1.
Then Job answered and said,
2.
Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
2. to-day—implying, perhaps,
that the debate was carried on through more days than one (see
).
bitter— (Job 7:11;
Job 10:1).
my stroke—the hand
of God on me (Margin, Job 19:21;
Psalms 32:4).
heavier than—is so
heavy that I cannot relieve myself adequately by groaning.
3.
Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
3. The same wish as in (compare ).
Seat—The idea in the
Hebrew is a well-prepared throne ().
4.
I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
4. order—state methodically
(Job 13:18; Isaiah 43:26).
fill, &c.—I would
have abundance of arguments to adduce.
5.
I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.
5. he—emphatic: it little
matters what man may say of me, if only I know what God
judges of me.
6.
Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in 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;
Job 9:34; Job 13:21;
Job 30:18).
strength—so as to
prevail with Him: as in Jacob's case (Hosea 12:3;
Hosea 12:4). UMBREIT
and MAURER better
translate as in 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 the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.
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.
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:
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.
On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:
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).
10.
But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
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. So in me,
Job 4:21); though for some
inscrutable cause He as yet hides Himself (Job 23:8;
Job 23:9).
when—let Him only but
try my cause, I shall, &c.
11.
My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
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.
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
12. esteemed—rather, "laid
up," namely, as a treasure found (Matthew 13:44;
Psalms 119:11); alluding to the
words of Eliphaz (Job 22:22).
There was no need to tell me so; I have done so already (Job 22:22).
necessary—"Appointed
portion" (of food; as in 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). Probably under the general term, "what is appointed
to me" (the same Hebrew is in Job 22:22), all that ministers to the appetites of the body and
carnal will is included.
13.
But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
13. in one mind—notwithstanding
my innocence, He is unaltered in His purpose of proving me
guilty (Job 9:12).
soul—His will
(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.
For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.
14. many such—He has yet many
more such ills in store for me, though hidden in His breast ().
15.
Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.
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.
For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:
16. soft—faint; hath melted my
courage. Here again Job's language is that of Jesus Christ ().
17.
Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.
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).
Alluding to the words of Eliphaz (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).