Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 9:35
[Then] would I speak, and not fear him; but [it is] not so with me.
35. If God would meet Job as a man, removing His afflicting rod and laying aside His awful majesty, Job would speak out his innocence and plead his own cause without fear.
but it is not so with me ] Rather, for I am not so in myself in my own consciousness I am not so, or such, that I should fear Him. “In myself” is lit. with myself, cf. ch. Job 10:13, Job 23:14, Job 27:11, and St Paul’s by myself, 1Co 4:4.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then would I speak, and not fear him – I should then be able to maintain my cause on equal terms, and with equal advantages.
But it is not so with me – Margin, I am not so with myself. Noyes, I am not so at heart. Good, but not thus could I in my present state. Literally, for not thus I with myself. The Syriac renders it, for neither am I his adversary. Very various interpretations have been given of this phrase. The Jews, with Aben Ezra, suppose it means, for I am not such as you suppose me to be. You take me to be a guilty man; but I am innocent, and if I had a fair opportunity for trial, I could show that I am. Others suppose it to mean, I am held to be guilty by the Most High, and am treated accordingly. But I am not so. I am conscious to myself that I am innocent. It seems to me that Dr. Good has come nearer the true sense than any other interpreter, and certainly his exposition accords with the connection. According to this the meaning is, I am not able thus to vindicate myself in my present circumstances. I am oppressed and crushed beneath a lead of calamities. But if these were removed, and if I had a fair opportunity of trial, then I could so state my cause as to make it appear to be just.
In this whole chapter, there is evidently much insubmission and improper feeling. Job submits to power, not to truth and right. He sees and admits that God is able to overwhelm him, but he does not seem disposed to admit that he is right in doing it. He supposes that if he had a fair and full opportunity of trial, he could make his cause good, and that it would be seen that he did not deserve his heavy calamities. There is much of this kind of submission to God even among good people. It is submission because they cannot help it, not because they see the divine dealings to be right. There is nothing cheerful or confiding about it. There is often a secret feeling in the heart that the sufferings are beyond the deserts, and that if the case could be fairly tried, the dealings of God would be found to be harsh and severe. Let us not blame Job for his impatience and irreverent language, until we have carefully examined our own hearts in the times of trial like those which he endured. Let us not infer that he was worse than other men, until we are placed in similar circumstances, and are able to manifest better feelings than he did.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 35. But it is not so with me.] I am not in such circumstances as to plead with my Judge. I believe the sense of these words is nearly as Coverdale has expressed it: – For as longe as I am in soch fearfulnesse, I can make no answere. A natural picture of the state of a penitent soul, which needs no additional colouring.
ON the names of the constellations mentioned Job 9:9, and again Job 38:31, c., much has been written, and to little effect. I have already, in the notes, expressed my doubts whether any constellation be intended. Dr. Hales, however, finds in these names, as he thinks, astronomical data, by which he ascertains the time of Job. I shall give his words: –
“The cardinal constellations of spring and autumn, in Job’s time, were Chimah, and Chesil or Taurus, and Scorpio noticed Job 9:9, and again, Job 38:31-32; of which the principal stars are, Aldebaran, the bull’s eye, and Antares, the scorpion’s heart. Knowing, therefore, the longitudes of these stars, at present, the interval of time from thence to the assumed date of Job’s trial will give the difference of the longitudes; and ascertain their positions then, with respect to the vernal and autumnal points of intersection of the equinoctial and ecliptic; according to the usual rate of the precession of the equinoxes, one degree in 71 years. See that article, vol. i. p. 185.
“The following calculations I owe to the kindness and skill of the respectable Dr. Brinkley, Andrew’s Professor of Astronomy in the University of Dublin.
“In A.D. 1800 Aldebaran was in 2 signs, 7 degrees, east longitude. But since the date of Job’s trial, B.C. 2338, i.e., 4138 years, the precession of the equinoxes amounted to 1 sign, 27 degrees, 53 minutes; which, being subtracted from the former quantity, left Aldebaran in only 9 degrees, 7 minutes longitude, or distance from the vernal intersection; which, falling within the constellation Taurus, consequently rendered it the cardinal constellation of spring, as Pisces is at present.
“In A.D. 1800 Antares was in 8 signs, 6 degrees, 58 minutes, east longitude; or 2 signs, 6 degrees, 58 minutes, east of the autumnal intersection: from which subtracting as before the amount of the precession, Antares was left only 9 degrees, 5 minutes east. Since then, the autumnal equinox was found within Scorpio, this was the cardinal constellation of autumn, as Virgo is at present.
“Such a combination and coincidence of various rays of evidence, derived from widely different sources, history, sacred and profane, chronology, and astronomy, and all converging to the same focus, tend strongly to establish the time of Job’s trial, as rightly assigned to the year B.C. 2337, or 818 years after the deluge, 184 years before the birth of Abram; 474 years before the settlement of Jacob’s family in Egypt; and 689 years before their exode or departure from thence.” New Analysis of Chronology, vol. ii., p. 57.
Now all this is specious; and, were the foundation sound, we might rely on the permanence of the building, though the rains should descend, the floods come, and the winds blow and beat on that house. But all these deductions and conclusions are founded on the assumption that Chimah and Chesil mean Taurus and Scorpio: but this is the very point that is to be proved; for proof of this is not offered, nor, indeed, can be offered; and such assumptions are palpably nugatory. That ash has been generally understood to signify the Great Bear; Kesil, Orion; and Kimah, the Pleiades; may be seen everywhere: but that they do signify these constellations is perfectly uncertain. We have only conjectures concerning their meaning; and on such conjectures no system can be built. Genuine data, in Dr. Hales’s hands, are sure to be conducted to legitimate conclusions: but neither he nor any one else can construct an astronomical fabric in the limbus of conjecture. When JOB lived is perfectly uncertain: but that this book was written 818 years after the deluge; 184 years before the birth of Abram, and 689 years before the exodus; and that all this is demonstrable from Chimah and Chesil signifying Taurus and Scorpio, whence the positions of the equinoxes at the time of Job’s trial can be ascertained; can never be proved, and should never be credited.
In what many learned men have written on this subject, I find as much solidity and satisfaction as from what is piously and gravely stated in the Glossa Ordinaria: –
Qui facit Arcturum. Diversae sunt constellationes, varios status ecclesiae signantes. Per Arcturum, qui semper super orizontem nostrum apparet, significatur status apostolorum qui in episcopis remanet. Per Oriona, qui est tempestatis signum, significatur status martyrum. Per Hyadas, quae significant pluvios, status doctorum doctrinae pluvium effundentium. Per interiora austri, quae sunt nobis occulta, status Anachoretarum, hominum aspectus declinantium. “These different constellations signify various states of the Church. By Arcturus, which always appears above our horizon, is signified the apostolic state, which still remains in episcopacy. By Orion, which is a tempestuous sign, is signified the state of the martyrs. By the Hyades, (kids,) which indicate rain, the state of the doctors, pouring out the rain of doctrine, is signified. And by the inner chambers of the south, which are hidden from us, the state of the Anchorets (hermits) is signified, who always shun the sight of men.”
Much more of the same allegorical matter may be found in the same place, the Glossa Ordinaria of Strabus of Fulda, on the ninth chapter of Job. But how unreal and empty are all these things! What an uncertain sound do such trumpets give!
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
i.e. I would speak freely for myself, being freed from the dread of his majesty, which takes away my spirit and courage, and stoppeth my mouth.
But it is not so with me, i.e. I am not free from his terror, and therefore cannot and dare not plead my cause boldly with him; and so have no thing else to do but to case myself by renewing my complaints; as he doth in the next words. Others thus, but I am not so with myself, i.e. I am in a manner beside myself, distracted with the terrors of God upon me. Or rather thus, for I am not so with myself, or in my own conscience, as I perceive I am in your eyes, to wit, a hypocrite and ungodly man. So this is a reason why he could speak to God without slavish fear, because he was conscious to himself of his own integrity: I have a good conscience within myself, and therefore could use boldness in speaking to God, provided he would not deal with me in strict justice, but upon the terms of grace and mercy which he hath proposed to sinners, and with allowance to human infirmities.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
35. it is not so with meAs itnow is, God not taking His rod away, I am not on such a footing ofequality as to be able to vindicate myself.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
[Then] would I speak, and not fear him,…. With a servile fear, though with reverence and godly fear; meaning either at the throne of grace, having liberty of access, boldness of spirit, and freedom of speech through Christ the Mediator, and in the view of his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice; for when the rod of his law and the terror of his justice are removed, and his grace and favour in Christ shown, a believer can speak boldly and freely to God, and not be afraid before him: but rather Job’s sense is, that were the rod of his anger taken off and the dread of his majesty, which so awed him that he could not tell his case as it was, and use the arguments he might to advantage; he should speak without fear, and so as to defend himself, and make his cause to appear to be just; to this the Lord seems to refer in Job 38:3; being bold and daring expressions, which Job blushed when made sensible of it, Job 42:5;
but [it is] not so with me; there was no daysman between the Lord and him; the rod was not taken off his back, nor the dread and terror of the Almighty removed from him; and so could not speak in his own defence, as otherwise he might: or it was not so with him as his friends thought of him; he was not the wicked hypocritical man they took him to be, or as the afflictive dispensations of God made him to appear to be, according to their judgment of them: or the words may be rendered, “I am not so with myself” u; that is, he was not conscious to himself that he was such a person they judged him; or such were the troubles and afflictions that were upon him, that he was not himself, he was not “compos mentis”, and so not capable on that account, as well as others, of pleading his own cause: or “I am not right in” or “with myself” w; not in his right mind, being distracted with the terrors of God, and the arrows of the Almighty that stuck in him; or he was not righteous in himself; for though he was clear of hypocrisy he was charged with, he did not pretend to be without sin, or to have such a righteousness as would justify him before God; and therefore desires things might be put upon the foot of grace, and not of strict justice.
u “non sic ego apud me”, Pagninus, Montanus, Beza, Vatablus, Mercerus, Schmidt, Schultens. w “Quia non probus ego apud me”, Bolducius; “quod non sim rectus apud me”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(35) It is not so with me.Literally, I am not so with me. The words are variously understood: It is not so with me, i.e., I am not thus without fear, as the former part of the verse supposes; or, I am not so as ye suppose, i.e., guilty, but innocent; or, Am I not right with myself? i.e., inwardly conscious of my integrity and innocence (Job. 10:1).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
35. But it is not so with me For not so am I with myself. “I am not myself,” (Vulgate;) that is, “I have no command of myself.” Hitzig and Umbreit render it, “For so I know not myself.” The margin, which is literal, comes nearer to the meaning. Job cannot appear for himself before God. The divine terror is such that he would not be able to speak. Hence the need of some one to mediate with God for him. Or it may possibly give the reason why the rod should be taken away that he is “not conscious of the” great “guilt” (thus the Septuagint) which only could have brought upon him so great calamity. This would impliedly account for the difficult word so in the text.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 9:35. But it is not so with me For thus I am not myself. Houbigant. But I am not sufficient master of myself. Heath.
REFLECTIONS.1st, Without a reflection on the insinuations of his unkind friend, Job enters directly into the argument.
1. He admits God’s justice as a sure truth, nor dared to question how unequal a match he was for his Maker. Unable to stand before his bar, sinful man could not answer to one of a thousand of the charges that God could bring against him, but must plead guilty; nor can he resist the execution of his deserved sentence. Should he dare to plead for himself, God is wise in heart, and would detect the folly, and silence the sophistry of his arguments: should he dare to resist, God is mighty in power, yea, almighty to put his sentence in force, and every struggle is vain; for who ever hardened himself against him, in self-justification, or impious opposition, and prospered? Note; (1.) The knowledge of our own sinfulness, and especially of our fallen nature, will silence all self-dependance, and bring us to God through the infinite and alone merits of Jesus, for justification unto life. (2.) Though wicked men and devils harden themselves in rebellion against God, as if he was weak to punish them, or negligent about their iniquity, a few short days will detect their folly, and lay them trembling under the rod of judgment in the belly of hell.
2. He expatiates on the glorious evidences of God’s wisdom and power: so far was he from cursing God, that he could, in the midst of his pains, delight to dwell on the contemplation of his divine perfections. (1.) His power how amazing! At his word the mountains leap from their rooted bases, and they know not whither they are hurled: if his anger burns, they are overturned as the mole-hill. Shaken by his arm, earth’s loosened pillars tremble, and all the cumbrous load thereon sustained shakes like the leaf, and is as easily removed. The sun, that rose in glory at his word, shall, at his will, sink back into primaeval darkness, or, standing still in its course, withdraw from our hemisphere the light of day. Black with thick tempests, the lowering sky veils the bright stars, and their light is sealed up in darkness. Such works of wonder God wrought, when in the deluge the powers of earth and heaven were shaken; and works equally wonderous, whenever he pleases, he can still repeat, to scourge guilty mortals, and make his power be known. (2.) His wisdom how great! He alone spread the heavens over us with such admirable contrivance, and the waves of the sea beneath his feet retire to their appointed deep: yea, though they lift high their curling heads, their boundary is fixed, which they cannot pass.
Each constellation moves in its appointed order, and the southern stars, unseen by us in this hemisphere, rise and set in regular succession, as we return to, and go forth from, our chambers. Note; The heavens are an expanded volume, the stars legible characters, where man should read the wisdom, power, and glory of God. (3.) His agency is invisible, and his works unsearchable. We cannot comprehend their number, or fathom his mysterious ways. He passes by us, and we see him not. The effects of his wisdom and power are evident, while himself, his counsels, his agency, are hid and secret. (4.) His sovereignty is uncontrollable. Whatever he pleases he doth in the hosts of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth. If he take away every gift that he has bestowed, who can hinder him, or make him restore it again? who dare plead with him, and say, What dost thou? may he not do what he will with his own? (5.) His anger is terrible: if God will not withdraw it, the proud helpers, or the helpers of pride, the stoutest sinners, the most exalted of the sons of pride, can neither support themselves, nor afford others the least succour: they do stoop under him, sinking down to the earth in affliction, or lower, crushed into hell under the insupportable load of his wrath. Note; How should we then fear to offend him, if such is the power of his anger?
2nd, Job applies to his own case the views of God’s perfections which he had described, as a ground of self-abasement before him. However he could maintain his cause before man, as being in no wise a hypocrite, as was alleged, he could not vindicate himself before God as not being a sinner.
1. He owns his inability to stand the contest with God: he is too wise for man to plead with him; too mighty to be retired; and from his judgment no appeal can lie to any superior court. Note; There is no standing before God on the footing of our own deserts: in a covenant of grace, only, not of works, can the sinner be justified. Therefore,
2. However righteous he was as a magistrate, and sincere in profession as a good man, he resolves rather to cry for mercy than to plead his merits: not that he expected to be heard for his prayer’s sake; but, if answered, he should ascribe it solely to God’s rich grace, and not to the worth of his own supplications. Note; Mercy, not desert, must be our plea; nor can our best prayers make God our debtor.
3. Job had spoken rightly hitherto; but his infirmity now appears in the conclusion he draws, that while his afflictions were not removed, his prayers could not be answered; and, though acknowledging himself a sinner, he seems to think that his sufferings exceeded his deserts. He breaketh me with a tempest of afflictions, and multiplieth my wounds without cause, any such cause at least at his censorious friends had suggested. He will not suffer me to take my breath, I can scarcely pray or speak through the violence of my disease; but he filleth me with bitterness. Note; We must not judge that our prayers are rejected, because our sufferings remain: though we cannot now see why God deals with us thus, we shall be convinced by and by, that the greatest kindness God could do us was the continuance of our affliction.
3rdly, The grand point in dispute is, Whether the wicked are always miserable, and the innocent prosperous. This his friends affirm, and he as resolutely denies. This is one thing, singular as it may appear to you, yet certain and sure, and which from the fullest conviction I advance, God destroyeth the perfect and the wicked; eternally, indeed, the faithful cannot perish; but often they fall in the promiscuous ruin, when desolating judgments arise; and if the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent. Not that God delights in the miseries of his people, but if he seem unconcerned for their sufferings, it is because he intends their trials for the increase of their graces, and the brightening of their crown. The earth, in general, is given into the hand of the wicked; they prosper, have dominion, and bear the sway. He covereth the faces of the judges thereof; gives them up to blindness of heart, and leaves them to execute their unrighteous decrees, to the oppression of the innocent: if not, if this be not fact and truth, where and who is he that can confute me? God hath the government of the world, and these things cannot be done but by his permission: sufferings, therefore, are no proof of his anger, nor prosperity of his favour. Note; (1.) Though the righteous here suffer with the wicked, they suffer not as the wicked; their afflictions are merciful corrections, not angry judgments, and the end of them not their ruin, but more abundant glory. (2.) It must silence our complaints under oppression, and suppress all envy at the prosperity of the wicked, that it is permitted for wise ends, which, though we know not now, we shall know hereafter.
4thly, His complaints mingle with his arguments.
1. He bewails his past prosperity fled, his present sorrows incurable. Swifter than a post on full speed his days of joy were hurried by, and now are succeeded by days of misery, which made the former forgotten, as if they had never been: they are gone, like ships that skim before the wind; and, as if labouring for an expression to set forth their velocity, fled as the eagle, when darting on his prey. In vain he sought to recover a glimpse of former comfort, or to compose himself under present afflictions; If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself, the attempt were fruitless; sorrows followed him close as his shadow, and he feared they would overwhelm him at last. Note; (1.) Time is rapid, our day expiring, all temporal good transitory; let us be wise then to redeem it, that when the present moment is lost in eternity, as the drop in the boundless ocean, our happy portion there may be secured. (2.) It is easier to know that we ought to submit, and to bid the miserable forget their complaints, than to exercise that silent resignation which is so evidently our bounden duty.
2. He despairs of being able to plead with God: either it is the language of humility, expressive of his worthlessness, or of his impatience and hard thoughts of God, as if he had cleansed his hands in vain. I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent; I begin to despair of recovery, and expect, in the continuance of my afflictions, to be treated as if I be wicked, which will be believed, without doubt, if I perish in my suffering. Why then labour I in vain to clear myself, when the calamities that I suffer will plead against me in the eyes of the world, stronger than any arguments that I can urge will vindicate me. If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my hands never so clean, use every effort to maintain my innocence, and shew my conversation never so blameless, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch of deep afflictions, and mine own clothes shall abhor me; my dearest friends will construe my case abominable, and my sufferings will make me a burden to myself. Note; (1.) The best of men have the lowest thoughts of themselves. (2.) The more a sinner goeth about to establish his own righteousness, instead of submitting to “the righteousness of faith,” [Rom 4:13.] the more desperate his case grows.
3. He complains of the unequal contest. He is not a man, as I am; the potsherds may strive with the potsherds of the earth, but impossible it is, that I, a worm, should answer him, the glorious and infinite God, and that we should come together in judgment, or alike, on equal terms. He can have no superior, nor is there any court where the cause can be tried; neither is there any day’s-man, or arbitrator, to whom the cause can be referred, and by whose decisions we must abide. Or, it may be rendered, O that there were a mediator, that might lay his hand upon us both, so as effectually to settle and adjust the dispute. Note; The Lord Jesus Christ appears to be the day’s-man whom Job wanted: his hand is laid on both, to bring an offended God near in mercy to sinful man, and to incline man, a sinner, to return in humiliation to a pardoning God.
4. He wishes for a short respite, that he might speak for himself. Let him take his rod away from me, of chastisement that oppressed him, and let not his fear terrify me, that dread of his awful majesty which now overwhelmed him; then would I speak, in prayer and supplication, or plead for himself, and not fear him, as in his present state he did, God appearing as an enemy; or perhaps, daring as the challenge was, he would then maintain his cause without fear, and, though a sinner confessed, reason with him on the exceeding greatness of his sufferings; but it is not so with me; I am disabled by his terrors to speak before him; and I have no day’s-man; or, I am not so with myself, so master of himself, as to be able, in his disordered state, to maintain his cause aright. Note; Even truly godly men, under sore trials, have spoken unadvisedly with their lips; therefore we had need ever pray, that we may not be led into temptation.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
REFLECTIONS
PERHAPS no part of the Old Testament writings is more calculated, under the blessed SPIRIT’s teaching, to impress upon the soul a deep sense of sin, and to lay the soul lower in the dust in the view of it, than Job’s humbling language of his spirit in this chapter. Reader! let us pause and consider. Surely, however light and unthinking minds may pass over the consideration, yet it is a solemn question, How should man be just with God? Never was there a soul, really and truly brought nigh by the blood of JESUS, who thought lightly of this question. Abraham, the friend of GOD, felt his soul strongly exercised when he cried out, under a deep sense of GOD’S holiness, and his uncleanness; Behold, now (said he) I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes. And all the saints of GOD, in all ages, have thought the same. My soul! I charge it upon thee; is it not indeed a very solemn thing? Even now in ordinances aid means of grace, surely thou durst not draw nigh with lightness and indifference: and though thou art looking forward, as here in ordinances, so then in death, to come before GOD in JESUS’ blood and righteousness, that this, and this alone is thine only plea; yet when thou callest to mind, that in that solemn, awful hour, in the final event of which thine everlasting all depends, thou art to come before GOD as thy Judge, to receive a full absolution for the whole of life, is not thine whole nature struck with solemnity and awe, though thine eye is all the while upon JESUS?
And if such be the very awful process to every true believer in CHRIST; if David’s flesh trembled, as he tells us it did, when contemplating GOD in judgment, though he was directing the eye of faith to JESUS as his blessed Surety; what horror will seize the soul of that man who comes before that tremendous judgment-seat void of an interest in CHRIST, and without the Mediator to plead his cause, or the Mediator’s righteousness to justify his person. Oh! Reader! think, I beseech you while reading Job’s confession, that snow-water cannot impart cleanness to the sinner, and nothing but the fountain of JESUS’ blood can take away guilt; think of the blessedness of those who are looking to JESUS, and have a CHRIST, a Mediator to plead for them in his blood and righteousness, while law and conscience both accuse. Oh! precious, precious JESUS? how increasingly precious is thy salvation every moment. Oh! give us to see that we have redemption in thy blood, and are justified from all things, from which none of the sons of Adam could ever be justified by the law of Moses.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 9:35 [Then] would I speak, and not fear him; but [it is] not so with me.
Ver. 35. Then would I speak, and not fear him ] I would come boldly to the throne of grace, and freely pour out my soul into his bosom. If he meant that he would maintain his own cause against God’s proceedings (as some understand it, grounding upon Job 33:6-7 ), he was questionless in a very great error, and the flesh had got the hill of the spirit.
But it is not so with me
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Then would I = Fain would I.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Reciprocal: Job 13:3 – Surely Job 13:20 – do not two Job 16:21 – plead
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
9:35 [Then] would I speak, and not fear him; {b} but [it is] not so with me.
(b) Signifying that God’s judgments keep him in awe.