Bible Commentaries
Job 10

Verse 1

My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

I will leave my complaint upon myself - rather, 'I will give loose to my complaint' [ siychiy (H7879), to let free; to give loose rein to] - "I will not refrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul" (Job 7:11). Upon myself. "Now my soul poured out upon me" (Job 30:16; Psalms 42:4-5).

Verse 2

I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me.

Show me ... - Do not, by virtue of thy mere sovereignty, treat me as guilty, without showing me the reasons.

Verse 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?

Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of the hands? Job is unwilling to think God can have "pleasure" in using his power to "oppress" the week, and to "treat" man, "the work of His own hands (so curiously and elaborately formed, as though his, creation were a work of labour), as of no value" (Job 10:8); "Forsake not the works of thine own hands" (Psalms 138:8).

And shine upon the counsel of the wicked? - favour with prosperity (Psalms 50:2).

Verse 4

Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Verses 4-6

Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man's days,

Hast thou eyes of flesh? ... Are thy days as the days of man? ... That thou inquirest after mine iniquity?

Dost thou see as feebly as ? Man_1:-1 :e., with the same uncharitable eye, and mistaken judgment, as, for instance, Job's friends. Is thy time as short? Impossible! Yet one might think, from the rapid succession of thy strokes, that thy existence was of limited duration; and that thou hadst no time to spare in overwhelming me, so as to force from me as soon as possible a confession of guilt.

Verse 7

Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

Thou (the Omniscient) knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand; therefore thou hast no need to deal with me with the rapid violence which "man" would use, when afraid that his enemy will escape from him (remark, Job 10:4-6). This seventh verse is connected with Job 10:4-6, "Thou searchest after my sin" with sharp severity, though "thou knowest that I am not wicked, and that there is none that can deliver out of thine hand."

Verse 8

Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.

Thine hands have made me, and fashioned me. "Made" with pains and elaborate art, implying a work of difficulty and art [`itseeb], applying to God language applicable only to man (cf. Job 10:9-11).

Together round about - implying that the human body is a complete unity, the parts of which on all sides will bear the closest scrutiny.

Verse 9

Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?

Clay. Next verse proves that the reference here is, not so much to the perishable nature of the materials, as to their wonderful fashioning by the Divine Potter (Isaiah 64:8).

Verse 10

Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese?

Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? In the organization of the body, from its rude commencements in the embryo, the liquid original gradually assumes a more solid consistency, like milk curdling into cheese - "My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously made in the lowest parts of the earth: Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them" (Psalms 139:15-16). Science reveals that the chyle circulated by the lacteal vessels is the supply to every organ.

Verse 11

Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.

Fenced - or 'inlaced,' 'woven together' [ cokªkeeniy (H5526)] (Umbreit). In the fetus the skin appears first, then the flesh, then the harder parts.

Verse 12

Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

Visitation - thy watchful Providence.

Spirit - breath.

Verse 13

And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee. And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee.

These things hast thou hid in thine heart; I know that this is with thee - was thy purpose. All God's dealings with Job in his creation, preservation, and present afflictions were part of His secret counsel (Psalms 139:16); "Known unto God are all His works from the beginning" (Acts 15:18); "He hath set the world in His heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end" (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

Verses 14-15

If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.

If I sin, then thou markest me. Job is perplexed because God "marks" every sin of his with such ceaseless rigour.

If I sin ... if I be wicked. The former word "sin" [ chaaTaa' (H2398)] means a slip through imprudence; but "wicked" [ raasha` (H7561)], heinously wicked, of set purpose.

And if I be righteous, yet will I not, lift up mine head. Whether erring or "wicked" (deliberately godless and a hypocrite), or "righteous" (comparatively: sincere), God condemns and punishes alike.

Lift up my head - in conscious innocence (Psalms 3:3). Thou, O Lord, art the lifter up of mine head.

I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction - rather, 'Yet will I not lift up my head, being full of ignominy [shame, qaalown (H7036)], and seeing (as I too well see) mine affliction,' which seems to prove me guilty (Umbreit).

Verse 16

For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me.

For it increaseth, [ yig'eh (H1342)] - literally, (my affliction, Job 10:15) groweth up, as in Job 8:11. I prefer this to the translation, (if) I lift up (my head) thou wouldest hunt me, etc. (Umbreit).

And again - as if a lion should not kill his prey at once, but come back and torture it again. 'And afresh thou showest thyself marvelous (i:e., thou showest thy marvelous power) upon me' - i:e., in oppressing me. So the Lord is compared to a lion (Isaiah 31:4; Lamentations 3:10).

Verse 17

Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me.

Thou renewest thy witnesses against me. His accumulated trials were like a succession of witnesses brought up in proof of his guilt, to wear out the accused. Compare Malachi 3:5, "I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers," etc.

Changes and war are against me - rather ('thou settest in array) against me host after host' [ chªliypowt (H2487) wªtsaabaa' (H6635)] - literally, changes and a host - i:e., a succession of hosts-namely, his afflictions, and then reproach upon reproach from his friends (Job 6:4; Job 19:12, "His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle").

Verses 18-19

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!

No JFB commentary on these verses.

Verse 20

Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,

Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little. But, since I was destined from my birth to these ills, at least give me a little breathing time during the few days left me (Job 9:34; Job 13:21). "O spare me, that I may recover strength before I go hence, and be no more" (Psalms 39:13).

Verse 21

Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death;

No JFB commentary on this verse.

Verse 22

A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

A land of darkness, as darkness itself. The ideas of order and light, disorder and darkness, harmonize (Genesis 1:2). Three Hebrew words are used for darkness in Job 10:21-22:

(1) in Job 10:21 the common word "darkness" [ choshek (H2822)];

(2) in Job 10:22 'a land of gloom' [ `eepaataah (H5890)], from a Hebrew root [ `uwp (H5774)], to cover up;

(3) 'as darkness itself,' or 'as thick darkness' or blackness [ 'opel (H652)], from a root expressing sunset. "Where the light thereof is like blackness." Its only sunshine is thick darkness. A bold figure of poetry.

Job in a better frame has brighter thoughts of the unseen world. But his views at best wanted the definite clearness of the Christian's. Compare with his words here - "The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof" (Revelation 21:23); "There shall be no night there" (Revelation 22:5; 2 Timothy 1:10).

Remarks:

(1) God has no pleasure in the pain of His creatures. But the afflicted believer is at times so confused in mind by the sharpness of his sufferings as to utter hasty complaints as to the dealings of God. Instead of asking, "in bitterness of soul," "Wherefore dost thou contend with me?" the tried saint should ask, What is the lesson that thou wouldest have me to learn from my affliction?

(2) The elaborate construction of the human body, and its marvelous successive development from the embryonic state (Job 10:8-11), and furthermore, God's continued favour and providential care all our life long (Job 10:12), are alone ancient to show that "He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men, to crush under His feet all the prisoners of the earth" (Lamentations 3:33-34).

(3) Though we have not faculties now to see all God's reasons for His dealings with us, yet we do know that (3) Though we have not faculties now to see all God's reasons for His dealings with us, yet we do know that afflictions are among the things which God has hidden in His eternal purpose (Job 10:13) concerning the believer, and which "work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).

(4) It is a wrong spirit to be in to wish we never had been born at all (Job 10:18-19), because whatever else we lose, if we have faith, we can never lose God and the future heaven, where sickness, sorrow, and sighing shall be no more. But great allowance is to be made for Job, when we remember how much more indistinct, generally speaking, was the light then enjoyed by believers than that with which we are favoured (Job 10:21-22).