Job 23:16

_FOR GOD MAKETH MY HEART SOFT, AND THE ALMIGHTY TROUBLETH ME:_ Soft - faint. Hath melted my courage. Here again Job's language is that of Jesus Christ (Psalms 22:14, "My heart is like wax: it is melted in the midst of my bowels")....

13-17 As Job does not once question but that his trials are from the hand of God, and that there is no such thing as chance, how does he account for them? The principle on which he views them is, that the hope and reward of the faithful servants of God are only laid up in another life; and he maintains that it is plain to all, that the wicked are not treated according to their deserts in this life, but often directly the reverse. But though the obtaining of mercy, the first-fruits of the Spirit of grace, pledges a God, who will certainly finish the work which he has began; yet the afflicted believer is not to conclude that all prayer and entreaty will be in vain, and that he should sink into despair, and faint when he is reproved of Him. He cannot tell but the intention of God in afflicting him may be to produce penitence and prayer in his heart. May we learn to obey and trust the Lord,...

Verse Job 23:16. _FOR GOD MAKETH MY HEART SOFT_] Prostrates my _strength_, deprives me of _courage_, so that I sink beneath my burden, and I am troubled at the thought of the Almighty, the self-sufficient and eternal Being....

FOR GOD MAKETH MY HEART SOFT - That is, “faint.” He takes away my strength; compare the notes at Isaiah 7:4. This effect was produced on Job by the contemplation of the eternal plan and the power of God....

EXPOSITION VERSES 1-24:25 Job replies to Eliphaz in a speech of no great length, which, though it occupies two chapters, runs to only forty-two verses. He begins by justifying the vehemence of his complaints, first, on the ground of the severity of his sufferings (verse 2), and secondly, on the ground of his conviction that, if God would bring him to an open trial before his tribunal, he would acquit him (verses 3-12). By the way, he complains that God hides himself, and cannot be found (verses 3, 8, 9). He then further complains that God is not to be bent from his purpose, which is set against Job (verses 13-17). In Job 24:1. he goes over ground already trodden, maintaining the general prosperity of the wicked, and their exemption from any special earthly punishment (Job 24:2). H

FOR GOD MAKETH MY HEART SOFT,.... Not tender as Josiah's was, 2 Kings 22:19, or as the heart of every penitent is, when God makes it humble and contrite by his spirit and grace, or takes away the stony heart, and gives an heart of flesh; though Job had such an heart, and God made it so; but he means a weak, feeble, fearful heart, pressed and broken with afflictions, that could not endure and bear up under the mighty hand of God; but became as water, and melted like wax in the midst of him, and was ready to faint, and sink, and die away: AND THE ALMIGHTY TROUBLETH ME; by afflicting him; afflictions cause trouble, and these are of God; or he "astonishes" a, amazes me, throws me into the utmost consternation, the reason of which follows. a הבהילני "me attonitum reddidit", Vatablus; "consternavit me", Drusius, Mercerus, Cocceius, Michaelis; "extern

We shall read, this evening, in the Book of Job. May the good Spirit instruct us during our reading! Here we shall see Job in a very melancholy plight, grievously distressed in mind, and yet, for all that, holding fast to his God. We do not want any of you to get into this gloomy condition, but if you are in such a state as that, or if you ever should be, may you behave as well as Job did! It needs a deal of grace to travel all right in the dark, to keep in the good way when you cannot see it, to cling to God when you cannot even feel that he is near you; but the Lord can give grace even for such an emergency as that. Job 23:1. _then Job answered and said, Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning._ Job admitted that he groaned, but he claimed that he had good reason for doing so; that, indeed, the source of his grief was greater

CHAPTER S 23-24 JOB'S REPLY _ 1. O that I knew where I may find Him (Job 23:1)_ 2. Trusting yet doubting (Job 23:10) 3. Hath God failed? (Job 24:1) 4. Job's further testimony as to the wicked (Job 24:13) Job 23:1. Job here does not disprove at once the false charges of Eliphaz. He can afford to wait till later, till their mouths are completely silenced. Then he speaks the final word. He acknowledgeth that he is still rebellious. His hand which is upon him is heavier than all his groanings. Then that outburst which reveals the longing of his t

But God follows His own will and does what He pleases. Therefore Job is afraid. In Job 23:13 a read with Duhm, But he has decreed. Job 23:14 points out that Job's case does not stand alone. Job 23:17 is obscure. Read For I am cut off by the darkness, and thick darkness covers my face (Duhm)....

GOD. Hebrew El. App-4. SOFT. faint, or unnerved. Compare Deuteronomy 20:3.Isaiah 7:4. THE ALMIGHTY. Hebrew Shaddai. App-4....