Job 10

34,35. If God would only remove his pain from him for a brief space (Job pleads), so that he might recover himself for self-defence, and if He (God) would not stifle his (Job’s) words, as they come freely forth from his lips, by confronting him with His overwhelming majesty, then he would fearlessly speak for himself ; for I am not conscious of such a moral condition as compels me to remain dumb before Him. His self-consciousness makes him desire that the possibility of answering for himself might be granted him ; and, since he is weary of life, and has renounced all claim for its continuance, he will at least give his complaints free course, and pray the Author of his sufferings that He would not permit him to die the death of the wicked, contrary to the testimony of his own conscience. Delitzsch.—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. Barnes.

1. My soul is weary of my life ; I will give free course to my complaint ; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. 2 I will say unto God, Do not condemn me ; Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me. 3 Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, And shine upon the counsel of the wicked ? 4 Hast thou eyes of flesh, Or seest thou as man seeth ? 5 Are thy days as the days of man, Or thy years as man’s days, 6 That thou inquirest after mine iniquity, And searchest after my sin, 7 Although thou knowest that I am not wicked ; And there is none that can deliver out of thine hand ?

8. Thine hands have framed me and fashioned me Together round about ; yet thou dost destroy me. 9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast fashioned me as clay ; And wilt thou bring me into dust again ? 10 Hast thou not poured me out as milk, And curdled me like cheese ? 11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews. 12 Thou hast granted me life and favour, And thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. 13 Yet these things thou didst hide in thine heart ; I know that this is with thee : 14 If I sin, then thou markest me, And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity. 15 If I be wicked, woe unto me ;

And if I be righteous, yet shall I not lift up my head;

Being filled with ignominy

And looking upon mine affliction.

16. And if my head exalt itself, thou huntest me as a lion:

And again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

17. Thou renewest thy witnesses against me,

And increasest thine indignation upon me;

Changes and warfare are with me.

18. Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb?

I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me.

19. I should have been as though I had not been;

I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.

20. Are not my days few? cease then,

And let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

21. Before I go whence I shall not return,

Even to the land of darkness and of the shadow of death;

22. The land dark as midnight;

The land of the shadow of death, without any order,

And where the light is as midnight.

Chap. 10. Job’s new appeal to God, in the form of an effort to discover what in the Divine nature it can be that will explain his terrible sufferings.

The chapter attaches itself closely to the last words of chap. 9, precisely as chap. 7 to the end of chap. 6. Chap. 9 ended with the expression of the feeling on Job’s part of his own innocence, and at the same time of the feeling that God had determined to hold him guilty. Added to this was the feeling of his helplessness to make his innocence appear against God’s power and majesty. After a slight pause, perhaps, these mixed feelings gather new volume in his mind, and he breaks out, perplexed and baffled, my soul is weary of my life. Then commences an appeal unto God in which one supposition after another is hazarded as to what in God’s nature it is that is the secret of Job’s sufferings, each supposition being refuted by being seen to be in contradiction to God’s true nature. The whole thus forms a very impassioned argument with God founded on His own nature.

First, Job appeals to God not to make him guilty by mere arbitrary will, but if He have cause against him to reveal it (v. 2). Then with a strong feeling of his own innocence he asks if it be a pleasure to God to oppress and reject the just and smile upon the wicked? Can it be that God finds pleasure in this (v. 3)? Then he wonders if God have eyes of flesh, subject to illusion and error, so that He mistakes the innocent for the guilty; or if He be short-lived, like men, and must gratify His vengeance on suspicion lest His victim should escape Him—though, in truth, none of this could be, for He knew Job’s innocence, and none could deliver from His hand (vs. 4-7). Then the mention of His “hands” suggests to Job, and he brings it before God, the strange contradiction in God’s treatment of him—His hands fashioned him once like a precious vessel, and now He reduces him to dust again (v. 8)! This contradiction, vividly put in v. 8, is then enlarged upon. Job recalls God’s remembrance to past times, how He wonderfully began his being in the womb, and with a careful and minute tenderness fashioned all his parts, forming him with a prodigal expenditure of skill; and then when a living man hedged him about with lovingkindness and guarded his spirit with constant oversight (vs. 9-12). The contradiction between this gracious guidance in the past and God’s present treatment of him utterly baffles Job, and he leaps to the desperate conclusion that all that he now suffers had always been designed by God, and that even while expending His greatest skill upon him He had been cherishing this deep purpose of plaguing him. With an elaborate minuteness Job goes over this Divine scheme (vs. 13-17), and as he realizes it to himself in detailing it, he finally cries out in despair, why God ever gave him life at all (vs. 18, 19)? and begs for a little easing of his pain before he goes into the land of darkness (vs. 20, 21); concluding with some terrible touches concerning that gloomy land, where the light is as darkness (v. 22). A. B. D.

1. The only ease of a troubled soul is to pour out complaints unto God. It will be ease to the mind to open up the grief to any, but far more to open it up to God. Job’s complaint here is the laying forth of his present burden; what he felt and what he feared; even the wrestling of his faith and sense, brought forth before God in such words as he feels the battle within, the battle betwixt sense and reason or suggestion on the one hand, faith and God’s spirit on the other hand. The wrestling of these two makes up a complaint. “My soul is weary of my life”—this is sense’s part; it says that it is best to be dead and out of pain; which lets us see that in the day of sore trouble and grief sense will cry out, “God, if I were dead!” But this is the voice of nature, and not God’s voice. Dickson.

Do not quarrel with your lot in life. Do not complain of its never-ceasing cares, its petty environment, the vexations you have to stand, the small and sordid souls you have to live and work with. That is the practice which God appoints you; and it is having its work in making you patient, and humble, and generous, and unselfish, and kind, and courteous. Do not grudge the hand that is moulding the still too shapeless image within you. It is growing more beautiful, though you see it not, and every touch of temptation may add to its perfection. Therefore, keep in the midst of life. Do not isolate yourself. Be among men, and among things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles. Character grows in the stream of the world’s life. That chiefly is where men are to learn love. H. Drummond.

2. I will say unto God. Faith takes him up again and bids him speak of his complaint to God; complain to Him, and not of Him. In straits we may complain to God, but not of God. Therefore, say not to others, God hath dealt thus and thus with me; but go to Himself, for thou wilt be warmliest heard of Himself. And be sure this shall both give ease, and make God to say that He is thy salvation; that He will neither leave thee nor forsake thee, and bid thee call on Him in the day of thy trouble, and He shall hear thee. Do not condemn me. The voice of sense is, that I am condemned; but faith says, Lord, Thou wilt not condemn me, but absolve me; which also shows that faith doth not abide to be condemned or separated from God. Show me. Albeit faith cannot see a reason why it is thus handled, yet it will not yield to sense, nor to men’s words, nor to appearances of God’s anger; albeit it cannot particularly refute all challenges, yet it yields not, but speirs at God, how it can be? and rests not till it finds satisfaction. Dickson.

It is because Job so thoroughly believes in God that God’s attitude perplexes and affrights him. He is troubled because God’s character is seemingly impugned by his affliction. He is confident that God has an explanation for him if he can but get to God and plead his cause. V.

3. Is it beseeming—that is, worthy of God as God? At the outset of his misery Job would not “attribute aught unbeseeming to God” (1:22). Neither does he here; he does rather what is more honest and open, goes straight to God with his difficulty and seeks explanation by some principle that he can understand. It is like Abraham’s question, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” That Thou shouldst oppress. Notice that Job uses the word presupposing his innocence; not punish, as if he were guilty. J. F. G.

He thinks it unbecoming the goodness of God and the mercifulness of His nature to deal so hardly with His creature as to lay upon him more than he can bear. Is it good unto Thee that Thou shouldst oppress? Now, Lord, what is the meaning of this? Such is Thy nature that this cannot be a pleasure to Thee; and such is Thy name that it cannot be an honor to Thee; why, then, dealest Thou thus with me? Far be it from Job to think that God did him wrong, but he is quite at a loss how to reconcile His providences with His justice, as good men have often been, and must wait until the day shall declare it. Let us, therefore, now harbor no hard thoughts of God, because we shall then see there was no cause for them. H.—Sense says to Job that for all his righteousness God will cast him off, oppress and despise him; that it is but bootless to reckon rights or wrongs with God, for He is risen in anger against him. But the voice of faith says God will not oppress, despise, or cast off; for his interrogation proves it; his asking if it can be imports a denial that it can be. It lets us see that whatever sense says against God, faith says the clean contrary. Dickson.

4-6. The force of this argument rests upon Job’s conviction that God is omniscient, and from everlasting to everlasting; so that, in fact, its very audacity proves inner faith. Cook.—There is a strong battle in Job’s breast. Sense said one thing to him, suggestion and his friends said the same, and he had only the grip of faith to stick by. And now, here he sticks by faith, and will not quit his grips; and therefore he speaks thus. Out of this questioning, we learn that the man who has learned God’s nature and properties will be better furnished with matter of dispute in his tentation about God’s providence; for all this dispute and questioning which Job has is grounded upon his knowledge of God. He had learned God’s attributes so tightly, as from them he could dispute his matter accurately, and from these affirm that it could not be as his friends alleged. Therefore, provide yourselves in time with the knowledge of God, that in the day of trial ye may make use of it. Dickson.

7. Thou knowest that I am not wicked. He had already owned himself a sinner and guilty before God, but he here stands to it that he was not wicked, not devoted to sin, not an enemy to God, not a dissembler in his religion—that he had not wickedly departed from his God (Psalm 18 : 21). Here see what ought to quiet us under our troubles ; that it is to no purpose to contend with Omnipotence. What will abundantly comfort us, if we are able to appeal to God, as Job here, “ Lord, I cannot say that I am not wanting or I am not weak ; but through grace I can say, I am not wicked ; Thou knowest I am not, for Thou knowest I love Thee.” H.—Where he is thus strenuous in asserting his integrity, it is only in opposition to the notion which those mistaken friends had entertained of him—that he had been guilty of some gross sins which he had the art to hide from the world, but that he was in reality a wicked man and a hypocrite in his behavior. This is what Job utterly denies and disclaims ; though he nowhere arrogates to himself perfect innocence or freedom from sin. Peters.

A renewed man may know a change in himself, the begun work of God in himself, albeit it be not clear at all times, but will ofttimes be so put in the mist as he wots not what to say ; but when he gets liberty to look about him, he may pronounce of God’s work in him and (as Job here) appeal to God and say that he is not wicked. An honest, sincere man will be bold with God. An honest man is not a sinless man, but one who, as he shall answer to God, strives against all known sin in private and in public ; and when he is overcome in sin is never at rest till he be sure that God is pacified and has assurance of a remission granted. He tells God whatever he feels or fears, puts God on all his counsels, goes to Him in all his distresses ; counts God so merciful and good, that he will go to Him ; so constant that He will not, cannot change, and still justifies God to be what He has spoken of Himself in His Word. Such a man will get liberty to tell all his mind to God, and God will not mistake him or captiously snap at his words, but expound them favorably. As he construes God according to His mind, so God construes him according to his aim and desire. Therefore, be honest before God, for there is no beguiling of Him. Study plain dealing with God. If there be great wickedness in your heart, tell Him of it. Tell Him that it is stiff, stubborn, and backward ; or that it is borne down with naughty burdens, and will not take on a better burden. Let God be thy confidant in all, and whatever thou would have close kept commit that to Him. Dickson.

8-12. The vividness with which God’s process of creation is conceived and portrayed is an indication of the keenness with which Job realizes the awful inconsistency that confronts him. The wantonness of the destruction heightens his sense of the wonderfulness of creation. J. F. G.

9. Remember that Thou hast made me? Now Job begins to plea God with reasons and arguments ; and as his first, he takes hold of God by the far end of the band of creation, and by that draws strength to himself and confidence to look for mercy.

12. Granted me favor. Count everything received of God a favor, so nothing shall make thee impatient as to storm when He gives or takes ; for if He take, it is the loosing of some burden off us ; if He strike, it is but the surgeon’s lancet ; if He gives a bitter cup, it is healing. Those who construe all that God doeth to be out of love are God’s friends. Dickson.

God maintains us ; having lighted the lamp of life, He does not leave it to burn upon its own stock, but continually supplies it with fresh oil ; “ Thy visitation has preserved my spirit, kept me alive, protected me from the adversaries of life, the death we are in the midst of, and the dangers we are continually exposed to ; and blessed me with all the necessary supports of life and the daily supplies it needs and craves.” H.

13. “ And these things hast Thou hid in Thy heart.” That is, Albeit now, Lord, Thou seemest to be wroth and about to destroy me, and to forget all the pains Thou hast taken in forming of me ; yet I believe Thou hast some love to me, which Thou had when Thou formed me. I know that same care Thou had in fashioning of me continues ; albeit Thou seem to destroy me, yet love is hid in Thy breast. Job is put to a trial when God hides. It lets us see that the time of God’s hiding of His love is the proper time of faith’s trial. See here the piercing look of Job’s faith ! It passeth in by God’s hand to his heart ; which lets us see that faith looks more to God’s Word than to His work, and more to His heart than to His hand, and to that which is hid than to that which is seen.

14,15. Job is put to search himself in his afflictions. We see that afflictions are sent, that we may be put to a search what the matter can mean. We see that in the search he says : “ I am either dealt with as a man guilty of sins unrepented, or a righteous, tried, and humble man. If it be the punishment of a wicked man, then woe’s me ; woe, and double woe to me ! But in this my comfort abides, that I am not wicked. If I be righteous, yet will I not lift mine head—that is, if the Lord be trying me as a righteous man, I know it is but to humble me, and I am content it be so." Think not that God hath not heard you because ye cannot get rest, for herein ye are mistaken, seeing Job, accepted of God, and humbled before Him, is yet restless in his mind, that he may be experimentally humbled, and patient till the delivery come. Out of this last we see albeit a man be righteous, yet is he not freed from correction—and here stands the dispute between Job and his friends. For Job affirms that a man indeed may be righteous and yet hardly handled by God’s afflicting hand; but they, not having seen the like in their experience, hold the contrary; yet Job’s ground holds fast. Dickson.

16,17. The outward evils inflicted on him he connects with his own inward conflicts, to which he ascribes every renewal and aggravation of them. Thy witnesses—the evils which he was suffering, regarded as evidences of God’s displeasure; the fundamental error in his, as well as his friends’ view of God’s dealings with him. Conant.—That which made his afflictions most grievous was that he felt God’s indignation in them; that was it that made them taste so bitter and lie so heavy. They were God’s witnesses against him, tokens of His displeasure; this made the sores of his body wounds in his spirit. His affliction increased, and God’s indignation in the affliction; he found himself no way better; these witnesses were renewed against him, that if one did not reach to convict him another might. Changes and war were against him. H.

18. Consider what guiltiness is in this passion and reasonless speech of Job’s: “Wherefore brought Thou me forth?” It is a reproving of God’s work, a finding fault with God’s providence, a casting down of all that God had done to him or by him. Job can draw no comfort to himself from anything that is befallen him in this life, or from any good that he has done, nor from anything God has done to him; so doth passion blind men in all that God has done to them, or by them. We see that in the day of trial, from bygone experiences, we may find no comfort. It must be fresh furniture that will do thy turn; that thou may have it, depend upon God at all times and in every case. Out of Job’s error learn we, whatever comes on us, rue we never that we are in life. Say not, it is better never to have had children or riches than to have had them and then to be taken away, for God has wise reasons both for giving and taking. Be not so foolish as to misinterpret any past work or gift of God. Dickson.

20-22. The frenzy spends itself here, and dies away into a plaintive wail of remonstrance, like that of an exhausted child. Once more he takes up the theme of chap. 3, lamenting that he ever saw the light, and praying for a little respite and rest ere he goes hence to be no more. Vincent.

21,22. Job accumulates epithets to express the sense of utter blackness and desolation of the state which he deliberately prefers to life in misery—each word has its peculiar horror; darkness (Gen. 1:2), such as was on the face of the waters before light was; “shadow of death,” a word originally meaning “deep shade,” but modified in form and signification so as to express the blackness of death; then returning to the same thought, and bringing out its full significance, “a land gloomy as blackness itself, the blackness of the shadow of death;” then the “without order,” the return, as it were, to chaotic disorder, the tohu and bohu preceding creation; last of all, the darkness which, as it were, radiates a hideous mockery of sunlight, no mere privation of light, but an aggressive and active power opposed to the abodes lightened by God’s presence and favor. Here, again, we feel how important it was that the utter blankness of a death without sensation, followed by no awakening, should be realized, in order that the mind might, in its recall, grasp the hope of immortality. Cook.

It might seem that Job is now on the high road to renounce God, as Satan had predicted he would do. But Job does not find renouncing God quite so easy a thing. And he enters upon a course in chap. 10 which, though at first it appears to take him a step farther in this direction, is really the beginning of a retreat. He endeavors to set before his mind as broad a view of God as he is able, in order that by thinking of all that he knows of God he may catch the end of some clue to his calamities. This makes him realize how much he is still sure of in regard to God. And first, he cannot doubt that He is all-knowing and omnipotent. But he goes farther. He cannot help seeing in the carefulness and lavish skill with which he was fashioned round about in all his being by the hands of God, not only wisdom, but a gracious benevolence, and in the preservation of his spirit a providence which was good. And he dwells on these things, not in the cold manner of a philosopher making an induction, but with all the fervor of a religious mind, which felt that it had fellowship with the Being whose goodness it experienced, and still longed for this fellowship. Yet God’s present treatment of him seemed in contradiction to all this. Thus Job balances God against Himself. Yet there is no other method by which he can reach the light; and though the balance inclines in one direction meantime, by and by it will incline in another. A. B. D.