Man and nature. These areas of disorder are in Jobs life and ours. He is our contemporary. G. R. Driver, Vetus Testamentum, Supplement, III, 1955, 76ff.
[144] Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, line 63.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(1) I will leave.Or, according to some, I will give free vent to the complaint that is upon me. (Comp. Job. 9:27 of the last chapter)
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Third division, chap. 10. First section: Exordium, Job 10:1, and double strophe GOD’S TREATMENT OF MEN IS A REFLECTION UPON THE DIVINE NATURE, AND INVOLVES IT IN SELF-CONTRADICTION, Job 10:2-12.
Job 10:1 expresses itself “in three convulsive sobs, like the sparse, large drops before the storm, excusing and introducing the pathetic wail of a crushed heart.” Davidson.
1. Upon myself Rather, with myself. He will give free course to his complaint.
a. Oppressive and precipitate dealing with his creatures is not becoming their Creator, who is himself not subject to human infirmities, such as limited knowledge and shortness of life, Job 10:2-7.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job’s Dialogue with Three Friends – Job 3:1 to Job 31:40, which makes up the major portion of this book, consists of a dialogue between Job and his three friends. In this dialogue, Job’s friends engage in three rounds of accusations against Job, with him offering three defenses of his righteousness. Thus, Job and his friends are able to confirm each of their views with three speeches, since the Scriptures tell us that a matter is confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses (2Co 13:1). The underlying theme of this lengthy dialogue is man’s attempt to explain how a person is justified before God. Job will express his intense grief (Job 3:1-26), in which his three friends will answer by finding fault with Job. He will eventually respond to this condemnation in a declaration of faith that God Himself will provide a redeemer, who shall stand on earth in the latter days (Job 19:25-27). This is generally understood as a reference to the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from their sins.
Job’s declaration of his redeemer in Job 19:23-29, which would be recorded for ever, certainly moved the heart of God. This is perhaps the most popular passage in the book of Job, and reflects the depth of Job’s suffering and plea to God for redemption. God certainly answered his prayer by recording Job’s story in the eternal Word of God and by allowing Job to meet His Redeemer in Heaven. I can imagine God being moved by this prayer of Job and moving upon earth to provide someone to record Job’s testimony, and moving in the life of a man, such as Abraham, to prepare for the Coming of Christ. Perhaps it is this prayer that moved God to call Abraham out of the East and into the Promised Land.
The order in which these three friends deliver their speeches probably reflects their age of seniority, or their position in society.
Scene 1 First Round of Speeches Job 3:1 to Job 14:22
Scene 2 Second Round of Speeches Job 15:1 to Job 21:34
Scene 3 Third Round of Speeches Job 22:1 to Job 31:40
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Job’s Prayer for Enlightenment.
Job now launches forth into a pitiful complaint, addressing God Himself on the great severity with which He was treating him, although He knew that he was innocent of any specific guilt.
v. 1. My soul is weary of my life, v. 2. I will say unto God, Do not condemn me, v. 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? v. 4. Hast Thou eyes of flesh? v. 5. Are Thy days as the days of man, v. 6. that Thou enquirest, v. 7. Thou knowest that I am not wicked, v. 8. Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about, v. 9. Remember, I beseech thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay, v. 10. Hast Thou not poured me out as milk and curdled me like cheese? v. 11. Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinews, v. 12. Thou hast granted me life and favor,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Job 10:1-22
Having answered Bildad, Job proceeds to pour out the bitterness of his soul in a pathetic complaint, which he addresses directly to God. There is not much that is novel in the long expostulation, which mainly goes over ground covered in Job 3:1-26; Job 6:1-30; Job 7:1-21; but some new grounds are alleged as pleas for mercy, if not for justice. These are
(1) that he is God’s gesture, and in the past (at any rate) has been the object of his care (Job 7:3, Job 7:8-12);
(2) that God must be above judging as man judges (Job 7:4, Job 7:5);
(3) that God knows his innocence (Job 7:7); and
(4) that he (Job) is entirely in God’s power (Job 7:7).
In conclusion, Job begs for a little respite, a little time of comfort (verse 20), before he descends into the darkness of the grave (verses 21, 22).
Job 10:1
My soul is weary of my life. This is better than the marginal rendering, and well expresses the original. It strikes the key-note of the chapter. I will leave my complaint upon myself; rather, I will give free course to my complaint over myself, or I will allow myself in the expression of it (see the Revised Version). Job implies that hitherto he has put some restraint upon himself, but now he will give full and free expression to his feelings. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul (comp. Job 7:11).
Job 10:2
I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; literally, do not pronounce me wicked My friends, as they call themselves, have, one and all, condemned me: do not thou also condemn me. A touching appeal! Show me wherefore thou contendest with me. One of Job’s principal trials is the perplexity into which his unexampled sufferings have thrown him. He cannot understand why he has been singled out for such tremendous punishment, when he is not conscious to himself of any impiety or other heinous sin against God. So now, when he has resolved to vent all the bitterness of his soul, he ventures to ask the questionWhy is he so tried? What has he done to make God his enemy? Wherefore does God fight against him continually?
Job 10:3
Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress? Job assumes that he is oppressed. He has no conception that his sufferings are a purification (Joh 15:2), intended to lead to the elevation and improvement of his moral character. He therefore asksIs it worthy of God, is it good in him, is it compatible with his perfect excellence, to be an oppressor? It is a sort of argumentum ad verecundiam, well enough between man and man, but quite out of place between a man and his Maker. That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands (comp. Psa 138:8). This argument is more legitimate. God may be expected, not to despise, but to care for, the work of his own hands (comp. Isa 19:25; Isa 29:23; Isa 64:1-12 :21; Isa 64:8; Eph 2:10). Every maker of a thing, as Aristotle says, loves his work, and naturally guards it, cares for it, and cherishes it. And shine upon the counsel of the wicked (comp. Job 9:24). The prosperity of evil-doers must arise, Job thinks, from God allowing his countenance to shine upon them.
Job 10:4
Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth? Notwithstanding the anthropomorphism of their language, the sacred writers are as fully aware as their modern critics of the immateriality of God, and the immense gap that separates his nature from human nature. It is on this that Job now dwells. God, being so much above man, having eyes that are not of flesh, and seeing not as man sooth, ought not to judge as man judges, with partiality, or prejudice, or even with extreme severity (verse 6).
Job 10:5
Are thy days as man’s days? In short-lived man, shortsightedness and prejudice are excusable, but not in one whose days are unlike man’s dayswhose “years endure throughout all generations”. Such a one ought to be above all human infirmity. Or thy years as man’s days? We should have expected “as man’s years.“ But it marks the disparity more strongly to say, “Are thy years not greater in number even than man’s [literally, ‘a strong man’s’] days?“
Job 10:6
That thou inquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin. It seems to Job that God must have been “extreme to mark what he has done amiss” (Psa 130:3), must have searched into every corner of his life, and hunted out all his sins and shortcomings, to have been able to bring together against him a total commensurate or even approximately commensurate, with the punishment wherewith he has visited him.
Job 10:7
Thou knowest that I am not wicked; rather, although thou knowest (see the Revised Version). Conscious of his own integrity and faithfulness, Job feels that God too must know them; wherefore it seems to him all the harder that he should be made to suffer as if he were a “chief sinner.” And there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.
“‘Tis excellent to have a giant’s strength;
But tyrannous to use it like a giant.”
Job’s last ground of appeal is, that he is wholly at God s mercy, can look for no other deliverer, no other support or stay. Will not God, then, have pity, and “spare him a little, that he may recover his strength before he goes hence, and is no more seen “? (see Psa 39:1-13 :15; and comp. below, verse 20).
Job 10:8-12
Here we have an expansion of the plea in Job 10:3, “Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest despise the work of thine own hands?” Job appeals to God, not only as his Greater, but as, up to a certain time, his Supporter and Sustainer.
Job 10:8
Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about. Canon Cook observes with much truth, “The processes of nature are always attributed in Scripture to the immediate action of God. The formation of every individual stands, in the language of the Holy Ghost, precisely on the same footing as that of the first man”. Yet thou dost destroy me; literally, devour me (comp. Job 9:17, Job 9:22).
Job 10:9
Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; rather, that thou hast fashioned me as day; i.e. “Thou hast formed me, as a potter fashions a pot out of clay.” This is scarcely a reference to Gen 3:19, but rather an early use of what became a stock metaphor (comp. Isa 29:16; Isa 30:14 :; Isa 45:9; Isa 64:8; Jer 18:6; Rom 9:21-29, etc.). And wilt thou bring us into dust again? After having fashioned me out of clay into a human form, wilt thou undo thine own work, crumble me into powder, and make me mere dust once more?
Job 10:10
Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? “Didst not thou” i.e; “form me as an embryo in the womb, gradually solidifying my substance, and changing soft juices into a firm though tender mass?”
Job 10:11
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh. “To thee,” that is, “I owe the delicate skin, which encloses my frame, and keeps it compact; to thee I owe the flesh whereof my frame chiefly consists.” And hast fenced ms with bones and sinews; rather, and hast woven me, or knit me together (see the Revised Version, and comp. Psa 139:13, where the same verb is used in the same sense). The idea is that the body altogether is woven and compacted of skin, bone, flesh, sinews, etc; into a delicate and elaborate garment.
Job 10:12
Thou hast granted me life and favour. God, besides providing Job with a body so delicately and marvellously constructed, had added the gift of “life” (Gen 2:7), and also that of “favour,” or loving providential care, whereby his life was preserved from infancy to manhood, and from manhood to a ripe age, in peace and prosperity. Job has not forgotten his former state of temporal happiness (Job 1:2-5), nor ceased to feel gratitude to God for it (comp. Job 2:10). And thy visitation hath preserved my spirit; or, thy providence“thy continual care.”
Job 10:13
And these things hast thou hid in thine heart; rather, get these things didst thou hide in thine heart; i.e. “Yet all the while, notwithstanding thy protecting care and gracious favour, thou wert hiding in thy heart the intention to bring all these evils upon me; thou couldst not but have known what thou wert about to do, though thou didst conceal thy intention, and allow no sign of it to escape thee.” I know that this is with thee; rather, I know that this was with thee; i.e. this intention to destroy my happiness was “with thee”present to thy thoughteven while thou wert loading me with favour. Job’s statement cannot be gainsaid; but it involves no real charge against God, who assigns men prosperity or suffering as is best for them at the time.
Job 10:14
If I sin, then thou markest me; rather, if I sinned, then thou didst observe me. Thou tookest note of all my sins as I committed them, and laidest them up in thy memory. And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity. This record of my offences thou still hast against me, and I cannot expect that thou wilt acquit me of them. Without some one to atone for them, men cannot be acquitted of their offences.
Job 10:15
If I be wicked, woe unto me! If, on the whole, this record of my sins be such that I am pronounced guilty before God, then I accept my doom. Woe unto me! I must submit to suffer. And if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. If, on the contrary, it be admitted that I have not sinned so grievously as to be pronounced unrighteous, even then I will not beast; I will not exalt myself; I will not hold up my head as if I were sinless. I am full of confusion. This clause should not be separated from the last. The sense runs on: “I will not lift up my head (being, as I am), full of confusion,” or “of shame,” through consciousness of my own imperfections (see the Revised Version). Therefore see thou mine affliction; rather, and seeing my afflictions. The sense given in the Authorized Version is maintained by Rosenmuller, De Wette, Stanley Leathes, and Merx, and defended by Canon Cook; but opposed by Schultens, Professor Lee, and our Revisers. If we accept the views of these last, the whole passage will run thus: “If I be [pronounced] wicked, woe unto reel but if righteous, yet will I not lift up my head, being [as I am] full of confusion, and seeing my afflictions.” Job still views his afflictions as signs of God’s disfavour, and therefore proofs of his sinfulness.
Job 10:16
For it increaseth. Thou huntest me. This passage is very obscure, and has been taken in several quite different senses. On the whole, it is not clear that any better meaning can be assigned to it than that of the Authorized Version, “For my affliction increaseth,” or “is ever increasing. Thou huntest me;” i.e. thou art continually pursuing me with thy plagues, thy “arrows” (Job 6:4), thy” wounds” (Job 9:17), thy poisoned shafts (Job 6:4). Thou givest me no rest, therefore I am ever conscious of my afflictions. As a fierce lion. Schultens regards Job as the lion, and so Jarchi and others. But most commentators take the view that the lion is God (comp. Isa 31:4; Isa 38:13; Jer 25:38; Lam 3:10; Hos 5:14; Hos 13:7, Hos 13:8). And again thou showest thyself marvellous upon me; or, thou dealest marvellously with me; i.e. “inflictest on me strange and marvellous sufferings.”
Job 10:17
Thou renewest thy witnesses against me. Each fresh calamity that Job suffers is a new witness that God is displeased with him, both in his own eyes, and in those of his “comforters.” Hie disease was no doubt continually progressing, and going from bad to worse, so that every day a new calamity seemed to befall him. And increasest thine indignation upon me; i.e. “makest it more and more evidently to appear, that thou art angry with me.” Changes and war are against me; rather, changes and a host; i.e. attacks that are continually changinga whole host of them, or “host after host”, come against me.
Job 10:18
Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? A recurrence to his original complaint (Job 3:3-10); as if, after full consideration, he returned to the conviction that the root of the whole matterthe real thing of which he might justly complainwas that he had ever been born into the world alive! Oh that I had given up the ghost! Before birth, or in the act of birth (so Job 3:11). And no eye had seen me! “No eye,” i.e; “had looked upon my living face.” For then
Job 10:19
I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. So short an existence would have been the next thing to no existence at all, and would have equally satisfied my wishes.
Job 10:20
Are not my days few? Cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little. Job here returns from vague longings and idle aspirations to actual realitiesthe facts of the caseand asks, “Is not the time that I now have to live short? Must not my disease make an end of me in a very brief space? If so, then may I not make a request? My petition is that God will ‘cease’ from me, grant me a respite, ‘let me alone’ for a short time, remove his heavy hand, and allow me to ‘take comfort a little,’ recover my strength, and obtain a breathing-space, before my actual end, before the time comes for my descent to Sheol,” which is then (verses 21, 22) described. The parallel with Psa 39:13 is striking.
Job 10:21
Before I go whence I shall not return (comp. Job 7:9; and see 2Sa 12:23). Even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death. Job’s idea of the receptacle of the dead, while it has some analogies with the Egyptian under-world, and even more with the Greek and Roman conceptions of Hades or Orcus, was probably derived from Babylonia, or Chaldea, on which the land that he inhabited bordered (Job 1:17). It was within the earth, consequently dark and sunless (compare the Umbrae of the Romans, and Euripides’s ), deep (Job 11:8), dreary, fastened with belts and bars (Job 17:16). The Babylonians spoke of it as “the abode of darkness and famine, where earth was men’s food, and their nourishment clay; where light was not seen, but in darkness they dwelt; where ghosts, like birds, fluttered their wings; and where, on the doors and on the door-posts, the dust lay undisturbed”.
Job 10:22
A land of darkness, as darkness itself; or, a land of thick darkness (see the Revised Version). And of the shadow of death, without any order. The absence of order is a new and peculiar feature. We do not find it in the other accounts of Hades. But it lends additional horror and weirdness to the scene. And where the light is as darkness. Not, therefore, absolutely without light, but with such a light as Milton calls “darkness visible.”
HOMILETICS
Job 10:1-7
Job to God: the progress of the third controversy: 1. The pathetic wail of a crushed heart.
I. SOBBING IN THE EAR OF GOD.
1. The moan of a desponding heart. “My soul is weary of [literally, ‘loathes’] my life” (verse 1). That which had rendered existence a disgust to Job was partly his intense bodily affliction, but chiefly the overwhelming strangeness of the Divine conduct towards him. If only he had been able to realize that, notwithstanding all contrary appearances, he was still an object of God’s compassionate regard, he would have doubtless been able to endure with continued patience and exemplary submission the appalling calamities which had overtaken him. But the heavenward outlook of Job’s spirit was obscured by gloomy clouds of doubt and fear. The conviction was beginning to force itself inward upon his soul that God was indeed turned to be his Adversary; and if that were really so, Job felt that life would not be worth living. So David estimated God’s favour as life, and God’s loving-kindness as better than life (Psa 30:5; Psa 63:3; cf. homiletics on Job 6:1-13).
2. The utterance of a fainting spirit. “I will leave my complaint upon myself” (verse 1); i.e. I will give it free scope, yield myself up to it, and permit it to take full possession of me. Job’s complaint was that God was treating him as guilty while he was inwardly conscious of being innocent. Had this been really so, Job would have had reason on his side. But as yet the Divine antagonism to which he alluded was only an inference from his great sufferings. Hence the attitude assumed by Job was indefensible. Much more was it inexcusable to give way to a spirit of railing against God. If angry feelings rose within him, it was his paramount duty to repress them. The absence of gospel light, however, may serve in part to extenuate Job’s offence. The Divine philosophy of affliction, as expounded by Christianity, was not understood by him. If, then, fainting under tribulation was wrong in the old Arabian patriarch, much more is it indefensible in a New Testament believer.
3. The resolve of an embittered soul. “I will speak in the bitterness of my soul” (verse 1). Job was at this time intensely miserable. Life was a burden. God was (or seemed to be) against him. His own spirit was stung with a keen sense of injustice. The result was that wild indignation against the Almighty was beginning to steal like a poison through his veins. His soul was fast getting set on fire of hell. In circumstances such as these, it was extremely unwise in Job to resolve to speak. Safety would have been better secured by silence. The only favourable feature in the case was that Job meant not to fling abroad his impassioned outcries on the wild winds, but to breathe them into the ear of God. If a saint or sinner should feel aggrieved with God, it is infinitely wiser to go direct with his complaint to God himself than to either brood over it in secret or tell it to the world.
II. PLEADING BEFORE THE THRONE OF GOD.
1. Deprecating condemnation. “I will say unto God, Do not condemn me [literally, ‘do not fasten guilt upon me’]” (verse 2). The words may be regarded either as the cry of a saint who is conscious of his own inward moral and spiritual integrity, but who, through bodily affliction or Satanic temptation, or both combined, has become suddenly apprehensive of having forfeited or lost the Divine favour; or as the prayer of a sinful soul awakened for the first time to a conviction of its guiltiness before God, which, in an agony of fear, it implores God not to fasten on it, but to cancel and forgive. In the first of these two senses it was used by Job, and by saints similarly situated it may still be employed. No greater consternation can seize upon the mind of a child of God than that produced by the fear that God intends to condemn him. But such a fear is groundless. Whom God justifies, them he also glorifies (Rom 8:30). “The gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom 11:29). There is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:1). God ,nay sometimes hide his face from a saint (Isa 54:8), but he never finally turns his back upon him (Heb 13:5). In the second sense it is a prayer appropriate to all awakened sinners. And, thanks to Divine mercy, God never fastens guilt upon a soul that fastens it upon itself, never condemns those who sincerely condemn themselves (Isa 1:16; Isa 43:25; 1Jn 1:9).
2. Desiring illumination. “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.” God contends with men when in his providence he afflicts, and by his Spirit convicts, them. He contends with sinners on account of their unbelief (Joh 16:8, Joh 16:9) and wickedness generally; he may contend with his people on account of their backsliding (Mic 6:2; Rev 2:4, Rev 2:5), their formality (Rev 3:1), their spiritual indifference (Rev 3:15, Rev 3:16), or simply to advance their individual improvement (Gen 32:24). Yet when God does so contend with a saint the reason is not always patent (Job 37:21). Hence the prayer to be divinely instructed as to the grounds of God’s controversy with the soul is not only not sinful, but highly proper and advantageous. Only it should be presented with reverence, with humility, with docility.
III. APPEALING TO THE HEART OF GOD. Job remonstrates with God against the treatment accorded to him on two main grounds.
1. It is derogatory to the Divine character. “Is it good unto thee [literally, ‘is it becoming’] that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?” (verse 3). Three considerations, according to Job, ought to have prevented God from inflicting upon him such tremendous calamities.
(1) His personal greatness. It was not becoming in a Being so transcendently glorious and powerful as he was to be guilty of oppression.
(2) His personal interest. What proprietor ever destroyed his own property? What potter ever dashed to the ground the exquisite vessel which his hands had just fashioned? But Job was God’s handiwork, and yet God despised him, and treated him as of no value!
(3) His personal integrity. If God was a Being of absolute holiness and incorruptible justice, then it was clearly impossible that he could shine upon the counsel of the wicked, or favour bad men. But this, as it appeared to Job, was what God was doing in afflicting him. The threefold argument was good if Job’s premiss was correct. But Job’s description of the Divine conduct towards him was in all its particular, fallacious. The Almighty never oppresses any of his creatures, least of all man. The Creator never despises anything he has made, least of all his own children. The Governor of the universe cannot wrong the just, least of all can he favour the ungodly. Job’s argument therefore should have led him to seek another solution for the dark problem that perplexed him. It could not be that God was treating him as above depicted: God’s character forbade that. Neither could it be that he, Job, was guilty: the testimony of his own conscience protested against that. (It is not certain that a Christian would have been as tenacious of his own personal innocence as Job was.) Might it not, therefore, be that Job was putting a wrong construction on his sufferings?
2. It is inconsistent with the Divine perfectione.
(1) With his omniscience. “Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?” (verse 4). If God were like man, a being of limited capacity in respect of knowledge, if he could only judge by appearance, then he might be acting in the present instance under a mistaken idea of the patriarch’s guilt. But against that rose the transcendent objection that God’s eyes were not “eyes of flesh” at all, but eyes “like a flame of fire” (Rev 1:14), from which no thought can be withholden (Job 42:2), and which seeth every precious thing (Job 28:10).
(2) With his eternity. “Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man’s days, that thou inquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?” (verses 5, 6). Job professes he could have understood the Almighty’s hot pursuit of him had the Almighty been a short-lived being like himself, and afraid that his creature might die before he had it out with him. But, then, God was not like man. There was no fear of God dying. Hence Job could not see the need for such a hasty and terrible inquisition as he had been subjected to. If to find out his sin was God’s object, why all this hurry? had not God an eternity to do it in?
(3) With his justice. “Thou knowest [rather, ‘although thou knowest’] that I am not guilty; and there is none that [rather, ‘and although none’ ] can deliver out of thy hand” (verse 7). The Divine conduct would have been perfectly intelligible to Job on the hypothesis that God, like some petty tyrant, had resorted to the thumbscrews of affliction to extort confession from a prisoner whom he knew to be innocent, simply because he had the power so to do. But such a supposition was, of course, untenable. Therefore Job felt hemmed in on every side by inextricable difficulty, and was obliged to cry, “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.”
LESSONS.
1. The best thing for burdened souls to do is to cast themselves and their burdens into God’s lap; not angrily, but humbly; not complainingly, but confidingly.
2. There is a wide difference between God’s contending with his people, and God’s condemning them; this he never, that he often, does.
3. When God’s character and God’s conduct appear in conflict, it becomes us to question our interpretations of the latter rather than renounce our trust in the former.
Job 10:8-17
Job to God: the progress of the third controversy: 2. An inexplicable contradiction.
I. GOD‘S FORMER LOVING CARE.
1. Minutely detailed.
(1) In Job’s creation. This is first stated generally, the patriarch describing himself as having been made directly, by God’s hand: “Thine hands have made me and fashioned me;” perhaps in allusion to Gen 1:26 (cf. Deu 4:32; Job 12:10; Job 34:19; Psa 33:15; Isa 45:12); completely, in all his parts: “together [‘literally,’ all of me ‘] round about” (of. Psa 139:15, Psa 139:16; Exo 4:11; Job 27:3; Psa 94:9); carefully, with exquisite skill: “Thou hast made me as the clay,”possibly an echo of Gen 2:7, though most probably the image is that of a potter moulding an exquisite vessel And certainly man is God’s noblest handiwork, whether we have regard to his physical structure or to his mental and moral organization, and much more if we include both in our contemplation (cf. ‘Hamlet,’ act 2. sc. 2). The process of man’s formation is then sketched in four particulars, showing a remarkable acquaintance with the physiological phenomena connected with this mysterious subject: the generation of the child; the production of the embryo; the gradual development of the foetus; and the actual birth of the child (Gen 2:10-12); for further information on which points the Exposition may be consulted.
(2) In Job’s preservation. “Thy visitation [literally, ‘thy providence’] hath preserved my spirit’ (verse 12). Man s continued existence on earth is as much a miracle of Divine power as his first introduction into life. Only Divine care constantly exercised could keep a delicate organism like the human body, and much more a complicated instrument like the human mind, from falling into disrepair, and eventually into dissolution. Man, too, has so many wants, that unless Divine goodness waited on him daily, he would speedily succumb beneath the stroke of death. Hence Scripture assigns our sustenance no less than our formation to God (Deu 8:3; Psa 36:6; Act 17:28).
2. Skilfully employed. As Job recalls the time when he was thus an object of God’s paternal solicitude, he cannot help lingering over the sweet memories with which it floods his soul. Setting up, too, these tender reminiscences against the dark background of his present sorrow, he feels melted and softened. The thought of that Divine love which had fashioned him and favoured him enkindles in his soul a strange yearning for its return, which makes him try, as it were, by recalling old times to God, to excite a touch of pity in the Divine heart. “Thine hands have made me; and yet thou destroyest me!” “Thou hast made me as clay; and yet thou reducest me to dust again!” There are few arguments that touch the heart of God so powerfully as the remembrance of former mercies. “Put me in remembrance,” says God (Isa 43:26). “Forget not all his benefits,” says David (Psa 103:2; cf. Psa 42:6; Psa 77:10; Psa 143:5).
II. GOD‘S PRESENT CRUEL TREATMENT.
1. The Divine plot. “And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee” (verse 13). Job conceived that his terrible afflictions were the outcome of a dark and deep design which God had formed concerning him before he was born; that, in fact, God had summoned him into existence precisely in order to persecute him in the way about to be described. That God worketh all things on earth according to the counsel of his will, that every event in history, as well as every incident in individual experience, has its place in an eternally existing and universe-embracing plan, is a truth of natural religion no less than of Divine revelation (Act 15:18; Eph 1:11). But that God created any soul expressly for the purpose of rendering it miserable, either in time or eternity, is s simple perversion of truth, inconsistent alike with man’s fundamental notions of the Deity and Scripture’s explicit teachings as to the import of predestination. God never plots against either saint or sinner; but he never fails to plan for bothin which there should be comfort for the one (Rom 8:28), and a caution for the other (Pro 15:3, Pro 15:11; Psa 33:15).
2. The fourfold net. Job unfolds the nature of that plot which he conceives God to have devised against him.
(1) On the supposition of his sinning, God had determined to mark it against him: “If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity” (verse 14). The hypothesis was natural, since “there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not” (Psa 14:3; 1Ki 8:46; Rom 3:12). The inference was also correct in the sense that God observeth all men’s sins (Psa 33:13-15; Psa 69:5; Pro 15:3; Heb 4:13), and can by no means acquit the guilty (Nah 1:3; Exo 20:5; Rom 6:23); but as insinuating that God lay in wait to catch men in transgression, or that he was swift to note and punish sin, it was decidedly incorrect (Psa 130:3; Neh 9:17; Exo 34:6; Psa 78:38). It is God’s highest glory that, though he sees, he is now able not to mark, iniquity; that he can both remit the trespass and acquit the sinner in consequence of Christ’s propitiation (Rom 3:25, Rom 3:26).
(2) On the assumption of his perpetrating heinous wickedness, then his punishment would simply be unspeakable: “If I be wicked, woe unto me!” It is still true that obstinate and impenitent transgressors will not escape the just judgment of Almighty God (Isa 3:11; Isa 45:9; Pro 11:21; Job 31:3; Mat 21:41; Mat 24:51; Rom 1:18; if. 8), but it is likewise a blessed truth that the most notorious offender may be forgiven (Isa 1:18; Jer 33:8; 1Jn 1:7, 1Jn 1:9; 1Ti 1:15).
(3) If he should prove to be forensically guiltless, he must still demean himself as if he were a criminal: “If I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head.” Job’s language here suggests two important truthsthat no man, however conscious of innocence, can really lift up his head before God as if he were spotless; and that even those who can lift up their heads, through the righteousness of Jesus Christ, have no room for self-exaltation (Rom 3:27).
(4) Should he venture to indulge in such a feeling, then God would redouble his attempts to abase him; hunting him like a wild beast,”Thou huntest [literally, ‘wouldst hunt’] me as a fierce lion: and again thou showest thyself marvellous upon me [or, ‘thou wouldst repeat thy miracles upon me’] “prosecuting him like a culprit,”Thou renewest thy witnesses against me;” besieging him like a fortress,”Thou increasest [or, ‘wouldst increase’] thine indignation against me, with host succeeding host against me.” The imagery may set forth the intensity and variety of Job’s sufferings; but it is likewise fitted to suggest the vehement, relentless, and unceasing opposition which God offers to all attempts on man’s part to vindicate his own righteousness. It is God’s paramount aim, in providence and grace, to reduce man to a position of self-abasement and self-condemnation; and for this end he employs all the supernatural power of his Word and Spirit, all the evidence and testimony of the sinner’s own heart and life, all the vicissitudes and trials of his ordinary providence. God’s object in doing so is that he may be able to lift up the sinner’s bead.
Learn:
1. That if God uses rigour towards man, he doth it not of any cruelty, since man is God’s handiwork.
2. That man, being God’s handiwork, should never cease to praise his Maker.
3. That man’s lowly origin should both keep him humble and remind him of his latter end.
4. That God’s power and grace should be recognized in man’s preservation as much as in man’s formation.
5. That” all things are naked and manifest to the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”
6. That God, if swift to note, is still swifter to forgive, iniquity.
7. That the royal road to Heaven’s favour and forgiveness is through humility and self-abasement.
8. That the end of all Divine discipline on earth is to humble man in preparation for eternal exaltation.
Job 10:18-22
Job to God: the progress of the third controversy: 3. An old complaint renewed.
I. A GREAT MERCY DESPISED. Life. “Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb?” (verse 18). Job here announces an important truth, that the extraction of an infant from the womb is practically God’s work (Psa 22:9; Psa 71:6), but likewise commits a sin in regarding as an evil fortune what, rightly pondered, should have been esteemed a valuable blessing. Life, as God bestows it, is a precious gift; though frequently, as man makes it, it proves a dreadful curse. Job’s ingratitude was all the more reprehensible that in his case life had been crowned with mercieswith great material wealth, with true domestic enjoyment, with immense social influence, with rich spiritual grace, with palpable Divine favour.
II. A SINFUL REGRET INDULGED. That he had not been carried from the womb to the grave. “Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!” (verse 18). Job’s regret was:
1. Sinful; inasmuch as it undervalued a Divine gift.
2. Unnatural; since it contradicted the instinct of love of life which the Creator has implanted in all his creatures.
3. Foolish; for though Job might have thereby escaped bodily pain, he would also have missed much happiness and many opportunities of glorifying God by doing good and enduring affliction.
4. Mistaken; as though Job had been carried from the womb to the grave, his expectation,” I should have been as though I had not been,” would not have proved correct. The child who opens its eyes on earth simply to shut them again does not return to the wide womb of nothingness when its tiny form is deposited in the dust. The fact of its being horn into Adam’s race constitutes it an immortal. The doctrine of annihilation, if not absolutely unphilosophical, is certainly unnatural and unscriptural.
III. A PASSIONATE ENTREATY OFFERED. For a brief respite in the midst of his sufferings. “Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little.”
1. The prayer. “Let me alone.” Job craved a momentary alleviation in his troubles. Few sufferers are without such interludes of ease. God mercifully mitigates human sorrow by granting brief periods of relief; otherwise men would be crushed, and the end of affliction defeated.
2. The purpose. “That I may be cheerful a little.” Job could not brighten up while tormented by incessant pain and haunted by continual fear (Job 9:27). Only the lifting of God’s hand would remove the load from his heart and the cloud from his brow. And this he felt was desirable before he went to the under world. Most men will sympathize with Job in desiring a brief period of freedom from pain before passing into the eternal world, to enable them to calm their spirits, to collect their thoughts, to prepare their souls for the last conflict and the great hereafter.
3. The plea. “Are not my days few?” Job thought himself upon the brink of the grave. In this, however, he was mistaken. Most men deem themselves further from the unseen world than they really are (1Sa 20:3), but occasionally sufferers judge themselves nearer the close of life than they eventually prove to be. If the first is a sin of presumption, the second is an error caused by feeble faith. If the first is peculiar to youth and health, the second is not infrequent to suffering and age.
IV. A DISMAL FUTURE DEPICTED. Hades. The melancholy region, into which Job anticipated almost instantaneous departure, was not the grave, which was, properly speaking, only the receptacle of the dead body; but Sheol, the abode of departed spirits. As conceived by Job and other Old Testament saints, this was not a place where the disembodied spirit either found annihilation or sank into unconsciousness, but a realm in which the spirit, existing apart from the body, retained its self-consciousness. Yet the gloom which overhung this silent and impenetrable land was such as to render it unattractive in the extreme. It was a land of:
1. Perpetual exile. “Before I go whence I shall not return” (verse 21); “the undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns” (‘Hamlet,’ act 3. sc. 1).
2. Thick darkness. “A land of darkness, as darkness itself” (verse 22). Four different terms are employed to depict the gloom of this dismal world; the first (used in Gen 1:2) probably depicting a condition of things upon which light has not yet arisen; the second representing this lightless region as death’s shade, i.e. the veil which death draws around the eyes of men; the third setting forth this darkness as that which covers up or encircles all things; and the fourth pointing to the complete shotting off of light, the deepest and thickest gloom. This horrible picture the poet finishes by adding, “and the light is as the thick darkness,” meaning that in that doleful region the daylight or the noontide is like the midnight gloom of earth: “not light, but darkness visible” (Milton, ‘Paradise Lost,’ bk. 1.).
3. Complete disorder. A land “without any order” (verse 22); meaning either without form or outline, every object being so wrapt in gloom that it appears devoid of shape, or without regular succession, as of day and night; a realm without light, without beauty, without form, without order; a dark subterranean chaos filled with pale ghosts, waiting in comparative inactivity during that “night in which no man can work,” for the dawning of the resurrection morn. Contrast with all this the Christian Paradise, where the spirits of just men made perfect are now for ever with the Lord; not a laud of exile from which one shall no more return, but a better country, even an heavenly, from which one shall go no more out (Rev 3:12); not a region of darkness, but a bright realm of light (Rev 21:23); not a chaos of confusion, but a glorious cosmos of life, order, and beauty (Rev 21:1).
Learn:
1. The danger of unsanctified affliction.
2. The power of Satan over the human heart.
3. The short-sightedness of sense and reason.
4. The propriety of ever being ready for our departure into the unseen world.
5. The value of the gospel, which has brought life and immortality to light.
6. The advantage possessed by those who live under the gospel dispensation.
7. The greater responsibility of those who enjoy greater light than Job did.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Job 10:1-22
Appeal to the justice, knowledge, and goodness of God.
In his extremity of maddening pain and in his contempt of life, Job resolves to give full way once more to words (verse 1). And as they pour forth in full flood from the bottom of his heart, we perceive that he has in reality truer and juster thoughts about God than those expressed in the preceding chapter. He proceeds to appeal one by one to the highest perfection which can be associated with the Divine Name.
I. APPEAL TO THE GOODNESS AND GREATNESS OF GOD. (Verses 2-7.)
1. To his reasonableness and justice. (Verse 2.) “Condemn me not unheard, without cause assigned; make clear to my mind, which cannot deny its convictions, my guilt and its nature.” Taking the analogy of our Lord’s reasoning in the sermon on the mount, if to condemn a man without cause is felt to be an odious injusticeif it is a cardinal point in a just earthly constitution (e.g. as expressed in our Habeas Corpus Act) that no man be seized and kept in prison without speedy opportunity of being confronted with his accusershow can we ascribe such conduct to him who sits on the eternal throne?
2. To his equity. (Verse 3.) Can it be right that God should, on the one hand, cast down the weak and innocent, and, on the other, exalt and favour the unprincipled and the wicked? This would not be to hold even the scales, the eternal emblem of justice. The true solution to the question is given by Christ. God is good to all alike. The great gifts of naturesunshine and rainare common to good and evil, just and unjust. And as to spiritual blessings, which are of their nature conditional on human will and seeking, God is as good to all as their own state and disposition will suffer him to be. Are, then, the sufferings of the good contrary to his justice? Not so; but they come under that higher law which Job and his friends have yet to learn, that suffering is one of the forms and manifestations of Divine goodness in the education of human beings.
3. Appeal to his omniscience. (Verse 4.) God sees all things, from all beginnings, to all ends. He is not a short-sighted tyrant who is tempted to force by torture a confession of guilt from an unhappy prisoner against whom he has only a suspicion but no evidence. God knows that Job is innocent. But this fact should put an end to his murmurs, could he be wholly true to his higher faith in God. The right which God knows he will in the end declare, and will be seen to have throughout defended and protected.
4. Appeal to his eternal duration. (Verses 5, 6.) The calm and ever-abiding existence of God must surely free him from those temptations to which short-lived man is subject. Hurry, impatience, haste, impetuosity, are characteristics of humanity, because men know they have much to do, and but a short time in which to do it. Therefore the tyrant will snatch quickly at revenge for any affront or injury he may have suffered. But who can escape the power and the penalties of the Eternal? Once more: God knows he is innocent (verse 7)!
II. THE RELATION BETWEEN THE CREATOR AND THE CREATURE. (Verses 8-17.)
1. Comparison of the Creator and the creature to the potter and his work. (Verse 8.) The potter’s artistic work is a work on which care, thought, elaboration, have been spent; it is a” thing of beauty,” and he designs it to be a “joy for ever.” He will not wantonly destroy it, will not bear to see it so destroyed. Can we believe otherwise of God and his work? A most true and telling analogy, and on which may be founded an argument for the immortality of the soul. Had that idea come within the horizon of Job’s vision, his analogy would have afforded him profound comfort.
2. Contrast between the careful production and preservation‘ and the seeming reckless destruction of the creature. (Verses 10-17.) On the one hand we see (verses 10, 11) the marvellous production and development of the bodily life from the embryo to the distinct and fully developed form, arranged with all the apparatus and mechanism of nutrition and of movement. What dazzling evidences of the thought which God has lavished upon his chief work do all the discoveries of physiology unfold! We may read side by side with this passage Psa 139:1-24; and Addison’s noble hymn, “When all thy mercies, O my God.” Then there is the endowment of this marvellous framework with the great gift of life, and manifold rich enjoyments, and its preservation through all the dangers of youth to the present moment (Psa 139:12). But how dread the other side of the contrast! Behind this elaborate design there was concealed from the first, as it seems to Job’s gloomy reflection, a deliberate purpose of destructionthe reckless annihilation of this splendid work of Divine art (verse 13). Rather, if we do but rectify these perverted reasonings of a morbid and distressed mood, what noble and irresistible arguments do we derive from experience and from the science of our physical life for God’s eternal interest in that which is here contained in itthe soul which partakes of him, and cannot perish! Then follows a terrible picture of the relation in which the patriarch, in his misery, supposes himself to stand to God. He is in a “tetralemma,” or net, from which he can see no escape.
(1) If he commits the smallest error (verse 14), those all. searching eyes follow him with their ceaseless watch, and will exact the penalty of every fault.
(2) If he should commit iniquity (verse 5)that he has done so, however, before these sufferings, he must most solemnly denythen he will be justly chastened.
(3) But even if he were in the right, he must appear as a guilty one; cannot dare, freely and proudly, to raise his headbecause full of ignominy, and with his own eyes beholding his humiliation (verse 15).
(4) And should this innocent and insulted head, unable longer to endure the ignominy, rise in freedom and in prideas Job is now doing, in fact, by. the tone of his speechthen God, wroth with his resistance, will send afresh the severest sufferings upon him; will hunt him like a lion; will reveal himself in fresh marvels of woe and judgment (verse 16); will produce fresh witnesses, in the shape of new pains, as accusers against him. Like hosts pouring one after another against one beleaguered city, so will these troubles thickly come on (verse 17).
III. RENEWED BURST OF DESPONDENCY, IMPRECATIONS ON LIFE, CRAVING FOR REST. (Verses 18-22.) Once more he wishes that he had never been (verses 18, 19, repeated from Job 3:11, etc.). Once more he urges his strong petition that he may enjoy one brief respite during these few short days that remain, free from the unceasing torment (verse 20), before he sinks for ever into the lower world.
IV. PICTURE OF HADES, OR THE LOWER WORLD.
1. It is the “land of darkness and of gloom, like to midnight” (verses 21, 22).
2. Therefore it is the land of disorder and of confusion, where none who is accustomed to light and order can feel himself at home.
3. Though there be even there a slight change of day and night, yet even if it be bright there, it is as gloomy as midnight upon earth. We may compare those impressive pictures of the lower world and the state of the departed which we find in the ‘Odyssey’ (11.)
“Never the sun, that giveth light to man,
Looks down upon them with his golden eye,
Or when he climbs the starry arch, or when
Slope toward the earth, he wheels adown the sky;
But sad night weighs upon them wearily.”
“In bondage through fear of death.” The knowledge of another and a better lifedenied to Jobis evidently the one thing needed to satisfy an honest mind, cast down in extreme suffering, overwhelmed in mystery, yet unable to renounce its faith in the justice and goodness of God. Christianity, by bringing life and immortality to light, spreads a great radiance over the world. It is the firm grasp of this Divine idea which enables man to support suffering with calmness and patience. Let this idea be taken away, andas we see from the painful tone of those in our day who seriously put the question, “Is life worth living?“even ordinary suffering may be resented as intolerable.
LESSONS.
1. Confidence founded on our relation to God as a “faithful Creator.” He cannot desert the work of his own hands.
2. His goodness in the past is an argument for trust for the time to come.
3. Insoluble perplexities are due to our own ignorance of the complete conditions of life. God is the most misunderstood of beings.
4. Every revelation is to be eagerly received, every habit of mind encouraged, which induces us to look on life as a good, death as a gain, and the scene beyond as one of eternal brightness for all faithful souls.J
Job 10:1-7
The supplicatory cry of deep sorrow.
This is the cry of one who declares, “My soul is weary of my life.” He opens his lips that the stream of his “complaint” may flow forth unchecked. Yet is he humble and subdued, though he adopts almost the tone of expostulation. He has confessed himself to be unequal to the contention. He cannot give answer to God; he has acknowledged his guilt and impotence. Now he would know “wherefore” God contends with him. This is the desire of even the most resigned sufferer. Certainly the cry which comes oft from the lips of the deeply afflicted is, “Why am I thus made to suffer?” If Christian principle and calm faith keep back the demand, “Show me wherefore,” yet it is heard in the undertones of amazement and surprise at the unexplained and even severe dealings of a loving God”Ah, it is mysterious!” The confession of the mysteriousness of human suffering is a suppressed cry for the mystery to be cleared up. Job’s cry takes the form of
I. A DESIRE TO RE FREED FROM CONDEMNATION. “I will say unto God, Do not condemn me.” This the first desire of the resigned sufferer. Let it not be as a punishment for my transgression. “Condemn me not” is another form of urging, “Pardon my offence which! confess.” It is a prayer for forgiveness. Up to this, the previous confession of unworthiness and even of sin has properly led. It is the first rest of the soul. While the unconfessed condemnations of guilt are upon it there can be no peace. Happy he who in the depth of his suffering makes his confession; happier still he who hears the word of gracious forgiveness. This is followed by
II. THE UNSUPPRESSED LONGING TO KNOW THE REASON FOR THE DIVINE AFFLICTIONS. “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.” How natural to desire this! But the Divine ways are “past finding out.” “He giveth none account of his ways” Certainly to Job came no sufficient answer. It remained for later days to learn, “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” To all Job’s suggestions a negative reply may be given.
1. It is not “good” (i.e. pleasing) to God “to oppress,” to (appear to) “despise” his creatures; or, as it would seem, “to shine upon the counsel of the wicked”
2. He has not “eyes of flesh” He does not see “as man seeth”looking only on the outward appearance, and judging by that alone. God looketh on the heart, and estimates the human act by the motive which impels it. He makes allowance for human frailty more than even frail, erring man makes for his own brother. He is just in his view, and not warped as is the judgment of feeble flesh.
3. His days are not “as the days of man.” His are the days of eternity, lie can wait until the future for a justification of Job’s conduct. He has not to make haste to bring about a crisis in Job’s history. He needs not to hurry to put Job to the proof. Our reflections on the Divine dealings may be justly corrected by duly pondering this history. In our assured integrity we may wait. In our conscious sinfulness we are safest in the Lord’s hands; from which, indeed, we cannot escape. “There is none that can deliver out of thine hand.”R.G.
Job 10:8-12
Man the creature of God.
Job now seeks consolation in other courses of reflection, although arising out of the foregoing. He would fain draw what comfort he can from the knowledge of the fact that he is the creature of God. “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me together round about.” Thy skill and patience, thy thought and attention, have been bestowed on me. Wilt thou forsake the work of thine hands? Is it solely for this time of trouble thou hast brought me forth? A calm meditation on the truth, “I am the creature of God, created by the Divine hands, the product of his activity,” is calculated to bring consolation, for
I. IT IS A PLEDGE OF BLESSING. Even erring man is thoughtful of his own work. Cod’s work is perfect. But it is so because he momentarily guards it. He carries forward all the processes which we moderns call “laws of nature.” Job saw the “hand” of God in all the changes of the earth and heavens and of human life, Therefore to know I am a creature of God is to know my life is in his hands. I serve his purpose. He is Lord of all. Every act of his hand is pure blessing. He can do no evil. My creatureship is a sufficient pledge to me of certain blessing. He worketh for the good of all the creatures of his handssheep and oxen, birds of air and fish of sea. So his work in my limb is the truest warrant of good to me.
II. IT IS A SOURCE OF COMFORT. No one can calmly reflect on the fact of his creatureship without finding cause for comfort. Each may leave himself in the hands of his Owner. It is the basis of the truest consolation. “I am thine” must warrant the prayer, “Save me.” The human life may be left in the Divine hands. The poor, frail, helpless one may commit himself unto God. There is rich comfort in the knowledge of the fact that the Lord of the whole earth is my Creator. That he should “destroy,” or appear to destroy, the poor sufferer is at once acknowledged to be matter of surprise. Under the shadow of the wings of the Almighty Creator every creature may find refuge.
III. IT IS AN ASSURANCE OF DIVINE CARE. “Wilt thou then bring me into dust again?” This is the inevitable thought in the heart of him who recognizes himself as the creature of Godwho says, “Thou hast made me as the clay.” It is the instinct of frail man to care for his own. How much more is it the Divine method! Already Job has declared his faith when saying, “Dost thou despise the work of thine own hands?” Thou hast raised me from the dust; wilt thou bring me into dust again? Writ thou frustrate thine own purpose? Thus Job reasons, and wisely. It is the assurance of calm wisdom, the faith which has firm foundation. He who has brought me into life, will care for me, will sustain me, will defend me.
IV. SUCH AN ASSURANCE IS A SUFFICIENT GROUND OF CONFIDENT AND CALM REPOSE. Restful is the spirit of faith; and the more simple faith is in its reasonings, the more assured is its peace. Consciousness of sin would lead to distress of mind and to fear when it is remembered, “Thine hands have fashioned me;” but to the heart assured of its integrity, this truth is the ground of calm repose. Prayer may be based upon this. Faith here may find its support; love, its inspiration.R.G.
Job 10:13-17
The hidden purposes of affliction.
Job has reasoned much, and he has asked for an explanation of the Divine purpose. “Wherefore contendest thou with me? Doubtless he judges, as do his friends, that suffering is the natural consequence and certain punishment of wrong-doing. But he is conscientious in affirming his innocence of transgression, and the Divine testimony to his goodness agrees with this (Job 2:3). What, then, is the explanation of the whole? Can we ever hope to know in this world what are the deep purposes of God in the afflictions of which the human life is capable, and especially in the sufferings of the godly? No. The purposes, though partially revealed, are still to a great extent “hidden”hidden in the “heart” of God. Job feels himself hedged in. He is “full of confusion.” We must remember Job had not the clear light in which we view the Divine work. Yet even from us his ways are hidden. We must say, “Clouds and darkness are round about him.”
I. WE MUST SEE IT TO BE PERFECTLY NATURAL THAT THE DIVINE WAYS SHOULD BE HIDDEN FROM MEN. How should man be able to trace the Divine purpose? It is high; he cannot attain unto it. Hidden in the Divine mindnot always revealed by the incidents of affliction. “These things hast thou hid in thine heart.”
II. THE HIDING OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES IS A SALUTARY TEST TO FAITH. Faith in God needful in order to a right relation of the human soul towards God. It is the basis of peace; encouragement to obedience; ground of holy fear; help to holy love. But the testing of faith leads to a more spiritual dependence upon God, to a more frequent reference of the heart to him. Walking by faith honours God. Faith needed by the very conditions of human life. Its exercise promotes its growth.
III. THE HIDING OF THE DIVINE PURPOSE IS A GRACIOUS DESIGN ON THE PART OF GOD MORE EFFECTUALLY TO WORK OUT HIS WILL CONCERNING MAN. The rebellious, not knowing it, cannot frustrate it. Secretly the Divine will is wrought out in the experience and history of the sufferer. The entire dependence of the soul on God is encouraged. This must lead to submission, and submission in faith. The reliance of the soul must be on the character of God, and not on circumstances and incidents.
IV. THE HIDING OF THE DIVINE PURPOSES ISSUES IN THE PERFECTING OF THE SUPREME EXCELLENCE OF THE HUMAN CHARACTERPATIENCE. Thus it has its “perfect work,” and the soul is left “entire, lacking nothing.” He who can patiently and trustfully wait upon God, bearing up under pressure of afflictive circumstances, gains s vigour and beauty of character. If patience be wanting, all other qualities of the character are impaired. Man’s wisdom is to be satisfied with committing himself to the hidden purposes of God. In faith to confide in them as wise and good. In patience to await their exposition when it shall please God to reveal them to him.R.G.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Job 10:1
Weariness of life.
We need not wonder that Job was weary of his life. Beggared, bereft of his family, smitten with a painful and loathsome disease, tormented by the cruel comfort of his friends, he could see nothing but misery around and before him. Few, if any, have been in his sore plight. Yet others have felt the same weariness of life that the patriarch so naturally experienced. Let us look at the sorrowful condition and its Divine remedy.
I. THE SORROWFUL CONDITION.
1. The misery of it. Life is naturally sweet. It is a most merciful arrangement of Providence that the hard lot which would seem to be unbearable when regarded from the outside has many alleviations and consolations for those to whose portion it has fallen. There are few lives on which no gleam of sunshine ever falls. But to be weary of life is to have lost all the sunshine, and to be in dark despair. Like “Mariana of the moated grange,” the desolate one cries
I am aweary, aweary;
O God that I were dead!”
2. The dangers of it.
(1) It tempts to suicide, and that is sin.
(2) It leads to the neglect of duty; for if a man has no hope or heart in life, it is difficult for him to take up its tasks. When life itself is no longer worth living, it is hard to summon any energy for work.
(3) It blinds us to remedies. Like Hagar in her despair, we do not lift up our eyes to see the fountain. Despair justifies itself by blinding us to hope.
3. The causes of it. This weariness of life may spring item a terrible conjunction of external circumstances, as it did in part with Job. But internal causes usually co-operate. Sometimes the despair is a result of bodily or brain disease, and the sufferer must be pitied and treated accordingly. But it may come from brooding too much over the dark side of life, from distrust of God, from a consciousness of sin, or from impenitent and rebellious thoughts. Ennui is the product of indolence. Weariness of life is often a result of idle sentimentality.
II. THE DIVINE REMEDY. This evil is not incurable. For the despair is a delusion. No one would be weary of life if he knew all its future possibilities. If the despair is a result of brain disorder, the remedy is in medicine, not theology. Here is a harder-land where the two faculties touch; therefore a man who practises either should not be a stranger to the other. Despair may give way to a change of scene and a bracing regimen without any arguments. But when the causes are deeper and more spiritual, a corresponding remedy must be looked for. This will not be found in any worldly philosophy of life. The wonder is not that some people are weary of life, but that all who are “without God in the world” are not also “without hope.” Pessimism is the natural goal of the Epicurean. Life is not worth living without God. The great remedy for weariness of life is the discovery of the true worth of life when it is redeemed by Christ and consecrated to God. Then it is not dependent on pleasure for its motives, nor driven to despair by pain. It has a higher blessedness than any earthly possession can give, in doing God’s will on earth with the prospect of enjoying him for ever in hen yen. But even the unselfish service of our brother man will help to conquer weariness of life. If Mariana had been well occupied she might have overcome her misery. There is a healing grace in the discharge of duty, and more of it in losing ourselves while serving others.W.F.A.
Job 10:4
God’s vision of man.
How does God see us? Is he SO far above us that he cannot quite see us as we are? Is he so great that he cannot conceive of our littleness? Are his ideas so different from our own that he cannot understand our life and sympathize with it? Or is not God so supreme in his vision of man that he cannot make the mistakes we make, and must see us truly just as we are? If w, why does God seem to act as though he had man’s limited vision? Questions of this sort seem to be perplexing Job. How can they be met?
I. GOD SEES US TRULY AS WE ARE. It is no attribute of infinity to be above seeing what is small. Because God is infinite he can descend to the infinitely little as well as comprehend the infinitely great. Moreover, he does not treat us as insignificant beings unworthy of his notice, but he regards us as his children. The very hairs of our head are numbered by God. His greatness is seen in the truth and thoroughness of his vision. He does not look through distorting media, nor does he only see one aspect of things, as is the case with us. He sees all round everything, and he looks through all things. There is no secret hidden from God. He understands what he sees, for his infinite vision is accompanied by an infinite comprehension.
II. GOD JUDGES US BY A HIGHER STANDARD THAN OURS. We are hampered by narrow ideas; our judgment is warped and cramped by prejudice and error. Our ignorance, folly, and sin even mar the very standards by which we judge. God’s estimate is supremely fair, and it is after the very highest and purest ideas of judgment.
III. GOD‘S STANDARD OF JUDGMENT IS NOT ALIEN TO OURS. We might be dismayed by the very elevation and perfection of God’s method of judgment, thinking it totally different from our own. If this were the case conscience would be a delusion. But God is the Creator of conscience, and though this is limited, and in a measure perverted, still it retains the essential character given to it by God. “God made man in his own image” (Gen 1:26). Therefore man’s honest judgment must be a reflection of God’s judgment. God ,sees as we see, so far as we see truly. His judgment is just the correction and perfection of our judgment.
IV. GOD HAS ENTERED INTO OUR LIFE THAT HE MAY SEE US WITH OUR OWN EYES. This seems to be part of the purpose of the Incarnation. Christ is a brother-Man. He looks at us with human eyes. One with us by nature, he can perfectly understand us. We cannot even understand our favourite dog when he turns to us his dumb, pathetic gaze, for he is of a different species. Christ became one with us, one of our species. Thus we can understand him, and he can perfectly sympathize with us. Apart from Christ, God seems to be distant and altogether different from ourselves. In Christ he is one with us, near to us, and able to regard us with the eyes of a Brother.W.F.A.
Job 10:8
Creation and its consequences.
Job appeals to God as his Maker. He remonstrates with the Creator for apparently destroying his own work. If God had first made man, why should God turn on his creature to “swallow him up”? This is not so much an appeal to pity or justice, as one to reason and consistency.
I. GOD IS THE CREATOR OF EVERY INDIVIDUAL MAN. Theologians were once divided between two theories of the origin of human souls, called respectively “Creationist” and “Traducianist.” The Crestionists held that each soul was created by God; the Traducianists that souls were derived by descent, were transmitted by birth from ancestral souls, and originally from Adam and Eve, just like the bodies they inhabit. Was it not unfair to confine the name “Creationist” to the former school? The idea of descent from parents does not exclude Divine action. The parent is not the creator. The original great Cause must be the Source of all that follows. If God only created once for all at the beginning of the world, still he created each individual, because each individual simply comes from that original creation. If it could be shown that man was not separately created, but that he derived his origin from lower creatures by evolution, he would be not the less created by God; for how could the marvellous process of evolution originate or progress, unless the Almighty and All-wise had started it? Nay, it is only reasonable to believe that God is ever creating. Not once for all, but in every stage of evolution, the Divine hand is working out the eternal plan. So also each individual life is moulded by that same Creative hand. God is working eternally, for the laws of nature are but the ways of God. He was as truly the Creator of Job as of Adam; and he makes each man now by means of birth as really as he made the first life out of inorganic matter.
II. THE FACT THAT GOD IS THE CREATOR OF EVERY MAN MUST AFFECT HIS TREATMENT OF ALL HIS CREATURES.
1. He cannot have predestined them to ruin. To affirm that he could do so is to say that the Creator is not God, but the devil, A god who was merely indifferent to his creatures would not from the first plan their destruction. If it is suggested that God might do this to display his own glory, the reply is that such an action could display no glory, but the reverse. To say that God may do as he will with his own is irrelevant. His absolute rights over his creatures do not exclude moral considerations. Further, the holy, righteous, and loving character of God makes it absolutely certain that he could not planned have their ruin.
2. He can never consent that they should be ruined. “He hateth nothing that he hath made.” The very fact of creation gives God an interest in his creatures. The artist cannot be indifferent to the fate of his works. But God is more than an artist; he is a Father, and a father cannot be indifferent to the fate of his children. It may be necessary for the parent to chastise, but no true and worthy parent will ever really wish to hurt his offspring. Can we think that God is less strong in parental love than we are? It is necessary for God to be angry with the wickedand there is a terror in God’s anger which men can only despise at their perilbut behind that auger there can be no vindictive temper, much less can there be a spiteful malignity. God only desires the welfare of his children.W.F.A.
Job 10:12
Life and favour from God.
I. GOD THE ORIGINAL SOURCE. Job appeals to his Creator, and recognizes the Divine Source of all he is and all he has. The prologue shows that Job had always been a devout man, not forgetful of God. But his frightful losses and troubles brought home to him the thought of his relations to God with a vividness never before experienced. Job is now face to face with God. Huge calamities have swept away all intermediate interests, and over the wreck of his wasted life he looks straight to God his Maker. Terrible hours of distress reveal the deeper facts of life, as the earthquake exposes the granite foundations of the hills. Tragedy destroys superficiality. Those who have been through the raging waters el trouble are best able to perceive the Divine Source of all things.
II. GOD‘S PRIMAL GIFTS.
1. Life.
(1) This can only come from God. The chemist may analyze the component elements of our bodily frame, but the subtle life-principle can never be caught in his crucible. The engineer may construct a most delicate machine, but he can never breathe life into it. God is the one Source of life.
(2) This is essential to all else. Here we are at the first and most fundamental gift. Men may bury treasures with the dead, but the silent sleepers in the tomb can never touch one of the gifts that rust and moulder by their side. We must live if we are to own or use anything. We must have the spiritual life in order to enjoy the gospel blessings.
2. Favour. Life is itself a favour. It is never deserved; yet it is good to live. But with life God gives other favours. Even Job in his desolation did not forget this fact, as some seem to forget it when they murmur against Providence, and complain of the world as though everything were working for the misery of man. Greater than all earthly favour is the grace of Christ, the favour shown to fallen man in the redemption of the race by the sacrifice of God’s Son.
III. GOD‘S CONTINUED GOODNESS. Job acknowledges that his very breath is continued by God’s care. God does not merely create once for ell; he preserves his creatures. If he were to withdraw his hand for one moment, they would cease to be. That we arc alive now is a sign that God is now good to us. Present existence is a proof of present providence. Therefore our thanksgivings should be fresh; not the withered flowers of yesterday, but the new blossoms of to-day, with the dew still upon them. Daily renewed mercies call for daily renewed praises. We have not to look far for God, searching the annals of antiquity, inquiring of the deeds of old-world history, or scraping together the geologic records of the rocks. God is with us in the new sunrise, in each day’s life and blessing.
IV. GOD‘S ASSURED CASE. It cannot be as Job supposes. His remonstrance is natural to him, but it is needless. If God has made and preserved us, it is impossible that he should be turned against us. His past and present favours are proofs of his unchanging love. Though he smites, he cannot hate. Though he withdraws his smiling countenance, he does not remove his supporting baud. Creation and preservation are prophecies of redemption and salvation.W.F.A.
Job 10:13
The things that are hidden in God’s heart.
Job is possessed by a fearful thought. His tremendous troubles, and the cruel accusations of his friends, have driven him to the conclusion that God must have conceived the idea of thus tormenting him long before Job knew anything of it; that God must have hidden the dreadful purpose in his heart; that all the while Job was complacently enjoying his prosperity, God was nursing the secret design of scattering it to the winds, and plunging his servant into the depths of misery.
I. GOD‘S PURPOSES ARE HIDDEN FROM MAN. They are more hidden than Job supposed. He thought that the Divine plan had just appeared. But it was deeper than he imagined. Not only was it hidden in the sunny days of prosperity; it was also hidden in the dark and dreadful days of misery. Had Job known the Divine purpose, his suspicions would have been dissipated, and he would have seen how unjust his arraignment of Providence was. We cannot yet see the Divine thought. If it were revealed to us, the discipline of trial would be frustrated. Moreover, it is too deep and wide for us to grasp it. Therefore we must walk by faith (2Co 5:7).
II. GOD APPEARS TO HIDE DARK DESIGNS. So Job thought, and so the events of his life seemed to show. As the curtain slowly lifted, dreadful things were discovered behind. God was always in the future, preparing it for its advent; yet when it came it appeared in thunder and ruin. Was God secretly planning all this misery in the quiet, old peaceful days when Job suspected no danger? The unrolling of many a life-story has seemed to tell the same tale of God’s secret thoughts made manifest in calamity.
III. GOD REALLY HIDES PURPOSES OF LOVE IN HIS HEART.
1. He must do so because he is love. We cannot understand his plans, but we can understand his nature as far as it is revealed to us. Now the revelation of God is wholly of goodness. This includes wrath against sin, but no injustice, no harshness, no delight in inflicting misery. Therefore, though we do not see the Divine intention, we may be sure that it is gracious.
2. He is seen to do so as far as his purposes are revealed.
(1) In Scripture. Ancient prophecy and the New Testament gospel concur in setting forth the Divine plan, and although this includes judgment and the punishment of sin, its main design is the redemption of man.
(2) In experience. Some of God’s purposes are ripened and fulfilled daring our earthly life. These are seen to be good and gracious. It is only the unaccomplished purpose that wears a threatening aspect.
IV. THE HIDDEN PURPOSES OF GOD‘S HEART WILL BE ULTIMATELY REVEALED. God does not delight in secrecy, much less does he designedly tantalize his creatures by perplexing them with needless mysteries and alarming them with bogus fears. What we know not now we shall know hereafter (Joh 13:7). The great apocalypse of futurity will answer many a dark riddle of providence in the light of eternal love. We have but to possess our souls in patience, and all will be clear. Job’s life-problem was solved at last. When ours is made clear it will only enlarge our wondering gratitude for the depth of the love which God had hidden in his heart.W.F.A.
Job 10:21, Job 10:22
The land of darkness.
I. DEATH APPEARS TO LEAD TO A LAND OF DARKNESS.
1. We cannot see what lies beyond. Science cannot penetrate this mystery of mysteries. At best she can but dimly surmise the existence of an “unseen universe.” Philosophy may reason of the soul’s immortality, but can throw no light into the tomb. The mind dashes itself in vain against the awful wall that separates it from the world beyond. One by one our most intimate friends leave us, and the dark doors open to receive them, but never a ray of light comes out, and “the rest is silence.”
2. We shrink by natural instinct from death. Reason as we may, the grave is a horror to us. We people the land of the dead with terrors of the imagination. La Rochefoucauld says, “Neither the sun nor death can be looked at steadily,”
“Death is a fearful thing.
To die, and go we know not where
To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed lee;
To be imprison’d in the viewless winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent world, or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling!’tis too horrible!
The weariest and most loathed worldly life
That ago, ache, penury, and imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise
To what we fear of death.”
(Shakespeare.)
II. WHETHER DEATH WILL LEAD TO A LAND OF DARKNESS DEPENDS ON OUR USE OF LIFE. Nature, science, philosophy, all leave the future obscure. But God has lifted the veil in the gospel enough to give us guidance, warning, and consolation. We learn from the revelation of Christ that the unseen land need be no place of terror and darkness. What it will be depends on our present conduct.
1. Death leads the impenitent sinner into a land of darkness. For him the horrors of imagination cannot be too black. No one can conceive the chill desolation of the “outer darkness,” the dread despair of seeing the “door shut” on a rejected soul. The darkness will consist in separation from God, from blessed companionship, from joy, from lifefor the future existence of the lost is never called a future life. The dolorous words of Job are not too strong for the fate of lost souls.
2. Death leads the people of God into a land of light. The old-world gloom of the grove is dissipated by Christ, who has “brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2Ti 1:10). Here we have a great advance from the Old Testament standpoint, “The resurrection of Christ has thrown a flood of light into the regions beyond. It has shown us a “land of the leal,” where the blessed dwell in light eternal St. Paul could even desire to depart and be with Christ, counting it gain to die (Php 1:21-23). All who have turned from sin to Christ may despise the darkness of death, for this is but the portal to the home of eternal life.W.F.A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
CHAP. X.
Job expostulates with God concerning his afflictions: he complains of life, but wishes for a little ease before his death.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 10:1. I will leave my complaint upon myself I will not keep my complaint within myself. Houbigant. See the note on the 1st verse of the preceding chapter.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
B.Jobs reply: Assertion of his innocence and a mournful description of the incomprehensibleness of his suffering as a dark horrible destiny
Job 9-10
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
1Then Job answered and said,
2I know it is so of a truth:
but how should man be just with God?
3If he will contend with Him,
he cannot answer Him one of a thousand.
4He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength;
who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?
5Which removeth the mountains, and they know not:
which overturneth them in His anger;
6which shaketh the earth out of her place,
and the pillars thereof tremble;
7which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not;
and sealeth up the stars;
8Which, alone spreadeth out the heaven,
and treadeth upon the waves of the sea;
9which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades,
and the chambers of the South;
10which doeth great things, past finding out;
yea, and wonders without number.
11Lo, He goeth by me, and I see Him not;
He passeth on also, but I perceive Him not.
12Behold, 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
13If God will not withdraw His anger,
the proud helpers do stoop under Him.
14How much less shall I answer Him,
and choose out my words to reason with Him?
15Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer,
but I would make supplication to my judge.
16If I had called, and He had answered me,
yet would I not believe that He had hearkened to my voice.
17For He breaketh me with a tempest,
and multiplieth my wounds without cause.
18He will not suffer me to take my breath,
but filleth me with bitterness.
19If I speak of strengthlo, He is strong!
and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?
20If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me;
If I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
21Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul;
I would despise my life.
22This is one thing, therefore I said it,
He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
23If the scourge slay suddenly,
He will laugh at the trial of the innocent.
24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked:
He covereth the faces of the judges thereof;
if not, where, and who is He?
25Now my days are swifter than a post;
they flee away, they see no good.
26They are past away as the swift ships;
as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.
27If I say, I will forget my complaint,
I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself;
28I am afraid of all my sorrows,
I know that Thou wilt not hold me innocent.
29If I be wicked,
Why then labor I in vain?
30If I wash myself with snow water,
and make my hands never so clean,
31yet shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch,
and mine own clothes shall abhor me.
32For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him,
and we should come together in judgment.
33Neither is there any daysman betwixt us,
that might lay his hand upon us both.
34Let Him take His rod away from me,
and let not His fear terrify me;
35then 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:
10:122
1My soul is weary of my life;
I will leave my complaint upon myself;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2I will say unto God, Do not condemn me;
show me wherefore Thou contendest with me.
3Is 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?
4Hast Thou eyes of flesh?
or seest Thou as man seeth?
5Are Thy days as the days of man?
are Thy years as mans days,
6that Thou inquirest after mine iniquity,
and searchest after my sin?
7Thou knowest that I am not wicked;
and there is none that can deliver out of Thy hand.
8Thine hands have made me and fashioned me
together round aboutyet Thou dost destroy me!
9Remember, I beseech Thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay;
and wilt Thou bring me into dust again?
10Hast Thou not poured me out as milk,
and curdled me as cheese?
11Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh,
and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
12Thou hast granted me life and favor,
and Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
13And these things hast Thou hid in Thine heart;
I know that this is with Thee.
14If I sin, then Thou markest me,
and Thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
15If 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.
16For it increaseth. Thou hauntest me as a fierce lion:
and again Thou shewest Thyself marvellous upon me.
17Thou renewest Thy witnesses against me,
and increasest Thine indignation upon me;
changes and war are against me.
18Wherefore then hast Thou brought me forth out of the womb?
Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
19I should have been as though I had not been;
I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20Are not my days few? Cease then,
and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,
21before I go whence I shall not return,
even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death;
22a 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 Gods 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 ones 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 Bildads discourse (Job 8:3) that Jobs 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 [, 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 mans 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 strengthwho has braved Him and remained unhurt?The absolute cases and are resumed in , and refer accordingly to God, and not to (as Olshausen thinks). With is to be supplied : who has hardened his neck against Him, (Deu 10:16; 2Ki 17:14), i.e., bid Him defiance?
Second Strophe: Vss. 57. A lofty poetic description of the irresistibleness of Gods omnipotence, beginning with its destructive manifestations in nature. [Job having once conceived the power of God becomes fascinated by the very tremendousness of itthe invincible might of his and mans 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 ( as in Exo 11:7; Eze 20:26) He hath overturned them in His wrath.[In favor of thus regarding as a conjunction rather than a relative, may be urged (1) The Perf. , which would otherwise be Imperf.; comp. Job 9:7. (2). The introduction of a relative construction in a coordinate clause, and 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 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 , which is akin to and , is as Dillmann says, to waver, to rock, not to break, as Ges. and Frst explain, connecting it with ]. 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 (, a rare poetic term for the sun, as in Isa 19:18; comp. , Jdg 14:18) [perhaps (says Delitz.), from the same root as , one of the poetical names of gold, seeing that in Isaiah l. c. Ir ha-Heres is a play upon , ], 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. according to parallel passages, such as Isa 40:22; Isa 44:24; Psa 104:2, where the heavenly vault is represented as an immense tentcanvass, 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 would not agree; nor again the contents of Job 9:9, where clearly Gods 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.: . 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 (); 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 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. is taken by Umbreit and Ewald as synonymous with ; who darkens the Bear, etc., against which however may be urged the use of in Job 9:10, likewise the description flowing out of the present passage in Amo 5:8, and finally the lack of evidence that 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, , or as it is written in that later passage , denotes unmistakably the Great Bear, or Charless Wain, the Septentrio of the Romans, and the nash (), 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 naash, daughters of the bier, being imagined to be the mourners, is doubtful. [The current form decisively contradicts the derivation from ] 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 , i.e., the bands, or fetters of Orion in Job 38:31, as well as the accordant testimony of the ancient versions (LXX.: , 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 i.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 , 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 (defectively written for ) points to the southern heavens, and since predominantly signifies apartments, chambers, halls, less frequently store-rooms, reservoirs, the reference to the reservoirs of, the south wind (LXX.: ; 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 Poweran 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 themeit 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! [ 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. in Job 4:16 of a spirit; here of the Infinite Spirit, sweeping past him on His career of destruction.E.] , synonymous with as in Job 4:15, forms an assonance with the parallel of the following verse.
Job 9:12. [Lo! He snatches away (scil. His prey)], who will hold Him back; or: turn Him back (), 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 Gods 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 in and of itself denotes only a violent, insolent and stormy nature (comp. Job 26:12), 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 queryhelpers of what? or helpers of pride.E.], the Perf. , 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 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 , hence a sea-monster (), 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 or . We are thus left to one of two significations for 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 Bttcher 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 Indras 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., k , 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, ,, and , 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 to be at the same time the name of a constellation such as or [Balna 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 comp. Job 4:19; on , to answer, respond, see above on Job 9:3.Choose out my words against Him?i.e. weigh my words against Him ( as in Job 10:17; Job 11:5; Job 16:21) with such care and skill [the in 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 (, sensu forensi) [innocent, judicially free from blame], could not answer, I must make supplication to Him as my judge, viz. for mercy ( with as in Est 4:8). The Partic. Poel is not essentially different in signification from the Partic. Kal , although it does differ somewhat from it, in so far as it denotes lit. an assailant or adversary (judicial opponent: , [Poel, expressing aim, endeavor], judicando vel litigando aliquem petere, comp. Ewald, 125, a). [So overpowering is Gods might that Job would be brought in litigating with Him to the humiliation of beseeching His very adversaryan idea which sufficiently answers Conants charge, that to render assailant 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 (prt. 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 Jobs 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. [ 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 here adopted, would overwhelm me (so also Vaih.) we can leave unsolved the question, so difficult of decision, whether, following the Aram. , and the testimony of the Ancient Versions (LXX. ; Vulg. conteret), we render to crush, to grind; or, following the Arab, sfa, and the Hebr. ; 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 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 in the sense of but, rather, comp. Job 5:7; for the form. , 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 with the following ; 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): [ for , as Job 15:23, is for ]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 (, with logical accent on suffix, as in Job 15:6) would confess me guilty, though I should still be innocent(, as in Job 9:15).Were I innocentHe would prove me perverse [, 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 , 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 Gods 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 , 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 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 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., from , Job 6:14. [E. V., Conant, Dav., Renan, Hengst., Carey, Rod., etc., give to here its customary sense of trial, from . 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? (so written also Job 17:15; Job 19:6; Job 19:23; Job 24:25, but outside of the book of Job generally ) belongs according to the accents to the preceding conditional particles (comp. Job 24:25 and Gen 27:37); lit., therefore, now then if not, who does it? [Hirz., Con. and apparently Ew. connect with the interrogative followingwho then? quis quso (Heiligst.) Davidson also takes this view, although admitting that the accentuation is decidedly the other way, 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 Gods arbitrary severity to his (Jobs) 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. [ 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. , Perf., a deduction from past experience continuing in the present.E.]. might, apparently, comparing this with the similar description in Job 7:6, denote a part of the weavers 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 : this rather yields the signification swift runner, courier() compare Jer 51:31; 2Sa 15:1; 2Ki 11:13; Est 3:13; Est 3:15.They are fled away, without having seen good (, 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 [] skiffs of reed, i.e., being comparable with them (Job 37:18; Job 40:15). are most probably canoes of rushes or reeds, the same therefore as the (vessels of bulrush) mentioned Isa 18:2, whose great lightness and swiftness are in that passage also made prominent. is accordingly a synonym, which does not elsewhere appear, of , reed; for which definition analogy may also be produced out of the Arabic. It has however nothing to do with (so the Vulg., Targ.: naves poma portantes) [fruit ships hurrying on lest the fruit should injure]; nor with , to desire, [ships eagerly desiring to reach the haven]. (Symm. ) comp. Gekatilia in Gesenius, Thes. Suppl., p. 62; nor with , enmity (Pesh., ships of hostility, comp. Luther: the strong ships, by which are meant pirate ships); nor with the Abyssin. abi, 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 Jobs 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 (, as in Job 10:20; Ps. 39:14 (Psa 39:13) [the three cohortative futures here are, as Davidson says, finely expressiveIf I sayrousing myself from my stupor and prostrationI 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 Gods arbitrary decree [, emphaticI, I am accounted guilty, singled out for this treatment. The fut. here expressing that which must be, from which there is no escape.E.] 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. , 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., adverbially, as in Job 21:34; Job 35:16; lit. like a breath, evanescent, herefruitlessly, 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 Kri instead of with the Kthibh ; 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 Kthibh is to be preferred.E.], and cleanse my hands with lye ( fully written for , 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 (, 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 GeseniusRdiger take the Piel 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 . [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 Jobs inability to make out his innocencenot 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 as though it were accusative to : 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. 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 to (), 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 following. The jussive form does 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 without 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 , scourge, calamity, comp. Job 9:23), and let not His terror overawe [or stupefy] me ( 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. therefore points to that which is within, the consciousness or conscience, as in Job 10:13; Job 15:9; Job 23:14, etc. That here expresses so much as: not so small, not so contemptible, is a conjecture of Delitzschs, 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 Renans 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., equivalent to . Eze 6:9, Perf. Niph. of , which is synonymous with or , to feel disgust. [Ges. and Frst give a root , from which Delitzsch also says it may be derived as a secondary verb formed from the Niph. 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: , 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 Jobs 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. [Gods 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 ( 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 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: decet, not as others juvat. The argument is that Gods 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 Gods 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 mothers 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 , 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 mans (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 mens 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 ( 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 handi.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 Deitys past and present rises ever in intensity in Jobs breast, and in amazement he sets the two in blank opposition to each other before God Himselflet 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 nor can deliver from Thy handThy hands have made me. Dav.]. The thought conveyed by the phrase 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., lit. have carved me (, a Piel intensive, cognate with ,), i.e., elaborately formed [especially appropriate as describing the fashioning of the complicated nature of man. Del.]. The following bears the same relation to this as perficere, consummare bears to the simple fingere. The clause added in b, , altogether round about (Vulg.: me totum in circuitu) represents the fashioning and perfecting activity of God as concerned with mans entire organism, including all his limbs and parts. [And yet ( consec. with strong adversative sense) Thou destroyest me!An exclamation of amazement and reproach.]
Job 10:9. Remember now [the particle is expressive of a yearning plaintiveness hereOh, 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 Jobs 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 , by the adverbial clause , 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 milkviz.: 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 Jobs 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 , but here is compared with , 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 , 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 or [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.( from , Job 1:10, synonymous with 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 ftus 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, 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 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. [Gods 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.[ 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. and 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 Gods 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 at the beginning of this verse is to be taken adversatively. I know that this was in Thy mindi.e., that this determination had long been formed by Thee ( 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, 1417.
Job 10:14. If I should sin, Thou wouldest watch me., lit., custodies me, here custoditurus eras me, as these verses in general exhibit that which, in Jobs opinion, God had long since determined, and had the disposition to do. 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 wickedwoe unto me!As is evident from this exclamation , woe unto me! which takes the place of a clause expressing the consequence in the future, is a stronger expression than in the verse preceding. [ 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 is than , so much stronger, it may be inferred, is here than .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 Gods 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. is either to be taken as constr. state of an adj. , not elsewhere occurring (of a like structure with ,, etc., so Gesenius, Frst, Welte, Hahn, Del. [Schult., Schlot., Dav.] etc.), or we are to read (Piscator, Ewald, Hirz., Bttch., 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 comp. Job 8:11; on the omission of 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.]. 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 with a finite verb following to express the adverbial notion again, repeatedlya construction similar to that above in Job 6:28comp. Ewald, 285, b. On , with final vowel , 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 errand to err is humanGod 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 and 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 Ewalds 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 ; in the last two, which assume his innocence the 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 ( 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 , 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 (against Hirzel and most moderns). Rather does denote the main body of the army, while , lit., exchanges are fresh advancing reserves, or reinforcements. With the former, the original main army, are compared Jobs 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 Gods hostile attack; comp. Job 19:12; Job 30:12). [ stands first as being the prominent element, Jobs mind dwelling principally, though not altogether, on the new tortures with which God assailed him, as is evident also from and just before.E.]. Moreover it will be seen that every versemember from Job 10:14 to Job 10:18 inclusive ends in the vowel , a fact already noted by Bttcher, 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 , , 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 mothers 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. 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 Kthibh and not as a petition addressed to God, but as a request expressed concerning Him in the third person, as one who had withdrawn. The Kri, in giving instead the Imperf. and : 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 Kthibh which undoubtedly is the correct reading, is a noticeable and masterly stroke, expressing the helpless, exhausted prostration of Jobs 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 GodLet 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.]. , to turn away the attention from any one, like with , Job 7:19; Ps. 39:14 [ Psa 39:13]; to supply , or , or (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 adverbial, = not to return]. Comp. Job 7:7-10. An , 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 (lit., covering: see Job 3:6; Job 23:17; Job 28:3; Psa 91:6).Of the shadow of death, and of confusion. [. 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 , 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. , lit., so that it shines forth, is bright (comp. Job 3:4; Job 10:3). The subj. of this verb is certainly (Hirzel, Delitzsch, etc.); the neuter use of the fern. is less probable. here again signifying the most intense darkness, the most sunless gloom, (ipsum medullitium umbr 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 Miltons: 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 Gods action is always and uniformly just (comp. Exeget and Crit. Rems., 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 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 unworthinesssuch 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.10:1317), 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 thingthat 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 mans 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 Godfor 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 heavenone 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 mans 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 writers 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 Jobs earlier lament, at the beginning of Job 7., where he describes the transiency and vanity of mans 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 Jobs 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 9:2-12Gods Omnipotence; Job 9:13-24The apparent injustice of the Divine government of the world; Job 9:25-35The cheerless and helpless condition of the suffering righteous under the Old Dispensation, who as yet knew no mediator between God and men; Job 10:1-7The contradiction which shows itself between the fact of Gods omniscience, and that of the innocent suffering of the godly; Job 10:8-12.Gods 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: Gods 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 Gods 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. colampadius: 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. colamvadius: 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 mothers 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 journeys 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 sayit 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., equivalent to . Eze 6:9, Perf. Niph. of , which is synonymous with or , to feel disgust. [Ges. and Frst give a root , from which Delitzsch also says it may be derived as a secondary verb formed from the Niph. 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: , 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 Jobs 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. [Gods 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 ( 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 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: decet, not as others juvat. The argument is that Gods 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 Gods 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 mothers 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 , 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 mans (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 mens 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 ( 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 handi.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 Deitys past and present rises ever in intensity in Jobs breast, and in amazement he sets the two in blank opposition to each other before God Himselflet 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 nor can deliver from Thy handThy hands have made me. Dav.]. The thought conveyed by the phrase 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., lit. have carved me (, a Piel intensive, cognate with ,), i.e., elaborately formed [especially appropriate as describing the fashioning of the complicated nature of man. Del.]. The following bears the same relation to this as perficere, consummare bears to the simple fingere. The clause added in b, , altogether round about (Vulg.: me totum in circuitu) represents the fashioning and perfecting activity of God as concerned with mans entire organism, including all his limbs and parts. [And yet ( consec. with strong adversative sense) Thou destroyest me!An exclamation of amazement and reproach.]
Job 10:9. Remember now [the particle is expressive of a yearning plaintiveness hereOh, 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 Jobs 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 , by the adverbial clause , 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 milkviz.: 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 Jobs 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 , but here is compared with , 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 , 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 or [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.( from , Job 1:10, synonymous with 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 ftus 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, 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 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. [Gods 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.[ 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. and 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 Gods 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 at the beginning of this verse is to be taken adversatively. I know that this was in Thy mindi.e., that this determination had long been formed by Thee ( 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, 1417.
Job 10:14. If I should sin, Thou wouldest watch me., lit., custodies me, here custoditurus eras me, as these verses in general exhibit that which, in Jobs opinion, God had long since determined, and had the disposition to do. 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 wickedwoe unto me!As is evident from this exclamation , woe unto me! which takes the place of a clause expressing the consequence in the future, is a stronger expression than in the verse preceding. [ 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 is than , so much stronger, it may be inferred, is here than .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 Gods 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. is either to be taken as constr. state of an adj. , not elsewhere occurring (of a like structure with ,, etc., so Gesenius, Frst, Welte, Hahn, Del. [Schult., Schlot., Dav.] etc.), or we are to read (Piscator, Ewald, Hirz., Bttch., 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 comp. Job 8:11; on the omission of 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.]. 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 with a finite verb following to express the adverbial notion again, repeatedlya construction similar to that above in Job 6:28comp. Ewald, 285, b. On , with final vowel , 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 errand to err is humanGod 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 and 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 Ewalds 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 ; in the last two, which assume his innocence the 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 ( 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 , 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 (against Hirzel and most moderns). Rather does denote the main body of the army, while , lit., exchanges are fresh advancing reserves, or reinforcements. With the former, the original main army, are compared Jobs 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 Gods hostile attack; comp. Job 19:12; Job 30:12). [ stands first as being the prominent element, Jobs mind dwelling principally, though not altogether, on the new tortures with which God assailed him, as is evident also from and just before.E.]. Moreover it will be seen that every versemember from Job 10:14 to Job 10:18 inclusive ends in the vowel , a fact already noted by Bttcher, 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 , , 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 mothers 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. 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 Kthibh and not as a petition addressed to God, but as a request expressed concerning Him in the third person, as one who had withdrawn. The Kri, in giving instead the Imperf. and : 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 Kthibh which undoubtedly is the correct reading, is a noticeable and masterly stroke, expressing the helpless, exhausted prostration of Jobs 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 GodLet 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.]. , to turn away the attention from any one, like with , Job 7:19; Ps. 39:14 [Psa 39:13]; to supply , or , or (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 adverbial, = not to return]. Comp. Job 7:7-10. An , 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 (lit., covering: see Job 3:6; Job 23:17; Job 28:3; Psa 91:6).Of the shadow of death, and of confusion. [. 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 , 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. , lit., so that it shines forth, is bright (comp. Job 3:4; Job 10:3). The subj. of this verb is certainly (Hirzel, Delitzsch, etc.); the neuter use of the fern. is less probable. here again signifying the most intense darkness, the most sunless gloom, (ipsum medullitium umbr 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 Miltons: 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 Gods action is always and uniformly just (comp. Exeget and Crit. Rems., 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 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 unworthinesssuch 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.10:1317), 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 thingthat 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 mans 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 Godfor 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 heavenone 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 mans 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 writers 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 Jobs earlier lament, at the beginning of Job 7., where he describes the transiency and vanity of mans 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 Jobs 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 9:2-12Gods Omnipotence; Job 9:13-24The apparent injustice of the Divine government of the world; Job 9:25-35The cheerless and helpless condition of the suffering righteous under the Old Dispensation, who as yet knew no mediator between God and men; Job 10:1-7The contradiction which shows itself between the fact of Gods omniscience, and that of the innocent suffering of the godly; Job 10:8-12.Gods 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: Gods 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 Gods 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. colampadius: 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. colamvadius: 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 mothers 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 journeys 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 sayit 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?
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
DISCOURSE: 460
IMPATIENCE REPROVED
Job 10:1. My soul is weary of my life.
LIFE is justly esteemed a blessing: and we are properly taught in the Liturgy to thank God, as well for our creation, as for our preservation, and redemption. But to the greater part of mankind this world is a chequered scene at best; and to very many it is only a vale of tears. Had we seen Job in his prosperity, we should have been led perhaps to form a more favourable estimate of the present state: but there are changes in the affairs of men, as much as in the air and seas: and the day that dawned with the most promising appearance, may be overcast with clouds, and blackened with tempests, ere the sun has reached its meridian height. Thus it was with Job: the man that was the envy of all who knew him, was in a short space of time so reduced, as to exclaim, My soul is weary of my life.
We shall,
I.
Shew that this is a common experience
Daily observation proves that it is common,
1.
Among the ungodly
[It arises from domestic trials. Who can tell what trouble a tyrannical or unfaithful husband, a contentious or imprudent wife, a rebellious or extravagant son, an indiscreet or unchaste daughter, may occasion? There is scarce a family to be found, where something does not happen to embitter life, and to make death, either to the head or members, an object of desire.
From personal troubles also the same disquietude will spring. Pain and sickness, when of long continuance, and especially when accompanied with the infirmities of age, cause many to wish for a speedy dissolution. Embarrassed circumstances too will so oppress the spirits, particularly when occasioned by ones own extravagance or folly, as to make the soul weary of life: yea, to such a degree are the minds of men oppressed by troubles of this kind, that a deliverance from them is not unfrequently sought in suicide. Even a mere sense of the emptiness of all earthly things will often fill the soul with disgust, and cause it to sigh for a release from the body, in which it finds no satisfactory enjoyment. Many, in the midst of youth, health, and affluence, while moving in a constant round of amusements, and free from every external trouble, are yet so weary of life, that they would gladly part with it immediately, if they were not afraid of entering into the invisible world. But, above all, a guilty conscience renders man a burthen to himself. A person weary and heavy-laden with a sense of sin, and not knowing where to go for rest, is indeed a pitiable object. He wishes that he had never been born, or that he could be again reduced to a state of non-existence. If he might but be annihilated like the beasts, he would gladly accept the offer, and most thankfully forego all hope of heaven, to obtain deliverance from the fears of hell.]
2.
Among the godly
[Not even the most eminent saints are altogether free from this experience. They are not, whilst in the flesh, above the reach of temporal afflictions. They are not indeed overcome by every little trouble, like those who know not God: but they are not insensible to pain or pleasure: they have their feelings, as well as other men. Pains of body, loss of substance, bereavements of friends, injuries from enemies, may, when accumulated, cast them down; and produce, as in the case of Job, extreme dejection.
The weight of spiritual troubles is felt by these exclusively: nor can those who have never experienced their pressure, form any just conception respecting them. Who can describe the anguish that is occasioned by violent temptations, headstrong corruptions, unsuccessful conflicts? What language can paint the distress of a soul under the hidings of Gods face, and the apprehensions of his wrath? Can we wonder that a person long exercised with such trials, should say, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest [Note: Psa 55:4-6.]? Surely the spirit of a man may sustain other infirmities; but a wounded spirit who can bear [Note: Pro 18:14.]?]
The commonness of this experience may well lead us to,
II.
Inquire into the reasons of it
Many reasons may be assigned, but we shall limit ourselves to a few:
1.
Impatience
[Job, whose patience is celebrated even by God himself, when borne down by the weight of his afflictions, cursed the day of his birth [Note: Job 3:1-22.], and longed exceedingly for death [Note: Job 6:8-9.]; and would have been glad to have had a period put to his existence, even by strangling, rather than to have it protracted any longer in such misery [Note: Job 7:15-16.]. To the same source we must trace those hasty wishes, which we also are ready to form in seasons of great calamity. If patience had its perfect work in us, we should be willing to bear whatever God might see fit to lay upon us. But in the day of adversity the strongest of us are too apt to faint.]
2.
Unbelief
[From this more particularly arose that weariness and aversion to life which the Prophet Elijah manifested, when he fled from Jezebel. He had encountered Ahab, and slain all the prophets of Baal, in dependence on the divine protection: but when this wicked woman menaced him, he stayed not to take counsel of the Lord, but instantly fled into the wilderness; and, to get rid of all his dangers and difficulties at once, requested God to kill him [Note: 1Ki 19:4.]. Had he felt the same security in God us on former occasions, he would have been quite composed, knowing assuredly that without Gods permission not a hair of his head could fall to the ground. Thus when afflictions render us weary of life, we shew that we have forgotten the promise of Jehovah to make all things work together for our good. When we know that medicine is operating for our good, we disregard the uneasiness that it occasions: we are contented even to pay for the prescriptions, from a confidence that we shall be benefited by them in the issue. And should we not welcome the prescriptions of our heavenly Physician, if we duly considered his unerring wisdom, goodness, and truth? Instead of repining and murmuring on account of his dispensations, we should rest satisfied, that every additional trouble would only call forth additional displays of his power and love.]
3.
A forgetfulness of our real desert
[Man, as a sinner, deserves the curse of the law, and the wrath of God. Suppose we bore this in mind, should we not say, even under the most accumulated trials, Thou hast punished us less than our iniquities deserve [Note: Ezr 9:13.]? Would not a recollection of our desert of death and hell constrain us to cry, Shall a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins [Note: Lam 3:39.]? Would Jonah have been so clamorous for death, and so ready to justify his impatience before God [Note: Jon 4:2-3; Jon 4:8-9.], if he had considered what he merited at Gods hands? So neither should we be so fretful under our sufferings, if only we bore in mind, that, instead of being put into the furnace of affliction, we should, if dealt with according to our deserts, be cast into the flames of hell. We should learn rather to adopt the sentiment of the Church of old, I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him [Note: Mic 7:9.].]
4.
A disregard of the great ends of life
[It is truly humiliating to find not only such querulous, and almost doubtful, characters as Jonah, but the bold Elijah, the pious David, the patient Job, fainting in their trials, and longing for their dismission from the body. But to this catalogue we must add another, even Moses, the meekest of mankind. Even this holy man, unable to bear up under the burthens imposed upon him, complains of them to God, and says, If thou deal thus with me, I pray thee to kill me out of hand [Note: Num 11:14-15.]. Would he have offered such a petition if he had reflected on the benefits which had already accrued to Israel by his means, and, humanly speaking, the incalculable loss which they would sustain by his removal? And should not we also be more willing to endure our trials, if we considered what valuable ends might be promoted by our continuance under them? Perhaps we are not prepared to die; (for persons are most apt to wish for death when they are least prepared to meet it;) and would we, for the sake of extricating ourselves from some earthly trouble, plunge ourselves, both body and soul, into the everlasting miseries of hell? But, supposing that we are prepared, may not others be greatly edified by our example, our counsels, and our prayers? May not our own weight of glory also be greatly increased, by a due improvement of our light and momentary afflictions [Note: 2Co 4:17.]? Is not this last consideration alone sufficient to reconcile us to a prolonging of our troubles, and a deferring of our heavenly felicity [Note: For this sublime idea the author is in a measure indebted to a poor woman (so poor as to be supported by the parish), who, when in great pain, and almost in dying circumstances, replied (in answer to what he had suggested respecting the rest and happiness that awaited her), True, Sir, but in some respects affliction is better even than heaven itself; for, &c. &c.]? We may indeed be in a strait betwixt the two; but we shall, like St. Paul, be willing to live, when we reflect how much better that may be both for ourselves and others [Note: Php 1:23-24.].]
Towards lessening this common evil, we shall,
III.
Prescribe some remedies for it
The painful experience before described may be mitigated, and in many cases wholly prevented, by,
1.
A due attention to our worldly callings
[Persons under the pressure of heavy afflictions are apt to give themselves up to sorrow, and to neglect the proper duties of their calling. By this means their minds become more and more enervated; their spirits sink, and they fall a prey to their sorrows: they die of a broken heart. But if, instead of thus yielding to lowness of spirits, they would employ themselves in their accustomed duties, their occupations would divert their attention from their troubles, and give scope and opportunity to the mind to recover its proper tone. Whether the troubles be of a temporal or spiritual nature, this remedy should be applied. We must not indeed go and plunge ourselves into business or amusement in order to get rid of reflection, (that would be to run into a contrary extreme;) but we should never be so occupied with our sufferings as to forget or neglect our duties. It is remarkable, that when God repeated to the fugitive prophet that expostulatory question, What doest thou here, Elijah? he ordered him, not to sit any longer wishing for death, but to go about the business which yet remained for him to do; namely, to return to Damascus, and anoint Hazael to be king of Syria, and Jehu to be king of Israel, and Elisha to be his successor in the prophetic office [Note: 1Ki 19:15-16.]. And in the same manner it becomes us, not to sit wishing for the spoils of victory, but to continue fighting till God shall call us to put off our armour.]
2.
A close walk with God
[Strange it is, that heavy trials which are sent to bring us to God, often prevail rather to drive us from him. We complain, We are so overwhelmed with trouble, that we cannot think of our souls or compose our minds for supplication to God. But we are particularly commanded to call on God in the time of trouble [Note: Psa 50:15.]; and to cast all our care upon Him, who careth for us [Note: 1Pe 5:7.]: and we see in the instance of St. Paul how speedily our sorrows might be turned into joy, if only we would use this remedy [Note: 2Co 12:7-10.]. Surely one ray of the light of his countenance would dissipate all our darkness, and change our impatient murmurings into thanksgiving and the voice of melody. If we were bowed down with a sense of guilt, one glimpse of Christ would remove the load from our conscience. If we were harassed with the fiercest temptations or most overwhelming fears, one word from him would quiet the tempestuous ocean, and qualify us for encountering all the storms wherewith we might at any time be overtaken.]
3.
A frequent survey of heaven
[A view of heaven would indeed excite desires after the full enjoyment of it. But this is very different from the experience which is described in the text. Our longings after heaven cannot be too ardent, provided we are contented to wait Gods time in order to possess it [Note: 2Pe 3:12.]. This is an important distinction, and most accurately marked by the Apostle Paul. He knew that heaven was the portion prepared for him; and he earnestly desired to enjoy it [Note: 2Co 5:1-3,]: but these desires did not spring from an impatient wish to get rid of his troubles, or to terminate his conflicts, but from a thirst after God himself, and the perfect fruition of his glory [Note: 2Co 5:4.]. Now this would be a most effectual remedy against the other: the brighter the views we had of the glory that awaits us, the less we should regard the sufferings of this present time [Note: Rom 8:18.]. If the years of labour and servitude appeared to Jacob only as a few days, because of the love he bore to Rachel, and the desire he had to possess her as his wife [Note: Gen 29:20.], so will the tribulations which are appointed as our way to the kingdom [Note: Act 14:22.] appear of little concern, when we look to the end of our journey, and the felicity we shall then enjoy.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
CONTENTS
Job continueth in a voice of complaint through this Chapter. He seems to express himself, as one so borne down with sorrow that he knows not what he sayeth. He pleads hard with God, for a little respite of ease before his death.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(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; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
Though there is in those verses much seeming impatience, yet when the mourner crieth out, Do not condemn me; is there not in the same voice, a cry for mercy and favor? Reader! how sweet is it in the afflictions of GOD’S redeemed, that in a thousand afflictions there is no curse. JESUS hath taken out the whole curse, when he was made a curse for his people. Oh! the soul-reviving, soul-comforting thought! Yes! thou dearest LORD, thou didst drink the cup of trembling; that thy people might drink the cup of salvation.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 10:1-2
‘In a man under the immediate pressure of a great sorrow,’ says George Eliot in her Essays, ‘we tolerate morbid exaggerations, we are prepared to see him turn away a weary eye from sunlight and flowers and sweet human faces, as if this rich and glorious life had no significance but as a preliminary of death; we do not criticize his views, we compassionate his feelings.’
References. X. 2. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v. No. 283. X. 8. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2342.
Job 10:10
The example of Job protects us from the charge of blasphemy in not suppressing our doubts. Nothing can be more daring than his interrogations. There is no impiety whatever in them, nor are they recognized as impious in the final chapters of the book.
Mark Rutherford, The Deliverance, pp. 138, 139.
References. X. 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2314. X. 12, 13. Ibid. vol. xlvi. No. 2682.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Job’s Answer to Bildad. I.
Job 9-10
It is supposed by some that there is a tone of satire in the opening words of Job’s reply to Bildad. Those opening words are, “I know it is so of a truth.” The words may be so read as to exclude the satire, but those who have looked most deeply into these things have discovered in these terms a tone of sarcasm, the interpretation being I know that it is so of a truth; so obviously true that even you, blind comforters, have actually seen it; the justice of God is so patent that even you could not pass by without observing it! Whether Job is satirical here or not, we know that Job could be satirical, and the probability is that he began thus early to jeer the men who misunderstood him.
Bildad had made a grand appeal in one point; he said to Job, Take no notice of what we say: we are but of yesterday, and know nothing: judge us to be right in so far as we represent the consolidated wisdom of the ages; go back to the fathers; consult ancient history: see how from day to day, and from century to century, experience has gone in one direction, and do not despise the voice of time. That was a wonderful thing to say so far back in history as the period at which Bildad lived. We now call Bildad and his friends part of the ancients, but Bildad at his time referred Job to the centuries then gone; and so far his argument was rational, sound, and conclusive. Men ought not to despise history. The judgments of God are written in the records of time. There is an external Bible, or a Bible external to the Book which claims that high name a Bible of Providence, of conscious guidance of life, of obvious shaping of events, and a leading forth of history to certain issues and effects, the reality and the beneficence of which cannot be questioned. But Job, accepting this view, calls the attention of his friends to a deeper truth than they had yet perceived: “How should man be just with God?” ( Job 9:2 ). The emphasis of that inquiry is in the first word “how”: relate the method, tell the plan, produce the key of this mysterious lock: it is easy for you to preach about the justice and the uprightness of God, and easy for you to chide me for want of integrity, but will you tell me how man should be just with God? This is a question which God himself alone can answer. And this is the difficulty “If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand” ( Job 9:3 ). The meaning is this: I am right enough in many points; I know, says Job, that I am an upright man, as the world judges uprightness; not one of my contemporaries can bring a single charge against me, or stand before me for one moment in fair criticism of conduct: when I turn to God with that argument, even if he were to admit it, so far as I present the case, he would startle me, he would madden me, by pointing out a thousand instances in which I had utterly failed to obey the law of truth and walk by the light of wisdom. So Job takes up this strong position, saying of himself: I know I am respectable; I am well aware how I have guided my family; I know that my house is a house of prayer; I could stand up with the whitest and best of you, and if the judgment lay between ourselves possibly you would vote me to the primacy; but the question does not lie between you and me, as who should say, Who is the better of two men? The question is, “How should a man be just with God?” for God is omniscient. Take a beautiful action to him, and he will thus handle it, saying, Outwardly it is comely enough; it is well coloured, it is excellently shaped; it would pass muster before any tribunal ever constructed by human wisdom but, see! Then opening the action he would show that every motive is perverted, or corrupt, or at least partially wrong; and he would so handle and analyse our very lowliest prayer that we should burn with shame to think we had ever uttered it at his altar. Job thus continues, if we may paraphrase his argument: You take a narrow view of life; you talk about circumstances, actions, reputableness, respectability; but since I have been thus afflicted, and have been looking round and round within myself for causes, I have come to see that if I would contend with God, I could not answer him one of a thousand: before I had this affliction I thought I was faultless, but these distresses have revealed me to myself: up to this time I had taken a wrong view, because a narrow or superficial view, but now I see that I must get at realities, essences, innermost motives, springs and impulses, and conduct the judgment not in the marketplace but in the sanctuary. It is a great deal that Job should have thus learned the profoundest of all lessons. This is the lesson which the world has yet to learn. The world will continue to victimise itself by its own respectability to the very end. The world will not discuss motives. The best of men would say, We must let motives alone. Whereas everything depends upon the motive. Not the action but the motive determines the quality of life, the issue and the destiny of existence. But, so pressed, who can stand now? Herein is the meaning of the woeful declaration, “There is none righteous, no, not one.” If there could be one righteous, the whole world might become righteous, and Jesus Christ might come to be understood as unnecessary, or he might be superseded. If there could be one good man, in God’s sense of that term, the cross of Christ would be a mistake a blunder. Only affliction can drive men into this analysis of motives. It is so easy to get credit for good actions, transient courtesies, inexpensive civilities, outsides that cost nothing; and it is harder than dying to force the mind to self-analysis, and bind the heart down to self-judgment. The heart is afraid of itself. No man could see himself and live. Where, then, is help to be found? Hear the words of the Lord through the mouth of his prophet “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.”
What a noble view of God Job is enabled to present; Eliphaz and Bildad have spoken highly of the Deity, but when Job comes to speak of him there is an addition of tenderness to sublimity; in other words, Job does not discourse as a mere dialectician, of man of eloquence; he makes his words rich with unction, precious with pathos; he lifts human speech to new levels and new dignities. From the first verse to the twelfth of the ninth chapter we have Job’s description of God, a description which no man could have spoken so eloquently if the very life of him had not been crushed out by divine judgment, and by all the discipline which tests life at every point. Job makes his knowledge contribute to the expression of his theology: the mountains are moved by God, and they know not, they cannot account for their trembling; they vibrate, they shiver, as if in pain, and cannot tell why they are startled from their old decorum: they are overturned in his anger, and they cannot account for their removal or their destruction. The earth is shaken out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble; the sun is ordered about like an inferior servant, and the stars are sealed with the black seal of thunderous clouds, so that they cannot shine Arcturus, the great northern bear that has attracted the attention of the ages; Orion, a symbol of the chained Lucifer who rebelled in heaven, and who is now held in leash to be looked at and wondered about; Pleiades, too numerous to be named, and the chambers of the south a general phrase by which he indicates the undiscovered astronomical territory, the great south, rich with unnamed stars, wealthy with innumerable planets, chambers of mystery, chambers of majesty. This is the God to whom Job has to justify himself: nor is he wrong in making natural theology the basis of divine judgment as to conscience and action: for is not God critical in nature? Does he not sharpen the least point upon the grass-blade as if he had spent eternity in perfecting the completeness of that point? Has not the microscope revealed God as the minutest critic as well as an infinite builder? The argument is that if God is so particular, definite, critical, in all these natural appointments, who can go before him, and say, Lo, this is my conduct: is it not good? He will judge it by his own workmanship, and we “cannot answer him one of a thousand.” The greater he is the less we are; the wiser the God the more terrific and destructive his criticism, if we seek to impose upon him by presenting the outward as a veritable image of the inward. Surely Job’s affliction is beginning to tell well already. He is getting among the deeper truths. He is not a hastening reader, merely glancing at title pages, and running through them as if he had something better to do. He is going quite profoundly into things. What if at the end he should prove to be a well-schooled scholar, and should come out of this black affliction medalled all over, and crowned as God’s choicest student? We must wait.
Now another view is presented. Supposing the argument or controversy to be between men and God, what shall the upshot be? Reduce life to a controversy between the divine and the human, and what will it come to? It will come to this:
“For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause. He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness. If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead? If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life” ( Job 9:17-21 ).
We cannot successfully battle with God. The only thing to be done when God arises to judgment is to fall into his hands, speechlessly, trustingly, lovingly, and when we come to the point where we may speak, to say God be merciful to me a sinner! It is useless to oppose our little strength to God’s, for our strength is the strength of a rush, and God’s strength is almightiness. If we come to self-justification he can excel us in criticism, he can point out our errors, he can show us how our whitest and most beautiful deed is full of corruption and rottenness; and if we were to attempt to justify ourselves, we could not believe ourselves, that is to say, we should give ourselves the lie when we had rounded off every period of argument, and wrought up to a grand culmination our rhetorical defence. An awful power is that which is within us! It would seem as if God’s vicar were resident within every man, that terrible conscience which makes cowards of us all; that quality so like divinity; that voice so much other than human; that ghost which makes us tremble at midday as if it were midnight. This is the presence of God in the soul. We may endeavour to pervert it, corrupt it, bribe it, affright it, but it comes up out of the depths, and menaces us with dignity and calmness.
Then what would the controversy come to morally? It would come to confusion and error:
“This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent. 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?” ( Job 9:22-24 ).
That is what spiritual controversy comes to when a man tries to argue out the whole case within the range of his own wisdom and skill; in other words, he makes continual blunders; he does not discriminate between right and wrong, between the right hand and the left; he is misled by particulars, he is victimised by details, he is befooled by accidents; he does not grasp the situation with the genius which is befitting the highest spiritual education. But what of self-help?
“If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself: I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain? If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me” ( Job 9:27-31 ).
Job is the man to come upon ulterior truths, without knowing the full range of what he is saying. In the thirty-third verse, for example, Job exclaims, “Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that night lay his hand upon us both.” We need not force this word daysman, or umpire, into full evangelical significance; at the same time there is no need why we should pass it by as if it had no special meaning. Job has come to this position, that he feels that if he is to be understood by God, or if God is to be understood by him, or if ever the controversy is to be ended, there must be a middle man. Job says in effect, I can say no more: I have used all my best words and all my ripest arguments; I have moaned and I have prayed, I have expostulated and I have gone well-nigh to defiance, and I have almost charged God with injustice in his inscrutable dealing with me; now I am tired I can add no more; if ever this tumult is to be calmed an arbiter must arise who can lay one hand upon God and another hand upon myself, and speak to us both, and make us understand the common message. Are we to dismiss such words as a mere trope? Or are we to accept them in the light of what we now know the fuller providence, and the fuller disclosure of God’s will towards the human race? We are not to insist that Job foresaw the evangelical light, and felt in all its fulness the evangelical meaning of the gospel, but there are strugglings upward, there are dumb instincts, there are conjectures that come very near to revelations, there are gropings that mean prayer; and surely he is the wise man who sees in all the way of human education the germs of things, their beginnings, their first indications, and who watches them advancing like an ascending sun. Thus viewed, we have no hesitation in declaring that there is now a daysman between God and us. There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The controversy was proceeding idly on our part, and was resulting in great moral confusion and tumult, when, lo, there came amongst us one like unto the Son of man a mysterious man, now almost a little child, now almost a woman for very tenderness and tearfulness, now a giant for strength, now a God for wisdom. His name is Jesus of Nazareth. He is able to save unto the uttermost, seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for us. If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is able to lay a wounded hand upon God, and a wounded hand upon man, and to bring God and man together in righteous and eternal reconciliation. The poorest man may engage this advocate. His eloquence is free to all. He takes up the least prayer, the soul’s first effort in supplication, and enlarges it into a prevailing plea. The weakest believer that hangs upon him hangs upon the rock of ages. Cease to plead for yourselves; cease to justify your own life; cease to believe in the moral value of respectability as before God, and like little children, brokenhearted prodigals, self-renouncing criminals, come and say to Jesus Christ, Plead for me; take up my poor lost soul; guide me altogether, and make me silent whilst thou dost speak. This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. This man still repels the scribe, the Pharisee, the zealot, the bigot, and welcomes all fallen ones, who cannot fly to him, or walk, or crawl, but only look!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Job’s Answer to Bildad. II.
Job 9-10
We must remember, if we would understand Job’s mournful and noble complaint and eloquence, that Job himself is utterly unaware of the circumstances under which he is suffering. Unfortunately for ourselves as readers, we know all that the historian or dramatist can tell us about the case; but Job knew only his suffering. A Why? almost indignant came from his lips again and again. And no wonder. It is one thing, we have seen, to read the Book of Job, and another to be Job himself. A pitiful thing if we can only annotate the Book of Job, an excellent if we can comment upon it through our experience and our sympathy. Consider the case well, then:
There has been an interview between God and the devil: the subject of that interview was Job’s integrity and steadfastness: the devil challenged Job’s position, and said that he was but circumstantially pious; he had everything heart could wish; a hedge was round about him on every side, and if such a man were not pious the more shame be his: take away, said the enemy, the hedge, the security, the prosperity, and this praying saint will curse thee to thy face. Job knew nothing about this. There is an unconscious influence in life a mysterious ghostly discipline, an unexplained drill; a sorrow anonymous, and lacking explication. Job understood that he was a servant of the living God, a diligent student of the divine law, a patient follower of the divine statutes and commandments; he was to his own consciousness a good man; certainly inspired by noble aspirations, sentiments, and impulses; good to the poor, and helpful to those who needed all kinds of assistance; and, therefore, why he should have been struck by these tremendous thunderbursts was an inquiry to which he had no answer. But consider, on the other hand, that the whole pith of the story and meaning of the trial must be found in the very fact that Job had no notion whatever of the circumstances under which he was suffering.
Had Job known that he was to be an example, that a great battle was being fought over him, that the worlds were gathered around 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 conditions Job might have strung himself up to an heroic effort, saying, if it has come to this if God is only withdrawing himself from me for a moment, and is looking upon me from behind a cloud, what care I if seven hells should burn me, and all the legions of the pit should sweep down upon me in one terrific assault? this is but for a moment: God has made his boast of me; I am God’s specimen man, God’s exemplary saint; he is pointing to me, saying, See in Job what I myself am; behold in him my grace magnified and my providence vindicated. This would have been no lesson to the ages. We must often suffer, and not know the reason why: we must often rise from our knees to fight a battle, when we intended to enjoy a long repose: things must slip out of our hands unaccountably, and loss must befall our estate after we have well tended all that belongs to it, after we have securely locked every gate, and done the utmost that lies within the range of human sagacity and strength to protect our property. These are the trials that we must accept. If everything were plain and straightforward, everything would be proportionately easy and proportionately worthless. It is after we have prayed our noblest prayer, and brought back from heaven’s garden all the flowers we asked for, that we must be treated as if we were wicked, and overthrown as if we had defied the spirit of justice. So must our education proceed. Brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers trials and persecutions and tests: all these things are meant for the culture of your strength, the perfecting of your patience, the consolidation of your hope and love. Thus we should interpret history. God will not explain the causes of our affliction to us, any more than he explained the causes of Job’s affliction to the patriarch. But history comes to do what God himself refrains from doing: all history says that never is a good man tried without the trial being meant to answer some question of the devil, or to test some quality of the man. God does not send trials merely for the sake of sending them; he is not arbitrary, capricious, governing his universe by whims and fancies and changeable moods. But seeing that he made us, as Job here contends, and knows us altogether, we must accept the trials of life as part of the education of life.
What course does Job say he will take? A point of departure is marked in the tenth chapter. Hitherto Job has more or less answered the men who have spoken to him; now he turns away from them, and says I will speak straight up to heaven. He determines to be frank. “I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.” That is right. Let us hear what the soul has to say. Let us make room for pale, haggard grief, that she may tell her harrowing tale. Men are sickened by luxury. Men are sated with mere delights. Life would be poor but for the wealth of agonised experience, and dull but for the music of sanctified desolation. Job has begun well in saying he will speak right out to God. It soothes poor misery “hearkening to her tale.” If a man could once assure himself that he was speaking as it were face to face with God, the greatness of the auditor would lift up the speech to a worthy level, and the very interview with one divine would help our human nature up to the very divinity to whose radiance it has been admitted.
Do not let us speak our misery downwards; otherwise our tears will soak into the dust, and there will be no answer in flowers. Let us venture to lift up our heads even in the time of grief and misery and loss and loneliness, and speak all we feel right into the ear of God. He will not be angry with us. He will make room for our speech. He framed us; he knows our composition; he understands us altogether, and blessed be his name and his love, he knows that a little weeping would ease our hearts, and that long talk with himself would end in a mitigation of our grief. Do not be harsh with men who speak with some measure of indignation in the time of sorrow. Sorrow is not likely to soothe our feelings, and to pick out for us the very daintiest words in our mother-tongue. We are chafed and fretted and vexed by the things which befall our life. It is not easy to put the coffin-lid upon the one little child’s face; it is not easy to surrender the last crust of bread that was meant to satisfy our hunger; it is not pleasant to look into the well-head and find the water gone at the spring. Yet, in our very frankness, we should strive at least to speak in chastened tones, and with that mystic spirit of hopefulness which, even in the very agony of fear, whispers to the soul, Perhaps, even now, at the very last, God may be gracious unto me. Have we thus turned our sorrows into spiritual controversies with God? or have we degraded them into mere criticisms upon his providence, and turned them to stinging reproaches upon the doctrine which teaches that all things work together for good to them that love God? Let us go alone, shut the door of the chamber, and spend all day with God, and all night; for even in talking over our grief, sentence by sentence, and letter by letter, in the presence and hearing of the King, without his personally saying one word to us, we may feel that much of the burden has been lifted, and that light is preparing to dawn upon an experience which we had considered to be doomed to enduring and unrelieved darkness.
Job says he will ask for a reason. “I will say unto God, do not condemn me; show me wherefore thou contendest with me” ( Job 10:2 ). I cannot tell why; I am not conscious of any reason; the last time we met it was in prayer, in loving fellowship; the last interview I had with heaven was the pleasantest I can remember; lo, I was at the altar offering sacrifices for my children, when the great gloom fell upon my life, and the whole range of my outlook was clothed with thunder-clouds oh, tell me why! We need not ask whether these words actually escaped Job’s lips, because we know they are the only words which he could have uttered, or that this is the only spirit in which he could have expressed himself; he would have been God, not man, if under all the conditions of the case he had expressed himself in terms less agonising, and in wonder less distracting.
Job will also appeal to the divine conscience, if the expression may be allowed:
“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?” ( Job 10:3 ).
“Is it good,” is it in harmony with the fitness of things; is it part of the music of divine justice? How will this incident be interpreted by those who are looking on? Art thou not doing more mischief by this experiment than good? There are men who are observing me, who knew that I was a man of prayer, a man of spiritual fame, and they will say, If thus God treats the good, is it not better to be wicked? And there are wicked men looking on who are saying, It has come out just as we expected; all this religious sentiment ends in spiritual reaction, and God is not to be worshipped as Job has worshipped him. O living, loving, saving God, Shepherd of the universe, consider this, and answer me! Once shake a man’s confidence in right, and he could no longer go to the altar of the God whom he could charge with wrong; once let a man feel that good may come to nothing, and prayer is wasted breath, and that the balances of justice are in unsteady hands, and all religious lectures are properly lost upon him, and all pious appeals are but so much wasted breath. We must have confidence in the goodness of God. We must be able to say to ourselves, The lot is dark, the road is crooked, the hill is steep; I cannot tell why these trials should have come upon me, but see me tomorrow, or the third day, and I shall have an answer from heaven, the enigma shall be solved, and the solution shall be the best music my soul ever listened to.
Job then pleads himself his very physiology, his constitution:
“Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me. Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again? Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews” (Job 10:8-11 .)
I am made by thee; didst thou make make me to destroy me? Art thou so fickle? Art thou a potter that fashions a beautiful vase, and then dashes it to the ground? I am all thine, from the embryo for that is the reference made in the tenth verse: “Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?” I am thine from the very embryo, the very germ; there is nothing about me that I have done myself; I am the work of thine own hands; art thou a fantastic maker, creating toys that thou mayest have the delight of crushing them between the palms of thine hands? A very pathetic inquiry is this “Thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?” is this the law of evolution? is this the science or philosophy of development? is all life simply a little beginning, rising out of itself, and returning to itself? and is “dust” the only word appropriate to man? is life a journey from dust to dust, from ashes to ashes, from nothing to nothing? Consider this, O loving Creator! Job says he will reason otherwise. God, who has made so much out of nothing, means to make more out of so much: the very creation means the redemption and salvation and coronation of the thing that was created in the divine image and likeness. Creation does not end in itself: it is a pledge, a token, a sign yea, a sure symbol, equal in moral value to an oath, that God’s meaning is progress unto the measure of perfection. This is how we discover the grand doctrine of the immortality of the soul, even in the Old Testament even in the Book of Genesis and in the Book of Job. What was it that lay so heavily upon Adam and upon Job? It was the limitation of their existence; it was the possible thought that they could see finalities, that they could touch the mean boundary of their heart’s throb and vital palpitation. When men can take up the whole theatre of being and opportunity and destiny, and say, This is the shape of it, and this is the weight, this is the measure, this is the beginning, and this is the end, then do they weary of life, and they come to despise it with bitterness; but when they cannot do these things, but, contrariwise, when they begin to see that there is a Beyond, something farther on, voices other than human, mystic appearances and revelations, then they say, 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 has 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:
“Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; a land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness” ( Job 10:18-22 ).
Thus he exhausts the Hebrew tongue in piling image upon image by which to signify the everlasting extinction and eternal darkness. Yet he would choose extinction rather than life under a galling sense of injustice. It is so with individual men. It is so with nations of men. There comes a time when the sense of injustice becomes intolerable. Anarchy, the sufferers say, is better; and as for darkness, it is to be chosen in preference to light which is only used for the perpetration of iniquity. “My soul is weary of my life.” Is that a solitary expression? We have heard Rebekah say the same words she would die. We have heard David say, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away,” a term which indicates distance without measure “and be at rest.” We have heard great Elijah royal, lion-like, terrible Elijah say, “Let me die” give me release from life. What wonder if other men have uttered the same expression. It is, let us say again and again, the natural and necessary expression, except there be hidden in the heart the hope of immortality. Thus Paul triumphed: “Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen: but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” Eternity must help time, or time will be the grave of its own creations and aspirations. What hold have we upon eternity? Is our citizenship in heaven? From what fountain do we drink? If from the fountains of eternity, then we shall be satisfied for ever, and labour will be but a preparation for the enjoyment of rest, and rest shall bring back the energy which we shall rejoice to spend in service. Are we trusting to the tricks, the chances, the revolutions of some mere wheel of fortune? or are we living in the living God? Are we crucified with Christ, yet have we risen with him? are we living in him, and is he living in us? Is the life we now live in the flesh a life of faith in the Son of God? Then, come weal, come woe, at the end there shall be festival, celestial Sabbath, infinite liberty, unspeakable joy. We fearlessly preach the doctrine that all things are done by God. We cannot recognise any devil that eclipses the omnipotence of the Almighty. Boldly would we say, “Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it?” Do we suppose there are two rival powers in the universe, and that one endeavours to overreach the other, to be before the other, in the culture or the destruction of human nature? That is not a Christian doctrine as we understand the teaching of Holy Scripture. “The Lord reigneth.” The devil is a chained enemy: “beyond his chain he cannot go.” When he wants a new link added to it he has to ask the Omnipotent to lengthen his tether by one short inch. All things are in the hands of God. All earthquakes, and tumults, and revolutions, all national uprisings, all political upheavals, all the mysterious, tragic, awful process of development, we must find in the hand and under the government of God. Therefore will we not be afraid; we will say, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble;” though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, the throne of the Eternal is left untouched, and the government of the Everlasting is left unimpaired. We will hide ourselves in the Sanctuary of our Father until all calamities be overpast. Out of the agony and the throes of individual experience, and national convulsions, there shall come a creation fair as the noonday, quiet as the silent but radiant stars!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
(See the Job Book Comments for Introductory content and general conclusions and observations).
V
THE FIRST ROUND OF SPEECHES
Job 4-14.
This debate extends from Job 4-31 inclusive. There are three rounds of speeches by all the four except that Zophar drops out in the last round. Each round constitutes a scene in Act II of the drama.
In this chapter we will discuss Scene I and commence with the first speech of Eliphaz (Job 4-5) the points of which are as follows:
Introduction (Job 4:1-2 ). In his introduction he deprecates grieving one so afflicted but must reprove Job,
1. For weakness and inconsistency. The one who had instructed, comforted, and strengthened others in their troubles, faints when trouble comes to him (Job 4:3-5 ).
2. Because Job had neither the fear of God nor personal integrity, for the fear of God gives confidence, and integrity gives hope, but Job’s complaint implies that he had neither confidence nor hope, therefore he must be devoid of the fear of God and of integrity (Job 4:6 ).
3. Because the observation of the general trend of current events argued Job’s guilt. The innocent do not perish; those who reap trouble are those who have sowed trouble and plowed iniquity. Ravening lions, though strong and terrible, meet the hunter at last (Job 4:7-11 ).
4. Because revelation also convicts him. Eliphaz relates one of his own visions (Job 4:12-17 ), very impressively, which scouted the idea that mortal man could be more just than God, or purer than his maker. But Job’s complaint seemed to embody the idea. Eliphaz argues from his vision that a pure and just God crushes impure and unjust men and suggests the application that Job’s being crushed reproves his impurity and injustice (Job 4:18-21 ).
5. Because Job’s outcry against God was foolish and silly, and since no angels would hear such complaint, or dare to avert its punishment (Job 5:1-2 ) there can be no appeal from the supreme to the creature.
6. Because observation of a particular case illustrates Job’s guilt (Job 5:3-5 ). The circumstances of this case seen by Eliphaz, make it parallel with Job’s case; a certain foolish man took root and prospered for a while, but the curse smote him suddenly and utterly; his children perished, his harvest was eaten by the hungry, and all his substance was snatched away.
7. Because these results are not accidental, nor of earthly origin, but must be attributed to God who punishes sin. Because man is a sinner he is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward (Job 5:6-7 ).
The remedy suggested to Job by Eliphaz is as follows:
1. Take your case to God confession of sin and repentance are suggested (Job 5:8 ) who will exalt the penitent (Job 5:11 ) as certainly as he has frustrated their craftiness (Job 5:12-14 ) and so the poor may have hope after the mouth of their iniquity is stopped (Job 5:15-16 ).
2. Instead of murmuring, count yourself happy in receiving this punishment, and after penitence expect restoration of prosperity (Job 5:17-27 ).
On comparing this analysis with that given by Dr. Tanner (see his Syllabus on the speech of Eliphaz) it will be noted that the author here differs widely with Tanner in his analysis and interpretation of this speech. Tanner presents Eliphaz as assuming the position that Job was a righteous man and that God would deliver him. The author presents Eliphaz as taking the position that Job had sinned, which was the cause of his suffering and that he should confess and repent; that he should count himself happy in receiving this punishment, and thus after penitence expect the restoration of prosperity. It will be recalled here that the author, in commending the Syllabus of Dr. Tanner noted the weakness of his analysis at this point.
There are several things notable in this first speech of Eliphaz, viz:
1. The recurrence in all his speeches of “I have seen,” “I have seen,” “I saw,” showing that the experience and observation of a long life constituted the basis of his argument.
2. The good elements of his arguments are as follows: (1) He refers to the natural law of sowing and reaping (Cf. Gal 6:7 ); (2) the sinner’s way to happiness is through confession and repentance; (3) chastisement of an erring man should be recognized as a blessing, since it looks to his profit (Cf. Pro 3:11 and the use made of it as quoted in Heb 12:5 ).
3. The bad elements in his speech are as follows: (1) His induction of facts ignores many other facts, particularly that all suffering is not penal; (2) He fails in the application of his facts, since the case before him does not come in their classification; in other words, through ignorance he fails in his diagnosis of the case, and hence his otherwise good remedies fall short of a cure.
4. The exquisite simplicity and literary power of his description of his vision, makes it a classic gem of Hebrew poetry.
The following points are noted in Job’s reply (Job 6-7) :
1. The rash words of my complaint are not evidence of previous sins, but the result of immeasurable calamities from the hand of God. They cannot be weighed; they are heavier than the sandy shores which confine the ocean; they are poisoned arrows from the quiver of the Almighty which pierce my very soul and rankle there; they are terrors marshalled in armies by the Almighty (Job 6:1-4 ).
2. The braying of an ass and the lowing of an ox are to be attributed to lack of food, not meanness. Let the favorable construction put upon the discordant noise of hungry animals be applied to my braying and lowing (Job 6:5 ), for in my case also there is the hunger of starvation since the food set before me is loathsome and without savor (Job 6:6-7 ).
3. I repeat my prayer to God for instant death, because I have not the strength to endure longer, nor the wisdom to understand (Job 6:8-9 ; Job 6:11-13 ) but while exulting in the pain that slays me, my consolation still is, that I have not denied the words of the Holy One (Job 6:10 ).
4. Instead of moralizing on the causes and rebuking suspected sins, friends should extend kindness to one ready to faint, even though he forsake the fear of God (or lest he forsake, Job 6:14 ). This is like the story of the drowning boy who asked the moralizing man on the bank to help him out first and then inquire into the causes of his mishap.
5. In your treatment of me, ye are like a deceitful brook, roaring with water only while the snow on the mountains is melting, but being without springs, directly you run dry. The caravans from the desert that come to it hoping, turn aside from its dusty channels and perish. So you that seemed like a river when I was not thirsty, put me to shame by your nothingness now that I thirst. Compare “Wells without water . . . clouds without rain” in Jud 1:12-13 .
6. Is it possible that you condemn me because you apprehend that otherwise I might ask you for help? In your moralizing are you merely hedging against the expectation of being called on to help a bankrupt sufferer, by furnishing a reward or ransom for the return of my stolen flocks and herds? Do you try to make me guilty that you may evade the cost of true friendship (Job 6:21-23 )? I have asked for no financial help, but for instruction. How forcible are right words !
7. But you, instead of explaining my calamities have been content to reprove the words of my complaint, extorted by the anguish of my calamities, words that under the circumstances should have been counted as wind, being only the speeches of one that is desperate.
8. The meanness of such treatment in your case would prompt in other cases to cast lots for the orphans of the dead and make merchandise out of a stranded friend by selling him as a slave (Job 6:27 ). This is a terrible invective, but more logical than their argument, since history abundantly shows that some believers in their creed have done these very things, the argument being that thereby they are helping God to punish the wicked.
9. He begs them to turn from such injustice, look on his face and behold his sincerity, concede his ability to discern a thing which is wicked, and accept his deliberate statement that he is innocent of the things which they suspect (Job 6:28-30 ).
10. He laments his case as hopeless (Job 7:1-10 ). Here Job asks if there is not a warfare to man and his days like the days of a hireling. His waiting for relief was like a hireling waiting for his wages, during which time he is made to pass months (moons) of misery. In this hopeless condition he longs for relief and would gladly welcome death from which there is no return to the walks of this life.
11. Job now lifts his voice in complaint to God (Job 7:11-21 ). In the anguish of his spirit he could not refrain from complaining that God had set a watch over him and terrified him with dreams and visions. He was made to loathe his life and again to wish for death. Then he closes this speech by raising the question with the Almighty as to why he would not pardon him if he had sinned (as his accusers had insinuated) and take away his iniquity. Here he addresses God as a “watcher of men”; as one who had made him a target for his arrows. Now we take up the first speech of Bildad, the Shuhite (Job 8 ).
The substance of this speech is as follows:
1. He charges that Job seeks to make himself better than God, then he hints at the sins of his children and insinuates that Job does not pray, for prayer of the right sort brings relief (Job 8:1-7 ).
2. He exhorts Job to learn the lesson from the past. The wisdom of the fathers must be good. Therefore, learn the lesson of the ancients (Job 8:8-10 ).
3. He contrasts the fate of the wicked and that of the righteous, reasoning from cause to effect, thus insinuating that Job’s condition was the result of a cause, and since (to him) all suffering was the result of sin, the cause must be in Job (Job 8:11-22 ).
The substance of Job’s reply is,
1. True enough a man cannot be righteous with God, since he is unable to contend with him. He is too wise and powerful; he is invincible. Who can match him (Job 9:1-12 )?
2. Praying does not touch the case. He is unjust and proves me perverse. Individual righteousness does not avail to exempt in case of a scourge. He mocks at the trial of the innocent and the wicked prosper. Then Job says, “If it be not he, who then is it?” This is the climax of the moral tragedy (Job 9:13-24 ).
3. There is no daysman betwixt us, and I am not able to meet him in myself for Judgment (Job 9:25-35 ).
4. I will say unto God, “Why? Thou knowest I am not wicked.” Here it will be noted that a revelation is needed in view of this affliction (Job 10:1-7 ).
5. God is responsible for my condition; he framed and fashioned me as clay, yet he deals with me as milk or cheese; it is just the same whether I am wicked or righteous; changes and warfare are with me (Job 10:8-17 ).
6. Why was I born? or why did I not die at birth? Then would I have escaped this great suffering, but now I must abide the time until I go into the land of midnight darkness (Job 10:18-22 ).
The substance of Zophar’s first speech is this:
1. What you have received is not as much as you deserve; you are full of talk and boastful; you are self-righteous and need this rebuke from God (Job 11:1-6 ).
2. You cannot find out God; he is far beyond man; he is all-powerful and omniscient; man is as void of understanding as a wild ass’s colt (Job 11:7-12 ).
3. Put away your wickedness; you need to get right and then you will be blessed; you should set your heart and house in order, then all will clear up; then you will be protected from the wicked (Job 11:13-20 ).
Job’s reply to the first speech of Zophar embraces three chapters, as follows:
1. No doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you; I am not inferior to you; you mock and do not help; I, though upright, am a laughingstock and you, who are at ease, have contempt for misfortune; God brought this about (Job 12:1-6 ).
2. Learn the lessons from nature; the beasts, the birds, the earth, and the fishes can teach thee; everybody knows these things; the ear tries words and the palate tastes food, and wisdom is learned by age (Job 12:7-12 ).
3. God is the source of wisdom and power; he deals wisely with all men; he debases and he exalts (Job 12:13-25 ).
4. I understand it all as well as you; ye are forgers of lies; ye are physicians of no value; your silence would be wisdom; you speak wickedly for God, therefore your sayings are proverbs of ashes and your defenses are defenses of clay (Job 13:1-12 )
5. Why should I take my life in my hand thus? I want to be vindicated before I die; “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him”; I know that I am righteous; therefore I have hope (Job 13:13-19 ).
6. He pleads his cause with God; he asks two things of God, viz: (1) that he would put an end to his bodily suffering and (2) that he would abstain from terrifying him; then he challenges God to call him; then he interrogates God relative to his sins, God’s attitude toward him and his dealings with him; and finally charges God with unjust dealings with him (Job 13:20-28 ).
7. Man that is born of woman is frail and sinful; man’s weakness should excite pity with the Almighty; that which is born of an unclean thing is unclean and since a man’s days and months are numbered, why not turn from him as an hireling and let him rest (Job 14:1-6 ).
8. The hope of a tree, though it be cut down, is that it will sprout again but man’s destiny to lie down in death and rise no more till the heavens pass away should be a cause for mercy from God (Job 14:7-12 ).
9. In despair of recovery in this life Job again prays for death; that God would hide him in the grave till his wrath be past; that he would appoint him a day, in the hope that if he should die he would live again; his destiny is in God’s hands and therefore he is hopeless for this life (Job 14:13-17 ).
10. Like the mountain falling, the rock being removed out of its place and waters wearing away the stones, the hope of man for this life is destroyed by the providences of God; man is driven by them into oblivion; his sufferings become so great that only for himself his flesh has pain and only for himself his soul mourns (Job 14:18-22 ).
In this round of speeches the three friends have followed their philosophy of cause and effect and thus reasoning that all suffering is the effect of sin, they have, by insinuations, charged Job of sin, but they do not specify what it is. Job denies the general charge and in a rather bad spirit refutes their arguments and hits back at them some terriffic blows. He is driven to the depths of despair at the climax of the moral tragedy where he attributes all the malice, cunning, and injustice he had felt in the whole transaction to God as his adversary. They exhort him to repent and seek God, but he denies that he has sinned; he says that he cannot contend with the Almighty because he is too high above him, too powerful, and that there is no umpire, or daysman, between them. Here Job is made to feel the need of a revelation from God explaining all the mysteries of his providence. In this trial of Job we have ‘Satan’s partial victory over him -where he led Job to attribute the evils that had come upon him to God. This is the downfall in Job’s wrestle with Satan. He did not get on top of Job but gave him a great deal of worry. We will see Job triumphing more and more as he goes on in the contest.
QUESTIONS 1. What the points of Eliphaz’s first speech?
2. What things are notable in this first speech of Eliphaz?
3. What the points of Job’s reply (Job 6-7)?
4. What the substance of Bildad’s first speech?
5. What the substance of Job’s reply?
6. What the substance of Zophar’s first speech?
7. What Job’s reply?
8. Give a summary of the proceedings and results of the first round.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Job 10:1 My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Ver. 1. My soul is weary of my life ] Because it is a lifeless life. Mortis habet vires, a death more like. Life is sweet, and every creature maketh much of it, from the highest angel in heaven to the lowest worm on earth. The Scripture setteth it forth as a sweet mercy, Gen 45:28 Lam 3:39 Est 7:3 Jer 39:18 ; Jer 51:5 . But God can so embitter it with outward and inward troubles, that it shall become a burden. “I am weary of my life” (saith good Rebekah, Gen 27:46 ), and “What good shall my life do me?” David, forced to be in bad company, cries, Oh that I had the wings of a dove, &c. Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech, &c. Elijah, fleeing from Jezebel, requested for himself that he might die, saying, “It is enough, Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers,” 1Ki 19:4 . No: but God had provided some better thing for him (as the apostle speaketh in another case, Heb 11:40 ), for he was shortly after translated and taken out of the reach both of Jezebel, whom he feared, and of death, which he desired. Sed multi magni viri sub Eliae iunipero sedent, saith one, many good men sit under Elijah’ juniper, wishing to be out of the world, if God were so pleased, that they might rest from their labours, and be rid of their many burdens and bondages; as, in the mean while, they rather endure life than desire it, as holding it little better than hell, were it not for the hopes they have of heaven hereafter.
I will leave my complaint upon myself
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job Chapter 10
Well, then, we come to a great lament in the tenth chapter, and I may be very brief with that; for we shall have a great deal of this lament throughout the Book. We have had it already, so there is no need particularly to dwell upon it. My object is not to go into every word, but to give a sufficiently general understanding of the Book of Job. “My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself.” He now despaired of getting any sympathy from them. “I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.” ‘Here I am alone with all my sorrows; here are three dear friends who have not one particle of sympathy with me! no kind of feeling nor compassion for all that I am suffering. They are quite comfortable that they have none of it, and they are quite astonished that I should have any of it; and they think therefore I must be very wicked. It is all false.’ “I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; show me wherefore thou contendest with me.” That God did; he was answered. “Is it good unto thee that thou shouldst oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked? Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth? Are thy days as the days of man? Are thy years as man’s days?” That is, he compares himself to a sort of butterfly broken on the wheel. There is this terrible wheel for malefactors, and he, a mere butterfly, is all broken down – God, in all His uncontrollable power dealing with such a poor, weak man as he; every part of his body throbbing with pain, and full of nerves all on the strain of agony from head to foot, “Thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin.”
Job had a perfectly good conscience and therefore he says, ‘Where is it; I want to learn where it is and why it is.’ “Thou knowest that I am not wicked.” That he would say to God; and it was perfectly true. It was not that; it was his own satisfaction in that poor reflection of righteousness which the best of men can have here below in himself, but which is no ground at all to stand on before God. “Thine hands have made me, and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me” – after all the love thou hast shown me. “Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay.” He had not made him as an angel; he had not made him as one that was above this kind of suffering. “Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews. Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. And these things hast thou hid in thine heart.” ‘You had that in your heart before I was born. You meant me to come into this, and I do not know why.’
“I know that this is with thee. If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.” He asked to be forgiven if there was anything unknown. “If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head.” No, he is thoroughly humble now; at any rate, he was on the way to it. “I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction, for it increaseth.” And he uses very ungodly language now. “Thou huntest me as a fierce lion; and again thou showest thyself marvellous upon me. Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increaseth thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me. 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! I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? Cease then and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death.” You see how little they entered into the bright future. “A land of darkness, as darkness itself and of the shadow of death, without any order and where the light is as darkness.”
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
soul. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
life. Hebrew. chayai.
leave = let go, let loose: i.e. tell forth, give vent to.
complaint = complaining.
upon = about.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 10
Now Job goes on in the tenth chapter. He said,
My soul is weary of my life ( Job 10:1 );
He goes right back into his misery. He looks for the answer, but it isn’t there; it isn’t to be found. And so I return back to my weariness of life.
I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; show me where you are contending with me. Is it good unto thee that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and that you should shine upon the counsel of the wicked? Have you eyes of flesh? or do you see as a man sees? Are thy days as the days of a man? are your years as a man’s days, that you inquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin? You know that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of your hand. Your hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet you are destroying me. Remember, I beseech thee, that you have made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again? ( Job 10:1-9 )
So Job is pleading now his cause before God. “God, I don’t know. Can You see as I see? Do You have ears? Do You, you know. You’ve made me, Lord. You’ve made me out of the dust. Now remember that.” That, to me, is comforting that God does remember that. In the psalms we read that, “He knows our frame, that we are but dust” ( Psa 103:14 ). Hey, you’re not Superman. You’re not Wonder Woman. You’re dust. You’re not the super saint that you’d like to be. And that you sometimes think you are. You’re dust. You are made out of dust. And God remembers that. Thank You, Father, for remembering, because I sometimes forget. I think that I am more than I really am. I think that I can accomplish more than I really can. I think I’ve achieved more than I really have. And I begin to get a little self-confidence, a little prideful. And in His love He deflates me. And here I am all bummed out. Failed again. Messed things up. “Oh God, why did You allow this to happen to me? I’m so disappointed in myself. Stumbled once more. Failed again.” And He says, “Oh, come on. You’re nothing but dust to begin with. You forget that?” “Yep.” “Well, I didn’t.” He knows your frame. He knows you’re not made of steel. He knows you’re made of dust. And so Job is reminding him and it is the truth. “Remember that You have made me like clay. Are You going to bring me to the dust again?”
Have you not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? ( Job 10:10 )
This, of course, is poetry, picturesque kind of speech. God has poured me out like milk, and curdled me like cheese.
You’ve clothed me with skin and flesh, and you’ve fenced me [about] ( Job 10:11 )
Can you see now your skeleton as a fence?
with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and favor, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: and I know that this is with thee. If I sin, then you mark me, and you will not acquit me from mine iniquity. 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 look upon my affliction ( Job 10:11-15 );
God, I’m totally confused. I don’t understand life. I don’t understand the things that are happening to me. Oh God, just look upon my affliction tonight. Here I am, God, just filled with confusion.
I’ve sat where Job is sitting, many times, where I’ve just become totally confused with life. All of the intricate little intertwinings. Look upon my affliction, Lord.
For it increases. You hunt me as a fierce lion: and again you show yourself marvelous upon me. You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation upon me; and changes and war are against me. Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? ( Job 10:16-18 )
Why, Lord, did You allow me to live from birth?
Oh that I had died, and no eye had ever seen me! I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take just a little comfort, Before I go from where I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness ( Job 10:18-22 ).
God, just give me a little reprieve before I die. I’m so confused.
That’s a sort of a dark place to leave you, but unfortunately, we don’t get any light until we get to the thirty-eighth chapter. So hang on. Life in the raw, that’s what it’s all about. The basic gut-level issues of life. What is it really about? When you take away the props upon which we are constantly leaning, what’s the real issue of life? We have it here in Job. It’s not always pleasant. It’s far from perfect. We do have basic needs. But God has met our needs through Jesus Christ. And for each cry that comes out from the heart of Job, in the New Testament through Jesus Christ, there’s an answer. For God in Christ has provided for the basic needs of man and I’m so thankful.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Job 10:1-7
Job 10
THE CONCLUSION OF JOB’S RESPONSE TO BILDAD:
JOB EARNESTLY DENIES THAT HE IS WICKED
Job 10:1-7
“My soul is weary of my life;
I will give free course to my complaint;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul;
I will say unto God, Do not condemn me;
Show me wherefore thou contendest with me.
Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress,
That thou shouldest 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?
Are thy days as the days of man,
Or thy years as man’s days,
That thou inquirest after mine iniquity,
And searchest after my sin,
Although thou knowest that I am not wicked,
And there is none that can deliver me out of thy hand?”
“I will give free course to my complaint” (Job 10:1). Job’s friends had implied that they were critical of his complaints; but Job here affirmed his right to speak of his wretchedness.
“I will say unto God, Do not condemn me” (Job 10:2). Job still trusted God to do the right thing, even as Abraham had said, “Shall not the God of all the earth do right” (Gen 18:25)?
“That thou inquirest after mine iniquity” (Job 10:6). In these lines Job tacitly admits his sin and iniquity, insisting only that he does not know what it is, and pleading with God to, “Show me wherefore thou contendest with me” (Job 10:2). There was a marvelous integrity resident in Job’s heart; and no one can wonder that even God was especially well pleased with it, and that God, in effect, challenged Satan to destroy it if he could.
“Thou knowest that I am not wicked” (Job 10:7). This is not a contradiction of what Job had just said in Job 10:6. Some sin, unknown to himself, Job freely admitted; but wicked, he was not!
E.M. Zerr:
Job 10:1-2. The awful state of affliction being endured by Job must be kept before the mind of the reader because of the main purpose of the book. (Job 3:2-3.) That will account for the many places throughout that devote so much attention to the subject. As a man, no doubt Job felt the sting of his sufferings; but as an inspired writer he was giving us a true description of his condition.
Job 10:3. Apparently God was giving rough treatment to a part of his own creation. In doing that he was giving the enemy something to boast about.
Verses Job 10 :same manner that a man would treat him if he had it “in for him.”
Job 10:6. Job had no knowledge of any particular sin for which he should be so grievously tormented. Yet it appeared that God was making a search “by scourging” as it were, to see if some secret sin existed in Job’s life.
Job 10:7. Job had a clear conscience before God, therefore he was assured that no one could snatch him from the Lord’s hand.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Notwithstanding all this, Job appealed to God. Turning from his answer to Bildad, he poured out his agony as in the presence of the Most High. It was by no means a hopeful appeal, but it was an appeal. He asked why God can contend with him, and with a terrible and yet sincere daring, born of affliction, he suggested questions:
Does God delight in what He is doing? Is God’s vision faulty as man’s that He cannot see? Are God’s days and years brief that He is afraid Job may escape Him?
Following these questions, came his great appeal, which is also in the form of a question. God has made him. Why does He destroy him? This thought he carried out in detail on both sides, describing first his creation, and the graciousness of God’s past dealing with him; and then the affliction, and his own inability to plead his cause. Once again he asked why he had been born, and in terrible anguish cried for God to let him alone a little that he might have brief respite ere he passed into death. The deepening of his sorrow is seen in this dark description of death. On a previous occasion it had been a land of rest and cessation, but now it is a place of darkness devoid of order. If we are tempted to criticize, we should ever remember that in the whole Book God lays no charge against His child. Terrible things were these which Job uttered about God, but at least they were honest.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Soul Bitterness
Job 10:1-22
In this chapter Job accuses God of persecuting His own workmanship, Job 20:3; of pursuing him with repeated strokes, as if he had not time enough to wait between them, but must hurry on to achieve His design, Job 10:5; of reversing the careful providence which had watched over his earlier years, Job 10:12; of hunting and playing with him as a wild beast with his prey, Job 10:16-17; and asks that he may be allowed speedily to enter the land of Sheol, Job 10:18-22.
As we read these complaints, we may remember days in our lives when we uttered similar ones, but we are without excuse. And when we are tempted in this direction, it is for us to remember that probably we are being tried to teach the manifold wisdom of God, and that the works of God should be made manifest in us, Eph 3:10; Joh 9:3. It will enable us to endure, if we remember that God has conferred on us high honor, by choosing us to show that we can stand the fire, like those iron safes, blackened by smoke, which the makers place in the shop windows to prove the stability of their workmanship.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
My soul: Job 3:20-23, Job 6:8, Job 6:9, Job 5:15, Job 5:16, Job 5:20, Job 9:21, Job 14:13, Num 11:15, 1Ki 19:4, Jon 4:3, Jon 4:8
is weary of my life: or, cut off while I live
I will leave: Job 7:11, Job 19:4, Job 21:2-4
I will speak: Job 10:15, Job 10:16, Job 6:2-4, Job 6:26, Job 7:11, Job 16:6-16, Psa 32:3-5, Isa 38:15, Isa 38:17
Reciprocal: 1Sa 1:10 – in bitterness of soul 1Sa 1:16 – out of 2Ki 4:27 – vexed Job 3:10 – hid Job 7:16 – I loathe it Job 13:13 – let me Job 16:7 – he hath Job 21:4 – is my complaint Job 21:25 – in the bitterness Job 23:2 – my complaint Psa 6:6 – I am Psa 102:4 – heart Pro 14:10 – heart Ecc 7:14 – but Jer 4:31 – for my
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 10:1. My soul is weary of my life My soul is weary of dwelling in this rotten and miserable body; or, I am, from my heart or soul, weary of my life. Sol. Jarchis comment is, My soul loathes itself because I am alive. The Hebrew, however, , naketa napshi bechaji, may be properly rendered, My soul is cut off while I live; that is, I am dead while I live; I am in a manner buried alive. I will leave my complaint upon myself I will continue to complain: and will take upon my self the hazard of so doing, and be willing to bear it. Let what will come on me, I must give my sorrows vent. Thus Ab. Ezra, I will not restrain my grief, but leave or suffer it to take its course. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul My extreme misery forceth my complaints from me.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 10:1. I will leave my complaint upon myself. These words seem to imply, that he would bear his complaint in silence; but it immediately follows, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. Ostervald, in his treatise on the sacred ministry, has remarked that the book of Job, the Psalms, and the Proverbs are ill translated. Here indeed the versions seem to err by following the Vulgate; but the LXX admirably relieve this passage. My soul being weary of life, I will bring my complaints before him; being oppressed, I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 10:10. Hast thou not poured me out as milk. In employing these figures the inspired writer discovers infinitely more delicacy than most of his commentators.
Job 10:16. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion, which leaves his lair in the cool of the evening, and runs toward the wind, the better to get a scent of his prey.
Job 10:22. A land of darkness. The sepulchre, as all interpret.The shadow of death, the densest darkness; without any order. The foolish and the wise, the vicious and the virtuous, the beggar and the prince there meet together. Job alludes to the veil which covers futurity; and that if his case were not cleared up in the present life, he would not till the set time be allowed to return.
REFLECTIONS.
Job in the former chapter having replied to his friend, here pleads with God in a style of eloquence which the unafflicted cannot feign. I do not recollect any specimen of intercession which has claims to equal merit. Grief is itself sublimely eloquent, and when the passions speak they are sure to interest the heart, He lay vanquished at the Lords feet, weary of life, and misjudged by his friends. What could he do but speak; and to whom should he speak but to God?
Conscious that his days were few, and contrasting the brevity of life with the eternity of God, he entreats his righteous Judge to clear up the dark clouds before he went into the land of darkness, where there is no light. Do not condemn me, as these my friends do. Hast thou eyes of flesh? Seest thou as man seeth? Hence he solicits a kind reprieve, and a little comfort before death.
The considerations which induced him so to speak were the disproportion of the combatants: God, and a worm; the Creator, and a creature. Thy hands have made me. I am but clay, and wilt thou bring me to the dust. Thou hast poured me out as milk, and curdled me as cheese; and if I die before my case is cleared up, how wilt thou be glorified in my mysterious affliction?
In these requests he has farther in view the searching and sanctifying of his own soul. If I be wicked, woe unto me. If I have committed some crime unobserved, I must expect greater strokes; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head, for thou art the Judge, and thou wilt do what is right. Therefore see my affliction; for thou renewest thy witnesses against me; changes and war, trials and robbers are all armed against me. Thus should innocence rest its cause with the Lord; and man speaking to his Maker should mention his sins, not his righteousness, for all our righteousness is defective. Then God will advocate his cause: he will mention and reward his righteousness, having purified it with blood, but make no mention of his sins. He will say, well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 10:1-22. Jobs tone becomes sharper. He accuses God of having created him only to torment him. What profit is there to God in destroying the work that has cost Him so much pains? (Job 10:3)? Is God short-sighted, so that He sees faults where they do not exist (Job 10:4)? How can He be, when He is eternal (Job 10:5)? Yet He inquires after Jobs sin, torturing to make him confess (Job 10:6 f.). Job reminds God how He has made him (Job 10:10 f. describes according to the poets physiology the formation of the embryo; cf. Psa 139:13). God had given him life and preserved him (Job 10:12); yet all the while secretly purposing to torture him. This is Jobs darkest thought concerning God (compare the thoughts of Caliban upon Setebos in Brownings poem): God appears as the Great Inquisitor (Job 10:14 f.): contrast Psa 130:3 f. Job, marvellously made, is marvellously treated (Job 10:16). God renews His witnesses against Him, i.e. sends ever fresh and fresh pains to accuse him of sin. Host after host is against him (Job 10:17). Again as in Job 10:3, Job asks why he was born (Job 10:18 f.). Since, however, God has not spared him the tragedy of life, let Him grant that at least his last few days may be painless, before he departs into the deep gloom of Sheol (Job 10:20-22).
Job 10:3. Probably the last clause should be struck out (Duhm, Peake). It does not harmonise with the context.
Job 10:15. Peake would read with slight emendation sated with shame and drunken with sorrow.
Job 10:16. The first line is difficult and the meaning is somewhat uncertain.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
AN ATTEMPT TO REASON WITH GOD
(vv.1-22)
Since there was no mediator, Job in this chapter (from verse 2 on) directs all of his words directly to God, reasoning with Him as regards why God should deal with him in the way He was doing. He begins his compliant by repeating that his soul loathes his life, therefore he would allow himself to give free course to his bitter complaint by directly addressing God, pleading with Him, “Do not condemn me.” God had certainly not condemned him, though he felt as though this was true because of his sufferings. “Show me why You contend with me” (v.2). In one respect it was true that God was contending with Job, and Job did not learn why until the last chapter of this book. He required this painful experience to learn that his own nature was sinful and to learn the pure grace and goodness of the Lord Himself.
“Does it seem good to You that You should oppress, that You should despise the work of Your hands, and smile on the counsel of the wicked?” (v.3). It is true that Job was the work of God’s hands, for his own nature, as being born of God, was certainly God’s workmanship. But it was not true that God was despising His own work, though Job felt that way, and specially so when he saw that wicked men appeared to prosper some of the time, but certainly all the wicked do not prosper all the time.
Do You have eyes of flesh? or do You see as man sees?” Job asks the Lord (v.4). Was God coming down to the level of a mortal man, that He should occupy Himself with searching out what might be iniquity in Job, as his three friends were doing, although, as Job says, God knew that Job was not wicked (vv.5-7). The friends might suppose that Job was guilty of hidden wickedness, but God knew this was not true. Still, God’s hand was heavy on Job, and no one could deliver Job from that hand. Actually, God’s hand was accomplishing blessing for Job that he did not then understand, so it was good for Job to be kept in God’s hand, even when he felt it to be hard. “Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity” (v.8). This was true of Job physically and true also spiritually. All the various members of the body are marvellous in their individual functions and marvellous in their functioning unitedly It might have helped Job to consider this more thoroughly, for none of us can understand how the eye, the ear, the tongue, the brain, the heart are able to function in the amazing way they do, and how all can act in perfect unison with one another. For this is God’s work, much beyond our understanding. We should therefore expect God to do things in connection with us that are also higher than we can understand. If Job would just have patience in trusting God; then God would eventually make matters clearer to him. Complaining would accomplish nothing, yet Job complains that God now, after having wrought so marvellously in making him, is seeking to destroy him. Did he have to tell God to remember that He had made Job like clay? (v.9). But he felt he was being turned into dust again, the moisture gone out of the clay. In the past he recognised that God had spent time on him to pour him out like milk and curdle him like cheese, clothe his body with skin and flesh and join it together with bones and sinews (v.11), given life to that body and showing gracious favour to Job, caring too for more than his body, but preserving his spirit (v.12).
Since God had shown Himself most kind and considerate of Job in the past, Job could not understand why God could now be acting inconsistently with His previous dealings with him. “These things You have hidden in Your heart,” he says (v.13). However, since this was true, God must have a good reason for hiding His counsels, and Job ought to have realised that God would reveal His mind in His own time.
On the one hand, Job knew that if he sinned God would mark this and not acquit him, for at that time Job did not know “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” but for sin he could only expect “woe.” On the other hand, even if he was righteous (as he considered himself to be), he could not lift up his head, for he was in a state of misery and confusion, full of disgrace (vv.14-15).
His head had been exalted, but now he feels that God is hunting him like a fierce lion, showing Himself so awesome as to inspire fear in the poor man’s heart (v.16). Also God had arrayed witnesses against him in the persons of his three friends, thus increasing His indignation against Job (v.17). He felt himself continually changing from one evil to another as though his own soul was the area of warfare.
If thus Job was living only for trouble, he considered, why then had God allowed him to be born? How much better he thought it would have been if only he had died before birth, so that he not be seen on earth, but rather carried from the womb to the grave (vv.18-19). His days were few enough without having troubles multiplied. So he tells God to “cease,” that is, to leave him alone (v.20). Did he not stop to think this was an insolent way to speak to his Maker? But he was too distressed to think soberly.
Should he not have a little comfort before he went to the place from which he would not return, the land of darkness and the shadow of death, where even the light is like darkness? (vv.21-22). Little did he realise that God would give him more than a little comfort in this present world, and that he would go eventually to a land of pure light and unspeakable joy. For he did not have the great revelation that believers have today, of the matchless grace of the Lord Jesus for every present need and the eternal glory of His presence into which every believer will enter in the future.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
10:1 My soul is {a} weary of my life; I will leave my {b} complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
(a) I am more like a dead man, than to one that lives.
(b) I will make an ample declaration of my torments, accusing myself and not God.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Job’s challenge to God ch. 10
This whole chapter, another prayer (cf. Job 7:7-21), is a cry to God for answers: "Let me know why . . ." (Job 10:2). God’s silence intensifies sufferings. Notice the legal setting again, especially in Job 10:2. Job again claimed to be not guilty (Job 10:7).
"It is a remarkable fact, apparently unobserved by commentators, but very revealing of Job’s mind, that in none of his petitions does he make the obvious request for his sickness to be cured. As if everything will be all right when he is well again! That would not answer the question which is more urgent than every other concern: ’Why?’" [Note: Andersen, p. 152.]
Job marveled that God would expend such care on him from the womb to the tomb only to destroy him (Job 10:8-17; cf. Job 10:11 with Psa 139:13). Again Job expressed a desire to die (Job 10:18-22; cf. ch. 3; Job 6:8-9). He evidently had little revelation concerning life after death. For him death opened the door to a land of shadows, gloom, and darkness (Job 10:21-22), but he welcomed it as better than life as he was experiencing it. Each of Job’s speeches so far concluded with some reference to death and gloom (Job 3:21-22; Job 7:21; Job 10:21-22). He was a broken man.
"If we are tempted to criticize [Job], we should ever remember that in the whole Book God lays no charge against His child. Terrible things were these which Job uttered about God, but at least they were honest." [Note: Morgan, p. 206.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
X.
THE THOUGHT OF A DAYSMAN
Job 9:1-35; Job 10:1-22
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}