B.—Job’s reply: Assertion of his innocence and a mournful description of the incomprehensibleness of his suffering as a dark horrible destiny
Job 9-10
1. God is certainly the Almighty and Ever-Righteous One, who is to be feared; but His power is too terrible for mortal man:
Job_9:2-12
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 I know it is so of a truth:
but how should man be just with God?
3 If he will contend with Him,
he cannot answer Him one of a thousand.
4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength;
who hath hardened himself against Him, and hath prospered?
5 Which removeth the mountains, and they know not:
which overturneth them in His anger;
6 which shaketh the earth out of her place,
and the pillars thereof tremble;
7 which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not;
and sealeth up the stars;
8 Which, alone spreadeth out the heaven,
and treadeth upon the waves of the sea;
9 which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades,
and the chambers of the South;
10 which doeth great things, past finding out;
yea, and wonders without number.
11 Lo, He goeth by me, and I see Him not;
He passeth on also, but I perceive Him not.
12 Behold, He taketh away, who can hinder Him?
who will say unto Him, What doest Thou?
2. The oppressive effect of this Omnipotence and Arbitrariness of God impels him, as an innocent sufferer, to presumptuous speeches against God:
Job_9:13-35
13 If God will not withdraw His anger,
the proud helpers do stoop under Him.
14 How much less shall I answer Him,
and choose out my words to reason with Him?
15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer,
but I would make supplication to my judge.
16 If I had called, and He had answered me,
yet would I not believe that He had hearkened to my voice.
17 For He breaketh me with a tempest,
and multiplieth my wounds without cause.
18 He will not suffer me to take my breath,
but filleth me with bitterness.
19 If I speak of strength—lo, He is strong!
and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?
20 If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me;
If I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
21 Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul;
I would despise my life.
22 This is one thing, therefore I said it,
He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
23 If the scourge slay suddenly,
He will laugh at the trial of the innocent.
24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked:
He covereth the faces of the judges thereof;
if not, where, and who is He?
25 Now my days are swifter than a post;
they flee away, they see no good.
26 They are past away as the swift ships;
as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.
27 If I say, I will forget my complaint,
I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself;
28 I am afraid of all my sorrows,
I know that Thou wilt not hold me innocent.
29 If I be wicked,
Why then labor I in vain?
30 If I wash myself with snow water,
and make my hands never so clean,
31 yet shalt Thou plunge me in the ditch,
and mine own clothes shall abhor me.
32 For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him,
and we should come together in judgment.
33 Neither is there any daysman betwixt us,
that might lay his hand upon us both.
34 Let Him take His rod away from me,
and let not His fear terrify me;
35 then would I speak, and not fear Him;
but it is not so with me.
3. A plaintive description of the merciless severity with which God rages against him, although as an Omniscient Being, He knows that he is innocent:
10:1–22
1 My soul is weary of my life;
I will leave my complaint upon myself;
I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2 I will say unto God, Do not condemn me;
show me wherefore Thou contendest with me.
3 Is it good unto Thee, that Thou shouldest oppress,
that thou shouldest despise the work of Thine hands,
and shine upon the counsel of the wicked?
4 Hast Thou eyes of flesh?
or seest Thou as man seeth?
5 Are Thy days as the days of man?
are Thy years as man’s days,
6 that Thou inquirest after mine iniquity,
and searchest after my sin?
7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked;
and there is none that can deliver out of Thy hand.
8 Thine hands have made me and fashioned me
together round about—yet Thou dost destroy me!
9 Remember, I beseech Thee, that Thou hast made me as the clay;
and wilt Thou bring me into dust again?
10 Hast Thou not poured me out as milk,
and curdled me as cheese?
11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh,
and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
12 Thou hast granted me life and favor,
and Thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
13 And these things hast Thou hid in Thine heart;
I know that this is with Thee.
14 If I sin, then Thou markest me,
and Thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
15 If I be wicked, woe unto me!
and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head:
I am full of confusion; therefore see Thou mine affliction.
16 For it increaseth. Thou hauntest me as a fierce lion:
and again Thou shewest Thyself marvellous upon me.
17 Thou renewest Thy witnesses against me,
and increasest Thine indignation upon me;
changes and war are against me.
18 Wherefore then hast Thou brought me forth out of the womb?
Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
19 I should have been as though I had not been;
I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20 Are not my days few? Cease then,
and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,
21 before I go whence I shall not return,
even to the land of darkness, and the shadow of death;
22 a land of darkness, as darkness itself;
and of the shadow of death, without any order,
and where the light is as darkness!
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. As we have seen, Eliphaz and Bildad had alike made the attempt, on the basis of their common places, such as the fact of the universal sinfulness of men, and that of the invariable justice of God’s dealings, to extort from Job the confession of His own ill-desert as the cause of his suffering. Neither of them had heeded his request to render a more reasonable and just decision concerning his case (Job_6:28-30). In this new reply accordingly he addresses himself to both at once, and maintains most emphatically, and even with impassioned vehemence that their propositions, true as they were in general, were not applicable to his case. These propositions which they advanced concerning God’s unapproachable purity, and inexorable justice he admits, but only in order “satirically to twist them into a recognition of that which is for mortal man a crushing, overpowering omnipotence in God, disposing of him with an arbitrariness which admits of no reply” (Job_9:2-12). He then, in daring and presumptuous language, arraigns this terrible Being, this arbitrary Divine disposer, who, as he thinks, notwithstanding his innocence, is resolved to hold and treat him as guilty (Job_9:13-35). And finally, under the influence of these gloomy reflections he falls back into his former strain of doubt and lamentation (in Job 3), closing with a sentiment repeated verbally from that lamentation, although in a condensed form, and casting a gloomy look toward that Hereafter, which promises him nothing better, nothing but an endless prolongation of his present misery (Job_10:1-22). [Dillmann calls attention to the fact that while in the former discourse Job had directed one entire section against his friends, here he says nothing formally against them, but soliloquizes, as it were in their hearing, leaving them to infer whither their assaults are driving him]. The first of these three tolerably long divisions embraces four short strophes (the first three consisting of three verses each, the last of two); the second division consists of two equal sub-divisions (Job_9:13-24 and Job_9:25-35) each of three strophes, and each strophe of four verses: the third division comprises, after an exordium of three lines (ch 10:1) two double-strophes (Job_9:2-22) the first formed of one strophe of 6, and one of 5 verses, the second of two strophes, each of five verses.
2. First Division: Job concedes the propositions of his opponents regarding God’s immutable justice and absolute purity, but shows that for that very reason His power is all the more to be dreaded by mortals; Job_9:2-12.
First Strophe:Job_9:2-4. [Impossibility of maintaining one’s cause before God].
Job_9:2. Of a truth [ironical as also in 12:2] I know that it is so, viz., that what Bildad has set forth is quite true: that God ever does only that which is right, and that whatever proceeds from him must for that very reason be right. It is only to this leading proposition of Bildad’s discourse (Job_8:3) that Job’s remark here can refer, and not also to the discourse of Eliphaz, to which reference is first made in the following member: [It seems hardly worth while to make this distinction between two members of the same verse. Formally it is more natural indeed to suppose the opening remark to be addressed to Bildad, materially it doubtless refers to both. “In his former reply to Eliphaz,” says Hengstenberg, “he had sought to work rather on the feelings of his friends. Having failed in this, as the discourse of Bildad shows, he now makes all that the friends had spoken the subject of his criticism.”]—And how should a mortal [
àֱðåֹùׁ
, man in his weakness and mortality] be right before God?i.e., how should it be otherwise than as Eliphaz has declared in his fundamental proposition (Job_4:17), to wit, that “no man is just before God;” which proposition moreover Job here changes into one somewhat differing in sense: “no man is right before God.”
Job_9:3. Should he desire to contend with Him, he could not answer Him one of a thousand.—The subject in both members of the verse is man, not God, as Schlottman, Delitzsch, Kamphausen, explain. By “contending” is meant seeking to establish by controversy or discussion the right of man which is denied. The meaning of the second member of the verse is, that God, as infinitely man’s superior, would overwhelm him with such a multitude of questions that he must stand before Him in mute embarrassment and shame, as was actually the case at last with Job, when God began to speak (Job_38:1 sq.).
Job_9:4. The wise of heart and mighty in strength—who has braved Him and remained unhurt?—The absolute cases
çëí ìá
and
àîéõ ëç
are resumed in
àֵìָéå
, and refer accordingly to God, and not to
îִé
(as Olshausen thinks). With
äִ÷ְùָׁä
is to be supplied
òøֶֹó
: “who has hardened his neck against Him,” (Deu_10:16; 2Ki_17:14), i.e., bid Him defiance?
Second Strophe: Vss. 5–7. A lofty poetic description of the irresistibleness of God’s omnipotence, beginning with its destructive manifestations in nature. [“Job having once conceived the power of God becomes fascinated by the very tremendousness of it—the invincible might of his and man’s adversary charms his eye and compels him to gaze and shudder, and run over it feature after feature, unable to withdraw his look from it. This alone, and not any superficial desire (Ewald) to emulate Eliphaz (to whom there is no particular reference in the speech as most comm. think), accounts for this piece of sublime picturing. Ewald has however finely remarked that the features Job fastens on are the dark and terror-inspiring, as was natural from the attitude in which he conceived God to stand to him.” Davidson].
Job_9:5. Who removeth mountains, and they are not aware that (
àֲùֶׁø
as in Exo_11:7; Eze_20:26) He hath overturned them in His wrath.—[In favor of thus regarding
àֲùֶׁå
as a conjunction rather than a relative, may be urged (1) The Perf.
äôï
, which would otherwise be Imperf.; comp.
éַçְúֹּí
Job_9:7. (2). The introduction of a relative construction in a coordinate clause, and
å
being absent would be a violation of the present participial construction of the strophe. The use of the Imperf. in 6b and 7b is different: those clauses being introduced by
å
and subordinate.—E.]. The activity of the Divine wrath bursts upon them so quickly and suddenly that they are quite unconscious of the mighty change which has been effected in them.
Job_9:6. Who maketh the earth to tremble out of her place:viz., by earthquakes, comp. Isa_13:13; Psa_46:3 [2], 4 [3]; and touching the climactic advance from the mountains to the earth, see Psa_90:2.—And her pillars are shaken [lit., rock themselves. The fundamental meaning of
ôìõ
, which is akin to
ôìí
and
ôìù
, is as Dillmann says, to waver, to rock, not to break, as Ges. and Fürst explain, connecting it with
ôøõ
]. The pillars of the earth (comp. Psa_75:4 [3]; 104:5), are, according to the poetic representation prevalent in the O. T. the subterranean roots of her mountains [or according to Schlottmann the foundations on which the earth rests suspended over nothing: Job_26:7; Job_38:6], not their summits, lifted above the earth, which are rather (according to Job_26:11; comp. 38:6) to be thought of as the pillars of the heavenly vault, like Atlas in the Greek mythology.
Job_9:7. Who bids the sun (
çֶåֶí
, a rare poetic term for the sun, as in Isa_19:18; comp.
çַּøְñָä
, Jdg_14:18) [“perhaps (says Delitz.), from the same root as
çָøåּõ
, one of the poetical names of gold,” seeing that in Isaiah l. c. ’Ir ha-Heres is a play upon
òִéø äַçֶøֶí
, ‘
Çëéïýðïëéò
], and it riseth not, i.e., so that it does not shine forth (comp. Isa_58:10), and so appears eclipsed.—And setteth a seal round about the stars, seals them, i.e., veils them behind thick clouds, so that through their obscuration the night is darkened in the same measure as the day by an eclipse of the sun. In regard to obscurations of the heavenly bodies in general as indications of the Divine Power manifesting itself in destruction and punishment, comp. Exo_10:21; Joe_3:4 (2:31); Eze_32:7 seq.; Rev_6:12; Rev_16:10.
Third Strophe:Job_9:8-10. The description of the Divine Omnipotence continued, more especially in respect to its creative operations in nature. [To be noted is the absence of the article with the participles in each of these three verses, which alike with its presence in each of the three preceding verses, is clearly a sign of the strophic arrangement.—E.]
Job_9:8. Who spreadeth out the heavens alone.
ðֹèֶä
according to parallel passages, such as Isa_40:22; Isa_44:24; Psa_104:2, where the heavenly vault is represented as an immense tent—canvass, is to be explained: “who stretcheth out, spreadeth out,” not with Jerome, Ewald [Noyes, Davidson], etc., “who bows down, lets down.” With the latter interpretation the clause
ìְáַãּåֹ
would not agree; nor again the contents of Job_9:9, where clearly God’s activity as Creator, not as Destroyer, or as one shaking the firmament and the stars, is more fully set forth.—And treads upon the heights of the sea, i.e., upon the high-dashing waves of the sea agitated by a storm, over which God marches as its ruler and controller (Job_38:10 sq.) with sure and majestic tread, as upon the heights of the earth, according to Amo_4:13; Mic_1:3; Comp. Hab_3:15, also the excellent translation of the passage before us in the Sept.:
ðåñéðáôῶí ἔðὶ èáëÜóóçò ὡò ἐð
’
ἐäÜöïõò
. Hirzel and Schlottmann [Merx] understand the reference to be to the waters of the firmament, the heavenly cloud-vessels, or thunder-clouds (Gen_1:6 sq.; Psa_104:3; Psa_18:12 (10); Psa_29:3; Nah_1:3). But these cloud-waters of the heavens are never elsewhere in the Holy Scripture called “sea” (
éָí
); also not in Job_36:30 (see on the passage), and still less in Rev_4:6; Rev_15:8; Rev_22:1, where the
èÜëáóóá
of glass in the heavenly world signifies something quite different from a sea of rain-clouds. [“The objection that this view of sea interferes with the harmony of description, mixing earth and heaven, is obviated by the consideration that the passage is a description of a storm where earth (sea) and heaven are mixed.” Davidson].
Job_9:9. Who createth the Bear and Orion and Pleiades.—
òùֶֹׁä
is taken by Umbreit and Ewald as synonymous with
òֹèֶä
; “who darkens the Bear, etc.”, against which however may be urged the use of
òùä
in Job_9:10, likewise the description flowing out of the present passage in Amo_5:8, and finally the lack of evidence that
òùä
means tegere (which remark holds true also of Job_15:27; and Job_23:9). Moreover the connection decidedly requires a verb of creating or making. [“This as well as all the other participles from Job_9:5 on to be construed in the present, for the act of creation is conceived as continuous, renewing itself day by day.” Dillmann.—“Job next describes God as the Creator of the stars, by introducing a constellation of the northern (the Bear), one of the southern (Orion), and one of the eastern sky (the Pleiades).” Delitzsch]. Of the three names of northern constellations, which occur together in Job_38:31-32,
òָùׁ
, or as it is written in that later passage
òַéִùׁ
, denotes unmistakably the Great Bear, or Charles’s Wain, the Septentrio of the Romans, and the n’ash (
ðòù
), i.e., “bier” of the Arabians. Whether the word is etymologically related to this Arabic term, which is suggested by the resemblance of the square part of the constellation to a bier, the three trailing stars, the benathna’ash, “daughters of the bier,” being imagined to be the mourners, is doubtful. [The current form
òéù
decisively contradicts the derivation from
ðòù
]—
ëְñִéì
in that case, lit. “the fool,” is certainly Orion, who, according to the almost universal representation of the ancient world, was conceived of as a presumptuous and fool-hardy giant, chained to the sky; comp. the mention of the
îåֹùְׁëåֹú
, i.e., the “bands,” or “fetters” of Orion in Job_38:31, as well as the accordant testimony of the ancient versions (LXX.: ’
Ùñßùí
, at least in the parallel passages Job_38:31 and Isa_13:10; similarly the Pesh., Targ., etc.). Against the reference to the star Canopus (Saad. Abulwalid, etc.), may be urged, apart from the high antiquity of the tradition which points to Orion, the context of the present passage as well as of Job_38:31, and Amo_5:8, which indicates groups of stars, and not a single star.—The third constellation
ëִּéîָä
i.e., the heap, is rendered “the Hyades” only in the Vulgate; the remaining ancient versions however (also Saadia), and the Vulg. itself in the parallel passage, 38:31, render by
ðëåéÜò
, Pleiades, so that beyond doubt it is to be understood of the group of seven stars in the neck of Taurus (known in German as the “clucking hen”); comp. Amo_5:8.—And the chambers of the South;i.e., the secret rooms or spaces (penetralia) of the constellations of the southern heavens, which to the inhabitant of the northern zones are visible only in part, or not at all. In any case
úֵּîָï
(defectively written for
úֵּéîָï
) points to the southern heavens, and since
çֲãָøִéí
predominantly signifies “apartments, chambers, halls,” less frequently “store-rooms, reservoirs,” the reference to the “reservoirs of, the south wind” (LXX.:
ôáìåῖá íüôïõ
; some modern interpreters also, as Ges., etc.) is less natural, especially as the description continues to treat of the objects of the southern skies. [Dillmann, after recognizing the rendering of the LXX. as admissible, remarks: “On the other side the author certainly knew nothing of the constellations of the southern hemisphere; at the same time as one who had travelled (or at least: as one familiar with the results attained in his day by the observation of physical phenomena,—E.) he might well be acquainted with the fact that the further South men travel, the more stars and constellations are visible in the heavens; these are to the man who lives in the North, secluded as it were in the inmost chambers of the heavenly pavilion, and are for that reason invisible; it is of these ‘hidden spaces’ (Hirzel) of the South, with their stars, that we are here to think”].
Job_9:10. Who doeth great things, past finding out, and marvelous things without number: agreeing almost verbatim with what Eliphaz had said previously, Job_5:9, in describing the wondrous greatness of the Divine Power—an agreement, indeed, which is intentional, Job being determined to concede as fully as possible the affirmations of his friends respecting this point.
Fourth Strophe:Job_9:11-12. God puts forth this irresistible omnipotence not only in nature, both in earth and in heaven, but also in that which befalls individual human lives, as Job himself had experienced.—[“There is great skill in making Job touch merely the outstanding points, illuminate only with a single ray the heaven-reaching heights of the Divine power; that in itself is not his immediate theme—it is the crushing effect this power has on feeble man; and to this he hastens on with sudden strides.” Dav. “After the extended description [just given] of the Divine omnipotence (which Ewald wrongly characterizes as “altogether too much of a digression,” whereas it is entirely pertinent to the subject, and all that follows proceeds out of it), the short hasty glance which in this and the following verse is cast on miserable mortal man, makes an impression so much the more pointed.” Schlottman.]
Job_9:11. Lo! [
äֵï
in this and the following verse, vividly descriptive, and also strongly individualizing himself as the victim of the irresistible omnipotence just described] He passes by me [and I see Him not; He sweeps before me, and I perceive Him not.—The imperfect verb for present, “being an exclamation of felt, though unseen, nearness of God.” Dav.—
éçìó
in Job_4:16 of “a spirit;” here of the Infinite Spirit, sweeping past him on His career of destruction.—E.]
çìó
, synonymous with
òáå
as in Job_4:15, forms an assonance with the parallel
çúó
of the following verse.
Job_9:12. [Lo! He snatches away (scil. His prey)], who will hold Him back; or: “turn Him back” (
éְùִׁéáֶðּåּ
), viz. from His course: hence equivalent to: “who will put himself as an obstacle in His way?” (comp. Job_11:10; Job_23:13).
3. Second Division: The oppressive thought of God’s overwhelming and arbitrary power incites him, the innocent sufferer, to speak defiantly against God: Job_9:13-35.
First Section:Job_9:13-24 : A general complaint of the severity and arbitrariness with which God abuses the exercise of His illimitable omnipotence towards man.
First Strophe:Job_9:13-16. [The mightiest cannot withstand Him, how much less I?]
Job_9:13. [By some put in strophic connection with the verses preceding; but Job_9:12 appropriately closes the first division, while Job_9:13 is the basis of what follows. Observe especially the contrast between the “helpers of Rahab” in 13b, and “I” in 14a.—E.]—Eloah ceases not from His wrath [Eng. Ver. incorrectly begins with “if”]: lit. “does not cause it to return,” i.e. does not recall it [“it is as a storm wind sweeping all before it, or a mounting tide bearing down all resistance and strewing itself with wrecks.” Dav.].—An affirmation the decided one-sidedness of which sufficiently appears from other passages, e.g., from Psa_78:38.—The helpers of Rahab stoop under Him.—So far as
øַäַá
in and of itself denotes only “a violent, insolent and stormy nature” (comp. Job_26:12),
òֹæְøֵéÎø×
may be simply rendered, as by Luther, Umbreit, and most of the older expositors: “insolent,” or “proud helpers” [and so E. V., Con., Dav., Hengst.]. But apart from the colorless, tame signification which thus results [to which add the vague generality of the description, weakening the contrast between 13b and 14a; and the incompleteness of the expression, whether we translate, “proud helpers,” which suggests the query—helpers of what? or “helpers of pride.”—E.], the Perf.
ùָׁçֲçåּ
, lit. “have stooped,” leads us to conjecture a definite historical case [“a case of signal vengeance on some daring foe, who drew around him many daring helpers, would be more telling in this connection.” Dav.] Moreover
øäá
in fact appears elsewhere in a more concrete sense than that of “violent, presumptuous raging” (so also in Job_26:12, where see Com.). It signifies, to wit, as Isa_51:9; Psa_89:11 [10] show, essentially the same with
úַּðִּéï
, hence a sea-monster (
êῆôïò
), and by virtue of this signification is used as a mythological and symbolical designation of Egypt (as well in the two passages just mentioned, as also in Isa_30:7 and Psa_87:4), the same country which elsewhere also is symbolically designated as
úַּðִּéï
or
ìִåְéָúָï
. We are thus left to one of two significations for
øäá
in the present passage. We may, on the one hand, find in the passage a special reference to Egypt, and an allusion to some extraordinary event in the history of that country, whereby its rulers or allies were over-whelmed with defeat. In this case, it would be more natural with Hahn to think of the overthrow of Pharaoh and his mighty ones in the time of Moses [so Jarchi who understands by the “helpers” the guardian angels of the Egyptians, who came to their assistance, but were restrained by God], than with Olshausen to think of some unknown event in the history of Ancient Egypt, or even with Böttcher of the reign of Psammetich. Or, on the other hand, setting aside any special reference to Egypt, we can (with Ewald, Hirzel, Schlottmann, Delitzsch, Dillmann) regard it as an allusion to some legend, current among the nations of the East, according to which some gigantic sea-monster with its helpers was subdued by the Deity (comp. the Hindu myth of Indra’s victory over the dusky demon Britras). In favor of this interpretation may be urged the parallel passage in Job_26:12, which certainly contains no reference to Egypt, as well as the rendering of the LXX., k
Þôç ôὰ ὑð
’
ïὐñáíüí
, which evidently points to an old tradition of the correct interpretation. [“Jerome translates qui portant orbem, probably following a Jewish tradition concerning giants which had been overcome by God and sentenced to bear the pillars of the earth.” Schlott. Dillmann argues forcibly, that the common application of these three terms,
úðéï
,
øäá
, and
ìåéúï
, to Egypt can be explained only by supposing that the first was related in signification to the other two names, being used like them of a sea-monster. He further remarks: “that the legend was widely known and possessed great vitality among the people is indicated by the fact that poets and prophets used it as a symbol of the imperial power of Egypt. It is not strange, accordingly, to find such a popular legend used for his purpose by a poet who elsewhere also derives his material on all sides from popular conceptions.”] Add that it is more natural to seek the basis of this legend of Rahab either in obscure reminiscences which lingered among the ancients touching the gigantic sea-monsters of the primitive world (plesiosauri, ichthyosauri, etc.), or in a symbolical representation of the billowy swelling of the raging ocean, resembling an infuriated monster, than to assign to it an astronomical basis, and to take
øäá
to be at the same time the name of a constellation such as
Êῆôïò
or
Ðñßóôéò
[Balæna Pistrix); for the context by no means points of necessity to such an astronomical application of the term (the mention of the constellations in Job_9:9 being too remote), and moreover in Job_26:12 there is nothing of the kind indicated, as Dillmann correctly observes, against Ewald, Hirzel, Delitzsch.
Job_9:14. How should I answer Him?—I, an impotent, weak, sorely suffering mortal. On
àַó ëִּé
comp. Job_4:19; on
òָðָä
, “to answer, respond,” see above on Job_9:3.—Choose out my words against Him?i.e. weigh my words against Him (
òִí
as in Job_10:17; Job_11:5; Job_16:21) with such care and skill [the
ä
in
àֶáְçֲøָä
indicating the mental effort involved], that I should always hit on the right expression, and thus escape all censure from Him.
Job_9:15. Whom I (even) if I were in the right (
öָãַ÷ְúִּé
, sensu forensi) [“innocent, judicially free from blame”], could not answer, I must make supplication to Him as my judge, viz. for mercy (
äúçðï
with
ìְ
as in Est_4:8). The Partic. Poel
îְùׁôֵè
is not essentially different in signification from the Partic. Kal
ùֹׁôֵè
, although it does differ somewhat from it, in so far as it denotes lit. an “assailant” or “adversary” (judicial opponent:
ùֹׁôֵè
, [Poel, expressing aim, endeavor], judicando vel litigando aliquem petere, comp. Ewald, § 125, a). [“So overpowering is God’s might that Job would be brought in litigating with Him to the humiliation of beseeching His very adversary—an idea which sufficiently answers Conant’s charge, that to render
îְùֹׁôֵè
assailant has very little point.” Dav.]
Job_9:16. Should I summon Him, and He answered me (if accordingly the case supposed to be necessary in 15b should actually happen, and be followed with results favorable to the suppliant), I would not believe that He would listen to me:i.e. I should not be able to repress the painful and awful though that He, the heavenly and all-powerful Judge of the world, would grant me no hearing at all. [“The answer of God when summoned is represented in Job_9:16 a as an actual result (præt. followed by fut. consec.), therefore Job_9:16 b cannot be intended to express: I could not believe that he answers me, but: I could not believe that He, the answerer, would hearken to me; His infinite exaltation would not permit such exaltation.” Delitzsch.] The whole verse is thus an advance in thought upon the preceding.
Second Strophe:Job_9:17-20. Continuing the description of Job’s utter hopelessness of victory in his controversy with God, clothed in purely hypothetical statements.
Job_9:17. He who would overwhelm me in a tempest, and multiply my wounds without cause;i.e., who would pursue me with assaults and calamities, even if I were innocent. [
àֲùֶׁø
may be taken either as relative, or as conj. “for,” (E. V. Con.) the one meaning really blends with the other, as in Job_9:15 = quippe qui]. With the rendering of
éְùׁåּôֶðִּé
here adopted, “would overwhelm me” (so also Vaih.) we can leave unsolved the question, so difficult of decision, whether, following the Aram.
ùְׁôָà
, and the testimony of the Ancient Versions (LXX.
ἐêôñßøῃ
; Vulg. conteret), we render
ùåּó
“to crush, to grind;” or, following the Arab, sâfa, and the Hebr.
ùָׁàַó
; we render it “to snatch up, seize,” (inhiare). Hirzel, Ewald, Umbreit, Dillmann, favor the latter rendering; but on the other side Delitzsch successfully demonstrates that neither Gen_3:15 nor Psa_139:11 (the only passages outside of the present in which
ùׁåּó
appears) necessarily requires the sense of “snatching,” certainly not that of “sniffing.”
Job_9:18. Would not suffer me to draw my breath (comp. Job_7:19), but would surfeit me with bitterness [lit. plur. “bitternesses”]. For
ëִּé
in the sense of “but, rather,” comp. Job_5:7; for the form.
îַîְּøֹøִéí
, with Dagh. dirimens [“which gives the word a more pathetic expression,” Del.], comp. Ges., § 20, 2, b.
Job_9:19. If it be a question of the strength of the strong [others (E. V. Conant, Carey, Schlott.) connect
àַîִּéõ
with the following
äִðֵּä
; but as the latter is always followed by the predicate, and such an exclamation in the mouth of God (see below) would be less natural than the simple interjection, the connection given in the text is to be preferred. The accents are not decisive,—E.]—lo, here (am I): [
äִðֵä
for
äֵðִּðִé
, as
àַéֵּä
Job_15:23, is for
àַéּåֹ
]—i.e. “would He say”: He would immediately present Himself, whenever challenged to a trial of strength with His human antagonist. Similar is the sense of the second member:—Is it a question of right who will cite me (before the tribunal); viz., “would He say.” [Whichever test of strength should be chosen, whether of physical strength in a trial-at-arms, or of moral strength, in a trial-at-law, what hope for weak and mortal man?—E.] The whole verse, consisting of two elliptical conditional clauses, with two still shorter concluding clauses (also hypothetical), reminds us in a measure by its structure of Rom_8:33-34.
Job_9:20. Were I (even) right, my mouth would condemn me:i.e., from simple confusion I should not know how to make the right answer, so that my own mouth (
ôּé
, with logical accent on suffix, as in Job_15:6) would confess me guilty, though I should still be innocent—(
öã÷
, as in Job_9:15).—Were I innocent—He would prove me perverse [
åַéַּòְ÷ְùֵׁðִé
, with Chiriq of Hiphil shortened to Sheva: comp. Ges. § 53 [§ 52] Rem. 4]. The subject is “God,” not “my mouth” (Schlottmann) [Wordsworth, Davidson, Carey]; God would, even in case of my innocence, put me down as one
òִ÷ֵּùׁ
, one morally corrupt, and to be rejected. “Thus brooding over the thought, true in itself, that the creature when opposed to the heavenly Ruler of the Universe must always be in the wrong, Job forgets the still higher and more important truth that God’s right in opposition to the creature is always the true objective right.” Delitzsch.
Third Strophe:Job_9:21-24. Open arraignment of God as an unrighteous Judge, condemning alike the innocent and the guilty.
Job_9:21. I am innocent! In thus repeating the expression
úָּí àֲðִé
, Job asserts solemnly and peremptorily that which in Job_9:20 b he had in the same words stated only conditionally.—I value not my soul:i.e., I give myself no concern about the security of my life, I will give free utterance to that confession, cost what it may. So rightly most commentators, while Delitzsch, against the connection (see especially the 2d member) explains: “I know not myself, I am a mystery to myself, and therefore have no desire to live longer.” [Hengstenberg: “We might explain: ‘I should not know my soul,’ if I were to confess to transgressions, of which I know myself to be innocent; ‘I should despise my life,’ seeing I have nothing with which to reproach myself. Better however: ‘I know not my soul,’ so low is it sunk, I am become altogether alius a me ipso; ‘I must despise my life,’ I am so unspeakably wretched, that I must wish to die”].
Job_9:22. It is all one: thus beyond question must the expression
àַçַúÎäִéà
be rendered; not: “there is one measure with which God rewards the good and the wicked” (Targ., Rosenm., Hirzel); nor: “it is all the same whether man is guilty or innocent” (Delitzsch).—Therefore I will say it out: [Dav. “I will out with it”]. He destroys the innocent and the wicked:viz., God, whom Job intentionally avoids naming; comp. Job_3:20.
Job_9:23-24. Two illustrations confirming the terrible accusation just brought against God (Job_9:22 b) that He destroys alike the innocent and the guilty.
Job_9:23. If (His) scourge slays suddenly, viz., men. By
ùׁåֹè
“scourge” is meant here not of course the scourge of the tongue (Job_5:21) but a general calamity, such as pestilence, war, famine, etc. (Isa_28:15).—Then He mocks at the despair of the innocent:i.e., He does not allow Himself to be disturbed in His blessed repose when those who are afflicted with those calamities faint away from despondency and despair: comp. Psa_2:4; Psa_59:9.—
îַñָּä
, from
îָñַí
, Job_6:14. [E. V., Conant, Dav., Renan, Hengst., Carey, Rod., etc., give to
îַñָּä
here its customary sense of “trial,” from
ðñä
. Jerome remarks that in the whole book Job says nothing more bitter than this.] The interpretation of Hirzel and Delitzsch, founded on Job_22:19 : “His desire and delight are in the suffering of the innocent,” gives a meaning altogether too strong, and not intended by the poet here.
Job_9:24. [“In this second illustration there is an advance in the thought, in so far as here a part at least of the wicked are excepted from the general ruin, nay, appear even as threatening the same to the pious.” Schlott.]—A land [or better, because more in harmony with the sweeping and strong expressions here assigned to Job: the earth] is given over to [lit., into the hand of] the wicked, and the face of its judges He veileth:viz., while that continues, while the land is delivered to the wicked, so that they are able to play their wicked game with absolute impunity.—If (it is) not (so) now, who then does it?
àֵôåֹ
(so written also Job_17:15; Job_19:6; Job_19:23; Job_24:25, but outside of the book of Job generally
àֵôåà
) belongs according to the accents to the preceding conditional particles
àִñÎìֹà
(comp. Job_24:25 and Gen_27:37); lit., therefore, “now then if not, who does it?” [Hirz., Con. and apparently Ew. connect
àֵôåֹ
with the interrogative following—“who then?” quis quæso (Heiligst.) Davidson also takes this view, although admitting that “the accentuation is decidedly the other way,”
àôåàֹ
being used, as he says, “in impatient questions (Ew., § 105, d) Gen_27:33; Job_17:15; Job_19:23”]. That the present illustration of a land ill-governed and delivered into the hands of the wicked had, as Dillmann says, “its justification in the historic background of the composition,” cannot be affirmed with certainty in our ignorance of the details of this “historic background:” though indeed it is equally true that we can no more affirm the contrary.
4. Second Division.—Second Section:Job_9:25-35. Special application of that which is affirmed in the preceding section concerning God’s arbitrary severity to his (Job’s) condition.
First Strophe:Job_9:25-28. [The swift flight of his days, and the unremitting pressure of his woes, make him despair of a release].
Job_9:25. For my days are swifter than a runner. [“
åְ
introducing a particular case of the previous general: in this infinite wrong under which earth and the righteous writhe and moan, I also suffer.” Dav.—“Days” here poetically personified.
÷ַìּåּ
, Perf., a deduction from past experience continuing in the present.—E.].
øָõ
might, apparently, comparing this with the similar description in Job_7:6, denote a part of the weaver’s loom, possibly the threads of the woof which are wound round the bobbin, (which the Coptic language actually calls “runners”). This signification however is by no means favored by the usage elsewhere in Hebrew of the word
øָõ
: this rather yields the signification “swift runner, courier”(
ἡìåñïäñüìïò
) compare Jer_51:31; 2Sa_15:1; 2Ki_11:13; Est_3:13; Est_3:15.—They are fled away, without having seen good (
èåֹáָä
, prosperity, happiness, as in Job_21:25). Job thinks here naturally of the same “good,” which he (according to Job_7:7) would willingly enjoy before his end, but which would not come to him before then. He has thus entirely forgotten his former prosperity in view of his present state of suffering, or rather, he does not regard it as prosperity, seeing that he had to exchange it for such severe suffering. Quite otherwise had he formerly expressed himself to his wife, Job_2:10.
Job_9:26. They have swept past like skiffs of reed; lit., “with [
òִí
] skiffs of reed,” i.e., being comparable with them (Job_37:18; Job_40:15).
àֳðִéּåֹú àֵáָä
are most probably canoes of rushes or reeds, the same therefore as the
ëְּìֵé âֹîֶà
(“vessels of bulrush”) mentioned Isa_18:2, whose great lightness and swiftness are in that passage also made prominent.
àֵáָä
is accordingly a synonym, which does not elsewhere appear, of
âîà
, reed; for which definition analogy may also be produced out of the Arabic. It has however nothing to do with
àֵá
(so the Vulg., Targ.: naves poma portantes) [“fruit ships hurrying on lest the fruit should injure”]; nor with
àָáָä
, to desire, [“ships eagerly desiring to reach the haven”]. (Symm.
íῆåò óðåýäïõóáé
) comp. Gekatilia in Gesenius, Thes. Suppl., p. 62; nor with
àֵéáָä
, “enmity” (Pesh., “ships of hostility,” comp. Luther: “the strong ships,” by which are meant pirate ships); nor with the Abyssin. abâi, the name of the Nile; nor with a supposed Babylonian name of a river, having the same sound, and denoting perhaps the Euphrates (so Abulwalid, Rashi, etc., who make the name denote a great river near the region where the scene of our book is laid). The correct signification was given by Hiller, Hierophyt. II., p. 302, whom most modern critics have followed.—Like the eagle, which darts down on its prey(comp. Job_39:29; Pro_30:19; Hab_1:8, etc.). This third comparison adds to that which is swiftest on the earth, and that which is swiftest in the water, that which is swiftest in the air, in order to illustrate the hasty flight of Job’s days.
Job_9:27-28. If I think (lit., if my saying be; comp. Job_7:13): I will forget my complaint (see on the same passage), will leave off my countenance (i.e. give up my look of pain, my morose gloomy-looking aspect, comp. 1Sa_1:18), and look cheerful (
äáìéâ
, as in Job_10:20; Ps. 39:14 (Psa_39:13) [the three cohortative futures here are, as Davidson says, “finely expressive—If I say—rousing myself from my stupor and prostration—I will, etc.”]; then I shudder at all my pains, I know that Thou wilt not declare me innocent.—These words are addressed to God, not to Bildad. Although Job felt himself to be forsaken and rejected by God, he nevertheless turns to Him; he does not speak of Him and about Him, without at the same time prayerfully looking up to Him.
Second Strophe:Job_9:29-31. [He must be guilty, and all his strivings to free himself from his guilt are in vain.]
Job_9:29. I am to be guilty:i.e. according to God’s arbitrary decree [
àֲðֹëִé
, emphatic—I, I am accounted guilty, singled out for this treatment. The fut.
àøùò
here expressing that which must be, from which there is no escape.—E.]
øָֹùַׁò
here not “to act as a wicked or a guilty person” (Job_10:15), but “to be esteemed, to appear” such, as in Job_10:7 (comp. the Hiph.
äִøְùִׁéַò
, to treat any one as guilty, to condemn, above in Job_9:20).—Wherefore then weary myself in vain, viz. to appear innocent, to be acquitted by God. This wearying of himself is given as an actual fact, consisting in humbly supplicating for mercy, as he had been repeatedly exhorted to do by Eliphaz and Bildad; Job_5:8; Job_5:17; Job_8:5.—
äֶáֶì
, adverbially, as in Job_21:34; Job_35:16; lit. like a breath, evanescent, here—“fruitlessly, for naught, in vain.” [That notwithstanding his present mood, he does subsequently renew his exertions, “impelled by an irresistible inward necessity, is psychologically perfectly natural.”—Schlottman.]
Job_9:30-31. If I should wash myself in snow-water (read with the K’ri
áְּîֵéÎ
instead of with the K’thibh
áְּîåֹÎùֶׁìֶâ
; bathing immediately in undissolved snow is scarcely to be thought of here) [an unnecessary refinement: for washing the hands, which is what the verse speaks of, snow can be used, and is scarcely less efficacious for cleansing than lye. The K’thibh is to be preferred.—E.], and cleanse my hands with lye (
áּåֹø
fully written for
áֹø
, Isa_1:25, signifies precisely as in this parallel passage lye, a vegetable alkali, not: purity [as E. V.: “make my hands never so clean’, for “make clean in purity”], which rendering would give a much tamer signification [besides “destroying, the literality of the parallelism”]), then Thou wouldest plunge me into the ditch (
ùַׁçַú
, here a sink, sewer), so that my clothes would abhor me.—In these latter words, it is naturally presupposed that the one who has been bathed and thoroughly cleansed as to the entire body while still naked is again plunged into a filthy ditch, and that in consequence of this, he becomes a terror to his own clothes, which are personified, so that they as it were start back and resist, when it is sought to put them on him. So correctly most modern expositors. On the contrary, Ewald and Gesenius—Rödiger take the Piel
úִּòֵá
in a causative sense: “so that my clothes would cause me to be abhorred,”—a rendering in favor of which, indeed, Eze_16:25 can be brought forward, but not the usus loguendi of our book (comp. Job_19:19; Job_30:10) which knows no causative sense for
úִּòֵá
. [The thought expressed by the two verses is that “not even the best-grounded self-justification can
