Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 9:28

I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.

28. As Job’s afflictions were the proof of his guilt in the estimation of God, “to hold him innocent” means to remove his afflictions, as the first clause suggests.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

I am afraid of all my sorrows – My fears return. I dread the continuance of my griefs, and cannot close my eye to them.

Thou wilt not hold me innocent – God will not remove my sorrows so as to furnish the evidence that I am innocent. My sufferings continue, and with them continue all the evidence on which my friends rely that I am a guilty man. In such a state of things, how can I be otherwise than sad? He was held to be guilty; he was suffering in such a way as to afford them the proof that he was so, and how could he be cheerful?

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 28. I am afraid of all my sorrows] Coverdale translates, after the Vulgate, Then am I afrayed of all my workes. Even were I to cease from complaining, I fear lest not one of my works, however well intentioned, would stand thy scrutiny, or meet with thy approbation.

Thou wilt not hold me innocent.] Coverdale, after the Vulgate, For I knowe thou favourest not an evil doer; but this is not the sense of the original: Thou wilt not acquit me so as to take away my afflictions from me.

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

My sorrows; or, my pains and griefs. I find all such endeavours vain; for if my griefs be suspended for a little time, yet my fears continue.

I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent; I plainly perceive that my changing my note is to no purpose; for thou, O God, (to whom he makes a sudden apostrophe, as he doth also Job 9:31) wilt not clear my innocency, by removing those afflictions which make them judge me guilty of some peat crime. Words proceeding from great impatience and despair of relief.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

28. The apodosis to Job9:27 “If I say, &c.” “I still am afraid ofall my sorrows (returning), for I know that thou wilt (dost) (byremoving my sufferings) not hold or declare me innocent. How then canI leave off my heaviness?“

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

I am afraid of all my sorrows,…. That they would return upon him, and surround him, and overwhelm him, so that he should not be able to stand up against them, or under them; that they would increase and continue with him, and so he should never be released from them:

I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent: a sudden apostrophe to God as near him; the meaning is not, that he was confident that God would not justify him but condemn him in a spiritual sense; Job did not despair of his everlasting salvation, he knew and believed in his living Redeemer; he knew he should be acquitted and justified by his righteousness, and not be condemned with the world; but he was certain of this, as he thought that God would neither “cleanse” k him, as some render the word, from the worms his flesh was clad with, and from the filthy boils and ulcers he was covered with; nor clear him so as that he should appear to be innocent in the sight and judgment of his friends; but go on to treat him as if he was a guilty person, by continuing his afflictions on him, even unto death; he had no hope of being freed from them, and so of being cleared from the imputation of his friends, who judged of him by his outward circumstances.

k “quod non mundabis me”, Montanus, Bolducius, Beza.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Job 9:28. I am afraid of all my sorrows I shudder in all my limbs. Heath, after the LXX.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

(28) I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. (29) If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain? (30) If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean; (31) Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. (32) For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment. (33) Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both. (34) Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me: (35) Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.

Here Job not only dwells upon the same humbling subject, of man’s uncleanness as he must appear before GOD, but he again, as in a former instance, sends out the fervent wish of his soul, for a mediator, a days-man. No doubt the spirit of CHRIST, which was in the early prophets, and taught them to speak by faith of the sufferings of CHRIST, and the glory that should follow, (1Pe 1:11 .) taught also holy men of old to be looking for the same LORD JESUS as this precious Mediator, this Almighty Daysman, who alone was found competent to lay his hand upon both parties, GOD and man, and make up the deadly breach which sin had made. Oh! lovely evidence this of the faith of Job in a coming Mediator! Reader! do not overlook it and remember that Job’s complaint that there was none, was in effect a prayer that one might be found. Hence, when JESUS came, the cry of those that knew him was, We have found him of whom Moses and the prophets did write. Joh 1:45 .

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

Job 9:28 I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.

Ver. 28. I am afraid of all my sorrows ] That come thronging thick about me, and terrify me; they will surely be doubled and trebled upon me; hence my sorrow is incurable; if I should resolve never so much against it, I should break my resolution, and fall to fresh complaints, Psa 39:1 ; Psa 39:3 . Hic vides, saith Lavater. Here we may see how little is to be ascribed to man’s freewill in the things of God, since it is not in our power to comfort and cheer up ourselves under afflictions, though we would never so fain.

I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent ] But wilt hold me guilty, and accordingly punish me. This was the language of Job’s fear; had his faith been in heart, it would have quelled and killed such distrustful fears, and have gathered one contrary out of another, life out of death, assurance of deliverance out of deepest distresses, Deu 32:36 2Ki 14:26 , going into captivity was a sign of Israel’s returning out of captivity.

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

afraid: Job 21:6, Psa 88:15, Psa 88:16, Psa 119:120

I know: Job 9:2, Job 9:20, Job 9:21, Job 14:16, Exo 20:7, Psa 130:3

Reciprocal: 1Ki 2:9 – hold him Job 7:13 – My bed Job 30:15 – Terrors Job 33:9 – innocent Psa 13:2 – take Phi 3:9 – not 1Pe 1:6 – ye are

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge