The Pulpit Commentary — Job — Section 172

EXPOSITION. CHAPTER X. Ver. S.-Is it good nnta thee that thou ahouldest oppreas1 Job ossumes that he is Ven. 1-22.-Having answered Bildad, oppressed. He has no conception that his Job proooods to poor out the bitt.erness of sufferings are a purification (John xv. 2), his soul in a pathetic, oomplaint, which he intended to lead to the eleYl\tion ancl. im• addresses direotlv to God. There is not provement of his moral character. He there- fore asks-Is it worthy of God, is it good in much that is nov~l in the long e:i::postulation, him, is it compatible with his perfect excel- whioh me.inly goes over ground oovered in lence, to be e.n oppressor? It is a sort of ah. iii., vi., and vii. ; but some new grounds argumentum ad f/erecundiam, well enough are alleged ns pleas for mercy, if not for between man and man, but quite out of j1JStice. These are (1) that he is God's crea- place between a man and his Maker. That thou shouldeat despise the work of thine ture, and in the past (at any rate) has been hands (comp. Ps. cxxxviii. 8). . This ar- the object of his care (vers. S, 8-12); (2) gument is more legitimate. God may be that God m1JSt be above judging as man expected, not to despise, but to care for, the judges (vers. 4, 5); (3) that God knows work of his own hands (comp. Isa.. xix. 25; his innocence (ver. 7); .and (4) that he xxix. 23; xliv. 21; lxiv. 8; Eph. ii.10). Every maker of a thing, as Aristotle says, loves (Job) is entirely in God's power(ver. 7). In his work, and naturnlly guards it, care11 conclusion, Job begs for a little respite, a for it, and cherishes it. And shine upon the little time of comfort (ver. 20), before he oounsel of the wioked (comp. oh. ix. 24). de&eends into the darkness of the grave The prosperity of evil-doers must arise, Job (vers. 21, 22). thinks, from God allowing his countenance to shine upon them. Ver. 1.-11:y soul is weary Clf my life. Ver. 4.-llast thou ey,ea of llesh 1 or eeest This is better than the marginal rendering, thou as man seeth 1 Notwithstanding the and well expreBBeti the original. It strikes anthropomorphism of their language, the the key-note of the chapter. I will leave my sacred writers are as fully aware as their compl.a.i.nt upon myself; rather, I 'llli.ll gir,e modern critics of the immateriality of Go,1, free courae to my complaint orer myaelf, or and the immense gap thst separates his' I will all,ou, myself in the ezpreMion of it nature from human nature. • It is• on this (see the Revised Version). Job implies that Job now dwells. God, being so much that hitherto he has put some restraint npon above man, having eyes that are not of flesh, himself, but now he will give full and free and seeing not as man seeth, ought not to e:i;:pression to hie feelings. I will speak in judge as man judges, with partiality, or the bitterness of my 1oul (comp. eh. vii 11). prejudice, or even with extreme severity Ver. 2.-1 will 1ay unto God, Do not con- (ver. 6). demn me; literally, do not pronounce me Ver. 5.-Are thy days as man's days 1 In wicked. My friends, BI they call themselves, short-lived man, short-sightedness and pre., have, one and all, condemned me: do not judice are excusable, but not in one whose tl,ou also condemn me. .A touching appeal I days are unlike man's days-whose" years Show me wherefore thou contendest with me. endure throughout all generations" (Ps. One of Job's principal trials ie the perplexity cii. 24). Such a one ought to be above all into which his unexampled sufferings have human infirmity. Or thy years as me.n'a thrown him. He cannot understand why he days, We should have expected "as man'a ho.e been singled out for such tremendous years." But it marks the cl.ispe.rity more 1 puni.hment, when he is not conscious to strongly to se.y, "Are thy years not greater :, himself of any impiety or other Leinolll! sin in number even than man'a [liternlly, 'a / against God. So now) when he Las resolved 1trong man's'] days 1" , to vent all the bitterne11S of Lis soul, Le ven- Ver. 6.-That thou inquirest after IJline tnr<,,j to ask the quution-Why is he IO iniquity, and eearcheat after my 1in. It tried ? WLat LBI he done to n,e.ke God his seelllS to Job that God must ba,·e bePn enemy? Whert:fore d()(:11 God fight against "extrtme to mark what he has done nmiee" him continually? (P1. cnx. 3), must have see.robed into OH, X, 1-22,] THE BOOK OF JOB, 177