11 On His step hath my foot laid hold, His way I have kept, and turn not aside,
for, if having escaped from the pollutions of the world, in the acknowledging of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, and by these again being entangled, they have been overcome, become to them hath the last things worse than the first, for it were better to them not to have acknowledged the way of the righteousness, than having acknowledged `it', to turn back from the holy command delivered to them, and happened to them hath that of the true similitude; `A dog did turn back upon his own vomit,' and, `A sow having bathed herself -- to rolling in mire.'
Jehovah doth recompense me According to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands, He doth return to me. For I have kept the ways of Jehovah, And have not done wickedly against my God. For all His judgments `are' before me, And His statutes I turn not from me. And I am perfect with him, And I keep myself from mine iniquity. And Jehovah doth return to me, According to my righteousness, According to the cleanness of my hands, Over-against his eyes.
and when they were come unto him, he said to them, `Ye -- ye know from the first day in which I came to Asia, how, with you at all times I was; serving the Lord with all humility, and many tears, and temptations, that befell me in the counsels of the Jews against `me';
and now, lo, the king is walking habitually before you, and I have become aged and gray-headed, and my sons, lo, they `are' with you, and I have walked habitually before you from my youth till this day. `Lo, here `am' I; testify against me, over-against Jehovah, and over-against His anointed; whose ox have I taken, and whose ass have I taken, and whom have I oppressed; whom have I bruised, and of whose hand have I taken a ransom, and hide mine eyes with it? -- and I restore to you.' And they say, `Thou hast not oppressed us, nor hast thou crushed us, nor hast thou taken from the hand of any one anything.' And he saith unto them, `A witness `is' Jehovah against you: and a witness `is' His anointed this day, that ye have not found anything in my hand;' and they say, `A witness.'
`And those upon the rock: They who, when they may hear, with joy do receive the word, and these have no root, who for a time believe, and in time of temptation fall away. `And that which fell to the thorns: These are they who have heard, and going forth, through anxieties, and riches, and pleasures of life, are choked, and bear not to completion. `And that in the good ground: These are they, who in an upright and good heart, having heard the word, do retain `it', and bear fruit in continuance.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Job 23
Commentary on Job 23 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 23
THIRD SERIES.
Job 23:1-17. Job's Answer.
2. to-day—implying, perhaps, that the debate was carried on through more days than one (see Introduction).
bitter—(Job 7:11; 10:1).
my stroke—the hand of God on me (Margin, Job 19:21; Ps 32:4).
heavier than—is so heavy that I cannot relieve myself adequately by groaning.
3. The same wish as in Job 13:3 (compare Heb 10:19-22).
Seat—The idea in the Hebrew is a well-prepared throne (Ps 9:7).
4. order—state methodically (Job 13:18; Isa 43:26).
fill, &c.—I would have abundance of arguments to adduce.
5. he—emphatic: it little matters what man may say of me, if only I know what God judges of me.
6. An objection suggests itself, while he utters the wish (Job 23:5). Do I hereby wish that He should plead against me with His omnipotence? Far from it! (Job 9:19, 34; 13:21; 30:18).
strength—so as to prevail with Him: as in Jacob's case (Ho 12:3, 4). Umbreit and Maurer better translate as in Job 4:20 (I only wish that He) "would attend to me," that is, give me a patient hearing as an ordinary judge, not using His omnipotence, but only His divine knowledge of my innocence.
7. There—rather, "Then": if God would "attend" to me (Job 23:6).
righteous—that is, the result of my dispute would be, He would acknowledge me as righteous.
delivered—from suspicion of guilt on the part of my Judge.
8. But I wish in vain. For "behold," &c.
forward … backward—rather, "to the east—to the west." The Hebrew geographers faced the east, that is, sunrise: not the north, as we do. So "before" means east: "behind," west (so the Hindus). Para, "before"—east: Apara, "behind"—west: Daschina, "the right hand"—south: Bama, "left"—north. A similar reference to sunrise appears in the name Asia, "sunrise," Europe, "sunset"; pure Babylonian names, as Rawlinson shows.
9. Rather, "To the north."
work—God's glorious works are especially seen towards the north region of the sky by one in the northern hemisphere. The antithesis is between God working and yet not being beheld: as in Job 9:11, between "He goeth by," and "I see Him not." If the Hebrew bears it, the parallelism to the second clause is better suited by translating, as Umbreit, "doth hide himself"; but then the antithesis to "behold" would be lost.
right hand—"in the south."
hideth—appropriately, of the unexplored south, then regarded as uninhabitable because of its heat (see Job 34:29).
10. But—correcting himself for the wish that his cause should be known before God. The omniscient One already knoweth the way in me (my inward principles: His outward way or course of acts is mentioned in Job 23:11. So in me, Job 4:21); though for some inscrutable cause He as yet hides Himself (Job 23:8, 9).
when—let Him only but try my cause, I shall, &c.
11. held—fast by His steps. The law is in Old Testament poetry regarded as a way, God going before us as our guide, in whose footsteps we must tread (Ps 17:5).
declined—(Ps 125:5).
12. esteemed—rather, "laid up," namely, as a treasure found (Mt 13:44; Ps 119:11); alluding to the words of Eliphaz (Job 22:22). There was no need to tell me so; I have done so already (Jer 15:16).
necessary—"Appointed portion" (of food; as in Pr 30:8). Umbreit and Maurer translate, "More than my law," my own will, in antithesis to "the words of His mouth" (Joh 6:38). Probably under the general term, "what is appointed to me" (the same Hebrew is in Job 23:14), all that ministers to the appetites of the body and carnal will is included.
13. in one mind—notwithstanding my innocence, He is unaltered in His purpose of proving me guilty (Job 9:12).
soul—His will (Ps 115:3). God's sovereignty. He has one great purpose; nothing is haphazard; everything has its proper place with a view to His purpose.
14. many such—He has yet many more such ills in store for me, though hidden in His breast (Job 10:13).
15. God's decrees, impossible to be resisted, and leaving us in the dark as to what may come next, are calculated to fill the mind with holy awe [Barnes].
16. soft—faint; hath melted my courage. Here again Job's language is that of Jesus Christ (Ps 22:14).
17. Because I was not taken away by death from the evil to come (literally, "from before the face of the darkness," Isa 57:1). Alluding to the words of Eliphaz (Job 22:11), "darkness," that is, calamity.
cut off—rather, in the Arabic sense, brought to the land of silence; my sad complaint hushed in death [Umbreit]. "Darkness" in the second clause, not the same Hebrew word as in the first, "cloud," "obscurity." Instead of "covering the cloud (of evil) from my face," He "covers" me with it (Job 22:11).