Chapter 23
THIRD SERIES.
Job 23:1-17. Job's Answer
2. to-day--implying, perhaps, that the debate was carried on through more days than one (see Introduction).
bitter--([Job 7:11]; ).
my stroke--the hand of God on me (Margin, [Job 19:21]; [Psa 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 [He 10:19-22]).
Seat--The idea in the Hebrew is a well-prepared throne ([Psa 9:7]).
4. order--state methodically ([Job 13:18]; [Is 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], ; ; ).
strength--so as to prevail with Him: as in Jacob's case ([Ho 12:3], ). 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], ).
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 ([Psa 17:5]).
declined--([Psa 125:5]).
12. esteemed--rather, "laid up," namely, as a treasure found ([Mt 13:44]; [Psa 119:11]); alluding to the words of Eliphaz ([Job 22:22]). There was no need to tell me so; I have done so already ([Jr 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.
13. in one mind--notwithstanding my innocence, He is unaltered in His purpose of proving me guilty ([Job 9:12]).
soul--His will ([Psa 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 ([Psa 22:14]).
17. Because I was not taken away by death from the evil to come (literally, "from before the face of the darkness," [Is 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]).
Chapter 24
[Job 24:1-25].
1. Why is it that, seeing that the times of punishment ([Eze 30:3]; "time" in the same sense) are not hidden from the Almighty, they who know Him (His true worshippers, [Job 18:21]) do not see His days (of vengeance; [Joe 1:15]; [2Pe 3:10])? Or, with Umbreit less simply, making the parallel clauses more nicely balanced, Why are not times of punishment hoarded up ("laid up"; [Job 21:19]; appointed) by the Almighty? that is, Why are they not so appointed as that man may now see them? as the second clause shows. Job does not doubt that they are appointed: nay, he asserts it ([Job 21:30]); what he wishes is that God would let all now see that it is so.
2-24. Instances of the wicked doing the worst deeds with seeming impunity ([Job 24:2-24]).
Some--the wicked.
landmarks--boundaries between different pastures ([De 19:14]; [Pr 22:28]).
Chapter 25
THIRD SERIES.
Job 25:1-6. Bildad's Reply
He tries to show Job's rashness ([Job 23:3]), by arguments borrowed from Eliphaz ([Job 15:15], with which compare [Job 11:17].