Job 9:1 ¶ Then Job answered and said,
Job 9:2 I know it is so of a truth: but how should man be just with God?
Job 9:3 If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.
Job 9:4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?
As Job responds to Bildad, you can hear his frustration. Though phrased in questions, Job is making statements. He agrees with the principle truths they have expressed—yet he can’t reconcile those truths with his experience. In light of that, he wonders how any man can clear himself and be declared righteous before God. He notes that no man would be able to answer Him satisfactorily even one time in a thousand. God is wise, full of understanding, strong and powerful. No one can stand against Him and succeed.
We are so blessed to be able to stand before God clothed in the righteousness of Jesus!
2 Corinthians 5:19–21 “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation….For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Though not stated as such, context shows that in describing God, Job believes Him to be superior to any mere human in all of these respects. The following section goes on to provide examples of that difference and of God’s power.
Job 9:5 Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger.
Job 9:6 Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble.
Job 9:7 Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars.
Job 9:8 Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.
Job 9:9 Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south.
Job 9:10 Which doeth great things past finding out; yea, and wonders without number.
Job describes God in no uncertain terms as the Creator. He can move mountains and destroy them in his anger though we cannot understand how. He can make the earth shake and its very foundation tremble. He can forbid the sun to rise and the stars to shine. God alone stretched out the heavens and can control the waters as a man bends a bow. He created the stars and constellations we see in the sky. In fact, He does many great things that we can’t understand and more miracles than can ever be counted.
Interestingly, God will reference this very truth, using some of the statements made by Job in this section when He makes His address at the end of this book.
Coffman notes: He maketh the Bear, Orion, and Pleiades “These are among the best known constellations. The Bear is Ursa Major, generally known as the Great Dipper. Orion dominates the winter skies, and the Pleiades those of the spring.”
Job 9:11 Lo, he goeth by me, and I see him not: he passeth on also, but I perceive him not.
Job 9:12 Behold, he taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?
Job 9:13 If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him.
Job continues; God can go right by me, and I would not be able to see Him. He can take what He wants, and no one can prevent it. No one would dare ask Him what He is doing. God does not back off from His anger, and no one can stand against Him.
Job 9:14 ¶ How much less shall I answer him, and choose out my words to reason with him?
Job 9:15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.
Job 9:16 If I had called, and he had answered me; yet would I not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice.
Job 9:17 For he breaketh me with a tempest, and multiplieth my wounds without cause.
In light of all that, Job declares that he could never figure out what words to use to reason with Him. Even though he feels he is innocent before God, he does not know how to defend himself before Him. He declared that even if he could get an audience with God, He would not pay attention to him since He had already dealt with him, overwhelming him with trouble and continuing to increase those wounds without reason.
Job is stating the facts as he sees them. He admits that no one dares question God as to His actions, yet continues to maintain his innocence before Him. He does not blaspheme God, but he is very clear in stating that he cannot make sense of what is happening to him.
I liked this quote Guzik used from Lawson: “When Job says he is guiltless, he is not claiming to be sinless. He’s not espousing moral perfection. Just relative innocence. He doesn’t believe he’s done anything to deserve this kind of treatment.”
I think this is a valid statement considering what I learned in chapter 1.
Job 1:5 “And it was so, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.”
The wording seems to indicate that Job interceded daily for his children thinking they might have sinned against God unaware (from the Hebrew for “hearts”). So Job was aware that one could sin unintentionally. That is also why he uses the phrase “though I were righteous.” I think that is why he keeps expressing the desire for God to identify his sin.
Job 9:18 He will not suffer me to take my breath, but filleth me with bitterness.
Job 9:19 If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?
Job 9:20 If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.
Job 9:21 Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul: I would despise my life.
Once again Job attributes his suffering to God. He is technically right since it is by God’s permission that Satan has been able to attack him. However, he is entirely wrong in thinking that God is angry with him.
Job describes his affliction as making it hard for him to breathe and filling him with grief. Job knows he is incapable of standing in strength to challenge God. If he tried to justify himself, his own words would be used against him. If he declared himself blameless before God, that very statement would make him guilty. Job maintains that he is innocent, but he recognizes that there may be sin within him of which he is unaware. He wishes he could just disappear (from the Hebrew for “despise”).
Reminder: Words in italics are added to help our understanding, but sometimes I think we are better off without them.
Job 9:22 ¶ This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.
Job 9:23 If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent.
Job 9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, and who is he?
Job basically declares that in the end God causes both the righteous and the wicked to die physically. True.
In verse 23 Job seems to be saying that God scorns the testing (from the Hebrew for “trial”) of the righteous—in other words, God doesn’t really care. In fact, He is the one that puts the wicked in power. If not God, who?
It is true that God establishes and puts down kings and often allows the wicked to prosper under the rule of Satan—truths that are hard for us to understand with our limited abilities. Yes, God is sovereign over all that occurs in His creation. However, He isn’t the causative factor behind all the bad things that happen. Sin is the causative factor along with the spiritual forces of evil. Man is responsible for that sin because he fell for the deception of the enemy in Adam. Still, God often uses the wicked choices of man and even the actions of Satan and his cohorts in accomplishing His purposes—as He is doing in the life of Job.
I don’t know if Job realizes that God will one day establish His kingdom in righteousness and eliminate the presence of evil.
Job 9:25 ¶ Now my days are swifter than a post: they flee away, they see no good.
Job 9:26 They are passed away as the swift ships: as the eagle that hasteth to the prey.
Job 9:27 If I say, I will forget my complaint, I will leave off my heaviness, and comfort myself:
Job 9:28 I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.
Job describes his days as passing quickly by with nothing good about them. He compares them to ships moving quickly over the sea and eagles pouncing on their prey. Even if he decided to try to put on a happy face, it would change nothing; he would still fear his sorrows, mainly the fact that God does not judge him to be innocent.
Even though Job has said that he wishes he were dead, it seems like he knows that death is approaching; and he really doesn’t want to die without being proven innocent.
Job 9:29 If I be wicked, why then labour I in vain?
Job 9:30 If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;
Job 9:31 Yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall abhor me.
Job continues to reason that if he is guilty, why should he continue to exhaust himself with life. He could wash with the purest water and try to make himself as clean as possible, but God would thrust him into a pit of destruction (from the Hebrew for “ditch”) and even his clothing would loathe to be on him.
Job 9:32 For he is not a man, as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment.
Job 9:33 Neither is there any daysman betwixt us, that might lay his hand upon us both.
Job 9:34 Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:
Job 9:35 Then would I speak, and not fear him; but it is not so with me.
Job notes that God is not a common man that he could confront in court. There is no arbitrator (daysman) that could deal with both of them as equals. If God would remove His rod of judgment from him, he would not live in terror. Maybe then he could speak to Him in his defense—but that is not possible.
I really liked Stedman’s observation: “For the first time in this book we begin to see what God is after with this man, why he is putting him through this protracted trial. For now Job begins to feel, deep in his bones, the nature of reality: the terrible gulf between man and God that must be bridged by another party. We who live in the full light of the New Testament know that he is crying out, and feeling deep within, the need for just such a mediator as Jesus himself.”
Courson: “As He did with Job, the Lord takes us through tests to cause us to be made perfect in faith in order that we might be equipped to rule with Him in eternity. But He promises He won’t test us above what we are able….
1 Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
…This means He will only allow us to be tested in relationship to what He has prepared us for in our walk with Him and in our knowledge of Him.”
Job 10:1 ¶ My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.
Job 10:2 I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.
Once again Job declares he hates his life. He is determined to express his complaint before God and ask Him to identify what he has done wrong.
I am convinced that if Job had known the truth about what was happening to him, he would have gladly endured the physical pain to honor his God. It was the thought that there was the possibility of unknown sin in his life for which God was punishing him that caused him the most pain. All of his complaints have focused on this issue; not once up to this point has he asked for healing.
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?
Job 10:4 Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?
Job 10:5 Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man’s days,
Job 10:6 That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin?
Job 10:7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.
Job asks God why He wants to oppress him, a man of His making, yet let the wicked prosper. He wonders if God is looking through a man’s eyes, from a man’s perspective on life. He wonders why God is so focused on identifying sin in his life. He confidently declares that God knows he is not a wicked man, yet there is no one that can deliver him from God’s judgment.
Job is still trying to bring God down to a level that he can understand instead of accepting that God is beyond man’s understanding. Scripture tells us that God doesn’t view days and years with the same perspective as man, and His reasoning is far beyond man’s understanding.
Psalm 90:4 “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.”
Isaiah 55:8–9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Job 10:8 ¶ Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.
Job 10:9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?
Job recognizes God as his Creator, and he wonders if God created him just to destroy him. He reminds God that He fashioned him like a potter does clay, so why would he want to turn him back to dust.
Jeremiah made reference to this truth, including the fact that the potter has the right to do as he wishes with the clay.
Jeremiah 18:3–4 “Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.”
Job 10:10 Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?
Job 10:11 Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.
Taken together these verses seem to be describing the conception and development of a baby.
The CJB translation of verse 10 helps: “Didn’t you pour me out like milk,
then let me thicken like cheese?”
Job 10:12 Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
Job 10:13 And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.
Job 10:14 ¶ If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
Job admits that God had granted him favor in his life before calamity struck.
Most translations indicate verses 13-14 as one sentence, implying that God blessed Job so that He could attack him as soon as he sinned and never forgive him.
Once again Job references the possibility that he had sinned unwittingly. If so, he wants to be told how.
Job 10:15 If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;
Job 10:16 For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.
Job 10:17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.
Job declares that if he is wicked, he deserves God’s judgment. If he is innocent, he is still shamed and disgraced because his troubles continue to increase; and his friends will still believe him guilty.
He feels like God is hunting him like a fierce lion, singling him out for destruction. Job feels like the testimony against him is mounting and hardships keep on coming.
Job 10:18 Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!
Job 10:19 I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
Job 10:20 Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,
Job 10:21 Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;
Job 10:22 A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.
In light of all this, Job wonders why God allowed him to be born. If only he had died at birth and gone from the womb to the grave. He thinks he has but few days left to live and wants God to leave him alone so that he can have a bit of comfort before going to the land of death and darkness from which he shall never return.
We know from a later discourse that Job expects to see God face to face, but we don’t really know what else he understood about life after death regarding both saint and sinner.