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Job 9:9 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

9 Which maketh H6213 Arcturus, H5906 Orion, H3685 and Pleiades, H3598 and the chambers H2315 of the south. H8486

Cross Reference

Amos 5:8 STRONG

Seek him that maketh H6213 the seven stars H3598 and Orion, H3685 and turneth H2015 the shadow of death H6757 into the morning, H1242 and maketh the day H3117 dark H2821 with night: H3915 that calleth H7121 for the waters H4325 of the sea, H3220 and poureth them out H8210 upon the face H6440 of the earth: H776 The LORD H3068 is his name: H8034

Genesis 1:16 STRONG

And God H430 made H6213 two H8147 great H1419 lights; H3974 the greater H1419 light H3974 to rule H4475 the day, H3117 and the lesser H6996 light H3974 to rule H4475 the night: H3915 he made the stars H3556 also.

Job 38:31-41 STRONG

Canst thou bind H7194 the sweet influences H4575 of Pleiades, H3598 or loose H6605 the bands H4189 of Orion? H3685 Canst thou bring forth H3318 Mazzaroth H4216 in his season? H6256 or canst thou guide H5148 Arcturus H5906 with his sons? H1121 Knowest H3045 thou the ordinances H2708 of heaven? H8064 canst thou set H7760 the dominion H4896 thereof in the earth? H776 Canst thou lift up H7311 thy voice H6963 to the clouds, H5645 that abundance H8229 of waters H4325 may cover H3680 thee? Canst thou send H7971 lightnings, H1300 that they may go, H3212 and say H559 unto thee, Here we are? Who hath put H7896 wisdom H2451 in the inward parts? H2910 or who hath given H5414 understanding H998 to the heart? H7907 Who can number H5608 the clouds H7834 in wisdom? H2451 or who can stay H7901 the bottles H5035 of heaven, H8064 When the dust H6083 groweth H3332 into hardness, H4165 and the clods H7263 cleave fast together? H1692 Wilt thou hunt H6679 the prey H2964 for the lion? H3833 or fill H4390 the appetite H2416 of the young lions, H3715 When they couch H7817 in their dens, H4585 and abide H3427 in the covert H5521 to H3926 lie in wait? H695 Who provideth H3559 for the raven H6158 his food? H6718 when his young ones H3206 cry H7768 unto God, H410 they wander H8582 for lack H1097 of meat. H400

Job 37:9 STRONG

Out of the south H2315 cometh H935 the whirlwind: H5492 and cold H7135 out of the north. H4215

Psalms 104:3 STRONG

Who layeth the beams H7136 of his chambers H5944 in the waters: H4325 who maketh H7760 the clouds H5645 his chariot: H7398 who walketh H1980 upon the wings H3671 of the wind: H7307

Psalms 104:13 STRONG

He watereth H8248 the hills H2022 from his chambers: H5944 the earth H776 is satisfied H7646 with the fruit H6529 of thy works. H4639

Psalms 147:4 STRONG

He telleth H4487 the number H4557 of the stars; H3556 he calleth H7121 them all by their names. H8034

Acts 28:13 STRONG

And from thence G3606 we fetched a compass, G4022 and came G2658 to G1519 Rhegium: G4484 and G2532 after G3326 one G3391 day G2250 the south wind G3558 blew, G1920 and we came G2064 the next day G1206 to G1519 Puteoli: G4223

Commentary on Job 9 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible


CHAPTER 9

FIRST SERIES.

Job 9:1-35. Reply of Job to Bildad.

2. I know it is so of a truth—that God does not "pervert justice" (Job 8:3). But (even though I be sure of being in the right) how can a mere man assert his right—(be just) with God. The Gospel answers (Ro 3:26).

3. If he—God

will contend with him—literally, "deign to enter into judgment."

he cannot answer, &c.—He (man) would not dare, even if he had a thousand answers in readiness to one question of God's, to utter one of them, from awe of His Majesty.

4. wise in heart—in understanding!—and mighty in power! God confounds the ablest arguer by His wisdom, and the mightiest by His power.

hardened himself—or his neck (Pr 29:1); that is, defied God. To prosper, one must fall in with God's arrangements of providence and grace.

5. and they know not—Hebrew for "suddenly, unexpectedly, before they are aware of it" (Ps 35:8); "at unawares"; Hebrew, which "he knoweth not of" (Joe 2:14; Pr 5:6).

6. The earth is regarded, poetically, as resting on pillars, which tremble in an earthquake (Ps 75:3; Isa 24:20). The literal truth as to the earth is given (Job 26:7).

7. The sun, at His command, does not rise; namely, in an eclipse, or the darkness that accompanies earthquakes (Job 9:6).

sealeth up the stars—that is, totally covers as one would seal up a room, that its contents may not be seen.

8. spreadeth out—(Isa 40:22; Ps 104:2). But throughout it is not so much God's creating, as His governing, power over nature that is set forth. A storm seems a struggle between Nature and her Lord! Better, therefore, "Who boweth the heavens alone," without help of any other. God descends from the bowed-down heaven to the earth (Ps 18:9). The storm, wherein the clouds descend, suggests this image. In the descent of the vault of heaven, God has come down from His high throne and walks majestically over the mountain waves (Hebrew, "heights"), as a conqueror taming their violence. So "tread upon" (De 33:29; Am 4:13; Mt 14:26). The Egyptian hieroglyphic for impossibility is a man walking on waves.

9. maketh—rather, from the Arabic, "covereth up." This accords better with the context, which describes His boundless power as controller rather than as creator [Umbreit].

Arcturus—the great bear, which always revolves about the pole, and never sets. The Chaldeans and Arabs, early named the stars and grouped them in constellations; often travelling and tending flocks by night, they would naturally do so, especially as the rise and setting of some stars mark the distinction of seasons. Brinkley, presuming the stars here mentioned to be those of Taurus and Scorpio, and that these were the cardinal constellations of spring and autumn in Job's time, calculates, by the precession of equinoxes, the time of Job to be eight hundred eighteen years after the deluge, and one hundred eighty-four before Abraham.

Orion—Hebrew, "the fool"; in Job 38:31 he appears fettered with "bands." The old legend represented this star as a hero, who presumptuously rebelled against God, and was therefore a fool, and was chained in the sky as a punishment; for its rising is at the stormy period of the year. He is Nimrod (the exceedingly impious rebel) among the Assyrians; Orion among the Greeks. Sabaism (worship of the heavenly hosts) and hero-worship were blended in his person. He first subverted the patriarchal order of society by substituting a chieftainship based on conquest (Ge 10:9, 10).

Pleiades—literally, "the heap of stars"; Arabic, "knot of stars." The various names of this constellation in the East express the close union of the stars in it (Am 5:8).

chambers of the south—the unseen regions of the southern hemisphere, with its own set of stars, as distinguished from those just mentioned of the northern. The true structure of the earth is here implied.

10. Repeated from Eliphaz (Job 5:9).

11. I see him not: he passeth on—The image is that of a howling wind (Isa 21:1). Like it when it bursts invisibly upon man, so God is felt in the awful effects of His wrath, but is not seen (Joh 3:8). Therefore, reasons Job, it is impossible to contend with Him.

12. If "He taketh away," as in my case all that was dear to me, still a mortal cannot call Him to account. He only takes His own. He is an absolute King (Ec 8:4; Da 4:35).

13. If God—rather, "God will not withdraw His anger," that is, so long as a mortal obstinately resists [Umbreit].

the proud helpers—The arrogant, who would help one contending with the Almighty, are of no avail against Him.

14. How much less shall I? &c.—who am weak, seeing that the mighty have to stoop before Him. Choose words (use a well-chosen speech, in order to reason) with Him.

15. (Job 10:15). Though I were conscious of no sin, yet I would not dare to say so, but leave it to His judgment and mercy to justify me (1Co 4:4).

16, 17. would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice—who breaketh me (as a tree stripped of its leaves) with a tempest.

19. Umbreit takes these as the words of God, translating, "What availeth the might of the strong?" "Here (saith he) behold! what availeth justice? Who will appoint me a time to plead?" (So Jer 49:19). The last words certainly apply better to God than to Job. The sense is substantially the same if we make "me" apply to Job. The "lo!" expresses God's swift readiness for battle when challenged.

20. it—(Job 15:6; Lu 19:22); or "He," God.

21. Literally, here (and in Job 9:20), "I perfect! I should not know my soul! I would despise," [that is], "disown my life"; that is, Though conscious of innocence, I should be compelled, in contending with the infinite God, to ignore my own soul and despise my past life as if it were guilty [Rosenmuller].

22. one thing—"It is all one; whether perfect or wicked—He destroyeth." This was the point Job maintained against his friends, that the righteous and wicked alike are afflicted, and that great sufferings here do not prove great guilt (Lu 13:1-5; Ec 9:2).

23. If—Rather, "While (His) scourge slays suddenly (the wicked, Job 9:22), He laughs at (disregards; not derides) the pining away of the innocent." The only difference, says Job, between the innocent and guilty is, the latter are slain by a sudden stroke, the former pine away gradually. The translation, "trial," does not express the antithesis to "slay suddenly," as "pining away" does [Umbreit].

24. Referring to righteous "judges," in antithesis to "the wicked" in the parallel first clause, whereas the wicked oppressor often has the earth given into his hand, the righteous judges are led to execution—culprits had their faces covered preparatory to execution (Es 7:8). Thus the contrast of the wicked and righteous here answers to that in Job 9:23.

if not, where and who?—If God be not the cause of these anomalies, where is the cause to be found, and who is he?

25. a post—a courier. In the wide Persian empire such couriers, on dromedaries or on foot, were employed to carry the royal commands to the distant provinces (Es 3:13, 15; 8:14). "My days" are not like the slow caravan, but the fleet post. The "days" are themselves poetically said to "see no good," instead of Job in them (1Pe 3:10).

26. swift ships—rather, canoes of reeds or papyrus skiffs, used on the Nile, swift from their lightness (Isa 18:2).

28. The apodosis to Job 9:27—"If I say, &c." "I still am afraid of all my sorrows (returning), for I know that thou wilt (dost) (by removing my sufferings) not hold or declare me innocent. How then can I leave off my heaviness?"

29. The "if" is better omitted; I (am treated by God as) wicked; why then labor I in vain (to disprove His charge)? Job submits, not so much because he is convinced that God is right, as because God is powerful and he weak [Barnes].

30. snow water—thought to be more cleansing than common water, owing to the whiteness of snow (Ps 51:7; Isa 1:18).

never so clean—Better, to answer to the parallelism of the first clause which expresses the cleansing material, "lye:" the Arabs used alkali mixed with oil, as soap (Ps 73:13; Jer 2:22).

32. (Ec 6:10; Isa 45:9).

33. daysman—"mediator," or "umpire"; the imposition of whose hand expresses power to adjudicate between the persons. There might be one on a level with Job, the one party; but Job knew of none on a level with the Almighty, the other party (1Sa 2:25). We Christians know of such a Mediator (not, however, in the sense of umpire) on a level with both—the God-man, Christ Jesus (1Ti 2:5).

34. rod—not here the symbol of punishment, but of power. Job cannot meet God on fair terms so long as God deals with him on the footing of His almighty power.

35. it is not so with me—As it now is, God not taking His rod away, I am not on such a footing of equality as to be able to vindicate myself.