CHAPTER IX _Job acknowledges God's justice and man's sinfulness_, 1-3. _Celebrates his almighty power as manifested in the earth and_ _in the heavens_, 4-10. _Maintains that God afflicts the innocent as well as the wicked,_ _without any respect to their works: and hath delivered the_ _earth in... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:2. _I KNOW_ IT IS _SO OF A TRUTH_] I acknowledge the general truth of the maxims you have advanced. God will not ultimately punish a righteous person, nor shall the wicked finally triumph; and though righteous before man, and truly sincere in my piety, yet I know, when compared with the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:3. _IF HE WILL CONTEND WITH HIM_] God is so holy, and his law so strict, that if he will enter into judgment with his creatures, the most upright of them cannot be justified in his sight. _ONE OF A THOUSAND._] Of a thousand offences of which he may be accused he cannot vindicate himself... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:4. HE IS _WISE IN HEART, AND MIGHTY IN STRENGTH_] By his infinite knowledge he searches out and sees all things, and by his almighty power he can punish all delinquencies. He that rebels against him must be destroyed.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:5. _REMOVETH THE MOUNTAINS, AND THEY KNOW NOT_] This seems to refer to earthquakes. By those strong convulsions, mountains, valleys, hills, even whole islands, are removed in an instant; and to this latter circumstance the words, _they know not_, most probably refer. The work is done in... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:6. _THE PILLARS THEREOF TREMBLE._] This also refers to an earthquake, and to that _tremulous motion_ which sometimes gives warning of the approaching catastrophe, and from which this violent convulsion of nature has received its name. _Earthquakes_, in Scripture language, signify also vi... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:7. _WHICH COMMANDETH THE SUN_] Obscures it either with clouds, with thick darkness, or with an eclipse. _SEALETH UP THE STARS._] Like the contents of a letter, wrapped up and sealed, so that it cannot be read. Sometimes the heavens become as black as ebony, and no star, figure, or chara... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:8. _AND TREADETH UPON THE WAVES_] This is a very majestic image. God not only walks upon the waters, but when the sea runs mountains high, he steps from billow to billow in his almighty and essential majesty. There is a similar sentiment in David, Psalms 29:10: "The Lord sitteth upon the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:9. _WHICH MAKETH ARCTURUS, ORION, AND PLEIADES, AND THE_ _CHAMBERS OF THE SOUTH._] For this translation the original words are עשה עש כסיל וכימה והדרי תמן _oseh ash, kesil, vechimah vehadrey_ _theman_, which are thus rendered by the SEPTUAGINT: Ὁ ποιων Πλειαδα, και Ἑσπερον, και Αρκτουρ... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:10. _GREAT THINGS PAST FINDING OUT_] Great things without end; wonders without number. - _Targum_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:11. _LO, HE GOETH BY ME, AND I SEE_ HIM _NOT_] He is incomprehensible in all his ways, and in all his works; and he must be so it he be GOD, and _work_ as GOD; for his own nature and his operations are past finding out.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:12. _HE TAKETH AWAY_] He never _gives_, but he is ever _lending_: and while the gift is useful or is improved, he permits it to remain; but when it becomes useless or is misused, he recalls it. _WHO CAN HINDER HIM?_] Literally, _Who can cause him to restore it_? _WHAT DOEST THOU?_] He... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:13. _IF GOD WILL NOT WITHDRAW HIS ANGER_] It is of no use to contend with God; he cannot be successfully resisted; all his opposers must perish.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:14. _HOW MUCH LESS SHALL I ANSWER_] I cannot contend with my Maker. He is the _Lawgiver_ and the _Judge_. How shall I stand in judgment before _him_?... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:15. _THOUGH I WERE RIGHTEOUS_] Though clear of all the crimes, public and secret, of which you accuse me, yet I would not dare to stand before his immaculate holiness. Man's holiness may profit man, but in the sight of the infinite purity of God it is nothing. Thus sung an eminent poet:... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:16. _IF I HAD CALLED, AND HE HAD ANSWERED_] I could scarcely suppose, such is his majesty and such his holiness, that he could condescend to notice a being so _mean_, and in every respect so infinitely _beneath_ his notice. These sentiments sufficiently confuted that slander of his frien... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:17. _HE BREAKETH ME WITH A TEMPEST_] The _Targum, Syriac_, and _Arabic_ have this sense: _He powerfully smites even every hair of my_ _head and multiplies my wounds without cause_. That is, There is no reason known to myself, or to any man, why I should be thus most oppressively afflicte... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:18. _HE WILL NOT SUFFER ME TO TAKE MY BREATH_] I have no respite in my afflictions; I suffer continually in my body, and my mind is incessantly harassed.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:19. _IF_ I SPEAK _OF STRENGTH, LO_, HE IS _STRONG_] Human wisdom, power, and influence avail nothing before him. _WHO SHALL SET ME A TIME_] מי יועידני _mi yoideni_, "Who would be a witness for me?" or, Who would dare to appear in my behalf? Almost all the _terms_ in this part of the spe... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:20. _IF I JUSTIFY MYSELF_] God must have some reason for his conduct towards me; I therefore do not pretend to justify myself; the attempt to do it would be an insult to his majesty and justice. Though I am conscious of none of the crimes of which you accuse me; and know not _why_ he con... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:21. THOUGH _I_ WERE _PERFECT_] Had I the fullest conviction that, in every thought, word, and deed, I were blameless before him, yet I would not plead this; nor would I think it any security for a life of ease and prosperity, or any proof that my days should be prolonged.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:22. _THIS_ IS _ONE_ THING] My own observation shows, that in the course of providence the righteous and the wicked have an equal lot; for when any sudden calamity comes, the _innocent_ and the _guilty_ fall alike. There may be a few exceptions, but they are very extraordinary, and very r... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:24. _THE EARTH IS GIVEN INTO THE HAND OF THE WICKED_] Is it not most evident that the worst men possess most of this world's goods, and that the righteous are scarcely ever in power or affluence? This was the case in Job's time; it is the case still. Therefore _prosperity_ and _adversity... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:25. _SWIFTER THAN A POST_] מני רץ _minni rats, than a runner._ The light-footed messenger or _courier_ who carries messages from place to place. _THEY FLEE AWAY_] The _Chaldee_ says, _My days are swifter than the_ _shadow of a flying bird_. So swiftly do they flee away that I cannot dis... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:26. _AS THE SWIFT SHIPS_] אניות אבה _oniyoth ebeh_. _Ships_ _of desire_, or _ships of Ebeh_, says our _margin_; perhaps more correctly, _inflated ships_, the sails bellying out with a fair brisk wind, tide favourable, and the vessels themselves lightly freighted. The _Vulgate_ has, _Lik... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:27. _I WILL FORGET MY COMPLAINT_] I will _forsake_ or _forego_ my complaining. _I will leave off my heaviness_. VULGATE, _I will_ _change my countenance _- force myself to smile, and endeavour to assume the _appearance_ of _comfort_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:28. _I AM AFRAID OF ALL MY SORROWS_] _Coverdale_ translates, after the _Vulgate_, _Then am I afrayed of all my workes_. Even were I to cease from complaining, I fear lest not one of my works, however well intentioned, would stand thy scrutiny, or meet with thy approbation. _THOU WILT NO... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:29. IF _I BE WICKED_] If I am the sinner you suppose me to be, in vain should I labour to counterfeit joy, and cease to complain of my sufferings.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:30. _IF I WASH MYSELF WITH SNOW WATER_] Supposed to have a more detergent quality than common water; and it was certainly preferred to common water by the ancients. Of this we find an example in an elegant but licentious author: _Tandem ergo_ _discubuimus, pueris Alexandrinis AQUAM in ma... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:31. _AND MINE OWN CLOTHES SHALL ABHOR ME._] Such is thine infinite purity, when put in opposition to the purity of man, that it will bear no comparison. Searched and tried by the eye of God, I should be found as a _leper_, so that my _own clothes_ would dread to touch me, for fear of bei... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:32. _FOR_ HE IS _NOT A MAN AS I_ AM] I cannot contend with him as with one of my fellows in a court of justice.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:33. _NEITHER IS THERE ANY DAY'S-MAN_] בינינו מוכיח _beyneynu_ _mochiach_, a _reprover, arguer_, or _umpire between us_. DAY'S-MAN, in our law, means an arbitrator, or umpire between party and party; as it were bestowing a _day_, or certain time on a _certain day_, to decree, judge, or de... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:34. _LET HIM TAKE HIS ROD AWAY_] In the Masoretic Bibles, the word שבטו _shibto_, _his rod_, is written with a large ט _teth_, as above; and as the letter in numerals stands for 9, the _Masora_ says the word was thus written to show the _nine_ _calamities_ under which Job had suffered, a... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 9:35. _BUT_ IT IS _NOT SO WITH ME._] I am not in such circumstances as to plead with my Judge. I believe the sense of these words is nearly as _Coverdale_ has expressed it: - _For as longe_ _as I am in soch fearfulnesse, I can make no answere_. A natural picture of the state of a penitent... [ Continue Reading ]