Chapter 9

1 Job, acknowledging God’s justice, sheweth there is no contending with him. 22 Man’s innocency is not to be condemned by afflictions.

1. Job answered. Chapters 9 and 10 record Job’s third speech, in which he acknowledges the omnipotence of God, and, by contrast, his own impotence. Then he launches into another melancholy complaint regarding his afflictions.

2. It is so. Job acknowledges the correctness of Bildad’s arguments.

How should man be just? Job’s problem is not the justice of God; that he acknowledges. He wants to know how he, a man, can be just before God. His circumstances incriminate him as guilty, while his conscience bears witness to his innocence. Job’s question has been completely answered only in the revelation of the plan of salvation. Through the provisions of the plan it is possible for God to “be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26).

3. One of a thousand. Man is no equal for God. He cannot answer His questions or His charges.

4. Hath prospered. Heb. shalam, “to be complete, sound, safe.” Shalam is related to an Arabic root that carries the further idea of being in submission to.

5. Removeth the mountains. The human being looks at mountains as symbols of immense size and stability, yet God is able to remove them and turn them upside down.

6. Shaketh the earth. Doubtless a reference to earthquakes (1 Kings 19:11; see Ps. 104:32; Zech. 14:4, 5; Matt. 24:7).

Pillars thereof tremble. A poetic description of earthquakes. It is not necessary to find a literal explanation for the “pillars.”

7. Commandeth the sun. God is represented as having absolute power over nature. The Scriptures frequently mention natural phenomena as a display of the power of God (see Ex. 10:21; Eze. 32:7; Joel 2:31; Matt. 24:29; Rev. 6:12; 16:10).

8. Spreadeth out the heavens. See Ps. 104:2; Isa. 40:22; Jer. 10:12. The figure extols the omnipotence of God by calling attention to His handiwork.

Waves of the sea. Literally, “heights of the sea.” God is pictured as one who has power to subdue the proud might of the waves.

9. Arcturus. Heb. Фash (Фayish, ch. 38:32). The identification is not absolutely certain. Many think that the constellation Ursa Major, or Great Bear, is designated (see on ch. 38:32).

Orion. Heb. kesil, literally, “a fool,” although it is not certain that the name for the constellation comes from the same root as that which yields the definition “fool.” There is general agreement that kesil here means Orion (see on ch. 38:31).

Pleiades. Heb. kimah. Some interpret Фash as Pleiades and make kimah refer to some other brilliant star, as Sirius. The LXX for the three Hebrew terms reads, “Pleiades, Hesperus, and Arcturus” (see on ch. 38:31).

The chambers of the south. Probably unnamed constellations in the southern heavens, or perhaps the immense spaces beyond the southern horizon.

10. Great things. This verse is almost verbatim that of ch. 5:9, where Eliphaz spoke. Eliphaz sees in the wonders of God’s creation an expression of God’s goodness, whereas Job seems to see only the power of God. Possibly these words were common in the mouths of religious men in ancient times.

11. I see him not. A sharp line divides the visible and invisible worlds; and this line is rarely crossed. Job possibly reflects upon the claim of Eliphaz to have had a physical consciousness of the visitation of a spirit (ch. 4:15, 16), and asserts that it is otherwise with him—the spirit world passes by him, and he receives no light, no illumination, no miraculous direction from it.

Passeth on. Heb. chalaph, the same verb that Eliphaz used (ch. 4:15) when speaking of his spirit visitation.

I perceive him not. Eliphaz declared that he had a vivid perception of the presence of the spirit (ch. 4:15, 16), and heard its voice (ch. 4:16–21). Job here indicates that he had not been thus favored.

12. Who can hinder him? Compare chs. 11:10 and 23:13. When calamities struck Job, his response was, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (ch. 1:21). This was a response of trust. The passing of time and the impact of unremitting pain have weakened Job’s spirit. Trust has given way to a feeling of helplessness. Instead of recognizing God’s wisdom and love, he sees his own weakness. Often sudden tragedy does not break the human spirit like persistent, monotonous suffering.

13. If. There is no “if” in the Hebrew. The sentence should be rendered as a statement of fact rather than condition “God will not withdraw his anger.”

The proud helpers. Heb. Фozre rahab, literally, “the helpers of Rahab.” Rahab occurs in ch. 26:12, where it is translated “proud,” and in Isa. 51:9, where it appears as a proper name. Some believe that Rahab was an ancient designation of a great power of evil. If so, Job here seems to say that God holds in subjection not only men but also beings much more powerful than man, as Rahab and his helpers. Since Rahab means pride, it would be a suitable designation of Lucifer, and “the helpers,” a designation of the beings who followed Lucifer (see Isa. 14:12–14; Rev. 12:7–9). Job, by his speeches, however, indicates that he had but a limited knowledge of the great controversy between God and Satan.

14. Answer him. Verses 14–16 suggest the language of a court of law. Job acknowledges his inability to present a successful defense.

Though I were righteous. Job recognizes the sovereignty of God. Even though he is certain of his innocence, he still appeals for mercy as he approaches his Judge.

16. Called. Heb. qaraХ. Here obviously with the meaning “to summon in a legal sense.” Job is saying, If I had challenged God to a controversy, and He had granted it, and bidden me to plead my cause at His bar, yet could I not suppose that He really meant it, and would allow me boldly to stand before Him and freely to challenge His doings. Such condescension seems inconceivable to Job.

17. Breaketh me. In vs. 17–21 Job tries to imagine what would happen if he should challenge God, and God should respond to his challenge. He pictures God as acting toward him, not as a judge, determining matters by rule of law, but as a sovereign, determining them by His own will. Job seems to lose sight of the fact that supreme sovereignty is not inconsistent with supreme love and rectitude.

Without cause. Heb. chinnam translated similarly in ch. 2:3, but rendered “for nought” in ch. 1:9. Job attributes to God that which was clearly the work and scheme of Satan (ch. 2:3). See on Ps. 38:3; 39:9.

18. Take my breath. God’s judgments are described as so constant and unremitting that Job cannot even “catch his breath.”

19. He is strong. Job has no question about God’s power. His sense of that power was more highly developed than his appreciation of God’s goodness.

Who shall set me a time? Or, “who will summon me?” The LXX reads, “who then shall resist his judgment?”

20. If I justify myself. The sentence is true if the words are correctly applied (see 1 Cor. 4:4). But Job was thinking of them in an entirely different light. He was brooding over the thought that the creature had no chance when opposed to the Ruler of the universe.

21. Though I were perfect. Literally, this verse reads, “I am perfect; I do not know myself; I abhor my life.” The thought seems to be that Job maintained his innocence, but he could not understand himself or his circumstances, and his conflict was so great that he despised his life.

22. One thing. Or, “one matter.” That is, all are alike in God’s sight. There is no difference between the cases of the righteous and those of the wicked.

I said it. Or, “I say.” Job is about to make a bold assertion.

He destroyeth. Job is convinced that nothing can be argued certainly about the character of a man from the divine dealings with him. God allows the righteous and the wicked to be swept away together.

23. Scourge. Job is probably referring to war, plague, or pestilence. If one of these be let loose upon men, it slays without discrimination. In such case, God does not always interpose to save the righteous.

Laugh. Or, “mock,” “deride.” An audacious, irreverent, and bitter remark that some have tried to defend on the basis that it is a rhetorical statement, but the defense seems inadequate. It is obviously one of those statements of which he later repented in “dust and ashes” (ch. 42:6).

24. If not. The clause may be translated, “If not, then who is it?” In this passage Job reflects, perhaps, the deepest discouragement and the darkest distrust observable in any of his speeches. He argues that the established condition of things in human society must be ascribed to God; there is no one else to whom it can be ascribed.

25. My days are swifter. By three figures Job illustrates the rapidity with which his life is rushing to its end.

A post. A fast-running messenger or courier.

26. Swift ships. Or, “ships of reed.” Ships constructed for lightness and speed, but not substantial.

The eagle. Job had pointed to that which was swiftest on land, that which was swiftest in the water, and now he points to that which was swiftest in the air. He compares these things to the speed with which his life is approaching its destination.

27. My heaviness. Literally, “my face,” or “my countenance,” that is, the sorrowful countenance that Job had. He suggests an endeavor to brace up and find happiness despite his afflictions, but holds such attempts vain.

28. Afraid. Job’s suffering was augmented by his fear that God would condemn him. Frustration, doubt, fear, preyed upon Job perhaps as much as his physical pain.

29. If I be wicked. Literally, “I am wicked,” or, “I am guilty.” That is, Job believes his sufferings show that he is accounted so.

Why then labour I? A defeatist attitude was haunting Job’s thinking. Like many other sufferers, he was saying, in substance, “What’s the use!”

30. Snow water. Symbolic of thorough cleansing.

My hands. The clause reads literally, “make my hands clean with lye [potash].”

31. In the ditch. It matters not, Job says, how clean and pure I endeavor to make myself, God will plunge me again into the filthy mire.

Clothes. Job’s clothes are personified, and represented as abhorring him.

32. He is not a man. Job sees no hope of coming to an understanding with God, because of the gulf between them. God is infinite, and Job is painfully conscious of his own finite, mortal existence.

33. Daysman. Or, “umpire.” In his argument with God, Job feels that there is no one to whom he can look as an arbiter. On one of two conditions only, he thinks, could the contest be more even between himself and God: (1) If God, divesting Himself of all His divine attributes, became man, and (2) if some umpire, or arbiter, could be found to decide the contest. Neither condition, however, did Job think possible. The gospel provides a fulfillment of both conditions. “The I am is the Daysman between God and humanity, laying His hand upon both” (DA 25). Not that we need to conceive of Jesus as settling an argument between man and God, but He is the One who represents God to man, the One through whom man can understand and approach God. See Heb. 2:17, 18.

Lay his hand upon. It has been suggested that this may refer to some ancient ceremony in which, for some cause, the umpire, or arbiter, laid his hands upon both the parties in a legal dispute. It may mean that the umpire had the power of control over both parties, that it was his office to restrain them within proper limits, to check any improper expressions, and to see that the argument was fairly conducted on both sides. This figure could, of course, not be applied to God as one of the parties, though in Job’s concept the application was valid.

34. Take his rod away. Job cringes before the chastisement of God. He is terrified. He feels that he could speak in his own defense if God would cease to inflict suffering upon him.

Ellen G. White comments

2    GC 254

5     PP 328

9     EW 41

33   DA 25