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Job 10

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Job's Bitter Complaint and Challenge 1–7

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 say unto God, Do not condemn me; Show me wherefore thou contendest with me. ​
3
Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, That thou shouldest despise the work of thy hands, And shine upon the counsel of the wicked? ​
4
Hast thou eyes of flesh? Or seest thou as man seeth? ​
5
Are thy days as the days of man, Or thy years as man’s days,
6
That thou inquirest after mine iniquity, And searchest after my sin,
7
Although thou knowest that I am not wicked, And there is none that can deliver out of thy hand? ​

The Paradox of Creation and Destruction 8–12

8
Thy hands have framed me and fashioned me Together round about; yet thou dost destroy me. ​
9
Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast fashioned me as clay; And wilt thou bring me into dust again? ​
10
Hast thou not poured me out as milk, And curdled me like cheese? ​
11
Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, And knit me together with bones and sinews.
12
Thou hast granted me life and lovingkindness; And thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.

God's Hidden Purpose and Relentless Scrutiny 13–17

13
Yet these things thou didst hide in thy heart; I know that this is with thee: ​
14
If I sin, then thou markest me, And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity.
15
If I be wicked, woe unto me; And if I be righteous, yet shall I not lift up my head; Being filled with ignominy, And looking upon mine affliction. ​
16
And ifmy head exalt itself, thou huntest me as a lion; And again thou showest thyself marvellous upon me. ​
17
Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, And increasest thine indignation upon me: Changes and warfare are with me.

A Plea for Respite Before Death 18–22

18
Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me. ​
19
I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave.
20
Are not my days few? cease then, And let me alone, that I may take comfort a little,
21
Before I go whence I shall not return, Evento the land of darkness and of the shadow of death; ​
22
The land dark as midnight, The landof the shadow of death, without any order, And where the light is as midnight. ​

Bible text: American Standard Version (1901) · Public domain

Study Notes for Job 10

Verse 1

leave my complaint upon myself — Azab is to loosen or let go: Job will give his complaint (siach) free rein, the word of 'my complaint' in 7:13 and 9:27. 'Weary' is naqat, to loathe, which occurs only here in the KJV. 'The bitterness of my soul' repeats 7:11. From this verse he speaks to God directly: 'I will say unto God' (v.2).

Verse 2

Do not condemn me — Rasha, here in its causative sense: to pronounce wicked, to put in the wrong. 'Contendest' is riv, to strive in a legal quarrel, the verb of 9:3, 'If he will contend with him, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.' Job asks to be told the charge: 'shew me' (yada, make known) why God contends.

Verse 3

the work of thine hands — Yegia is labour, toil; the same word stands in Gen 31:42, 'the labour of my hands'. Job asks whether it is good to God to 'oppress' (ashaq, to press down) and 'despise' (maas, to spurn) what he laboured over. 'Shine' (yapha) is the verb of v.22, where 'the light is as darkness'.

Verse 4

eyes of flesh — Basar, flesh, and enosh, frail mortal man. The question expects the answer no. The LORD says as much of himself: 'the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart' (1 Sam 16:7). Job had said of God, 'he is not a man, as I am' (9:32).

Verse 7

none that can deliver out of thine hand — 'Wicked' is rasha, the same root as 'condemn' in v.2. 'Deliver' is natsal, to snatch away: the verb of Deut 32:39, where the LORD says 'neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand'. Job takes God's own claim of unrivalled power and turns it into his reason for despair.

Verse 8

Thine hands have made me — Atsab is to shape with labour, and 'round about' (sabib) means on every side; Ps 119:73 says, 'Thy hands have made me and fashioned me.' The verse goes on to say, sharply, 'yet thou dost destroy me', and bala is to swallow up, the word of Num 16:30, where the earth opens her mouth to 'swallow them up'.

Verse 9

as the clay — Chomer, the potter's clay; Isa 64:8 says, 'we are the clay, and thou our potter.' 'Dust' is aphar, the material of Gen 2:7, 'formed man of the dust of the ground', and the sentence of Gen 3:19, 'unto dust shalt thou return'. Elihu says later, 'I also am formed out of the clay' (33:6).

Verse 10

poured me out as milk — Nathak is to pour out and qapha to thicken or curdle; gebinah, cheese, is found only here. Verses 10–11 follow the body from its beginning in the womb: poured, curdled, then clothed 'with skin and flesh' and fenced 'with bones and sinews'. Ps 139:15 speaks of the same making: 'curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.'

Verse 13

hid in thine heart — Tsaphan, to hide away, store up. Job infers from his suffering that God holds a hidden purpose against him: 'I know that this is with thee.' The secret was of another kind, told only in the prologue, where the LORD says of 'my servant Job': 'thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause' (2:3). Deut 29:29: 'The secret things belong unto the LORD our God.'

Verse 15

yet will I not lift up my head — Job has said it before: 'Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer' (9:15). Alelay, 'woe unto me', occurs only here and in Mic 7:1. 'Full of confusion' is literally filled (sabea) with disgrace (qalon). 'Affliction' (oni) is the word of Ps 25:18, 'Look upon mine affliction and my pain.'

Verse 16

as a fierce lion — Shachal occurs seven times (Job 4:10; 10:16; 28:8; Ps 91:13; Prov 26:13; Hos 5:14; 13:7); in Hosea the LORD says of himself, 'I will be unto Ephraim as a lion'. Job calls God the hunter (tsud). 'Marvellous' is pala, the word for God's wonders, 'marvellous things without number' (5:9), here said to be turned on Job.

Verse 18

Oh that I had given up the ghost — Gava, to breathe out, to expire. It repeats the wish of 3:11, 'Why died I not from the womb? why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?' The question 'Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb?' follows his claim in vv.8–12 that God formed him.

Verse 21

the shadow of death — One Hebrew word, tsalmaveth, shade of death. 'Whence I shall not return' (shub) is Job's wording again in 16:22, 'the way whence I shall not return'. Elsewhere the LORD asks him, 'hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?' (38:17). It is the place he names as the limit of his plea for 'a little' comfort (v.20).

Verse 22

without any order — Seder, arrangement, a word found only here in the Old Testament; the land is described with three words for darkness: eyphah (gloom), ophel (dusk) and tsalmaveth (shadow of death). 'Where the light is as darkness' uses yapha, to shine, the verb of v.3 for God's shining on the counsel of the wicked.