Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible · Job Kapitel 9

CHAP. IX.

Job, acknowledging God's justice, sheweth that there is no contending with him. Man's innocency is not to be condemned by afflictions.

Before Christ 1645.

Job 9:1. Then Job answered and said— In reply to Bildad, Job begins with hinting that their opinions seemed a little to clash; Eliphaz had insisted from revelation, that the common failings of men were a sufficient justification of Providence, even in the most afflicting dispensations. Bildad says, if he were pure and upright, God would interpose in his behalf. Job replies, that all this is very true; but the difficulty is, to be thus pure and upright; "For I am not exempt from the common failings of men: if, therefore, they are sufficient to account for the great calamities which have befallen me, I am still without a remedy. As to God's power and wisdom, I am as thoroughly convinced, and can give as many instances of it, as you; and, therefore, I know it is in vain for me to contend with him; Job 9:2-13. I have nothing left but to acknowledge my own vileness, and to make my supplication to him, Job 9:14-19. But yet, as to any heinous crimes, beyond the common frailties of human nature, there I disclaim; and, let the event be what it may, I will rather part with my life, than accuse myself wrongfully. And whereas you affirm, that affliction is an infallible mark of guilt, you quite mistake the matter; for afflictions are indifferently assigned to be the portion of the righteous and the guilty. God, indeed, sometimes in his anger destroys the wicked; but doth he not as frequently afflict the righteous? The dispensations of Providence in this world are frequently such, that, were it not that God now and then lets loose his fury against them, one would be almost tempted to imagine the rule of this world was delivered over into the hands of wicked men; Job 9:21-24. As for my own part, my days are almost come to an end; therefore it is labour lost for me to plead the cause of my innocence. Besides, in the sight of God I must appear all vileness; so that it is not for such a one as me to pretend to put myself on a level with him: and even if I were able to do so, there is no one who hath sufficient authority to judge between us; Job 9:25-33. Yet were it his pleasure to grant me a little respite, I should say a great deal in my own vindication; but, as matters stand, I dare not; for which reason my life is a burden to me, and my desire is, that it may speedily come to an end; Job 10:1 to the end. I would, however, expostulate a little with the Almighty;"—And here he enters into the most beautiful and tender pleadings that heart can conceive; ending, as before, with a prayer, that his sufferings and life might soon come to a period, and that God would grant him some little respite before his departure hence. Heath.

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Job 9:3. If he will contend— To contend is a judicial term, and signifies properly to wage law. To answer him one of a thousand, signifies to justify himself for one of the thousand crimes which shall be charged against him. Though the uncharitableness and reproaches of Job's friends transported him into some passionate and bold expressions of his own innocence and integrity, yet he no sooner perceived that they took advantage of those expressions to charge him with presumption, as if God had unjustly afflicted him, but he made haste to free himself from that imputation. How should a man be just with God? and he who is best prepared for an account with him, can pay him nothing but his own coin; and that, rather laid up in a napkin, than husbanded and employed as it ought to have been. If he could offer him a good thought, an honest purpose and intention, he had received them from him, and, it may be, wanted courage to improve and execute them; and so the world had no more fruit of them, than if his heart had been as wicked as his neighbour's. So that, when he has said the best he can for himself, there will be no abiding the judgment which must still be deprecated; mercy must be implored; no satisfaction or payment pretended; but an entire release and pardon begged and relied upon.

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Job 9:5. And they know not— And they are not broken to pieces: an instance of the power of the Almighty, who can remove whole mountains as easily as the least pebble. See Heath, and Judges 8:16. Schultens and Houbigant render it, on a sudden, unawares. See Psalms 35:8.

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Job 9:6. And the pillars thereof tremble— The image is taken from a man in so great fear, that all his limbs tremble and shake like a leaf.

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Job 9:7. Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not— Bishop Warburton supposes that this alludes to the miraculous history of the people of God; such as the Egyptian darkness, and the stopping of the sun's course by Joshua. But surely there is no necessity, from the words themselves, to suppose any allusion of this kind, or, indeed, any thing miraculous, since God, by throwing a cloud over the sun and stars, can and does obscure them when he pleases; and thus it is that the Chaldee paraphrast understands it; and seals up the stars with clouds: or, if we will take Bishop Patrick's exposition, it is thus, that the heavens are subject to the power of God, and neither sun nor stars can shine if he forbid it. There is a beautiful fragment of Pindar preserved to us by Clemens Alexandrinus; where he gives it as an instance of the "power of God," that he can, when he will, cause the pure light to spring out of thick darkness, or cover with a gloomy cloud the clear lustre of the day.

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Job 9:8. And treadeth upon the waves of the sea— Mr. Heath (following the reading of the Hebrew found in a correct copy) agrees with Houbigant in rendering this, who treadeth on the heights of the clouds; which, as he justly observes, makes a more elegant image. See ch. Job 22:14.Isaiah 14:14; Isaiah 14:14.

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Job 9:9. Which maketh Arcturus, &c.— Who maketh the constellation of the northern hemisphere, as well as the hidden chambers of the south, i.e. the furthest part of the south, or those constellations which are toward the south pole. The various and unsatisfactory attempts of learned men to ascertain the several constellations here mentioned, are sufficient to convince any person that we do not know enough of the ancient astronomy to determine upon it with any certainty; only, as these three seem to be put in opposition with the chambers of the south, I think it best, says Mr. Heath, to translate it in general, the constellations of the northern hemisphere. Parkhurst renders it, making the fire, the spirit or air, and the light; which he supposes to give us a nobler idea of Jehovah's power, than claiming the formation of these three constellations; and he observes, that all the fixed stars had been claimed as Jehovah's workmanship only two verses before. See his Lexicon on the word כימה kimah, and Peters, p. 136.

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Job 9:11. Lo, he goeth by me, &c.— Who, if he passeth by me, I cannot behold him: yea, while he glideth swiftly away, I perceive him not. Houbigant and Heath.

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Job 9:12. Behold he taketh away, &c.— But if he should take any thing away, who shall prevent him, or cause him to make restitution. Houbigant and Heath.

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Job 9:13. If God will not withdraw his anger— He is not a God who will restrain his anger; they stoop beneath him, who have surrounded themselves with strength: i.e. his majesty is most dreadful and inaccessible, which nothing can resist, and to which every thing that dares to oppose it must submit. Houbigant and Schultens.

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Job 9:14. And choose out my words to reason with him— And choose out arguments against him. This is in the judicial stile, and signifies the pleadings of the person accused. To my judge, in the next verse, should be rendered, to my adversary. Heath. Houbigant renders the word which we translate answer, in this and the next verse, by dispute.

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Job 9:16. If I had called, and he had answered me— But if I should call, that he might answer me, I could not easily believe that he would hear my voice; Job 9:17. Since he hath broken me with a tempest, and inflicted many wounds upon me without cause, Job 9:18. Nor hath given me space to take my breath, so hath he filled me with bitterness. Houbigant. This version shews the connection, and seems to give us the true sense of the passage. See Lowth's Prelections, p. 455. 8vo.

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Job 9:19. If I speak of strength— If we were to plead by strength, he is most strong; if by law, or judgment, who shall bear testimony for me? Houbigant. The meaning is, says Heath, "If I think to right myself by force, it is in vain; for he is infinitely stronger than I: if I choose to decide our dispute by law, who hath authority to call us before him?"

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Job 9:20. If I justify myself— If I call myself righteous, my mouth shall condemn me: if innocent, it shall prove me perverse; Job 9:21. Innocent, or being innocent, yet would I not make trial; nor would my soul be less weary of life. Houbigant and Schultens. The meaning of the 21st verse is sufficiently cleared by the 22nd. Though I were perfect, yet would I not know my soul, or life; i.e. "I would make no account of it,—I would despise it; (as it follows) for I should not think this perfection any security either for a long life or a prosperous; much less, were I never so perfect, should I flatter myself with the vain hope that you would instil into me, of being delivered from this deep distress wherein I am now plunged, and from which nothing but a miracle can restore me. For, one thing I have learned from experience, that God destroys the perfect as well as the wicked." And of this he gives a demonstration in the following verse: If the scourge slay suddenly, &c. i.e. "In times of common calamity, the righteous and the wicked perish for the most part indiscriminately." This is apparently the general course of Providence; and if any exceptions be made, they are rare and extraordinary, by the special appointment and direction of the great Lord and ruler of the world, for extraordinary reasons of which he alone is judge. But no wise man would ever build any great hopes upon these extraordinary and excepted cases; at least, they can never be a just ground for confidence and assurance. This seems plainly to be the sense of Job in this matter; for, it is very observable, that he builds his arguments on the general course of Providence; the others argue chiefly from the extraordinary exceptions to it. They had seen a good man now and then remarkably delivered; they had seen many a wicked man remarkably punished. These remarkable things, as they are the most sensible demonstrations of a present Providence, led Job's friends, whose thoughts were full of them, to push the matter of an exactly remunerating Providence in this life too far; so as scarcely to allow a good man to be finally unhappy in the present world, or a wicked man prosperous upon the whole. And I suppose their own prosperity, which they were but too fond, perhaps, of ascribing to the blessing of God upon their piety, (for, except their hard censures of Job, there is nothing but what shews them to have been good religious persons in the main,) might help to confirm them in this notion; for it is an old observation, that we borrow our very thoughts and reasonings sometimes from the state and temper that we are in. Job therefore, on the other hand, being in a state of the deepest distress, we need not wonder that his thoughts were black and cloudy; that, even with the consciousness of an upright heart and righteous life, he could neither enjoy himself by day with cheerful thoughts, nor prevent the dreadfullest dreams by night, especially considering the obscure dispensation under which he lived. See chap. Job 7:13-14. The same melancholic disposition it was, no doubt, which made him dwell upon the general course of Providence, without allowing for those extraordinary and excepted cases, wherein God, as it were, makes bare his arm, to deliver a good man from distress, and of which he himself was in the end a noble instance. Peters. And we must never forget, that Job lived under a dispensation far inferior to ours. Schultens renders the 23rd verse, If the scourge slay suddenly, it [the scourge] will laugh at the trial of the innocent. The figure is bold, but not too bold for the elevated poetry of this book.

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Job 9:24. He covereth the faces of the judges— He hath covered the face of the judgments which are done in it; but the cause of his anger who shall declare? That is, Who can set forth the reasons why God is angry at miserable mortals, and why he permits the earth to the wicked? Houbigant. Heath, after the Syriac, renders the last clause, were it not for his fury, who would regard him? i.e. This would be the language of the wicked, if the Almighty did not sometimes let loose his fury, and shew them that they are but men.

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Job 9:26. As the swift ships, &c.— There are but two places that I remember, says Mr. Peters, in the book of Job, where there is any allusion to navigation. One in the present passage, where Job compares the course of human life, and the rapidity wherewith it passes, to the swift ships, [swiftest ships, most excellent for sailing, Houbigant,] or, as it is in the margin of our English Bibles, ships of desire; i.e. such as are longed for, and long to be at their destined port, and crowd all the sail they can for that purpose. This gives, indeed, a very poetical image. But, if we will take the judgment of Schultens, he tells us, it ought rather to be rendered, ships of cane, or the Papyrus; i.e. such light vessels as they used in passing the river Nile, and other great rivers and arms of the sea. This, no doubt, was the first essay made by mankind towards navigation, and, perhaps, the utmost that their skill had reached in Job's time. See chap. Job 28:4 and Peters.

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Job 9:28. I am afraid of all my sorrows— I shudder in all my limbs. Heath, after the LXX.

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Job 9:29. If I be wicked, &c.— I shall be esteemed as guilty; why, therefore, should I take so much pains? Houbigant. Let me be condemned, why should I, &c. Heath.

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Job 9:33. Any day's-man— There is no one who may judge between us; who may lay his hand, &c. Houbigant. The laying the hand on both parties, implies a coercive power to enforce the execution of his decrees. This no one could have over the Almighty: it was in vain, therefore, to contend with Him. Heath. In some of the northern parts of England, any arbitrator, umpire, or elected judge, is commonly termed a dies-man, or day's-man. Dr. Hammond, in his Annotations upon Heb 10:25 observes, that the word day, in all idioms, signifies judgment.

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