Job 10:3

_IS IT GOOD UNTO THEE THAT THOU SHOULDEST OPPRESS, THAT THOU SHOULDEST DESPISE THE WORK OF THINE HANDS, AND SHINE UPON THE COUNSEL OF THE WICKED?_ Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of the hands? Job is unwilling to think God can have "pleasure" in using his power to "oppress" the week, and to "treat" man, "the work of His own hands (so curiously and elaborately formed, as though his, creation were a work of labour), as of no value" (Job 10:8); "Forsake not the works of thine own hands" (Psalms 138:8). AND SHINE UPON THE COUNSEL OF THE WICKED? - favour with prosperity (Psalms 50:2)....

1-7 Job, being weary of his life, resolves to complain, but he will not charge God with unrighteousness. Here is a prayer that he might be delivered from the sting of his afflictions, which is sin. When God afflicts us, he contends with us; when he contends with us, there is always a reason; and it is desirable to know the reason, that we may repent of and forsake the sin for which God has a controversy with us. But when, like Job, we speak in the bitterness of our souls, we increase guilt and vexation. Let us harbour no hard thoughts of God; we shall hereafter see there was no cause for them. Job is sure that God does not discover things, nor judge of them, as men do; therefore he thinks it strange that God continues him under affliction, as if he must take time to inquire into his sin....

Verse Job 10:3. IS IT _GOOD UNTO THEE_] Surely it can be no gratification to thee to distress the children of men, as if thou didst despise the work of thy own hands. _AND SHINE UPON THE COUNSEL_] For by my afflictions the harsh judgments of the wicked will appear to be confirmed: viz., that God regards not his most fervent worshippers; and it is no benefit to lead a religious life....

IS IT GOOD UNTO THEE THAT THOU SHOULDEST OPPRESS - The sense of this is, that it could not be with God a matter of personal gratification to inflict pain wantonly. There must be a reason why he did it. This was clear to Job, and he was anxious, therefore, to know the reason why he was treated in this manner. Yet there is evidently here not a little of the spirit of complaining. There is an insinuation that God was afflicting him beyond what he deserved; see Job 10:7. The state of his mind appears to have been this: he is conscious to himself that he is a sincere friend of God, and he is unwilling to believe that God can wantonly inflict pain - and yet he has no other way of accounting for it. He is in a sort driven to this painful conclusion - and he asks with deep feeling, whether it can be so? Is there no other solution than this? Is there no way of explaining the fact

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

[IS IT] GOOD UNTO THEE THAT THOU SHOULDEST OPPRESS?.... This God does not approve of in others; he dehorts men from it; he threatens to punish those that do so, and to be a swift witness against them; he promises to arise to the help of the oppressed, and to be a refuge for them, and therefore will never do the same himself; it can never be pleasant to him, nor right and just in his sight, nor is it of any advantage to him. Job here suggests that his afflictions were an oppression to him; and, indeed, no affliction is joyous, but grievous, and sometimes the hand of God presses hard and sore, but then there is no injury nor any injustice done, as the word e here used signifies; and he intimates also, as if God took some seeming delight and pleasure in thus oppressing him, and therefore expostulates with him about it, as if such conduct was not fit and becoming him, not agreeable to his pe...

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

HANDS. Figure of speech _Anthropopatheia._ App-6. Compare Psalms 119:73; Psalms 138:8, and Psalms 139:5; Psalms 139:10. WICKED. lawless. Hebrew. _rasha'._ App-44....

_is it good unto thee_ The usual meaning of the phrase is, Is it thy pleasure, does it seem right to thee? Deuteronomy 23:17. The words might also mean, Is it becoming thee? Exodus 14:12. The former sense suits the connexion better, because Job is groping after the discovery of some characteristic or quality in God to account for his afflictions. _the work of thine hands_ No doubt both Job and the wicked were all the work of God's hands, but the righteous are in such a special sense the work of His hands that here they are so described in opposition to the wicked....