15 That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me; and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being full of shame and overcome with trouble.
Unhappy is the sinner! for the reward of his evil doings will come on him.
Even if my cause was good, I would not be able to give an answer; I would make request for grace from him who was against me.
Though you see that I am not an evil-doer; and there is no one who is able to take a man out of your hands?
Though I was in the right, he would say that I was in the wrong; I have done no evil; but he says that I am a sinner. I have done no wrong; I give no thought to what becomes of me; I have no desire for life.
But to those who, from a love of competition, are not guided by what is true, will come the heat of his wrath, Trouble and sorrow on all whose works are evil, to the Jew first and then to the Greek;
In the same way, when you have done all the things which are given you to do, say, There is no profit in us, for we have only done what we were ordered to do.
Keep in mind, O Lord, what has come to us: take note and see our shame. Our heritage is given up to men of strange lands, our houses to those who are not our countrymen. We are children without fathers, our mothers are like widows. We give money for a drink of water, we get our wood for a price. Our attackers are on our necks: overcome with weariness, we have no rest. We have given our hands to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians so that we might have enough bread. Our fathers were sinners and are dead; and the weight of their evil-doing is on us. Servants are ruling over us, and there is no one to make us free from their hands. We put our lives in danger to get our bread, because of the sword of the waste land. Our skin is heated like an oven because of our burning heat from need of food. They took by force the women in Zion, the virgins in the towns of Judah. Their hands put princes to death by hanging: the faces of old men were not honoured. The young men were crushing the grain, and the boys were falling under the wood. The old men are no longer seated in the doorway, and the music of the young men has come to an end. The joy of our hearts is ended; our dancing is changed into sorrow. The crown has been taken from our head: sorrow is ours, for we are sinners. Because of this our hearts are feeble; for these things our eyes are dark; Because of the mountain of Zion which is a waste; jackals go over it. You, O Lord, are seated as King for ever; the seat of your power is eternal. Why have we gone from your memory for ever? why have you been turned away from us for so long? Make us come back to you, O Lord, and let us be turned; make our days new again as in the past. But you have quite given us up; you are full of wrath against us.
And God said, Truly, I have seen the grief of my people in Egypt, and their cry because of their cruel masters has come to my ears; for I have knowledge of their sorrows;
For we have all become like an unclean person, and all our good acts are like a dirty robe: and we have all become old like a dead leaf, and our sins, like the wind, take us away. And there is no one who makes prayer to your name, or who is moved to keep true to you: for your face is veiled from us, and you have given us into the power of our sins.
Then I said, The curse is on me, and my fate is destruction; for I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies.
<RESH> O see my trouble, and be my saviour; for I keep your law in my mind,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Job 10
Commentary on Job 10 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 10
Job 10:1-22. Job's Reply to Bildad Continued.
1. leave my complaint upon myself—rather, "I will give loose to my complaint" (Job 7:11).
2. show me, &c.—Do not, by virtue of Thy mere sovereignty, treat me as guilty without showing me the reasons.
3. Job is unwilling to think God can have pleasure in using His power to "oppress" the weak, and to treat man, the work of His own hands, as of no value (Job 10:8; Ps 138:8).
shine upon—favor with prosperity (Ps 50:2).
4-6. Dost Thou see as feebly as man? that is, with the same uncharitable eye, as, for instance, Job's friends? Is Thy time as short? Impossible! Yet one might think, from the rapid succession of Thy strokes, that Thou hadst no time to spare in overwhelming me.
7. "Although Thou (the Omniscient) knowest," &c. (connected with Job 10:6), "Thou searchest after my sin."
and … that none that can deliver out of thine hand—Therefore Thou hast no need to deal with me with the rapid violence which man would use (see Job 10:6).
8. Made—with pains; implying a work of difficulty and art; applying to God language applicable only to man.
together round about—implying that the human body is a complete unity, the parts of which on all sides will bear the closest scrutiny.
9. clay—Job 10:10 proves that the reference here is, not so much to the perishable nature of the materials, as to their wonderful fashioning by the divine potter.
10. In the organization of the body from its rude commencements, the original liquid gradually assumes a more solid consistency, like milk curdling into cheese (Ps 139:15, 16). Science reveals that the chyle circulated by the lacteal vessels is the supply to every organ.
11. fenced—or "inlaid" (Ps 139:15); "curiously wrought" [Umbreit]. In the fœtus the skin appears first, then the flesh, then the harder parts.
12. visitation—Thy watchful Providence.
spirit—breath.
13. is with thee—was Thy purpose. All God's dealings with Job in his creation, preservation, and present afflictions were part of His secret counsel (Ps 139:16; Ac 15:18; Ec 3:11).
14, 15. Job is perplexed because God "marks" every sin of his with such ceaseless rigor. Whether "wicked" (godless and a hypocrite) or "righteous" (comparatively sincere), God condemns and punishes alike.
15. lift up my head—in conscious innocence (Ps 3:3).
see thou—rather, "and seeing I see (I too well see) mine affliction," (which seems to prove me guilty) [Umbreit].
16. increaseth—rather, "(if) I lift up (my head) Thou wouldest hunt me," &c. [Umbreit].
and again—as if a lion should not kill his prey at once, but come back and torture it again.
17. witnesses—His accumulated trials were like a succession of witnesses brought up in proof of his guilt, to wear out the accused.
changes and war—rather, "(thou settest in array) against me host after host" (literally, "changes and a host," that is, a succession of hosts); namely, his afflictions, and then reproach upon reproach from his friends.
20. But, since I was destined from my birth to these ills, at least give me a little breathing time during the few days left me (Job 9:34; 13:21; Ps 39:13).
22. The ideas of order and light, disorder and darkness, harmonize (Ge 1:2). Three Hebrew words are used for darkness; in Job 10:21 (1) the common word "darkness"; here (2) "a land of gloom" (from a Hebrew root, "to cover up"); (3) as "thick darkness" or blackness (from a root, expressing sunset). "Where the light thereof is like blackness." Its only sunshine is thick darkness. A bold figure of poetry. Job in a better frame has brighter thoughts of the unseen world. But his views at best wanted the definite clearness of the Christian's. Compare with his words here Re 21:23; 22:5; 2Ti 1:10.