Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 9:2
I know [it is] so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
I know it is so of a truth – Job here refers, undoubtedly, to something that had been said before; but whether it is to the general strain of remark, or to some particular expression, may be doubted. Rosenmuller supposes that he refers to what was said by Eliphaz in Job 4:17; but it seems more probable that it is to the general position which had been laid down and defended, that God was just and holy, and that his proceedings were marked with equity. Job admits this, and proceeds to show that it was a truth quite as familiar to him as it was to them. The object of his dwelling on it seems to be to show them that it was no new thing to him, and that he had some views on that important subject which were well worthy of attention.
But how should man be just with God? – Margin, before. The meaning is, that he could not be regarded as perfectly holy in the sight of God; or that so holy and pure a being as God must see that man was a sinner, and regard him as such; see the sentiment explained in the notes at Job 4:17. The question here asked is, in itself, the most important ever propounded by man – How shall sinful man be regarded and treated as righteous by his Maker? This has been the great inquiry which has always been before the human mind. Man is conscious that he is a sinner. He feels that he must be regarded as such by God. Yet his happiness here and hereafter, his peace and all his hope, depend on his being treated as if he were righteous, or regarded as just before God. This inquiry has led to all forms of religion among people; to all the penances and sacrifices of different systems; to all the efforts which have been made to devise some system that shall make it proper for God to treat people as righteous.
The question has never been satisfactorily answered except in the Christian revelation, where a plan is disclosed by which God may be just, and yet the justifier of him that believeth. Through the infinite merits of the Redeemer, man, though conscious that he is personally a sinner, may be treated as if he had never sinned; though feeling that he is guilty, he may consistently be forever treated as if he were just. The question asked by Job implies that such is the evidence and the extent of human guilt, that man can never justify himself. This is clear and indisputable. Man cannot justify himself by the deeds of the law. Justification, as a work of law, is this: A man is charged, for example, with the crime of murder. He sets up in defense that he did not kill, or that if he tools life it was in self-defense, and that he had a right to do it. Unless the fact of killing be proved, and it be shown that he had no right to do in the case as he has done, he cannot be condemned, and the law acquits him. It has no charge against him, and he is just or justified in the sight of the law. But in this sense man can never be just before God. He can neither show that the things charged on him by his Maker were not done, or that being done, he had a right to do them; and being unable to do this, he must be held to be guilty. He can never be justified therefore by the law, and it is only by that system which God has revealed in the gospel, where a conscious sinner may be treated as if he were righteous through the merits of another, that a man can ever be regarded as just before God; see Rom 1:17, note; Rom 3:24-25, note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 2. I know it is so of a truth] I acknowledge the general truth of the maxims you have advanced. God will not ultimately punish a righteous person, nor shall the wicked finally triumph; and though righteous before man, and truly sincere in my piety, yet I know, when compared with the immaculate holiness of God, all my righteousness is nothing.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I know it is so, to wit, as you say, that God is just in all his ways, that he doth ordinarily bless the righteous, and punish the wicked.
But how should man be just? Heb. and how, &c.? i.e. and I know that no man is absolutely just, or can defend his righteousness, if God be severe to mark what is amiss in him.
With God; either,
1. Being compared with God; or,
2. Before God, as the same phrase is taken, 1Sa 2:26; Psa 130:3, if he be brought before Gods tribunal to debate the matter with him.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. I know it is so of a truththatGod does not “pervert justice” (Job8:3). But (even though I be sure of being in the right) how can amere man assert his right(be just) with God. The Gospel answers(Ro 3:26).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
I know [it is] so of a truth,…. That is, that God is just, and does not pervert justice and judgment, as Bildad had observed, Job 8:3; Job was a man of great natural parts and capacity; he had a large share of knowledge of things, natural, civil, and moral; and he was a good man, in whom the true light of grace shined; and being, enlightened by the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of divine things, he knew much of God, of his being and perfections, and of the methods of his grace, especially in the justification of men, as appears by various passages in this chapter; he knew that God was just and holy in all his ways and works, whether of providence or grace; and this he kept in sight amidst all his afflictions, and was ready to acknowledge it: he knew this “of a truth”; that is, most certainly; for there are some truths that are so plain and evident that a man may be assured of, and this was such an one with Job; he had no need to be instructed in this article; he was as knowing in this point, as well as in others, as Bildad or any of his friends; nor did he need to be sent to the ancients to inquire of them, or to prepare himself for the search of the fathers, in order to acquire the knowledge of this, to which Bildad had advised; yet, though this was so clear a point, about which there was no room for further contest; but then the matter is,
how should man be just with God? if not angels, if not man in his best estate, in which he was vanity when compared with God; then much less frail, feeble, mortal, sinful men, even the best of men, considered in themselves, and with respect to their own righteousness: for, to “be just” is not to be so through an infusion of righteousness and holiness into men, which in the best of men is their sanctification and not their justification; but this is a legal term, and stands opposed to condemnation, and signifies a man’s being condemned and pronounced righteous in a judiciary way; so a man cannot be adjudged, reckoned, or accounted by God upon the foot of works of righteousness done by him; since his best works are imperfect, not answerable to the law, but very defective, and so not justifying; are opposite to the grace of God, by which, in an evangelic sense, men are justified; these would encourage boasting, which is excluded in God’s way of justifying sinners; and could justification be by them, the death of Christ would be in vain, and there would have been no need of him and his justifying righteousness: especially, it is a certain thing, that a man can never be “just”, or “justified with God”, in such a way, or through any righteousness wrought out by him; that is, either he is not and cannot be just in comparison of God; for, if the inhabitants of the heavens are not pure in his sight, the holy angels; and if man, at his best estate, was altogether vanity when compared with him, what must sinful mortals be? or not be just at his bar; should he mark their iniquities, enter into judgment with them, or an action against them, summon them before him to answer to charges he has to exhibit; they could not stand before him, or go off acquitted or discharged: or in his account; for his judgment is according to truth; he can never reckon that a perfect righteousness which is an imperfect one: or in his sight; for, though men may be just in comparison of others, or at an human bar, in an human court of judicature, and in the account of men, and in their sight, to whom they may appear outwardly righteous, as well as in their own sight; yet not in the sight of God, who sees all things, the heart and all in it, every action, and the spring of it; see Ps 143:2 Ro 3:20; in this sense, a man can only be just with God through the imputation of the righteousness of Christ, accounting that to him, putting it upon him, and clothing him with it, and so reckoning and pronouncing him righteous through it; and which is entirely consistent with the justice of God, since by it the law is fulfilled, magnified, and made honourable, and justice satisfied; so that God is just, while he is the justifier of him that believes in Jesus, Ro 3:26.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
First division THE FACT THAT GOD IS IMMUTABLY JUST (Job 8:3) AND ABSOLUTELY PURE, (Job 4:17,) DOES NOT SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF THE IMPLACABLE ANTAGONISM TO THE RIGHTEOUS ON THE PART OF AN OMNIPOTENT GOD, Job 9:2-12.
Strophe a Job ironically grants the propositions of his antagonists, but only as NON SEQUITURS. In almost the same breath they have insisted that “God rewards the just,” and that “none are just before God,” thus apparently contradicting themselves. Taking advantage of their discomfiture he redoubles his blows, plying them with the most momentous questions man can ask, Job 9:2-4.
2. Man ( , a mortal) be just with God, ( , the Strong) The key to the subsequent glowing description of the terror-working God (5-11) is found in this antithesis of mortal man to an omnipotent God. Prayers and oblations, temples and altars, sacrifices and self-tortures, lustral waters and bleeding victims, bear witness to a universal consciousness of sin and guilt to man’s abiding sense that he is not acceptable to his God; moreover, that the wrath of that God has gone forth against him, and must by some means be appeased. Whence that sense? By what means did it so deeply ingrain itself in man’s nature? It antedates all other merely human knowledge, and points, as with a wand, to certain deep, underlying, and congenital facts of a fallen nature everywhere recognized in Scripture. The only religion which proffers a satisfactory answer to the questions of Job is that which alone gives peace with God. Rom 5:1.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 458
THE FOLLY OF SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PRESUMPTION
Job 9:2-4. How should man be just with God? If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened against him, and hath prospered?
THE fundamental doctrines of our holy religion are not like the deductions of human reason, which leave a degree of doubt upon the mind: they correspond with something within us, which contributes to assure us that the things which we have received upon the divine testimony are unquestionably true. The inspired writers indeed, knowing by whom they were inspired, delivered without hesitation those things of which they had no internal evidence, as well as those which were confirmed by their own experience. Nevertheless there is a peculiar energy in their mode of declaring experimental truths: they make them a subject of appeal to their very enemies, and challenge the whole universe to deny the things whereof they affirm. Thus it was with Job. Bildad had charged him with asserting his own perfect innocence, and accusing God as unjust in his proceedings towards him: Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice! Job, in his reply, allowed the premises of his opponent, but denied the consequences which were deduced from them: I know it is so of a truth; that is, I know God will not pervert justice: but I deny that I ever intended to justify myself before God, or to harden myself against him; for I am as fully convinced of the folly of acting in such a manner, as you or any one else can be: How can man, &c.
In this reply Job strongly asserts two things;
I.
The folly of justifying ourselves before God
Many there are who justify themselves before God
[Few indeed, if any, will deny that they have sinned: but all unregenerate persons will deny that they deserve the wrath of God: at least, if, on account of some flagrant transgression, they be constrained to confess themselves obnoxious to eternal punishment, they hope by some repentance or reformation to compensate for their sins, and to establish a righteousness whereby they may find acceptance with God.]
But this proceeds from an ignorance of the divine law
[The law of God is perfect [Note: Psa 19:7.]; the commandment is exceeding broad [Note: Psa 119:96.]: it extends not to actions only, but to the thoughts and desires of the heart [Note: Thou shall not covet,i. e. Thou shall not harbour, thou shalt not even have, an inordinate desire, Rom 7:7.]; and it requires perfect and perpetual obedience [Note: Gal 3:10.]. On our failure in any one particular, it denounces a curse against us [Note: Gal 3:10.]; and from that period it can never justify us. It admits of no repentance on our part, or relaxation on Gods part [Note: Mat 5:18.]. It is as immutable as God himself: and it is owing to mens ignorance of this law that they so foolishly build upon it as the foundation of their hopes.]
None who understand this law will ever look for justification from it
[If amongst a thousand perfect actions, one only were found defective, it were sufficient to condemn us for ever. But, if we will try ourselves by the law, we shall not find one action of a thousand, no, nor one in our whole lives, that will not condemn us. If we should presume to contend with God respecting the perfection of our best action, how soon would he confound us! Even we will venture to expose the folly of such presumption. Bring forth your action to the light: was there nothing amiss in its principle, nothing defective in the manner, nothing of a selfish mixture in its end? See if you can answer a weak sinful creature like yourselves: and, if you cannot, how will you answer the pure heart-searching God?
See then the folly of hoping ever to be just with God; and adopt the language of David, Enter not into judgment with thy servant; for in thy sight shall no man living be justified [Note: Psa 19:12; Psa 40:12; Psa 130:3; Psa 143:2.].]
But there is another point in the text to which we must advert, namely,
II.
The folly of hardening ourselves against God
Those who justify themselves before God are equally prone to harden themselves against him
[This they do by their unbelief and impenitence: they will not give credit to the declarations of God concerning them: they think, in direct opposition to all that God has spoken, that he will never execute his threatenings against the transgressors of his law. They profess to hope that repentance will appease his anger; and yet they put off their repentance from year to year, and take occasion even from his mercy to sin the more against him.]
The folly of this appears,
1.
From the character of God
[If God were ignorant of what passes in our minds, or unable to punish us for our sins, we need not concern ourselves so much about him. But are the thick clouds a covering to him, so that he cannot see us [Note: Job 22:13-14.]? or are we stronger than he, so that we can provoke him to jealousy [Note: 1Co 10:22.] without any fear of his resentment? No: he is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: he beholds the most secret emotions of our hearts, and will surely call us into judgment for them. What folly is it then to harden ourselves against him, when neither rocks nor mountains can conceal us from him, nor the whole universe combined deliver us from his hands [Note: Dan 4:37. Pro 11:21.]!]
2.
From the experience of men
[Who amongst all the sons of men ever prospered, while he lived in an impenitent and unbelieving state? Many indeed have been wealthy and powerful [Note: Psa 73:3-12.]; but who ever had solid peace in his conscience? Who ever had real comfort in a dying-hour? Who ever had happiness in the eternal world? This is the only prosperity that deserves our notice; and, in this view of it, the question in the text is unanswerable.
But, if we cannot tell of one that prospered, can we not recount multitudes that have been marked as objects of Gods most signal vengeance? Was not the rebellious Pharaoh visited with ten successive plagues, and drowned at last, with all his army, in the Red Sea [Note: Exo 9:17; Exo 14:17; Exo 14:28.]? Was not the vain-glorious Nebuchadnezzar changed, as it were, into a beast for the space of seven years for his impious boasting against God [Note: Dan 5:20-21.]? Was not his son Belshazzar warned by a hand-writing on the wall, in the midst of his lewd, drunken, and blaspheming revels; and, agreeably to the prediction, dethroned and slain that very night [Note: Dan 5:22-28; Dan 5:30.]? But why do we mention individual instances, when we are told, that every one who, after repeated reproofs, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy [Note: Pro 29:1.]? Who that considers this denunciation, must not confess, that such opposition to a God of infinite wisdom and power is madness itself?]
These things then being clear, the following advice cannot but approve itself to the consciences of all
1.
Be attentive to the concerns of your souls
[To repent, and believe the Gospel, was the advice which Jesus himself gave to his hearers: and it is as necessary for you as it was for them. But it may be thought that an attention to spiritual concerns will interfere with your worldly prosperity. This however is not a necessary consequence: there can be no doubt but that, if you serve God faithfully, the world will hate you: but prudence and diligence may advance your temporal interests even in spite of the worlds hatred. Be it so, however: your temporal and spiritual welfare, we will say, are in direct opposition to each other: can it be doubted which you should prefer? Is not the soul of more value then ten thousand worlds? Seek then the prosperity which God approves, and which will continue for ever.]
2.
Study the Gospel in particular
[It is the Gospel alone that can enable you to answer that important question, How shall man be just with God? That takes your eyes off from human attainments, and directs them to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is there set forth as a propitiation for sin, that, through him, God may be just, and yet the justifier of penitent and believing sinners [Note: Rom 3:24-26.]. From thence you learn, that Christs obedience unto death is a sufficient plea against all the accusations of Gods law; and that, if you be washed in his blood, God himself will not behold in you the least spot or blemish [Note: Eph 5:25-27.]. It was from the Gospel as originally preached to Abraham, that he found out the method of a sinners acceptance with God [Note: Gal 3:6-9.]. All the Apostles acquiesced in this way of salvation: they all renounced their own works in point of dependence, and sought for mercy through faith in Christ [Note: Gal 2:15-16.]. Let the Gospel then, whether as written by the first ministers of Christ, or as preached by those who now follow their steps, be your meditation and delight: so shall you find support under the most accumulated trials, and be accepted of your God in the day of judgment.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Job 9:2 I know [it is] so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
Ver. 2. I know it is so of a truth ] Bildad’s argument was, God, who hath punished thee, is just, therefore thou art unjust. Job grants the antecedent here, but denies and refutes the consequent, Job 9:22-23 , &c. To Eliphaz also Job grants, not only that man could not be more just than God, as he had said, Job 4:3 , but also that none could ever be found so just that he might any way be compared to God. Job is one of those candidates of immortality, who can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth, 2Co 13:8 , every parcel whereof he accounted precious, and could not but be a friend to it, though brought by them who seemed his enemies; this spoke him ingenuous and humble, a well tempered champion for the truth. Athanasius is said to be such another, and so Mr Bucer. Helvidius is taxed by Jerome for the contrary, and Bishop Montague, by Dr Rivet.
But how should man be just with God?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
how. ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6. This is the one great question of the book.
man = mortal man. Hebrew. ‘enosh. App-14.
GOD. Hebrew El. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
how: Job 4:17, Job 14:3, Job 14:4, Job 25:4, Job 32:2, Job 33:9, Job 34:5, 1Ki 8:46, Psa 130:3, Psa 143:2, Rom 3:20
with: or, before
Reciprocal: 2Ki 19:17 – Of a truth Ezr 9:15 – we cannot Job 8:3 – God Job 9:20 – justify Job 9:28 – I know Job 11:4 – I am clean Job 13:18 – I know Job 15:14 – is man Job 25:2 – Dominion Luk 1:6 – righteous Rom 3:19 – that 1Co 4:4 – yet Gal 2:16 – that 1Jo 1:8 – say
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 9:2. I know it is so of a truth Namely, as you say, that God must be just and righteous; that purity and uprightness are qualities belonging to him; that he cannot possibly be biased or prejudiced in judging and determining the state and condition of mankind. I am likewise satisfied, that the time we have to live here is too short to compass any considerable points of knowledge; and that, whenever he pleases, he can exercise his power so as to change our exalted mirth to most bitter weeping, our highest joy to the most abject sorrow: can bring the most insolent offender to shame, and dispossess the wicked of his strongest and most magnificent situation. But how Hebrew, And how, should man Enosh, weak, frail man, imperfect as he is, be just with God? Be justified, or clear himself in Gods account. I know that no man is absolutely holy and righteous, if God be severe to mark what is amiss in him.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
9:2 I know [it is] so of a truth: but how should man be {a} just with God?
(a) Job here answers Eliphaz and Bildad’s oration, touching the justice of God, and his innocency, confessing God to be infinite in justice and man to be nothing in respect.