Job 10:3

World English Bible

Contextual Overview

¹ "My soul is weary of my life; I will give free course to my complaint. I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. ² I will tell God, 'Do not condemn me, Show me why you contend with me. ³ Is it good to you that you should oppress, That you should despise the work of your hands, And smile on the counsel of the wicked? ⁴ Do you have eyes of flesh? Or do you see as man sees? ⁵ Are your days as the days of mortals, Or your years as man's years, ⁶ That you inquire after my iniquity, And search after my sin? ⁷ Although you know that I am not wicked, There is no one who can deliver out of your hand.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Is it good: Job 34:5-7, Job 34:18, Job 34:19, Job 36:7-9, Job 36:17, Job 36:18, Job 40:2, Job 40:8, Lamentations 3:2-18

despise: Psalms 69:33

the work: Heb. the labour, Job 14:15, Job 34:19, Psalms 138:8, Isaiah 64:8, 1 Peter 4:19

shine upon: Job 8:20, Jeremiah 12:1-3

Reciprocal: Job 8:3 - God Job 10:8 - yet thou Job 15:13 - and lettest Job 19:7 - I cry Job 27:2 - taken Job 32:2 - because Job 36:5 - despiseth Psalms 1:1 - counsel Psalms 73:14 - For all Psalms 80:1 - shine

Cross-References

Jeremiah 51:27
Set you up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough canker-worm.

Ezekiel 27:14
They of the house of Togarmah traded for your wares with horses and war-horses and mules.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

[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 perfections, and could afford neither pleasure nor profit. This, and what follows in this verse, are expostulations too bold and daring, and in which Job uses too much freedom with the Almighty, and in which he is not so modest as in Job 10:2:

that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands? which he tacitly insinuates he did. Job means himself, who, as to his body, and the several members of it, were the work of God's hands, curiously and wonderfully made by him, as is afterwards expressed; and as to his soul, and the powers and faculties of it, they were his make, who is the Father of spirits; and moreover, as a new man, he was made by him, was the workmanship of God, and a curious piece indeed, created after his image in righteousness and true holiness; and he was in every sense the work of his hands, or "the labour of his hands" f; wrought with great care and labour, even with the "palms of his hands", as is the word g used; and could Job think that God "despised" such a work? he who, upon a survey of his works, said they were all very good; who forsakes not the work of his hands, nor despises the day of small things, could never do this; nor are afflictions to be interpreted in such a manner, as if God was indifferent unto, slighted and thought meanly of, what he himself has wrought; since these are so far from having such a meaning, that they flow from that great respect he has for his own work, and are for the good of it:

and shine upon the counsel of the wicked? either the counsel of the wicked one, Satan, who moved God to afflict him in the manner he had, or of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, who thrived and prospered, notwithstanding the injury they had done him; or of his friends, who consulted to brand his character with hypocrisy; or, rather, of wicked men in general, on whose counsel God may be thought to "shine", when it succeeds, and God seems to smile upon them in his providence, and they are in prosperous circumstances, and have what heart can wish, when good men are greatly afflicted; which sometimes has been a temptation, and greatly distressing, to the latter; see Psalms 73:2; but this is not always the case; the counsel of the froward is sometimes carried headlong, the counsel of the wise counsellors of Pharaoh is made brutish, and that of Ahithophel was defeated by him; and whenever he seems to countenance it, it is to answer some ends of his glory.

e תעשק "est opprimere vim injustam alicui facere", Schmidt. f יגיע "laborem", Pagninus, Montanus, Schultens, Michaelis. g כפיך "volarum tuarum", Montanus, Bolducius.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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 that he suffers so much, than either the supposition that he is a hypocrite - which he feels assured he is not; or that God took a wanton pleasure in inflicting pain - which he was as little disposed to believe, if he could avoid it? Yet his mind rather verges to this latter belief, for he seems more disposed to believe that God was severe than that he himself was a hypocrite and a wicked man. Neither of these conclusions was necessary. If he had taken a middle ground, and had adverted to the fact that God might afflict his own children for their good, the mystery would have been solved. He could have retained the consciousness of his integrity, and at the same time his confidence in God.

That thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands - Margin, labor. That is, despise man, or treat him as if he were of no value. The idea is, that it would be natural for God to love his own work, and that his treatment of Job seemed as if he regarded his own workmanship - man - as of no value.

And shine upon the counsel of the wicked - By giving them health and prosperity.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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.