Job 9:9  Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.

Job 9:9 Word Study on “Arcturus” Strong tells us that the Hebrew word “ayish” ( ) (H5906) comes from ( ) (H5789), which means, “to hasten.” However, Easton suggests that the word “aish” is derived from an Arabic word meaning “night-watcher” because this constellation revolves around the North Pole and never sets.

Comments – John Gill says that Arcturus does set in the horizon, first appearing in early September at the beginning of stormy weather preceding winter. [17] Webster tells us that the English name Arcturus is derived from the Latin “arcturus” (OE. artik, OF. artique, F. arctique, L. arcticus, L. Arcturus), which is derived from the Greek words , meaning “bear tail.” It is in the same family of words with “arctic,” which mean s, “Pertaining to, or situated under, the northern constellation called the Bear.” In addition, the alternate title “Ursa Major” is derived from the Latin “ursus” meaning, “bear.”

[17] John Gill, Job, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Job 9:9.

Scholars give us several opinions as to the identification of the Hebrew word “Arcturus” “ayish” ( ) (H5906). Some say that it refers to the constellation commonly known as “the Great Bear,” “Ursa Major,” or “Charles’ Wain” ( Smith, ISBE) [18] Others, such as Easton, tells us that Arcturus refers to a single star called “bear-keeper,” which is the brightest star within the constellation Bootes located near the Bear.

[18] E. W. Maunder, “Arcturus,” and “Astronomy, II,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).

The Enhanced Strong says this Hebrew word ( ) is used only 2 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “Arcturus 2.” Its second use in found in Job 38:32 and makes a reference to “his sons,” which supports the second view that the Hebrew word Arcturus is the brightest star within a constellation of stars. However, it may be that the name for this bright star is being used to identify its constellation as well.

Job 38:32, “Canst thou bring forth Mazzaroth in his season? or canst thou guide Arcturus with his sons?”

Job 9:9 Word Study on “Orion” Gesenius says the Hebrew word “Orion” “kes-eel” ( ) (H3685) means, “a fool.” Strong says it is derived from the primitive root ( ) (H3684), which literally means, “to be fat,” and figuratively, “to be silly.” Thus, this constellation is also called “the Fool.” The Enhanced Strong says this Hebrew word is used only 4 times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as “Orion 3, constellation 1.” This word is used in Job 38:31 and Amo 5:8 as the name of one of several constellations. Isa 13:10 uses this word in its plural form in a wider sense to mean all of the constellations in the heavens.

Job 38:31, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades, or loose the bands of Orion ?”

Amo 5:8, “Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion , and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:”

Isa 13:10, “For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine.”

Comments – Webster says that Orion is “a large and bright constellation on the equator between the stars Aldebaran and Siriusit contains a remarkable nebula visible to the naked eye.” In addition, John Gill tells us that the Hebrew name “Cesil” ( ) is a derivative of the name of the Hebrew month “Cisleu,” which corresponds to the Roman calendar of November and December at which time this constellation is visible in the Middle East. He says because this constellation appears during the stormy, winter season, Virgil referred to it as “nimbosus Orion,” or “stormy Orion.” [19]

[19] John Gill, Job, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Job 9:9.

The legend of this constellation is of a celebrated mythological hero who was bound in the heavens for an unsuccessful war against the gods. Thus, Job 38:31 describes Orion as being bound with cords. Among the Eastern tradition this individual was identified as Nemrod, who rebelled against the Lord in Genesis. [20] However, the Greeks identified this person as Orion, a celebrated hunter in the oldest Greek mythology of a gigantic stature. [21]

[20] Albert Barnes, Job, in Barnes’ Notes, Electronic Database (Seattle, WA: Hendrickson Publishers Inc., 1997), in P.C. Study Bible, v. 3.1 [CD-ROM] (Seattle, WA: Biblesoft Inc., 1993-2000), comments on Job 9:9.

[21] David H. Levy, “Orion,” in The World Book Encyclopedia, vol. 14 (Chicago: World Book, Inc., 1994), 856.

Job 9:9 Word Study on “Pleiades” Gesenius says the Hebrew word “Pleiades” “kiymah” ( ) (H3598) means, “a heap, a cluster.” Strong defines this word as “Pleiades, seven stars,” and says it is derived from an unused primitive root ( ) (H3558) that means, “to store away.” The Enhanced Strong says this Hebrew word “cimah” is found three times in the Old Testament, being translated in the KJV as, “Pleiades 2, seven stars 1.”

Job 38:31, “Canst thou bind the sweet influences of Pleiades , or loose the bands of Orion?”

Amo 5:8, “Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The LORD is his name:”

Comments – Webster tells us that the name “Pleiades” is derived from Greek mythology, referring to “the seven daughters of Atlas and the nymph Pleione, fabled to have been made by Jupiter a constellation in the sky.” As a constellation, it is “a group of small stars in the neck of the constellation Taurus.” Since there are only six of these pleiads that are “distinctly visible to the naked eye,” the ancient Greeks supposed that “a sister had concealed herself out of shame for having loved a mortal, Sisyphus.” Hence, we get the rendering “the seven stars” in Amo 5:8 ( KJV).

Job 9:9 “and the chambers of the south” Word Study on “the chambers” Strong says the Hebrew word “chambers’ “cheder” ( ) (H2315) means, “chamber, innermost part, parlour.”

Comments – John Gill comments that the phrase “the chambers of the south” refers to the constellations of the southern hemisphere. He says that they are described as “chambers” because they are hidden from view to those in the northern hemisphere, which includes the Middle East. [22]

[22] John Gill, Job, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Job 9:9.

Job 9:9 Comments – John Gill suggests that three constellations Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades are used in Job 9:9 because they divide the whole year into three parts. Arcturus appears in September, Orion in Nov/Dec and Pleiades in April. [23]

[23] John Gill, Job, in John Gill’s Expositor, in e-Sword, v. 7.7.7 [CD-ROM] (Franklin, Tennessee: e-Sword, 2000-2005), comments on Job 9:9.

Job 9:9 Comments Job 9:9 reveals that astronomy and astrology is an ancient science. We know from The Code of Hammurabi that the civilization of Abraham and Job’s time was highly organized, with civil laws, schools, an alphabet, a system of weights and measures, architecture, and irrigation and astronomy. Thus, Job 9:9 testifies to the highly developed art of astrology.

Job 9:32  For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.

Job 9:32 Comments – The idea of coming together in judgment reflects the idea of a gathering in a courtroom. It is not like we can call Almighty God to court with a summons (an order for some one to appear in court), for God is the judge.

Job 9:33  Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.

Job 9:33 Word Study on “daysman” Gesenius says the Hebrew word “daysman” ( ) (H3198) means, “to dispute, to altercate with anyone.” Webster says the word “daysman” is an archaic English word for an arbiter or an umpire. An arbiter is one who judges a dispute. An umpire is a person chosen to render a decision in a dispute.

Job 9:33 Comments – Job needed one who would stand between both Job and God Almighty to decide Job’s case of innocence. Today, we have Jesus Christ (Rom 5:1, Heb 7:25).

Rom 5:1, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”

Heb 7:25, “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.”

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

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 Defense Against Suspicion.

Both Eliphaz and Bildad had attempted to fasten upon Job some specific wrong, seeking from him a confession to that effect. He therefore defends himself against this manner of drawing conclusions in his case.

v. 1. Then Job answered and said,

v. 2. I know it is so of a truth, namely, that God is righteous in all His doing, that He never perverts justice; but how should man, a mortal being, man in his mortality and weakness, be just with God? Even if mortal man should, in his own opinion, be in the right over against God, his own judgment is without value; for no man, as God plainly states. can be just in His sight.

v. 3. If he will contend with Him, if mortal man should dare to enter into litigation with the great God, he cannot answer Him one of a thousand; if man’s case were brought to trial, God could and would so quickly embarrass and overwhelm him with questions that he would quickly stand there in mute shame, unable to justify himself in one item.

v. 4. He is wise in heart and mighty in strength; those are two outstanding attributes of God. Who hath hardened himself against Him, stiffening his neck in foolish opposition, bidding Him defiance, and hath prospered? With His wisdom the Lord can confuse man, and with His strength He can overcome him; so no mortal can maintain his cause before God.

v. 5. Which removeth the mountains and they know not, without their being aware of the fact; which overturneth them in His anger; His wrath strikes them with such sudden fury that they are not even conscious of the change effected by His power until all has been done.

v. 6. Which shaketh the earth out of her place, causing not only the mountains, but the entire earth to tremble in mighty earthquakes, and the pillars thereof tremble, its very foundations are rocked and shaken, Psa 75:3; Isa 24:20.

v. 7. Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not, withholding his golden rays from the earth; and sealeth up the stars, setting a seal round about them, veiling them by thick clouds and darkening the night as well as the day, as He chooses.

v. 8. Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, like an immense tent, Isa 40:22, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea, He is their Master; though they rise up in threatening heights, Psa 107:26, at His almighty command they must serve Him with meekness.

v. 9. Which maketh Arcturus, the constellation of the Great Bear, in the northern part of the sky, Orion, a constellation of the southern sky, and Pleiades, a constellation of the eastern sky, and the chambers of the south, the secret places of the Antarctic sky, for in that direction the endless spaces of the heavens were hidden from the sight of the Arabian astronomers.

v. 10. Which doeth great things past finding out, yea, and wonders without number. Job cheerfully agreed with his friend, 5:9, on the absolute power and the inexpressible majesty of God. The Lord’s great power is put forth not only in the kingdom of nature, but also in His government of man.

v. 11. Lo, He goeth by me, and I see Him not; He passeth on also, but I perceive Him not. Though his eyes cannot see the great and mighty God, his spirit perceives His nearness, as He sweeps by like a destructive wind before which no man can stand.

v. 12. Behold, He taketh away, snatching away His victim and all the spoil He chooses to take; who can hinder Him, holding Him back from His course, placing hindrances in His way? Who will say unto Him, What doest Thou? This thought of God’s overwhelming and often apparently arbitrary power now prompts Job to speak in an almost defiant manner.

v. 13. If God will not withdraw His anger, rather, affirmatively, “He will not cause it to return,” He will not recall it, the proud helpers do stoop under Him, literally, “the helpers of Rahab cringe before Him,” the reference being to a historical or a legendary defeat of some mighty enemies of Jehovah.

v. 14. How much less shall I answer Him, namely, than such great and mighty adversaries, and choose out my words to reason with Him? No matter how carefully he might choose his words, attempting to get just the right expression, he could not escape rebuke on the part of God.

v. 15. Whom, though I were righteous, even if Job were in the right, free from blame according to standards of right as commonly accepted, yet would I not answer, that is, Job could not answer, but I would make supplication to my Judge, being brought to the humiliating position of beseeching the Judge, who was his adversary, accuser, and judge in one person.

v. 16. If I had called, and He had answered me, if Job’s pleading would apparently find favor, yet would I not believe that He had hearkened unto my voice; he feared that God’s infinite exaltation would keep Him from showing such kindness.

v. 17. For He breaketh me with a tempest, that is, He would overwhelm Job with a storm, should he attempt such a course, and multiplieth my wounds without cause, in spite of Job’s innocence He would pursue him with calamities.

v. 18. He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness, this being considered the food with which Job should satisfy his soul.

v. 19. If I speak of strength, lo, He is strong, in a trial of strength Job would, of course, not stand a show; and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead? If it were a question of right and judgment, the mighty word of God would be thundered at him: Who will cite Me? In either case, there was no hope for weak and mortal man.

v. 20. If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me; even if he were right, the confusion of his speech would condemn him; if I say, I am perfect, innocent, without guilt, it shall also prove me perverse, set him forth as guilty.

v. 21. Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul, he had reached the point where he no longer knew himself; I would despise my life, it had become a burden to him. He felt so unspeakably wretched that he wished to die. In all this Job forgot that even the breath of an accusation against God as though He were not just and righteous in all His works is an insult to His glorious majesty.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

Job 9:1-35

Job, in answer to Bildad, admits the truth of his arguments, but declines to attempt the justification which can alone entitle him to accept the favourable side of Bildad’s alternative. Man cannot absolutely justify himself before God. It is in vain to attempt to do so. The contest is too unequal. On the one side perfect wisdom and absolute strength (verse 4); on the other, weakness, imperfection, ignorance. guilt (verses 17-20). And no “daysman,” or umpire, between them; no third party to hold the balance even, and preside authoritatively over the controversy, and see that justice is done (verses 33-35). Were it otherwise, Job would not shrink from the controversy; but he thinks it ill arguing with omnipotent power. What he seems to lack is the absolute conviction expressed by Abraham in the emphatic words'” Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?“ (Gen 18:25).

Job 9:1, Job 9:2

And Job answered and said, I know it is so of a truth. “I freely admit,” is; “all that has been said.” God would not cast away a perfectly righteous man (Job 8:20); and, of course, he punishes evil-doers. But, applied practically, what is the result? How should man be just with God? or, before God? Apart from any knowledge of the doctrine of original or inherited sin, each man feels, deep in his heart, that he is sinful”a chief of sinners.” Bradford looks upon the murderer as he mounts the scaffold, and says, “But for the grace of God, there goes John Bradford!” Job has a similar conviction, that in the sight of God, righteousness, such as it is, shrinks away into insignificance, and is as nothing, cannot anyhow be relied upon. Such must be the attitude before God of every human soul that is not puffed up with pride or utterly insensate and sunk in apathy.

Job 9:3

If he will contend with him; rather, if he should desire to contend with him; i.e. if, notwithstanding his knowledge of his own weakness and guilt, he should nevertheless be mad enough to desire to contend with God, then he will find that he cannot answer him one of a thousand. Of the charges which God might in his omniscience bring against him, he could not make a satisfactory reply to one in a thousand. It is not that Job admits any special guilt in himself; but such he feels to be the universal condition of humanity. “All have sinned in ten thousand ways, “and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23).

Job 9:4

He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. The sense is strengthened if we omit “he is,” and render, Wise in heart, and mighty in strength, who hath hardened‘ etc.? God’s combination of perfect wisdom with infinite strength renders it hopeless for any man to contend with him. Who hath hardened himself against him; and hath prospered? Job fully admits the wisdom of all that Eliphaz (Job 4:17) and Bildad (Job 8:3-6) have said, or hinted, with respect to his inability wholly to justify himself. No one has ever taken this line of absolute self-justification, and prospered.

Job 9:5-13

A magnificent description of the might and majesty of God, transcending anything in the Psalms, and comparable to the grandest passages of Isaiah (see especially Isa 40:21-24; Isa 43:15-20).

Job 9:5

Which removeth the mountains, and they know not; which overturneth them in his anger. Earthquakes are common in all the countries adjoining Syria and Palestine, and must always have been among the most striking manifestations of God’s power. There are several allusions to them in the Psalms (Psa 8:8, Psa 104:32). and historical mention of them in Num 16:32; 1Ki 19:1; Amo 1:1; Zec 14:4, Zec 14:5; Mat 24:7. Josephus speaks of one which desolated Judaea in the reign of Herod the Great, and destroyed ten thousand people (‘Ant. Jud.,’ Mat 15:5. 2). There was another in 1181, which was felt over the whole of the Hauran, and did great damage. A still more violent convulsion occurred in 1837, when the area affected extended five hundred miles from north to south, and from eighty to a hundred miles east and west. Tiberias and Safed were overthrown. The earth gaped in various places, and closed again. Fearful oscillations were felt. The hot springs of Tiberias mounted up to a temperature that ordinary thermometers could not mark, and the loss of life was considerable. The phrases used by Job are, of course, poetical. Earthquakes do not literally “remove” mountains, nor “overturn” them. They produce fissures, elevations, depressions, and the like; but they rarely much alter local features or the general configuration of a district.

Job 9:6

Which shaketh the earth out of her place. This is a still more startling figure of speech; but comp. Psa 46:2; Psa 68:16; Psa 114:4, Psa 114:6. And the pillars thereof tremble. The earth is conceived of, poetically, as a huge edifice, supported on pillars (comp. Psa 75:3), which in an earthquake are shaken, and impart their motion to the entire building. Rosenmuller’s quotation of Seneca, ‘Nat. Quaest.,’ 6:20″Fortasse ex aliqua parle terra veluti columnis quibusdam et pills sustinetur, quibus vitiatis et recedentibus tremit pondus impositum“is apposite.

Job 9:7

Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not. A magnificent idea of God’s power, and, of course, quite true. All the movements of the earth and of the heavenly bodies are movements which God causes, and could at any moment suspend. The sun only rises upon the earth each day because God causes it to rise. If he were once to intermit his hand, the whole universe would fall into confusion. And sealeth up the stars. Either covers them with a thick darkness, which their rays cannot penetrate, or otherwise renders them invisible. The idea is that God, if he pleases, can remove the stars out of man’s sight, hide them away, seal them up.

Job 9:8

Which alone spreadeth out the heavens (comp. Psa 104:2; Isa 40:22). The heavens are regarded as spread out over the whole earth, like a curtain or awning over a tent, everywhere overshadowing and promoting it. This “stretching” or “spreading out” is felt to be one of the mightiest and most marvellous of the Creater’s works, and is constantly put forward in Scripture as a special evidence of his omnipotence (see, besides the pasages above quoted, Isa 42:5; Isa 44:24; Isa 45:12; It. 13; Jer 10:12). It adds to the marvellousness that God did it all “alone,” or “by himself” (comp. Isa 44:24). And treadeth upon the waves of the sea; literally, the heights of the sea; i.e. the waves, which run mountains-high. God plants his feet upon these, to crush them in their proud might (comp. Psa 93:5).

Job 9:9

Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades; literally, which maketh ‘Ash‘ Kesil‘ and Kimah. The rendering of the LXX. ( ), supported, as it is, by most of the other ancient versions and by the Targums, has caused the stellar character of these names to be generally recognized; but the exact meaning of each term is, to some extent, still a matter of dispute. On the whole, it seems most probable that ‘Ash, or ‘Aish (Job 38:32), designates “the Great Bear,” called by the Arabs Nahsh, while Kesil is the name of the constellation of Orion, and Kimah of that of the Pleiades. The word ‘Ash means “a litter,” and may be compared with the Greek and our own” Charles’s Wain,” both of them names given to the Great Bear, from a fancied resemblance of its form to that of a vehicle. Kesil means “an insolent, rich man” (Lee); and is often translated by “fool” in the Book of Pro 14:16; Pro 15:20; Pro 19:1; Pro 21:20, etc. It seems to have been an epitheton usitatum of Nimrod, who, according to Oriental tradition, made war upon the gods, and was bound in the sky for his impietythe constellation being thenceforth called “the Giant” (Gibbor)’ or “the insolent one’ (Kesil), and later by the Greeks “Orion” (comp. Amo 5:8; and infra. Job 38:31). Kimah undoubtedly designates “the Pleiades.” It occurs again, in connection with Kesil, in Job 38:31, and in Amo 5:8 The meaning is probably “a heap,” “a cluster” (Lee); which was also the Greek idea: , ‘ (Eustath; ‘Comment. in Hom. II.,’ 18.488); and which has been also inimitably expressed by Tennyson in the line, “Like a swarm of dazzling fireflies tangled in a silver braid.” And the chambers of the south. The Chaldeans called the zodiacal constellations “mansions of the sun” and “of the moon”; but these do not seem to be here intended. Rather Job has in his mind those immense spaces of the sky which lie behind his southern horizon; how far extending, he knows not. Though the circumnavigation of Africa was not effected until about B.C. 600, yet it is not improbable that he may have derived from travellers or merchants some knowledge of the Southern hemisphere.

Job 9:10

Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number. An almost exact repetition of the words of Eliphaz in Job 5:9. The repetition may have been conscious or unconscious. Job may have meant to say, “My view of God embraces all that you can tell me of him, and goes further;” or he may simply have used words concerning the Divine unsearchableness which were common in the mouths of religious men in his time (comp. Psa 72:18; and infra, Job 11:7).

Job 9:11

Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not. Near as God is to us, close as he comes to us, we cannot directly see him, or feel him, or perceive his presence. We know it by faith, we may feel it in our inmost spirits; but there is no manifestation of it to our senses. A sharp line divides the visible and invisible worlds; and this line, if it is ever crossed, is very rarely crossed. Job possibly reflects upon the pretension of Eliphaz to have had a physical consciousness of the visitation of a spirit (Job 4:15, Job 4:16), and asserts, with a tinge of sarcasm, that it is otherwise with himthe spirit-worm passes him by, and he receives no light, no illumination, no miraculous direction from it. He passeth on also. The same verb is used by Eliphaz (Job 4:15) in speaking of his spiritual visitation. But I perceive him not. Eliphaz perceived the presence of the spirit (Job 4:15, Job 4:16) and heard its voice (Job 4:16-21). Job seems to mean that he is not so favoured.

Job 9:12

Behold, he taketh away; rather, he seizeth the prey (see the Revised Version). The expression is much stronger than that used in Job 1:21. Job seems to be smarting under the recollection of all that he has lost, and takes an aggrieved tone. Who can hinder him? (comp. Isa 45:9; Jer 18:6; Romans 19:20). Who will say unto him, What doest thou? To have to do with such an irresistible Being, alone in his might, would indeed be terrible if, while absolutely powerful, unchecked and uncontrolled from without, he were not also absolutely good, and therefore controlled and checked by a law from within. This, however, Job, in his present mood, does not seem clearly to see.

Job 9:13

If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him. There is no “if” in the original; and the passage is best taken categorically: “God does not withdraw his anger;” i.e. the anger which he feels against those who resist him. “The helpers of Rahab do stoop [or, ‘are prostrate’] under him.” Rahab in this passage, and also in Job 26:12, as well us in Isa 51:9, seems to be used as the proper name of some great power of evil Such a power was recognized in the mythology of Egypt, under the names of Set (or Typhon) and of Apophia, the great serpent, continually represented as pierced by Horus. In the earlier Aryan myths there is a similar personification of evil in Vitre, called Dasiya, “the Destroyer,” and at perpetual enmity with Indra and Agni. The Babylonians and Assyrians had a tradition of a great “war in heaven”. carried on by seven spirits, who were finally reduced to subjection. All these seem to be distorted reminiscences of that great conflict, whereof the only trustworthy account is the one contained in the Revelation of St. John, “There was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels”the “helpers” of the present passage”and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven” (Rev 12:7, Rev 12:8). Job, it seems, had inherited one of such traditions, one in which the power of evil was known as Rahab, “the Proud One;” and he means here to say that God not only holds men in subjection, but also beings much more powerful than man, as Rahab and his helpers, who had rebelled and made war on God, and been east down from heaven, and were now prostrate under God’s feet.

Job 9:14

How much less shall I answer him? If he be the Lord of earth and heaven, if he rule the sun and the stars, if he tread down the sea, if he be impalpable and irresistible, if he hold the evil power and his helpers under restraint, how should I dare to answer him? How should any mere man do so? And choose out my words to reason with him? Job feels that he would be too much overwhelmed to choose his terms carefully, and yet a careless word might be an unpardonable offence.

Job 9:15

Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer. Even perfect righteousness, so far as possible in a creature, would not enable a non to stand up in controversy with him who “charges his angels with folly” (Job 4:18); and, moreover, to such righteousness Job does not pretend (see Job 7:20, Job 7:21). But I would make supplication to my Judge; rather, to mine adversary (see the Revised Version). Prayer is the only rightful attitude of even the best man before his Makerprayer for mercy, prayer for pardon, prayer for grace, prayer for advance in holiness.

Job 9:16

If I had called, and he had answered me. “It,” that is, “I had challenged God to a controversy, and he had granted it, and bidden me to plead my cause at his bar, yet could I not suppose that he had really hearkened to me, and would allow me boldly to stand up before him and freely to challenge his doings. Such condescension on his part, such an abnegation of his supremacy, is inconceivable, and! could not have acted on it.” Yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice; rather, yet could I not believe. It was not that he would not have wished, but that he would not have been able, to believe.

Job 9:17

For he breaketh me with a tempest. “God,” that is, “would not be likely patiently to hear my justification, and calmly to weigh it, when he is already overwhelming me with his wrath, breaking and crushing me (comp. Gen 3:15, where the same word is used) with a very storm of calamity.” The sentiment can scarcely be justified, since it breathes something of a contamacious spirit. But this only shows that Job was not yet” made perfect through sufferings” (Heb 2:10). And multiplieth my wounds without cause. A further assertion, not of absolute sinlessness, but of comparative innocenceof the belief that he had done nothing to deserve such a terrible punishment as he is suffering (comp. Job 6:24, Job 6:29).

Job 9:18

He will not suffer me to take my breath. “He gives me no breathing-space,” that is, “no time of relaxation or refreshment. My existence is one continual. misery.“ (comp. Job 7:3-6, Job 7:13-19). But filleth me with bitterness; literally, with bitter things‘ or bitterness (Hebrew, ).

Job 9:19

If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong. Still the idea is, “How can I contend with God? If it is to be a trial of strength, it is he who is strong, not I; if it is to be a suit, or pleading for justice, who will appoint me a day?” And if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead? (comp. below, Job 9:33).

Job 9:20

If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me. Since he could not wholly justify himself. “All men have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23). Job has already admitted the utterance of “rash words” (Job 6:3), and, at least hypothetically, that he “has sinned” (Job 7:20), and needs “pardon” for his “transgression” (Job 7:1-21 :24). Job, if he tried to “justify himself,” would have to acknowledge such shortcomings, such imperfections, such sinsat any rate, of infirmityas would make his attempted justification a real self-condemnation. If I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse; rather, even were I perfect, it (i.e. my mouth) would prove me perverse; i.e. supposing I were actually perfect, and tried to prove it, my speech would be so hesitating and confused, that I should only seem to be perverse.

Job 9:21

Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life. The original is very elliptical and very obscure. The words run, I perfectI know not myselfI abhor my life, which some explain as meaning, “Were I perfect, I should not know it myself; I despise my life under such conditions” (Stanley Loathes); others, “I am perfect” (i.e. guiltless of any plain offence), “but do not understand myself, and care not what becomes of me” (Canon Cook); others again, “Were I perfect, should I not know myself, and, knowing myself, despise my own life?” (Professor Lee). The Septuagint gives us no help, as it plainly follows a different reading. Probably our present text is a corrupt one.

Job 9:22

This is one thing; rather, the matter is one‘ or it is all one. There is no difference, that is, between the case of the righteous and the wicked; all are alike sinful in God’s sight, all equally “concluded under sin” (Gal 3:22), and all consequently obnoxious to punishment at his hands (comp. Ecc 9:2). In a certain sense the statement is true, and corresponds with the argument of Romans 1-3.; but no account is taken here of God’s gracious forgiveness of sin, much less of the general scheme of redemption, or the compensation for earthly sufferings in an eternity of happiness, on which the hope of the Christian rests. Therefore I said it; rather, therefore I say, with the Revised Version. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked. As far as this world is concerned, it is undoubtedly true that calamities fall alike upon the just and upon the unjust. Death is the lot of all; trouble, suffering, grief, the lot of all (Job 6:7). Nor can it even be said that the wicked in this world suffer more than the good. Their sufferings are more the natural consequence of their actions, but do not seem to exceed in amount or severity the sufferings of the good. But this only shows that there must be a future life to redress the apparent injustice of the present one, and set the balance right.

Job 9:23

If the scourge slay suddenly. Such a “scourge” as war, or pestilence, or famine, is probably meant. If one of these be let loose upon a land, and slay, as it always does slay, indifferently the good and the bad, the innocent and the guilty, what is God’s attitude? Does he interpose to save the righteous? By no means. He looks on passively, indifferently. Job even goes further, and says, with an audacity that borders on irreverence, if it does not even overstep the border, He will laugh at the trial of the innocent. St. Jerome says, “There is nothing in the whole book harsher than this.” It may, perhaps, be excused, partly as rhetorical, partly as needful for the full expansion of Job’s argument. But it is a fearful utterance. (Professor Lee’s attempt to explain the whole passage differently is scarcely a successful one.)

Job 9:24

The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. As a further proof of God’s indifference to the sufferings of the innocent, Job adduces the fact that, in the high places of the earth, are mostly set wicked persons, who oppress and persecute the righteous. This has probably been true, in the East at any rate, at all times. He covereth the faces of the judges thereof. God covers up the eyes of those who have to judge between the oppressors and the oppressed, so that they pervert judgment, and side with the oppressors. He does this, since he permits it to be done. Corrupt judges are among the perennial curses of the East. If not, where, and who is he? rather, If it be not he, who then is it? (see the Revised Version). Job argues that the established condition of things in human society must be ascribed to God, since (at least) he allows it. There is no one else to whom it can be ascribed.

Job 9:25

Now my days are swifter than a post. Life slips away so fast that before it is well begun, it is ended. Job compares it to the swift passage of the trained runner, or messenger, who carried despatches for kings and other great personages in the olden times (see 2Ch 30:6; Est 3:13; Est 8:10, Est 8:14). Herodotus says of the trained runners employed by the Persians, “Nothing mortal travels so fast as these Persian messengers” (Herod; 8.98). There is abundant evidence of the employment of such persons in ancient Egypt. They flee away, they see no good. It seems to Job that his prosperity (Job 1:2-5) was only for a moment. He scarcely could look on it before it was gone.

Job 9:26

They are passed away as the swift ships; literally, like the ships of reed. The allusion is probably to the frail reed vessels of the Egyptians, of which many ancient writers speak (see Theophrastus, ‘Hist. Plant.,’ 4.9; Pithy, ‘Hist. Nat.,’ 6.56; 13.11; Luean, ‘ Pharsalis,’ 4.36, etc.). They were long, light canoes, formed generally of the papyrus plant, and propelled either by a single paddle or by a punting-pole. They were fiat-bottomed and broad, like punts, with a stem and stern rising considerably above the level of the water. Isaiah speaks of them as “vessels of bulrushes,” in which “swift messengers” were sent by the nations peopling the banks of the Nile (Isa 18:1, Isa 18:2). The Euphrates boats described by Herodotus (1.194) were of an entirely different construction, and cannot be here intended. They consisted of a framework of wood, which was covered with skins, and then coated with bitumen, and resembled the Welsh “coracles.” As the eagle that hasteth to the prey; or, as the eagle that swoopeth on the prey (Revised Version). Job’s observation presents to him three types of swiftnessthe trained runner upon the earth, the swift ships upon the waters, and the hungry eagle in the air. It seems to him that his life passes away as swiftly as any of these.

Job 9:27

If I say, I will forget my complaint (comp. above, Job 7:13). Job represents himself as sometimes, for a moment, imagining that he might put aside his load of sorrow by not thinking of it. He tries, and says to himself, “I will forget,” etc.; but in vain. The whole mass of his sufferings seems to rise up against him, and make even momentary forgetfulness impossible. I will leave off my heaviness; or, my black looks. And comfort myself (comp. Job 10:20 and Psa 39:13, where the same verb is rendered “recover strength”).

Job 9:28

I am afraid of all my sorrows (see the comment on Job 9:27). I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. The worst of all Job’s sorrows is the sense of alienation from God, which his unexampled sufferings have wrought in him. Though unconscious of having deserved them, he still, not unnaturally, looks upon them as marks of God s displeasure, proofs that God does not regard him as innocent.

Job 9:29

If I be wicked; rather, I am wicked; i.e. I am accounted soI am already condemned. The extreme afflictions raider which I suffer indicate that God has passed sentence upon me, and awarded me my punishment. Why then labour I in vain? i.e. Why argue? Why seek to justify myself, since no result is likely to follow? Nothing that I can say will alter God’s foregone conclusion.

Job 9:30

If I wash myself with snow-water (comp. Psa 51:7). If I should succeed in purging myself of all guilt, and establishing, so far as words can do it, my spotless innocence even then what advantage should I gain? Snow-water does not really cleanse what is defiled better than any other water, but a lively fancy might suppose it to do so. Job indulges in this fancy, but then checks himself, and adds a prosaic alternative. And make my hands never so clean; rather, and make my hands clean with lye. Lye, or potash, is the principal and most essential ingredient in soap. and the readiest and best detergent. If Job cleanses himself to the very utmost, “Cut bone?” he asks.

Job 9:31

Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch. Yet would God with ease undo his work, show his purity to be impure, his righteousness to be filthy rags, and thus, as it were, replunge him in the mire and clay from which he had sought to free himself, and hold him forth a more loathsome wretch than ever. And mine own clothes shall abhor me. So loathsome would he be that his very garments, stained and fouled by his disease, would shrink away from him and hate to touch him.

Job 9:32

For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him; and we should come together in judgment (comp. Job 9:2-14). On one of two conditions only, Job thinks, could the contest be even between himself and God.

(1) If God, divesting himself of all his Divine attributes, became man;

(2) if some thirdsman could be found, some umpire or arbitrator, to preside over the contest, and decide it.

Neither condition, however, was (he thought) possible; and therefore no satisfactory judgment could take place. Recent commentators observe that the Christian scheme, which Job could not anticipate, provides almost a literal fulfilment of both conditions, since the God who is to judge us is “true Man,” and is also a Mediator, or “Thirds-man,” between us and the offended Father, with authority to make the final decision, ‘the Father having committed all judgment unto the Son “(Joh 5:22), and” given him authority to execute judgment also'” for the very reason that he is “the Son of man” (Joh 5:27).

Job 9:33

Neither is there any daysman betwixt us; literally ‘judge‘ or arbitrator called a “daysman,” since he appoints the day on which the arbitration is to come off. The LXX. renders by , “mediator.” That might lay his hand upon us bosh. Moderate between us, that is; keep us both in cheek; assert an authority to which we must both submit.

Job 9:34

Let him take his rod away from me; rather, who would remove his rod from me. Job means that it would be a part of the duty of the “daysman” to see that God’s rod was removed from him before he was called upon to plead, so that he might not labour under so erect a disadvantage as his sufferings would place him under. And let not his fear terrify me; or, and would not suffer his fear to terrify me; i.e. would not allow Job to be placed under the disadvantage, either of pain or of fear, either of actual or prospective suffering.

Job 9:35

Then would I speak, and not fear him. Job has imagined conditions which are impossible; and says that, under the circumstances which he has imagined, he would not fear to justify himself before God. The assertion is over-daring, and, as Schultens says, shows the patriarch to be no longer master of himself, but carried away by the force of overwrought feeling. But it is not so with me; i.e. “I am not in such a position as to enter on my justification.” I am weighted by my sufferings, and also by my fears. I therefore decline the contest.

HOMILETICS

Job 9:1-4

Job to Bildad: 1. Bildad’s theology refuted.

I. AN IRONICAL CONCESSION. “I know that it is so of a truth.” The doctrine propounded by Bildad (Job 8:3), that in God’s dealings with mankind such a thing as either a perversion or miscarriage of justice was impossible, Job in a certain sense allows. Abstractly considered, the sentiment was one which Job cheerfully admitted. As expounded by Bildad, that the Divine government of the world was one of visible retributive justice, he expressly impugned its truth. Yet, in order to expose its fallacious character as well as to demonstrate its worthlessness, he is willing to proceed on the assumption of its truth-

II. A PERTINENT INTERROGATION. “How should man [literally, ‘frail, perishable man’] be just,” i.e. maintain his righteousness, establish his innocence, “with God?” Supposing, for the sake of argument, that such a sufferer possessed the inward, ineradicable conviction that he was innocent (i.e. free from notorious transgression): by what process could he vindicate his personal integrity so as to arrest the punitive hand of the Almighty? By none that would be availing, Job proceeds to show. In a profounder sense than is here employed, the question of the patriarch possesses a momentous significance for man. How shall man, the frail, sinful, and perishing, establish his righteousness before God? As in Job’s case, so in every man’s, the attempt to do so is a wild imagination, and can only result in failure, Not, however, because of the impossibility of establishing what really exists, as in Job’s view, but because the thing, the righteousness, is not there to be maintained; all the world being in inward consciousness, as well as in outward fact, guilty before God.

III. AN EXTRAORDINARY SUPPOSITION. “If he will contend with him;” i.e. if the individual arraigned by Divine providence should propose to impeach the Divine equity, and even undertake to demonstrate his own innocence; or, as others interpret the pronouns, if God should be willing to enter into controversy with him, i.e. weak and imperfect man. According to the former explanation, the language is suggestive of sinful presumption; according to the latter, of gracious condescension; according to either, the subject of debate is not the question of man’s sinfulness in general, but of man’s guiltiness in respect of particular offences.

IV. A HOPELESS CONTENTION. On two grounds Job protests that any such litigation with the Almighty as to man’s innocence of individual transgressions (much more, therefore, as to the question of man’s sinful condition) would be unavailing.

1. Man‘s ignorance and frailty would disqualify him from replying to God’s accusations. Infinite in subtlety and endless in succession, the charges that by such an assailant might be brought against him would simply confound and paralyze him. Overpowered by terror at the ineffable majesty of his Divine opponent, he would entirely lose command of his poor faculties, such as they were, and would be utterly unable to repel so much as one charge in a thousand, even were they all untrue (verse 3; cf. Psa 130:3).

2. God‘s wisdom and strength would render it impossible for any one engaging in such an enterprise to escape unhurt. “Wise in heart, and.mighty in strength, who hath braved him and been successful?” (verse 4). The wisdom of the Almighty, which enables him to search the heart (1Ch 28:9; Psa 7:9), to understand the thoughts (Psa 139:2), to know the works (Job 34:25), to consider the ways (Job 34:21), of men; and the power of the Omniscient, which secures that his counsel shall stand (Isa 46:10) and his purpose shall be fulfilled (Job 23:13, Job 23:14), clearly present a combination (Job 36:5; Job 37:23; Dan 2:20), against which it is not only needless, but must for ever be positively ruinous, to strive.

Learn

1. It becomes good men to acknowledge and confide in the righteousness of God.

2. The higher man s ideas use of God s holiness and equity, the lower fall his thoughts concerning his own impurity and iniquity.

3. As them can be no unrighteousness with God, so neither can there be any righteousness with man.

4. Though it is hopeless to contend with God in argument, it is not so to wrestle with him in prayer.

5. The best attitude for a frail and sinful man to assume before God is that of self-abasement and penitence.

6. Man’s ignorance and weakness are no match for God’s wisdom and might.

7. God’s wisdom and might have, for man’s advantage, been deposited in Christ, who is the Power and the Wisdom of God.

Job 9:1-4

A gospel outline.

I. A SUBLIME TRUTH. Them is no unrighteousness with God (Job 9:1), in either:

1. Permitting sin. (Psa 92:5.)

2. Afflicting man. (Deu 8:5.)

3. Saving the penitent. (Rom 3:26; 1Jn 1:9.)

4. Punishing the wicked. (Rom 3:5; 2Th 1:6.)

II. A MELANCHOLY FACT. It is impossible for man to establish his righteousness before God (Job 9:2), his guiltiness being:

1. Declared by Scripture. (Psa 143:2; Pro 20:9; Ecc 7:20; Isa 53:6; Rom 3:19, Rom 3:23.)

2. Attested by conscience. (Rom 2:15.)

3. Confirmed by experience. (Psa 58:3; Eph 4:17, Eph 4:18; Jas 3:2.)

III. AN HUMILIATING DISCOVERY. That man is utterly unable to answer God’s accusations against him (Job 9:3), in respect of either:

(1) their numbers, man’s sins being as numerous as the hairs of his head (Psa 40:12); or

(2) their character, being infinitely heinous in the sight of God (Pro 15:9; Isa 43:24; Jer 44:4); or

(3) their proof, the evidence in support of God’s charges being clear and overwhelming (Gen 18:21; Jer 17:10).

IV. A CHEERING EVANGEL. That salvation may be found by yielding to God (Job 9:4).

1. Nothing but hurt can arise from braving and opposing God (Isa 27:4).

2. Certain salvation springs from humble submission to God (Job 33:27; Psa 76:9; Isa 27:5 ).

Job 9:5-10

Job to Bildad: 2. The majesty of God depicted.

I. IN TERRESTRIAL PHENOMENA.

1. Overturning mountains. “Which removeth,” i.e.. uprooteth or overtumeth, “the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger” (verse 5). Whatever be the allusion intended, whether to the convulsions of nature which occurred at the Flood, or to those usually associated with earthquakes, the language suggests the absoluteness of God’s control over nature, and in particular:

(1) The greatness of his power, which, being able to uproot and overthrow mighty hills through its resistless force, must be competent to do the most stupendous worksmust, in fact, be an agency to which there can be no impossibilities. The only power resembling it on earth is that of faith (Mar 9:23), to which also is ascribed the ability to remove mountains (Mar 11:23).

(2) The suddenness of his power, the mountains being represented as overturned unexpectedly, in a moment, “without their knowing,” which again reflects upon the vastness of that power which can effect so gigantic a feat without effort and without labour, so easily and naturally (“He toucheth the hills, and they smoker Psa 104:32) that it is done instantaneously.

(3) The fierceness of his power, especially when it is put forth in judgment, the uprooting of the mountains being depicted as a terrible manifestation of the Almighty’s wrath, concerning which the overturned hills seem to say, “Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him” (Nah 1:6; cf. Hab 3:6).

2. Convulsing the earth. “Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars,” i.e. the internal foundations, “thereof tremble” (verse 6). Nothing is more seemingly stable than the solid globe (Psa 119:90). Its original establishment was a sublime witness to the power and wisdom of its Creator (1Sa 2:8; Psa 24:1, Psa 24:2; Psa 136:6; Jer 51:15). Yet, by the mysterious forces treasured up within its dark retreats, the Almighty can make it tremble as if about to be dissolved (Psa 104:32; Psa 114:7), as he did at Sinai (Exo 19:18; Psa 68:8), and as once again he will do at the end of time (Heb 1:10; 2Pe 3:10). The shaking of the earth is an emblem of Divine judgments (Isa 13:13).

II. IN THE WONDERS OF THE SKY.

1. Obscuring the sun. “Who commandeth the sun, and it riseth [or, ‘shineth’] not” (verse 7). Alluding to both natural and supernatural obscurations of the solar light, of the former of which ordinary eclipses may be taken as illustrations, while the Egyptian darkness will constitute a sample of the latter.

(1) The sun is the most resplendent object in heaven. Here styled cherem, probably from its brilliant appearance (Delitzsch), or perhaps from its heat-giving properties (Gesenius). As such it is a silent witness to the great power of God (Gen 1:16; Psa 74:16; Psa 136:7,Psa 136:8; Jer 31:35).

(2) The sun is ever obedient to the will of its Creator. There is no part of God’s universe that is not under law. The greatest suns as well as the smallest atoms continually recognize his authority. The orb of day is equally obedient in rising and in setting (Ecc 1:5). As such, it is an eloquent teacher of obedience to man (Psa 148:8).

(3) The sun is never wearied of its beneficent mission to shine. And it always shines, except when commanded not. As such, it is a preacher of diligence to the Christian, who is commanded to let his light shine (Mat 5:16).

(4) When the sun is obscured or commanded not to shine, it is in judgment on the sins of man (Joe 2:31; Ames 8:9; Luk 21:25; Act 2:20), as during the Egyptian darkness (Exo 10:22) and at the time of the Crucifixion (Mat 27:45). The darkened sun is an impressive and instructive emblem of the judgments God sends upon men and nations who neither value nor improve the light of truth and salvation they possess.

2. Concealing the stars. “And sealeth up the stars” (verse 7). The stars also are God’s creatures (Gen 1:16), and as such are obedient to his control. The vast number, immense magnitudes, and incredible velocities of the heavenly bodies, as unfolded by modern astronomy, impart to us loftier conceptions of the Creatofs power than were possessed by devout Hebrews. The Divine wisdom also is significantly displayed in the regularity of their movements, which secures that they never fail to swim out into the blue sea of the celestial firmament when the light of day has departed. Yet the ease with which the splendor of the midnight sky can be extinguished, by pouring over it the brilliance of day, or drawing round it the thick gloom of clouds, is no less striking as a visible display of almighty wisdom and power, and one which must have appeared to an Oriental, looking up into a Syrian sky, infinitely more solemnizing than it does to an Occidental, who only sees the stars shining with a dimmer lustre.

3. Bringing down the clouds. “Which alone spreadeth out the heavens” (verse 8). The reference is probably not to the original creation of the firmament (Gen 1:6), but to the visible descent of storm-clouds upon the sea (Psa 18:9-11). The poet represents the striking phenomena of cloud-land as another exhibition of almighty power. The modern scientist imagines, when he has predicted the advent and measured the velocity of the tempest, he has effectually disposed of the Hebrew poet’s notion of supernaturalism in connection with the marvels of the sky. But the laws by which storm-clouds are built up and let down, swept along and finally dispersed, have not been spontaneously developed, or inherently possessed by, but externally imposed on, nature by him whose strength is in the clouds (Psa 68:34), who employs them as his chariot (Psa 104:3), and who when he pleases draws them across the face of heaven (Psa 147:8).

4. Walking on the billows. “And treadeth upon the waves [literally, ‘the heights’] of the sea” (verse 8); i.e. upon the fierce mountainous billows. The two clauses are descriptive of a storm at sea, in which sea and sky appear to intermingle (Psa 107:25, Psa 107:26). As the wind, so the water; as the sky, so the sea; as the cloud, so the wave, recognizes the authority of God. The Divine power is usually exhibited as calming the troubled billows (Psa 65:7; Psa 89:9, Psa 89:13). Here Jehovah is portrayed as exciting a tempest, bringing down his clouds, sending forth his hurricanes, raising the still waters into gigantic billows, lashing the quiet sea into a wild and tumultuous commotion, and then going forth in sublime sovereignty amidst the hurricane he has produced, walking calmly upon the crested heights of the ocean, causing his voice to be heard above the loudest roar of the storm,and at length saying, “Peace, be still!” So Christ visibly walked upon the Sea of Galilee (Mat 14:26). Another picture of God’s sovereignty over creation, another lesson of God’s ability to be the confidence of them that are afar off upon the sea (Psa 65:8).

III. IN THE CREATION OF THE STELLAR WORLD.

1. The constellations of the northern hemisphere. “Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and the Pleiades [literally, ‘who made’].”

(1) ‘Ash; identified with Ursa Major, the Wain, the Bear, an exceedingly bright constellation in the northern sky, the Hebrew term signifying (according to some) “the Nightly Watcher” because of its never setting (Schultens), or perhaps with greater probability being contracted from an Arabic root n’ash, meaning “bier,” the three stars in the tail being designated “Daughters of the Bier” (Gesenius); cf. Job 38:32.

(2) Chesil; literally, “Fool,” regarded by the Assyrians as the famous hunter Nimrod, styled by the Arabs “the Hero,” and by the Chaldeans, “the Giant;” commonly allowed to be the splendid constellation Orion, which “stands like a great giant in the heavens south of Taurus and Gemini” (Carey).

(3) Chimah; literally, “Heap;” the well-known cluster of stars named “the Pleiades,” a sparkling group compared by Persian poets to s bouquet formed of jewels (Delitzsch).

2. The constellations of the southern hemisphere. “And the chambers of the south;” i.e. the regions of the southern sky, which are completely veiled from view to us, and only occasionally discovered to Arabian spectators.

IV. IN THE PROVIDENTIAL GOVERNMENT OF THE UNIVERSE. The sentiment of Job 38:10, which almost verbatim repeats the utterance of Eliphaz (Job 5:10), may be viewed as a general description of the mighty power of God in upholding, as well as creating, the stupendous fabric he has summoned into being. Regarded in this light, it describes the operations of Divine energy as:

1. Great. He “doeth great things” (Job 38:10). Everything that God does (in creation and providence) may be characterized as great (Psa 92:5; Psa 111:2), as being the production of infinite power. The distinction between great and little, when applied to Divine acts, exists only in the human understanding. The creation of a solar system is as easy to Omnipotence as the construction of an atom, and the formation of the latter as much dependent on Divine power as the production of the former.

2. Wonderful. “He doeth wondrous things.” The wisdom displayed in the Divine works is conspicuous to every intelligent observer (Psa 104:24). The marvels of creation are fully equalled by the wonders of providence. The formation of a crystal, the structure of a flower, the organization of an animal, are examples of the former; the Deluge, the Exodus from Egypt, the Babylonish exile, the incarnation and death of Christ, illustrations of the latter.

3. Unsearchable. He doeth things “past finding out.” Much as modern science has discovered of the secrets of Nature, there are vast realms lying unexplored around and beyond her, into some of which it is doubtful if she will ever be able to penetrate. Her ascertained results also make it probable that there are works of God into which she cannot sink the plummet of her finite understanding; as e.g. the nature of electricity and magnetism, the mystery of life in all its forms and gradations, the mode in which matter and mind act and react upon one another.

4. Numerous. He doeth “wonders without number.” The exquisite variety and the apparently limitless number of God’s works are impressive testimonies to the infinite power and matchless wisdom of the Creator.

Learn:

1. There is no God like unto the God of the Christian (Exo 15:11; Deu 33:26).

2. Nothing can transcend the power of God (Gen 18:14; Jer 32:17).

3. God is infinitely worthy of the reverence, confidence, affection, and obedience of his intelligent creatures (Psa 89:7; Rev 4:11).

4. It cannot but be dangerous to resist God’s will (Nah 1:6; Isa 40:24; Heb 12:29).

5. “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Psa 27:1; Rom 8:31).

Job 9:11-20

Job to Bildad: 3. Creator and creature in conflict.

I. THE DIVINE ASSAILANT.

1. His mysterious movements. “Lo! he goeth by me, and I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him not” (verse 11). The language, recalling Eliphaz’s description of the shadowy spectre (Job 4:15), recognizes:

(1) The personality of God. The Divine Being is not an impalpable abstraction or a dead unintelligent force, but a living, thinking, self-conscious Intelligence. Such a Deity is as much a necessity of reason as a postulate of revelation.

(2) The activity of God. Not confounding the Creator and the creature as modern pantheism does, but ever maintaining a separation between the almighty Artificer of the universe and his works, biblical theology (both Hebrew and Christian) is also careful to avoid the error of deism, which, while believing in a Deity, removes him to a distance from his creation, setting him apart in cold, chilling isolation, amid the radiant splendours of a metaphysical perfection, and in particular interjecting between him and the realm of this sublunary sphere a gulf impassable by either him or man. Contrary to this, scriptural theism conceives God as an omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Intelligence, continually superintending the universe he has made, as being ever present and ever active in all parts and places of his dominion (Psa 130:1 -10; Jer 23:23, Jer 23:24; Eph 1:23; Joh 5:17).

(3) The nearness of God. In a sense that is very real, God is never far from any one of us (Act 17:27). Behind the veil which hides the unseen Eternities from mortal vision he continually sits, beholding all that transpires on earth; seeing all things and all persons, but ever remaining himself unseen. The besetting God of the Hebrew psalmist (Psa 139:5) is the God of all men. Were the veil to be uplifted, it would at once be seen that God is always at hand. Sometimes it is lifted; as e.g. to Abraham (Gen 15:1), to Hagar (Gen 16:13), to Jacob (Gen 28:13). And sometimes it is lifted to the soul when it remains closed to the bodily eye. God’s nearness to man received its highest and truest expression when the Eternal Word became incarnate and dwelt among us.

(4) The invisibility of God. Absolutely, i.e. in his uncreated essence, the supreme Deity must always remain invisible to and incomprehensible by man (Job 23:8; Joh 1:18; Joh 6:46; 1Ti 6:16; 1Jn 4:12), if not also by all finite beings (Job 11:7; Job 37:23; Isa 14:15). Relatively, he may be said to be visible when the spirit can recognize the working of his almighty finger, and invisible when that working or the reason of it is hid. Job complains that, while he can distinctly apprehend God to be passing by him in the events of providence and the phenomena of his individual experience, he is quite unable to discern God himself, i.e. to understand either the mode or the purpose of his mysterious movements (cf. Job 11:7-9; Job 37:5, Job 37:23; Psa 77:19; Nah 1:3; Mat 11:25).

2. His resistless power.

(1) Invincible. “Behold, he taketh away [or,’ he assails’], who can hinder him [or, ‘who shall repel him’]?” (verse 12). Impossible for the human soul not to feel overpowered with a sense of weakness and utter defencelessness when God, by the hand of providence, or by the inward stroke of his Spirit, collides with it. It is, however, some mitigation to the soul’s distress, when it is able to recognize that the hand which strikes it is really God’s (1Sa 3:18; Psa 39:9).

(2) Unchallengeable. Who will say unto him, What doest thou? (verse 12). The sovereignty of God in removing, as well as in bestowing, creature comforts, such as possessions, children, etc; is as plainly demon strated by experience as emphatically asserted in Scripture; and should be as cheerfully admitted by all as it was by Job (Job 1:21; Job 2:10) and by Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:35) God’s sovereignty, however, does not mean mere arbitrary and imperious behaviour. When God rakes away (as also when he gives), he not only does what he has a perfect right to do, but the reasons present to his mind for doing it are such as cannot be impeached. God’s power always acts for the best, being allied with infinite wisdom; only God explains not his motives to creatures; but saints are ever satisfied that he doeth all things well.

(3) Implacable. “Eloah restraineth not his anger” (verse 13); i.e. he never recalls it, never holds it in or turns it back until it has accomplished its purpose; but permits it, like a rising tide or sweeping hurricane, to carry all before it, so that “the proud helpers’ (literally,” the helpers of Rahab,” i.e. “the helpers of pride,” meaning probably either combinations of proud rebels, such as the antediluvians, or, “associates of the proud one,” viz. the devil, or perhaps simply wicked men who, inspired by pride, think to interpose between the Almighty and the objects of his displeasure; such persons as are described in Psa 73:6-9; but vide Exposition) “stoop under him.” The mightiest combinations and confederacies of wicked men and devils are utterly helpless against God (Psa 2:1-3; Psa 83:5, Psa 83:8; Jud Psa 1:6). Their source, pride (Psa 10:2 4); their purpose, opposition to God (Psa 12:3, Psa 12:4); their end, destruction (Psa 18:27; Pro 17:19; Isa 2:11; Isa 13:11).

3. His unanswerable charges.

(1) Because of man’s weakness. “How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him?” (verse 14). A blessed thought that man is permitted to reason with God (Isa 1:16; Isa 43:26), if not about his innocence, at least about his pardon and salvation. Persons who avail themselves of such permission should study to find appropriate language in which to state their case. Well-chosen words, if required in addressing man (Ecc 12:10), are much more indispensable in wrestling with God. Yet they who stand forth to plead with God should be profoundly impressed with a sense of their own unworthiness and insufficiency (Gen 32:10; Isa 6:5), and should accordingly be clothed with humility (2Sa 7:18).

(2) Because of God’s greatness. “Whom, though I were righteous, I would not answer, but I would make supplication to my Judge” (verse 15). A glimpse into the better nature of Job. Though repudiating the calumnies of his friends, and sometimes defending his own innocence with language indicating an approach at least to self-righteous presumption, he here appears overpowered with such a sense of the Divine majesty as to lay him prostrate in silence and self-abasement before him Note the solemn relation in which God stands to all menthat of Judge; the character which the best of men bear in his sightunrighteous; the summons which shall one day be addressed to allto stand forth and answer for their sins; the attitude which all men should take towards God in view of that eventthe attitude of supplication.

II. THE HUMAN COMPLAINANT.

1. Mistrusting the Divine condescension. Putting the case that he had summoned God into court, and that God had appeared, Job appears to conceive that a Being so infinitely exalted as he would not listen to the complaint of a frail mortal, or, if for a moment he did, would immediately break off in impatience and decline to listen further (verse 16). A total misrepresentation of the Divine character, contradicted alike by God’s descriptions of himself (Isa 57:15, Isa 57:16; Psa 91:15), and by the saints’ experience of his grace (Psa 34:6; Psa 40:17; Psa 86:13).

2. Impeaching the Divine goodness. Describing the treatment he would meet at God’s hands, Job insinuates that it would be the opposite of kind; that God would u break him with a tempest,” “multiply his wounds without cause,” “not suffer him to take his breath,” “fill him with bitterness” (verses 17, 18). As a matter of fact, the words present a literal account of Job’s sufferings, and the aspect in which they were beginning to look to himself. Conscious that his calamities were causeless so far as any wickedness on his part was concerned, which God also testified (Job 2:3), and unable to discern the secret purpose for which he was being subjected to such excruciating tortures, he can only fall back upon the hypothesis that God has turned to be his enemy. Faith would have kept him right; but Job’s faith, though not extinguished, was at this time suffering an eclipse. Sense and reason always misinterpret God. God never treats either saint or sinner as Job describes, aimlessly or maliciously, but always with tender love and for the loftiest ends (Heb 12:6, Heb 12:10).

3. Challenging the Divine equity. Practically he represents God as stifling the creature’s attempt to maintain his integrity by overpowering him with the dazzling magnificence of his Godhead; by rushing as it were into the open court of justice, and shouting to the poor bewildered appellant, “Is it a question of strength? Here am I. Is it a matter of right? Who will challenge me?” (verse 19). But this, again, was a distorted view of the Divine character. God has no need to be afraid of any investigation into his conduct, and just as little to apprehend that puny man could cure, it his infinite wisdom or overreach his almighty power.

4. Despairing of Divine acceptance. So hopeless does the contest seem to Job between a poor suffering creature like himself and a Being of infinite majesty like God, that he confesses the dire impossibility of being able to establish his innocence before the tribunal of the skies. God’s insufferable glory would so confound and stupefy him, that even if he were innocent, his own mouth would condemn him; were he guiltless, it would betray him (verse 20); i.e. he would, through sheer terror and amazement (1Pe 3:6), stumble out his own condemnation, and, conscious of his integrity, would yet confess himself guilty. What Job here asserts concerning his integrity or freedom from such transgression as Eliphaz and Bildad charged against him is certainly correct in the case of every one who would dare to maintain his moral purity in the sight of God. The clear revelation of God’s majesty and holiness imparted to the awakened soul, when it appears as if standing face to face with God, renders it a hard task for man to uphold his sinlessness. If he attempted it, he would only stultify and condemn himself. Nay, he should not know his own soul (verse 21), but only thereby demonstrate his ignorance of himself (cf. 1Jn 1:8).

Learn:

1. It is impossible to entertain too exalted a conception of the great and holy God with whom we have to do.

2. It is quite possible, even for the best of men, to misconstrue God’s dealings with the soul, and to regard him as an adversary who is really a Friend.

3. It is well to remember, in every appearance of conflict between the Creator and the creature, that all the right lies upon the side of the former.

4. The nearer saints advance towards perfection, the readier they are to acknowledge their imperfection.

5. A humble and self-abased spirit before God is quite compatible with the maintenance of one’s blamelessness before men.

Job 9:21-35

Job to Bildad: 4. The cries of a desparing soul.

I. MAINTAINING HIS INNOCENCE.

1. Attested by his conscience. “Though I were perfect;” or, better, “I am guiltless” (verse 21). Before God Job did not claim to be absolutely spotless, but merely to be free from such transgressions of the moral law as his friends insinuated he must have committed to render him obnoxious to those palpable tokens of Divine displeasure which had overtaken him. Against this, however, he protested as a wholly baseless aspersion of his character, declaring his determination to maintain his integrity at all hazards, ay, even should it cost him his life. Yet would I not know [literally, ‘I know not, i.e. I value not, care not for] my soul. I would despise [or, I despise ] my life” (verse 21). Vehement asseveration such as this would, of course, have been out of place, and altogether unjustifiable, unless Job had had the clearest and most irrefragable evidence of his own innocence behind it. But this Job professed to have in the inner testimony of his conscience, which declared him to be what Jehovah himself had already affirmed him to be”a perfect man and an upright, one that feared God and eschewed evil” (Job 1:8). It is by no means impossible tot a good man to have a conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men (Act 23:1; Act 24:16). Decisions registered before the court of conscience are always in accordance with truth. Conscience may be stupefied through sin, and prevented from delivering its testimony (Eph 4:19). It may even be perverted and constrained to call evil good (Act 26:9). But where enlightened and free, it never fails to indicate the moral standing of the soul. Scripture distinctly recognizes the validity of the inner witness of conscience (Rom 8:16). And not unfrequently this witness is all that a good man can lean upon in times of adversity (e.g. Joseph, Gen 39:21; Daniel, Dan 1:8; SS. Peter and John, Act 4:19; St. Paul, Tit 2:1-15 :17; cf. Shakespeare, ‘Henry VIII.,’ act 3. sc. 2). When it is so, the evidence of circumstance and appearance being all against him, he is fully warranted to rest upon it. If he trust it, it will support him.

2. Not disproved by his sufferings. The sole ground possessed by Eliphaz and Bildad for their calumnies was that Job had been overtaken by evil fortunes. But, besides repelling the charges themselves as contradicted by the clear verdict of his own conscience, he likewise repudiates the foundation on which they were based as diametrically opposed to the plain facts of history. So far from appearances being against Job, rightly interrogated they were rather in his favour. So far from God’s dealings with men being strictly retributive, so that Job’s guilt might warrantably be inferred from his misery, they were as nearly as possible the opposite. All experience showed:

(1) That God frequently confounded the righteous and the wicked in one indiscriminate overthrow. “This is one thing [literally, ‘it is all one ‘], therefore I said [or, ‘will say’] it, he destroyeth the perfect and the wicked’ (verse 22). An incontrovertible fact, which wars, famines, pestilences, earthquakes, tempests, and other disastrous occurrences, sufficiently attest, which thoughtful observers in all ages have noted (Ecc 9:1-18 :23), and which has frequently perplexed the good (Gen 18:24); but which, while it is not an injustice to the creature, even the righteous themselves being sinful, is as little an inequality on the part of the Creator, who, though not bound to justify his ways to sinful man, may yet have adopted this method of Divine government as best suited to meet the moral and spiritual improvement of mankind generally, to exercise the faith and develop the graces of the righteous, and to awaken within the soul a conviction of the necessity and certainty of a future state (Mal 3:18; cf. Butler’s Analogy,’ Mal 3:1-18.).

(2) That God was indifferent to the miseries of the righteous. “If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the righteous” (verse 23); first at their sufferings, and then at the inward temptations to unbelief and despair that these sufferings occasion. This, however, is inconceivable. God cautions men against judging one another simply by appearances. Much more is it necessary to avoid this mistake in judging of God. “God doth not afflict the children of men,” much less his own children, “willingly“ (Lam 3:33).

“Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.”

God laughs at the wicked and their machinations (Psa 2:4); never at his people and their sorrows (Exo 3:7; Mat 23:37; Joh 11:35).

(3) That God seemingly extended favour to the wicked; first, generally, by promoting wicked men to positions of worldly influence and power: “The earth is given into the hand of the wicked’ (verse 24); and second, particularly, by committing the administration of justice to the ungodly: “He covereth the faces of the judges thereof” (verse 24); i.e. so that, through ignorance and corruption, being unable to discern between right and wrong, they legalize oppression and robbery, “framing mischief by a law.” That such anomalies exist is undeniable (Psa 12:8). And Job means to say that he holds God responsible for them. “If it is not he that is the Author of them, then who is it?” God is the moral Governor of the universe (Exo 9:29; Psa 47:2, Psa 47:7; Psa 83:18). The civil magistracy is a Divine institution (Pro 8:15, Pro 8:16). God alone has power to prevent the perversion of his own ordinance (Psa 75:7; Dan 2:21). God is not in ignorance that his people are oppressed (Ecc 5:8). And God has distinctly promised to exercise righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed (Psa 103:6). Hence nobody is to blame but God, says Job. The logic is good, but the theology is bad.

II. BEMOANING HIS LOT.

1. The impossibility of attaining to happiness.

(1) The fleetness of his days had rendered this beyond his ability. His past life had vanished with incredible velocity:

(a) like a quick-footed courier: “My days are [literally, ‘were ‘] swifter than a post” (verse 25), or state-runner carrying letters and despatches, sometimes able, when mounted on dromedaries, to travel a hundred and fifty miles a day;

(b) like a fast-sailing ship, literally, “ships of reed,” skiffs constructed of the papyros Nilotica‘ and celebrated for their swiftness, “a little pinnace that may serve to make sport and pastime on the water, which turneth nimbly here and there, and goeth away apace” (Calvin); and

(c) like a swift-flying eagle: “As the eagle that hasteth to the prey” (verse 26);three images conveying an impressive picture of the brevity of man’s existence on the earth.

(2) The vanity of his life was another cause of failure in reaching mundane felicity. His days had rushed by “without seeing good” (verse 25), or, “having seen no good;” which in Job’s case was not correct, as prior to his affliction he had attained to a high degree of both temporal and spiritual prosperity. Men are prone to forget past mercies. “Out of sight, out of mind,” is frequently exemplified among saints. Perhaps no lives exist that never see good. Yet the noblest thing in God’s world is not to see, but to do, good. A life that does good may be short; it can never be wholly vain.

2. The impossibility of surmounting his sorrow. This also had. a double cause.

(1) The immovability of his misery. However frequently he might resolve to brighten up, the recollection of his pains made him shudder (verse 28). Nothing is more certain than that the burden of sorrow cannot be removed by simple resolution. No man can really brighten up in the midst of affliction unless he casts his burden on the Lord. But to the doing of this in Job’s ease there seemed an insuperable barrier, viz.:

(2) The unchangeable determination of God to count him guilty. Reasoning from the standpoint of sense, Job regarded this as the natural deduction from his continued sufferings. Hence the hopelessness of trying to look bright. Had Job adopted David’s resolution (Psa 42:5, Psa 42:11; Psa 43:5), he might have overcome this tremendous heart-sinking of which he was conscious. How immensely more advantageous the position of Christians than that of Job or even David! Not only have they the clear consciousness of acceptance with God for Christ’s sake to support them, but they have the plainest Scripture declarations that affliction is a proof of love and friendship rather than of hatred and enmity and the most earnest exhortations to rejoice in tribulation; yea, to rejoice in the Lord always (Php 4:4; Jas 1:2).

3. The impossibility of establishing his innocence. Because of:

(1) God’s determination to make him cut guilty: “I have to be guilty” (verse 29). Same thought as above. It is certain that God is shut up by the necessities of his Godhead, His immaculate purity and incorruptible justice, to hold every man on earth, even the purest and most upright saint that lives, as guilty (Rom 3:19), but not in the sense here intended by Job. It is no pleasure to God to find men guilty. Certainly, he never makes an innocent man guilty; though, thanks to his mercy, he often treats a guilty man as innocent.

(2) Job’s inability to overcome this determination. Plaints were useless: “Why do I labour in vain” (verse 29), in protesting my innocence, or trying to make it good? “If I wash myself with snow-water,” supposed to be purer than common water, “and make my hands never so clean [literally, ‘clean with lye or potash’], yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes should abhor me” (verses 30, 31); i.e. the best attempts at self-justification would be useless.

III. YEARNING FOR A DAYSMAN.

1. The necessity of such a daysman. Job craved an arbiter or umpire between himself and God, because of the unequal terms on which they stood. “He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment ‘ (verse 32). For the same reason man requires a Mediator between himself, the feeble, sinning creature, and Jehovah, the infinitely powerful and immaculately pure Creator. And this want which Job so powerfully felt has been supplied by Christ, the one Mediator between God and man (1Ti 2:5).

2. The work of such a daysman. Described as twofold:

(1) To act authoritatively for both parties in the contest. “There is not a daysman,” or arbiter between us, “that might lay his hand upon us both” (verse 33); i.e. that might impose conditions upon both by the imposition of hands. This Christ is able to do in virtue of his twofold nature, being the Fellow of the Most High as well as the Son of man. Thus representing both parties, he can lay his hands on both. He can speak and act with authority for both.

(2) To remove the obstacles to man’s coming into converse with God. These were, in Job’s case, twothe terror of God’s rod, and the terror of God’s face: “Let him take away his rod from me, and let not his fear [i.e. his terrible majesty] terrify me” (verse 34). The same things prevent the free access of sinful man to God, viz. God’s rodnot his providential afflictions, but his legal condemnations; and God’s majesty, or the ineffable glory of his holy Godhead. And these have been removed by Christ; the latter by big incarnation, the former by his sacrifice.

3. The benefit of such a daysman.

(1) Man is able to approach Godnot perhaps as Job, with conscious integrity: “Then would I speak, and not fear him; for not thus do I stand with myself,” i.e. I am not conscious of anything to make me afraid (verse 35); but certainly, without alarm and with hopeful confidence; and

(2) God is able to enter into treaty with man.

Learn:

1. There is a clear difference between maintaining one’s blamelessness before men and asserting one’s righteousness before God.

2. The character of God’s heart is not always to be inferred from the dealings of God’s hand.

3. Many things are permitted to occur in God’s universe of which he does not approve.

4. The science of numbering our days is one that all mortals should learn.

5. The true value of life is not to be estimated by its length.

6. The best consolation in human sorrow is the enjoyment of Divine favour.

7. The finest and purest morality will not enable a man to do without a mediator.

8. No man can come to God except through Jesus Christ.

9. But in him and through him we have access by one Spirit to the Father.

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON

Verse 1-10:22

Second reply of Job. The fearfulness of God’s power.

Now, for the first time, Job admits the great principle for which Eliphaz and Bildad have contended, but in a bitter and sarcastic sense. True, he says, it is not for man to contend against God. But why? Because he is absolute Power, and hence there is no possibility of a flail mortal prevailing in his plea. His might is his fight. It is a dark conception of God to which Job’s despair now drives him. He looks upon God simply as omnipotent Force, arbitrary and irresistible Will. Take the thought of power, and separate it from that of justice and of compassion, and we have the idea of an almighty Fiend rather than of a good and gracious Father. Yet the spark of true faith still lives, as we shall see, in the recesses of his awakened heart,J.

Job 9:2-20

God viewed as absolute and arbitrary Power.

I. THE HELPLESSNESS OF MAN IN PRESENCE OF HIS OMNIPOTENCE. (Job 9:1-3.) What avails right on one’s side against him who has all heaven’s artillery at his command? “It is idle to argue with the Master of thirty legions.” Out of a thousand questions with which the Almighty might overwhelm my mind, there is not one which I could answer with the chance of a fair hearing. Indeed, this in a sense is true, as the thirty-eighth chapter will presently show. It is idle to argue with God concerning the constitution of things. But it is never idle to plead the right. This, God, by the very nature of his Being, by his promises, is bound to attend to. Job thinks of God as the Almighty and the All-wise (verse 4), and he finds in this combination of attributes only reason for despair. He leaves out his justice; his faith in his love is suspended for a time. Hence he sees him only through the distorted dream of suffering, and his dark inferences are wrong.

II. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE ABSOLUTE POWER OF GOD.

1. In nature’s destructive forces. Here he would rival and outvie Eliphaz in the sublimity of his pictures. The more terrible phenomena of nature are produced as evidences of a blind, tyrannic might: the earthquake (verse 5), which topples over the giant mountains like a child’s plaything, and rocks the solid foundations of the earth (verse 6); the eclipse of sun and stars, the universal darkness of the heavens (verse 7), Here is the origin, according to some philosophers, of religionman’s terror in the presence of the vast destructive forces of nature. But it is the origin only of a part of religious feelingof awe and reverence. And when man learns more of nature as a whole, and more of his own heart, he rises into loftier and happier moods than that of slavish fear.

2. In nature‘s splendour and general effect. The vastness of the “immeasurable heavens,” and the great sea of clouds (verse 8), the splendid constellations of the northern and the southern sky (verse 9), lead the mind out in wonder, stretch the imagination to its limits, fill the soul with the sense of the unutterable, the innumerable, the infinite (verse 10). This mood is happier than the former. It is one of elevation, wonder, delighted joy in the communion of the mind with Mind. It is stamped upon the glowing lines of the nineteenth psalm. But Job draws from these sublime spectacles at present only the inference of God’s dread and irresistible power.

III. MANKIND ITSELF IN RELATION TO THIS ABSOLUTE POWER.

1. It is invisible and swift in its errand of terror (verse 11). Sudden death by lightning, or by a hasty malady, naturally produces an appalling effect. Hence the prayer of the Litany.

2. It is irresistible. (Verses 12, 13.) No human hand can stay, no human prayer avert, its overpowering onset. The monsters, or Titans (“helpers of Rahab”), were overcome, according to some well-known legend; how much less, then, can I resist with success (verse 14)?

3. The consciousness of innocence is therefore of no avail. Supplication alone is in place before a Disputant who knows no law but his will (verse 15). I cannot believe that he, from his height, would give attention to my cry (verse 16). He is Force, crushing Force alone, guided only by causeless caprice (verse 17); stifling the cry of the pleader in his mouth, and filling him with bitterness (verse 18).

4. The human dilemma. Man in presence of an absolute Tyrant must always be in the wrong. If he stands on might, he is a fool; if he appeals to right, he has no court of all appealfor who can challenge the Judge of heaven and earth? Right will be set down as wrong, innocence will be pronounced guilt (verses 19, 20). We see, from this picture of Job’s state of mind, that there is no extremity of doubt so dim as when man is tempted to disbelieve in the principle of justice as the law of the universe, which cannot be broken. The thought of God turns then only into one of unmitigated horror and despair.J.

Job 9:21-24

Rebellion of the conscience against this picture of terror.

A reaction comes; for the clear testimony of consciousness may be obscured for a time, but cannot be denied. In that clear consciousness, it seems that Job will turn against the injustice (as he thinks) of God, and boldly denounce it.

I. A GOOD CONSCIENCE LIFTS THE MIND ABOVE ABJECT FEAR.

II. IT IMPARTS CONTEMPT OF DEATH. (Verse 21.)

III. IT STIMULATES TO BOLDNESS IN PLEADING ONE‘S CAUSE. We must think of Job, according to a leading conception of the book, as within his right in pleading against his (supposed) adversary as in a court. He argues, as again showing that God is merely an absolute Tyrant, that the innocent are punished along with the guilty (verse 22). There are two examples of this:

1. The scourge, or pest, which quickly sweeps away whole populations, making no discrimination between the good and evil, the hoary sinner and the helpless babe (verse 23).

2. The dominion of the wicked in the world. Their faces are covered; they do not distinguish between right and wrong. And who else can be the Cause of this but God (verse 24)?J.

Job 9:25-35

Melancholy reflections.

I. SELF–CONTEMPLATION IN REFERENCE TO THE PAST. His life has sped swiftlylike a courier, or the swift boat of the Euphrates or the Nile, or the swooping eagle (Job 9:25, Job 9:26), and without seeming prosperity. Here he perverts the history of the past; but memory as welt as reason is poisoned.

II. IN REFERENCE TO THE FUTURE. (Job 9:27, Job 9:28.) Hope has broken its wing. The effort to remove the gloom from his brow is useless, unless he could remove the weight frown his heart. Thatthe sense of the disfavour of Godcomes roiling back from every effort, like the stone of Sisyphus.

III. THE VANITY OF MORAL ENDEAVOUR. (Job 9:29-31.) He feels himself as under an absolute decree of guilt which no earthly power can possibly remove. Should he use snow-water and lye, i.e. employ all means to justify himself, still his absolute Judge would plunge him back into a state of horrible pollution.

IV. THE INEQUALITY OF THE STRIFE BETWEEN MAN AND GOD. Were it between man and man, he has no doubt of the success of his cause.

V. THE WANT OF A COUNT OF APPEAL. (Job 9:32, Job 9:33.) There is no “daysman,” or arbitrator, who can lay the hand of authority upon both of us, and, by determining the cause, bring the strife to an end.

VI. PASSIONATE APPEAL AND RESOLVE. The appeal is for freedom of speech (Job 9:34, Job 9:35; Job 10:1, Job 10:2). The last, or one of the last, boons that honourable men can be disposed to deny to the oppressed; one that God will never deny to his intelligent creatures. Yet Job, overcome by the dogmatism of his friends, seems to think it is now denied him. The resolve is that since life has now become a weariness and a disgust, he will give free way to words, regardless of consequences. In reviewing this wild complaint of an unhinged intelligence, we may learn the following lessons:

1. God is not to be thought of as absolute Power, but rather as absolute Justice and Love. The former is the conception of a demon, the latter that of the Father of spirits.

2. All sides and aspects of nature must be viewed as equally revelations of God.

3. Man is never weak when he has right on his side, and, though he seems to be crushed, he will be exalted for ever.

4. Darkness in the reason is no proof of the withdrawal of God’s favour. Our subjection and personal sufferings do not affect the eternal objective realities. The clouds may hide, but cannot efface, the sun.

5. God is merciful to our misunderstandings, and detects the spark of faith in the heart of sufferers who may be unconscious of it themselves.J.

HOMILIES BY R. GREEN

Job 9:1-4

Man unable to answer to God.

Job resumes. He knows, as truly as does Bildad, that God doth not pervert justice. His work is always right, while man is erring, vain, and sinful. How shall the creature “answer” to the Creator? Were the Holy One to condescend to enter into controversy with his frail creature man, the poor sinner would be dumb. Out of the mouth, even of the guilty, God would extort the confession of his own righteousness, and by his manifested glory compel the proud and self-conceited one to acknowledge his own sinfulness and error. This confession finally comes from the lips of his faithful “servant Job.” The present words are the first notes of that final triumphant confession. The inability of man to answer God arises

I. FROM THE FACT OF THE ABSOLUTE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE DIVINE WAYS, Job acknowledges this; and this makes his own suffering lot, as the servant of God, so inexplicable both to himself and to his mistaken friends, who are bent, at all hazards, on finding an answer. It is possible for man to pretend an answer to God; and, with wicked boldness, to enter into contention with him. But, in presence of the perfectly holy work of the Most High, he must ultimately be silenced.

II. BUT MAN IS EQUALLY UNABLE TO ANSWER TO GOD BY REASON OF THE SINFULNESS OF HIS DOINGS. Even Job, commended of God, does not hide his sinfulness. On the lowest ground, it must be complained of man’s work that it is imperfect. His best deeds, done with his utmost strength and with an intention as pure as he can summon, are but imperfectly done. The strength is but feebleness; the motive lacking in the highest qualities, and the performance but irregular. The unsteadiness of the human hand may be traced through all Therefore

III. IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR MAN TO MAINTAIN HIS OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS BEFORE GOD. The measure of moral apprehension left even in the most faulty is sufficient to convince every one in presence of the Divine holinessthe true standardthat he is verily guilty. Even Job, when he saw God, abhorred himself, repenting “in dust and ashes.” In humility he confesses, “How should man be just with God?” If vain man, who is foolish enough at times to attempt any presumptuous work, should dare to “contend” with the eternal Ruler, it must only end in his utter defeat; for “he is wise in heart, and mighty in strength.”

IV. THE HARDENING OF THE HEART TO APPEAR IN CONTENTION MUST ONLY END IN SHAME AND DISGRACE TO HIM. To this all experience bears witness; for who hath done so “and hath prospered”? Man is puny, ignorant, weak, vain, and sinful. How shall he appear in the presence of the Almighty, the All-wise, the Eternal? Lowliness and contrition describe the true attitude for man to assume before God. Then will he be gracious, and lift up him that is bowed down. But “if he withdraw not his anger, the proud helpers stoop under him.”R.G.

Job 9:15, Job 9:16

The true attitude of the afflicted.

Job makes a suitable reflection on the almightiness of Jehovah, seen in his control over the visible world. The lofty and deep-seated mountains, the very types of might and stability, he “removeth” without their knowing, and “overturneth in his wrath.” He “shaketh” the whole “earth out of her place,” and maketh the “pillars thereof to tremble.” In the high heavens “he commandeth the sun, and it riseth not;” and “the stars” he “sealeth up” in darkness. The earth and the heavens obey him; and he “treadeth upon the waves of the sea.” He doeth hidden and numberless things, and none can hinder him. Job, in view of this, and with a lowly recognition of his own powerlessness before the Lord of all, bows himself down in the attitude most becoming to the feeble, afflicted, and sinful child of man. It is

I. AN ATTITUDE OF LOWLY HUMILITY. How becoming! How just! Let the creature bow low before the Creator. Let the feeble thing of a day humble himself before the Eternal and the Almighty. Let him who is powerless before the mountains and the sea, who cannot touch the stars, take his place in the dust, whence he is, in presence of him who by his power setteth fast the mountains; who by his word Created the heavens and the earth, and upholdeth all by his own unaided strength. Lowliness will be followed by

II. AN ATTITUDE OF SELF–DISTRUST. Knowing himself as he only can who reflects on the greatness of the Most High, the wise, afflicted one will not trust to an arm of strength; but, in the painful consciousness of his own weakness, will commit himself to the strong Lord who is over all. Job knows, as every afflicted one, that his suffering holds him as in a net, from which he cannot break loose. He has no power. He is chained, held down. His own flesh triumphs over him. He is a prisoner to disease. In his helplessness, with self-distrustfulness he casts himself into the arms of God. He would not pretend to make answer, or to “choose out words to reason with him.” His self-distrust is followed by

III. PENITENCEthe one attitude of all the most becoming to man. In penitence he acknowledges his unrighteousness. And so deep is that penitence, that he declares, “Though I were able to establish my righteousness, yet I could not presume to answer.” Penitence is the pathway to heaven’s gate. He who lowly walks, walks surely. And God lifteth up them who thus bow themselves down. But he rises

IV. TO THE ATTITUDE OF PRAYER. He lifts his voice to God. He makes his “supplication.” He who is led to pray is led to the feet of him who casts away no needy suppliant. It is his high prerogative to hear prayer. Therefore all flesh, in their want, their sorrow, their sin, or with their songs of praise, come to him. Man’s safety is here. The lowly, self-distrustful, humble penitent cannot raise his voice on high without the gracious response of the Divine mercy reaching him. To this men are driven

(1) by their sense of impotence;

(2) by the consciousness of sin;

(3) by the assurance of the Divine mercy.

Happy he who thus learns!R.G.

Job 9:33

The Mediator.

The object desired by Joband here he speaks for all sinful onesis to obtain reconciliation with Jehovah, against whom he acknowledges himself to have sinned. He cries for a mediator, an arbiter, an umpire; one able to “lay his hand upon us both”to bring us together, mediating between us.

I. THE NECESSITY FOR THIS ARISES:

1. From Job’s consciousness of sin. In his prayer (verse 28) he confesses to God, “I know thou wilt not hold me innocent.” “I am not innocent,” is the first confession of guilt. “If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me.”

2. From Job’s inability to “answer” to God. Of this he has made both complaint and confession. “Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer” (verse 15). Fear and just humility seize him. “How much less shall I answer him?” (verse 14). Man cannot order his own cause before the eternal Judge. “He cannot answer him one of a thousand” (verse 3).

3. From their utter inequality. “He is not a man, as I am” (verse 32). They could not therefore “come together in judgment.” How vain of poor, ignorant, feeble, sinful man to suppose that he can answer to Godthat he can “appear before him!” How vain even to imagine himself justified and pure before him! Yet many “appear before” God in the presumptuous, self-excusing, self-justifying thoughts of their minds. All such self-justification condemned by Job’s wise words and just views of things.

II. JOB‘S CRY IS THE UNCONSCIOUS CRY OF THE UNIVERSAL HEART OF MAN FOR A MEDIATOR. Seen in all religious systemsthe faith in the priestthe conscious ignorance of hidden spiritual verities. The uninterpreted apprehension of a spiritual world and government and future, and yet the inability to deal with these and to put one’s self in a right attitude respecting them. This cry is heard in all lands, languages, and times. “Oh that there were a daysman!” This cry prepares for and anticipates the true Mediator.

III. THE RESPONSE TO THE UNIVERSAL NEED IN THE “ONE MEDIATOR BETWEEN GOD AND MEN.” Happily “himself Man.” God “hath spoken unto us in his Son”no longer in prophets, but in a Son, who is at the same time “the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance;” and yet “Man””bone of our bone.” “God manifested in the flesh,” and yet “in all things” “made like unto his brethren.” Speaking with Divine authority to us in our language, and of heavenly things on our level And revealing within the compass of a human life, and by means of human acts and human sentiments, the thought and love and pitiful mercy of God. And representing usdoing what Job felt (and all have felt whose views were just) he could not do, “appear before the face of God for us.” Now we “have our access through him in one Spirit unto the Father.” If we cannot order our speech or our cause, he can. If we cannot answer one of a thousand, he can. For he is able, indeed, to “put his hand upon both.”R.G.

HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY

Job 9:2

The problem of justification.

It is very doubtful how far Job conceived of this great problem as it has presented itself to us since the time of St. Paul. The whole question was confused to his apprehension by the inexplicable perplexity of his situation and the grossly unfair insinuations of his friends. It appeared as though God were his Adversary, and it seemed hopeless to attempt to set himself right with One whose power was so vastly greater than his own. We have not Job’s peculiar difficulties in regard to Divine providence. Yet to us the problem of justification is not less serious because we have been made to see the moral difficulties more closely. Let us, then, consider the Christian view of the problem of justification and its solution.

I. THE PROBLEM. The question which Job propounds is of a universal character. He does not ask how he, as one individual in special circumstances, can be justified; but his own case leads him to think of man generally. He feels that his difficulty is his share of a general difficulty of the race. What is this?

1. To be just with God is to stand right with God. The expression implies a certain relationship. It goes beyond subjective righteousness; it is more than internal holiness. It is a standing in right relations to God, in such relations as admit of his treating us as just men.

2. The character o/the relations depends on God‘s view of us. We may appear just in the eyes of men and yet not be just with God. He knows us as we are, and he can be deceived by no cloak of hypocrisy. Therefore we have to lay aside all shams and appearances when we come to consider the question of our justification before God.

3. Sin puts us all in wrong relations with God. We start with the fact that we need to be justified. The justification cannot be a clearing of our character from false imputations, as Job’s was largely; for many accusations are truewe are guilty. Hence the tremendous difficulty of the problem.

4. It is unspeakably important that we should be in right relations with God. This is not a question of abstract dogmatics, but one of personal experience. It does not merely touch our feelings, and concern itself with our peace of mind; it is vital to our soul’s salvation.

II. ITS SOLUTION. Job propounds the question as though no answer could be given. With him it is a case of despair. But Christ has brought an answer, which St. Paul has expounded in the Epistle to the Romans.

1. We cannot justify ourselves with God. It is necessary to see this first of all The Jews made the experiment with their Law, and failed. Many now make it, either by attempting to excuse themselves or by trying to better themselves. But they always fail.

2. God has made a method of justification. This is the great wonder of redemption, that our Judge provides our Advocate; that he who might condemn us finds a way by which we may be forgiven.

3. This justification is in Christ. (Rom 3:22.) Christ brings forgiveness of past sin and recovery to God. Thus he puts us in right relations with our Father.

4. It is realized by means of faith. (Rom 3:28.) When we put our trust in Christ, we receive from him the grace of pardon and renewal. The condition of faith is absolutely necessary. We must avoid the mistake of supposing that this is faith in our own state of justification, i.e. a believing ourselves to be justified. It is not that; but it is a personal trust and loyalty in relation to Christ himself.

5. This condition results in a real state of right relations with God. Justification is not a legal judgment, a mere pretence, affirming that we are what we are not. That would be a lie. It is an actual fact; a putting as in right relations with God. Thus it is the root and promise of righteousness.W.F.A.

Job 9:20

Self-justification.

I. THE NEED TO BE JUSTIFIED. The burning necessity of justification lies at the root of Job’s terrible agony. Yet even he does not feel it in its deep moral and spiritual significance, as it would have been felt by one who was conscious of sin rather than of undeserved suffering and unjust accusations. We cannot endure to be out of right relations with God. Though our lost state may not trouble us as yet, the time will come when we shall see its terrible and fatal character.

II. WE ARE TEMPTED TO JUSTIFY OURSELVES. The very need causes the temptation. Moreover, a self-flattering vanity urges us in the same direction. It is most painful and humiliating to have to own that we are sinners, deserving nothing but wrath and condemnation. When we feel ourself in danger, we are at once urged by very instinct to put ourselves in an attitude of self-defence.

III. WE MAY BE DELUDED INTO A MISTAKEN BELIEF THAT WE ARE JUSTIFIED. No delusions are so powerful as those which flatter us. It is so easy to put things in a favourable light to ourselves. While we are our own judges, every motive of self-esteem urges us to a favourable judgment. Then there comes in the terrible mistake of determining according to our feelings rather than according to objective reality, so that when we have argued or soothed ourselves into a comfortable assurance that all is well, that very assurance is regarded as a proof of the fact on which it is supposed to be grounded. But this may be a pure hallucination. It is possible to be justified before God and yet to be tormented with needless fears of condemnation, and it is equally possible to be still under condemnation while we fancy ourselves in a state of justification.

IV. SELF–JUSTIFICATION MUST FAIL. We cannot get outside ourselves or transcend our own experience. No lever by which a man can lift himself has ever been invented. We may make a fair show in the flesh, but we cannot change our own hearts. We have sinned against God; it is useless for us merely to forgive ourselves; we need God’s pardon. If sin were not real, we might find a defence which would clear our reputation. But it is real, most terribly and unquestionably real. This fact makes self-justification impossible.

V. OUR OWN CONDUCT DEMONSTRATES THE DELUSION OF SELF–JUSTIFICATION, Job seems to think he is so hardly dealt with, and God so much greater than he is, that whatever he says in self-justification will be turned against him. That is a mistake, for God is just and merciful. But in a deeper sense God’s words are true. We may say we are just, but our deeds belie our words. Nay, our very mouth, that proclaims our justice, denies it; for our words arc often sinful, ungenerous when they are not untrue.

VI. THE FAILURE OF SELF–JUSTIFICATION SHOULD DRIVE US TO GOD‘S JUSTIFICATION IN CHRIST. We need not despair like Job, for we have a gospel to the unrighteous. Christ has brought a perfect justification, in pardon and renewal, for all who own their sin and trust his grace.W.F.A.

Job 9:22

The injustice of equality.

Job complains that the same doom is meted out to the perfect and the wicked; this seems to be unjust. Our modern complaints are of the injustice of the terrible inequalities of life. But Job’s position suggests to us that justice is not simple equality. Equal dealing may be unjust dealing. To be fair to all, we must not treat all alike. Yet the injustice of equality is apparently a common thing in the experience of life, and even in the dispensations of Providence. Thus special providence seems to be lost, and one broad, rough treatment appears to serve for the greatest variety of people.

I. IT WOULD BE UNJUST TO TREAT ALL ALIKE. This much may be conceded if we think of the whole of life, not of external experience alone, nor only of this temporal and limited sphere of existence. To look for absolute equality is to ignore variations of requirements and distinctions of character. But if this be so, what are we to understand by the apparent disregard of those differences? The world is governed by general laws. Events have widespread influences. Calamities come in a swelling tide, not in a meandering stream, and when they sweep over the land, weeds and fruitful plants suffer from the same devastation.

II. NEVERTHELESS, GOD IS NOT THUS UNJUST. Job is mistaken.

1. We only see the outside of life. The events which are common to all alike are external. They are visible objects of superficial observation. But these events do not constitute the whole of experience. The blow that breaks stone only toughens iron. The calamity that is a crushing judgment to one man is a healing tonic to another. When a flood sweeps over a district it leaves behind very different effects; for while it only brings ruin to houses, it brings fertility to fields. So the trouble is only equal externally. If only we could follow it into the experience of different men, we should discover that the inequality has ceased, and that a different effect is produced according to character and condition. While it is a curse to one life, it is a blessing to another.

2. We only see the present experience. Now, and on earth, there seems to be a rough, indiscriminate treatment of men. Here the injustice of equality is too often seen. Bat we must wait for the end. In Job’s case the end brought about a complete reversal of the whole course of events. Now God makes his sun to shine and his rain to fall on good and bad alikefavouring equally, as he sometimes chastises equally. But this equality will not continue after death. Wheat and tares grow together, but only until the harvest. There will be a great inequality of treatment, when the one is gathered into the barns, and the other is burned. Surely men should learn to bear the common troubles of life patiently, if they know that beyond them all there is more than compensation: there is fruitful increase, with richest blessings, for the true servants of God who endure patiently.W.F.A.

Job 9:25, Job 9:26

The swift days.

Job compares his days to what is swiftest-on earth, the running messenger; in the sea, the boat of reeds; in the air, the eagle darting down on its prey. We must not look for a difference in the suggestiveness of these several illustrations. Gathered from every region of existence, they give great emphasis to the one significant fact of the brevity of life.

I. OUR DAYS ARE SWIFT IN COMPARISON WITH NATURE. The course of nature moves on slowly. Geology tells of innumerable vast ages of antiquity. Evolution presupposes an even longer stretch of time. By the side of the gradual movements of nature, our little days are swift and brief. Each man’s life registers but a moment on the great dial of time. The old world rolls on, while we children of a day come and go in a rapid march of succeeding generations.

II. OUR DAYS ARE SWIFT IN RELATION TO OUR DESIRES. We crave for long experience. Extinction of being is a horror to us. There are within us great instincts of immortality. Thus, while we live our little earthly day, we are reaching forward to God’s great eternity. We cannot be satisfied with an ephemeral existence.

III. OUR DAYS ARE SWIFT IN REGARD TO OUR POWERS. It takes us long to train those powers. Half a lifetime is not enough to perfect them. But before they are perfected, the shadows begin to lengthen and the melancholy afternoon is upon us. Surely, if God has given us faculties that take so long to develop, and that seem capable of great achievements if only they had full scope, it is sad that they should begin to wither as soon as they have reached maturity.

IV. OUR DAYS ARE SWIFT IN CONNECTION WITH OUR DUTIES. There is so much to be done and so little time to do it in. Our tasks grow upon us, and our opportunities are cramped and cut short. Do we not all plan out more work than we can ever accomplish? Thus we labour with a sad consciousness that we can never overtake our intentions.

V. OUR DAYS ARE SWIFT BY THE, SIDE OF OUR EXPECTATIONS. A child sees eternity before him. In his estimation, one yeara whole yearis a vast epoch. Even in later youth time seems to be an abundant commodity. There is little need to economize it, for have we not enough and to spare? Presently we are surprised to see how quickly its unheeded moments are slipping away from us. Every year it goes faster, till the silent stream has become a headlong torrent, and days fly past us with terrible speed.

VI. OUR DAYS ARE SWIFT IN THE LIGHT OF ETERNITY. Here is the explanation of the whole mystery. We are not creatures of a day, although our earthly life is so short. God has given us a spark of his own immortality. In view of that the largest earthly life is a fleeting shadow. Yet the ample leisure of eternity must not make us careless of the work of the day, for this day will never return. How valuable is time in the outer world! The messenger runs with swiftest paces, the little skiff darts about on the waters, the fierce eagle drops on its prey like a thunderbolt. Though eternity is long, let us hasten to use our glorious prospects as an inspiration for a like eagerness in making the most of our brief earthly days.W.F.A.

Job 9:30, Job 9:31

Despair of purification.

Job is possessed by a terrible thought. He imagines that God is so determined to have him as an object of condemnation that nothing he can do can set him right; even if he makes himself ever so clean, God will plunge him back in the mire, God will overwhelm him with guilt. This is, of course, a wholly false view of God, though it is not altogether inexcusable with Job in his ignorance and awful distress.

I. GOD ONLY DESIRES OUR PURIFICATION. We may not be tempted to fall into Job’s mistake, for we have more light, and our circumstances are far more hopeful than his were. Still, it is difficult for us to conceive how entirely averse to making the worst of us God is. He cannot ignore sin, for his searching glance always reveals it to him, and his just judgment always estimates it rightly. He must bring our sin home to us; for this is for our own good, as well as necessary in regard to the claims of righteous-neat. Thus he seems to be forcing out our guilt. But in doing so he is not plunging us into the mire, but only making apparent the hidden evil of our heart. The process is like that of a photographer developing a picture, like that of a physician bringing a disease to the surface. The result makes apparent what existed before, unseen but dangerously powerful.

II. IT IS HOPELESS TO ATTEMPT OUR OWN PURIFICATION. Here Job was right. We may wash ourselves, but we shall not be clean. Sin is more than a defilement; it is a stain, a dye, an ingrained evil. It is like the Ethiopian’s skin and the leopard’s spots; sin has become a part of the sinner’s very constitution. Tears of repentance will not wash it out. Blood of sacrificed victims will not cleanse it away. Penance and good deeds will not remove it. We cannot undo the past, cannot do away with the fact that sin was committed. Therefore we cannot remove the guilt of our sin, nor its contaminating, corrupting influence from our consciences.

III. GOD PROVIDES PURIFICATION FROM SIN. We need not despair. Job is not only mistaken; the truth is the very opposite to what he imagines it to be. God himself, instead of aggravating guilt, has provided the only efficacious means for its removal. This was promised in the Old Testament: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord,” etc. (Isa 1:18). It is accomplished in the New Testament. Christ offered forgiveness of sin (Mat 9:2). By his death on the cross he made that forgiveness sure to us. What no tsars or works of ours can do is effected by the blood of Christ, which “cleanseth us from all sin” (1Jn 1:7). That is to say, Christ’s death is the great purifying sacrifice. When we trust in him the cleansing of guilt that is given, on condition of the perfect sacrifice, is ours. Our despair of purification outside Christ should only drive us to Christ that we may receive it.W.F.A.

Job 9:33

The Daysman.

Job regarded it as unfair that his Judge and his Accuser should be one and the same Person, and he craved an umpire to come between. As a matter of fact, he was mistaken. His accuser was not his Judge. Satan was his accuser, and God was the great and just Umpire of the contest. Still, men have ever felt the need of one who should come between them and God, and assist them in coming to a right understanding with God. The feeling has arisen in part from a similar mistake to Job’s, but also in part from a spiritual instinct. Leaving Job’s misconception, what may we regard as the truth about this idea of the Daysman?

I. WE ARE AT FEUD WITH GOD IN OUR SIN. There is an ancient quarrel between the race and its Maker. Sin is more than disease; it is rebellion. It is more than a stain on our character; it is an offence against God. It is worse than a disarrangement of earthly relations; it is a wrong attitude towards Heaven. These unearthly characteristics of sin give to it a peculiar horror and make it a deadly danger. So long as we are living in sin we are God’s enemies.

II. IT IS TIME THIS FEUD WERE BROUGHT TO AN END. It only widens while it is left unchecked. The longer we sin, the deeper our antagonism to God becomes. Thus we “treasure up wrath against the day of wrath.” This is no matter of mere unseemliness and impropriety. It is a fearful wrong that the child should be fighting against his Father. It must bring ruin on the child and grief to the Father.

III. WE NEED A DAYSMAN TO SET US RIGHT WITH GOD. The Daysman is our Mediator. Now, the doctrine of mediation is not so popular as once it was. People say, “We want to go straight to God. He is our Father, we are his children. We want no one to come between us. We simply want to go straight home to God.” There is much truth and rightness of feeling in this desire. If anything came between us and God, so as to hinder us, that would be a stumbling-block, an idol, and it would be our duty to remove it out of our way. Any abuse of sacraments, any tyranny of priestism, any person the most exalted, if even an angel from heaven, who came between so as to obstruct the way to God, would be an evil to be deplored and avoided. If even Christ stood in this position it would be our duty to forsake him. If Christianity meant a more difficult and roundabout way to God, it would be right to renounce Christianity, and to revert to a simpler theism. But the question isWhat is the nearest way back to God? The exile desires to go straight home. You offer to show him on the route fine mountains, ancient cities, picturesque ruins, tie will have none of them. He only wants to go home by the most direct way. But alas! he is far from home, and between him and his home there is the broad ocean. How shall he cross it? Not the Mediator is to help us over the ocean that separates us from God. He is between us and God, not as a wall that divides, but as a door in the already existing wail, or as the bridge that crosses a chasmnot to separate, but to unite. We have a DaysmanChrist. Our nearest Way to God, our only Way, is through him (Joh 14:6).W.F.A.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

CHAP. IX.

Job, acknowledging God’s justice, sheweth that there is no contending with him. Man’s innocency is not to be condemned by afflictions.

Before Christ 1645.

Job 9:1. Then Job answered and said In reply to Bildad, Job begins with hinting that their opinions seemed a little to clash; Eliphaz had insisted from revelation, that the common failings of men were a sufficient justification of Providence, even in the most afflicting dispensations. Bildad says, if he were pure and upright, God would interpose in his behalf. Job replies, that all this is very true; but the difficulty is, to be thus pure and upright; “For I am not exempt from the common failings of men: if, therefore, they are sufficient to account for the great calamities which have befallen me, I am still without a remedy. As to God’s power and wisdom, I am as thoroughly convinced, and can give as many instances of it, as you; and, therefore, I know it is in vain for me to contend with him; Job 9:2-13. I have nothing left but to acknowledge my own vileness, and to make my supplication to him, Job 9:14-19. But yet, as to any heinous crimes, beyond the common frailties of human nature, there I disclaim; and, let the event be what it may, I will rather part with my life, than accuse myself wrongfully. And whereas you affirm, that affliction is an infallible mark of guilt, you quite mistake the matter; for afflictions are indifferently assigned to be the portion of the righteous and the guilty. God, indeed, sometimes in his anger destroys the wicked; but doth he not as frequently afflict the righteous? The dispensations of Providence in this world are frequently such, that, were it not that God now and then lets loose his fury against them, one would be almost tempted to imagine the rule of this world was delivered over into the hands of wicked men; Job 9:21-24. As for my own part, my days are almost come to an end; therefore it is labour lost for me to plead the cause of my innocence. Besides, in the sight of God I must appear all vileness; so that it is not for such a one as me to pretend to put myself on a level with him: and even if I were able to do so, there is no one who hath sufficient authority to judge between us; Job 9:25-33. Yet were it his pleasure to grant me a little respite, I should say a great deal in my own vindication; but, as matters stand, I dare not; for which reason my life is a burden to me, and my desire is, that it may speedily come to an end; Job 10:1 to the end. I would, however, expostulate a little with the Almighty;”And here he enters into the most beautiful and tender pleadings that heart can conceive; ending, as before, with a prayer, that his sufferings and life might soon come to a period, and that God would grant him some little respite before his departure hence. Heath.

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

CONTENTS

This is a most beautiful and highly interesting chapter. Job here enters again upon his defense: in which we find nothing of reproach concerning the unkindness of his friends; but delightful testimony of God’s wisdom, power, and justice; and humbling views of himself.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

(1) Then Job answered and said, (2) I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God? (3) If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. (4) He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?

What a blessed evidence is here, that Job takes shame to himself, in the consciousness of man’s sin, and GOD’S righteousness. How very strong and conclusive is the question, How should man be just with GOD? There are a thousand sins, and ten thousand transgressions, which pass away over our unthinking minds, into the gulph of forgetfulness, everyone of which, if GOD were to bring forward, would be enough to prove guilt. And though we forget them, yet GOD doth not; our secret sins are in the light of his countenance. Psa 90:8 . What a thought is this to convince the soul of sin! What a motive is it, or ought it to be, to seek redemption in the blood of JESUS?

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Job 9:10-11

He is always equally present with us: but we are so much taken up with sensible things, that, Lo, He goeth by us, and we see Him not; He passeth on also, but we perceive Him not. Devotion is retirement from the world He has made, to Him alone: it is to withdraw from the avocation of sense, to employ our attention wholly upon Him as upon an object actually present, to yield ourselves up to the influence of the Divine presence.

Butler.

References. IX. 20. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 350. Ibid. vol. li. No. 2932.

Job 9:25-26

As in a revolving disc, the further a point lies from the centre, the more rapid is its rate of progression, so it is in the wheel of life; the further you stand from the beginning, the faster time moves for you.

A. Schopenhauer.

Chateaubriand’s Memoirs have as their motto these words, from the Vulgate of this verse: Sicut naves, quasi nubes, velut umbra .

Job 9:30

Some that are coming to Jesus Christ are too much affected with their own graces, and too little taken with Christ’s person; wherefore God, to take them off from doting on their own jewels, and that they might look more to the person, undertaking, and merits of His son, plunges them into the ditch by temptations. And this I take to be the meaning of Job: ‘If I wash me,’ saith he, ‘with snow water, and make myself never so clean, yet wilt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me’; Job had been a little too much tampering with his own graces, and setting his excellencies a little too high. But by that the temptations were ended, you find him better taught.

Bunyan.

References. IX. 30, 31. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No. 1908. IX. 33. Ibid. vol. xi. No. 661.

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 9:1 Then Job answered and said,

Ver. 1. Then Job answered and said ] He answered to his two friends who had formerly spoken; first, to Eliphaz’s speech, Job 4:17 , and next to that of Bildad, Job 8:3 . Bildad had interrupted him when he would have excused himself, that he did by no means deny the justice of God, as they mistook him. Now, therefore, that Bildad had spoken his utmost, Job beginneth to dispute and to declare his judgment concerning that subject; and this he doth longe magnificentius et augustius quam socii, saith Mercer, far more magnificently and majestically than his two friends had done, proving that God is just, even then when he affiicteth the innocent; neither have such any just cause to except against his proceedings in that behalf, since he fetcheth not the causes of his decrees and purposes from the things which he governeth; but his will, which is before all things, is the rule of all justice. St Paul also had respect unto this, Rom 9:20 ; Rom 11:32 , rising a great deal higher, namely, to the eternal decree of election and reprobation: after this, Job setteth forth what is the condition of men, and what poor things they are in comparison of God, thereby to bring himself and others to the true knowledge of God, and of themselves, which is the highest wisdom in the world.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Job Chapter 9

Job 9 . Now we come to a very grand chapter, but still we find the lack of Christ. Job raises the question. “I know it is so of a truth.” He did not deny what they were saying, about the hypocrite, in the least; he agreed with them fully. Only he said, as it were, ‘You are all mistaken in thinking I am a hypocrite.’ “I know it is so of a truth; but how should man be just with God?” There was the great difficulty for him. He fully believed in God’s faithfulness to himself, and His faithfulness to His children generally; but still where was the ground? Well there was no ground yet at all. It was all hope. It was a hope of the Christ that was coming, without their knowing how Christ would answer to that hope. They only knew it would be all right, but how, they had no idea. That Christ should become the righteousness of the believer – oh, what a wonderful thing that is! Well, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of Jehovah’s righteousness; but I do not believe the prophet Jeremiah understood anything about it at all. How could he? Nobody could. Look at the apostles themselves. They had all the Old Testament to help them, and all the teaching of the Lord Jesus during the time of His ministry, yet they were entirely ignorant of it. They had not a notion of it until the cross began to enlighten them, and particularly the resurrection, and fully, the Holy Ghost – the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. He brought in the truth that was in Christ, but their eyes were holden that they could not take it in – could not see.

So Job describes in a very grand manner what God is in His ways – His uncontrollable power and authority. He knew man was weak and faulty. Nevertheless, Job did not doubt that God would see him through all his difficulties, but on what ground of righteousness he could not conceive. If man was a poor sinful man, and nevertheless God showed him saving mercy, how was man to be just? You cannot put justice and sins together until you have got Christ, who died for the sins and rose again for the believer’s justification. There the sins are completely blotted out. How could Job know anything about that. Nobody knew it; no man on earth. Their idea of the Messiah was more of a great king that would be full of goodness and mercy to his people upon the earth. But that He should be made unto us righteousness as well as wisdom and sanctification and redemption I oh, dear no! they did not in the least understand; how could they? I daresay that the people in Christendom think it was all known pretty much as they knew it now. There was no power, no joy, no peace, but always entreating that God would show them mercy as poor, miserable sinners; there was no idea of salvation. Well, here Job describes God’s power in a wonderful way. “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.” Very grand; wonderfully so; and very true. “Which maketh Arcturus” – that is in the constellation of Arctophylax or Bootes (the Herdsman), near the seven stars which people call “Charles’ Wain.” The Arabs call the latter, however, a very different thing, viz., “The Greater Bear.” They made the four stars to be the body, and the three stars were the tail. However, this is Arcturus; and Orion and the Pleiades go by the same names still. These are all in the northern sphere; but the people of those days had penetrated enough to cross the line, and they were aware that there was a southern world. They did not know much about it; they knew very little. Of course they did not know America, except very obscurely. There were hints from time to time that there was something in the west; but in the south they had no idea of Australia or New Zealand.

He goes on, “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?” (verses 6-12). That is exactly where Job was. He was quite sure that it was of God, and that is the very thing that made the difficulty. Because his conscience was pure toward God, and he knew the goodness of God, and yet how was this? He could not understand it, neither did they in the slightest degree. “If God will not withdraw His anger, the proud helpers do stoop under Him. How much less shall I answer Him?” There he is beginning to feel his weakness. He was not a proud man; but as all men are, till they learn in the way that I have described, he had a very good opinion of himself. That must all come down. If a man is to be blessed, or a woman, the blessing will not come by a good opinion of oneself; that is wrong, and the greatest hindrance to the blessing of God and the enjoyment of His grace. “Though I were righteous, yet would I not answer.” There, you see, was thorough piety. “But I would make supplication to my judge. If I called, and he had answered me, yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.”

Well, that was great ignorance of God; because God does answer, and God does hear; and God delights in His children now; now that they are cleared, now that they know Him, He delights in perfect intimacy and love with Himself. “For he breaketh me with a tempest” – and that was true – “and multiplieth my wounds without cause.” Ah! without cause; that is a little too much to say. He had His own wise cause; He had His own blessed end. He meant that Job should be a far happier man and brighter in his state than he had ever been before; and till Christ came it could be only by making him a bag of broken bones – to learn that all the goodness was in God and all the badness was in himself. “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.” That is what they thought was a terrible blasphemy, but that is what he thinks.

We understand it. The greatest calamity might come, and God send it, and a number of people perfectly innocent might perish just as much as the wicked people – say the sack of a city, or a pestilence sent by God in His moral government. Well, I say, these things are there undoubtedly, and Job stuck to that. All their talk did not at all drive him from the plain fact which they shirked and shut their eyes to. “The earth,” he says, “is given into the hand of the wicked.” And is not that true? Is not Satan the god, and the prince, of this world? That is wicked enough. And further, “He covereth the faces of the judges thereof,” i.e., he allows the judges to pronounce altogether wrongly and unjustly. That is, somehow or other their faces are veiled from the light, and they judge according to appearance. It is very certain that that is not a way to judge soundly. “If not, where, and who is he?” Who is he that does that? These things happen; innocent people suffer; guilty people escape; all these things are coming every day – are coming in England. It is not merely in Turkey, or Russia, or Tartary, or China; no, it is in England, in London; and nobody can hinder it. Things are out of course, and will be till the Lord takes the reins.

“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.” That is, God will show him to be defective after all. That is true. If you are resting upon yourself, you are resting upon a ground that is not approved before God. If you are resting upon Christ, you have got the only solid ground that never can be taken from you. So he closes. “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 daysmen betwixt us.” That is what Christ became; Christ became the mediator between God and men; and not merely a mediator, but a mediator who is equally divine with the God before whom He acts as mediator for us. If there had not been the hand of God in the cross, there could have been no divine redemption. It was God that forsook His Son; it was God that turned away His face from Him; and, therefore, now what is brought in is the righteousness of God. And there is nothing against that. But it is a justifying righteousness; it is not a condemning righteousness. The same God that condemned under the law saved under grace, because of Christ.

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

answered = responded. See note on Job 4:1.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Chapter 9

So Job answers him and he said, I know it is true ( Job 9:1-2 ):

What? That God is fair. That God is just. Now that is something that we need to all know. That is true. God is righteous. God is just. Though the justice of God is often challenged. One of the first challenges that Satan made even to Eve was in the fairness of God. Satan was declaring God wasn’t fair. “God doesn’t want you to eat of the fruit of that tree because He knows that when you do, you’re going to be just as wise as He is.” He was challenging the fairness, the justice of God. And Satan is quite often still challenging the justice of God. I hear people say, “How can a God of love send a man to hell? Is that really fair? How can a God of love allow children to starve to death? How can a God of love allow wars to maim so many people?” The thought behind each of the questions is, “Is God… ” Well, the intimation behind the question is God isn’t fair. God isn’t just. “How could God allow this to happen to me? Surely, God, You’re not fair to me.”

Now Job assures, “I know what you say is true. I know God is just. I know God.” And you need to know that because there are going to be issues you’re not going to understand. How could a God condemn a man to hell who never had a chance to hear about Jesus Christ? Who grew up in some village in Africa where the gospel never came and he lives and dies and has never heard the name of Jesus Christ. How could God send that man to hell forever? Let me first of all say I don’t know that the scripture does say that God does send him to hell, the person who has never heard. I will tell you that the scripture does say that God will be fair when He judges that man who has never heard. Now just what God is going to do I don’t know. But when He does it and I see it, I’m going to say, “Right on.” That’s so fair because God is just, though the justice of God is constantly being challenged by the enemy.

Job’s saying, “I know what you say is true. But that’s not my problem. My problem is how can I stand before God to plead my case? How can I bring my cause before God to be justified by Him? For God is so vast. His wisdom is so great. If He should start asking me questions, if He would ask me a thousand questions I couldn’t even answer one. I am so puny in relationship to God. I am just nothing and God is infinite. So how can I, this little speck of dust on the planet Earth hope to ever touch God or reach God or plead my case to God or say, ‘Hey God, what are You doing? Why have You done this?'” For he speaks of the fact that God has created the universe–Orion, the Pleiades, Arcturus. God causes the mountains to disappear. Mount Saint Helens. In building a new section of highway in Washington, it took them five months, twenty-four hours a day, with the most modern earth-moving equipment to move one million cubit yards of that base salt material. Five months, twenty-four hours a day, day and night, the crews were working to remove one million cubit yards. In twenty-seven minutes, from Mount Saint Helens, the same type of base salt material, there was removed five billion three hundred and fifty million cubit yards of material pulverized and spread all over the northern part of the United States in twenty-seven minutes. Now you begin to see the best efforts of man and what is man compared with what God can do?

He shakes the earth. He has set the constellations. He spread out the heavens with His hands. Who am I that I could come before this kind of a God? Because I can’t even see Him. Though I know He surrounds me I don’t see Him. I can’t perceive Him. I can’t touch Him. I reach out, but He’s not there. So how can man ever stand before God to plead his case? You tell me get right with God, everything is going to be okay. Just go before God, plead my case. How can I do that? It’s true, what you say is right. God is fair. God is just. But I don’t know how I can plead my case before Him because of the vastness and the greatness of the infinite God and this gap that exists between us.

In the eighth psalm, David saw much the same problem looking at it from a little different direction. He began with the heavens. “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him?” ( Psa 8:3-4 ) Starting from the heavens coming down to man. He saw the great gap from that direction. Job is standing in this direction looking up and seeing the same thing. “When I consider me, who I am, what am I that I could stand before God? That I could justify myself before God. That I could plead my case so as to justify myself before God.”

If I speak of strength, [hey,] he is so strong: if I speak of judgment, who will set my time for my case? And if I justify myself, my own mouth will condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it will prove me perverse. Though I were perfect, yet I would not know my soul: I would despise my life. This is the one thing, therefore I said it, He destroys the perfect and the wicked ( Job 9:19-22 ).

In other words, being good does not give me any immunity from problems. God destroys both the perfect and the wicked. I’ve said it. You may castigate me for saying it, but I said it.

He then speaks of his friends and he said,

If I would wash myself with snow water, and make my hands ever so clean; Yet you would plunge me in the ditch, and my own clothes would abhor me ( Job 9:30-31 ).

What can I say? I can’t say how righteous I am or how, you know, innocent I am. You would throw me in a ditch. Even if I had cleansed myself.

And then he said concerning God,

For he is not a man, as I am ( Job 9:32 ),

Now, remember that. How often we’re trying to pull God down to our level. How often we fall in the category of those in Romans, chapter 1, of which Paul wrote, “For the wrath of God shall be revealed from heaven against the ungodly and the unrighteous, who hold the truth of God in unrighteousness. For when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were they thankful; but they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts was darkened. And professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and they began to worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever and ever” ( Rom 1:18 , Rom 1:21 , Rom 1:22 , Rom 1:25 ).

You see, they sought to bring man down to their level. They did not glorify Him as God. And for me to try to order Him around is to fail to glorify Him as God. For me to come and demand that, “You’ve got to do this now, God. I command in Jesus’ name.” Or, “I confess this is what You’ve got to do, God.” And begin to lay demands upon God that He’s got to do a certain thing, that’s not glorifying Him as God. That’s trying to reduce Him even below your level. That’s trying to make Him a genie that comes out of a lamp and grants you your three requests.

God is not a genie. He’s not some magic amulet. Nor is the purpose of prayer to get your will done. The purpose of prayer is to get God’s will done. And He knows so much better than I will ever know. That the wisest prayer I could ever offer is, ‘Father, Thy will be done in my life, in these situations, Lord. Your will be done.” I never worry when I don’t know how to pray, because I don’t know how to pray half the time. But I have great confidence, because when I don’t know how to pray because I don’t know what is the will of God concerning this particular situation, I can always just say, “Lord, Your will be done.” And I know that’s best. I have that kind of confidence in God because He is so much greater than I am. His wisdom is… there’s no comparison. There’s no basis for comparison. There’s no way that you can compare the finite with the infinite. There isn’t even a basis for a comparison. You can’t even draw any comparisons.

All right, you tell me to get right with God. That’s great help, thanks a lot. Who’s going to set the time for me to come and plead my case? And how can I, here I am, how can I ever plead my case before God anyhow? If He starts His cross-examination, ask me a thousand questions, I can’t answer a single one. If you can’t answer a single question out of a thousand, you’ll be thrown out of court as an unreliable witness. He’s not a man like I am that I could come and say, “Hey, hey, what are You doing here? What’s going on?” He’s not a man like I am.

Neither is there any daysman between us, that might lay his hand upon us both ( Job 9:33 ).

My situation is hopeless. God is so vast. There’s no way I can touch Him. I can’t see Him. I know He’s there. I know He’s just. But I have no way of pleading my cause. I’m just a man. He is the infinite God. The only way this could ever be is that somehow there would be between us a daysman, one who could lay his hand on us both. But there isn’t any. There’s no mediator, no daysman.

Oh, how I thank God for the revelation of the New Testament. For Paul the apostle tells us, “There is one God, and there is one mediator” ( 1Ti 2:5 ). There is one daysman between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. “Who was in the form of God, and thought it not robbery to be equal with God: yet He emptied Himself, and took on the form of man” ( Php 2:6-7 ). And so He touches God, but He came down and He touched me. As a man, in all points He was tempted even as I am, in order that He might be able to help me when I am in my hour of temptation. “For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But the Word was made flesh, and He dwelt [tabernacled, made His home] among us, (and we beheld His glory, as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth” ( Joh 1:1 , Joh 1:14 ). For, “That which was from the beginning, [which John said] we have seen, we have touched, we have heard, we declare, we saw” ( 1Jn 1:1 , 1Jn 1:3 ). Job said, “He’s around me I can’t see Him.” John said, “I’ve seen Him. The One who existed from the beginning, I’ve seen Him.” Job said, “I can’t touch Him.” John said, “I’ve touched Him.”

For though man could never build a bridge to God, God in His mercy built the bridge to man. And there is the vast difference between every religious system and Christianity. For in every religious system, you have man’s endeavor to build this bridge to God. Man trying to climb the ladder to reach God. Man trying to reach out and touch God, find God, discover God. But in Christianity, you have God reaching down to man. Therefore, Christianity is reasonable and logical, whereas every other religious system is illogical and unreasonable. Because it is illogic and unreasonable to think that the finite could reach the infinite. However, it is very logical and reasonable to believe that the infinite could reach and touch the finite. And that’s exactly what Christianity is. The infinite God reaching down to touch the finite man. “God so loved the world that He gave” ( Joh 3:16 ). He built the bridge by sending His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but know and experience the eternal life of God.

Job cried out. A man stripped of everything and now you have one of the basic cries of man, a cry of man after God, and it exists down deep in every heart.

Sir Henry Drummond in his brilliant scientist in his book, The Nature and the Supernatural, said there is within the very protoplasm of man’s cells those little tentacles that are reaching out for God. You see, when you leave the subject of spaghetti or tacos, which shall it be? And you really get down to the real issues of life. Not, “We need to get some gasoline before we get home,” or, “We ought to buy a new Ford,” or, “Maybe we should move.” Or these mundane things with which we are constantly occupying our lives. When you get to the real issues of life, when you’re stripped of these other things and you’re down now to basic issues of life, the basic need of man is to somehow touch God. How can I reach Him? How can I know Him? How can I touch Him? There’s no one between us who can touch us both. That’s the only way it can happen. That’s the only way it can be, but it doesn’t exist. Oh, but Job, there is One who has come, who stands between God and man. Who is one with the Father and lays His hand upon the Father, but He has become one with me and He puts His arm around me and He touches me. And through the touch of Jesus Christ I am brought in touch with God, the glorious daysman. And the basic need of my life is satisfied. That clamant cry from within is met. And I have an experience of knowing God, of touching God, and of being touched by God through Jesus Christ.

Now you may look at me and say, “Oh, you poor soul, you actually think you’ve touched God. My! That’s all right for you.” And you may feel sorry for me and look upon me sort of with pity. But let me tell you something, the pity that you may feel for me is nothing like the pity I feel for the man who cannot say, “I’ve touched God.” The man who doesn’t know what it is to have the touch of God upon his life, that’s the man to pity and feel sorry for. The man who has never heard the voice of God. The man who has never felt the flush and the joy of the presence of God. That’s the man to pity. Don’t pity me. I’m in good shape. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Job 9:1-12

Introduction

Job 9

JOB’S THIRD SPEECH:

JOB RESPONDED TO BILDAD’S ALLEGATIONS

In this chapter, Job replies to the false theory of Bildad that every person gets exactly what he deserves in this life. If he does right he will be rich and prosperous; and if he is wicked, he will suffer disease and hardship. The only thing wrong with that theory was its being absolutely false: (1) No man is righteous enough to deserve all of the blessings which are poured out upon all men; and (2) “Such a theory makes every poor man, and every martyr, a wicked sinner,” and every wealthy person a saint of God. No fair-minded person could accept such a theory.

The response of Job begins with a sarcastic agreement with Bildad on the greatness of God; “But it closes with a vehement contradiction of Bildad’s closing and dominant contention,” namely, that Job’s misfortunes are due to his wickedness. Both this and the following chapters are essentially, “A monologue in which God is addressed in the third person, although occasionally directly.”

The thing missing from this whole central section of Job is the knowledge of Satan, the great enemy of mankind. If, as we believe, Moses was the author of the prologue and the conclusion, that leaves Job and his friends apparently in total ignorance regarding the part that Satan had in the fall of mankind. Not one of them made any reference whatever to Satan. This is a significant link in the chain of evidence that makes Job a far older book, even, than the Pentateuch. It indicates that Job lived and wrote his book at a time and in a part of the world which had no knowledge of the Books of Moses.

Job 9:1-12

THE INFINITE POWER AND WISDOM OF GOD

“Then Job answered and said,

Of truth I know that it is so:

But how can man be just with God?

If he be pleased to 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 prospered? –

Him that removeth the mountains, and they know it not,

When he overturneth them in his anger;

That shaketh the earth out of its place.

And the pillars thereof tremble;

That commandeth the sun, and it riseth not,

And sealeth up the stars;

That alone stretcheth out the heavens,

And treadeth upon the waves of the sea;

That maketh the Bear, Orion and the Pleiades,

And the chambers of the south;

That doeth great things past finding out,

Yea, marvelous things without number.

Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not:

He passeth on also, but I perceive him not.

Behold, he seizeth the prey, who can hinder him?

Who will say unto him, What doest thou?”

Job not only extols the greatness and power of God, but he also indicates his knowledge that no man, in the infinite sense, can be just in God’s sight (Job 9:1). He perceives that God is the Creator of all things, even the great constellations, and that God is a spiritual being, invisible to mortal man, even when he “goeth by” him (Job 9:11). “Job is here saying some wonderful things about God. Man is so insignificant, and God is so great”![4]

“He commandeth the sun, and it riseth not” (Job 9:7). “The word here has the meaning of `to beam’ or `to shine forth’ and is not confined to the literal rising of the sun. It refers to abnormal obscurations of the sun such as those caused by heavy thunderstorms, dust storms, or eclipses.”

“He maketh the Bear, Orion, and Pleiades” (Job 9:9). These are among the best known constellations. The Bear is Ursa Major, generally known as the Great Dipper. Orion dominates the winter skies, and the Pleiades those of the spring.

E.M. Zerr:

Job 9:1-2. Job admitted the statements that had just been made by Bildad as far as the facts were concerned. There really has not been any difference between them on that phase of the subject; the point of dispute has been the application to be made of those facts. Job was a very afflicted man and he also was a human and made mistakes in life the same as other men. But the friends claimed the afflictions were sent to punish him for his sins while he denied it. In the present paragraph the argument of Job is that if all sin is to be punished by some special lot then all men would be going through some form of punishment. This agrument is couched in his words how should man be just with God?

Job 9:3. Using nouns instead of pronouns this would read if God would contend with ‘men, etc. Job did not believe that God would consent to argue with him; but if He did then he would not win one argument in a thousand.

Job 9:4. No man can harden himself against God and succeed. Job meant to admit that he could not contend with God, but that did not mean that his afflictions had been sent for a punishment.

Job 9:5. When it comes to describing the greatness of God, Job will show that his friends cannot outdo him. This and several following verses will deal with the subject of God’s greatness.

Job 9:6. We know the earth does not rest on literal pillars so the term is used figuratively. The thought is that God is able to handle the earth according to his will. That was demonstrated when he caused the shadow to go backward in the time of Hezekiah. (2Ki 20:11.) That was done by reversing the motion of the earth.

Job 9:7. This took place in the time of Joshua when he commanded the sun to stand still. (Joh 10:12-13.) The word riseth in the text here is from ZARACH, and the part of Strong’s definition that applies is as follows: “a primitive root; properly to irradiate (or shoot forth beams).” That is what occurred in the case of Joshua; the sun did not shine during the period which was the same in effect as if it did not rise.

Job 9:8. Which is not in the original here and in a number of other verses nearby. It has been supplied from Job 9:5, second phrase. There it is from ASHAR which Strong defines, “a primitive relative pronoun (of every gender and number); who, which, what, that.” Since the name of God was introduced in Job 9:2 we should use this word as a masculine pronoun and make the verse read, “He alone spreadeth out the heavens.” It means that God is master of the earth and sky.

Job 9:9. These are names of heavenly bodies and the passage means that they were made by the Lord.

Job 9:10. The wonderful works of God are beyond the knowledge of man; therefore the present state of Job should not be allowed to cause confusion.

Job 9:11-12. This whole passage simply means that God’s power and wisdom are beyond the comprehension of man.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

Job now answered Bildad. He first admitted the truth of the general proposition, Of a truth I know that it is so; and then propounded the great question, which he subsequently proceeded to discuss in the light of his own suffering.

How can a man be just with God?

The question was not the expression of his sense of guilt. The conception which overwhelmed him was that of God, and ere the answer closes it will be seen that in the light of his innocence he could not understand his suffering. His question, Who hath hardened himself against Him, and prospered? does not suggest the impotence of rebellion but the folly of contention.

Job then described the power of God. In the bitterness of his soul his consciousness of that power was of a terrific and overwhelming force. This God, moreover, is invisible. His presence is a fact, and yet Job cannot perceive. Finally, He is invincible. Therefore it is useless for a man to attempt to be just with Him.

Still discussing his question, Job spoke of his own condition. It was hopeless. God would not have patience with him, and his very attempt to prove himself innocent would issue in condemnation. Seeing that he seemed to charge this injustice on God, he asked in amazement, If it be not He, who then is it?

There was no meeting place between him and God. Full of beauty in the light of the Christian revelation is the cry of this afflicted man in his agony for a daysman who “might lay his hand upon us both.”

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

The Daysman

Job 9:1-35

Ponder the sublimity of the conceptions of God given in this magnificent passage. To God are attributed the earthquake that rocks the pillars on which the world rests, Job 9:6; the eclipse which hides the heavenly bodies, Job 9:7; the storm in which he bows the heavens and treads majestically on the waves, Job 9:8; and the creation of the constellations, Job 9:9. Who can dare to argue with or call to account so great a God as this? Job 9:10-19. Even if a man be outwardly and inwardly righteous (that is, so far as the measure of his light), yet in such a Presence the heart of the most perfect must condemn him. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. We cannot but feel that this old-world thinker had a truer view of that conscious imperfection and sin which must be experienced by every mortal who has a right appreciation of the holiness of God, than have those who refuse to say the Lords Prayer because it contains a petition for forgiveness!

Truly we need that Daysman! But we have Him in Jesus our Mediator, who can lay His hand on God and us, Job 9:33; 1Ti 2:5.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

Job 9:32-33

I. This desire of Job’s is to be studied, not merely as the experience of an individual under peculiar circumstances, but as a human experience, the germs of which are in man as man; in other words, Job’s craving for a mediator is the craving of humanity.

II. The demand for a mediator is backed and urged by two great interlinked facts: sin and suffering.

III. Job’s longing is literally and fully met. To the cry which comes from that far-off wreck of earthly happiness, “He is not a man as I am,” we can answer today, “He is a Man.” To the words, “There is no daysman to lay his hand upon us both,” we answer, “There is one God and one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus.”

M. R. Vincent, God and Bread, p. 265.

References: Job 9:20.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii., p. 350. Job 9:33.-Ibid., vol. xi., No. 661. Job 9-10-S. Cox, Expositor, 1st series, vol. v., pp. 36 and 113; Ibid., Commentary on Job, p. 118. Job 10:2.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v., No. 283; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 49. Job 10:8.-H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit, No. 2342; Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iv., p. 290.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTERS 9-10 Job Answers Bildad

1. The supremacy and power of God (Job 9:1-10)

2. How then can Job meet Him? (Job 9:11-21)

3. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked (Job 9:22-24)

4. Confession of weakness and the need of a daysman (Job 9:25-35)

5. Murmuring against God (Job 10:1-17)

6. Welcoming death (Job 10:18-22)

Job 9:1-10. The final words of Bildad seemed to have had a momentary soothing effect upon Job. Of a truth it is so. But here is the question, How can a man be just with God? And what a God He is! If a man contend in argument with Him, of a thousand things he could not answer one. Even if it is the wisest among men, and strongest, who stood up against Him, he did not prosper. He moveth and overturneth mountains; He makes the earth to tremble, bids the sun and it does not shine. He made the mighty constellations in the sky, Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades–

Who doeth mighty things works, past finding out,

And wondrous things, in number infinite.

How then can a man be just with such a God of power and greatness?

Job 9:11-21. And such a Being Job declares is for him inaccessible.

Behold, He passeth, but I see Him not,

He sweepeth by, but is invisible.

LO, He doth seize; who then can hold Him back?

Or who shall say to Him, What doest Thou?

Should God at length His anger not avert,

Helpers of pride must stoop beneath His hand

How then can I address and answer Him?

Or choose my words in argument with Him?

How can Job confront such a one? Should he attempt to justify himself, his own mouth and lips would instantly condemn him; and if he were to say, I am perfect and blameless, He would only prove his perverseness.

Job 9:22-24. But the words which follow sound almost like the ravings of a madman. He speaks out, but not in the fear of God. He assumes indifference and says that it is all the same to him, whether he is right or wrong, for God destroyeth the perfect and the wicked alike; in other words He is an unjust God. When the pestilential scourge marcheth through the land and slays suddenly, He but mocks at the innocent who are taken away. The earth is given by Him into the hands of the wicked; injustice reigns everywhere. If God has not done all this, who then is it? Horrible words these which must have been whispered in his despairing soul by that being who is as much the accuser of God to the brethren, as the accuser of the brethren before God.

Job 9:25-35. Then he confesseth his impotence. His days are swiftly passing. He cannot clear himself. He expresses his fear that God will not hold him innocent; He will account him guilty. If then he is wicked all his labours are in vain. Whatever he does cannot change matters. Even if he bathed himself in water pure as snow, and washed his hands with soap, so as to be as clean as he never was before, yet God would surely plunge him into the ditch. All self-help, and self-improvement is in vain. But then a ray of light. He needs another to help him, to bring him in touch with God, to make him just with God. He calls for a daysman, an umpire, one that might lay His hand on God and on him, the sinner, so that the rod be taken from him and he be freed from fear. The daysman we find later in this book foreshadowed. But He has come; Christ Jesus our Lord.

Job 10:1-17. And now the darkest of all. Not so much is it the physical agony, the boils and running sores, torturing him, as it is the bitter consciousness that he is loosing hold on God, that he begins to look upon Him no longer as a loving friend, but as a harsh, unmovable tyrant. It is a death struggle through which he passeth. His soul is weary of his life and so he tells out the bitterness of his heart. What accusations are here! Bold language indeed for the creature of the dust, and such an afflicted creature as he was–I will say unto God–Show me wherefore Thou contend with me. He charges God that He planned his calamity and destruction (Job 10:6-13). It is as if Job confesseth in his blindness by his words that he is in the hands of an all-powerful, merciless being, not a God of love and justice, but an enemy.

Job 10:18-22. What then is the use of living? Oh, if he only had been carried from the womb to the grave!

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

Job 9:1. Then Job answered and said In reply to Bildad, Job begins with hinting, that their opinions seemed a little to clash; Eliphaz had insisted, from revelation, that the common failings of men were a sufficient justification of providence, even in the most afflicting dispensations. Bildad says, if he were pure and upright, God would interpose in his behalf. Job replies, that all this is very true; but the difficulty is, to be thus pure and upright: for I am not exempt from the common failings of men: if, therefore, they are sufficient to account for the great calamities which have befallen me, I am still without a remedy. As to Gods power and wisdom, I am as thoroughly convinced, and can give as many instances of it as you; and, therefore, I know it is in vain for me to contend with him, Job 9:2-13. I have nothing left but to acknowledge my own vileness, and to make my supplication to him, Job 9:14-19. But yet, as to any heinous crimes, beyond the common infirmities of human nature, these I disclaim; and let the event be what it will, I will rather part with my life than accuse myself wrongfully. And whereas you affirm, that affliction is an infallible mark of guilt, you quite mistake the matter; for afflictions are indifferently assigned to be the portion of the innocent and the guilty. God, indeed, sometimes in his anger destroys the wicked; but, doth he not as frequently afflict the innocent? The dispensations of providence, in this world, are frequently such, that, were it not that God now and then lets loose his fury against them, one would be almost tempted to imagine the rule of this world was delivered over into the hands of wicked men, Job 9:21-24. As for my own part, my days are almost come to an end: it is therefore labour lost for me to plead the cause of my innocence: besides, that in the sight of God I must appear all vileness; so that it is not for such a one as me to pretend to put myself on a level with him. And, even though I were able to do so, there is no one that hath sufficient authority to judge between us, Job 9:25-33. Yet, were it his pleasure to grant me a little respite, I could say a great deal in my own vindication; but, as matters stand, I dare not; for which reason my life is a burden to me, and my desire is, it may speedily come to an end, chap. 10. Job 9:1, to the end. I would, however, expostulate a little with the Almighty. And here he enters into the most beautiful and tender pleading which heart can conceive; ending, as before, with a prayer, that his sufferings and life might soon come to a period; and that God would grant him some little respite before his departure hence. Heath and Dodd.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 9:5. Removeth the mountains, by earthquakes. The great mountain ranges have continuous caverns, with interior rivers and lakes. Where liases, iron and sulphur abound, volcanoes form their beds of slumbering lavas, which on the sudden irruption of great waters, they being instantly converted into vapour, mountains burst asunder, and islands sink in a few moments.

There is however a geological idea of the removal, and new formations of the mountains, which was partially known to the ancients. Our chalkhills and coalfield ranges have all been formed by the flux and reflux of impetuous waters. Beds of gravel or of clay, with shells, are of constant occurrence at the base of those hills.

Job 9:7. Which commandeth the sun. See on Isa 38:8. Joshua 10. The rabbins refer this text to eclipses, or total obscurations of the solar orb.

Job 9:9. Arcturus, Orion, Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. The critics for the most part pass over this text; but it strongly intimates that the patriarchs had a considerable knowledge of astronomy. Arcturus is derived from a verb which signifies to meet together; and therefore it is applicable to a constellation. Orion, in the original, literally signifies a fool, and it is figuratively applied to stars which are entered by the sun when the tempestuous seasons begin, about the middle or end of autumn. The Pleiades, or as the Vulgate reads, Hyades, are the seven stars at the head of Taurus. The chambers of the south, are rendered the interior or secrets, or constellations of the south. Hence it is plain, that Job alludes here to the seasons of the year governed by the celestial bodies. The Egyptians have the praise of inventing the Zodiac, which signifies a belt; but the Zodiac being known in India, as in Egypt, it must have been known to Noah, and the antediluvian fathers. The husbandman and the shepherd, destitute of Almanacks, were unavoidably compelled to observe the heavens. The whole chain of society, dwelling in the vast line of country where the Nile overflows his banks, marked the constellation under which the waters began to rise, and called them stars of inundation, or of Aquarius, the waterman. When the plowing season came, which was done by oxen, they would denominate the stars which the sun then possessed by the name of Taurus, or the bull. When the droughty season arrived, which drove the lion from the desert to the banks of the river, they would call the stars which then appeared Leo, or the lion. The stars which appeared during the harvest, when the maids reaped, they would call Virgo, or virgin, having an ear of corn in her hand. The stars which presided when the goats brought forth their twins, they would call Gemini, and afterwards Castor and Pollux. Aries refers to the lambing season. When days and nights were equal, they would represent the stars by Libra, or the balance. When diseases affected the country at the fall of the leaf; they would represent the stars by a Scorpion, because of its venom. In like manner, the hunting season was distinguished by Sagitarius, or the archer; the fishing season by the Pisces, or fish. The decline of the sun they represented by Cancer, or the crab which walks sideways. And when the sun ascended the Zodiac, they designated it by Capricornus, or the goat which skips along the summit of the craggy rocks. So the Egyptians, accustomed to hieroglyphic writing, knew the approach of every season by appearances in the heavens.

Job 9:17. Hemultiplieth my wounds without cause; without any specific cause, such as his friends alleged; or any particular cause known to Job himself. He had before, Job 9:14-15, confessed the righteousness of God, and his submission to his judge, for he admits that man can never be just or righteous before God; but he argues against the doctrine that every affliction was a proof or consequence of some particular sin. There was no such cause of his present afflictions.

Job 9:25. My days are swifter than a post. The swift-footed dromedary, trained for dispatch, will run a hundred and fifty miles in twenty four hours. Men also in India run with the mail-bag on their heads, and at intervals relieve one another.

Job 9:26. Swift ships. Harmer, following the opinion of oriental travellers, thinks Job alludes to vessels which sail very rapidly down the rivers; perhaps at the rate of ten or twelve knots or miles an hour. The Chaldaic reads, As ships loaded with precious fruits.

Job 9:33. Neither is there any daysman. Hebrews umpire or judge. The LXX, with many MSS. and versions, read, Oh that there were a mediator betwixt us. Sinners have now such a Mediator, and no man can plead with God but through HIM. 1Ti 2:5-6.

REFLECTIONS.

Job here replies to Bildad by granting what he had said, but with two grand exceptions; first, that no man, properly speaking, is just before his Maker; and secondly, that God sometimes destroys the innocent with the guilty, the perfect and the wicked, Job 9:22. No man can properly be accounted just before his Maker, when the grandeur of God is considered. If he shall sit in judgment, he may charge the holiest man with a thousand defects, and put him to silence. God is wise to search the heart. He darkens the sun, and veils the stars with a cloud. All the constellations of the spacious heavens are but as the sparks of a firebrand dashed at his feet. What mortal will then presume to justify himself in the presence of God?

We have next a fine discovery of Jobs self-knowledge, and great modesty. Many have blamed him, and commentators too, for having too high an opinion of his own righteousness; but here he corrects their error. Though I were righteous, yet would I not answer. I would adore, and suffer in silence, confident that he would do me no wrong.

Job had right views of the swiftness of life. The fleeting swiftness of the kings messengers, the ships gliding with the stream before the wind, and the eagle reaching the distant forest, showed the rolling wastes of human life. Now therefore, though in some afflictions we have no daysman, or mediator for the removal of calamities, let us be comforted with the thought that life is short, and then we shall enjoy an everlasting repose.

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

Job 9:1-24 is Jobs answer to the position taken up by Bildad, viz. that the Almighty cannot judge falsely (Job 8:3). In Job 2 accepts the general principle that God judges according to merit. But of what use is this? Man has no chance of asserting his righteousness before God, of putting in his claim to reward. There is no equality between the Judge and the person judged. If man wishes to maintain an argument with God (Job 9:3 mg.) God can ask him a thousand questions that will baffle him. God is all-wise and almighty: who can withstand Him? (Job 9:4). He is almighty (Job 9:5 f). There follows a series of illustrations of His almightiness. He overthrows the mountains in His anger (Job 9:6). He shakes the earth (Job 9:6).

Job 9:5-6 together describe an earthquake. The earth is conceived as a house with pillars. These are the mountains, which support the sky (Job 26:11). Their roots, however, are deep below the surface of the earth in the water under the earth (Pro 8:25). An earthquake is for the ancients something different something more violent than with us, since they conceive the whole earth to be moved from its fixed place and from its foundations (Duhm).

Job 9:7 continues the examples of the Divine omnipotence. When He wills, He blots sun and stars out of the sky. The reference is to eclipses, obscurations, etc. The stars are sealed up in the place where God keeps them, and whence at His will He brings them forth to shine in the heavens (Isa 40:26). Further illustrations of Gods power are contained in Job 9:8 f.

Job 9:10, which sums up the whole, is quoted from the speech of Eliphaz (Job 5:9). But how differently are the words used? Eliphaz regards the Divine omnipotence as a reason why man should humble himself before God, Job as a reason why it is impossible for man to maintain his right before Him.

Job 9:11 passes on to the thought of Gods mysterious invisibility. This makes His omnipotence all the more dread. He is no judge, but an absolutely arbitrary Sovereign (Job 9:14). If the primeval monsters of Chaos could not stand before God, how much less a mere man (Job 9:13 f.).

Rahab is here, like the dragon in Isa 51:9, a name for Tiamat, the original Chaos, who was conquered by God at the creation (Gen 1:2*). Her helpers are the brood of monsters who assisted her in the terrible conflict, but were also crushed by God. How impossible, then, is it for Job to maintain his cause against God (Job 9:14)? Even if he were innocent, he could not confront Him, but would have to cast himself upon His mercy (Job 9:15). There is no chance of even getting God to listen to a human plea (Job 9:16).

Job 9:17 f. is a description of how God acts when He comes to judgment; at the same time Job is describing Gods present treatment of him. He regards himself even now as engaged in a contest with God.

Job 9:19 is difficult to translate with certainty, but the sense is clear. If one speaks of the strength of the mighty, lo, here am I (saith He)! and if of judgment, who will set me a time (saith He). This describes the overmastering strength and absolute sovereignty of God, which gives man no chance. Job, therefore, though innocent, feels that under the constraint of the Divine presence he could not assert his innocence (Job 9:20). He therefore does so now; let God slay him for his audacity if He will (Job 9:21). It is all one to him whether he live or die. The poet exhibits great wealth in the psychology of the moods. Fear of death, desire for it, contempt of life, longing for a continuance of peaceful existence, all alternate throughout Jobs speeches, always with a psychological basisand in themselves a proof that the poet is a born dramatist (Duhm).

Job proceeds to deny that there is any moral order in the universe. God sends the pestilence and cares nothing that the innocent die as well as the wicked (Job 9:23). He gives over the world to oppressors. He blinds the judges so that they cannot tell right from wrong (the verse probably reflects the feeling of the Jews under Persian oppression). If it be not he, who then is it? asks Job. Observe that the poet recognises no Satan like the Volksbuch, no laws of the universe, like us. He is an absolute monotheist, and traces everything that happens directly to God. The problem of Gods dealings is thereby made very intense.

Job 9:5. Syr. reads he knows it not. Probably this was the original reading (Duhm, Peake). God uproots the mountains without even noticing it; it is nothing to His almighty strength.

Job 9:9. The identification of the constellations, other than Orion, is only probable (Amo 5:8*). What the chambers of the south are is uncertain.

Job 9:16. Duhm reads, after LXX, If I called He would not answer me, I cannot believe that He would hearken to my voice. This is perhaps better than the text.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

HOW CAN MAN BE JUST BEFORE GOD?

(vv.1-13)

Job’s reply to Bildad occupies two chapters, 35 verses longer than Bildad’s arguments had taken. But Job acknowledged, “Truly, I know it is so,” that is, he knew that what Bildad said of the end of the hypocrite was true, not the way in which Bildad inferred that Job might be a hypocrite. Then he asks a question of deepest significance, “But how can a man be righteous before God?” (v.2). Comparatively speaking, Job knew that he had been righteous before men, and God Himself had confirmed this in speaking to Satan (ch.1:8). But only the New Testament answers Job’s question satisfactorily. It , is said of believers, “you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God – and righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1Co 1:30). The work of Christ in His sacrifice on Calvary has accomplished a righteous basis for our eternal salvation, so that by faith in Christ we are counted righteous before God. Of course Job could not understand this at the time, for Christ had not yet died for us.

But Job acknowledges in verse 3 that even if he wished to argue his case with God, the odds against him were at least 1000 to one! There was evidence enough that God was wise in heart and mighty in strength. If one hardened himself against God he would certainly not prosper. God could remove mountains by an earthquake, shaking the earth and causing its most stable influences to tremble. Also, high above the earth, He could command the sun not to rise, that is, so far as our vision is concerned. Of course He does this by placing clouds in the sky, so that the stars too are sealed off from view. He “alone spreads out the heavens, and treads on the waves of the sea.” Whether the earth or sky or sea, He is in perfect control. There is a precious New Testament confirmation of His control of the sea, when “Jesus went to them, walking on the sea” (Mat 14:25), a clear proof that Jesus is God.

“He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades and the chambers of the south” (v.9). All the constellations of the stars are His workmanship. Notice, at this early date these astronomical facts were known. Job could speak knowledgeably of the greatness of God just as effectively, if not much more so, than Bildad. As he says, God “does great things past finding out, yes, wonders without number” (v.10). In fact, God’s movements are such that Job could not see Him in action, though God can accomplish what no one can hinder (vv.11-12). He will not withdraw His anger from anything contrary to Him, and those who identify themselves with the proud will be prostrated under His feet.

JOB FINDS HE CANNOT DEFEND HIMSELF

(vv.14-20)

What words does Job have with which to answer God? He feels unable to choose words that might have any effect. However righteous he may be, he felt hopelessly unable to make any impression on God by his speaking. He feels he could only beg for mercy from Him whom he calls, “my Judge,” but even then he doubted that God would listen to his voice (vv.15-16). For instead of God listening, Job saw Him as crushing him with a tempest and multiplying Job’s wounds without any actual cause (v.17). This seemed so incessant that Job felt God was not giving him time to even catch his breath, so that he was filled with bitterness.

If Job thought of strength (of which he had none), it was borne upon him that God is strong; and if of justice, of course God has both strength and justice on His side, but Job felt he was not even allowed a day in court to plead his cause. In fact, if he were given this privilege, he felt that though he was righteous, just opening his mouth would prove his undoing: even though blameless, his mouth would prove him perverse! (v.20). What does he mean? Is he not saying, in effect, that no matter how blameless he is, just his speaking proves to his friends that he must be dishonest and perverse?

THE BLAMELESS SUFFER LIKE THE WICKED

(vv.21-24)

Job insists that he is blameless (v.21), yet in spite of this he was brought down to despise his life (v.21). He was, put on the same level as a wicked man: “it is all one thing,” that is, the righteous and the wicked were lumped together in the way God dealt with them. “Therefore I say, He also destroys the blameless and the wicked” (v.22). It is true that this appears to be the case more often than not in our present life. How different however in the long run!

But Job goes too far in verse 23, “If the scourge slays suddenly, He laughs at the plight of the innocent.” Job felt that God was practically laughing at Job’s distress, as though it was no matter for Job to complain about at all. Thus Job felt utterly in the minority, for the earth seemed to be given into the hand of the wicked, with God covering the faces of its judges, since judges were unreliable men. If God was not in control of these things, who else could possibly be in control, he argues (v.24). When we see everything on earth in confusion, it seems to many people that there is no God in control of things at all. In all of these things, if we depend on our own understanding, we shall be left in utter confusion; and thus Job needed the verse that was written much later in history, “Trust in the Lord with all, your heart, and lean not on your own understanding” (Pro 3:5).

PURITY IMPOSSIBLE AND NO MEDIATOR

(vv.25-35)

Job felt his days swiftly passing with nothing accomplished: “they flee away, they see no good” (v.25). Could he force himself to put off his sad face and wear a smile? How could he do this when his painful sufferings left him in fear? He feels that God does not hold him innocent or he would not be suffering as he was (v.28). Why did he labour to do what was good if this only led to his being condemned? If he had done his best to wash himself with snow water and cleanse his hands with soap, this energy was proven worthless, for God plunged him into a pit of mud, so that his own clothes would be insulted if he put them on (vv.30-31). What value was there therefore in his labouring to maintain purity?

Where could Job turn in such a case? For, as he says, God “is not a man as I am.” that is, God is so much higher than Job that he could not expect God to come down to his level, as in a law court, so that there could be an understanding between them (v.32). “Nor is there any mediator between us, who may lay his hand on us both (v.33). Thus Job recognised the need of a mediator between God and men, and this verse surely anticipates the coming of the Lord Jesus as seen in the New Testament, “For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus” (1Ti 2:5). The Word of God insists that Christ is “The Man,” who can lay His hand upon men, and being also “God manifest in flesh” He can lay His hand upon God. Job did not know this, but later on when the young man Elihu spoke (ch.32-37), his words were much like a mediator, for he is a type of Christ.

Meanwhile, however, Job pleaded for God to withdraw His rod of correction from him, for he felt his dread of God to be terrifying. If God would only do this, Job might not be afraid to speak to Him, but as he says, “it is not so with me” (vv.14-15).

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

4. Job’s first reply to Bildad chs. 9-10

"From this point on, the emphasis in the discussion is on the justice of God; and the image that is uppermost in Job’s mind is that of a legal trial." [Note: Wiersbe, pp. 22-23.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

The greatness of God 9:1-12

Job began his response to Bildad by acknowledging that much of what his friends had said was true (Job 9:2). Many of Job’s speeches began with sarcasm or irony. He then turned to a question that Eliphaz had raised earlier (Job 4:17) that seems to have stuck in Job’s mind. How could he, a righteous man, much less the ungodly, stand righteous before God, as Eliphaz had urged him to do (Job 5:8), since God was tormenting him. God appeared to Job to be acting arbitrarily and capriciously. How can anyone be right before such a God?

"This is not a question about salvation (’How may I be justified?’) but about vindication (’How can I be declared innocent?’)." [Note: Ibid., p. 23.]

"Job’s first address to Bildad was a magnificent confession of the sovereignty of God. . . . Yet Job’s recognition of God’s sovereignty is more fatalistic than grounded in the nature of God as a just and righteous One." [Note: Merrill, p. 382.]

Because God is who He is, Job recognized that man cannot go into court against God and win (cf. Job 40:1-5; Job 42:2). It would be useless to try for four reasons.

"1.    If I disputed with Him, I could not answer Him, because He is so mighty (Job 9:3-14).

2.    If God did respond to my cry, I do not think He would be listening, because He is against me (Job 9:15-19).

3.    If I am righteous, He will declare me guilty, because He destroys both the innocent and the wicked (Job 9:20-24).

4.    If I try to forget my problems or even confess my sins, He would still consider me guilty (Job 9:25-32)." [Note: Zuck, Job, p. 47.]

"In an ancient court the winner often was the one who argued his position so convincingly and refuted his opponent so persuasively that he reduced him to silence. A second way of deciding a dispute was for the two contestants to engage in a wrestling match. [Note: Cf. Cyrus Gordon, "Belt-Wrestling in the Bible World," Hebrew Union College Annual 23 (1950-51):131-36.] The winner of the match proved the merits of his position and received a settlement to his advantage. While the preponderance of legal language indicates that Job is thinking of a court trial, the references to God’s strength and to his cosmic victory over Rahab’s cohorts in Job 9:13 indicate that the latter type of contest is also in his mind." [Note: Hartley, p. 167.]

Job concluded that God was unjust because He cut off both the guilty and the guiltless. Job’s concept of God was becoming fuzzy because God did not seem to him to be acting in ways that were consistent with Job’s limited understanding of Him. We have the same problem. We need to get our concept of God from Scripture that gives us the fullest, most balanced view of God possible for us now.

The Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades (Job 9:9) are constellations of stars.

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}

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary