Job's reply to Bildad The Discourse though formally a reply to Bildad seems to touch also upon things said in the speech of Eliphaz. It is rather difficult to divide into paragraphs, not being calm and logical but passionate and hurried and passing on by rapid steps from one point to another all mo... [ Continue Reading ]
It is not quite easy to see what form of the maxim of the friends it is to which Job gives his sneering assent in this verse, when he says, _To be sure I know that it is so_. In Job 9:10 he quotes words from Eliphaz, ch. Job 5:9, verbatim, and he may refer to the form in which this speaker put forwa... [ Continue Reading ]
_if he will contend_ Or, _if he would_; if he (man) should desire to contend with God. "To contend" is a legal term meaning to enter a plea with, the idea of a court or judge being in the mind of the speaker. Here man is supposed to have a plea with God on the question of his innocency, or on any qu... [ Continue Reading ]
_wise in heart_ i. e. in _mind_, corresponding to "mighty in power." _hardened himself_ Probably _hardened_his neck, i. e. braved him, Proverbs 29:1. _hath prospered_ lit. _been safe_, or as we say, "with impunity.... [ Continue Reading ]
Description of God's omnipotent power as it displays itself in the material world. _they know not_ Suddenly and unexpectedly, Psalms 35:8; Jeremiah 50:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
The reference is probably to earthquakes. The earth is conceived as a structure supported on pillars, ch. Job 38:6; Psalms 75:3. The conception was poetical; if the pillars were supposed anything actual, they were probably the roots of the great mountains which extended downwards and bore up the ear... [ Continue Reading ]
The reference may be to days when from storm and darkness the sun seems not to rise, or to eclipses and sudden obscurations of the heavenly bodies.... [ Continue Reading ]
The point lies in the gigantic power of God who "alone" and of Himself stretched out the heavens; cf. the expression of the same idea of power, Isaiah 40:12; Isaiah 44:24. In Isaiah 40:22 it is said that God stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in. Our "fi... [ Continue Reading ]
The Hebrew names are _-âsh_(_-ayish_ch. Job 38:32), _keseel_, and _keemah_. These names may possibly denote the Bear, Orion and the Pleiades or seven stars; there is, however, considerable uncertainty. The word _keseel_means "fool," which is to be interpreted as the Syr. and Chal. in this place, _gi... [ Continue Reading ]
The description of the operation of God's might in the material world concludes with a general statement that this operation surpasses all power of comprehension by the human mind. The words are exactly those of Eliphaz ch. Job 5:9, but while to Eliphaz all God's operations have an ethical meaning a... [ Continue Reading ]
This power is subtle and invisible in its presence, felt but impossible to grasp.... [ Continue Reading ]
From the operation of this terrible force in the physical world Job passes on to describe its display among creatures, and to shew how it paralyses and crushes them.... [ Continue Reading ]
It is irresistible and irresponsible. _taketh away_ Carries off, as a beast of prey its booty. _who can hinder him_ Or, _turn him back_.... [ Continue Reading ]
_if God will not withdraw_ Rather, GOD WITHDRAWS NOT. His fury is persistent and inexorable till it has accomplished its purpose, cf. ch. Job 23:13-14. _the proud helpers do stoop_ Rather, THE HELPERS OF RAHAB DID STOOP. The "helpers" are the abettors, the partizans and company of Rahab; and the cla... [ Continue Reading ]
Job now draws an inference from this instance to his own how much less should _he_meet God in a hostile plea? _choose out my words_ In a plea against God circumspection and careful selection of language would be needful, but the self-possession and calmness requisite for this would be destroyed by... [ Continue Reading ]
_though I were righteous_ i. e. though I were in the right, though my cause was just against Him. _make supplication to my judge_ Rather, TO MINE ADVERSARY, or OPPONENT. Had Job right on his side he could not maintain it; overpowered by the irresistible and awful might of his opponent he would dese... [ Continue Reading ]
In Job 9:14 the plea against God is not supposed actually entered upon; the idea of such a plea presents itself to Job's mind and he pictures the results that would follow upon himself; in Job 9:16 he assumes the plea entered upon, that he had actually cited God, who had appeared, and he describes w... [ Continue Reading ]
These verses describe what would ensue in the supposed case that God had actually responded to Job's citation. He would not listen to Job's plea but would crush him with His infinite power. The words do not describe what Job actually suffers at present or has suffered, but what he would have to endu... [ Continue Reading ]
_he breaketh_ Rather, HE WOULD BREAK. Similarly, AND MULTIPLY. The word translated _break_may mean to seize and swallow up, that is, _to sweep away_, cf. ch. Job 30:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
_will not suffer_ Rather, WOULD NOT SUFFER. And so, BUT FILL.... [ Continue Reading ]
These three verses read as follows, If you speak of the strength of the mighty, Here I am! (saith He) If of judgment, Who will set me a time?... [ Continue Reading ]
Were I in the right, mine own mouth would condemn me, Were I perfect, He would prove me perverse: In Job 9:20 Job is the speaker; he describes the effect upon him of the might of God, though he had right on his side his own mouth would make him out wrong; out of terror he would speak at random or... [ Continue Reading ]
I am perfect! I regard not myself, I despise my life. The speaker in Job 9:19 is God, at least it is He who uses the words, "Here I am," and "Who will set me a time?" The rest may be words of Job, in which case the words "saith He" must be supplied to these two phrases alone. It gives a more vigor... [ Continue Reading ]
This verse reads, It is all one, therefore I say, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked, that is, indiscriminately. Here there is not only the former statement of ch. 7. that the destiny of man at the hands of God is hard and crushing, but in addition an express denial of the position of Bilda... [ Continue Reading ]
Further illustration of this character of God. _the scourge_ i. e. the plague, as pestilence, famine, war, and the like, Isaiah 28:15. _will laugh at the trial_ Or, _mocks at the despair_, cf. Job 6:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
The same illustrated on the widest scale. Job 9:23 spoke of particular calamities afflicting portions of the earth. At the despair of the innocent under these God mocks, distant and indifferent. Now Job makes the sweeping statement that the earth is one scene of injustice. The wicked prevail in it,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Now my days_ Better, AND MY DAYS under the weight of this unjust and oppressive Force (Job 9:5). _than a post_ i. e. a courier, 2 Samuel 18:22; 2 Samuel 18:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
_the swift ships the ships of reed_. These skiffs, constructed of a wooden keel and the rest of reeds, are the "vessels of bulrushes" of Isaiah 18:2. They carried but one or two persons, and being light were extremely swift. The ancients were familiar with them; Plin. xiii. 11, ex ipso quidem papyro... [ Continue Reading ]
_my complaint_ i. e. as always, my complaining, ch. Job 7:13. _my heaviness_ lit. _my faces_, my sad mien, 1 Samuel 1:18. _comfort myself_ lit. _brighten up_, ch. Job 10:20; Psalms 39:13. The word in Arab, (_balija_) means to have a space clear of hair between the eyebrows, hence to have an open,... [ Continue Reading ]
As Job's afflictions were the proof of his guilt in the estimation of God, "to hold him innocent" means to remove his afflictions, as the first clause suggests.... [ Continue Reading ]
_if I be wicked_ Rather, I SHALL BE GUILTY, that is, I have to be, shall be held, guilty; God has resolved so to consider me. Everywhere in these verses guilt and afflictions mean the same thing, the one being the sign of the other.... [ Continue Reading ]
_with snow water_ This is according to one reading (_bemê_). According to another (_bemô_), _with snow_. The latter is better; snowwater is turbid and foul, ch. Job 6:16; snow is the symbol of the most perfect purity, Isaiah 1:18; Psalms 51:7. Locman's 23rd fable illustrates this Oriental idea very... [ Continue Reading ]
An expressive figure for, to cover again with uncleanness. The naked body (Job 9:30) is supposed plunged in the ditch, and the clothes refuse to cover so foul an object.... [ Continue Reading ]
The preceding verses described how unavailing all Job's efforts were to make out his innocence in the face of the fixed resolution of God to hold him guilty. Now Job comes back to what is the real difficulty, God is not a man like himself.... [ Continue Reading ]
_any daysman_ i. e. any umpire, or, arbiter. The word possibly comes from the Lat. _diem dicere_, to fix a day for hearing a cause. For what art thou That mak'st thyself his dayes-man to prolong The vengeance prest? Spenser, _Fae. Q_. ii. 8. 28. (Wright, _Bible Word-Book_.) _lay his hand_ i. e.... [ Continue Reading ]
The subject is God, not the daysman let God remove His rod, His afflictions. _his fear terrify me_ Or, _his terror affright me_. The "terror" of God is His overawing majesty, cf. ch. Job 13:21; Job 33:7, the last passage with direct reference to the present one.... [ Continue Reading ]
If God would meet Job as a man, removing His afflicting rod and laying aside His awful majesty, Job would speak out his innocence and plead his own cause without fear. _but it is not so with me_ Rather, FOR I AM NOT SO IN MYSELF in my own consciousness I am not so, or such, that I should fear Him.... [ Continue Reading ]