Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary Then Job answered and said, CHAPTER 23
THIRD SERIES. Job 23:1-17. Job's Answer. Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning. 2. to-day—implying, perhaps, that the debate was carried on through more days than one (see [517]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 by groaning. Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat! 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). I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 4. order—state methodically (Job 13:18; Isa 43:26).
fill, &c.—I would have abundance of arguments to adduce. I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me. 5. he—emphatic: it little matters what man may say of me, if only I know what God judges of me.
Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in 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. There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge. 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. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: 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. On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: 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). But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. 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. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined. 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). Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food. 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. But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth. 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. For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him. 14. many such—He has yet many more such ills in store for me, though hidden in His breast (Job 10:13).
Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him. 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].
For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me: 16. soft—faint; hath melted my courage. Here again Job's language is that of Jesus Christ (Ps 22:14).
Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face. 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). |
