XIII. (2) I AM NOT INFERIOR UNTO YOU. — _I fall not short of you._ But it is this very sense of the inscrutableness of God’s dealings that makes him long to come face to face with God, and to reason with Him on the first principles of His action. As it is manifestly the traditionally orthodox posit... [ Continue Reading ]
YE ARE FORGERS OF LIES. — He now retorts upon his friends in terms not more deferential than their own, and calls them scrapers together, or patchers up, of falsehood, and physicians who are powerless to heal, or even to understand the case. He feels that they have failed miserably and utterly to un... [ Continue Reading ]
O THAT YE WOULD ALTOGETHER HOLD YOUR PEACE! is singularly like the sentiment of Proverbs 17:28. Their wisdom will consist in listening to his wisdom rather than displaying their own folly.... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL YE SPEAK WICKEDLY FOR GOD? — And now, in these verses, he gives utterance to a sublime truth, which shows how truly he had risen to the true conception of God, for he declares that He, who is no respecter of persons, desires to have no favour shown to Himself, and that in seeking to show favour... [ Continue Reading ]
AS ONE MAN MOCKETH ANOTHER. — As one man, with mingled flattery and deception, seeks to impose upon another.... [ Continue Reading ]
REMEMBRANCES — _i.e._ “Wise and memorable saws of garnered wisdom are proverbs of ashes, worthless as the dust, and fit for bodies of clay like your bodies.” Or, as some understand it, “Your high fabrics, or defences, are fabrics of clay,” as an independent parallelism.... [ Continue Reading ]
HOLD YOUR PEACE. — He now prepares to make a declaration like the memorable one in Job 19. He resolves at all hazards to face God in judgment.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE DO I TAKE MY FLESH IN MY TEETH. — This is probably the meaning of this verse, which, however, should not be read interrogatively: “At all risks, come what come may, I will take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hand.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUGH HE SLAY ME, YET WILL I TRUST IN HIM. — This rendering is almost proverbial; but, to say the least, its accuracy is very doubtful, for the better reading does not warrant it, but runs thus: _Behold He will slay me. I have no hope; yet will I maintain my ways before Him._ It is true we thus los... [ Continue Reading ]
HE ALSO SHALL BE MY SALVATION. — Comp. Psalms 27:1, &c. It is characteristic of Job that, living, as he probably did, outside the pale of Israel, he nevertheless shared the faith and knowledge of God’s chosen people; and this cannot be said of any other nation, nor docs any literature give evidence... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I HOLD MY TONGUE, I SHALL GIVE UP THE GHOST. — A marvellous confession, equivalent to, “If I give up my faith in Him who is my salvation, and my personal innocence, which goes hand-in-hand therewith, I shall perish. To give up my innocence is to give up Him in whom I hold my innocence, and in who... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL I NOT HIDE MYSELF FROM THEE — _i.e._, “I shall not be hidden” — quite a different word from that in Genesis 3:10, though the comparison of the two places is not without interest.... [ Continue Reading ]
WITHDRAW THINE HAND FAR FROM ME. — That is, “Cease to torture me bodily, and to terrify me mentally; let me at least have freedom from physical pain and the undue apprehension of Thy terrors.”... [ Continue Reading ]
HOW MANY ARE MINE INIQUITIES? — We must be careful to note that alongside with Job’s claim to be righteous there is ever as deep a confession of personal sin, thus showing that the only way in which we can understand his declarations is in the light of His teaching who convicts of sin before He conv... [ Continue Reading ]
WILT THOU BREAK A LEAF. — His confession of sin here approaches even to what the Psalmist describes as the condition of the ungodly (Psalms 1:4).... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THOU WRITEST BITTER THINGS AGAINST ME. — Exquisitely plaintive and affecting is this confession.... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU PUTTEST MY FEET ALSO IN THE STOCKS. — This is illustrated by the language of the Psalms (Psalms 88:8; Psalms 142:7, &c.). There is a difficulty in these two verses, arising from the pronouns. Some understand the subject to be the fetter: “Thou puttest my feet in the fetter that watcheth over al... [ Continue Reading ]