72 lines
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72 lines
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<title>Blue Letter Bible: Text Commentaries</title>
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PriorBook = 'Esther';
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Title = 'The Book of Job';
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<p id="Chapter9" align="center">Commentary by A. R. FAUSSET<br>CHAPTER 9
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<p id="Job9_1">FIRST SERIES.
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<p><a onclick="return mV('Job',9,'1-35');">Job 9:1-35</a>. REPLY OF JOB TO BILDAD.
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<p id="Job9_2"><b>2. I know it is so of a truth</b>—that God does not "pervert justice" (<a onclick="return mV('Job',8,3);">Job 8:3</a>). 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 (<a onclick="return mV('Rom',3,26);">Rom 3:26</a>).
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<p id="Job9_3"><b>3. If he</b>—God
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<br><br><b>will contend with him</b>—literally, "<i>deign</i> to enter into judgment."
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<br><br><b>he cannot answer,</b> etc.—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.
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<p id="Job9_4"><b>4. wise in heart</b>—in understanding!—and mighty in power! God confounds the ablest arguer by His wisdom, and the mightiest by His power.
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<br><br><b>hardened himself</b>—or his neck (<a onclick="return mV('Pro',29,1);">Pro 29:1</a>); that is, defied God. To prosper, one must fall in with God's arrangements of providence and grace.
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<p id="Job9_5"><b>5. and they know not</b>—<i>Hebrew</i> for "suddenly, unexpectedly, before they are aware of it" (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',35,8);">Psa 35:8</a>); "at unawares"; <i>Hebrew,</i> which "he knoweth not of" (<a onclick="return mV('Joe',2,14);">Joe 2:14</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Pro',5,6);">Pro 5:6</a>).
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<p id="Job9_6"><b>6.</b> The earth is regarded, poetically, as resting on pillars, which tremble in an earthquake (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',75,3);">Psa 75:3</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',24,20);">Isa 24:20</a>). The literal truth as to the earth is given (<a onclick="return mV('Job',26,7);">Job 26:7</a>).
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<p id="Job9_7"><b>7.</b> The sun, at His command, does not rise; namely, in an eclipse, or the darkness that accompanies earthquakes (<a onclick="return mV('Job',9,6);">Job 9:6</a>).
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<br><br><b>sealeth up the stars</b>—that is, totally covers as one would seal up a room, that its contents may not be seen.
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<p id="Job9_8"><b>8. spreadeth out</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',40,22);">Isa 40:22</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Psa',104,2);">Psa 104:2</a>). 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 <i>boweth</i> the heavens alone," without help of any other. God descends from the bowed-down heaven to the earth (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',18,9);">Psa 18:9</a>). 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 (<i>Hebrew,</i> "heights"), as a conqueror taming their violence. So "tread upon" (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',33,29);">Deu 33:29</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Amo',4,13);">Amo 4:13</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Mat',14,26);">Mat 14:26</a>). The Egyptian hieroglyphic for impossibility is a man walking on waves.
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<p id="Job9_9"><b>9. maketh</b>—rather, from the <i>Arabic,</i> "covereth up." This accords better with the context, which describes His boundless power as controller rather than as creator [UMBREIT].
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<br><br><b>Arcturus</b>—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.
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<br><br><b>Orion</b>—<i>Hebrew,</i> "the fool"; in <a onclick="return mV('Job',38,31);">Job 38:31</a> 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 (<a onclick="return mV('Gen',10,9,10);">Gen 10:9-10</a>).
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<br><br><b>Pleiades</b>—literally, "the heap of stars"; <i>Arabic,</i> "knot of stars." The various names of this constellation in the East express the close union of the stars in it (<a onclick="return mV('Amo',5,8);">Amo 5:8</a>).
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<br><br><b>chambers of the south</b>—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.
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<p id="Job9_10"><b>10.</b> Repeated from Eliphaz (<a onclick="return mV('Job',5,9);">Job 5:9</a>).
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<p id="Job9_11"><b>11. I see him not: he passeth on</b>—The image is that of a howling wind (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',21,1);">Isa 21:1</a>). Like it when it bursts invisibly upon man, so God is felt in the awful <i>effects</i> of His wrath, but is not <i>seen</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Jhn',3,8);">Jhn 3:8</a>). Therefore, reasons Job, it is impossible to contend with Him.
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<p id="Job9_12"><b>12.</b> 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 (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',8,4);">Ecc 8:4</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Dan',4,35);">Dan 4:35</a>).
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<p id="Job9_13"><b>13. If God</b>—rather, "God will not withdraw His anger," that is, so long as a mortal obstinately resists [UMBREIT].
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<br><br><b>the proud helpers</b>—The arrogant, who would help one contending with the Almighty, are of no avail against Him.
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<p id="Job9_14"><b>14. How much less shall I?</b> etc.—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.
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<p id="Job9_15"><b>15.</b> (<a onclick="return mV('Job',10,15);">Job 10:15</a>). 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 (<a onclick="return mV('1Cr',4,4);">1Cr 4:4</a>).
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<p id="Job9_16"><b>16, 17. would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice</b>—who breaketh me (as a tree stripped of its leaves) with a tempest.
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<p id="Job9_19"><b>19.</b> 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 <a onclick="return mV('Jer',49,19);">Jer 49:19</a>). 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.
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<p id="Job9_20"><b>20. it</b>— (<a onclick="return mV('Job',15,6);">Job 15:6</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Luk',19,22);">Luk 19:22</a>); or "He," God.
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<p id="Job9_21"><b>21.</b> Literally, here (and in <a onclick="return mV('Job',9,20);">Job 9:20</a>), "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].
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<p id="Job9_22"><b>22. one thing</b>—"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 <i>here</i> do not prove great guilt (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',13,'1-5');">Luk 13:1-5</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Ecc',9,2);">Ecc 9:2</a>).
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<p id="Job9_23"><b>23. If</b>—Rather, "While (His) scourge slays suddenly (the wicked, <a onclick="return mV('Job',9,22);">Job 9:22</a>), 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 <i>sudden</i> stroke, the former pine away <i>gradually.</i> The translation, "trial," does not express the antithesis to "slay suddenly," as "pining away" does [UMBREIT].
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<p id="Job9_24"><b>24.</b> 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 (<a onclick="return mV('Est',7,8);">Est 7:8</a>). Thus the contrast of the wicked and righteous here answers to that in <a onclick="return mV('Job',9,23);">Job 9:23</a>.
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<br><br><b>if not, where and who?</b>—If God be <i>not</i> the cause of these anomalies, <i>where</i> is the cause to be found, and <i>who</i> is <i>he?</i>
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<p id="Job9_25"><b>25. a post</b>—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 (<a onclick="return mV('Est',3,13,15);">Est 3:13, 15</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Est',8,14);">8:14</a>). "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 (<a onclick="return mV('1Pe',3,10);">1Pe 3:10</a>).
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<p id="Job9_26"><b>26. swift ships</b>—rather, canoes of reeds or papyrus skiffs, used on the Nile, swift from their lightness (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',18,2);">Isa 18:2</a>).
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<p id="Job9_28"><b>28.</b> The apodosis to <a onclick="return mV('Job',9,27);">Job 9:27</a> —"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>I leave off my heaviness?</i>"
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<p id="Job9_29"><b>29.</b> 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 <i>convinced</i> that God is <i>right,</i> as because God is <i>powerful</i> and he <i>weak</i> [BARNES].
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<p id="Job9_30"><b>30. snow water</b>—thought to be more cleansing than common water, owing to the whiteness of snow (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',51,7);">Psa 51:7</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',1,18);">Isa 1:18</a>).
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<br><br><b>never so clean</b>—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 (<a onclick="return mV('Psa',73,13);">Psa 73:13</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Jer',2,22);">Jer 2:22</a>).
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<p id="Job9_32"><b>32.</b> (<a onclick="return mV('Ecc',6,10);">Ecc 6:10</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Isa',45,9);">Isa 45:9</a>).
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<p id="Job9_33"><b>33. daysman</b>—"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 (<a onclick="return mV('1Sa',2,25);">1Sa 2:25</a>). We Christians know of such a Mediator (not, however, in the sense of umpire on a level with both)—the God-man, Christ Jesus (<a onclick="return mV('1Ti',2,5);">1Ti 2:5</a>).
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<p id="Job9_34"><b>34. rod</b>—not here the symbol of punishment, but of <i>power.</i> Job cannot meet God on fair terms so long as God deals with him on the footing of His almighty power.
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<p id="Job9_35"><b>35. it is not so with me</b>—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.
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