Job 10:17

_THOU RENEWEST THY WITNESSES AGAINST ME, AND INCREASEST THINE INDIGNATION UPON ME; CHANGES AND WAR ARE AGAINST ME._ Thou renewest thy witnesses against me. His accumulated trials were like a succession of witnesses brought up in proof of his guilt, to wear out the accused. Compare Malachi 3:5, "I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers," etc. CHANGES AND WAR ARE AGAINST ME - rather ('thou settest in array) against me host after host' х_ CHªLIYPOWT _ (H2487) _ WªTSAABAA'_ (H6635)] - literally, changes and a host - i:e., a succession of hosts-namely, his afflictions, and then reproach upon reproach from his friends (Job 6:4;...

14-22 Job did not deny that as a sinner he deserved his sufferings; but he thought that justice was executed upon him with peculiar rigour. His gloom, unbelief, and hard thoughts of God, were as much to be ascribed to Satan's inward temptations, and his anguish of soul, under the sense of God's displeasure, as to his outward trials, and remaining depravity. Our Creator, become in Christ our Redeemer also, will not destroy the work of his hands in any humble believer; but will renew him unto holiness, that he may enjoy eternal life. If anguish on earth renders the grave a desirable refuge, what will be their condition who are condemned to the blackness of darkness for ever? Let every sinner seek deliverance from that dreadful state, and every believer be thankful to Jesus, who delivereth from the wrath to come....

Verse Job 10:17. _THOU RENEWEST THY WITNESSES_] In this speech of Job he is ever referring to _trials in courts of judicature_, and almost all his terms are _forensic_. Thou bringest witnesses in continual succession to confound and convict me. _CHANGES AND WAR_] I am as if attacked by successive troops; one company being wearied, another succeeds to the attack, so that I am harassed by continual warfare....

THOU RENEWEST THY WITNESSES AGAINST ME - Margin, “that is, plagues.” The Hebrew is, “thy witnesses” - עדיך _‛__ēdeykā_. So the Vulgate. The Septuagint is, “renewing against me my examination,” τὴν ἐξέτασίν μου _tēn_ _ecetasin_ _mou_. Rabbi Levi supposes that the plague of the leprosy is intended. But the true meaning seems to be, that God sent upon him calamities which were regarded by his friends as “proofs” or “witnesses” that he was wicked, the public and solemn attestation of God, as they supposed, to the truth that he was eminently a bad man. New proofs of this kind were constantly occurring in his augmenting and protracted sorrows, and he could not answer the arguments which were brought from them by his friends. CHANGES AND WAR ARE AGAINST ME - Or rather, are “with me,”...

EXPOSITION JOB 10:1 Having answered Bildad, Job proceeds to pour out the bitterness of his soul in a pathetic complaint, which he addresses directly to God. There is not much that is novel in the long expostulation, which mainly goes over ground covered in Job 3:1; Job 6:1; Job 7:1; but some new grounds are alleged as pleas for mercy, if not for justice. These are (1) that he is God's gesture, and in the past (at any rate) has been the object of his care (Job 7:3, J

THOU RENEWEST THY WITNESSES AGAINST ME,.... Not the devils, as some, nor Job's friends, as others; but rather afflictions, which were daily renewed, and frequently repeated, new troubles coming continually one upon another; which were brought as fresh witnesses against him, which made the suit tiresome to him, the trial to last the longer, which he wished was at end, that the decisive sentence might be pronounced and executed, and he be dispatched at once; but instead of that the affair was protracted by bringing in one witness after another, or one affliction upon the back of another, which were brought as witnesses "before him" a, as some render it; either to accuse him, and convince of sin, or as proofs of God's indignation against him, as in the next clause; or they were witnesses against him with the profane world, and even with his friends, who from hence concluded he must have bee...

CHAPTER S 9-10 JOB ANSWERS BILDAD _ 1. The supremacy and power of God (Job 9:1)_ 2. How then can Job meet Him? (Job 9:11) 3. He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked (Job 9:22) 4. Confession of weakness and the need of a daysman (Job 9:25) 5. Murmuring against God (Job 10:1) 6. Welcoming death (Job 10:18) Job 9:1. The final words of Bildad seemed to have had a momentary soothing

Job's tone becomes sharper. He accuses God of having created him only to torment him. What profit is there to God in destroying the work that has cost Him so much pains? (Job 10:3)? Is God short-sighted, so that He sees faults where they do not exist (Job 10:4)? How can He be, when He is eternal (Job 10:5)? Yet He inquires after Job's sin, torturing to make him confess (Job 10:6 f.). Job reminds God how He has made him (Job 10:10 f. describes according to the poet's physiology the formation of the embryo; _cf._ Ps

CHANGES AND WAR. successions, yea hostile successions. Figure of speech _Hendiadys_ (App-6). one thing: i.e.. constant succession....

The contradiction between this dealing with Job in the womb and since his birth and God's present treatment of him is only to be reconciled by the supposition that God's present severe treatment of Job had been resolved on from the first, and that His careful fashioning of him and care over him had been in order the better to carry out His purpose. The details of this cruel purpose are given in the following verses....