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Commentary on Job 9 verses 1–13
Bildad began with a rebuke to Job for talking so much, Job 8:2. Job makes no answer to that, though it would have been easy enough to retort it upon himself; but in what he next lays down as his principle, that God never perverts judgment, Job agrees with him: I know it is so of a truth, Job 9:2. Note, We should be ready to own how far we agree with those with whom we dispute, and should not slight, much less resist, a truth, though produced by an adversary and urged against us, but receive it in the light and love of it, though it may have been misapplied. "It is so of a truth, that wickedness brings men to ruin and the godly are taken under God's special protection. These are truths which I subscribe to; but how can any man make good his part with God?" In his sight shall no flesh living be justified, Psa 143:2. How should man be just with God? Some understand this as a passionate complaint of God's strictness and severity, that he is a God whom there is no dealing with; and it cannot be denied that there are, in this chapter, some peevish expressions, which seem to speak such language as this. But I take this rather as a pious confession of man's sinfulness, and his own in particular, that, if God should deal with any of us according to the desert of our iniquities, we should certainly be undone.
I. He lays this down for a truth, that man is an unequal match for his Maker, either in dispute or combat.
1.In dispute (Job 9:3): If he will contend with him, either at law or at an argument, he cannot answer him one of a thousand. (1.) God can ask a thousand puzzling questions which those that quarrel with him, and arraign his proceedings, cannot give an answer to. When God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind he asked him a great many questions (Dost thou know this? Canst thou do that?) to none of which Job could give an answer, ch. 38, 39. God can easily manifest the folly of the greatest pretenders to wisdom. (2.) God can lay to our charge a thousand offences, can draw up against us a thousand articles of impeachment, and we cannot answer him so as to acquit ourselves from the imputation of any of them, but must, by silence, give consent that they are all true. We cannot set aside one as foreign, another as frivolous, and another as false. We cannot, as to one, deny the fact, and plead not guilty, and, as to another, deny the fault, confess and justify. No, we are not able to answer him, but must lay our hand upon our mouth, as Job did (Job 40:4, Job 40:5), and cry, Guilty, guilty.
2.In combat (Job 9:4): "Who hath hardened himself against him and hath prospered?" The answer is very easy. You cannot produce any instance, from the beginning of the world to this day, of any daring sinner who has hardened himself against God, has obstinately persisted in rebellion against him, who did not find God too hard for him and pay dearly for his folly. Such transgressors have not prospered or had peace; they have had no comfort in their way nor any success. What did ever man get by trials of skill, or trials of titles, with his Maker? All the opposition given to God is but setting briers and thorns before a consuming fire; so foolish, so fruitless, so destructive, is the attempt, Isa 27:4; Eze 28:24; Co1 10:22. Apostate angels hardened themselves against God, but did not prosper, Pe2 2:4. The dragon fights, but is cast out, Rev 12:9. Wicked men harden themselves against God, dispute his wisdom, disobey his laws, are impenitent for their sins and incorrigible under their afflictions; they reject the offers of his grace, and resist the strivings of his Spirit; they make nothing of his threatenings, and make head against his interest in the world. But have they prospered? Can they prosper? No; they are but treasuring up for themselves wrath against the day of wrath. Those that roll this will find it return upon them.
II. He proves it by showing what a God he is with whom we have to do: He is wise in heart, and therefore we cannot answer him at law; he is mighty in strength, and therefore we cannot fight it out with him. It is the greatest madness that can be to think to contend with a God of infinite wisdom and power, who knows every thing and can do every thing, who can be neither outwitted nor overpowered. The devil promised himself that Job, in the day of his affliction, would curse God and speak ill of him, but, instead of that, he sets himself to honour God and to speak highly of him. As much pained as he is, and as much taken up with his own miseries, when he has occasion to mention the wisdom and power of God he forgets his complaints, dwells with delight, and expatiates with a flood of eloquence, upon that noble useful subject. Evidences of the wisdom and power of God he fetches,
1.From the kingdom of nature, in which the God of nature acts with an uncontrollable power and does what he pleases; for all the orders and all the powers of nature are derived from him and depend upon him.
(1.)When he pleases he alters the course of nature, and turns back its streams, Job 9:5-7. By the common law of nature the mountains are settled and are therefore called everlasting mountains, the earth is established and cannot be removed (Psa 93:1) and the pillars there of are immovably fixed, the sun rises in its season, and the stars shed their influences on this lower world; but when God pleases he can not only drive out of the common track, but invert the order and change the law of nature. [1.] Nothing more firm than the mountains. When we speak of removing mountains we mean that which is impossible; yet the divine power can make them change their seat: He removes them and they know not, removes them whether they will or no; he can make them lower their heads; he can level them, and overturn them in his anger; he can spread the mountains as easily as the husbandman spreads the molehills, be they ever so high, and large, and rocky. Men have much ado to pass over them, but God, when he pleases, can make them pass away. He made Sinai shake, Psa 68:8. The hills skipped, Psa 114:4. The everlasting mountains were scattered, Hab 3:6. [2.] Nothing more fixed than the earth on its axletree; yet God can, when he pleases, shake the earth out of its place, heave it off its centre, and make even its pillars to tremble; what seemed to support it will itself need support when God gives it a shock. See how much we are indebted to God's patience. God has power enough to shake the earth from under that guilty race of mankind which makes it groan under the burden of sin, and so to shake the wicked out of it (Job 38:13); yet he continues the earth, and man upon it, and does not make it, as once, to swallow up the rebels. [3.] Nothing more constant than the rising sun, it never misses its appointed time; yet God, when he pleases, can suspend it. He that at first commanded it to rise can countermand it. Once the sun was told to stand, and another time to retreat, to show that it is still under the check of its great Creator. Thus great is God's power; and how great then is his goodness, which causes his sun to shine even upon the evil and unthankful, though he could withhold it! He that made the stars also, can, if he pleases, seal them up, and hide them from our eyes. By earthquakes and subterraneous fires mountains have sometimes been removed and the earth shaken: in very dark and cloudy days and nights it seems to us as if the sun were forbidden to rise and the stars were sealed up, Act 27:20. It is sufficient to say that Job here speaks of what God can do; but, if we must understand it of what he has done in fact, all these verses may perhaps be applied to Noah's flood, when the mountains of the earth were shaken, and the sun and stars were darkened; and the world that now is we believe to be reserved for that fire which will consume the mountains, and melt the earth, with its fervent heat, and which will turn the sun into darkness.
(2.)As long as he pleases he preserves the settled course and order of nature; and this is a continued creation. He himself alone, by his own power, and without the assistance of any other, [1.] Spreads out the heaven (Job 9:8), not only did spread them out at first, but still spreads them out (that is, keeps them spread out), for otherwise they would of themselves roll together like a scroll of parchment. [2.] He treads upon the waves of the sea; that is, he suppresses them and keeps them under, that they return not to deluge the earth (Psa 104:9), which is given as a reason why we should all fear God and stand in awe of him, Jer 5:22. He is mightier than the proud waves Psa 93:4; Psa 65:7. [3.] He makes the constellations; three are named for all the rest (Job 9:9), Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and in general the chambers of the south. The stars of which these are composed he made at first, and put into that order, and he still makes them, preserves them in being, and guides their motions; he makes them to be what they are to man, and inclines the hearts of man to observe them, which the beasts are not capable of doing. Not only those stars which we see and give names to, but those also in the other hemisphere, about the antarctic pole, which never come in our sight, called here the chambers of the south, are under the divine direction and dominion. How wise is he then, and how mighty!
2.From the kingdom of Providence, that special Providence which is conversant about the affairs of the children of men. Consider what God does in the government of the world, and you will say, He is wise in heart and mighty in strength. (1.) He does many things and great, many and great to admiration, Job 9:10. Job here says the same that Eliphaz had said (Job 5:9), and in the original in the very same words, not declining to speak after him, though now his antagonist. God is a great God, and doeth great things, a wonder-working God; his works of wonder are so many that we cannot number them and so mysterious that we cannot find them out. O the depth of his counsels! (2.) He acts invisibly and undiscerned, Job 9:11. "He goes by me in his operations, and I see him not, I perceive him not. His way is in the sea," Psa 77:19. The operations of second causes are commonly obvious to sense, but God does all about us and yet we see him not, Act 17:23. Our finite understandings cannot fathom his counsels, apprehend his motions, or comprehend the measures he takes; we are therefore incompetent judges of God's proceedings, because we know not what he does or what he designs. The arcana imperii - secrets of government, are things above us, which therefore we must not pretend to expound or comment upon. (3.) He acts with an incontestable sovereignty, Job 9:12. He takes away our creature-comforts and confidences when and as he pleases, takes away health, estate, relations, friends, takes away life itself; whatever goes, it is he that takes it; by what hand so ever it is removed, his hand must be acknowledged in its removal. The Lord takes away, and who can hinder him? Who can turn him away? (Margin, Who shall make him restore?) Who can dissuade him or alter his counsels? Who can resist him or oppose his operations? Who can control him or call him to an account? What action can be brought against him? Or who will say unto him, What doest thou? Or, Why doest thou so? Dan 4:35. God is not obliged to give us a reason of what he does. The meanings of his proceedings we know no now; it will be time enough to know hereafter, when it will appear that what seemed now to be done by prerogative was done in infinite wisdom and for the best. (4.) He acts with an irresistible power, which no creature can resist, Job 9:13. If God will not withdraw his anger (which he can do when he pleases, for he is Lord of his anger, lets it out or calls it in according to his will), the proud helpers do stoop under him; that is, He certainly breaks and crushes those that proudly help one another against him. Proud men set themselves against God and his proceedings. In this opposition they join hand in hand. The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, to throw off his yoke, to run down his truths, and to persecute his people. Men of Israel, help, Act 21:28; Psa 83:8. If one enemy of God's kingdom fall under his judgment, the rest come proudly to help that, and think to deliver that out of his hand: but in vain; unless he pleases to withdraw his anger (which he often does, for it is the day of his patience) the proud helpers stoop under him, and fall with those whom they designed to help. Who knows the power of God's anger? Those who think they have strength enough to help others will not be able to help themselves against it.
21. God ‘questions suddenly’ when He calls us unexpectedly to the strict searching of His scrutiny. But man cannot answer to His questioning, for that, if he be then sifted, all pity laid aside, even the life of the righteous sinks under the scrutiny. Or, surely, He questions, when He deals us hard blows, that, when the mind entertains great thoughts of itself in peace and quiet, it may find itself out in trouble, what sort it really is of. And very commonly because it is smitten, it utters groans; but it is unable to make answer, because the very distastefulness of his stroke is displeasing to him, yet looking to himself man holds his peace, and dreads to scrutinize the Divine decrees, because he knows himself to be but dust. Hence it is said by Paul, Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? [Rom. 9, 20] He that is called by the name of ‘man’ (homo) is proved to be unable to ‘reply against God.’ For by this circumstance, that he was taken from the dust of the earth [e], he is not worthy to scrutinize the judgments of the Most High. Hence too it is fitly subjoined here,
Or, who will say unto Him, What doest Thou?
22. The acts of our Maker ought always to be reverenced without examining, for they can never be unjust. For to seek a reason for His secret counsel is nothing else than to erect one's self in pride against His counsel. So when the motive of His acts cannot be discovered, it remains that we be silent under those acts in humility, for the fleshly sense is not equal that it should penetrate the secrets of His Majesty. He then who sees no reason in the acts of God, on considering his own weakness does see reason wherefore he sees none. Hence also it is added by Paul afterwards, Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me so? For in proportion as it sees itself to be ‘a thing formed’ by God's workmanship, it rebukes itself so as not to kick back against the hand of Him that wrought it; for He, Who in loving-kindness exalted what was not, never in injustice abandons that which is. So let the mind be brought to itself under the stroke, and what it cannot comprehend, let it cease to require, lest if the cause of God's wrath be searched out, It be called forth in larger measure for being searched out, and lest wrath, which humility might have pacified, pride kindle to an unextinguishable height.
For the human race, being shut out from interior joy as the result of sin, lost the eyes of the mind. Where the mind is now going in the steps of its deserved punishments, it cannot tell. Often the mind identifies the gift of grace as wrath. In turn, it is the wrath of God’s severity that it supposes to be grace. For very commonly it reckons gifts of virtue as grace, and yet being uplifted [pridefully] by those gifts is brought to the ground. Very often it dreads the opposition of temptations as wrath, and yet being bowed down by those temptations, arises with even greater concern for the safe keeping of his virtuous attainments. For who would not reckon himself to be near to God when he sees that he is magnified with gifts from on high? When either the gift of prophecy or the mastery of teaching has been granted to him, or when he is empowered to exercise the grace of healing? Yet it often happens that while the mind may become careless in its self-satisfaction over its virtues as the adversary plots against it, it is pierced with the weapon of unexpected sin. The mind is forever put far away from God by the very means by which for a time it was brought near to him without the caution of attentiveness.… The acts of our Maker ought always to be reverenced without scrutiny, for they can never be unjust. For to seek a reason for God’s secret counsel is nothing else than to erect one’s own pride against his counsel. So when the motive of God’s acts cannot be discovered, in humility we should remain silent under those acts, for the senses of the flesh are not equal to the task of penetrating the secrets of God’s majesty. He, then, who sees no reason for the acts of God, on considering his own weakness, does see although he does not see.
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SUMMARY
Job 9:12 encapsulates Job's profound and unsettling realization of God's absolute, unchallengeable sovereignty. In the crucible of his intense and inexplicable suffering, Job acknowledges that God acts according to His own inscrutable will, sweeping away whatever He chooses, and no human or earthly power can resist His actions or demand an explanation. This verse starkly highlights the vast chasm between divine omnipotence and human frailty, emphasizing the futility of contending with an Almighty God whose ways are utterly beyond human comprehension and control.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Job 9:12 is rich in Rhetorical Questions, which are the primary literary device employed. The two consecutive questions, "who can hinder him?" and "who will say unto him, What doest thou?", are not posed to elicit information but to emphasize a self-evident truth: no one can resist or question God. This technique powerfully underscores the absolute and unchallengeable nature of divine sovereignty, highlighting the futility of human opposition or interrogation. Additionally, the verse uses Assertion in its opening declaration, "Behold, he taketh away," which is a direct, forceful statement of God's active power. The phrase "taketh away" itself functions as a form of Metonymy or Synecdoche, where a specific action (taking away) represents the broader concept of God's comprehensive control over all things, including life, death, and destiny. The overall tone conveys a sense of Awe mixed with Despair from Job's perspective, reflecting his profound recognition of divine power alongside his personal suffering and lack of understanding.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 9:12 stands as a profound theological statement on the nature of God, asserting His absolute sovereignty and omnipotence. It highlights the divine prerogative to act without human permission, consultation, or accountability. This verse directly confronts the human tendency to impose limits on God or to demand explanations for His actions, particularly in the face of suffering. It underscores the theological concept of God's inscrutability—His ways are higher than our ways, and His thoughts higher than our thoughts. While this truth can be unsettling, even terrifying, from a human perspective, it also affirms that God is ultimately in control, even when circumstances seem chaotic or unjust. The verse challenges a simplistic understanding of divine justice, forcing a deeper contemplation of God's majestic freedom and power, which operates independently of human merit or comprehension, yet always within the bounds of His perfect character.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 9:12 serves as a powerful and humbling reminder of the vast chasm between human understanding and divine sovereignty. For believers today, this verse calls for a posture of deep humility, reverence, and profound trust before God. It challenges our innate desire for control and our tendency to question God's methods when they do not align with our expectations, comfort, or perceived sense of justice. In times of inexplicable suffering, profound loss, or confusing circumstances, Job's words remind us that God is actively at work, even when His hand is unseen and His purposes are unfathomable. This does not mean we cannot lament, grieve, or express our pain and questions to God; indeed, the Psalms and Job himself demonstrate the legitimacy of such expressions. However, it does mean we must ultimately surrender to His supreme authority and trust in His ultimate wisdom and goodness, even when the path is dark and understanding eludes us. The profound comfort found here is in knowing that God is truly sovereign; nothing happens outside of His ultimate knowledge, permission, and overarching plan. This truth can anchor our souls, providing a foundation of peace and stability even when life's most tumultuous storms threaten to overwhelm us, encouraging us to lean not on our own understanding but on His unfailing power and perfect will.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Is Job questioning God's justice here, or just acknowledging His power?
Answer: In Job 9:12, Job is primarily acknowledging God's overwhelming and irresistible power. He is not directly questioning God's justice in this specific verse, but rather expressing the futility of contending with such an omnipotent being. His rhetorical questions ("who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?") highlight humanity's utter inability to resist or interrogate God. This acknowledgment of God's raw power then undergirds his subsequent struggle with the problem of suffering and divine justice throughout the book. He recognizes God's might as the fundamental reality that makes his own suffering so perplexing and seemingly unchallengeable. While Job does wrestle with the implications of God's power for justice later, this verse itself is a statement of God's unhindered authority. For a broader view of Job's initial acknowledgment of God's righteousness, see Job 9:2-4.
How does this verse relate to the concept of free will?
Answer: Job 9:12 emphasizes God's ultimate and unhindered sovereignty over all things, including human circumstances and outcomes. It highlights that even with free will, human actions and desires are ultimately subject to God's overarching plan and power. This verse does not negate human free will but places it within the larger framework of divine control, suggesting that God's purposes cannot be thwarted by human choices or resistance. While humans make genuine choices and are morally responsible for them, God's supreme authority means that He can "take away" or act as He wills, and no human decision can ultimately frustrate His ultimate design. This perspective encourages humility, recognizing that our freedom operates within the boundaries of God's unchallengeable will, as seen in Proverbs 16:9 which states, "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the Lord directeth his steps."
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Job's profound declaration in Job 9:12—that God "taketh away, who can hinder him? who will say unto him, What doest thou?"—finds its ultimate and most redemptive fulfillment in Jesus Christ. While Job perceived God's unchallengeable power as terrifyingly inscrutable, particularly in the context of his suffering, the New Testament reveals this same power as perfectly wise, loving, and redemptive through the person and work of Christ. Jesus, as the incarnate God, demonstrates this divine power by calming storms, healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead, proving that indeed, "who can hinder him?" (Mark 4:39). Yet, the most profound "taking away" orchestrated by God's unhindered will was the sacrifice of His own Son. On the cross, God "took away" the sin of the world through the ultimate sacrifice of the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!. Here, the omnipotent God, whom Job feared would "take away" his life arbitrarily, willingly "took away" the life of His Son to secure eternal life for humanity, fulfilling the Father's perfect plan (Acts 2:23). Christ's willing submission to the Father's will, even to the point of death on a cross, perfectly answers Job's desperate question, "who will say unto him, What doest thou?" For in Christ, God's power and wisdom converge in a way that is both incomprehensible to human reason and utterly good, revealing His righteous character (Romans 5:8). The cross reveals that God's sovereign "taking away" is not arbitrary destruction but purposeful redemption, ultimately "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us... nailing it to his cross" (Colossians 2:14). Through Christ, God's power conquers sin and death, giving us victory over the very things Job wrestled with (Hebrews 2:14-15), transforming Job's fearful awe into worshipful trust and confident hope.