Job 9

TODAY’S ENGLISH VERSION

Job

1-2 Yes, I-’ve heard all that before. But how can a man win his case against God?

3 How can anyone argue with him?

He can ask a thousand questions that no one could ever answer.

4 God is so wise and powerful

no man can stand up against him.

5 Without warning he moves mountains

and destroys them in anger.

6 God sends earthquakes and shakes the ground;

he rocks the pillars the earth stands on.

7 God can keep the sun from rising,

and the stars from shining at night.

8 No one helped God stretch out the heavens

or trample the sea monster back.

9 God hung the stars in the skythe Dipper,

Orion, the Pleiades, and the stars of the south.

10 We cannot understand the great things he does,

and there is no end to his miracles.

11 God passes by, but I cannot see him. 12 He takes what he wants, and no one can stop him;

no one can ask him, What are you doing?

13 God’s anger is constant. He crushed his enemies

who helped Rahab, the sea monster, oppose him.

14 So how can I find words to answer God? 15 Though I am innocent, all I can do

is beg for mercy from God my judge.

16 Yet even then, if he lets me speak,

I can-’t believe he would listen to me.

17 He sends storms to batter and bruise me,

without any reason at all.

18 He won-’t let me get my breath;

all he has done to me makes me bitter.

19 Should I try force? Try force on God?

Should I take him to court? Who would make him so?

20 I am innocent and faithful, but my words sound guilty,

and everything I say seems to condemn me.

21-22 I am innocent, but I no longer care.

I am sick of living. Nothing matters; innocent or guilty, God will destroy us.

23 When an innocent man suddenly dies, God laughs. 24 God gave the world to the wicked.

He made all the judges blind. And if God didn-’t do it, who did?

25 My days race by, not one of them good. 26 My life passes like the swiftest boat,

as fast as an eagle swooping down on a rabbit.

27-28 If I smile and try to forget my pain,

all my suffering comes back to haunt me; I know that God holds me guilty.

29 Since God holds me guilty, why should I bother? 30 No soap can wash away my sins. 31 God throws me into a pit of filth,

and even my clothes are ashamed of me.

32 If God were human I could answer him back;

we could go to court to decide our quarrel.

33 But there is no one to step between us

no one to judge both God and me.

34 Stop punishing me, God! Keep your terrors away! 35 I am not afraid. I am going to talk,

because I know my own heart.

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION 9:1-35

How does this second response of Job compare with his first response?

Job responds more to one friend than he does the other. Who? Why?

God’s justice is identical to what?

When man goes to court with God what is the result?

Do we really believe that no one can harden himself against God and prosper? Discuss.

What is the point of verse five?

Why would the earth tremble? What would be the result?

Job agrees with his friends in Job 9:8. Show how.

Why discuss the constellations of the stars?

Job repeats the words of Eliphaz (Cf. Job 5:9) but for a purpose. What was it?

Job says we can not see God, but we can see something concerning God. What is it?

What is the meaning of Job 9:12?

Job’s gratitude is now poisoned. By what?

What is meant by the term Rahab in Job 9:13?

Job is discouraged with the power of God. Why?

Even if he was innocent, Job cannot expect justice, so he says in Job 9:15. Why does he say this?

Does God hear the cries of Job? Discuss.

God is charged with crushing Job. Why would God do this?

Somehow the root of bitterness has flourished in Job. Is this always the response to suffering? Discuss.

Show how Job’s own speech condemns him.

Job has many who agree with him, i.e., that wickedness and injustice triumph and there is no moral order in the universe. Who are they?

Show how contradictory it is for humanists to accuse non-humanists with immoral behavior.

What is meant by the word scourge in Job 9:23?

Job answers Eliphaz (Job 5:22) with Job 9:23. Show how.

Job charges God with all the troubles of the world. He is not alone in this attitude. There is another answer. What is it?

The brevity of life is compared to what in Job 9:25.

Of what were the swift ships made?

Who is the bird and who is the prey in the figure cf. Job 9:26?

What does Job use to wash himself clean of his guilt?

Job 9:1-12

E. NOT GUILTYTHE CRIME OF INNOCENCEJOB’S CRY (Job 9:1, Job 10:22)

1. Man is no match before the all-powerful, all-wise God.

(Job 9:1-12)

TEXT 9:1-12

**9 Then Job answered and said,

2 Of a truth I know that it is so:

But how can man be just with God?

3 If he be pleased to contend with him,

He cannot answer him one of a thousand.

4 He **is **wise in heart, and mighty in strength:

Who hath hardened himself against him, and prospered?

5 **Him **that removeth the mountains, and they know it not,

When he overturneth them in his anger;

6 That shaketh the earth out of its place,

And the pillars thereof tremble;

7 That commandeth the sun, and it riseth not,

And sealeth up the stars;

8 That alone stretcheth out the heavens,

And treadeth upon the waves of the sea;

9 That maketh the Bear, Orion, and the pleiades,

And the chambers of the south;

10 That doeth great things past finding out,

Yea, marvellous things without number.

11 Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not:

He passeth on also, but I perceive him not.

12 Behold, he seizeth **the prey, **who can hinder him?

Who will say unto him, What doest thou?**

COMMENT 9:1-12

**Job 9:1-2**Job’s second responsechps. Job 9:1, Job 10:22has the same general structure as his first chps. 67. (1) He answers his friends, Job 9:2-24; (2) Brief soliloquy, Job 9:25, Job 10:1 a; and (3) A direct address to God, Job 10:1b-22. It is less personal than the previous speech; in fact, the three counselors are addressed only indirectly. The third section is another impassioned plea which subsides into an agonizing appeal for God to leave him alone.[119] It is important to take note of the fact that Job responds more to the things asserted by Eliphaz than Bildad. His opening words contain a sarcastic recognition of the principle enunciated by the three friends, that no man can be righteous in God’s eyes. God’s justice is identical with his power, i.e., whatever he does is justJob 4:12; Job 8:3; and Job 25:4.

[119] K. Fullerton, On Job, Chapter s 9-10, Journal Biblical Literature, 53, 1934, 321-49; and his Job, Chapter s 9-10, American Journal of Semitic Literature, 55, 1938, 225-69; see P. W. Skehan, Strophic Pattern in the Book of Job, Catholic Biblical Quarterly, XXIII, 1961, 125ff.

**Job 9:3**The verse in A. V. takes God as the subject of the verb. Contend is a forensic term meaning go to court with God, with the odds of winning once in a thousand times, literally one from a thousandDeu 32:30; and Joshua 23:10.

**Job 9:4**No one can challenge God and survive. One can never harden (object unexpressed) his heart (stands for intelligence) against God and win in the encounter(Remember Pharaoh[120])Deuteronomy 2:30; Deuteronomy 10:16; 2 Kings 17:14; Jeremiah 7:26; Psalms 95:8; Proverbs 28:14; and Proverbs 29:1.

[120] See my essay on Romans 9 and Theology of Promise and Universal History, Grace Unlimited, ed. by Dr. Clark Pinnock (Minnesota: Bethany Fellowship Press, 1975), pp. 190-208, and the issue of vocabulary and theology of hardening Pharaoh’s heart.

**Job 9:5**The Hebrew text is to be preferred over LXX, etc., and thus we should take the meaning to be suddenly, i.e., before anyone realizes it, God has overtaken them.[121] Job thus begins a doxology clearly more powerful than Eliphaz’SJob 5:10-16. Content is limited to God’s power, not His love and mercy.

[121] D. W. Thomas, Journal of Theological Studies, N. S., XV, 1964, 54ff, translates as so that they are no longer still, though here the hardening of human initiative.

**Job 9:6**For reference to the pillars, see Psalms 75:3; Psalms 104:5; and 1 Samuel 2:8. The verb translated tremble is found only here, and has root idea of tremble with horrorPsa 18:7; Isaiah 13:10; Joe 2:10.

Job 9:7-8God is presented as creator of the universe. Job is concurring with his three friends regarding God’s creative work in natureIsa 44:24.[122]

[**122] **Some attempt to prove thesis that back of this imagery is a reference to the myth of the victory of Ba-al over the sea god Yamm, but this is highly imaginative correlationF. W. Albright, JBL, LVII, 1938, 227; H. H. Rowley, Studies in Old Testament Prophecy, 1950, p. 18. For data on myth of conflict between Baal and Yamm, see O. Kaiser, Die mythische Bedeutung des Meeres, 1959, pp. 44ff; F. M. Cross, Jr. and D. N. Freedman, JBL, 67, 1948, 196-210, n. 93; also J. B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p. 67. The above research is basis for R. S. V. marginal reading the back of the sea dragon.

**Job 9:9**The order and identity of these constellations varies in different textsJob 38:31-32; Amos 5:8: (1) The first constellation -ash, -ayish in Job 38:32, is probably Ursa major; (2) The second is kesilfool is probably Orion; and (3) The thirdkimahis generally taken to be PleiadesPsa 78:26; Son 4:16.[123]

[123] See article Astronomy in ISBI, Vol. I (Eerdmans); G. Schiaparelli, Astronomy in the Old Testament, 1905, pp. 54ff; S. Mowinckel, Die Sternnamen in A. T., 1928, pp. 52ff; and G. R. Driver, Journal Theological Studies, XII, 1956, 1 ff.

**Job 9:10**Job ironically repeats Job 5:9 from Eliphaz. While he asserts that all of God’s works have ethical implications, Job maintains that God’s immeasurable power is used for His cosmic chess game of arbitrary play with his creatures.

**Job 9:11**Job avers that he knows God’s presence only by His power, manifested in nature. As a result of God’s passing by, Job’s life lies in ruins.

**Job 9:12**God snatches away (verbhatapfound only here), and no one can stop Him. The LXX translation is basis of the A. V.‘S he seizeth the prey. The LXX translator attempted to remove any reference to destructive action by God. But even the Greek of the LXX can also be translated if he moves, and not necessarily if he destroys.[124]

[124] M. Dahood, Biblica, 38, 1957, 310, for analysis of the verb yahtopdespoils in Job 9:12 a, A. V. as seizeth.

Job 9:13-24

2. Arbitrarily God deals with him, no matter what he may do. (Job 9:13-24)

TEXT 9:13-24

**13 God will not withdraw his anger;

The helpers of Rahab do stoop under him.

14 How much less shall I answer him,

And choose out my words **to reason **with him?

15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer;

I would make supplication to my judge.

16 If I had called, and he had answered me,

Yet would I not believe that he hearkened unto my voice.

17 For he breaketh me with a tempest,

And multiplieth my wounds without cause.

18 He will not suffer me to take my breath,

But filleth me with bitterness.

19 If **we speak **of strength, lo, **he is **mighty!

And if of justice, Who, **saith he, **will summon me?

20 Though I be righteous, mine own mouth shall condemn me:

Though I be perfect, it shall prove me perverse.

21 I am perfect; I regard not myself;

I despise my life.

22 It is all one; therefore I say,

He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.

23 If the scourge slay suddenly,

He will mock at the trial of the innocent.

24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked;

He covereth the faces of the judges thereof: If **it **be not **he, who then is it?

COMMENT 9:13-24

**Job 9:13**Job’s gratitude is now poisoned by more bitterness. God has all along only been preparing Job for torture. He thus denies the idea of strict moral causality, which has been presented by his friends. Man’s actionwhether good or badmakes no difference to God. Rahab (rootbe excited or agitated) is used in Isaiah 30:7; Psalms 87:4 as designation of Egypt. Rahab is one of the sea monsters slain by GodJob 26:12; Psalms 89:11; Isaiah 51:9. It is not necessary to identify Rahab with the Babylonian Creation Epic; the Leviathan narrative already appears Job 7:12.[125] The Source of Imagery (Formgeschichte) is one thing; its meaning is another.

[125] See A. Heidel, The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels (Chicago, pb., 1963); and his The Babylonian Genesis (Chicago, pb., 1963), for exhaustive analysis of these supposed parallels; also L. R. Fisher (ed.), Ras Shamra Parallels I (Analects Orientalia,1973.

**Job 9:14**Here Job relates that it is impossible to face God in His cosmic court, because God would refuse Job’s summon. He would simply manifest His superior power, and Job would lie destroyed. The Hebrew which is translated as A. V. how much less can also mean how much more, or how than. How can Job expect to face God, if a sea monster cannot? Job would be so overwhelmed that he would be unable to choose his words in order to challenge God.

**Job 9:15**Even though he is innocent, he cannot expect justice. The A. V. translates whom though I were righteous, but the term is forensic and probably should be translated as in the right or innocent. Similarly, the A. V. has my judge, but mesopetiopponentmeans my accuser or adversary at law. Job’s only recourse, since he cannot force a response from his adversary, is to cast himself on His mercy (first time for His theme to appear). Surely one of the central theological themes in Job is that man is hopelessly lost without God’s grace.

**Job 9:16**Now God does answer Job’s summons. But Job does not have confidence in the sense of believing that God is listening, giving an ear, or paying any attention to his cries.[126] Because God cannot be required to testify or justify His actions; He is responsible to no one but His own nature.

[126] See Dhorme, Job, p. 136.

**Job 9:17**God now is charged with crushing (A. V. breaketh) Job. The verb is used only here and in Genesis 3:15 which is often translated as bruise, but surely the context calls for crush or destroy. God crushes him without cause (same word as in Job 2:3) as though he were a mere trifle. God’s displeasure (ka-‘as as in Job 5:2 a) is not only reserved for the wicked; it also crushes the just.

**Job 9:18**The Hound of Heaven has filled Job with bitterness[127]Job 7:19; and Lamentations 3:15. Here we return to the theme of chapter 3.

[127] For discussion of this word, see M. Dahood, Biblica, 48, 1967, 427.

**Job 9:19**God’s power (koah) is here in parallelism with his judgment (mispat). God is supreme in power and thus subject to no summoner, Job included. The A. V. has lo from hinnehbehold. The Hebrew verb has a first person suffix arraign me instead arraign him (the difference is very slight but import is vastyo-‘ideniarraign or summons me, yo-‘idennuarraign or summons him. Surely this represents an effort to remove any suggestions that man could call God to account. Whether respecting power or justice, Job futiley confronts God.

**Job 9:20**Even Job’s own speech[128] condemns him. Is he saying that I am innocent; I am forced to assert my own guilt?

[128] For discussion of my mouth, see M. Dahood, Biblica, 38, 1957, 311; also Biblica, 1967, p. 543. Whether it is God’s or Job’s mouth, either or both condemn him.

**Job 9:21**He defends his innocence, though it may cost him his life. He would forfeit his life, but not his integrity in claiming his innocence. The intense emotional strain causes Job to cry that I neither know myself nor careJob 7:16; Genesis 39:6; Deuteronomy 33:9.

**Job 9:22**Is truth forever on the scaffold and error forever on the throne? The wicked and unjust triumph. Job shouts that God flouts justice indiscriminately. Job, like the late B. Russell, denies any moral order in the universe. This thesis also follows from contemporary attitudes expressed by Skinner, Crick, Monad, Wilson, Watson, et. al. God is indifferent to the human condition. Naturalistic humanism in all of its forms, but especially in its Neo-Marxian form, makes identical claims, while charging all non-naturalistic humanists with immoral behavior. If the universe is amoral, then there are different types of behavior, but no moral or immoral human acts. Job contradicts what Bildad has set forth in Job 8:20.

**Job 9:23**The scourge (sot) means calamities in general, war, plague, disease, famine, etc., which take lives regardless of their spiritual condition and relationship to GodIsa 10:26; Isaiah 28:15; Isaiah 28:18. Eliphaz has said (Job 5:22) that if Job accepted God’s discipline, he would ultimately laugh at famine and destruction. Job’s response to Eliphaz is that it is God who laughs when calamities (masasmelt, despair) come. Job says that God is not testing men by disaster, but rather destroying them.

**Job 9:24**Job is enunciating a universal law, i.e., the miscarriage of justice. Earth has no definite article, and thus probably refers to more than the land. Shall the pious inherit the earth?Psalms 37:9; Proverbs 2:21; Matthew 5:5. Job asserts just the opposite. He holds God solely responsible for the human condition. There is no Satan, or anyone else to blame. Job is actually challenging his friends to declare who is, if God is not, to blame?

Job 9:25-31

3. He will be held guilty in spite of everything. (Job 9:25-31)

TEXT 9:25-31

**25 Now my days are swifter than a post:

They flee away, they see no good.

26 They are passed away as the swift ships;

As the eagle that swoopeth on the prey.

27 If I say, I will forget my complaint,

I will put off my **sad **countenance, and be of good cheer;

28 I am afraid of all my sorrows,

I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.

29 I shall be condemned;

Why then do I labor in vain?

30 If I wash myself with snow water,

And make my hands never so clean;

31 Yet wilt thou plunge me in the ditch,

And mine own clothes shall abhor me.**

COMMENT 9:25-31

**Job 9:25**ComplainComplain. Job returns to a preoccupation with his own condition. From cosmic disorder to personal disorder, how pathetic. Life is passing so rapidly. It is no longer the weaver’s shuttle but the runner who serves as point of contrastJob 7:6. The courier refers to a fast runner with the royal messenger service2 Samuel 18:21-23; Isaiah 41:27; Isaiah 52:7.

**Job 9:26**Reed means papyrus. (For different word, see Job 8:11.) Reed boats are very light and fast.[129] Isaiah refers to reed vessels (kele gome)Isaiah 18:1-2. The imagery from the second clause speaks of speed. The word swoop (TWS) refers in falconry to the swift swoop of the bird on the prey. The falcon can attain a speed in excess of 150 mph in such a swoop (for eaglesJob 39:27-30; Deuteronomy 28:49; Jeremiah 4:13; Habakkuk 1:8; and Lamentations 4:19.[130] The prey (-okel) is the general word for food.

[129] Pliny, Natural History, Loeb Classic XXIII.22 where he discusses the fact that the Egyptians used papyrus for boat construction; also recent experimentation with these craft see T. Heyerdahl’s The Ra Expeditions, 1971.

[130] For such imagery in Job, see W. L. Michel, The Ugaritic Texts in the Mythological Expressions in the Book of Job (Univ. of Wisconsin Ph.D. thesis, 1970).

**Job 9:27**Literally, Job says I will abandon my face,[131] i.e., I will change my countenance. His entire attitude will be changed. He will be of good cheer (Heb. brighten my face). Here we see change in two dimensions: (1) psychic, and (2) physical appearance.

[131] See G. R. Driver, Vetus Testamentum Supplement, III, 1955, 76; M. Dahood, JBL, LXXVIII, 1959, 304, for analysis of this verse.

**Job 9:28**He no sooner decided to cheer up than he became afraid (same word in Job 3:25dread). The dread fear haunted him with such intensity that his agony was only magnified.

**Job 9:29**Guilty without trial. (Read Kafka’s The Trial and compare). All of his efforts are futile.

**Job 9:30**The Hebrewselegmeans both soap and snow or snow waterIsa 1:16; Isaiah 1:18, I will make my hands never so cleanbor, lye. In Malachi 3:2 the same word borit means the fuller’s lye soap. Lye is a vegetable alkali made from the ashes of plantsJob 22:30; Psalms 18:20; Psalms 18:24; Isaiah 1:25.[132]

[132] On handwriting, see R. Press, Zeitschrift fur die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft, 51, 1933, 246-7.

**Job 9:31**The A. V. has ditchsahatwhich can mean the netherworldJob 17:14; Job 33:22; Job 33:28. The context calls for filth;[133] and the root suggests repulsive matter and slime, i.e., a characteristic of the netherworld. Job is saying if I wash my body, God would make it so filthy that my clothes would refuse to cover me.

[133] Several etymologies are possible, but see M. Pope, JBL, 83, 1964, 276; D. Hiller’s Interpretations, 19, 1965, 468; and M. Dahood, Psalms, I-II, on Psalms 13:5; Psalms 66:9; and Psa. 121:13.

Job 9:32-35

4. There is no mediator between the man and his creator. (Job 9:32-35)

TEXT 9:32-35

32 **For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him,

That we should come together in judgment.

33 There is no umpire betwixt us,

That might lay his hand upon us both.

34 Let him take his rod away from me,

And let not his terror make me afraid:

35 Then would I speak, and not fear him;

For I am not so in myself.**

COMMENT 9:32-35

**Job 9:32**A fair trial before God is an impossibility. Come together in judgment means to go to court or before the lawPsa 143:2. Here we see that a theology of commutative justice between man and God will destroy God’s transcendence and ensnare Him in the immanent trap that enslaves man.[134] Zechariah 3:3-5 provides a beautiful background to the problem, where the acquitted defendant receives clean clothes. (Note New Testament reference to white garments, esp. in The Revelationsee my The Seer, the Saviour, and The Saved, 1972 ed. in this series of commentaries.)[135]

[134] The nature of God’s transcendence and immanence is one of the major issues in contemporary theological thought. Since the 17th-18th centuries-’ Scientific Revolution, the transcendence of God has been suspect. The Newtonian World Machine conceived Deism and Deism gave birth to scientific positivism. Newton is the basis of Kant, Kant the basis of Hegel’s immanent transcendence, and Hegel is the father of naturalistic pantheism, which is presently expressed by C. Hartshorne, Whitehead, and Teilhard de Chardin, *et al.

[135]* Compare also with the theology of righteousness in the Qumran Literature, esp. 1QH Job 5:4; Job 5:4; Job 7:12; Job 9:14 ff; Job 12:3 Off; Job 14:15 ff; and the teacher of righteousness see W. Grundmain Der Lehrer der gerechtigkeit von Qumran, Revue de Qumran 2, 1959- 60 237-259

**Job 9:33**Since God is prejudiced by His despotic power, Job calls for an arbitermokiahmediator, one who decides with equityGen 31:37; Isaiah 2:4. Job is still searching for a just reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:17 ff).

**Job 9:34**Remove your rod (sebetclub) same word as in Psalms 23:4. To David, God’s rod was his defense against his enemies; for Job, God’s rod brings only violence and pain. To Job, the rod signifies coercion and intimidation.

**Job 9:35**If there is no mediator, then I will speak for myself. But what shall I say that has not already been said?