Job 23

THIRD SERIES.

Job 23:1-17.

JOB'S

ANSWER.

2. to-day--implying, perhaps, that the debate was carried on through

more days than one

(see

Introduction).

bitter--

(Job 7:11; 10:1).

my stroke--the hand of God on me (Margin,

Job 19:21;

Ps 32:4).

heavier than--is so heavy that I cannot relieve myself adequately

3. The same wish as in

Job 13:3

(compare

Heb 10:19-22).

Seat--The idea in the Hebrew is a well-prepared throne

(Ps 9:7).

4. order--state methodically

(Job 13:18;

Isa 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

(Job 23:5).

Do I hereby wish that He should plead against me with His omnipotence?

Far from it!

(Job 9:19, 34; 13:21; 30:18).

strength--so as to prevail with Him: as in Jacob's case

(Ho 12:3, 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--rather, "Then": if God would "attend" to me

(Job 23:6).

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

Job 9:11,

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--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, 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

(Ps 17:5).

declined--

(Ps 125:5).

12. esteemed--rather, "laid up," namely, as a treasure found

(Mt 13:44;

Ps 119:11);

alluding to the words of Eliphaz

(Job 22:22).

There was no need to tell me so; I have done so already

(Jer 15:16).

necessary--"Appointed portion" (of food; as in

Pr 30:8).

UMBREIT and MAURER translate,

"More than my law," my own will, in antithesis to "the words of

His mouth"

(Joh 6:38).

Probably under the general term, "what is appointed to me" (the

same Hebrew is in

Job 23:14),

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).

soul--His will

(Ps 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

(Job 10:13).

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

(Ps 22:14).

17. Because I was not taken away by death from the evil to come

(literally, "from before the face of the darkness,"

Isa 57:1).

Alluding to the words of Eliphaz

(Job 22:11),

"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

(Job 22:11).