---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Job 23"
description: "CHAPTER 23   THIRD
SERIES.   :-. JOB"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/job/23"
---

CHAPTER 23

THIRD
SERIES.

. JOB'S ANSWER.

**2. to-day**—implying, perhaps,
that the debate was carried on through more days than one (see
).
**bitter**— ([Job 7:11](../../../kjv/job/7/11);
[Job 10:1](../../../kjv/job/10/1)).
**my stroke**—the *hand*
of God *on me* (*Margin*, [Job 19:21](../../../kjv/job/19/21);
[Psalms 32:4](../../../kjv/psalms/32/4)).
**heavier than**—is so
heavy that I cannot relieve myself adequately by groaning.

**3.** The same wish as in (compare ).
**Seat**—The idea in the
*Hebrew* is *a well-prepared throne* ().

**4. order**—state methodically
([Job 13:18](../../../kjv/job/13/18); [Isaiah 43:26](../../../kjv/isaiah/43/26)).
**fill,** &c.—I would
have abundance of arguments to adduce.

**5. he**—emphatic: it little
matters what *man* may say of me, if only I know what *God*
judges of me.

**6.** An objection suggests itself,
while he utters the wish (). Do I hereby wish that He should plead against me with His
omnipotence? Far from it! ([Job 9:19](../../../kjv/job/9/19);
[Job 9:34](../../../kjv/job/9/34); [Job 13:21](../../../kjv/job/13/21);
[Job 30:18](../../../kjv/job/30/18)).
**strength**—so as to
prevail with Him: as in Jacob's case ([Hosea 12:3](../../../kjv/hosea/12/3);
[Hosea 12:4](../../../kjv/hosea/12/4)). UMBREIT
and MAURER better
translate as in [Job 4:20](../../../kjv/job/4/20) (I
only wish that He) "would *attend* to me," that is,
give me a patient hearing as an ordinary judge, not using His
omnipotence, but only His divine knowledge of my innocence.

**7. There**—rather, "Then":
if God would "attend" to me ().
**righteous**—that is, the
result of my *dispute* would be, He would acknowledge me as
*righteous.*
**delivered**—from
suspicion of guilt on the part of *my Judge.*

**8.** But I wish in vain. For
"behold," c.
**forward . . .
backward**—rather, "to *the east*—to *the west.*"
The Hebrew geographers faced the east, that is, sunrise: not the
north, as we do. So "before" means east: "behind,"
west (so the Hindus). *Para,* "before"—east: *Apara,*
"behind"—west: *Daschina,* "the right
hand"—south: *Bama,* "left"—north. A similar
reference to sunrise appears in the name Asia, "sunrise,"
Europe, "sunset" pure Babylonian names, as RAWLINSON
shows.

**9.** Rather, "To the north."
**work**—God's glorious
*works* are especially seen towards the north region of the sky
by one in the northern hemisphere. The antithesis is between God
*working* and yet *not* being *beheld:* as in , between "He *goeth by,*" and "I *see*
Him *not.*" If the *Hebrew* bears it, the parallelism
to the second clause is better suited by translating, as UMBREIT,
"doth hide himself"; but then the antithesis to "behold"
would be lost.
**right hand**—"in the
south."
**hideth**—appropriately,
of the unexplored south, then regarded as uninhabitable because of
its heat (see [Job 34:29](../../../kjv/job/34/29)).

**10. But**—correcting himself for
the wish that his cause should be known before God. The omniscient
One already *knoweth the way in me* (my *inward*
principles: His *outward* way or course of acts is mentioned in
[Job 23:11](../../../kjv/job/23/11). So *in me,*
[Job 4:21](../../../kjv/job/4/21)); though for some
inscrutable cause He as yet hides Himself ([Job 23:8](../../../kjv/job/23/8);
[Job 23:9](../../../kjv/job/23/9)).
**when**—let Him only but
try my cause, I shall, &c.

**11. held**—fast by *His steps.*
The law is in Old Testament poetry regarded as *a way,* God
going before us as our guide, in whose footsteps we must tread ().
**declined**— ().

**12. esteemed**—rather, "laid
up," namely, as a treasure found ([Matthew 13:44](../../../kjv/matthew/13/44);
[Psalms 119:11](../../../kjv/psalms/119/11)); alluding to the
words of Eliphaz ([Job 22:22](../../../kjv/job/22/22)).
There was no need to tell me so; I have done so already ([Job 22:22](../../../kjv/job/22/22)).
**necessary**—"Appointed
portion" (of food; as in [Job 22:22](../../../kjv/job/22/22)). UMBREIT and
MAURER translate, "More
than my *law,*" my own will, in antithesis to "the
words of His mouth" ([Job 22:22](../../../kjv/job/22/22)). Probably under the general term, "what is *appointed*
to me" (the same *Hebrew* is in [Job 22:22](../../../kjv/job/22/22)), all that ministers to the appetites of the body and
carnal will is included.

**13. in one mind**—notwithstanding
my innocence, He is *unaltered* in His purpose of proving me
guilty ([Job 9:12](../../../kjv/job/9/12)).
**soul**—His *will*
([Psalms 115:3](../../../kjv/psalms/115/3)). God's sovereignty.
He has one great purpose; nothing is haphazard; everything has its
proper place with a view to His purpose.

**14. many such**—He has yet many
more such ills in store for me, though hidden in His breast ().

**15.** God's decrees, impossible to
be resisted, and leaving us in the dark as to what may come next, are
calculated to fill the mind with holy awe [BARNES].

**16. soft**—faint; hath melted my
courage. Here again Job's language is that of Jesus Christ ().

**17.** Because I was not taken away
by death from the evil to come (literally, "from before the face
of the darkness," [Isaiah 57:1](../../../kjv/isaiah/57/1)).
Alluding to the words of Eliphaz ([Isaiah 57:1](../../../kjv/isaiah/57/1)), "darkness," that is, calamity.
**cut off**—rather, in the
*Arabic* sense, *brought to* the land of *silence;* my
sad complaint hushed in death [UMBREIT].
"Darkness" in the second clause, not the same *Hebrew*
word as in the first, "cloud," "obscurity."
Instead of "covering the cloud (of evil) from my face," He
"covers" me with it ([Isaiah 57:1](../../../kjv/isaiah/57/1)).

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