1Then JobH347 answeredH6030 and saidH559, 2Even to dayH3117 is my complaintH7879 bitterH4805: my strokeH3027 is heavierH3513 than my groaningH585. 3Oh thatH5414 I knewH3045 where I might findH4672 him! that I might comeH935 even to his seatH8499! 4I would orderH6186 my causeH4941 beforeH6440 him, and fillH4390 my mouthH6310 with argumentsH8433. 5I would knowH3045 the wordsH4405 which he would answerH6030 me, and understandH995 what he would sayH559 unto me. 6Will he pleadH7378 againstH5978 me with his greatH7230 powerH3581? No; but he would putH7760 strength in me. 7There the righteousH3477 might disputeH3198 with him; so should I be deliveredH6403 for everH5331 from my judgeH8199 . 8Behold, I goH1980 forwardH6924, but he is not there; and backwardH268, but I cannot perceiveH995 him: 9On the left handH8040, where he doth workH6213, but I cannot beholdH2372 him: he hidethH5848 himself on the right handH3225, that I cannot seeH7200 him: 10But he knowethH3045 the wayH1870 that I takeH5978: when he hath triedH974 me, I shall come forthH3318 as goldH2091. 11My footH7272 hath heldH270 his stepsH838, his wayH1870 have I keptH8104, and not declinedH5186 . 12Neither have I gone backH4185 from the commandmentH4687 of his lipsH8193; I have esteemedH6845 the wordsH561 of his mouthH6310 more than my necessaryH2706 food. 13But he is in oneH259 mind, and who can turnH7725 him? and what his soulH5315 desirethH183, even that he doethH6213 . 14For he performethH7999 the thing that is appointedH2706 for me: and manyH7227 suchH2007 things are with him. 15Therefore am I troubledH926 at his presenceH6440: when I considerH995, I am afraidH6342 of him. 16For GodH410 maketh my heartH3820 softH7401, and the AlmightyH7706 troublethH926 me: 17Because I was not cut offH6789 beforeH6440 the darknessH2822, neither hath he coveredH3680 the darknessH652 from my faceH6440.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 2 JOB'S ANSWER. (Job 23:1-17)
to-day--implying, perhaps, that the debate was carried on through more days than one (see Introduction).
bitter-- (
Job 7:11;
Job 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 by groaning.
3 The same wish as in
Job 13:3 (compare
Heb 10:19-
Heb 10:22).
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,
Job 9:34;
Job 13:21;
Job 30:18).
strength--so as to prevail with Him: as in Jacob's case (
Hos 12:3-
Hos 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--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-
Job 23:9).
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 (
Matt 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
Pro 30:8). UMBREIT and MAURER translate, "More than my law," my own will, in antithesis to "the words of His mouth" (
John 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).