1Job odpověděl a řekl: 2„I nyní se ještě nelibě snáší má stížnost, když naříkám pod tíhou jeho ruky. 3Kdybych tak věděl, jak bych ho našel, jak bych došel až k jeho trůnu. 4Před ním bych vyložil svou při, plná důkazů bych měl svá ústa. 5Poznal bych, co by mně odpověděl, dával bych pozor na to, co by mně řekl. 6Přel by se snad se mnou z celé své síly? Sotva. Aspoň by mi pozorně naslouchal. 7Našel by ve mně člověka poctivého a navždy bych unikl jeho odsouzení. 8Jdu-li však vpřed, není tu; vracím-li se zpět, nezahlédnu ho. 9Působí-li na levici, nestihnu ho, stočím-li se napravo, nevidím ho. 10Vždyť on ví, jak se chovám; kdyby mě zkoušel, obstál bych jako zlato. 11V jeho šlépějích se drží má noha, bez odchýlení jsem zachovával jeho cestu. 12Nepohrdal jsem přikázáním jeho rtů, slova jeho úst jsem uchoval v nitru. 13On však rozhodl - kdo ho zadrží? Co si přeje, to uskuteční. 14Tak provádí, co mi určil, jako tolik jiných rozhodnutí. 15Proto se před ním strachuji, když o tom přemýšlím, děs mě jímá z něho. 16Ano, Bůh zlomil mou odvahu, poděsil mě Všemohoucí. 17Neboť jsem zničen v temnotách, stín přikryl mou tvář.
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).