Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 9:16
If I had called, and he had answered me; [yet] would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.
16. In Job 9:14-15 the plea against God is not supposed actually entered upon; the idea of such a plea presents itself to Job’s mind and he pictures the results that would follow upon himself; in Job 9:16 he assumes the plea entered upon, that he had actually cited God, who had appeared, and he describes what would follow at this stage.
if I had called ] i. e. cited God as a party in my plea against Him.
that he had hearkened ] Rather, that he would hearken. Had Job with a superhuman courage cited God, and had God appeared, Job would not believe that He would listen to him, cf. Job 9:35, ch. Job 13:21 seq., Job 23:6 seq.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
If I had called, and he had answered me – It is remarked by Schultens, that the expressions in these verses are all taken from courts of justice. If so, the meaning is, that even if Job should call the Almighty to a judicial action, and he should respond to him, and consent to submit the great question about his innocence, and about the justice of the divine dealings with him, to trial, yet that such was the distance between God and him, that he could not hope successfully to contend with him in the argument. He would, therefore, prostrate himself in a suppliant manner, and implore his mercy and compassion – submitting to him as having all power, and as being a just and righteous Sovereign.
Would I not believe – I cannot believe that he would enter into my complaint. He deals with me in a manner so severe; he acts toward me so much as a sovereign, that I have no reason to suppose that he would not continue to act toward me in the same way still.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 9:16
Yet would I not believe that He had hearkened unto my voice.
Prerequisites to belief
It is hard to believe in that, some faint earnest of which we do not find in our own souls. A man cannot believe facts which are in the very teeth of his instinctive affinities and dispositions. The head hunters of Borneo would necessarily treat as fables the thousand and one humane institutions which are the products of Christian civilisation. A race of colour-blind barbarians, if such a race existed, would ridicule the idea of finding out the elements of which distant stars are fashioned by observing the bands and lines of colours disclosed by the spectroscope. There must be the beginning of vision in us if we are to receive the fairy tales of the microscopist and the astronomer. God can be made known to us only in these aspects in which we desire, however faintly, to be like Him. (T. G. Selby.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 16. If I had called, and he had answered] I could scarcely suppose, such is his majesty and such his holiness, that he could condescend to notice a being so mean, and in every respect so infinitely beneath his notice. These sentiments sufficiently confuted that slander of his friends, who said he was presumptuous, had not becoming notions of the majesty of God, and used blasphemous expressions against his sovereign authority.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If I had called, i.e. prayed, as this word is commonly used, to wit, unto my Judge, for a favourable sentence, as he now said, and therefore it was needless here to mention the object of his calling or prayer.
Yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice; I could not believe that God had indeed granted my desire, though he had done it; because I am so infinitely below him, and obnoxious to him, and still full of the tokens of his displeasure; and therefore should conclude that it was but a pleasant dream or fancy, and not a real thing: compare Psa 126:1.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
16, 17. would I not believe that hehad hearkened unto my voicewho breaketh me (as a tree strippedof its leaves) with a tempest.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If I had called, and he had answered me,…. Mr. Broughton reads the words, “if I cry, will he answer me?” as if Job had some doubt upon his mind whether God would vouchsafe to answer him, though he should make his supplication to him, as he proposed; seeing he had so sorely afflicted him, and still continued his hand upon him; or the words may be rendered, “though I have called, and he has answered” q, in times past. Job was a praying person, he had often prayed to God in his closet, and in his family, for himself, and for his children, and for his friends, and he had found God to be a God hearing and answering prayer, but seems to question whether he would answer him now, if he did pray to him:
[yet] would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice, or “would hearken” r, at this time, and under the present circumstances; or should he, the mercy would be so great, that he could hardly believe it; so sometimes through joy men cannot believe what they hear and see, as the apostles, when Christ appeared to them after his resurrection; or as it was with the Jews returned from Babylon, they were like them that dream, they could scarcely tell whether their deliverance was a real fact, or whether they only dreamed of it, see Lu 24:41; so Job intimates, that should he pray to God, and be heard and delivered, it would be so astonishing and transporting, that at first he should not be able to give credit to it; or, however, he should not believe that it was for his prayers and supplications, for any worth and value, virtue and efficacy, there was in them, that he was heard; but it must be purely for his mercy’s sake, for the sake of the mediation of Christ, and because these prayers were the breathings of his own spirit: or else the sense is, that though he had heard and answered him formerly, when he prayed in a supplicating way, yet if he should contend with him in a judicial way, and insist upon his own righteousness, and present his supplication to God on that account, he could never expect to be heard; and, indeed, he could not believe he should be heard on any account, so long as his present sufferings lasted; which seems to be the sense of what follows, where he gives his reasons for such belief, or rather unbelief.
q “etiamsi clamavi et respondit mihi”, Schmidt. r “quod exauditurus esset”, Schmidt.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
16 If when I called He really answered,
I could not believe that He would hearken to me;
17 He would rather crush me in a tempest,
And only multiply my wounds without cause;
18 He would not suffer me to take my breath,
But would fill me with bitter things.
19 If it is a question of the strength of the strong – : “Behold here!”
And if of right – : “Who will challenge me?”
20 Where I in the right, my mouth must condemn me;
Were I innocent, He would declare me guilty.
The answer of God when called upon, i.e., summoned, is represented in Job 9:16 as an actual result ( praet. followed by fut. consec.), therefore Job 9:16 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 condescension. The which follows, Job 9:17, signifies either quippe qui or quoniam ; both shades of meaning are after all blended, as in Job 9:15. The question arises here whether signifies conterere , or as cognate form with , inhiare , – a question also of importance in the exposition of the Protevangelium. There are in all only three passages in which it occurs: here, Gen 3:15, and Psa 139:11. In Psa 139:11 the meaning conterere is unsuitable, but even the signification inhiare can only be adopted for want of a better: perhaps it may be explained by comparison with , in the sense of obvelare , or as a denominative from (the verb of which, , is kindred to , , flare) in the signification obtenebrare . In Gen 3:15, if regarded superficially, the meaning inhiare and conterere are alike suitable, but the meaning inhiare deprives that utterance of God of its prophetic character, which has been recognised from the beginning; and the meaning conterere , contundere , is strongly supported by the translations. We decide in favour of this meaning also in the present passage, with the ancient translations (lxx , Targ. , comminuens ). Moreover, it is the meaning most generally supported by a comparison with the dialects, whereas the signification inhiare can only be sustained by comparison with and the Arabic safa (to sniff, track by scent, to smell); besides, “to assail angrily” (Hirz., Ewald) is an inadmissible contortion of inhiare , which signifies in a hostile sense “to seize abruptly” (Schlottm.), properly to snatch, to desire to seize.
Translate therefore: He would crush me in a tempest and multiply ( multiplicaret ), etc., would not let me take breath ( respirare ), but ( , Ges. 155, 1, e. a.) fill me ( , with Pathach with Rebia mugrasch) with bitter things ( , with Dag. dirimens, which gives the word a more pathetic expression). The meaning of Job 9:19 is that God stifles the attempt to maintain one’s right in the very beginning by His being superior to the creature in strength, and not entering into a dispute with him concerning the right. (for as , Job 15:23, for ): see, here I am, ready for the contest, is the word of God, similar to quis citare possit me (in Jer 49:19; Jer 50:44), which sounds as an echo of this passage. The creature must always be in the wrong, – a thought true in itself, in connection with which Job forgets that God’s right in opposition to the creature is also always the true objective right. , with suffix, accented to indicate its logical connection, as Job 15:6: my own mouth.
(Note: Olshausen’s conjecture, , lessens the difficulty in Isa 34:16, but here it destroys the strong expression of the violence done to the moral consciousness.)
In the Chirek of the Hiphil is shortened to a Sheva, as 1Sa 17:25; vid., Ges. 53, rem. 4. The subject is God, not “my mouth” (Schlottm.): supposing that I were innocent, He would put me down as one morally wrong and to be rejected.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
16. If I had called From Job 9:12-15 he supposes the case that God would take the initiative in summoning to trial; now, that he himself would: Should I summon him, and he answer me, I would hardly believe my senses that there could be such condescension and sense of justice!
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 9:16. If I had called, and he had answered me But if I should call, that he might answer me, I could not easily believe that he would hear my voice; Job 9:17. Since he hath broken me with a tempest, and inflicted many wounds upon me without cause, Job 9:18. Nor hath given me space to take my breath, so hath he filled me with bitterness. Houbigant. This version shews the connection, and seems to give us the true sense of the passage. See Lowth’s Prelections, p. 455. 8vo.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 9:16 If I had called, and he had answered me; [yet] would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.
Ver. 16. If l had called and he had answered ] If, in confidence of mine own righteousness, I had sought some good thing at his hands, and he had therein condescended to me, yet would I not believe that he had, in mercy, hearkened to my voice; but rather, for a further mischief, that he might roll himself upon me, as Joseph upon his brethren, and as God did upon the Israelites after their quails; that he might tear them with his tempest, &c. Some think that Job speaketh these words, as despairing of audience, or denying God’s particular providence; but neither of these is likely. Rather it seemeth, saith Pineda, to be the speech of a mind marvellously cast down, and meanly conceited of himself, and of his prayer; and trusting to the goodness of God alone; so Drusius. Job speaketh not this, saith he, out of diffidence, but out of fear of God’s judgments, and sense of his own imperfections.
Yet I would not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
If I had: Psa 18:6, Psa 66:18-20, Psa 116:1, Psa 116:2
would I: Job 29:24, Exo 6:9, Jdg 6:13, Psa 126:1, Luk 24:41, Act 12:14-16
Reciprocal: Gen 45:26 – he believed Job 15:22 – He believeth not Job 39:24 – neither Son 2:14 – that art Mar 16:11 – believed Luk 24:11 – idle Joh 20:25 – Except Act 12:15 – Thou
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 9:16. If I had called That is, prayed, as the word , karati, commonly means, namely, unto my judge for a favourable sentence, as he had just said; and he had answered me Had given me what I asked; yet would I not believe, &c. So weak and imperfect are my best prayers; and, I am so infinitely below him, so obnoxious to him, and still so full of the tokens of his displeasure, that I would not believe he had done it because I had asked him; or, that it was owing to my prayers, but that he had bestowed the favour purely for his names sake. Bishop Patricks paraphrase is, If I had made supplication, and he had granted my desire, I would not think my prayer had done the business.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
9:16 If I {l} had called, and he had answered me; [yet] would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.
(l) While I am in pain I cannot break forth into many inconveniences although I still know that God is just.