Job 10

Job 10:1-22.

JOB'S

REPLY TO

BILDAD

CONTINUED.

1. leave my complaint upon myself--rather, "I will give

loose to my complaint"

(Job 7:11).

2. show me, &c.--Do not, by virtue of Thy mere sovereignty, treat me

as guilty without showing me the reasons.

3. Job is unwilling to think God can have pleasure in using His power

to "oppress" the weak, and to treat man, the work of His own hands, as

of no value

(Job 10:8;

Ps 138:8).

shine upon--favor with prosperity

(Ps 50:2).

4-6. Dost Thou see as feebly as man? that is, with the same

uncharitable eye, as, for instance, Job's friends? Is Thy time as

short? Impossible! Yet one might think, from the rapid succession of

Thy strokes, that Thou hadst no time to spare in overwhelming me.

7. "Although Thou (the Omniscient) knowest," &c.

(connected with

Job 10:6),

"Thou searchest after my sin."

and . . . that

none that can deliver out of thine hand--Therefore

Thou hast no need to deal with me with the rapid violence which man

would use (see

Job 10:6).

8. Made--with pains; implying a work of difficulty and art;

applying to God language applicable only to man.

together round about--implying that the human body is a

complete unity, the parts of which on all sides will bear the

closest scrutiny.

9. clay--Job 10:10

proves that the reference here is, not so much to the perishable

nature of the materials, as to their wonderful fashioning by the

divine potter.

10. In the organization of the body from its rude commencements,

the original liquid gradually assumes a more solid consistency, like

milk curdling into cheese

(Ps 139:15, 16).

Science reveals that the chyle circulated by the lacteal vessels is the

supply to every organ.

11. fenced--or "inlaid"

(Ps 139:15);

"curiously wrought" [UMBREIT]. In the fœtus the

skin appears first, then the flesh, then the harder parts.

12. visitation--Thy watchful Providence.

spirit--breath.

13. is with thee--was Thy purpose. All God's dealings with Job in

his creation, preservation, and present afflictions were part of His

secret counsel

(Ps 139:16;

Ac 15:18;

Ec 3:11).

14, 15. Job is perplexed because God "marks" every sin of his with

such ceaseless rigor. Whether "wicked" (godless and a hypocrite) or

"righteous" (comparatively sincere), God condemns and punishes alike.

15. lift up my head--in conscious innocence

(Ps 3:3).

see thou--rather, "and seeing I see (I too well see) mine

affliction," (which seems to prove me guilty)

[UMBREIT].

16. increaseth--rather, "(if) I lift up (my head) Thou wouldest

hunt me," &c. [UMBREIT].

and again--as if a lion should not kill his prey at once, but come

back and torture it again.

17. witnesses--His accumulated trials were like a succession of

witnesses brought up in proof of his guilt, to wear out the accused.

changes and war--rather, "(thou settest in array) against me host

after host" (literally, "changes and a host," that is, a succession of

hosts); namely, his afflictions, and then reproach upon reproach from

his friends.

20. But, since I was destined from my birth to these ills, at least

give me a little breathing time during the few days left me

(Job 9:34; 13:21;

Ps 39:13).

22. The ideas of order and light, disorder and darkness, harmonize

(Ge 1:2).

Three Hebrew words are used for darkness; in

Job 10:21

(1) the common word "darkness"; here (2) "a land of gloom" (from a

Hebrew root, "to cover up"); (3) as "thick darkness" or

blackness (from a root, expressing sunset). "Where the light thereof is

like blackness." Its only sunshine is thick darkness. A bold figure of

poetry. Job in a better frame has brighter thoughts of the unseen

world. But his views at best wanted the definite clearness of the

Christian's. Compare with his words here

Re 21:23; 22:5;

2Ti 1:10.