Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 23:2
Even today [is] my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
2. The A. V. is almost certainly wrong in its rendering of this verse, though a more satisfactory rendering is hard to give. The text is probably faulty. Literally tendered according to the usual meaning of the words the verse reads, even to-day is my complaint rebellion, my hand is heavy upon my groaning. The A. V. has assumed, after the Vulgate, that the word usually meaning “rebellion” ( mri) is a form of the word “bitter” ( mar), or that the latter word should be read. It has also assumed that “my hand” may mean the hand (of God) upon me, i. e. “my stroke.” But this is scarcely possible; “my arrow,” ch. Job 34:6, being no true parallel. Further, it has assumed that the well-known phrase “to be heavy upon,” e.g. Psa 32:4, may mean “to be heavy above,” i. e. heavier than my groaning. This also is scarcely to be believed. On the other hand it is difficult to extract sense from the literal rendering given above. The expression “my complaint is rebellion” may be used from the point of view of the three friends: even to-day (still) is my complaint accounted rebellion, though my hand lies heavy upon my groaning, i. e. represses it; the meaning being, that Job was accounted rebellious by his friends, while in fact his complaint and groaning in no way came up to the terrible weight of his calamities the same idea as in ch. Job 6:2. Then the following verses proceed to describe the cause he has for complaint. Or the words “my complaint is rebellion” may express Job’s own feeling: “I refuse to submit to my afflictions, or acknowledge that they are just.” In this case the next words: “my hand lies heavy on my groaning” must mean “my hand presses out my groaning in a continual stream.” But this is an extraordinary sense to put on the phrase “to lie heavy upon.” Others, assuming that the text is corrupt, make alterations more or less serious in words, as “ His hand” for “ my hand” in the second clause. So already the Sept.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Even to-day – At the present time. I am not relieved. You afford me no consolation. All that you say only aggravates my woes.
My complaint – See the notes at Job 21:3.
Bitter – Sad, melancholy, distressing. The meaning is, not that he made bitter complaints in the sense which those words would naturally convey, or that he meant to find fault with God, but that his case was a hard one. His friends furnished him no relief, and he had in vain endeavored to bring his cause before God. This is now, as he proceeds to state, the principal cause of his difficulty. He knows not where to find God; he cannot get his cause before him.
My stroke – Margin, as in Hebrew hand; that is, the hand that is upon me, or the calamity that is inflicted upon me. The hand is represented as the instrument of inflicting punishment, or causing affliction; see the notes at Job 19:21.
Heavier than my groaning – My sighs bear no proportion to my sufferings. They are no adequate expression of my woes. If you think I complain; if I am heard to groan, yet the sufferings which I endure are far beyond what these would secm to indicate. Sighs and groans are not improper. They are prompted by nature, and they furnish some relief to a sufferer. But they should not be:
(1) with a spirit of murmuring or complaining;
(2) they should not be beyond what our sufferings demand, or the proper expression of our sufferings. They should not be such as to lead others to suppose we suffer more than we actually do.
(3) they should – when they are extorted from us by the severity of suffering – lead us go look to that world where no groan will ever be heard.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. Even to-day is my complaint bitter] Job goes on to maintain his own innocence, and shows that he has derived neither conviction nor consolation from the discourses of his friends. He grants that his complaint is bitter; but states that, loud as it may be, the affliction which he endures is heavier than his complaints are loud.
Mr. Good translates: “And still is my complaint rebellion?” Do ye construe my lamentations over my unparalleled sufferings as rebellion against God? This, in fact, they had done from the beginning: and the original will justify the version of Mr. Good; for meri, which we translate bitter, may be derived from marah, “he rebelled.”
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. Even at this time, notwithstanding all your promises and pretended consolations, I find no ease or satisfaction in all your discourses; and therefore in this and the following chapters Job seldom applies his discourse to his friends, but only addresseth his speech to God, or bewaileth himself.
Is my complaint bitter, i.e. I do bitterly complain, and have just cause to do so. But this clause is and may be otherwise rendered, Even still (Heb. at this day) is my complaint called or accounted by you rebellion or bitterness, or the rage of an exasperated mind? Do you still pass such harsh censures upon me after all my declarations and solemn protestations of my innocency?
My stroke, Heb. my hand, passively, i.e. the hand or stroke of God upon me, as the same phrase is used, Psa 77:2; and mine arrow, Job 34:6.
Is heavier than my groaning, i.e. doth exceed all my complaints and expressions; so far are you mistaken, that think I complain more than I have cause. Some render the words thus, my hands are heavy (i.e. feeble and hanging down, as the phrase is, Heb 12:12. My strength and spirit faileth) because of my groaning.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. to-dayimplying, perhaps,that the debate was carried on through more days than one (seeIntroduction).
bitter (Job 7:11;Job 10:1).
my strokethe handof God on me (Margin, Job 19:21;Psa 32:4).
heavier thanis soheavy that I cannot relieve myself adequately by groaning.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Even today [is] my complaint bitter,…. Job’s afflictions were continued on him long; he was made to possess months of vanity; and, as he had been complaining ever since they were upon him, he still continued to complain to that day, “even” after all the comforts his friends pretended to administer to him, as Jarchi observes: his complaints were concerning his afflictions, and his friends’ ill usage of him under them; not of injustice in God in afflicting him, though he thought he dealt severely with him; but of the greatness of his afflictions, they being intolerable, and his strength unequal to them, and therefore death was more eligible to him than life; and he complained of God’s hiding his face from him, and not hearing him, nor showing him wherefore he contended with him, nor admitting an hearing of his cause before him: and this complaint of his was “bitter”: the things he complained of were such, bitter afflictions, like the waters of Marah the Israelites could not drink of, Ex 15:23; there was a great deal of wormwood and gall in his affliction and misery; and it was in a bitter way, in the bitterness of his soul, he made his complaint; and, what made his case still worse, he could not utter any complaint, so much as a sigh or a groan, but it was reckoned “provocation”, or “stubbornness [and] rebellion”, by his friends; so some render the word x, as Mr. Broughton does, “this day my sighing is holden a rebellion”: there is indeed a great deal of rebellion oftentimes in the hearts, words and actions, conduct and behaviour, even of good men under afflictions, as were in the Israelites in the wilderness; and a difficult thing it is to complain without being guilty of it; though complaints may be without it, yet repinings and murmurings are always attended with it:
and my stroke is heavier than my groaning; or “my hand” y, meaning either his own hand, which was heavy, and hung down, his spirits failing, his strength being exhausted, and so his hands weak, feeble, and remiss, that he could not hold them up through his afflictions, and his groanings under them, see Ps 102:5; or the hand of God upon him, his afflicting hand, which had touched him and pressed hard upon him, and lay heavy, and was heavier than his groanings showed; though he groaned much, he did not groan more, nor so much, as his afflictions called for; and therefore it was no wonder that his complaint was bitter, nor should it be reckoned rebellion and provocation; see Job 6:2.
x “exacerbatio”, Montanus, Vatablus, Schmidt; “exasperatio”, Mercerus, Drusius; “pertinacia”, Bolducius; “contumacia habetur”, Cocceius; “rebellionem haberi”, Junius Tremellius “rebellio est”, Piscator, Codurcus. y “manus mea”, Montanus, Vatablus, Mercerus, Drusius, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(2) Even to day.Or, Still is my complaint bitter or accounted rebellion; yet is my stroke heavier than my groaning: my complaint is no just measure of my suffering.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
First division THE OBVERSE AND PERSONAL SIDE OF THE MYSTERY OF EVIL GOD CONDEMNS INNOCENT SUFFERERS.
The resource for calumniated Job would again be to refer the mystery of his lot to God for solution; but He of set purpose hides himself behind the veil of arbitrary will, lest he should be constrained to deal justly with his suffering servant, chap. 23.
First strophe Could Job have access to God, he would elaborately prepare, and earnestly present, his case, Job 23:2-5.
2. To-day Ewald thinks that the controversy was continued for several days. The sublime allusion to the stars; in the address of Eliphaz, points to the night as the time of its delivery. There may have been a considerable interval between the discourse of Eliphaz and the reply of Job. Hence the emphatic , “ also, or again to-day.”
Bitter Or, rebellion, for such his friends accounted his complaint. His complaint, he admits, is still rebellious.
My stroke Literally, my hand, that is, God’s hand. Job (Job 19:21) had spoken before of the hand of God as the source of his affliction. Happy he who can call God’s chastening hand “my hand.” Hitzig and Delitzsch read, My hand lieth heavy upon my groaning, thus rendering , upon, rather than with the sense of a comparative. Job’s groaning is due to the heavy hand of God. “The hand upon me presseth forth my sighs.” Stickel.
Job 23:2 Even to day [is] my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Ver. 2. Even today is my complaint bitter ] q.d. After all mine endeavour to satisfy you, I am still misinterpreted, and accounted by you, my friends, no better than a malcontent and a murmurer against God; albeit my laments do no way equal my torments. True it is that Eliphaz had given him excellent counsel, Job 22:21-22 , &c., but it was to flatter him into the same error that he himself held; viz. that bodily and temporal sufferings are a sure sign of a notorious hypocrite. Hence Job never taketh notice of it in this reply; but begins his apology pathetically and abruptly; and soon falls into an appeal to God, the righteous Judge, who well knew (though his friends would take no notice of it) that he complained not without cause; but the contrary.
My stroke is heavier than my groaning complaint = complaining.
my. Septuagint and Syriac read “His”.
stroke = hand. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6, for the calamity occasioned by it. Compare Job 13:21; Job 19:21.
my complaint: Job 6:2, Job 10:1, Lam 3:19, Lam 3:20, Psa 77:2-9
stroke: Heb. hand
heavier: Job 11:6
Reciprocal: Job 1:18 – there came Job 3:10 – hid Psa 6:6 – I am Jer 45:3 – added
Job 23:2. Even to-day is my complaint bitter Even at this time notwithstanding all your promises and pretended consolations. For your discourses give me neither relief nor satisfaction. Hence in this and the following chapter Job seldom applies his discourse to his friends, but either addresses his speech to God, or bewails his misery. My stroke is heavier than my groaning The hand or stroke of God upon me exceeds my complaints.
23:2 Even to day [is] my complaint {a} bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
(a) He shows the just cause of his complaining and concerning that Eliphaz had exhorted him to return to God, Job 22:21 he declares that he desires nothing more, but it seems that God would not be found of him.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes