The author of Job is unknown, but he was a learned man whose knowledge embraced the heavens (22:12; 38:32-33) and earth (26:7-8; 28:9-11; 37:11,16). His knowledge touched on foreign lands (28:16,19), various products (6:19), and human professions (7:6; 9:26; 18:8-10; 28:1-11). He was familiar with plants (14:7-9) and animals (4:10-11; 38:39–39:30; 40:15–41:34). He was a wise man, familiar with traditional wisdom (6:5-6; 17:5; 28:12,28), but was above all a man of spiritual sensitivity (1:1,5,8; 2:3; 14:14-15; 16:11-21; 19:23-27; 23:10; 34:26-28; 40:1-5; 42:1-6). He was doubtless an Israelite as confirmed by his frequent use of God’s covenant name (Yahweh, usually rendered the LORD).
The story of Job is set in the patriarchal period. In that era wealth consisted of the possession of cattle and servants. Like other OT patriarchal family heads, Job performed priestly duties, including offering sacrifices for his family. Like the patriarchs, Job lived to be more than a hundred years old. Geographically, the action took place in the northern Arabian Peninsula, in the land of Uz (1:1), often associated with Edom. Job’s three friends also had Edomite or southern associations, as did the young Elihu.
Although Job is set in the patriarchal period, its date of writing is unknown. Jewish tradition places the authorship of Job in the time of Moses.
The book of Job teaches that suffering comes to everyone, the righteous and unrighteous alike. God does not always keep the righteous from danger or suffering. Ultimately God controls all of life’s situations, including limiting the power of Satan. God’s comfort and strength are always available to the trusting soul.
Although the book of Job does take note of the problem of suffering, it focuses more on the nature of human conduct before a sovereign and holy God. In harmony with the rest of Scripture, the book teaches that even a consistent practice of religion is insufficient without a genuine heart relationship with God (Dt 6:4-6; Ps 86:11-12; Mt 22:37). The answer to life’s problems and goals lies in a proper reverence for him who is perfect in all his being and actions. Man needs not just to confess God but to surrender everything to him. By letting him truly be God in every area of life, a person will find him sufficient.
The writer was a skilled storyteller, artistically characterizing the distinctions between the protagonist (Job), antagonist (Satan), and literary foils (the three friends and Elihu). The characterization demonstrates that God himself is the ultimate protagonist (or “hero”) of the story. Satan was as much challenging God as Job’s piety. Although Job’s three “comforters” applied traditional wisdom to Job’s situation, each did it in a different way. Eliphaz, the rationalist, reasoned with Job (15:17-18); Bildad, the apologist, sought to defend God (25:1-6); and Zophar acted much like a prosecutor (11:1-6). The youthful Elihu served as a mediating influence in order to prepare for the divine speeches that follow (33:23-26). The writer constructed a well-developed plot built around dramatic dialogue. The fact that he related the account of Job’s test in story form does not mean that Job was not a real person who underwent a real test.
Job’s prosperity promised as much stability as anything can beneath the moon. But beyond the clouds the spirit of evil stood face-to-face with the infinite Spirit of all good, and an extraordinary conversation took place. When called to account for his doings, the evil one boasted that he had gone throughout the earth. He had marched everywhere like a king in his own dominions, unhindered and unchallenged. When the great God reminded him that there was at least one place among men where he had no foothold and where his power was unrecognized, namely, in the heart of Job, the evil one defied Jehovah to try the faithfulness of Job, told him that the patriarch’s integrity was due to his prosperity, that he served God and avoided evil from sinister motives because he found his conduct profitable to himself. The God of heaven took up the challenge of the evil one and gave him permission to take away all the mercies he affirmed to be the props of Job’s integrity. Let us see in this the mutability of all terrestrial things.
1There was a man in the country of Uz named Job. He was a man of complete integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters. 3 His estate included seven thousand sheep and goats, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man among all the people of the east.
4 His sons used to take turns having banquets at their homes. They would send an invitation to their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send for his children and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for A all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.
6 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan B also came with them. 7 The LORD asked Satan, “Where have you come from? ”
“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”
8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”
9 Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Haven’t you placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
12 “Very well,” the LORD told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, do not lay a hand on Job himself.” So Satan left the LORD’s presence.
13 One day when Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came to Job and reported: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing nearby, 15 the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you! ”
16 He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported: “God’s fire fell from heaven. It burned the sheep and the servants and devoured them, and I alone have escaped to tell you! ”
17 That messenger was still speaking when yet another came and reported: “The Chaldeans formed three bands, made a raid on the camels, and took them away. They struck down the servants with the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you! ”
18 He was still speaking when another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house. 19 Suddenly a powerful wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people so that they died, and I alone have escaped to tell you! ”
20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, 21 saying:
Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will leave this life. A
The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away.
Blessed be the name of the LORD.
QUOTE 1:21
Some of the rarest pearls have been found in the deepest waters, and some of the choicest utterances of believers have come when God’s waves and billows have been made to roll over them.
22 Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything. B
1:8 “Then the LORD said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job?’” Job’s prosperity promised as much stability as anything can beneath the moon. The man had around him a large household of devoted and attached servants. He had accumulated wealth of a kind that does not suddenly depreciate in value. He had oxen and asses and cattle. He did not have to go to markets and fairs and to trade with his goods to procure food and clothing, for he carried on the processes of agriculture on a large scale around his own homestead and probably grew within his own territory everything his establishment required. His children were numerous enough to promise a long line of descendants. His prosperity needed nothing for its consolidation. It had come to its flood tide—where was the cause that could make it ebb? But beyond the clouds the spirit of evil stood face-to-face with the infinite Spirit of all good, and an extraordinary conversation took place. When called to account for his doings, the evil one boasted that he had gone throughout the earth. He had marched everywhere like a king in his own dominions, unhindered and unchallenged. When the great God reminded him that there was at least one place among men where he had no foothold and where his power was unrecognized, namely, in the heart of Job, the evil one defied Jehovah to try the faithfulness of Job, told him that the patriarch’s integrity was due to his prosperity, that he served God and avoided evil from sinister motives because he found his conduct profitable to himself. The God of heaven took up the challenge of the evil one and gave him permission to take away all the mercies he affirmed to be the props of Job’s integrity. Let us see in this the mutability of all terrestrial things. “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (Col 3:2), and “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal” (Mt 6:19).
1:21 “The LORD gives, and the LORD takes away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” Some of the rarest pearls have been found in the deepest waters, and some of the choicest utterances of believers have come when God’s waves and billows have been made to roll over them. The fire consumes nothing but the dross and leaves the gold all the purer. In Job’s case, with regard to his position before God, he had lost nothing by all his losses, for what could be purer and brighter gold than this that gleams before us from this text, revealing his triumphant patience, his complete resignation, and his cheerful acquiescence in the divine will? Job looked on everything he possessed as the gift of God. He did not complain, “I spent many weary days and many anxious nights in accumulating all those flocks and herds that have been stolen from me.” We must learn the wisdom of never ascribing any earthly comfort to any earthly source. We must worship the giver and not the gift. And when we know that the Lord takes away our possessions, the knowledge that they are his effectually prevents us from complaining. From the first moment when the love of God is revealed to us, right on to the hour when we will be in the presence of the Father in glory, we may depend on it that there is infinite love in every act of God in taking from us, just as much as in giving to us.
2One day the sons of God came again to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before the LORD. 2 The LORD asked Satan, “Where have you come from? ”
“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered him, “and walking around on it.”
3 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited me against him, to destroy him for no good reason.”
4 “Skin for skin! ” Satan answered the LORD. “A man will give up everything he owns in exchange for his life. 5 But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
6 “Very well,” the LORD told Satan, “he is in your power; only spare his life.” 7 So Satan left the LORD’s presence and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. 8 Then Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes.
9 His wife said to him, “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die! ”
10 “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity? ” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said. C
11 Now when Job’s three friends — Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite — heard about all this adversity that had happened to him, each of them came from his home. They met together to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. 12 When they looked from a distance, they could barely recognize him. They wept aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust into the air and on his head. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him seven days and nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw that his suffering was very intense.
3After this, Job began to speak and cursed the day he was born. 2 He said:
3May the day I was born perish,
and the night that said,
“A boy is conceived.”
4If only that day had turned to darkness!
May God above not care about it,
or light shine on it.
5May darkness and gloom reclaim it,
and a cloud settle over it.
May what darkens the day terrify it.
6If only darkness had taken that night away!
May it not appear A among the days of the year
or be listed in the calendar. B
7Yes, may that night be barren;
may no joyful shout be heard in it.
8Let those who curse days
condemn it,
those who are ready to rouse Leviathan.
9May its morning stars grow dark.
May it wait for daylight but have none;
may it not see the breaking C of dawn.
10For that night did not shut
the doors of my mother’s womb,
and hide sorrow from my eyes.
11Why was I not stillborn;
why didn’t I die as I came from the womb?
12Why did the knees receive me,
and why were there breasts for me to nurse?
13Now I would certainly be lying down in peace;
I would be asleep.
Then I would be at rest
14with the kings and counselors of the earth,
who rebuilt ruined cities for themselves,
15or with princes who had gold,
who filled their houses with silver.
16Or why was I not hidden like a miscarried child,
like infants who never see daylight?
17There the wicked cease to make trouble,
and there the weary find rest.
18The captives are completely at rest;
they do not hear a taskmaster’s voice.
19Both small and great are there,
and the slave is set free from his master.
20Why is light given to one burdened with grief,
and life to those whose existence is bitter,
21who wait for death, but it does not come,
and search for it more than for hidden treasure,
22who are filled with much joy
and are glad when they reach the grave?
23Why is life given to a man whose path is hidden,
whom God has hedged in?
ILLUSTRATION 3:23
Divine sovereignty is an ocean without a bottom and without a shore; all we can do is to set our sail and steer by the chart he has given us. To try to cross such a sea without rudder or chart or compass—this would be some piece of sailing that we had better not undertake.
24I sigh when food is put before me, A
and my groans pour out like water.
25For the thing I feared has overtaken me,
and what I dreaded has happened to me.
26I cannot relax or be calm;
I have no rest, for turmoil has come.
3:23 “Why is life given to a man whose path is hidden, whom God has hedged in?” Job used unwise and foolish expressions, but any of us might have used far worse words if we had been in his case, so we will not condemn him. Job is asking, “Why does God permit men to live when their souls are under deep depression and gloom? Why does he not let them die at once? When their days are spent in weariness and their nights yield them neither rest nor refreshment—when they look upward and see nothing to give them hope—why does God continue to give life to those who are in such sad circumstances?” First, it is an unsafe question for anyone to ask. We are sure to get into mischief as soon as we begin catechizing God and asking, “Why?” Divine sovereignty is an ocean without a bottom and without a shore; all we can do is to set our sail and steer by the chart he has given us. To try to cross such a sea without rudder or chart or compass—this would be some piece of sailing that we had better not undertake. Is God to stand and answer to us for what he does? Is he bound to tell us the reason he does it? Yet we may be certain there is an answer to this question—a good answer and an answer in harmony with the character of God. There is a reply consistent with boundless grace and infinite compassion, but that reply may never be given; or, if it is given, we may be incapable of understanding it. One answer to Job’s question that ought to satisfy us is that God wills it. Another answer is that God does it to let us know what is in us. Another reason is that often our trials bring us near to our God. Anything that promotes our sanctification or increases our spirituality is a good thing. Another reason is to fit you to be an example to others. I do not know that we should ever have heard anything of Job if it had not been for his troubles. But now his fame will last as long as the world endures.
4Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 Should anyone try to speak with you
when you are exhausted?
Yet who can keep from speaking?
3Indeed, you have instructed many
and have strengthened weak hands.
4Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling
and braced the knees that were buckling.
5But now that this has happened to you,
you have become exhausted.
It strikes you, and you are dismayed.
6Isn’t your piety your confidence,
and the integrity of your life B your hope?
7Consider: Who has perished when he was innocent?
Where have the honest C been destroyed?
8In my experience, those who plow injustice
and those who sow trouble reap the same.
9They perish at a single blast from God
and come to an end by the breath of his nostrils.
10The lion may roar and the fierce lion growl,
but the teeth of young lions are broken.
11The strong lion dies if it catches no prey,
and the cubs of the lioness are scattered.
12A word was brought to me
in secret;
my ears caught a whisper of it.
13Among unsettling thoughts from visions in the night,
when deep sleep comes over men,
14fear and trembling came over me
and made all my bones shake.
15I felt a draft D on my face,
and the hair on my body stood up.
16A figure stood there,
but I could not recognize its appearance;
a form loomed before my eyes.
I heard a whispering voice:
17“Can a mortal be righteous before God?
Can a man be more pure than his Maker? ”
18If God puts no trust in his servants
and he charges his angels with foolishness, A
19how much more those who dwell in clay houses,
whose foundation is in the dust,
who are crushed like a moth!
20They are smashed to pieces from dawn to dusk;
they perish forever while no one notices.
21Are their tent cords not pulled up?
They die without wisdom.
5Call out! Will anyone answer you?
Which of the holy ones will you turn to?
2For anger kills a fool,
and jealousy slays the gullible.
3I have seen a fool taking root,
but I immediately pronounced a curse on his home.
4His children are far from safety.
They are crushed at the city gate,
with no one to rescue them.
5The hungry consume his harvest,
even taking it out of the thorns. B
The thirsty C pant for his children’s wealth.
6For distress does not grow out of the soil,
and trouble does not sprout from the ground.
7But humans are born for trouble
as surely as sparks fly upward.
8However, if I were you, I would appeal to God
and would present my case to him.
9He does great and unsearchable things,
wonders without number.
10He gives rain to the earth
and sends water to the fields.
11He sets the lowly on high,
and mourners are lifted to safety.
12He frustrates the schemes of the crafty
so that they D achieve no success.
13He traps the wise in their craftiness
so that the plans of the deceptive
are quickly brought to an end.
14They encounter darkness by day,
and they grope at noon
as if it were night.
15He saves the needy from their sharp words E
and from the clutches of the powerful.
16So the poor have hope,
and injustice shuts its mouth.
17See how happy is the person whom God corrects;
so do not reject the discipline of the Almighty.
18For he wounds but he also
bandages;
he strikes, but his hands also heal.
19He will rescue you from six calamities;
no harm will touch you in seven.
20In famine he will redeem you from death,
and in battle, from the power of the sword.
21You will be safe from slander F
and not fear destruction when it comes.
22You will laugh at destruction and hunger
and not fear the land’s wild creatures.
23For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field,
and the wild animals will be at peace with you.
24You will know that your tent is secure,
and nothing will be missing when you inspect your home.
25You will also know that your offspring will be many
and your descendants like the grass of the earth.
26You will approach the grave in full vigor,
as a stack of sheaves is gathered in its season.
27We have investigated this, and it is true!
Hear it and understand it for yourself.
6Then Job answered:
2 If only my grief could be weighed
and my devastation placed with it on the scales.
3For then it would outweigh the sand of the seas!
That is why my words are rash.
4Surely the arrows of the Almighty have pierced A me;
my spirit drinks their poison.
God’s terrors are arrayed against me.
5Does a wild donkey bray over fresh grass
or an ox low over its fodder?
6Is bland food eaten without salt?
Is there flavor in an egg white? B
7I refuse to touch them;
they are like contaminated food.
8If only my request would be granted
and God would provide what I hope for:
9that he would decide to crush me,
to unleash his power
and cut me off!
10It would still bring me comfort,
and I would leap for joy in unrelenting pain
that I have not denied C the words of the Holy One.
11What strength do I have, that I should continue to hope?
What is my future, that I should be patient?
12Is my strength that of stone,
or my flesh made of bronze?
13Since I cannot help myself,
the hope for success has been banished from me.
14A despairing man should receive loyalty from his friends, D
even if he abandons the fear of the Almighty.
15My brothers are as treacherous as a wadi,
as seasonal streams that overflow
16and become darkened E because of ice,
and the snow melts into them.
17The wadis evaporate in warm weather;
they disappear from their channels in hot weather.
18Caravans turn away from their routes,
go up into the desert, and perish.
19The caravans of Tema look for these streams.
The traveling merchants of Sheba hope for them.
20They are ashamed because they had been confident of finding water.
When they arrive there, they are disappointed.
21So this is what you have now become to me. A
When you see something dreadful, you are afraid.
22Have I ever said:
“Give me something”
or “Pay a bribe for me from your wealth”
23or “Deliver me from the enemy’s hand”
or “Redeem me from the hand of the ruthless”?
24Teach me, and I will be silent.
Help me understand what I did wrong.
25How painful honest words can be!
But what does your rebuke prove?
26Do you think that you can disprove my words
or that a despairing man’s words are mere wind?
27No doubt you would cast lots for a fatherless child
and negotiate a price to sell your friend.
28But now, please look at me;
I will not lie to your face.
29Reconsider; don’t be unjust.
Reconsider; my righteousness is still the issue.
30Is there injustice on my tongue
or can my palate not taste disaster?
6:10 “It would still bring me comfort, and I would leap for joy in unrelenting pain that I have not denied the words of the Holy One.” Job had not refrained from an open confession of his own faith in God; he had been known in the gates of the city as a worshiper of the Lord, one that feared God and rejected evil. He had never hidden his faith but had acknowledged one God. While many gods and lords divided the loyalty of nations, Job was true to the only God and believed his words as they were revealed to him. Nor was he content with an open confession of his own faith. Job had continually communicated what he knew to others. He had taught his family—where all teaching should begin. He had taught his fellow citizens by his example—the most powerful of all teaching. Never had he wandered into idolatry or worshiped the sun when it shined, but he had openly confessed the one and only Lord without fear. So faithful had he been that he cries, “Let God weigh me on accurate scales, and he will recognize my integrity” (31:6). This was high ground to take, but it evidently strengthened the good man’s heart to bear his troubles, and it will do the same for us if we can win the same witness from our consciences.
D 6:14 Lit To the despairing his friend loyalty
A 6:21 Alt Hb tradition reads So you have now become nothing
7Isn’t each person consigned to forced labor on earth?
Are not his days like those of a hired worker?
2Like a slave he longs for shade;
like a hired worker he waits for his pay.
3So I have been made to inherit months of futility,
and troubled nights have been assigned to me.
4When I lie down I think,
“When will I get up? ”
But the evening drags on endlessly,
and I toss and turn until dawn.
5My flesh is clothed with maggots and encrusted with dirt. B
My skin forms scabs C and then oozes.
6My days pass more swiftly than a weaver’s shuttle;
they come to an end without hope.
7Remember that my life is but a breath.
My eye will never again see anything good.
8The eye of anyone who looks on me
will no longer see me.
Your eyes will look for me, but I will be gone.
9As a cloud fades away and vanishes,
so the one who goes down to Sheol will never rise again.
10He will never return to his house;
his hometown will no longer remember D him.
11Therefore I will not restrain my mouth.
I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;
I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.
12Am I the sea E or a sea monster,
that you keep me under guard?
13When I say, “My bed will comfort me,
and my couch will ease my complaint,”
14then you frighten me with dreams,
and terrify me with visions,
15so that I prefer strangling F —
death rather than life in this body. A
16I give up! I will not live forever.
Leave me alone, for my days are a breath. B
17What is a mere human, that you think so highly of him
and pay so much attention to him?
18You inspect him every morning,
and put him to the test every moment.
19Will you ever look away from me,
or leave me alone long enough to swallow? C
20If I have sinned, what have I done to you,
Watcher of humanity?
Why have you made me your target,
so that I have become a burden to you? D
QUOTE 7:21
He has devised a wondrous plan by which he can pardon the guilty without to the slightest degree shaking the foundations of his throne or endangering his government.
21Why not forgive my sin
and pardon my iniquity?
For soon I will lie down in the grave.
You will eagerly seek me, but I will be gone.
7:21 “Why not forgive my sin and pardon my iniquity?” We may not be sure it is God’s will to deliver us from disease, but we may be certain it is his will to hear us when we cry to him to save us from sin. Sometimes this question is asked under a misapprehension. Job was a great sufferer, and although he knew he was not as guilty as his troublesome friends tried to make out, yet he feared that possibly his great afflictions were the results of some sin. Therefore, he came before the Lord with this sorrowful enquiry, “Why do you continue to cause me all this pain and agony? If it is caused by sin, why do you not first pardon the sin and then remove its effects?” The most dreadful condition for any people to be in is that of absolute anarchy, when everyone does what he pleases. If, after people had lived lives of ungodliness and sin, of which they had never repented and from the guilt of which they had never been purged, God were just quietly to take them to heaven, that would be the end of all moral government, and heaven itself would not be a place that anybody would wish to go. If ungodly people went there in the same state as they are in here, heaven would become a sort of antechamber of hell, a respectable place of damnation. But that can never be the case. He has devised a wondrous plan by which he can pardon the guilty without to the slightest degree shaking the foundations of his throne or endangering his government. If we reject God’s way of salvation, we must be lost, and the blame must lie at our own door. God will not permit anarchy in order that he may indulge our whims or vacate the throne of heaven that he may save us according to our fancy. At the infinite expense of his heart’s love—by the death of his own dear Son—he has provided a way of salvation. And if we reject that, we need not ask Job’s question, for we know why he does not pardon our transgression and take away our iniquity—and on our own head will lie the blood of our immortal soul.
8Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2 How long will you go on saying these things?
Your words are a blast of wind.
3Does God pervert justice?
Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
4Since your children sinned against him,
he gave them over to their rebellion.
5But if you earnestly seek God
and ask the Almighty for mercy,
6if you are pure and upright,
then he will move even now on your behalf
and restore the home where your righteousness dwells.
7Then, even if your beginnings were modest,
your final days will be full of prosperity.
8For ask the previous generation,
and pay attention to what their fathers discovered,
9since we were born only yesterday and know nothing.
Our days on earth are but a shadow.
10Will they not teach you and tell you
and speak from their understanding?
11Does papyrus grow where there is no marsh?
Do reeds flourish without water?
12While still uncut shoots,
they would dry up quicker than any other plant.
13Such is the destiny A of all who forget God;
the hope of the godless will perish.
14His source of confidence is fragile; B
what he trusts in is a spider’s web.
15He leans on his web, but it doesn’t stand firm.
He grabs it, but it does not hold up.
16He is a well-watered plant in the sunshine;
his shoots spread out over his garden.
17His roots are intertwined around a pile of rocks.
He looks for a home among the stones.
18If he is uprooted C from his place,
it will deny knowing him, saying, “I never saw you.”
19Surely this is the joy of his way of life;
yet others will sprout from the dust.
20Look, God does not reject a person of integrity,
and he will not support D evildoers.
21He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with a shout of joy.
22Your enemies will be clothed with shame;
the tent of the wicked will no longer exist.
8:5-7 “But if you earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, then he will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells. Then, even if your beginnings were modest, your final days will be full of prosperity.” This was the reasoning of Bildad the Shuhite. He wished to prove that Job could not possibly be an upright man, for if he were so, his prosperity would increase continually. Or if he fell into any trouble, God would make the habitation of his righteousness prosperous. And if he were an upright man, God would surely appear for him, and his latter end would greatly increase. The utterances of Bildad and the other two men were merely human. They reasoned no doubt in their own esteem logically enough, but the Spirit of God was not with them in their speech. Therefore, we must use our own judgment to evaluate whatever we find uttered by these men. If it is not consistent with the rest of Holy Scripture, it will be our duty to reject it as being only the word of man—a wise and ancient man but still only a man. With regard to this passage, it is true—despite its being said by Bildad—as indeed the facts of the book of Job prove, for Job did greatly increase in the end. Evil things may seem to begin well, but they end badly. They begin as mountains; they end as molehills. We sail on their ocean at first, and as we sail onward, it grows into a river and afterwards into a dry bed, if not into burning sands. Not so, however, with good. “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday” (Pr 4:18). A new Christian may lament the smallness of his faith. But when God begins to build, if he lays but one single stone, he will finish the structure. When Christ sits down to weave, he will continue till the piece is finished. If our faith is ever so little, yet it is immortal, and that immortality may well compensate for its littleness.
9Then Job answered:
2 Yes, I know what you’ve said is true,
but how can a person be justified before God?
3If one wanted to take him to court,
he could not answer God E once in a thousand times.
4God is wise and all-powerful.
Who has opposed him and come out unharmed?
5He removes mountains without their knowledge,
overturning them in his anger.
6He shakes the earth from its place
so that its pillars tremble.
7He commands the sun not to shine
and seals off the stars.
8He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads on the waves of the sea. F
9He makes the stars: the Bear, G Orion,
the Pleiades, and the constellations H of the southern sky.
10He does great and unsearchable things,
wonders without number.
11If he passed by me, I wouldn’t see him;
if he went by, I wouldn’t recognize him.
12If he snatches something, who can stop A him?
Who can ask him, “What are you doing? ”
13God does not hold back his anger;
Rahab’s assistants cringe in fear beneath him!
14How then can I answer him
or choose my arguments against him?
15Even if I were in the right, I could not answer.
I could only beg my Judge for mercy.
16If I summoned him and he answered me,
I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said.
17He batters me with a whirlwind
and multiplies my wounds without cause.
18He doesn’t let me catch my breath
but fills me with bitter experiences.
19If it is a matter of strength, look, he is the powerful one!
If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him? B
20Even if I were in the right, my own mouth would condemn me;
if I were blameless, my mouth would declare me guilty.
21Though I am blameless,
I no longer care about myself;
I renounce my life.
22It is all the same. Therefore I say,
“He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.”
23When catastrophe C brings sudden death,
he mocks the despair of the innocent.
24The earth D is handed over to the wicked;
he blindfolds E its judges.
If it isn’t he, then who is it?
25My days fly by faster than a runner; F
they flee without seeing any good.
26They sweep by like boats made of papyrus,
like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
27If I said, “I will forget my complaint,
change my expression, and smile,”
28I would still live in terror of all my pains.
I know you will not acquit me.
29Since I will be found guilty,
why should I struggle in vain?
30If I wash myself with snow,
and cleanse my hands with lye,
31then you dip me in a pit of mud,
and my own clothes despise me!
32For he is not a man like me, that I can answer him,
that we can take each other to court.
33There is no mediator between us,
to lay his hand on both of us.
34Let him take his rod away from me
so his terror will no longer frighten me.
35Then I would speak
and not fear him.
But that is not the case; I am on my own.
9:30-31 “If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye, then you dip me in a pit of mud, and my own clothes despise me!” All efforts of our own to be clean before God will certainly fail. It is curious what efforts people will make to get rid of their sins. Some try to get clean by ceremonies. Another thinks he can obtain cleansing by religious observances. His form of washing with snow water is attendance at his usual place of worship. He goes there regularly. He would never be away if he could help it. He asks, “Will that not take away my sin?” No, not a spot, nor even half a spot. Some have given away large sums of money with the hope of thereby cleansing themselves from sin. But all the gold in the world can never form a golden ointment with which to cleanse iniquity. Many have tried to get cleansing by their moralities and their charities, but their efforts have all been in vain. Men have had the strangest notions as to how they might be cleansed from sin. The other day I read a letter from a young farm laborer describing the way in which, at one time, he hoped to get saved. He said that in the village where he lived were some young men who went to the Patagonian Mission and there got massacred. He wrote, “I thought that if the Patagonian Mission would have taken me and the natives would only have killed me, I would have gone joyfully and gladly, for I heard that they were all saints who died in that way, and I would willingly have gone if I could have got to heaven by that method.” Yet, if God really means to save us, he will never let us be satisfied with any human plan of salvation, but he will, to use Job’s expression, plunge us in the ditch and make us feel even blacker than we did before. But there is a right way of getting clean in God’s sight. It is by trusting to the divine method of cleansing the filthy; for the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses from all sin everyone who believes in him. There is instant cleansing for anyone who looks to Jesus Christ. A sinner may have committed more sins than he could count in a million years; and yet, as soon as he gives one believing look at Jesus Christ, all those sins are gone forever. When a bill is paid, the receipt is written at the bottom, and that puts an end to the whole debt. So the name of Jesus at the bottom of the whole roll of our indebtedness to God puts an end to it all.
E 9:3 Or court, God would not answer him
F 9:8 Or and walks on the back of the sea god
10I am disgusted with my life.
I will give vent to my complaint
and speak in the bitterness of my soul.
2I will say to God,
“Do not declare me guilty!
Let me know why
you prosecute me.
3Is it good for you to oppress,
to reject the work of your hands,
and favor A the plans of the wicked?
4Do you have eyes of flesh,
or do you see as a human sees?
5Are your days like those
of a human,
or your years like those of a man,
6that you look for my iniquity
and search for my sin,
7even though you know that I am not wicked
and that there is no one who can rescue from your power?
8“Your hands shaped me and formed me.
Will you now turn and destroy me?
9Please remember that you formed me like clay.
Will you now return me to dust?
10Did you not pour me out like milk
and curdle me like cheese?
11You clothed me with skin and flesh,
and wove me together with bones and tendons.
12You gave me life and faithful love,
and your care has guarded my life.
13“Yet you concealed these thoughts in your heart;
I know that this was your hidden plan: B
14if I sin, you would notice, C
and would not acquit me of my iniquity.
15If I am wicked, woe to me!
And even if I am righteous, I cannot lift up my head.
I am filled with shame
and have drunk deeply of D my affliction.
16If I am proud, E you hunt me
like a lion
and again display your miraculous power against me.
17You produce new witnesses A against me
and multiply your anger toward me.
Hardships assault me, wave after wave. B
18“Why did you bring me out of the womb?
I should have died and never been seen.
19I wish C I had never existed
but had been carried from the womb to the grave.
20Are my days not few? Stop it! D
Leave me alone, so that I can smile a little
21before I go to a land of darkness and gloom,
never to return.
22It is a land of blackness like the deepest darkness,
gloomy and chaotic,
where even the light is like E the darkness.”
10:12-13 “You gave me life and faithful love, and your care has guarded my life. Yet you concealed these thoughts in your heart; I know that this was your hidden plan.” Job is appealing to God’s pity, and this is the form of his argument: “You are my Creator—be my Preserver. You have made me—do not break me. You are dealing harshly with me. I am almost destroyed beneath the pressure of your hands. Remember that I am your own creature. Weak and frail as I am, I am the creation of your hands. Therefore, do not despise your own work. Whatever I am, with the exception of my sin, you have made me. You have brought me into my present condition. Consider, then, what a poor, frail thing I am and stay your hand and do not utterly crush my spirit.” This is a wise prayer, a right and proper argument for a creature to use with the Creator. And when Job goes still further and addresses God not only as his Creator but as his Benefactor and mentions the great blessings he had received from God, his argument still holds good. Even if we have forgotten all that God has done for us, God has not forgotten. Many children forget all the kindness and love of their mother, but the mother remembers all she did for her children in the days of their helplessness, and she loves them all the more because of what she did for them.
A 10:17 Or You bring fresh troops
B 10:17 Lit Changes and a host are with me
D 10:20 Alt Hb tradition reads Will he not leave my few days alone?
11Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2 Should this abundance of words go unanswered
and such a talker F be acquitted?
3Should your babbling put others to silence,
so that you can keep on ridiculing
with no one to humiliate you?
4You have said, “My teaching is sound,
and I am pure in your sight.”
5But if only God would speak
and open his lips against you!
6He would show you the secrets of wisdom,
for true wisdom has two sides.
Know then that God has chosen to overlook some of your iniquity.
7Can you fathom the depths of God
or discover the limits of the Almighty?
8They are higher than the heavens — what can you do?
They are deeper than Sheol — what can you know?
9Their measure is longer than the earth
and wider than the sea.
10If he passes by and throws someone in prison
or convenes a court, who can stop him?
11Surely he knows which people are worthless.
If he sees iniquity, will he not take note of it?
12But a stupid person will gain understanding
as soon as a wild donkey is born a human!
13As for you, if you redirect your heart
and spread out your hands to him in prayer —
14if there is iniquity in your hand, remove it,
and don’t allow injustice to dwell in your tents —
15then you will hold your head high, free from fault.
You will be firmly established and unafraid.
16For you will forget your suffering,
recalling it only as water that has flowed by.
17Your life will be brighter than noonday;
its darkness A will be like the morning.
18You will be confident, because there is hope.
You will look carefully about and lie down in safety.
19You will lie down with no one to frighten you,
and many will seek your favor.
20But the sight of the wicked will fail.
Their way of escape will be cut off,
and their only hope is their last breath.
11:16 “For you will forget your suffering, recalling it only as water that has flowed by.” Job’s misery was extreme, and it seemed as if he could never forget it. He never did forget the fact of it, but he did forget the pain of it. That he had been utterly miserable would always remain recorded on the tablets of his memory, but the wretchedness itself would not remain. It would be so entirely removed that it should be as a thing that has been altogether forgotten. Nothing better can happen to our misery than that it should be forgotten in the sense referred to here, for then, evidently, it will be gone from us. It will be as it is when even the flavor of the bitter drug lingers no longer in the medicine glass but has altogether disappeared. So is it with the sorrow that has so effectually gone out of the mind that it is just as though it had never been there. When we are in pain of body and depression of spirit, we imagine that we never will forget such misery as we are enduring. The sharp plowshare has gone down so deeply that we think it has made a mark in the soul that can never be erased. We seem to lie all broken in pieces with our thoughts like a case of knives cutting into our spirit, and we say to ourselves, “I will never forget this terrible experience.” And yet, by-and-by, God turns the palm of his hand toward us, and we see that it is full of mercy. We are restored to health or lifted from depression of spirit, and we wonder that we ever made so much of our former suffering or depression. We remember it no more, except as a thing that has passed and gone, to be remembered with gratitude that we have been delivered from it but not to be remembered so as to leave any scar on our spirit or to cause us any painful reflection whatever.
12Then Job answered:
2 No doubt you are the people,
and wisdom will die with you!
3But I also have a mind like you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who doesn’t know the things you are talking about? B
4I am a laughingstock to my C friends,
by calling on God, who answers me. D
The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.
5The one who is at ease holds calamity in contempt
and thinks it is prepared for those whose feet are slipping.
6The tents of robbers are safe,
and those who trouble God are secure;
God holds them in his hands. E
7But ask the animals, and they will instruct you;
ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.
8Or speak to the earth, and it will instruct you;
let the fish of the sea inform you.
9Which of all these does not know
that the hand of the LORD has done this?
10The life of every living thing is in his hand,
as well as the breath of all mankind.
QUOTE 12:9-10
We may recognize the doing and being of God in every little thing.
as the palate tastes food?
12Wisdom is found with the elderly,
and understanding comes with long life.
13Wisdom and strength belong to God;
counsel and understanding are his.
14Whatever he tears down cannot be rebuilt;
whoever he imprisons cannot be released.
15When he withholds water, everything dries up,
and when he releases it, it destroys the land.
16True wisdom and power belong to him.
The deceived and the deceiver are his.
17He leads counselors away barefoot
and makes judges go mad.
18He releases the bonds A put on by kings
and fastens a belt around their waists.
19He leads priests away barefoot
and overthrows established leaders.
20He deprives trusted advisers of speech
and takes away the elders’ good judgment.
21He pours out contempt on nobles
and disarms B the strong.
22He reveals mysteries from the darkness
and brings the deepest darkness into the light.
23He makes nations great, then destroys them;
he enlarges nations, then leads them away.
24He deprives the world’s leaders of reason,
and makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.
25They grope around in darkness without light;
he makes them stagger like a drunkard.
12:9-10 “Which of all these [animals, birds, fish] does not know that the hand of the LORD has done this? The life of every living thing is in his hand, as well as the breath of all mankind.” In biting irony Job replies to Zophar from his dunghill: “No doubt you are the people, and wisdom will die with you” (12:2). Here he says, “But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you; yes, who does not know such things as these? You have put into flowery language things an ordinary observer might discover. You have pointed to the heaven above and to the depth beneath, to prove a truth which the creeping insects of the earth could tell you, and which the fish of the sea might proclaim.” The presence of God in all things is so clearly discernible that we need not borrow the eagle’s wing to mount to heaven. The present deity the beasts proclaim. The actual existence and the constant working of the eternal God is sung by the fowls of heaven, and the mute fishes of the sea leap up, and in their joyous reaping seem to say, “The sea is his and he made it!” There is a God in the motion of a grain of dust blown by the summer’s wind as much as in the revolutions of the stupendous planet. There is a God in the sparkling of a firefly as truly as in the flaming comet. We may carry home to our houses the thought that God is there—at our table, in our bedroom, in our workroom, and at our counter. We may recognize the doing and being of God in every little thing. A great God in little things, I am sure, will spare us a world of vexation if we will but remember this, for it is from this our vexations come.
B 12:3 Lit With whom are not such things as these?
E 12:6 Or secure; to those who bring their god in their hands
13Look, my eyes have seen all this;
my ears have heard and understood it.
2Everything you know, I also know;
I am not inferior to you.
3Yet I prefer to speak
to the Almighty
and argue my case before God.
4You use lies like plaster;
you are all worthless healers.
5If only you would shut up
and let that be your wisdom!
6Hear now my argument,
and listen to my defense. C
7Would you testify unjustly on God’s behalf
or speak deceitfully for him?
8Would you show partiality to him
or argue the case in his defense?
9Would it go well if he examined you?
Could you deceive him as you would deceive a man?
10Surely he would rebuke you
if you secretly showed partiality.
11Would God’s majesty not terrify you?
Would his dread not fall on you?
12Your memorable sayings are proverbs of ash;
your defenses are made of clay.
13Be quiet, D and I will speak.
Let whatever comes happen to me.
14I will put E myself at risk F
and take my life in my own hands.
15Even if he kills me, I will hope in him. G
I will still defend my ways before him.
QUOTE 13:15
Faith is not a grace of luxury but a grace of necessity.
16Yes, this will result in my deliverance,
for no godless person can appear before him.
17Pay close attention to my words;
let my declaration ring in your ears.
18Now then, I have prepared my case;
I know that I am right.
19Can anyone indict me?
If so, I will be silent and die.
20Only grant these two things to me, God,
so that I will not have to hide from your presence:
21remove your hand from me,
and do not let your terror frighten me.
22Then call, and I will answer,
or I will speak, and you can respond to me.
23How many iniquities and sins have I committed? A
Reveal to me my transgression and sin.
24Why do you hide your face
and consider me your enemy?
25Will you frighten a wind-driven leaf?
Will you chase after dry straw?
26For you record bitter accusations against me
and make me inherit the iniquities of my youth.
27You put my feet in the stocks
and stand watch over all my paths,
setting a limit for the soles B of my feet.
28A person wears out like something rotten,
like a moth-eaten garment.
13:15 “Even if he kills me, I will hope in him.” Job was a master sufferer. No man went deeper into grief than he—his children all dead, his wealth all swept away, his whole body covered with sore boils and blisters, and the friends who pretended to comfort him only accusing him of being a hypocrite, while his own wife bids him, “Curse God, and die” (2:9). He was brought lower than any, and, therefore, being a man of faith, having overcome and triumphed by faith, it was like him to utter such a noble speech as this. It is not the utterance of any ordinary believer. It is the sort of word that could only come from a triumphant Job—triumphant by victorious faith. However, I hope all of us who have any faith at all may have that faith so increased that, without boasting, we might be able to echo Job’s words. Faith is not a grace of luxury but a grace of necessity. We must have it, or we would not be the people of God at all. The common habit of the Christian is a habit of trusting.
C 13:6 Lit to the claims of my lips
E 13:14 LXX; MT reads Why do I put
F 13:14 Lit I take my flesh in my teeth
14Anyone born of woman
is short of days and full of trouble.
2He blossoms like a flower, then withers;
he flees like a shadow and does not last.
3Do you really take notice of one like this?
Will you bring me into judgment against you? C
4Who can produce something pure from what is impure?
5Since a person’s days are determined
and the number of his months depends on you,
and since you have set A limits he cannot pass,
6look away from him and let him rest
so that he can enjoy his day like a hired worker.
7There is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its shoots will not die.
8If its roots grow old in the ground
and its stump starts to die in the soil,
9the scent of water makes it thrive
and produce twigs like a sapling.
10But a person dies and fades away;
he breathes his last — where is he?
11As water disappears from a lake
and a river becomes parched
and dry,
12so people lie down never to rise again.
They will not wake up until the heavens are no more;
they will not stir from their sleep.
13If only you would hide me in Sheol
and conceal me until your anger passes.
If only you would appoint a time for me
and then remember me.
14When a person dies, will he come back to life?
If so, I would wait all the days of my struggle
until my relief comes.
15You would call, and I would answer you.
You would long for the work of your hands.
16For then you would count my steps
but would not take note of my sin.
17My rebellion would be sealed up in a bag,
and you would cover over my iniquity.
18But as a mountain collapses and crumbles
and a rock is dislodged from its place,
19as water wears away stones
and torrents wash away the soil from the land,
so you destroy a man’s hope.
20You completely overpower him, and he passes on;
you change his appearance and send him away.
21If his sons receive honor, he does not know it;
if they become insignificant, he is unaware of it.
22He feels only the pain of his own body
and mourns only for himself.
14:4 “Who can produce something pure from what is impure? No one!” Job was one of the best, truest, sincerest, cleanest men to be found throughout the whole world, yet he called himself unclean, and he probably did so because, just in proportion as someone becomes really pure, he discovers his own impurity. The impure person has a low standard of what true holiness is, and possibly he thinks he comes nearly up to it; or, if not, he tries to lower the standard down to his own level. But the one who is really pure in heart has a high ideal of what the truth of God is, and uprightness is, and holiness is; and because his ideal is so high, he feels he has not yet attained to it, and he thinks more of the distance between him and perfection than he does of all he has as yet attained. Such a person says, with the apostle Paul, “Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus” (Php 3:13-14). Believers are justified and accepted. But as for what we are in our own personal character, the best of us must still feel that there is much over which we have to mourn. However nearly we may have approached to the example of Christ, that nearness will make us the more regret the points in which we have fallen short of a complete imitation of him, and we shall still cry out, “What a wretched man I am!” (Rm 7:24)—blessed to have come so far on the way of holiness, but wretched that I have not gone still further. Then, as Job considered himself an unclean thing, we need not wonder that he should have despaired of ever, by his own power, bringing out of himself anything that should be perfectly clean in God’s sight. So we need not be surprised at his question. He vindicated his character against false accusations with great earnestness and sincerity and with considerable warmth of temper, for he felt that it was clean before men—yet he was conscious that it was not clean before God.
15Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 Does a wise man answer with empty B counsel
or fill himself C with the hot east wind?
3Should he argue with useless talk
or with words that serve no good purpose?
4But you even undermine the fear of God
and hinder meditation before him.
5Your iniquity teaches you what to say,
and you choose the language of the crafty.
6Your own mouth condemns you, not I;
your own lips testify against you.
7Were you the first human ever born,
or were you brought forth before the hills?
8Do you listen in on the council of God,
or have a monopoly on wisdom?
9What do you know that we don’t?
What do you understand that is not clear to us?
10Both the gray-haired and the elderly are with us—
older than your father.
11Are God’s consolations not enough for you,
even the words that deal gently with you?
12Why has your heart misled you,
and why do your eyes flash
13as you turn your anger A against God
and allow such words to leave your mouth?
14What is a mere human, that he should be pure,
or one born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
15If God puts no trust in his holy ones
and the heavens are not pure in his sight,
16how much less one who is revolting and corrupt,
who drinks injustice like water?
17Listen to me and I will inform you.
I will describe what I have seen,
18what the wise have declared and not concealed,
that came from their ancestors,
19to whom alone the land was given
when no foreigner passed among them.
20A wicked person writhes in pain all his days,
throughout the number of years reserved for the ruthless.
21Dreadful sounds fill his ears;
when he is at peace, a robber attacks him.
22He doesn’t believe he will return from darkness;
he is destined for the sword.
23He wanders about for food, asking, “Where is it? ”
He knows the day of darkness is at hand.
24Trouble and distress terrify him,
overwhelming him like a king prepared for battle.
25For he has stretched out his hand against God
and has arrogantly opposed the Almighty.
26He rushes headlong at him
with his thick, studded shields.
27Though his face is covered with fat B
and his waistline bulges with it,
28he will dwell in ruined cities,
in abandoned houses destined to become piles of rubble.
29He will no longer be rich; his wealth will not endure.
His possessions C will not increase in the land.
30He will not escape from the darkness;
flames will wither his shoots,
and by the breath of God’s mouth, he will depart.
31Let him not put trust in worthless things, being led astray,
for what he gets in exchange will prove worthless.
32It will be accomplished before his time,
and his branch will not flourish.
33He will be like a vine that drops its unripe grapes
and like an olive tree that sheds its blossoms.
34For the company of the godless will have no children,
and fire will consume the tents of those who offer bribes.
35They conceive trouble and give birth to evil;
their womb prepares deception.
16Then Job answered:
2 I have heard many things like these.
You are all miserable comforters.
3Is there no end to your empty A words?
What provokes you that you continue testifying?
4If you were in my place I could also talk like you.
I could string words together against you
and shake my head at you.
5Instead, I would encourage you with my mouth,
and the consolation from my lips would bring relief.
6If I speak, my suffering is not relieved,
and if I hold back, does any of it leave me?
7Surely he B has now exhausted me.
You have devastated my entire family.
8You have shriveled me up C — it has become a witness;
my frailty rises up against me and testifies to my face.
9His anger tears at me, and he harasses me.
He gnashes his teeth at me.
My enemy pierces me with his eyes.
10They open their mouths against me
and strike my cheeks with contempt;
they join themselves together against me.
11God hands me over to the unjust; D
he throws me to the wicked.
12I was at ease, but he shattered me;
he seized me by the scruff of the neck
and smashed me to pieces.
He set me up as his target;
13his archers E surround me.
He pierces my kidneys without mercy
and pours my bile on the ground.
14He breaks through my defenses again and again; F
he charges at me like a warrior.
15I have sewn sackcloth over my skin;
I have buried my strength G in the dust.
16My face has grown red with weeping,
and darkness covers my eyes,
17although my hands are free from violence
and my prayer is pure.
18Earth, do not cover my blood;
may my cry for help find no resting place.
19Even now my witness is in heaven,
and my advocate is in the heights!
20My friends scoff at me
as I weep before God.
21I wish that someone might argue for a man with God
just as anyone H would for a friend.
22For only a few years will pass
before I go the way of no return.
16:22 “For only a few years will pass before I go the way of no return.” The fact that all men are mortal has little power over our minds, for we always make a tacit exception and put off the evil day for ourselves. We acknowledge ourselves to be mortal but do not expect to die just now. Even the aged look forward to a continuance of life and the dying dream of possible recovery. Note the individual, pointed, personal declaration of the text. “I.” How the individuality of a man comes out in his dying hour! What an important being he becomes! You think more of that one man, while dying, than of all the thousands of the living who parade our streets. No matter who he is, he is dying and we tread softly. Poor man, he must now die and die alone. And now how important his character becomes! His life, his own life, is now being put into the balance, and he is looking back upon it. It is the most important thing in the universe to him. His outward circumstances are now a small matter; his life is the main consideration. Was he righteous or wicked? Did he fear God or despise him? Will men never think of this till they come to die? In death the financial element looks contemptible, and the moral and the spiritual come to be most esteemed. How did he live? What were his thoughts? What was his heart toward God? Did he repent of sin? Does he still repent? Does he believe in Jesus? Is he resting upon the finished work of Christ? He, perhaps, failed to ask himself some of those questions a little while ago, but now, if he is in his sober senses, he is compelled to put his soul through its paces. How does his heart answer when cross-examined? Now he must reach down the accounts, the memoranda, and the day-book of his life; and he must look to what he did and what he was and what he is. If we look upon this poor dying man, we see that he is past the time for pretenses and shams. If we knew but little of him before, we feel concerned to know whether the religion he professed was truthful—whether he was really regenerate or merely dreamed he was. And if we wish to answer that question, how much more does that poor dying man want to know for himself? We cannot die on stilts! Death finds out the truth of our condition and blows away, with its cold breath, a heap of chaff which we thought to be good wheat. Then we have to look to the mercy of God, to the blood of the covenant, and to the promises of the gospel—and to cling as a poor, needy, guilty sinner to free, rich, sovereign grace, or else our spirits will utterly sink. When life is ebbing, nothing will do but the faithful saying, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1Tm 1:15).
C 16:8 Or have seized me ; Hb obscure
D 16:11 LXX, Vg; MT reads to a boy
17My spirit is broken.
My days are extinguished.
A graveyard awaits me.
2Surely mockers surround I me,
and my eyes must gaze at their rebellion.
3Accept my pledge! Put up security for me.
Who else will be my sponsor? A
4You have closed their minds to understanding,
therefore you will not honor them.
5If a man denounces his friends for a price,
the eyes of his children will fail.
6He has made me an object of scorn to the people;
I have become a man people spit at. B
7My eyes have grown dim from grief,
and my whole body has become but a shadow.
8The upright are appalled at this,
and the innocent are roused against the godless.
9Yet the righteous person will hold to his way,
and the one whose hands are clean will grow stronger.
10But come back and try again, all of you. C
I will not find a wise man among you.
11My days have slipped by;
my plans have been ruined,
even the things dear to my heart.
12They turned night into day
and made light seem near in the face of darkness.
13If I await Sheol as my home,
spread out my bed in darkness,
14and say to corruption, “You are my father,”
and to the maggot, “My mother” or “My sister,”
15where then is my hope?
Who can see any hope for me?
16Will it go down to the gates of Sheol,
or will we descend together to the dust?
18Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2 How long until you stop talking?
Show some sense, and then we can talk.
3Why are we regarded as cattle,
as stupid in your sight?
4You who tear yourself in anger D —
should the earth be abandoned on your account,
or a rock be removed
from its place?
5Yes, the light of the wicked is extinguished;
the flame of his fire does not glow.
6The light in his tent grows dark,
and the lamp beside him is put out.
7His powerful stride is shortened,
and his own schemes trip him up.
8For his own feet lead him into a net,
and he strays into its mesh.
9A trap catches him by the heel;
a noose seizes him.
10A rope lies hidden for him on the ground,
and a snare waits for him along the path.
11Terrors frighten him on every side
and harass him at every step.
12His strength is depleted;
disaster lies ready for him to stumble. A
13Parts of his skin are eaten away;
death’s firstborn consumes his limbs.
14He is ripped from the security of his tent
and marched away to the king of terrors.
15Nothing he owned remains in his tent.
Burning sulfur is scattered over his home.
16His roots below dry up,
and his branches above wither away.
17All memory of him perishes from the earth;
he has no name anywhere. B
18He is driven from light to darkness
and chased from the inhabited world.
19He has no children or descendants among his people,
no survivor where he used to live.
20Those in the west are appalled at his fate,
while those in the east tremble in horror.
21Indeed, such is the dwelling of the unjust man,
and this is the place of the one who does not know God.
19Then Job answered:
2 How long will you torment me
and crush me with words?
3You have humiliated me ten times now,
and you mistreat C me without shame.
4Even if it is true that I have sinned,
my mistake concerns only D me.
5If you really want to appear superior to me
and would use my disgrace as evidence against me,
6then understand that it is God who has wronged me
and caught me in his net.
7I cry out: “Violence! ” but get no response;
I call for help, but there is no justice.
8He has blocked my way so that I cannot pass through;
he has veiled my paths with darkness.
9He has stripped me of my honor
and removed the crown from my head.
10He tears me down on every side so that I am ruined. E
He uproots my hope like a tree.
11His anger burns against me,
and he regards me as one of his enemies.
12His troops advance together;
they construct a ramp F against me
and camp around my tent.
13He has removed my brothers from me;
my acquaintances have abandoned me.
14My relatives stop coming by,
and my close friends have forgotten me.
15My house guests G and female servants regard me as a stranger;
I am a foreigner in their sight.
16I call for my servant, but he does not answer,
even if I beg him with my own mouth.
17My breath is offensive to my wife,
and my own family H finds me repulsive.
When I stand up, they mock me.
19All of my best friends A despise me,
and those I love have turned against me.
20My skin and my flesh cling to my bones;
I have escaped with only the skin of my teeth.
21Have mercy on me, my friends, have mercy,
for God’s hand has struck me.
22Why do you persecute me as God does?
Will you never get enough of my flesh?
23I wish that my words were written down,
that they were recorded on a scroll
24or were inscribed in stone forever
by an iron stylus and lead!
25But I know that my Redeemer
lives, B
and at the end he will stand on the dust.
26Even after my skin has been destroyed, C
yet I will see God in D my flesh.
27I will see him myself;
my eyes will look at him, and not as a stranger. E
My heart longs F within me.
28If you say, “How will we pursue him,
since the root of the problem lies with him? ” G
29then be afraid of the sword,
because wrath brings punishment by the sword,
so that you may know there is a judgment.
19:25 “But I know that my Redeemer lives.” Possibly, Job himself may not have known the full meaning of all he said. Imagine the patriarch driven into a corner, badgered by his so-called friends, charged by them with all manner of evils until he is boiling over with indignation and, at the same time, stinging under terrible bodily diseases and the dreadful losses which he has sustained— and, at last, he bursts out with this exclamation, “I will be vindicated one day. I am sure I will. I know that my Vindicator lives. I am sure there is One who will vindicate me, and if he never clears my name and reputation as long as I live, it will be done afterwards. A just God in heaven will see me righted, and even though worms devour my body until the last relic of it has passed away, I do confidently believe that, somehow, in the far-off ages, I will be vindicated.” He declares that there will be found then, as he believes there is alive even now, a kinsman, an avenger who will stand up for him and set right all this wrong. He cannot conceive that God will permit such gross injustice to be done to a man who has walked as he has walked, to be brought so low and then to be stung with such unfounded accusations. He may but dimly have perceived a future state, but his condition revealed to him the necessity for such a state. He felt that if the righteous suffer so much in this life, often apparently without any just cause, and if the wicked prosper, then there must be another state in which God will set right the wrongs and rectify the apparent inequalities of his providence here. Possibly his deep griefs may have been the channel of another revelation to him—namely, that there was a mysterious divine being concerning whom that dark prophecy had been handed down from the garden of Eden, itself: the seed of the woman will strike the serpent’s head (Gn 3:15).
The word goel is more comprehensive than “redeemer.” One who is in Christ has Jesus as his nearest kinsman. “Since the children have flesh and blood in common, Jesus also shared in these” (Heb 2:14). Even closer than a brother, this kinsman participates in every pain that pierces our hearts. He knows our constitutions, our weaknesses, our sensitivities, the particular trials that cut us to the quick; for “in all their suffering, he suffered” (Is 63:9). So he is nearer to us than the nearest earthly relative can possibly be, for he enters more fully into the whole of our lives. He seems to have gone through it all, and he still goes through it all in his constant sympathy with us. Furthermore, Jesus’s kinship is voluntary, and it is one of which he is never ashamed. It will also even extend beyond the grave. Ruth was highly privileged in having such a kinsman as Boaz, who was not content for her to glean in his fields but took her as his wife. And our great kinsman intends that we should be joined to him forever, and he will bring us to his heavenly home at the marriage supper of the Lamb.
F 19:12 Lit they raise up their way
G 19:15 Or The resident aliens in my household
H 19:17 Lit and the sons of my belly
A 19:19 Lit of the men of my council
B 19:25 Or know my living Redeemer
C 19:26 Lit skin which they destroyed, or skin they destroyed in this way
20Then Zophar the Naamathite replied:
2This is why my unsettling thoughts compel me to answer,
because I am upset! H
3I have heard a rebuke that insults me,
and my understanding A makes me reply.
4Don’t you know that ever since antiquity,
from the time a human was placed on earth,
5the joy of the wicked has been brief
and the happiness of the godless has lasted only a moment?
6Though his arrogance reaches heaven,
and his head touches the clouds,
7he will vanish forever like his own dung.
Those who know B him will ask, “Where is he? ”
8He will fly away like a dream and never be found;
he will be chased away like a vision in the night.
9The eye that saw him will see him no more,
and his household will no longer see him.
10His children will beg from C the poor,
for his own hands must give back his wealth.
11His frame may be full of youthful vigor,
but it will lie down with him in dust.
12Though evil tastes sweet in his mouth
and he conceals it under his tongue,
13though he cherishes it and will not let it go
but keeps it in his mouth,
14yet the food in his stomach turns
into cobras’ venom inside him.
15He swallows wealth but must vomit it up;
God will force it from his stomach.
16He will suck the poison of cobras;
a viper’s fangs D will kill him.
17He will not enjoy the streams,
the rivers flowing with honey and curds.
18He must return the fruit of his labor without consuming it;
he doesn’t enjoy the profits from his trading.
19For he oppressed and abandoned the poor;
he seized a house he did not build.
20Because his appetite is never satisfied, E
he does not let anything he desires escape.
21Nothing is left for him to consume;
therefore, his prosperity will not last.
22At the height of his success F distress will come to him;
the full weight of misery G will crush him.
23When he fills his stomach,
God will send his burning anger against him,
raining it down on him while he is eating. H
24If he flees from an iron weapon,
an arrow from a bronze bow will pierce him.
25He pulls it out of his back,
the flashing tip out of his liver. I
Terrors come over him.
26Total darkness is reserved for his treasures.
A fire unfanned by human hands will consume him;
it will feed on what is left in his tent.
27The heavens will expose his iniquity,
and the earth will rise up against him.
28The possessions in his house will be removed,
flowing away on the day of God’s anger.
29This is the wicked person’s lot from God,
the inheritance God ordained for him.
H 20:2 Lit because of my feeling within me
A 20:3 Lit and a spirit from my understanding
C 20:10 Or children must compensate
E 20:20 Lit Because he does not know ease in his stomach
F 20:22 Lit In the fullness of his excess
G 20:22 Some Hb mss, LXX, Vg; other Hb mss read the hand of everyone in misery
21Then Job answered:
2 Pay close attention to my words;
let this be the consolation you offer.
3Bear with me while I speak;
then after I have spoken, you may continue mocking.
4As for me, is my complaint against a human being?
Then why shouldn’t I be impatient?
5Look at me and shudder;
put your hand over your mouth.
6When I think about it, I am terrified
and my body trembles in horror.
7Why do the wicked continue to live,
growing old and becoming
powerful?
8Their children are established while they are still alive, A
and their descendants, before their eyes.
9Their homes are secure and free of fear;
no rod from God strikes them.
10Their bulls breed without fail;
their cows calve
and do not miscarry.
11They let their little ones run around like lambs;
their children skip about,
12singing to the tambourine and lyre
and rejoicing at the sound of the flute.
13They spend B their days in prosperity
and go down to Sheol in peace.
14Yet they say to God, “Leave us alone!
We don’t want to know your ways.
15Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him,
and what will we gain by pleading with him? ”
16But their prosperity is not of their own doing.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
17How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
Does disaster C come on them?
Does he apportion destruction in his anger?
18Are they like straw before the wind,
like chaff a storm sweeps away?
19God reserves a person’s punishment for his children.
Let God repay the person himself, so that he may know it.
20Let his own eyes see his demise;
let him drink from the Almighty’s wrath!
21For what does he care about his family once he is dead,
when the number of his months has run out?
22Can anyone teach God knowledge,
since he judges the exalted ones? D
23One person dies
in excellent health, E
completely secure F and at ease.
and his bones are full of marrow. I
25Yet another person dies with a bitter soul,
having never tasted prosperity.
26But they both lie in the dust,
and worms cover them.
27I know your thoughts very well,
the schemes by which you would wrong me.
28For you say, “Where now is the nobleman’s house? ”
and “Where are the tents the wicked lived in? ”
29Have you never consulted those who travel the roads?
Don’t you accept their reports? A
30Indeed, the evil person is spared from the day of disaster,
rescued from the day of wrath.
31Who would denounce his behavior to his face?
Who would repay him for what he has done?
32He is carried to the grave,
and someone keeps watch over his tomb.
33The dirt on his grave is B sweet to him.
Everyone follows behind him,
and those who go before him are without number.
34So how can you offer me such futile comfort?
Your answers are deceptive.
21:29-30 “Have you never consulted those who travel the roads? Don’t you accept their reports? Indeed, the evil person is spared from the day of disaster, rescued from the day of wrath.” If the Lord does not in this world visit the ungodly with wounds, this is but surer evidence that in the world to come there is a solemn retribution for the impenitent. If present affliction is not the punishment of sin, we turn to Scripture and discover what that punishment will be, and we are soon informed that it is something far heavier than any calamities that occur in this life. It was a fable of the old Jewish rabbis that when the angel Gabriel flew, he used both wings because he always came with good tidings; but when Michael flew, bearing God’s sword against kings, he always flew with one wing. Michael arrives as surely at his destined goal as Gabriel himself. Though the feet of retribution may seem to be shod with lead for tardiness, they are as sure as the feet of mercy. When God comes to bless, the axles of his chariot are hot with speed, and his steeds are white with foam; but when he comes to curse, he travels slowly, with many a sigh, for he does not will the death of any but had rather they should turn to him and live.
A 21:8 Lit established before them with them
B 21:13 Alt Hb tradition reads fully enjoy
E 21:23 Lit in bone of his perfection
F 21:23 Text emended; MT reads health, all at ease
G 21:24 Or His sides are ; Hb obscure
22Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied:
2 Can a man be of any use to God?
Can even a wise man be of use to him?
3Does it delight the Almighty if you are righteous?
Does he profit if you perfect your behavior?
4Does he correct you and take you to court
because of your piety?
5Isn’t your wickedness abundant
and aren’t your iniquities endless?
6For you took collateral from your brothers without cause,
stripping off their clothes and leaving them naked.
7You gave no water to the thirsty
and withheld food from the famished,
8while the land belonged to a powerful man
and an influential man lived on it.
9You sent widows away empty-handed,
and the strength of the fatherless was C crushed.
10Therefore snares surround you,
and sudden dread terrifies you,
11or darkness, so you cannot see,
and a flood of water covers you.
12Isn’t God as high as the heavens?
And look at the highest stars — how lofty they are!
13Yet you say, “What does God know?
Can he judge through total darkness?
14Clouds veil him so that he cannot see,
as he walks on the circle of the sky.”
15Will you continue on the ancient path
that wicked men have walked?
16They were snatched away before their time,
and their foundations were washed away by a river.
17They were the ones who said to God, “Leave us alone! ”
and “What can the Almighty do to us? ” D
18But it was he who filled their houses with good things.
The counsel of the wicked is far from me!
19The righteous see this and rejoice;
the innocent mock them, saying,
20“Surely our opponents are destroyed,
and fire has consumed what they left behind.”
21Come to terms with God and be at peace;
in this way A good will come to you.
22Receive instruction from his mouth,
and place his sayings in your heart.
23If you return to the Almighty, you will be renewed.
If you banish injustice from your tent
24and consign your gold to the dust,
the gold of Ophir to the stones in the wadis,
25the Almighty will be your gold
and your finest silver.
26Then you will delight in the Almighty
and lift up your face to God.
27You will pray to him, and he will hear you,
and you will fulfill your vows.
28When you make a decision, it will be carried out, B
and light will shine on your ways.
29When others are humiliated and you say, “Lift them up,”
God will save the humble. C
30He will even rescue the guilty one,
who will be rescued by the purity of your hands.
23Then Job answered:
2 Today also my complaint is bitter. D
His E hand is heavy despite my groaning.
3If only I knew how to find him,
so that I could go to his throne.
4I would plead my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5I would learn how F he would answer me;
and understand what he would say to me.
6Would he prosecute me forcefully?
No, he would certainly pay attention to me.
7Then an upright man could reason with him,
and I would escape from my Judge G forever.
8If I go east, he is not there,
and if I go west, I cannot perceive him.
9When he is at work to the north, I cannot see him;
when he turns south, I cannot find him.
10Yet he knows the way I have taken; H
when he has tested me, I will emerge as pure gold.
QUOTE 23:10
There is nothing about me that God does not perfectly understand. I am a riddle to myself, but I am no riddle to him.
11My feet have followed in his tracks;
I have kept to his way and not turned aside.
12I have not departed from the commands from his lips;
I have treasured A the words from his mouth
more than my daily food.
13But he is unchangeable; who can oppose him?
He does what he desires.
14He will certainly accomplish what he has decreed for me,
and he has many more things like these in mind. B
15Therefore I am terrified in his presence;
when I consider this, I am afraid of him.
16God has made my heart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me.
17Yet I am not destroyed C by the darkness,
by the thick darkness that covers my face.
23:3 “If only I knew how to find him, so that I could go to his throne.” Job’s longing was all absorbing. It was also personal—he longed to personally find God. Many people have great longings for things that are trivial compared with Job’s longing. He does not aim to comprehend the incomprehensible. He does not wish to understand the divine decree. He does not trouble about where free agency and predestination meet. He does not desire to know out of mere curiosity or for the attainment of barren knowledge, but his cry is, “I wish I could get at God! I wish I could have dealings with the Most High! I wish I could feel at perfect peace with him, and rest in him, and be happy in the light of his countenance!” This is not a point upon which anyone can afford to be neutral. We must find God, for if we do not, we are lost.
23:10 “Yet he knows the way I have taken; when he has tested me, I will emerge as pure gold.” The definition was once given in a court of law that if a man kept a carriage and one horse, it was proven by that fact that he was respectable. That is the way of the world—respect and respectability depend on so much money. Character, however, is the thing to which we ought to look—the person himself and not merely his surroundings. But Job had to bear just that shameful sort of scorn that some men seem to delight to pour on the sorrows of others. Yet God knows and understands all about his children. I do not know his way, but he knows mine. If the guide knows the way, the traveler under his care may be content to know but little. There is nothing about me that God does not perfectly understand. I am a riddle to myself, but I am no riddle to him. There are mysteries in my heart that I cannot explain, but he has the clue of every maze, the key of every secret drawer—and he knows how to get at the hidden springs of my spirit. He knows the trouble I could not tell to my dearest friend, the grief I dare not whisper in any human ear. Job’s comfort was that God secures the happy result of trial. He believed that when God had tried him, he would bring him forth as gold. Now, how does gold come out of the crucible? When a Christian is tried, is there not a bright color about him? Even though he may have temporarily lost the bright shining of God’s face, when that brightness returns, we cannot help seeing a luster about him. He will speak of his God in a more impressive way than ever before. The books that are most comforting to believers and that satisfy their souls were written by those who had been severely tried. And when they came out of the fire, there was a brilliance about them that would not otherwise have been there. If we walk in darkness and see no light, we may believe that when God has tried us, we will emerge with the brightness of newly minted gold.
24Why does the Almighty not reserve times for judgment?
Why do those who know him never see his days?
2The wicked displace boundary markers.
They steal a flock and provide pasture for it.
3They drive away the donkeys owned by the fatherless
and take the widow’s ox
as collateral.
4They push the needy off the road;
the poor of the land are forced into hiding.
5Like wild donkeys
in the wilderness,
the poor go out to their task of foraging for food;
the desert provides nourishment for their children.
6They gather their fodder in the field
and glean the vineyards of the wicked.
7Without clothing, they spend the night naked,
having no covering
against the cold.
8Drenched by mountain rains,
they huddle against D the rocks, shelterless.
9The fatherless infant is snatched from the breast;
the nursing child of the poor is seized as collateral. E
10Without clothing, they wander about naked.
They carry sheaves but go hungry.
11They crush olives in their presses; F
they tread the winepresses, but go thirsty.
12From the city, men A groan;
the mortally wounded cry for help,
yet God pays no attention to this crime.
13The wicked are those who rebel against the light.
They do not recognize its ways
or stay on its paths.
14The murderer rises at dawn
to kill the poor and needy,
and by night he becomes a thief.
15The adulterer’s eye watches for twilight,
thinking, “No eye will see me,”
and he covers his face.
16In the dark they break B
into houses;
by day they lock themselves in, C
never experiencing the light.
17For the morning is like darkness to them.
Surely they are familiar with the terrors of darkness!
18They float D on the surface of the water.
Their section of the land is cursed,
so that they never go to their vineyards.
19As dry ground and heat snatch away the melted snow,
so Sheol steals those who have sinned.
20The womb forgets them;
worms feed on them;
they are remembered no more.
So injustice is broken like a tree.
21They prey on E the childless woman who is unable to conceive,
and do not deal kindly with the widow.
22Yet God drags away F the mighty by his power;
when he rises up, they have no assurance of life.
23He gives them a sense of security, so they can rely on it,
but his eyes watch over their ways.
24They are exalted for a moment, then gone;
they are brought low and shrivel up like everything else. G
They wither like heads of grain.
25If this is not true, then who can prove me a liar
and show that my speech is worthless?
E 24:9 Text emended; MT reads breast; they seize collateral against the poor
F 24:11 Lit olives between their rows
A 24:12 One Hb ms, Syr read the dying
C 24:16 Lit they seal for themselves
E 24:21 LXX, Tg read They harm
25Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
2 Dominion and dread belong to him,
the one who establishes harmony in his heights.
3Can his troops be numbered?
Does his light not shine
on everyone?
4How can a human be justified before God?
How can one born of woman be pure?
5If even the moon does not shine
and the stars are not pure in his sight,
6how much less a human, who is a maggot,
a son of man, H who is a worm!
26Then Job answered:
2 How you have helped the powerless
and delivered the arm that is weak!
3How you have counseled
the unwise
and abundantly provided insight!
4With whom did you speak these words?
Whose breath came out of your mouth?
beneath the waters and all that inhabit them.
6Sheol is naked before God,
and Abaddon has no covering.
7He stretches the northern skies over empty space;
he hangs the earth on nothing.
8He wraps up the water in his clouds,
yet the clouds do not burst beneath its weight.
9He obscures the view of his throne,
spreading his cloud over it.
10He laid out the horizon on the surface of the waters
at the boundary between light and darkness.
11The pillars that hold up the sky tremble,
astounded at his rebuke.
12By his power he stirred the sea,
and by his understanding he crushed Rahab.
13By his breath the heavens gained their beauty;
his hand pierced the fleeing serpent. A
14These are but the fringes of his ways;
how faint is the word we hear of him!
Who can understand his mighty thunder?
27Job continued his discourse, saying:
2 As God lives, who has deprived me of justice,
and the Almighty who has made me bitter,
3as long as my breath is still in me
and the breath from God remains in my nostrils,
4my lips will not speak unjustly,
and my tongue will not utter deceit.
5I will never affirm that you
are right.
I will maintain my integrity B until I die.
6I will cling to my righteousness and never let it go.
My conscience will not accuse me as long as I live!
7May my enemy be like the wicked
and my opponent like the unjust.
8For what hope does the godless person have when he is cut off,
when God takes away his life?
9Will God hear his cry
when distress comes on him?
10Will he delight in the Almighty?
Will he call on God at all times?
11I will teach you
about God’s power.
I will not conceal what the Almighty has planned. C
12All of you have seen this for yourselves,
why do you keep up
this empty talk?
QUOTE 27:10
Prayer is as good a test of spiritual life and health as the pulse is of the condition of the human frame.
13This is a wicked man’s lot from God,
the inheritance the ruthless receive from the Almighty.
14Even if his children increase, they are destined for the sword;
his descendants will never have enough food.
15Those who survive him will be buried by the plague,
yet their widows will not weep for them.
16Though he piles up silver like dust
and heaps up fine clothing like clay —
17he may heap it up, but the righteous will wear it,
and the innocent will divide up his silver.
18The house he built is like a moth’s cocoon
or a shelter set up by a watchman.
19He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more;
when he opens his eyes, it is gone.
20Terrors overtake him like a flood;
a storm wind sweeps him away at night.
21An east wind picks him up, and he is gone;
it carries him away from his place.
22It blasts at him without mercy,
while he flees desperately from its force.
23It claps its hands at him
and scoffs at him from its place.
27:10 “Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he call on God at all times?” The hypocrite is often an exceedingly neat imitation of the Christian; to the common observer he is so good a counterfeit that he entirely escapes suspicion. Like false coins that are cunningly made, you can scarcely detect them; only by more searching are you able to discover that they are not authentic. It would be difficult to say how nearly anyone might resemble a Christian and yet not be a “new creation” in Christ, or how closely he might imitate all the virtues and yet at the same time possess none of the fruits of the Spirit as before a heart-searching God. In discriminating between saints and hypocrites, one great test point is prayer. Prayer is as good a test of spiritual life and health as the pulse is of the condition of the human frame; however, the hypocrite may imitate the action of prayer while he does not really possess the spirit of prayer. So here is a test for the test—a trial even for prayer itself. Will he call on God at all times? That is the point. He calls upon God now, and he appears to be intensely devout; he says he was converted in the late revival; he is passionate in his expressions, but will it continue? Will it wear? Will it last? His prayerfulness has sprung up like Jonah’s gourd in a night; will it perish in a night? It is beautiful to look on, like the early dew that glistens in the sunlight, but will it pass away like that dew? Or will it always abide? O that each of us may search ourselves and see whether we have those attributes connected with our prayer that will prove us not to be hypocrites! I pray our search will not show that, on the contrary, we have those sad signs of reckless falsehoods that will before long show us to be dupes of Satan, impostors before heaven.
28Surely there is a mine for silver
and a place where gold is refined.
2Iron is taken from the ground,
and copper is smelted from ore.
3A miner puts an end
to the darkness;
he probes A the deepest recesses
for ore in the gloomy darkness.
4He cuts a shaft far from human habitation,
in places unknown to those who walk above ground.
Suspended far away from people,
the miners swing back and forth.
5Food may come from the earth,
but below the surface the earth is transformed as by fire.
6Its rocks are a source of lapis lazuli,
containing flecks of gold.
7No bird of prey knows that path;
no falcon’s eye has seen it.
8Proud beasts have never walked on it;
no lion has ever prowled over it.
9The miner uses a flint tool
and turns up ore from the root of the mountains.
10He cuts out channels in the rocks,
and his eyes spot every treasure.
11He dams up the streams from flowing A
so that he may bring to light what is hidden.
12But where can wisdom be found,
and where is understanding located?
13No one can know its value, B
since it cannot be found in the land of the living.
14The ocean depths say, “It’s not in me,”
while the sea declares, “I don’t have it.”
15Gold cannot be exchanged for it,
and silver cannot be weighed out for its price.
16Wisdom cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir,
in precious onyx or lapis lazuli.
17Gold and glass do not compare with it,
and articles of fine gold cannot be exchanged for it.
18Coral and quartz are not worth mentioning.
The price of wisdom is beyond pearls.
19Topaz from Cush cannot compare with it,
and it cannot be valued in pure gold.
20Where then does wisdom come from,
and where is understanding located?
21It is hidden from the eyes of every living thing
and concealed from the birds of the sky.
22Abaddon and Death say,
“We have heard news of it with our ears.”
23But God understands the way to wisdom,
and he knows its location.
24For he looks to the ends of the earth
and sees everything under the heavens.
25When God fixed the weight of the wind
and distributed the water by measure,
26when he established a limit C for the rain
and a path for the lightning,
27he considered wisdom and evaluated it;
he established it and examined it.
28He said to mankind,
“The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom.
And to turn from evil is understanding.”
28:7-8 “No bird of prey knows that path; no falcon’s eye has seen it. Proud beasts have never walked on it; no lion has ever prowled over it.” Though men are able to explore the deep places of the earth that God’s other creatures cannot know or reach, yet it is not within the range of human labor and skill to attain unto wisdom. That can only be found by another and a higher method. It must come to us by revelation from God, for we cannot find it by our own efforts. For example, many have failed to understand how everything, from the smallest event to the greatest, can be ordained and fixed—and yet how it can be equally true that man is a responsible being and that he acts freely, choosing the evil and rejecting the good. I do not believe they are two parallel lines which can never meet, but I do believe that for all practical purposes they are so nearly parallel that we might regard them as being so. They do meet, but only in the infinite mind of God is there a converging point where they melt into one. Even in this life I am as pleased not to know what God does not tell me as I am to know what he reveals to me! At least, if I am not, I ought to be, for that is the condition of a true disciple of Christ—to be inquisitive up to the point in which his Lord is communicative but to stop there.
God is equally beyond our understanding in the accomplishment of the designs of his providence. There are ways of God, in dealing with the human race, that are perplexing to the judgment of such poor mortals as we are. We try to study a piece of history, and it appears to us all tangled and confused. Even history as a whole, from the creation and the fall until now, contains many strange puzzles to someone who believes that through it all God is working out his own glory and that a part of his glory will consist in producing the highest amount of good to the greatest number of his creatures. The serpent in the garden—how and why came it to be there? And the devil in the serpent—why was there a devil at all? And the evil that made the angel into a devil—why was that permitted? And all the evil that has been since then—why has it not been destroyed? We cannot answer any of these queries. I do not often preach on the book of Revelation, or on the marvels that are to occur during the millennial period, or at the time of the ingathering of the Jews, and so on. I will tell you the reason I do not, and I think it is a sufficient one—namely, that I do not understand these things. If I do not have clear views about these things, I will leave them alone until I have. Some great truths of God about the future are clearly revealed, such as the second coming of Christ, the flooding of the world with the gospel so that all flesh will see the salvation of God, the ingathering of the Jews to Christ if not to their own land, and so on. But as to the order of the various events and the putting together of the various pieces of the puzzle, there is a path that “no bird of prey knows” and “no falcon’s eye has seen.”
29Job continued his discourse, saying:
2 If only I could be as in months gone by,
in the days when God watched over me,
3when his lamp shone above my head,
and I walked through darkness by his light!
4I would be as I was in the days of my youth
when God’s friendship rested on my tent,
5when the Almighty was still with me
and my children were around me,
6when my feet were bathed in curds
and the rock poured out streams of oil for me!
7When I went out to the city gate
and took my seat in the town square,
8the young men saw me and withdrew,
while older men stood to their feet.
9City officials stopped talking
and covered their mouths with their hands.
10The noblemen’s voices were hushed,
and their tongues stuck to the roof of their mouths.
11When they heard me, they blessed me,
and when they saw me, they spoke well of me. A
12For I rescued the poor who cried out for help,
and the fatherless child who had no one to support him.
13The dying blessed me,
and I made the widow’s heart rejoice.
14I clothed myself in righteousness,
and it enveloped me;
my just decisions were like a robe and a turban.
15I was eyes to the blind
and feet to the lame.
16I was a father to the needy,
and I examined the case of the stranger.
17I shattered the fangs of the unjust
and snatched the prey from his teeth.
18So I thought, “I will die in my own nest
and multiply my days as the sand. B
19My roots will have access to water,
and the dew will rest on my branches all night.
20My whole being will be refreshed within me,
and my bow will be renewed in my hand.”
21Men listened to me with expectation,
waiting silently for my advice.
22After a word from me they did not speak again;
my speech settled on them like dew.
23They waited for me as for the rain
and opened their mouths as for spring showers.
24If I smiled at them, they couldn’t believe it;
they were thrilled at C the light of my countenance.
25I directed their course and presided as chief.
I lived as a king among his troops,
like one who comforts those who mourn.
29:2-4 “If only I could be as in months gone by, in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone above my head, and I walked through darkness by his light! I would be as I was in the days of my youth when God’s friendship rested on my tent.” There is everywhere in the expressions Job uses such a strain of spirituality that we are inclined to believe he had more reference to the condition of his heart than to the state of his property. His soul was depressed; he had lost the light of God’s countenance; his inward comforts were declining; his joy in the Lord was at low ebb—this he regretted far more than anything else. It is unprofitable to read these words of Job and say, “That is just how I feel,” and then continue in the same way. If someone has neglected his business, it may mark a turn in his affairs when he says, “I wish I had been more industrious.” But if he remains as lazy as before, of what use is his regret? We must rise and labor, or we will have the slacker’s reward—rags and poverty. So neither will one affected by spiritual decline be restored by the mere fact of knowing himself to be so. Let us go to the beloved physician, drink of the waters of life again, and receive the leaves of the tree that are for the healing of the nations! Inactive regrets are insincere; if someone really did lament that he had lost communion with God, he would seek to regain it; if he does not seek to be restored, he is adding to all his former sins that of lying before God in uttering regrets that he does not feel in his soul.
men younger than I am,
whose fathers I would have refused to put
with my sheep dogs.
2What use to me was the strength of their hands?
Their vigor had left them.
3Emaciated from poverty
and hunger,
they gnawed the dry land,
the desolate wasteland by night.
4They plucked mallow A among the shrubs,
and the roots of the broom tree were their food.
5They were banished from human society;
people shouted at them as if they were thieves.
6They are living on the slopes of the wadis,
among the rocks and in holes in the ground.
7They bray among the shrubs;
they huddle beneath the thistles.
8Foolish men, without even a name.
They were forced to leave the land.
9Now I am mocked by their songs;
I have become an object of scorn to them.
10They despise me and keep their distance from me;
they do not hesitate to spit
in my face.
11Because God has loosened my B bowstring and oppressed me,
they have cast off restraint in my presence.
12The rabble C rise up at my right;
they trap D my feet
and construct their siege ramp E against me.
13They tear up my path;
they contribute to my destruction,
without anyone to help them.
14They advance as through a gaping breach;
they keep rolling in through the ruins.
15Terrors are turned loose
against me;
they chase my dignity away like the wind,
and my prosperity has passed by like a cloud.
16Now my life is poured out
before me,
and days of suffering have seized me.
17Night pierces my bones,
but my gnawing pains never rest.
18My clothing is distorted with great force;
he chokes me by the neck of my garment. C
19He throws me into the mud,
and I have become like dust and ashes.
20I cry out to you for help, but you do not answer me;
when I stand up, you merely look at me.
21You have turned against me with cruelty;
you harass me with your strong hand.
22You lift me up on the wind and make me ride it;
you scatter me in the storm.
23Yes, I know that you will lead me to death —
the place appointed for all
who live.
24Yet no one would stretch out his hand
against a ruined person F
when he cries out to him for help
because of his distress.
25Have I not wept for those who have fallen on hard times?
Has my soul not grieved for the needy?
QUOTE 30:25
When even wicked people can exhibit sympathy, how much more should it burn in the Christian heart?
26But when I hoped for good, evil came;
when I looked for light, darkness came.
27I am churning within A and cannot rest;
days of suffering confront me.
28I walk about blackened, but not by the sun. B
I stood in the assembly and cried out for help.
29I have become a brother to jackals
and a companion of ostriches.
30My skin blackens and flakes off, C
and my bones burn with fever.
31My lyre is used for mourning
and my flute for the sound of weeping.
30:25 “Have I not wept for those who have fallen on hard times? Has my soul not grieved for the needy?” Job’s three friends came to the harsh conclusion that he would not have been so severely afflicted if he had not been such a great sinner. Among other accusations against the afflicted patriarch, Eliphaz, the Temanite, had the cruelty to lay this at his door: “You gave no water to the thirsty and withheld food from the famished” (22:7). God’s own testimony of Job is that he was “a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil” (1:8). Certainly he could never have earned the character of “perfect” if he had been devoid of pity for the poor. Richly did the three miserable comforters deserve the burning rebuke of their slandered friend, “You use lies like plaster; you are all worthless healers. If only you would shut up and let that be your wisdom!” (13:4-5). So here Job makes a vehement appeal to heaven and shakes off the slander into the fire as Paul shook the viper from his hand. In the two questions of this text, Job claims something more than merely having helped the poor with gifts. He declares that he wept and grieved for them. His charity was of the heart. He considered their case, laid their sorrows to his own soul, and lent his eyes to weep and his heart to mourn. Flesh and blood are able to arrive at the fact that we were not made to live for ourselves. Fallen and debased as humanity is, yet we cannot but recognize the generous feeling toward the poor and suffering that exists in many unregenerate hearts. We have known people who have forgotten God but who nevertheless do not forget the poor, who despise their Maker’s laws but yet have a heart that melts at a tale of woe. When even wicked people can exhibit sympathy, how much more should it burn in the Christian heart? We should do more than others, or else we will hear the Master say, “What thanks do you deserve? For sinners also do the same.” Called with a nobler calling, we should exhibit, as the result of our regenerate nature, a loftier compassion for the suffering. The Christian’s sympathy should always be of the widest character because we serve a God of infinite love. When the precious stone of love is thrown by divine grace into the crystal pool of a renewed heart, it stirs the waters into ever widening circles of sympathy—the first ring has no wide circumference. We love our own household, for he that does not care for his own household is worse than an unbeliever (1Tm 5:8). But mark the next concentric ring—we love the household of faith. “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love our brothers and sisters” (1Jn 3:14). Finally, the ever-widening ring has reached the limits of the lake and included all people in its area, for “I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone” (1Tm 2:1).
B 30:11 Alt Hb tradition, LXX, Vg read his
E 30:12 Lit and raise up their destructive paths
31I have made a covenant with my eyes.
How then could I look at a young woman? D
2For what portion would I have from God above,
or what inheritance from the Almighty on high?
3Doesn’t disaster come to the unjust
and misfortune to evildoers?
4Does he not see my ways
and number all my steps?
5If I have walked in falsehood
or my foot has rushed to deceit,
6let God weigh me on
accurate scales,
and he will recognize my integrity.
7If my step has turned from the way,
my heart has followed my eyes,
or impurity has stained my hands,
8let someone else eat what I have sown,
and let my crops be uprooted.
9If my heart has gone astray over a woman
or I have lurked at my neighbor’s door,
10let my own wife grind grain for another man,
and let other men sleep with A her.
11For that would be a disgrace;
it would be an iniquity deserving punishment.
12For it is a fire that consumes down to Abaddon;
it would destroy my entire harvest.
13If I have dismissed the case of my male or female servants
when they made a complaint against me,
14what could I do when God stands up to judge?
How should I answer him when he calls me to account?
15Did not the one who made me in the womb also make them?
Did not the same God form us both in the womb?
16If I have refused the wishes of the poor
or let the widow’s eyes go blind,
17if I have eaten my few crumbs alone
without letting the fatherless eat any of it —
18for from my youth, I raised him as his father,
and since the day I was born B I guided the widow —
19if I have seen anyone dying for lack of clothing
or a needy person without a cloak,
20if he C did not bless me
while warming himself with the fleece from my sheep,
21if I ever cast my vote D against a fatherless child
when I saw that I had support in the city gate,
22then let my shoulder blade fall from my back,
and my arm be pulled from its socket.
23For disaster from God terrifies me,
and because of his majesty I could not do these things.
24If I placed my confidence in gold
or called fine gold my trust,
25if I have rejoiced because my wealth is great
or because my own hand has acquired so much,
26if I have gazed at the sun when it was shining
or at the moon moving in splendor,
27so that my heart was secretly enticed
and I threw them a kiss, E
28this would also be an iniquity deserving punishment,
for I would have denied God above.
29Have I rejoiced over my enemy’s distress,
or become excited when trouble came his way?
30I have not allowed my mouth to sin
by asking for his life with a curse.
31Haven’t the members of my household said,
“Who is there who has not had enough to eat at Job’s table? ”
32No stranger had to spend the night on the street,
for I opened my door to the traveler.
33Have I covered my transgressions as others do F
by hiding my iniquity in my heart
34because I greatly feared the crowds
and because the contempt of the clans terrified me,
so I grew silent and would not go outside?
35If only I had someone to hear my case!
Here is my signature; let the Almighty answer me.
Let my Opponent compose his indictment.
36I would surely carry it on my shoulder
and wear it like a crown.
37I would give him an account of all my steps;
I would approach him like a prince.
38If my land cries out against me
and its furrows join in weeping,
39if I have consumed its produce without payment
or shown contempt for its tenants, A
40then let thorns grow instead of wheat
and stinkweed instead of barley.
The words of Job are concluded.
A 31:10 Lit men kneel down over
B 31:18 Lit and from my mother’s womb
E 31:27 Lit and my hand kissed my mouth
A 31:39 Lit or caused the breath of its tenants to breathe out
32So these three men quit answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. 2 Then Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite from the family of Ram became angry. He was angry at Job because he had justified himself rather than God. 3 He was also angry at Job’s three friends because they had failed to refute him and yet had condemned him. B
4 Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were all older than he. 5 But when he saw that the three men could not answer Job, he became angry.
6 So Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite replied:
I am young in years,
while you are old;
therefore I was timid and afraid
to tell you what I know.
7I thought that age should speak
and maturity should teach wisdom.
8But it is the spirit in a person—
the breath from the Almighty—
that gives anyone understanding.
9It is not only the old who are wise
or the elderly who understand how to judge.
10Therefore I say, “Listen to me.
I too will declare what I know.”
11Look, I waited for your conclusions;
I listened to your insights
as you sought for words.
12I paid close attention to you.
Yet no one proved Job wrong;
not one of you refuted his arguments.
13So do not claim, “We have found wisdom;
let God deal with him, not man.”
14But Job has not directed his argument to me,
and I will not respond to him with your arguments.
15Job’s friends are dismayed and can no longer answer;
words have left them.
16Should I continue to wait now that they are silent,
now that they stand there and no longer answer?
17I too will answer; C
yes, I will tell what I know.
18For I am full of words,
and my spirit D compels me to speak.
19My heart E is like unvented wine;
it is about to burst like new wineskins.
20I must speak so that I can find relief;
I must open my lips and respond.
21I will be partial to no one,
and I will not give anyone an undeserved title.
22For I do not know how to give such titles;
otherwise, my Maker would remove me in an instant.
33But now, Job, pay attention to my speech,
and listen to all my words.
my tongue will form words on my palate.
3My words come from my upright heart,
and my lips speak with sincerity what they know.
4The Spirit of God has made me,
and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.
5Refute me if you can.
Prepare your case against me; take your stand.
6I am just like you before God;
I was also pinched off from a piece of clay.
7Fear of me should not terrify you;
no pressure from me should weigh you down.
8Surely you have spoken in my hearing,
and I have heard these very A words:
9“I am pure, without transgression;
I am clean and have no iniquity.
10But he finds reasons to oppose me;
he regards me as his enemy.
11He puts my feet in the stocks;
he stands watch over all my paths.”
12But I tell you that you are wrong in this matter,
since God is greater than man.
13Why do you take him to court
for not answering anything a person asks? B
14For God speaks time and again,
but a person may not notice it.
QUOTE 33:14
There are many things to be done before we are fully influenced to our eternal salvation. And God knows how to come at us.
15In a dream, a vision in the night,
when deep sleep comes over people
as they slumber on their beds,
16he uncovers their ears
and terrifies them C with warnings,
17in order to turn a person from his actions
and suppress the pride of a person.
18God spares his soul from the Pit,
his life from crossing the river of death. D
19A person may be disciplined on his bed with pain
and constant distress in his bones,
20so that he detests bread,
and his soul despises his favorite food.
21His flesh wastes away to nothing, A
and his unseen bones stick out.
22He draws near to the Pit,
and his life to the executioners.
23If there is an angel on his side,
one mediator out of a thousand,
to tell a person what is right for him B
24and to be gracious to him and say,
“Spare him from going down to the Pit;
I have found a ransom,”
25then his flesh will be healthier C than in his youth,
and he will return to the days of his youthful vigor.
26He will pray to God, and God will delight in him.
That person will see his face with a shout of joy,
and God will restore his righteousness to him.
27He will look at men and say,
“I have sinned and perverted what was right;
yet I did not get what I deserved. D
28He redeemed my soul from going down to the Pit,
and I will continue to see the light.”
29God certainly does all these things
two or three times to a person
30in order to turn him back from the Pit,
so he may shine with the light of life.
31Pay attention, Job, and listen to me.
Be quiet, and I will speak.
32But if you have something to say, E answer me;
speak, for I would like to justify you.
33If not, then listen to me;
be quiet, and I will teach you wisdom.
33:14 “For God speaks time and again, but a person may not notice it.” Divine loving-kindness has many voices. God often speaks to us in our childhood. Some of us hardly remember when our Lord first called us, as he called Samuel. We cannot forget the voices of our youth and boyhood—the messages the Lord sent to us through loving parents and kindhearted teachers, or the direct admonitions of the Holy Spirit. God spoke to us and spoke to us again, and spoke to us yet again; but we did not notice his voice. People are hard to influence for good. The ear has to be opened. The heart has to be broken off from its evil purposes. Our pride has to be conquered. There are many things to be done before we are fully influenced to our eternal salvation. And God knows how to come at us. By day or by night, by voices heard when we are in the midst of our business, or “in a dream, a vision in the night” (33:15). Before God can save people, he has to open our ears: “He uncovers their ears and terrifies them with warnings” (33:16). Are our ears stopped up? Perhaps not our outward ears. Most of us can hear—we can hear the money jingle and are soon after it. We have quick ears for some things that are not worth hearing. But toward God our ears are often stopped up. They are as if they had a film over them. As there is a veil over the heart and scales over the eyes, so is there a plug in the ear, and none of those who preach the Word of the Lord can take out that plug or get through someone’s ear to his heart. What is this plug that gets into a person’s ears? It is, of course, first of all, original sin—that taint of the blood that has spoiled every human faculty and has closed the ears from hearing even the voice of God. Often, too, another form of plug is hard to get out of the ear—that is, worldliness. “I am too busy to attend to religion! I am so engaged that I cannot spare time to hear about it.” It may also be stopped up by self-sufficiency. When someone has enough in himself to satisfy him, he wants nothing of Christ.
B 33:13 Lit court, for he does not answer all his words
C 33:16 LXX; MT reads and seals
D 33:18 Or from perishing by the sword
B 33:23 Or to vouch for a person’s uprightness
34Then Elihu continued, F saying:
2 Hear my words, you wise ones,
and listen to me, you knowledgeable ones.
3Doesn’t the ear test words
as the palate tastes food?
4Let us judge for ourselves what is right;
let us decide together what is good.
5For Job has declared, “I am righteous,
yet God has deprived me of justice.
6Would I lie about my case?
My wound G is incurable,
though I am without transgression.”
7What man is like Job?
He drinks derision like water.
8He keeps company with evildoers
and walks with wicked men.
9For he has said, “A man gains nothing
when he becomes God’s friend.”
10Therefore listen to me, you men of understanding.
It is impossible for God to do wrong,
and for the Almighty to act unjustly.
11For he repays a person according to his deeds,
and he gives him what his conduct deserves. H
12Indeed, it is true that God does not act wickedly
and the Almighty does not pervert justice.
13Who gave him authority over the earth?
Who put him in charge of the entire world?
14If he put his mind to it
and withdrew the spirit and breath he gave,
15every living thing would perish together
and mankind would return to the dust.
16If you have understanding, hear this;
listen to what I have to say.
17Could one who hates justice govern the world?
Will you condemn the mighty Righteous One,
18who says to a king, “Worthless man! ”
and to nobles, “Wicked men! ”?
19God is not partial to princes
and does not favor the rich over the poor,
for they are all the work of his hands.
20They die suddenly in the middle of the night;
people shudder, then pass away.
Even the mighty are removed without effort.
21For his eyes watch over a man’s ways,
and he observes all his steps.
22There is no darkness, no deep darkness,
where evildoers can hide.
23God does not need to examine a person further,
that one should A approach him in court.
24He shatters the mighty without an investigation
and sets others in their place.
25Therefore, he recognizes their deeds
and overthrows them by night, and they are crushed.
26In full view of the public, B
he strikes them for their wickedness,
27because they turned aside from following him
and did not understand any of his ways
28but caused the poor to cry out to him,
and he heard the outcry of the needy.
29But when God is silent, who can declare him guilty?
When he hides his face, who can see him?
Yet he watches over both individuals and nations,
30so that godless men should not rule
or ensnare the people.
31Suppose someone says to God,
“I have endured my punishment;
I will no longer act wickedly.
32Teach me what I cannot see;
if I have done wrong, I won’t do it again.”
33Should God repay you
on your terms
when you have rejected his?
You must choose, not I!
So declare what you know.
34Reasonable men will say to me,
along with the wise men who hear me,
35“Job speaks without knowledge;
his words are without insight.”
36If only Job were tested to the limit,
because his answers are like those of wicked men.
37For he adds rebellion to his sin;
he scornfully claps in our presence,
while multiplying his words against God.
H 34:11 Lit and like a path of a man, he causes him to find
A 34:23 Some emend to God has not appointed a time for man to
35Then Elihu continued, saying:
2 Do you think it is just when you say,
“I am righteous before God”?
3For you ask, “What does it profit you, C
and what benefit comes to me, if I do not sin? ”
4I will answer you
and your friends with you.
5Look at the heavens and see;
gaze at the clouds high above you.
6If you sin, how does it affect God?
If you multiply your transgressions, what does it do to him?
7If you are righteous, what do you give him,
or what does he receive from your hand?
8Your wickedness affects a person like yourself,
and your righteousness, a son of man. D
9People cry out because of severe oppression;
they shout for help because of the power of the mighty.
10But no one asks, “Where is God my Maker,
who provides us with songs in the night,
11who gives us more understanding than the animals of the earth
and makes us wiser than the birds of the sky? ”
12There they cry out, but he does not answer,
because of the pride of evil people.
13Indeed, God does not listen to empty cries,
and the Almighty does not take note of it —
14how much less when A you complain B
that you do not see him,
that your case is before him
and you are waiting for him.
15But now, because God’s anger does not punish
and he does not pay attention to transgression, C
16Job opens his mouth in vain
and multiplies words without knowledge.
35:10 “But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who provides us with songs in the night?’” Elihu, being much puzzled at seeing Job so afflicted, searched around him to find the cause of it and wisely hit on one of the most likely reasons, although it did not happen to be the right one in Job’s case. He said to himself, “Surely, if men are greatly tried and troubled, it is because while they think about their troubles and distress themselves about their fears, they do not say, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night?’” Elihu’s reason is right in the majority of cases. The great cause of a Christian’s distress, the reason of the depths of sorrow into which many believers are plunged is simply this—that while they are looking about, on the right hand and on the left, to see how they may escape their troubles, they do not say, “Where is God my Maker, who provides us with songs in the night?” The sun shines by day, and men go forth to their labors. But they grow weary and nightfall comes on like a sweet gift from heaven. The darkness draws the curtains and shuts out the light that might prevent our eyes from slumber. The sweet, calm stillness of the night permits us to rest on the bed of ease and forget, awhile, our cares, until the morning sun appears and an angel puts his hand upon the curtain, opens it once again, touches our eyelids, and bids us rise and proceed to the labors of the day. Night is one of the greatest blessings men enjoy—we have many reasons to thank God for it. Yet night is to many a gloomy time. We have nights of sorrow, nights of persecution, nights of doubt, nights of bewilderment, nights of affliction, nights of anxiety, nights of ignorance, nights of all kinds that oppress our spirits and terrify our souls. But blessed be God, the Christian can say, “My God gives me songs in the night.” It is not natural to sing in trouble. “My soul, bless the Lord, and all that is within me, bless his holy name,” is a daylight song. But it was a divine song that Habakkuk sang when, in the night, he said, “Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls, yet I will celebrate in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation” (Hab 3:17-18).
36Then Elihu continued, saying:
2 Be patient with me a little longer, and I will inform you,
for there is still more to be said on God’s behalf.
3I will get my knowledge from a distant place
and ascribe justice to my Maker.
4Indeed, my words are not false;
one who has complete knowledge is with you.
5Yes, God is mighty, but he despises no one;
he understands all things. D
6He does not keep the wicked alive,
but he gives justice to the oppressed.
7He does not withdraw his gaze from the righteous,
but he seats them forever with enthroned kings,
and they are exalted.
8If people are bound with chains
and trapped by the cords of affliction,
9God tells them what they have done
and how arrogantly they have transgressed.
10He opens their ears to correction
and tells them to repent from iniquity.
11If they listen and serve him,
they will end their days
in prosperity
and their years in happiness.
12But if they do not listen,
they will cross the river of death A
and die without knowledge.
13Those who have a godless heart harbor anger;
even when God binds them, they do not cry for help.
14They die in their youth;
their life ends among male cult prostitutes.
15God rescues the afflicted by their affliction;
he instructs them by their torment.
16Indeed, he lured you from the jaws B of distress
to a spacious and unconfined place.
Your table was spread with choice food.
17Yet now you are obsessed with the judgment due the wicked;
judgment and justice have seized you.
18Be careful that no one lures you with riches; C
do not let a large ransom D lead you astray.
19Can your wealth E or all your physical exertion
keep you from distress?
20Do not long for the night
when nations will disappear from their places.
21Be careful that you do not turn to iniquity,
for that is why you have been tested by F affliction.
22Look, God shows himself exalted by his power.
Who is a teacher like him?
23Who has appointed his way for him,
and who has declared, “You have done wrong”?
24Remember that you should praise his work,
which people have sung about.
25All mankind has seen it;
people have looked at it from a distance.
26Yes, God is exalted beyond our knowledge;
the number of his years cannot be counted.
27For he makes waterdrops
evaporate; G
they distill the rain into its H mist,
28which the clouds pour out
and shower abundantly on mankind.
29Can anyone understand how the clouds spread out
or how the thunder roars from God’s pavilion?
30See how he spreads his lightning around him
and covers the depths of the sea.
31For he judges the nations
with these;
he gives food in abundance.
32He covers his hands with lightning
and commands it to hit its mark.
33The I thunder declares his presence; J
the cattle also, the approaching storm.
36:2 “Be patient with me a little longer, and I will inform you, for there is still more to be said on God’s behalf.” The chief business of a Christian while here below is to speak on God’s behalf. Why is he placed here? Lower goals or more common objectives do not resolve that question. Merely to work, to toil, to fulfill our days as hirelings, in common with the rest of our fellow creatures, would be a poor account to give of pilgrims bound for the heavenly city. Are we not allowed to tarry here that we may glorify our God by speaking on his behalf? Are we not, each one of us, appointed to linger in these lowlands that we may personally bear witness to what we have heard and seen, tasted and handled, tested and proved to be true of the good word of life? This sacred obligation may be heart searching to some.
D 36:5 Lit he is mighty in strength of heart
A 36:12 Or will perish by the sword
B 36:16 Lit from a mouth of narrowness
F 36:21 Or for you have preferred this to
and leaps from my chest. A
2Just listen to his thunderous voice
and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.
3He lets it loose beneath the entire sky;
his lightning to the ends of the earth.
4Then there comes a roaring sound;
God thunders with his majestic voice.
He does not restrain the lightning
when his rumbling voice is heard.
5God thunders wondrously with his voice;
he does great things that we cannot comprehend.
6For he says to the snow, “Fall to the earth,”
and the torrential rains, his mighty torrential rains,
7serve as his sign to all mankind,
so that all men may know his work.
8The wild animals enter their lairs
and stay in their dens.
9The windstorm comes from its chamber,
and the cold from the driving north winds.
10Ice is formed by the breath of God,
and watery expanses are frozen.
11He saturates clouds with moisture;
he scatters his lightning through them.
12They swirl about,
turning round and round at his direction,
accomplishing everything he commands them
over the surface of the inhabited world.
13He causes this to happen for punishment,
for his land, or for his faithful love.
14Listen to this, Job.
Stop and consider God’s wonders.
15Do you know how God directs his clouds
or makes their lightning flash?
16Do you understand how the clouds float,
those wonderful works of him who has perfect knowledge?
17You whose clothes get hot
when the south wind brings calm to the land,
18can you help God spread out the skies
as hard as a cast metal mirror?
19Teach us what we should say to him;
we cannot prepare our case because of our darkness.
20Should he be told that I want to speak?
Can a man speak when he is confused?
21Now no one can even look at the sun
when it is in the skies,
after a wind has swept through and cleared the clouds away. B
22Yet out of the north he comes, shrouded in a golden glow;
awesome majesty surrounds him.
23The Almighty — we cannot reach him —
he is exalted in power!
He will not violate justice and abundant righteousness,
24therefore, men fear him.
He does not look favorably on any who are wise in heart.
38Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind. He said:
2Who is this who obscures my counsel
with ignorant words?
3Get ready to answer me like a man;
when I question you, you will inform me.
4Where were you when I established the earth?
Tell me, if you have C understanding.
5Who fixed its dimensions? Certainly you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
6What supports its foundations?
Or who laid its cornerstone
7while the morning stars sang together
and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8Who enclosed the sea behind doors
when it burst from the womb,
9when I made the clouds its garment
and total darkness its blanket, A
10when I determined its boundaries B
and put its bars and doors in place,
11when I declared: “You may come this far, but no farther;
your proud waves stop here”?
12Have you ever in your life commanded the morning
or assigned the dawn its place,
13so it may seize the edges of the earth
and shake the wicked out of it?
14The earth is changed as clay is by a seal;
its hills stand out like the folds of a garment.
15Light C is withheld from the wicked,
and the arm raised in violence is broken.
16Have you traveled to the sources of the sea
or walked in the depths of the oceans?
17Have the gates of death been revealed to you?
Have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
18Have you comprehended the extent of the earth?
Tell me, if you know all this.
19Where is the road to the home of light?
Do you know where darkness lives,
20so you can lead it back to its border?
Are you familiar with the paths to its home?
21Don’t you know? You were already born;
you have lived so long! D
22Have you entered the place where the snow is stored?
Or have you seen the storehouses of hail,
23which I hold in reserve for times of trouble,
for the day of warfare and battle?
24What road leads to the place where light is dispersed? E
Where is the source of the east wind that spreads across the earth?
25Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain
or clears the way for lightning,
QUOTE 38:25-27
And as God alone gives rain, so God alone gives grace. The Lord must give it, or there will be none.
26to bring rain on an uninhabited land,
on a desert with no human life, A
27to satisfy the parched wasteland
and cause the grass to sprout?
28Does the rain have a father?
Who fathered the drops of dew?
29Whose womb did the ice come from?
Who gave birth to the frost of heaven
30when water becomes as hard as stone, B
and the surface of the watery depths is frozen?
31Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades
or loosen the belt of Orion?
32Can you bring out the constellations C in their season
and lead the Bear D and her cubs?
33Do you know the laws of heaven?
Can you impose its E authority on earth?
QUOTE 38:31
We cannot hasten the spring or postpone the winter, neither can we prevent those calamities that plunge nations into distress or prohibit those mercies that lift up tribes into prosperity.
34Can you command F the clouds
so that a flood of water
covers you?
35Can you send out lightning bolts, and they go?
Do they report to you: “Here we are”?
36Who put wisdom in the heart G
or gave the mind understanding?
37Who has the wisdom to number the clouds?
Or who can tilt the water jars of heaven
38when the dust hardens like cast metal
and the clods of dirt stick together?
39Can you hunt prey for a lioness
or satisfy the appetite of young lions
40when they crouch in their dens
and lie in wait within their lairs?
41Who provides the raven’s food
when its young cry out to God
and wander about for lack of food?
38:25-27 “Who cuts a channel for the flooding rain or clears the way for lightning, to bring rain on an uninhabited land, on a desert with no human life, to satisfy the parched wasteland and cause the grass to sprout?” The Lord seemed to say, “If Job is, indeed, half as great as he thinks he is, let him see whether he can do what his Creator does.” He is challenged about so slight a matter, apparently, as the sending of the rain. Does Job know how it is done? Can he explain all the phenomena? Our modern scientists tell us how rain is produced, and I suppose their explanation is correct, but they cannot tell us how power is given to carry out what they call “the laws of nature.” Neither can they make the rain, nor, if a drought were to continue till the nation was on the verge of famine, would they be able to cover the skies with clouds, or even to water a single acre of land. No, with all our explanations, it is still a great mystery; and it remains a secret with God how he waters the earth with rain.
And as God alone gives rain, so God alone gives grace. The Lord must give it, or there will be none. And, moreover, God finds the way by which his grace can come to men. Only God has made a channel for the rain—we could not have made it. So is it with his grace; otherwise how could grace have come to people? How was it possible for the thrice-holy God to deal leniently with sinners who had provoked him to anger? How could it be that the Judge of all the earth, who must be just, should, nevertheless, pass by transgression, iniquity, and sin? This is a problem that would have perplexed a Sanhedrin of seraphim. If all the mightiest intelligences God has ever made had sat together in solemn conclave for a thousand years, they would not have been able to solve this problem: How can God be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly? Infinite wisdom devised that matchless way of substitution by which, through the death of the Son of God, we might be saved.
38:31 “Can you fasten the chains of the Pleiades or loosen the belt of Orion?” The singularly beautiful cluster of stars called the Pleiades is small but intensely bright. These are most conspicuous about the time of spring; and therefore, in poetry, the vernal influences that quicken the earth and clothe it with the green grass, and the many-colored flowers, are connected with the Pleiades. By the sweet influences of the Pleiades, we understand, then, in plain language, those benign influences which produce the spring and the summer; these, it is said, no one can restrain. Orion, a conspicuous constellation with its glittering belt, is best seen toward the close of autumn, just before the coming in of the winter. It is a southern and wintry sign, and, therefore, poetically, the winter is traced to the bands of Orion, and no one is able to loosen the bonds of frost or check the incoming of the cold. In other words, the whole verse asserts that none can stop the revolutions of the seasons. When God ordains the spring, the shining months come laughing on; and when again he calls for winter, snow and ice must rule the dreary hour. The farmer is entirely dependent on the God of heaven; he may plow with industry and cast in the good seed with hope, but unless the sweet influences of heaven shall be given, he can reap no harvest. He is absolutely dependent on God, who governs all things according to his will; and we in the city also are as much dependent as any, for even the rich and powerful are nourished by the fruit of the field; and follow what merchandise we will, ultimately it is still from the fields that our nourishment must come. All of us, then, and all the beasts and birds, and all the creatures, are entirely and absolutely dependent on God; and unless he helps them, they cannot help themselves. This is the simple teaching of the verse, but it was doubtless used to teach Job that as he could not alter the ordinances of heaven, so neither could he change the purposes of God in the events of providence. We cannot hasten the spring or postpone the winter, neither can we prevent those calamities that plunge nations into distress or prohibit those mercies that lift up tribes into prosperity. Trouble comes to the sons of men by God’s purpose, and good comes also. Neither is it in our power, with all our discretion and skill, with all our economy and industry, to avert the trouble God appoints. The scythe cannot be arrested by wisdom; the inevitable hour comes to all. Need, sickness, and bereavement invade us at the Lord’s bidding, and although we may greatly mitigate their rigor, yet we cannot avert them; for the ordinances of God must surely come to pass. Whatever is written in the closed book of the divine decree must, in due season, be fulfilled in human history. If we cannot alter, then we must bow ourselves and submit; if we cannot change the purpose, then we must yield to it.
B 38:10 Lit I broke my statute on it
D 38:21 Lit born; the number of your days is great
E 38:24 Or where lightning is distributed
B 38:30 Lit water hides itself as the stone
C 38:32 Or Mazzaroth ; Hb obscure
39Do you know when mountain goats give birth?
Have you watched the deer in labor?
2Can you count the months they are pregnant A
so you can know the time they give birth?
3They crouch down to give birth to their young;
they deliver their newborn. B
4Their offspring are healthy and grow up in the open field.
They leave and do not return. C
5Who set the wild donkey free?
Who released the swift donkey from its harness?
6I made the desert its home,
and the salty wasteland
its dwelling.
7It scoffs at the noise of the village
and never hears the shouts of a driver.
8It roams the mountains for its pastureland,
searching for anything green.
9Would the wild ox be willing to serve you?
Would it spend the night by your feeding trough?
10Can you hold the wild ox to a furrow by its harness?
Will it plow the valleys behind you?
11Can you depend on it because its strength is great?
Would you leave it to do your hard work?
12Can you trust the wild ox to harvest your grain
and bring it to your threshing floor?
13The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully,
but are her feathers and plumage like the stork’s? D
14She abandons her eggs on the ground
and lets them be warmed in the sand.
15She forgets that a foot may crush them
or that some wild animal may trample them.
16She treats her young harshly, as if they were not her own,
with no fear that her labor may have been in vain.
17For God has deprived her of wisdom;
he has not endowed her with understanding.
18When she proudly D spreads her wings,
she laughs at the horse and its rider.
19Do you give strength to the horse?
Do you adorn his neck
with a mane? D
20Do you make him leap like a locust?
His proud snorting fills one with terror.
21He paws E in the valley and rejoices in his strength;
he charges into battle. F
22He laughs at fear, since he is afraid of nothing;
he does not run from the sword.
23A quiver rattles at his side,
along with a flashing spear and a javelin.
24He charges ahead A with trembling rage;
he cannot stand still at the trumpet’s sound.
25When the trumpet blasts, he snorts defiantly. B
He smells the battle from a distance;
he hears the officers’ shouts and the battle cry.
26Does the hawk take flight by your understanding
and spread its wings to the south?
27Does the eagle soar at your command
and make its nest on high?
28It lives on a cliff where it spends the night;
its stronghold is on a rocky crag.
29From there it searches for prey;
its eyes penetrate the distance.
30Its brood gulps down blood,
and where the slain are, it is there.
A 39:2 Lit months they fulfill
B 39:3 Or they send away their labor pains
E 39:21 LXX, Syr; MT reads They dig
F 39:21 Lit he goes out to meet the weaponry
40The LORD answered Job:
2 Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him?
Let him who argues with God give an answer. C
3 Then Job answered the LORD:
4I am so insignificant. How can I answer you?
I place my hand over my mouth.
5I have spoken once, and I will not reply;
twice, but now I can add nothing.
6 Then the LORD answered Job from the whirlwind:
7Get ready to answer me like a man;
When I question you, you will inform me.
8Would you really challenge my justice?
Would you declare me guilty to justify yourself?
9Do you have an arm like God’s?
Can you thunder with a voice like his?
10Adorn yourself with majesty and splendor,
and clothe yourself with honor and glory.
11Pour out your raging anger;
look on every proud person and humiliate him.
12Look on every proud person and humble him;
trample the wicked where they stand. D
13Hide them together in the dust;
imprison them in the grave. E
14Then I will confess to you
that your own right hand can deliver you.
15Look at Behemoth,
which I made along with you.
He eats grass like cattle.
16Look at the strength of his back F
and the power in the muscles of his belly.
17He stiffens his tail like a cedar tree;
the tendons of his thighs are woven firmly together.
18His bones are bronze tubes;
his limbs are like iron rods.
19He is the foremost of God’s works;
only his Maker can draw the sword against him.
20The hills yield food for him,
while all sorts of wild animals play there.
21He lies under the lotus plants,
hiding in the protection G of marshy reeds.
22Lotus plants cover him with their shade;
the willows by the brook surround him.
23Though the river rages, Behemoth is unafraid;
he remains confident, even if the Jordan surges up to his mouth.
24Can anyone capture him while he looks on, A
or pierce his nose with snares?
D 40:12 Lit wicked in their place
E 40:13 Lit together; bind their faces in the hidden place
41Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook
or tie his tongue down with a rope?
2Can you put a cord B through his nose
or pierce his jaw with a hook?
3Will he beg you for mercy
or speak softly to you?
4Will he make a covenant with you
so that you can take him as a slave forever?
5Can you play with him like a bird
or put him on a leash C for your girls?
6Will traders bargain for him
or divide him among the merchants?
7Can you fill his hide with harpoons
or his head with fishing spears?
8Lay a D hand on him.
You will remember the battle
and never repeat it!
9Any hope of capturing him proves false.
Does a person not collapse at the very sight of him?
10No one is ferocious enough to rouse Leviathan;
who then can stand against me?
11Who confronted me, that I should repay him?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.
12I cannot be silent about his limbs,
his power, and his graceful proportions.
13Who can strip off his outer covering?
Who can penetrate his double layer of armor? E
14Who can open his jaws, F
surrounded by those terrifying teeth?
15His pride is in his rows of scales,
closely sealed together.
16One scale is so close to another G
that no air can pass between them.
17They are joined to one another,
so closely connected H they cannot be separated.
18His snorting I flashes with light,
while his eyes are like the rays J of dawn.
19Flaming torches shoot from his mouth;
fiery sparks fly out!
20Smoke billows from his nostrils
as from a boiling pot or burning reeds.
21His breath sets coals ablaze,
and flames pour out of his mouth.
22Strength resides in his neck,
and dismay dances before him.
23The folds of his flesh are joined together,
solid as metal K and immovable.
24His heart is as hard as a rock,
as hard as a lower millstone!
25When Leviathan rises, the mighty L are terrified;
they withdraw because of his thrashing.
26The sword that reaches him will have no effect,
nor will a spear, dart, or arrow.
27He regards iron as straw,
and bronze as rotten wood.
28No arrow can make him flee;
slingstones become like stubble to him.
29A club is regarded as stubble,
and he laughs at the sound of a javelin.
30His undersides are jagged potsherds,
spreading the mud like a threshing sledge.
31He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron;
he makes the sea like an ointment jar.
32He leaves a shining wake behind him; A
one would think the deep had gray hair!
33He has no equal on earth —
a creature devoid of fear!
34He surveys everything that is haughty;
he is king over all the proud beasts. B
E 41:13 LXX; MT reads double bridle
F 41:14 Lit open the doors of his face
G 41:16 Lit One by one they approach
H 41:17 Lit another; they cling together and
42Then Job replied to the LORD:
2 I C know that you can do anything
and no plan of yours can be thwarted.
QUOTE 42:5-6
It is altogether right when our humiliation draws us to the Lord and our conscious need drives us to the throne of grace.
3You asked, “Who is this who conceals my counsel with ignorance? ”
Surely I spoke about things I did not understand,
things too wondrous for me to D know.
4You said, “Listen now, and I will speak.
When I question you, you will inform me.”
5I had heard reports about you,
but now my eyes have seen you.
6Therefore, I reject my words and am sorry for them;
7 After the LORD had finished speaking G to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. 8 Now take seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job, and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. Then my servant Job will pray for you. I will surely accept his prayer and not deal with you as your folly deserves. For you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 9 Then Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD had told them, and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.
10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and doubled his previous possessions. 11 All his brothers, sisters, and former acquaintances came to him and dined with him in his house. They sympathized with him and comforted him concerning all the adversity the LORD had brought on him. Each one gave him a piece of silver A and a gold earring.
12 So the LORD blessed the last part of Job’s life more than the first. He owned fourteen thousand sheep and goats, six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, and one thousand female donkeys. 13 He also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named his first daughter Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch. 15 No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance with their brothers.
16 Job lived 140 years after this and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 Then Job died, old and full of days.
42:5-6 “I had heard reports about you, but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore, I reject my words and am sorry for them; I am dust and ashes.” Jehovah had spoken; Job had trembled. The Lord had revealed himself; Job had seen him. Truly, God did but display the skirts of his robe and unveil a part of his ways. But in that was so much ineffable glory that Job laid his hand on his mouth in silent consent to the claims of the Everlasting One. God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind concerning the greatness of his power, the wonders of his workings, the splendor of his skill, the infinity of his wisdom. In this confession Job acknowledges God’s boundless power. For he exclaims (42:2), “I know that you can do anything and no plan of yours can be thwarted.” He felt that whatever the Lord chose to think or desire, he could at once accomplish. Job had a glimpse of that omnipotence whose height and depth no mind can ever measure. Job sees his own folly. The Lord’s words are ringing in his ears (see 38:2), and in his anguish he repeats them, accepting them as justly applicable to himself. Job felt that what he had spoken concerning the Lord was, in the main, true. And the Lord himself said to Job’s three friends (42:7), “You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” But under a sense of the divine presence, Job felt that even when he had spoken correctly, he had spoken beyond his own proper knowledge, uttering speech whose depths of meaning he could not himself fathom. And he at the same time tacitly confesses that he may have said in his bitterness many unwise and improper things, and therefore he bows his head before the Lord his God and confesses that he has obscured God’s counsel with ignorant words (see 38:2) and uttered things he did not understand. Nevertheless, the man of God proceeds to approach the Lord, before whom he bows. Foolish as he confesses himself to be, he does not, therefore, fly from the supreme wisdom. Although he knows he has babbled ignorantly, he does not seek to hide from the Lord as Adam did when he sought the shade of the trees of the garden. Rather, he takes up the Lord’s words again and is emboldened by them to approach. Whatever Job might be or might not be, he was a firm believer in his God and in every word the Lord was pleased to speak. He held even to discouraging words with desperate tenacity and even learned to find honey in words that roared like lions against him. So, when he is humbled in the dust, he recollects that God had summoned him to approach. And although to his fears that bidding may have sounded like a challenge, yet to his faith it becomes an encouragement, and he, in effect, replies, “My God, I will venture to take you at your word. You bid me come and come I will. Dust and ashes though I am, I will do as you allow me and make my humble appeal to you.” It is altogether wrong to allow our sense of folly or of sin to drive us away from God. But it is altogether right when our humiliation draws us to the Lord and our conscious need drives us to the throne of grace. The more foolish and sinful we are, the more urgent is our need to come to God, who alone can make us clean and instruct us in the way of heavenly wisdom.