Ch. 10. Job’s new Appeal to God, in the form of an effort to discover what in the Divine Nature it can be that will explain his terrible sufferings

The chapter attaches itself closely to the last words of ch. 9, precisely as ch. 7 to the end of ch. 6. Ch. 9 ended with the expression of the feeling on Job’s part of his own innocence, and at the same time of the feeling that God had determined to hold him guilty. Added to this was the feeling of his helplessness to make his innocence appear against God’s power and majesty. After a slight pause, perhaps, these mixed feelings gather new volume in his mind and he breaks out, perplexed and baffled, my soul is weary of my life. Then commences an appeal unto God in which one supposition after another is hazarded as to what in God’s nature it is that is the secret of Job’s sufferings, each supposition being refuted by being seen to be in contradiction to God’s true nature. The whole thus forms a very impassioned argument with God founded on His own nature.

First, Job appeals to God not to make him guilty by mere arbitrary will, but if He have cause against him to reveal it, Job 10:2. Then with a strong feeling of his own innocence he asks if it be a pleasure to God to oppress and reject the just and smile upon the wicked? Can it be that God finds pleasure in this? Job 10:3. Then he wonders if God have eyes of flesh, subject to illusion and error, so that He mistakes the innocent for the guilty; or if He be short-lived like men and must gratify His vengeance on suspicion lest His victim should escape Him—though in truth none of this could be, for He knew Job’s innocence, and none could deliver from His hand, Job 10:4-7.

Then the mention of His “hands” suggests to Job, and he brings it before God, the strange contradiction in God’s treatment of him—His hands fashioned Him once like a precious vessel and now He reduces him to dust again! Job 10:8.

This contradiction vividly put in Job 10:8 is then enlarged upon. Job recalls God’s remembrance to past times, how He wonderfully began his being in the womb, and with a careful and minute tenderness fashioned all his parts, forming him with a prodigal expenditure of skill; and then when a living man hedged him about with loving kindness and guarded his spirit with constant oversight, Job 10:9-12. The contradiction between this gracious guidance in the past and God’s present treatment of him utterly baffles Job, and he leaps to the desperate conclusion that all that he now suffers had always been designed by God, and that even while expending His greatest skill upon him He had been cherishing this deep purpose of plaguing him. With an elaborate minuteness Job goes over this divine scheme, Job 10:13-17, and as he realizes it to himself in detailing it,

He finally cries out in despair, why God ever gave him life at all, Job 10:18-19? and begs for a little easing of his pain before he goes into the land of darkness, Job 10:20-21; concluding with some terrible touches concerning that gloomy land, where the light is as darkness, Job 10:22.

1. leave my complaint upon myself] Rather, give free course to my complaint, cf. ch. Job 7:11 seq.

2. Do not condemn me] Or, make me not guilty; that is, by mere arbitrary will. Job felt himself “made guilty” by his afflictions, which to all were proofs that God held him guilty.

thou contendest with me] Job’s afflictions were proof that God had a contention or plea against him, Job desires to know the ground of it. Perhaps the afflictions themselves may be called the contention.

3. 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.

4. Job hazards the supposition that God has eyes like men and may see amiss, to account for His mistaken treatment of him.

5–7. Then he asks if God’s life be brief like human life, that by the inquisition of chastisements He seeks to bring Job’s sin to light, lest His victim should outlive Him, and hurries on his punishment lest some one should rescue His captive from His hand.

7. thou knowest] Rather, though thou knowest. All these suppositions are vain; for as to the first (Job 10:4), God knew that Job was guiltless, and as to the other, none could rescue from His hand. The suppositions are but a subtle mode of appealing from God to God Himself, from God’s dealing in providence to God’s inner heart and being.

8. According to the Hebrew punctuation this verse reads,

Thine hands have fashioned me and made me,

Together round about; and thou dost destroy me!

Mention of God’s hand, Job 10:7, suggests how of old God’s hand fashioned him with lavish expenditure of skill on all his parts, and he brings the contradiction of God’s present dealing with him before God—exclaiming, Thou dost destroy me!

9. The figure is that of a potter who has lavished infinite care upon his vessel, and now reduces his work of elaborate skill and exquisite ornament into dust again.

10–12. These verses refer to the formation of the child in the womb, from conception to full growth, cf. Psalm 139:13-16.

11. fenced me] Rather, woven, or, knit me.

12. granted me life and favour] i. e. granted me life and shewn me loving kindness. The verse speaks of God’s dealing with Job from the time he was born and became a living man.

thy visitation] i. e. thy providence.

13. and these things hast thou hid] Better perhaps, but these things didst thou hide.

this is with thee] Rather, this was with thee,—was thy purpose, and in thy thoughts, cf. ch. Job 9:35. “These things” and “this” refer to the details about to be given (Job 10:14-17) of God’s deep purpose cherished beforehand of plaguing Job.

13–17. 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.

14. If I sin, then thou markest] Rather, if I sinned then thou wouldst mark. Similarly, wouldst not acquit. “To sin” here appears to mean, to be guilty of trivial sins (ch. Job 7:20, Job 13:26); if he sinned even venially his sin would be held in remembrance against him and not remitted. This is the first supposition included in the Divine purpose with Job.

15. if I be wicked] Better, were I wicked—guilty of great offences. Job cannot express what would be the punishment of greater sins were e guilty of them, but indicates its incalculable severity by the exclamation, Woe unto me! This the second supposition.

and if I be righteous] Rather, and were I righteous.

yet will I not lift up] Or, yet must I not lift up my head.

I am full of confusion] The words to the end of the verse must mean, being filled with shame and beholding (or, and with the sight of) mine affliction. Were Job righteous he must not lift up his head in the consciousness of innocence or to protest against his being held guilty. This is the third supposition, which is further illustrated in the next verse.

16. This verse reads, and if it (i. e. my head) should lift itself up, thou wouldst hunt me as a fierce lion, and again shew &c. Cf. the figure of a wild beast again, ch. Job 16:9. There is a touch of sarcasm in the words “shew thyself marvellous upon me,”—marvellous in the variety and nature of His plagues, and in plaguing such an object.

17. thou renewest] wouldst renew. Similarly, and increase. All the verbs in these verses (Job 10:14-17) are to be translated from the point of view of God’s intention cherished beforehand with regard to Job. This intention has, of course, been carried out, and has been fulfilled in Job’s present condition, and this condition supplies the colours in which the intention is painted. God’s “witnesses” are His plagues and afflictions, as the margin explains, which testified to Job’s guilt, cf. ch. Job 16:8.

changes and war are against me] Or, changes and a host with me. The words are either an exclamation, in which the preceding statements of Job 10:17 are summed up; or are in apposition to “indignation,” being a description of how this indignation shews itself. The expression “changes and a host” means most naturally, an ever-changing, or, renewed host, the figure being that of an attacking army which makes continually fresh and renewed assaults. This army is composed of his afflictions sent against him by God, ch. Job 6:4, Job 16:14, Job 19:12. Others regard the “changes” as the successive new attacks, and the “host” as the abiding old army of afflictions,—which seems artificial and puerile. The word “change” occurs ch. Job 14:14 in the sense of release, and the word “host” in the general meaning of warfare, ch. Job 7:1, Job 14:14. If these meanings were adopted here the sense would be: releases and warfare with me, i. e. brief intervals and then terrible conflict. Job, however, usually represents his afflictions as without intermission.

18, 19. Perplexed even to despair by this idea of the purpose of God Job asks, Why God ever gave him existence at all? and as in ch. Job 3:11 seq. wishes he had never seen life.

hast thou brought] didst thou bring.

Oh that I had given] I should have given.

20–22. He begs for a little easing of his pain ere he departs to the land of darkness.

are not my days few] The same argument as ch. Job 7:16.

cease then, and let me alone] Another reading is, let him cease then, &c. In the last case the speaker turns away from God and speaks of Him. In the rest of the chapter, however, Job everywhere addresses God.

take comfort] The same word as ch. Job 9:27, brighten up.

22. without any order] There Chaos reigns; cf. the beautiful description of the effect of light upon the earth, ch. Job 38:12-14.

the light is as darkness] The light in that region is

No light, but rather darkness visible.

Job’s three friends, strong in their traditional theory and unobservant of facts or indifferent to them, maintained that God’s rule of the world was righteous, by which they meant that He rewarded the righteous with outward good and dispensed severe suffering only to the great sinner. Job agreed with them that this ought to be the way in which God governed the world, and would be the way in which a just ruler would govern it. But his own experience and much that he could perceive taking place in the world convinced him that the world was not governed in this way in fact. This feeling not only disturbed but threatened to transform Job’s whole idea of God. His unbearable sufferings and this thought of God’s injustice together suggested to his mind the conception of the supreme Power in the world as an omnipotent, cruel Force, that crushed all, good and evil, alike, and mocked at the despair of the innocent. This is the tone of Job’s mind in ch. 9, in which he does not address God but speaks of Him in a kind of agitated soliloquy, as if fascinated by the omnipotent unmoral spectre which his imagination has conjured up. The difference between Job’s ways of thinking and those prevailing in our own day can readily be seen. In our day we have reached an ideal of God, to which, if there be any God, he must correspond. And even if we took the same pessimistic view of the world as Job did we should hesitate to believe that the conception was embodied in any Being; we should probably conclude that there was no God. But such a conclusion could not suggest itself to an Oriental mind. God’s existence and personality were things which Job could not doubt. Hence he had no help but invest God with the attributes of evil which he thought he saw reflected in the world.

It might seem that Job is now on the high road to renounce God, as Satan had predicted he would do. But Job does not find renouncing God quite so easy a thing. And he enters upon a course in ch. 10 which, though at first it appears to take him a step further in this direction, is really the beginning of a retreat. He endeavours to set before his mind as broad a view of God as he is able, in order that by thinking of all that he knows of God he may catch the end of some clue to his calamities. This makes him realize how much he is still sure of in regard to God. And first, he cannot doubt that He is all-knowing and omnipotent (Job 10:3-7). But he goes further. He cannot help seeing in the carefulness and lavish skill with which he was fashioned round about in all his being by the hands of God, not only wisdom, but a gracious Benevolence, and in the preservation of his spirit a Providence which was good. And he dwells on these things, not in the cold manner of a philosopher making an induction, but with all the fervour of a religious mind, which felt that it had fellowship with the Being whose goodness it experienced, and still longed for this fellowship. Yet God’s present treatment of him seemed in contradiction to all this. Thus Job balances God against Himself. Others have done the same, asking the question whether the order of the world inclines to the side of benevolence or of evil; and some have professed themselves unable to answer. So strong is Job’s present sense of misery that he concludes that the universal Ruler is evil. His present treatment of him displays His real nature, and His former goodness was but apparent (Job 10:13-17). Thus this singular method adopted by Job of balancing God against God seems to have led him further into darkness. Yet there is no other method by which he can reach the light; and though the balance inclines in one direction meantime, by and by it will incline in another. See notes on chap. Job 16:18 seq.