Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 9:27

If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort [myself]:

27. my complaint ] i. e. as always, my complaining, ch. Job 7:13.

my heaviness ] lit. my faces, my sad mien, 1Sa 1:18.

comfort myself ] lit. brighten up, ch. Job 10:20; Psa 39:13. The word in Arab, ( balija) means to have a space clear of hair between the eyebrows, hence to have an open, bright countenance. A certain woman described the Prophet (Mohammed) as ablaju’lwajhi, bright in countenance. Then the word came to mean also to be bright, of the dawn or the day.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

If I say, I will forget my complaint – If I resolve that I will leave off complaining, and will be more cheerful, I find it all in vain. My fears and sorrows return, and all my efforts to be cheerful are ineffectual

I will leave off my heaviness – The word rendered my heaviness here ( panam) denotes literally my face; and the reference is to the sad and sorrowful countenance which he had. If I should lay that aside, and endeavor to be cheerful.

And comfort myself – The word rendered comfort here ( balag) in Arabic means to be bright, to shine forth; and it would here be better rendered by brighten up. We have the same expression still when we say to one who is sad and melancholy, brighten up; be cheerful. The meaning is, that Job endeavored to appear pleasant and cheerful, but it was in vain. His sorrows pressed heavily on him, and weighed down his spirits in spite of himself, and made him sad.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Job 9:27-35

If I say, I will forget my complaint.

Concerning Jobs sufferings

I. As too great to render any efforts of self-consolation effective. Three things are suggested.

1. A valuable power of mind. The power to alleviate sufferings. If I say, I will forget my complaint. Herein is the implied power. All have it. It is a remedial force that kind heaven has put within us. If he cannot quench the flame, he can cool it; if he cannot roll off the load, he by his own thoughts can make it comparatively light. He can go into a circle of ideas so engrossing and delectable as to experience transports of rapture in the dungeon or in the flames. What is pain but a mental sensation? And wherever that mental sensation may burn, its fires can be quenched in the river of noble thoughts and lofty aspirations.

2. A natural tendency of mind. What is it? The exertion of this mitigating power within us under suffering; an effort to forget the complaint, to leave off the heaviness, to comfort. Who under suffering does not essay this?

3. A sad defect in mind. I am afraid of all my sorrows; I know that Thou wilt not hold me innocent. Why did his mental efforts at self-consolation fail? Simply because he had not the inner sense of innocence. Though he always maintained that he was innocent of the sin of hypocrisy with which his friends charged him, he always felt that before the Holy he was guilty, and herein was the failure of his mind to mitigate his pain. He regards his sufferings–

II. As too deserved to justify any hope of relief.

1. He feels that no self-cleansing would serve him before God. If I be wicked,–or, as it should be, I am 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.

2. He feels that there is no one to act as umpire between him and his Maker. Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.

3. He feels that his afflictions were directly from God, and until they were removed there was no hope for him. Let Him take His rod away from me, and let not His fear terrify me; then would I speak, and not fear Him: but it is not so with me. (Homilist.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 27. I will forget my complaint] I will forsake or forego my complaining. I will leave off my heaviness. VULGATE, I will change my countenance – force myself to smile, and endeavour to assume the appearance of comfort.

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

If I say; if I resolve within myself.

I will forget my complaints; I will cease complaining.

My heaviness, Heb. mine anger; wherewith Job was charged by his friends, Job 18:4; my angry expressions. And comfort myself; I will endeavour to take comfort.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

If I say, I will forget my complaint,…. The cause of it, the loss of his children, servants, substance, and health, and endeavour to think no more of these things, and cease complaining about them, and attempt to bury them in oblivion, and change his note:

I will leave off my heaviness; his melancholy thoughts, words, airs, and looks; or “forsake my face” h, put on another countenance, a more pleasent and cheerful one; the Jewish commentators generally interpret it, “my anger”, either at the dispensations of Providence, or at his friends:

and comfort [myself]; that things were not worse with him than they were; or strengthen i himself, as the word is rendered in Am 5:9; against his fears, and troubles, and dejection of mind, determining to take heart, and be of good courage, and not sink, and succumb, and faint under his burdens: none but God, Father, Son, and Spirit, can give comfort to distressed ones, whether on temporal or spiritual accounts; but good men may make use of means for comfort, such as hearing the word, reading the Scriptures, prayer, meditation, and conversation with good men.

h “relinquam facies meas”, Montanus, Bolducius, Schmidt. i “confirmabo vel roborabo cor meum”, Mercerus; so R. R.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

27. Heaviness, etc. Literally, Face, dark looks.

Comfort myself Look cheerful. The original expresses the brightening up of the countenance by an exquisite metaphor taken from the lighting up of the sky when the clouds are lifted. Psa 39:13.

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

Job 9:27 If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort [myself]:

Ver. 27. If I say, I will forget my complaint ] And suffer in silence, as thou, Bildad, hast advised me, Job 8:2 . Sorrows are not so easily forgotten; Lam 3:19 , “Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.” The Stoics boasting of their indolence, or ability to bear afflictions without making moan or complaining, when it came to their own turn, found by experience that they had spoken more trimly than truly; and therefore one Dionysius, surnamed M , or the Flincher, left for this reason from the Stoics to the Peripatetics.

I will leave off my heaviness ] Heb. My face, viz. the sourness that used to sit upon it, as 1Sa 1:18 . The Pharisees were vultuosi tetrici inamaeni, Mat 6:16 , of a sad and sour countenance, grim and ghastly; they affected to look like Sycthians, as the word signifieth, that they might seem great tasters, when as inwardly they were merry and pleasant. Job’s case was far different; his heart was heavy as lead; nevertheless, to give content to his friends, he would endeavour to look lightsomely, but found a very hard task of it.

And comfort myself ] Heb. Strengthen, viz. so as not to make moan, but bite in my pain. Invalidum omne natura querulum, the weaker anything is the more apt it is to complain; and, on the contrary, some men’s flesh will presently rankle and fester, if but razed with a pin only: so some men’s spirits, they are ever whining.

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

complaint = complaining.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Job 7:13, Psa 77:2, Psa 77:3, Jer 8:18

Reciprocal: Job 30:15 – Terrors Psa 13:2 – take Psa 73:13 – Verily Phi 2:26 – full 1Pe 1:6 – ye are

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 9:27-28. If I say, I will forget my complaints, &c. If I resolve within myself that I will cease complaining, and endeavour to take comfort. I am afraid of all my sorrows Or, of my pains and griefs: I find all such endeavours vain; for if my griefs be suspended for a time, yet my fears continue. I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent I plainly perceive that thou, O God, (to whom he makes a sudden address, as he does also Job 9:31,) wilt not clear my innocence by removing those afflictions which make them judge me guilty of some great crime. Words proceeding from despair and impatience.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

9:27 If {u} I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort [myself]:

(u) I think not to fall into these afflictions, but my sorrows bring me to these manifold infirmities, and my conscience condemns me.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes