TEXT [Commentary]

  4.   Mortals are humiliated by their Maker (10:1-22)

1 “I am disgusted with my life.

Let me complain freely.

My bitter soul must complain.

2 I will say to God, ‘Don’t simply condemn me—

tell me the charge you are bringing against me.

3 What do you gain by oppressing me?

Why do you reject me, the work of your own hands,

while smiling on the schemes of the wicked?

4 Are your eyes like those of a human?

Do you see things only as people see them?

5 Is your lifetime only as long as ours?

Is your life so short

6 that you must quickly probe for my guilt

and search for my sin?

7 Although you know I am not guilty,

no one can rescue me from your hands.

8 “‘You formed me with your hands; you made me,

yet now you completely destroy me.

9 Remember that you made me from dust—

will you turn me back to dust so soon?

10 You guided my conception

and formed me in the womb.[*]

11 You clothed me with skin and flesh,

and you knit my bones and sinews together.

12 You gave me life and showed me your unfailing love.

My life was preserved by your care.

13 “‘Yet your real motive—

your true intent—

14 was to watch me, and if I sinned,

you would not forgive my guilt.

15 If I am guilty, too bad for me;

and even if I’m innocent, I can’t hold my head high,

because I am filled with shame and misery.

16 And if I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion

and display your awesome power against me.

17 Again and again you witness against me.

You pour out your growing anger on me

and bring fresh armies against me.

18 “‘Why, then, did you deliver me from my mother’s womb?

Why didn’t you let me die at birth?

19 It would be as though I had never existed,

going directly from the womb to the grave.

20 I have only a few days left, so leave me alone,

that I may have a moment of comfort

21 before I leave—never to return—

for the land of darkness and utter gloom.

22 It is a land as dark as midnight,

a land of gloom and confusion,

where even the light is dark as midnight.’”

NOTES

10:8 you completely destroy me. The Heb. has been traditionally translated (KJV, ASV, NASB) to say that God made Job “altogether, on all sides” (yakhad sabib [TH3162/5439, ZH3480/6017]). The clause division however is not clear, so the phrase may be taken as modifying the first line, which describes Job being fashioned, or the second line, which describes Job’s destruction. In the latter case, the text would say that Job is being destroyed on every side (Dhorme 1984:149; cf. NLT). Most contemporary translations (RSV, NRSV, NIV) further emend sabib to the verb form sabbota [TH5437, ZH6015] (Koehler and Baumgartner 3:699) to say “you now turn and destroy me.”

10:9 will you turn me back to dust so soon? Though this line is often translated as a question, there is no formal indication of an interrogative. The line makes perfectly good sense as a statement of fact—“from dust to dust” being a common association (Gen 3:19; Eccl 12:7). In this case, however, Job was objecting to the untimely nature of his return to the dust.

10:10 formed me in the womb. The Heb. has a metaphor of gestation: “you curdled me like cheese.” The word translated “cheese” (gebinah [TH1385, ZH1482]) is found only here in the Heb. Bible but is well known in later Heb. and Aramaic (Jastrow 206).

10:14 you would not forgive my guilt. This is the same expression used earlier when Job laments that he would not be held innocent (9:28). This is not to say he would not be forgiven but rather that he would suffer punishment, be regarded as guilty.

10:15 filled with shame and misery. This is certainly preferable to the rendering, “look on my affliction” (KJV, RSV, NRSV). Rather than the word “see” (ra’ah [TH7200, ZH8011]) there is an orthographic variant of the word meaning “sated” (rawah [TH7301, ZH8115]).

10:16 I hold my head high. The translation involves emending the verb from third person to first person, but this is warranted by the context and is preferable to the attempt to make “head” the subject (ASV, NASB; cf. KJV). Pope (1965:81) emends the verb to the adjective “proud” (ge’eh [TH1343, ZH1450]), which then modifies the subject of “hunt,” yielding the translation “bold as a lion you hunt me.”

10:17 you witness against me. On the basis of the Arabic comparisons, Pope (1965:81) suggests here a word meaning “attack” (‘adi) rather than witness (‘ed [TH5707, ZH6332]), which he says continues the metaphor of God hunting Job as a lion (cf. NEB). However, a reference to witnesses is perfectly in place; according to the theology of retribution, each new wave of suffering is further testimony to Job’s guilt.

bring fresh armies. The expression may be taken from the military (Gordis 1978:115), referring to changes of a military guard, used here in the metaphorical sense of new waves of struggle. The word “army” or “host” (tsaba’ [TH6635, ZH7372]) frequently has the sense of forced service (Koehler and Baumgartner 3:934) as a metaphor for punishment (cf. Isa 40:2).

10:20 leave me alone. The verbs of this verse must be read as imperatives (as vocalized in the MT) rather than as indicatives. Job asked to be left alone, exactly as he had previously (7:16).

10:22 a land of gloom and confusion. This is literally expressed as a negative, “a land where there is no order” (seder [TH5468, ZH6043]). Though this is the only occurrence of the word seder in the Heb. Bible, it is common in later Heb. to describe order in a great variety of ways (Jastrow 958-959). Driver (1969:76-77) finds the meaning “beam of light” for seder, based on an Arabic word, and then a second meaning for “show dark clouds” instead of the common meaning “show light” for the next word (yapha‘ [TH3313, ZH3649]), providing the translation “a land without a ray of light, gloomy as the deep darkness.” This conjecture is highly improbable.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Job returned to his lament and his complaint against God. He could not escape the fact that his life had become repulsive (10:1). He had earlier complained that he could not bring God to trial (9:32) but was certain that God had brought him to trial and already had passed a verdict (10:2). Job was treated as guilty—a fact he could not deny (9:29) or change (9:30-31). Still he demanded to know why he was condemned (10:2). The question concerning Job’s guilt frames the first section; what possible reason could there be for Job to be treated as guilty when God knew full well he was innocent?

Job explored this question with a series of rhetorical questions. There could be any number of reasons why Job must suffer if certain human limitations were true of God, but these were definitely not true. Humans might take some sinister delight in oppression, they might have limited understanding, or they might be constrained by the limited time of their life to search for a possible wrong. In raising these questions, Job went back to Creation (10:8-12). The conclusion of the creation story (Gen 1:31) was that all things were “very good” (tob me’od); the creation of humans in particular was also good (Gen 1:25). Since Job was human, what possible benefit or good (tob) could come from God’s attack on Job? God was destroying the very thing he had declared good. Though Job often used his own situation to describe the general human condition (7:1-2), here he had in mind God’s creation of himself as an individual (10:8-12). Furthermore, Job considered it rather ironic that God should ignore the wicked in their schemes, while Job, the one who has been faithful, was treated as guilty. Since God is not in any sense deceived or limited in power, Job’s situation remained inexplicable. Job understood his own conception and birth to have been the result of the personal creative activity of God: he was knit together by the hands of God and molded out of the clay. But now Job is “swallowed up” in death; he is turned back to the clay from which he was made. Conception, gestation, and birth are a mystery and a marvel. How can one explain the multiplication of cells consistently of the right type and proportion? Each part performs its proper function. Not only does God create life, he is loyal to his creation and preserves it, watching for each breath.

If this is a proper description of God’s genius and his compassion, could there possibly be some other sinister purpose behind God’s actions? What was really in God’s mind, and what were his real motives? Behind the smile of God’s providence was the frown of his wrath. The protective care of God might be watching (shamar [TH8104, ZH9068]) for every breath, but Job surmised that in reality God was watching (shamar) for Job’s sin so that his guilt would not be left unpunished. The great watcher of mankind (7:20) is not nearly so interested in being loyal to human life (10:12) as he is in scrutinizing it. It would seem Job’s lament expresses a depth of despair beyond the irony he had expressed earlier about God’s attention to mortals (7:17-21). It is not that God does not distinguish the innocent and the guilty; it is rather that he treats them all the same (cf. 9:22). From Job’s perspective, the design of God appears to be to destroy life and reputation; even the innocent cannot have a modicum of self-respect but instead are filled with shame and contempt. Should Job seek a bit of self-worth, God would hunt him like a lion. Thus, his wonders were seen in his destructive judgment (cf. 9:5-10). Any effort on Job’s part to clear his name could only mean more suffering.

As Job contemplated his destiny in the land of death, he could only wish that he had not been born. In his first speech, Job had already expressed this desire (3:11), but there he did not credit his birth to God’s personal activity on his behalf. His complaint was that he was born. But now his complaint becomes a direct accusation against God. Job’s birth and its outcome are all part of a divine plan that is perverse in its design. Given the fact of his birth, he can only repeat his request that he be allowed some relief in the few days of life left to him (10:20; cf. 7:16). This is the most he can hope for as he goes to the land of no return.

Earlier, Job had eulogized death as a land of peace where the struggles of life would be over (3:13-19). Here, he describes it as the place of darkness, where the light and order of creation are utterly destroyed. The expression “the shadow of death” (10:21b, 22b), used in earlier translations (KJV, ASV), can be taken as a superlative, a way of speaking about the deepest shadows (Waltke and O’Conner 1990:14.5b), as expressed in most translations (RSV, NIV, NRSV, TEV, NEB). In Job, however, it describes the totality of darkness in death. Even the light there is darkness. Whatever the marvels of God in creating Job’s body, it would soon be utterly destroyed. All he could hope was that God would turn away and give his body a little relief before it disintegrated in the darkness of death.