Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 10:15

If I be wicked, woe unto me; and [if] I be righteous, [yet] will I not lift up my head. [I am] full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;

15. if I be wicked ] Better, were I wicked guilty of great offences. Job cannot express what would be the punishment of greater sins were e guilty of them, but indicates its incalculable severity by the exclamation, Woe unto me! This the second supposition.

and if I be righteous ] Rather, and were I righteous.

yet will I not lift up ] Or, yet must I not lift up my head.

I am full of confusion ] The words to the end of the verse must mean, being filled with shame and beholding (or, and with the sight of) mine affliction. Were Job righteous he must not lift up his head in the consciousness of innocence or to protest against his being held guilty. This is the third supposition, which is further illustrated in the next verse.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

If I be wicked, woe unto me – The meaning of this in this connection is, I am full of perplexity and sorrow. Whether I am wicked or righteous, I find no comfort. Whatever is my character, my efforts to be happy are unavailing, and my mind is full of anguish. Woe follows if I have been guilty of sin; and if I am not a sinful man, I am equally incapable of enjoyment. In every way I am doomed to wretchedness. And if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. That is, with confidence and cheerfulness. The meaning is, that though he was conscious that he was not a hypocrite, yet he did not know what to do. God treated him as if he were wicked, and his friends regarded him as such, and he was overwhelmed with the perplexities of his situation. He could not lift up his head with confidence, though he was certain that he was not a sinner in the sense in which they charged him with being such; and yet since he was treated by God in a manner so similar to the mode in which the wicked are treated, he felt ashamed and confounded. Who has not felt the same thing? Who has not experienced a sense of shame and mortification at being sick, – a proof of guilt, and an expression of the hatred of God against sin? Who has not felt humbled that he must die, as the most vile of the race must die, and that his body must become the prey of corruption and the banquet of worms, as a demonstration of guilt? Such humiliation Job experienced. He was treated as if he were the vilest of sinners. He endured from God sufferings such as they endure. He was so regarded by his friends. He felt humbled and mortified that he was brought into this situation, and was ashamed that he could not meet the arguments of his friends.

I am full of confusion – Shame, ignominy, distress, and perplexity. On every side there was embarrassment, and he knew not what to do. His friends regarded him as vile, and he could not but admit that he was so treated by God.

Therefore see thou mine affliction – The word rendered here see ( ra’ah) in the imperative, Rosenmuller, Gesenius, and others suppose should be regarded as in the infinitive absolute, the finite verb being understood; seeing I see my affliction, that is, I certainly see it. So the Chaldee and the Syriac render it, and this agrees better with the connection of the passage. I see the depth of my affliction. I cannot hide it from myself. I see, and must admit, that God treats me as if I were a sinner, and I am greatly perplexed and embarrassed by that fact. My mind is in confusion, and I know not what to say.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 15. If I be wicked] I must meet with that punishment that is due to the workers of iniquity.

If I be righteous] I am only in the state which my duty to my Creator requires me to be in; and I cannot therefore suppose that on this account I can deserve any thing by way of favour from the justice of my Maker.

I am full of confusion] I am confounded at my state and circumstances. I know that thou art merciful, and dost not afflict willingly the children of men; I know I have not wickedly departed from thee; and yet I am treated by thee as if I were an apostate from every good. I am therefore full of confusion. See thou to my affliction; and bring me out of it in such a way as shall at once prove my innocence, the righteousness of thy ways, and the mercy of thy nature.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

If I be wicked, i.e. an ungodly hypocrite, as my friends esteem me, then I am truly and extremely, and must be eternally, miserable.

Righteous, i.e. an upright and good man: so, whether good or bad, all comes to one; I have no relief.

Yet will I not lift up my head; or, yet can I not, &c; the future tense being used potentially; yet I have no comfort, nor confidence, or hopes of any good. Lifting up the head or face is oft mentioned as a sign of comfort and confidence, as Psa 3:3; Luk 21:28; as, on the contrary, grief and shame are described by its dejection or casting down.

Confusion, or reproach, from my friends, and from others, Job 30:1, &c., and from God too, who casts me off, and makes me contemptible. I have abundance of shame in the disappointment of all my hopes, and the continuance and aggravation of my misery, notwithstanding all my prayers to God to remove or mitigate it; and I am confounded within myself, not knowing what to say or do. Let my extremity move thee to pity and help me.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

15. lift up my headinconscious innocence (Ps 3:3).

see thourather, “andseeing I see (I too well see) mine affliction,” (which seems toprove me guilty) [UMBREIT].

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

If I be wicked, woe is me,…. In this world, and to all eternity; afflictions will abide me here, and everlasting wrath hereafter: these are the woes that belong to a wicked man; that is, a profane and abandoned sinner, that lives in sin, and gives up himself to all manner of wickedness; the Targum is,

“destruction to me from the great judgment;”

utter ruin is my portion, as it is of all wicked and unrighteous persons, Isa 3:11;

and [if] I be righteous, [yet] will I not lift up my head; live a holy life and conversation, be righteous in the sight of men, and behave so as not to know anything by himself, nor to be conscious of living in any known sin; yet he could not take any comfort from it, or have any pleasure in it, or speak peace to himself on account of it, or glory in it and make his boast of it; or lift up his head before God with boldness and confidence, who is so pure and holy, and his eyes so quick in discerning the sins of men: a good man derives his peace and comfort, not from his own righteousness, but from the righteousness of Christ, and puts his confidence in that only; he blushes, and is ashamed of his own; and cannot, nay, “dare not lift up his head”, as Mr. Broughton, the Tigurine version, and others render it, through shame, being sensible that nothing of his own can stand before an holy God, or give him joy, peace, and pleasure there; the Targum adds, “before the ungodly”; but this a man may do before men, when he cannot before God:

[I am] full of confusion; being in such a dilemma; let him be what he would, he was sure to have affliction, sorrow, and distress, so that he knew not what to say or do; or “reproach” z, which he was loaded with by his friends, and was occasioned by his afflictions, they judging from thence that he was a wicked man, and justly punished for his sins; the word used signifies a burning heat, such as a than feels in his breast, and which flushes in his face, when he is filled with anger or with shame:

therefore see thou mine affliction; not with his eye of omniscience, that he knew he did, but with an eye of pity and compassion, and deliver him from it; or, “I am full with seeing mine affliction”, as Jarchi; or, “[I am one] that sees affliction” a; that has an experience of it; sees it all around me, and nothing else, La 3:1; am a “spectator” b of it, as some render it; but not a mere spectator, but one that has a sensible feeling of it: some take this and the former clause both to be an address to God, and render them, “be satisfied with confusion, and behold my affliction”, as Broughton and others c; let the present calamity and confusion I am in be sufficient; let no more be laid upon me; be content with what has been done, and pity me, and do not lay thine hand heavier upon me, and add to my afflictions, as he thought he did, by what follows.

z “contumeliis”, Tigurine version; “ignominia”, Pagninus, Montanus, Beza, Vatablus, Mercerus, Piscator, Michaelis. a “et videns afflictionem”, Beza, Vatablus, Mercerus, Piscator. b “Et spectator adflictionis meae”, Schultens. c “Satiare ignominia”, Junius & Tremellius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

15. I am full of confusion, etc. It may also be rendered, being filled with shame and the sight of my misery.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments