3 Is it good to you that you should oppress, That you should despise the work of your hands, And smile on the counsel of the wicked?
But now, Yahweh, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.
Yahweh will fulfill that which concerns me; Your loving kindness, Yahweh, endures forever. Don't forsake the works of your own hands.
"Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it."
Therefore let them also who suffer according to the will of God in doing good entrust their souls to him, as to a faithful Creator.
He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light. Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day. My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones. He has built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail. He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead. He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy. Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has walled up my ways with hewn stone; he has made my paths crooked. He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places. He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate. He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow. He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my reins. I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood. He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes. You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity. I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.
Righteous are you, Yahweh, when I contend with you; yet would I reason the cause with you: why does the way of the wicked prosper? why are all they at ease who deal very treacherously? You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit: you are near in their mouth, and far from their heart. But you, Yahweh, know me; you see me, and try my heart toward you: pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
For Yahweh hears the needy, And doesn't despise his captive people.
"Behold, God will not cast away a blameless man, Neither will he uphold the evil-doers.
"But you are full of the judgment of the wicked. Judgment and justice take hold of you. Don't let riches entice you to wrath, Neither let the great size of a bribe turn you aside.
He doesn't withdraw his eyes from the righteous, But with kings on the throne, He sets them forever, and they are exalted. If they are bound in fetters, And are taken in the cords of afflictions, Then he shows them their work, And their transgressions, that they have behaved themselves proudly.
Who says to a king, 'Vile!' Or to nobles, 'Wicked!' Who doesn't respect the persons of princes, Nor regards the rich more than the poor; For they all are the work of his hands.
For Job has said, 'I am righteous, God has taken away my right: Notwithstanding my right I am considered a liar; My wound is incurable, though I am without disobedience.' What man is like Job, Who drinks scorn like water,
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Job 10
Commentary on Job 10 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 10
Job 10:1-22. Job's Reply to Bildad Continued.
1. leave my complaint upon myself—rather, "I will give loose to my complaint" (Job 7:11).
2. show me, &c.—Do not, by virtue of Thy mere sovereignty, treat me as guilty without showing me the reasons.
3. Job is unwilling to think God can have pleasure in using His power to "oppress" the weak, and to treat man, the work of His own hands, as of no value (Job 10:8; Ps 138:8).
shine upon—favor with prosperity (Ps 50:2).
4-6. Dost Thou see as feebly as man? that is, with the same uncharitable eye, as, for instance, Job's friends? Is Thy time as short? Impossible! Yet one might think, from the rapid succession of Thy strokes, that Thou hadst no time to spare in overwhelming me.
7. "Although Thou (the Omniscient) knowest," &c. (connected with Job 10:6), "Thou searchest after my sin."
and … that none that can deliver out of thine hand—Therefore Thou hast no need to deal with me with the rapid violence which man would use (see Job 10:6).
8. Made—with pains; implying a work of difficulty and art; applying to God language applicable only to man.
together round about—implying that the human body is a complete unity, the parts of which on all sides will bear the closest scrutiny.
9. clay—Job 10:10 proves that the reference here is, not so much to the perishable nature of the materials, as to their wonderful fashioning by the divine potter.
10. In the organization of the body from its rude commencements, the original liquid gradually assumes a more solid consistency, like milk curdling into cheese (Ps 139:15, 16). Science reveals that the chyle circulated by the lacteal vessels is the supply to every organ.
11. fenced—or "inlaid" (Ps 139:15); "curiously wrought" [Umbreit]. In the fœtus the skin appears first, then the flesh, then the harder parts.
12. visitation—Thy watchful Providence.
spirit—breath.
13. is with thee—was Thy purpose. All God's dealings with Job in his creation, preservation, and present afflictions were part of His secret counsel (Ps 139:16; Ac 15:18; Ec 3:11).
14, 15. Job is perplexed because God "marks" every sin of his with such ceaseless rigor. Whether "wicked" (godless and a hypocrite) or "righteous" (comparatively sincere), God condemns and punishes alike.
15. lift up my head—in conscious innocence (Ps 3:3).
see thou—rather, "and seeing I see (I too well see) mine affliction," (which seems to prove me guilty) [Umbreit].
16. increaseth—rather, "(if) I lift up (my head) Thou wouldest hunt me," &c. [Umbreit].
and again—as if a lion should not kill his prey at once, but come back and torture it again.
17. witnesses—His accumulated trials were like a succession of witnesses brought up in proof of his guilt, to wear out the accused.
changes and war—rather, "(thou settest in array) against me host after host" (literally, "changes and a host," that is, a succession of hosts); namely, his afflictions, and then reproach upon reproach from his friends.
20. But, since I was destined from my birth to these ills, at least give me a little breathing time during the few days left me (Job 9:34; 13:21; Ps 39:13).
22. The ideas of order and light, disorder and darkness, harmonize (Ge 1:2). Three Hebrew words are used for darkness; in Job 10:21 (1) the common word "darkness"; here (2) "a land of gloom" (from a Hebrew root, "to cover up"); (3) as "thick darkness" or blackness (from a root, expressing sunset). "Where the light thereof is like blackness." Its only sunshine is thick darkness. A bold figure of poetry. Job in a better frame has brighter thoughts of the unseen world. But his views at best wanted the definite clearness of the Christian's. Compare with his words here Re 21:23; 22:5; 2Ti 1:10.