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Commentary on Job 9 verses 25–35
Job here grows more and more querulous, and does not conclude this chapter with such reverent expressions of God's wisdom and justice as he began with. Those that indulge a complaining humour know not to what indecencies, nay, to what impieties, it will hurry them. The beginning of that strife with God is as the letting forth of water; therefore leave it off before it be meddled with. When we are in trouble we are allowed to complain to God, as the Psalmist often, but must by no means complain of God, as Job here.
I. His complaint here of the passing away of the days of his prosperity is proper enough (Job 9:25, Job 9:26): "My days (that is, all my good days) are gone, never to return, gone of a sudden, gone ere I was aware. Never did any courier that went express" (like Cushi and Ahimaaz) "with good tidings make such haste as all my comforts did from me. Never did ship sail to its port, never did eagle fly upon its prey, with such incredible swiftness; nor does there remain any trace of my prosperity, any more than there does of an eagle in the air or a ship in the sea," Pro 30:19. See here, 1. How swift the motion of time is. It is always upon the wing, hastening to its period; it stays for no man. What little need have we of pastimes, and what great need to redeem time, when time runs out, runs on so fast towards eternity, which comes as time goes! 2. How vain the enjoyments of time are, which we may be quite deprived of while yet time continues. Our day may be longer than the sun-shine of our prosperity; and, when that is gone, it is as if it had not been. The remembrance of having done our duty will be pleasing afterwards; so will not the remembrance of our having got a great deal of worldly wealth when it is all lost and gone. "They flee away, past recall; they see no good, and leave none behind them."
II. His complaint of his present uneasiness is excusable, Job 9:27, Job 9:28. 1. It should seem, he did his endeavour to quiet and compose himself as his friends advised him. That was the good he would do: he would fain forget his complaints and praise God, would leave off his heaviness and comfort himself, that he might be fit for converse both with God and man; but, 2. He found he could not do it: "I am afraid of all my sorrows. When I strive most against my trouble it prevails most over me and proves too hard for me!" It is easier, in such a case, to know what we should do than to do it, to know what temper we should be in than to get into that temper and keep in it. It is easy to preach patience to those that are in trouble, and to tell them they must forget their complaints and comfort themselves; but it is not so soon done as said. Fear and sorrow are tyrannizing things, not easily brought into the subjection they ought to be kept in to religion and right reason. But,
III. His complaint of God as implacable and inexorable was by no means to be excused. It was the language of his corruption. He knew better, and, at another time, would have been far from harbouring any such hard thoughts of God as now broke in upon his spirit and broke out in these passionate complaints. Good men do not always speak like themselves; but God, who considers their frame and the strength of their temptations, gives them leave afterwards to unsay what was amiss by repentance and will not lay it to their charge.
1.Job seems to speak here, (1.) As if he despaired of obtaining from God any relief or redress of his grievances, though he should produce ever so good proofs of his integrity: "I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent. My afflictions have continued so long upon me, and increased so fast, that I do not expect thou wilt ever clear up my innocency by delivering me out of them and restoring me to a prosperous condition. Right or wrong, I must be treated as a wicked man; my friends will continue to think so of me, and God will continue upon me the afflictions which give them occasion to think so. Why then do I labour in vain to clear myself and maintain my own integrity?" Job 9:29. It is to no purpose to speak in a cause that is already prejudged. With men it is often labour in vain for the most innocent to go about to clear themselves; they must be adjudged guilty, though the evidence be ever so plain for them. But it is not so in our dealings with God, who is the patron of oppressed innocency and to whom it was never in vain to commit a righteous cause. Nay, he not only despairs of relief, but expects that his endeavour to clear himself will render him yet more obnoxious (Job 9:30, Job 9:31): "If I wash myself with snow-water, and make my integrity ever so evident, it will be all to no purpose; judgment must go against me. Thou shalt plunge me in the ditch" (the pit of destruction, so some, or rather the filthy kennel, or sewer), "which will make me so offensive in the nostrils of all about me that my own clothes shall abhor me and I shall even loathe to touch myself." He saw his afflictions coming from God. Those were the things that blackened him in the eye of his friends; and, upon that score, he complained of them, and of the continuance of them, as the ruin, not only of his comfort, but of his reputation. Yet these words are capable of a good construction. If we be ever so industrious to justify ourselves before men, and to preserve our credit with them, - if we keep our hands ever so clean from the pollutions of gross sin, which fall under the eye of the world, - yet God, who knows our hearts, can charge us with so much secret sin as will for ever take off all our pretensions to purity and innocency, and make us see ourselves odious in the sight of the holy God. Paul, while a Pharisee, made his hands very clean; but when the commandment came and discovered to him his heart-sins, made him know lust, that plunged him in the ditch. (2.) As if he despaired to have a fair hearing with God, and that were hard indeed. [1.] He complains that he was not upon even terms with God (Job 9:32): "He is not a man, as I am. I could venture to dispute with a man like myself (the potsherds may strive with the potsherds of the earth), but he is infinitely above me, and therefore I dare not enter the lists with him; I shall certainly be cast if I contend with him." Note, First, God is not a man as we are. Of the greatest princes we may say, "They are men as we are," but not of the great God. His thoughts and ways are infinitely above ours, and we must not measure him by ourselves. Man is foolish and weak, frail and fickle, but God is not. We are depending dying creatures; he is the independent an immortal Creator. Secondly, The consideration of this should keep us very humble and very silent before God. Let us not make ourselves equal with God, but always eye him as infinitely above us. [2.] That there was no arbitrator or umpire to adjust the differences between him and God and to determine the controversy (Job 9:33): Neither is there any days-man between us. This complaint that there was not is in effect a wish that there were, and so the Septuagint reads it: O that there were a mediator between us! Job would gladly refer the matter, but no creature was capable of being a referee, and therefore he must even refer it still to God himself and resolve to acquiesce in his judgment. Our Lord Jesus is the blessed days-man, who has mediated between heaven and earth, has laid his hand upon us both; to him the Father has committed all judgment, and we must. But this matter was not then brought to so clear a light as it is now by the gospel, which leaves no room for such a complaint as this. [3.] That the terrors of God, which set themselves in array against him, put him into such confusion that he knew not how to address God with the confidence with which he was formerly wont to approach him, Job 9:34, Job 9:35. "Besides the distance which I am kept at by his infinite transcendency, his present dealings with me are very discouraging: Let him take his rod away from me." He means not so much his outward afflictions as the load which lay upon his spirit from the apprehensions of God's wrath; that was his fear which terrified him. "Let that be removed; let me recover the sight of his mercy, and not be amazed with the sight of nothing but his terrors, and then I would speak and order my cause before him. But it is not so with me; the cloud is not at all dissipated; the wrath of God still fastens upon me, and preys on my spirits, as much as ever; and what to do I know not."
2.From all this let us take occasion, (1.) To stand in awe of God, and to fear the power of his wrath. If good men have been put into such consternation by it, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear? (2.) To pity those that are wounded in spirit, and pray earnestly for them, because in that condition they know not how to pray for themselves. (3.) Carefully to keep up good thoughts of God in our minds, for hard thoughts of him are the inlets of much mischief. (4.) To bless God that we are not in such a disconsolate condition as poor Job was here in, but that we walk in the light of the Lord; let us rejoice therein, but rejoice with trembling.
“If I am ungodly, why have I not died?” You see how he does not deny being a sinner. “Why have I not died?” he says. This is not the expression of a man who accuses but who searches. I do not know at all, he says, God’s plans. “For if I should wash myself with snow and purge myself with pure hands [that would be useless]. You have thoroughly plunged me in filth, and my garment has abhorred me.” He means, before everybody’s eyes I am an example of impiety. It would be necessary that the wicked disappeared, so that I might not play the role of master for the others anymore. If I become purer than the sun, I still retain filthiness, and not an ordinary filthiness. “My garment has abhorred me.” What can I say about people, if even my garment despises me? This is what he more or less means. Even my closest relations have begun to hate me. They have turned away from me not because I am condemned but because they think I am cursed and impure.
56. For ‘snow water’ is the weeping of humility; which same, in that it excels all other virtues in the eyes of the strict Judge, is as it were white by the colour of preeminent merit. For there are some to whom there is lamenting but not humility, in that when they are afflicted they weep, yet in those very tears, they either set themselves in disdain against the life of their neighbours, or they are lifted up against the dispensation of their Maker. Such have water, but not ‘snow water,’ and they can never be clean, because they are not washed in the tears of humility. But he had washed himself clean from sin with snow water, who said with confidence, A broken and a humbled heart, O God, Thou shalt not despise. [Ps. 51, 17] For they that afflict themselves with tears but turn rebels by murmuring, ‘break’ their heart indeed, but disdain to be ‘humbled.’ Though ‘snow water’ may also be understood in another sense. For water of the spring and stream issues out of the earth, but snow water is let fall from the sky. And there are very many, who torment themselves in the wailings of supplication, yet with all their pains in bewailing they spend themselves upon earthly objects of desire alone. They are pierced with anguish in their prayers, but it is the joys of transitory happiness that they are in search of. And so these are not washed with ‘snow water,’ because their tears come from below. For it is as if they were bathed in water of earth, who are pierced with grief in their prayers, on account of earthly good things. But they who lament for this reason, because they long for the rewards on high [or ‘from on high’], are washed clean in snow water, in that heavenly compunction overflows them. For when they seek after the everlasting land by tears, and inflamed with longing for it lament, they receive from on high that whereby they may be made clean. Now by ‘the hands’ what else is denoted saving ‘works?’ Whence it is said to certain persons by the Prophet; Your hands are full of blood, [Is. 1, 15] i.e. ‘your works are full of cruelty.'
57. But it is to be observed, that the holy man does not say, And make my hands shine ever so clean, but as if never so clean. For so long as we are tied and bound by the penalty of a corrupt state, we never by whatsoever right works appropriate real cleanness to ourselves, but only imitate it, And hence it is fitly added, Yet Thou shalt stain me with filth. For God ‘to stain us with filth’ means His showing us to be stained with filth; in that in proportion as we more truly rise up to Him by good works, the more exactly we are made to know the filthiness of our life, by which we are rendered at variance with His pureness. Thus he saith, If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands shine as if never so clean; yet shalt Thou stain me with filthinesses. As if it were expressed in plain words, ‘Though I be steeped in tears of heavenly compunction, though I be exercised in the courses of good works, yet in Thy pureness I perceive that I am not pure.’ For the flesh itself, which is still subject to corruption, beats off the spirit when it is intent on God, and stains the beauty of the love of Him by foul and unhallowed movements of thought.
58. Hence too it is added, And mine own clothes shall abhor me. For what is denoted by the name of ‘clothes’ saving this earthly body, with which the soul is endued and covered, that it may not be seen naked in the subtleness of its substance? For hence Solomon saith, Let thy garments be always white, [Eccl. 9, 8] i.e. the members of the body clean from filthy acts. Hence Isaiah saith, A garment mixed in blood shall be for burning. [Is. 9, 5. Vulg.] For to ‘mix garments in blood’ is to defile the body with fleshly desires; which same the Psalmist dreaded to be defiled with, when he said, Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou That art the God of my health. [Ps. 51, 16] Hence it is delivered to John by the voice of the Angel, Thou hast a few names in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments. [Rev. 3, 4] But according to the way of Holy Writ, our clothes are said ‘to abhor us,’ in that they make us to be abhorred; in like manner as it is also said of Judas by Peter, Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity. [Acts 1, 18] For Judas never could have purchased the potter's field, which was bought with the price of blood, in that restoring the thirty pieces of silver, he straightway punished the guilt of the betrayal by a death with greater guilt inflicted on himself, but ‘he purchased’ is rendered, he ‘was the cause of purchasing.’ So in this place, Mine own garments shall abhor me, means, ‘shall make me to be abhorred.’ For whilst the members set themselves up against the spirit, whilst they break in upon the engagements of holy desire, ‘by the tumult of temptations that are caused by them, the soul being set in its own conflict learns how meanly it is still regarded by the Divine Being, in that while it fully desires to go through with the chastising of self and is not able, it is defiled by the dust of filthy thoughts. He felt this ‘abhorrence of the clothes,’ who said, But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. [Rom. 7, 23] These very garments, in which he could not be entirely pleasing, he anxiously desired to lay aside, one day to be resumed much better, saying, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? [Rom. 7, 24] Therefore let the righteous man say, If I wash myself as with snow water, and make my hands shine as if never so clean, yet shalt Thou still stain me with filthiness, and mine own clothes shall abhor me. In that howsoever he might have been transported on high in the compunctious visitings of contemplation, however he might have braced himself in practice by the exercise of pains, yet he is still sensible of somewhat unmeet derived from a body of death, and sees himself to be abominable in many things, which he bears about him from his load of corruption. And this too becomes a worse affliction to him, that he often cannot make out by what means he is an offender. He undergoes scourges, but knows nothing what in him is greater, or what less, that displeases the severe Judge. And hence it is added,
32. For He is not a man, such as I am, that I should answer Him, or that He can be heard with me in Judgment on an equal footing.
59. When we ‘contend with another in judgment on an equal footing,’ we both learn what is urged against us, and in all we allege we are heard, and in proportion as we apprehend the points openly objected, we reply with boldness to the points propounded. In this way forasmuch as the invisible Judge sees all that we do, it is as if He hears things that we say. But because we never know fully the thing that displeases Him, it is as if what He Himself says, we know not. Thus the holy man, considering the ‘abhorrence of his own clothes,’ is the more filled with fears, that he cannot ‘be heard with Him in judgment on an equal footing.’ In that so long as he is burthened with the load of his corruption, he meets with this worst evil in his punishment, that he does not even know the view that his Reprover takes. As though he said in plain words; ‘Herein I am not heard on an equal footing, in that while all that I do is open to view, yet I myself cannot tell under what liabilities I am arrested.’
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SUMMARY
Job 9:30 profoundly articulates Job's despair and the inherent futility of human self-justification in the face of God's absolute holiness and overwhelming power. In this verse, Job rhetorically asserts that even the most stringent and meticulous cleansing rituals, symbolized by washing with "snow water" and making his hands "never so clean," would be utterly insufficient to render him pure or righteous in God's sight. It highlights his acute recognition of the infinite chasm between human imperfection and divine perfection, setting the stage for a deeper understanding of humanity's desperate need for a righteousness that originates not from its own efforts but from God alone.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Job 9:30 employs several powerful literary devices to convey Job's profound despair and the theological truth of human inadequacy. Hyperbole is central to the verse, as Job describes an exaggerated scenario of cleansing ("wash myself with snow water," "make my hands never so clean") to emphasize the absolute impossibility of achieving true purity by human effort. This extreme imagery underscores his point more forcefully than a literal statement could. Symbolism is also evident, with "snow water" symbolizing the purest, most pristine form of cleansing available in the ancient world, and "washing hands" symbolizing ritual or moral purification and the declaration of innocence. The verse also utilizes rhetorical questioning (implied, as it leads into the inevitable conclusion of Job 9:31), where Job's statement functions as a premise for the inescapable reality that even such efforts would be in vain before God. This creates a sense of pathos, conveying Job's deep despair and the overwhelming nature of his predicament in facing an unapproachable and infinitely holy God.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Job 9:30 profoundly articulates the biblical truth of humanity's inherent inability to achieve righteousness through self-effort. It lays bare the infinite chasm between God's absolute holiness and humanity's pervasive sinfulness, demonstrating that no human ritual, moral striving, or self-purification can ever meet divine standards. This verse serves as a crucial Old Testament precursor to the New Testament's emphasis on grace, revealing the desperate need for a righteousness that originates entirely outside of humanity. It highlights that true cleansing and justification must come from God Himself, as human efforts, even the most meticulous, are ultimately defiled and insufficient in His sight.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Job 9:30 stands as a stark reminder of our spiritual reality: no matter how diligently we strive for moral purity, how perfectly we adhere to religious rituals, or how much we attempt to cleanse ourselves of sin, our efforts will always fall short of God's perfect and unblemished holiness. This verse calls us to profound humility, dismantling any illusion of self-sufficiency or self-righteousness. It compels us to recognize that true spiritual cleansing and acceptance before God are not earned but received as a gift. Understanding Job's despair in this verse can lead us to a deeper appreciation for the grace of God, which provides what we could never achieve on our own. It redirects our focus from our own inadequate efforts to the perfect provision made by God for our justification, fostering a posture of dependence rather than self-reliance.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "snow water" signify in this context?
Answer: "Snow water" (Hebrew: mayim sheleg) signifies the purest and most pristine form of water available in the ancient world. It would have been collected from untouched melted snow, making it superior to river or well water, which could be muddy or contaminated. In this context, Job uses it as a symbol of the most extreme, thorough, and meticulous cleansing ritual imaginable. By saying he would wash himself with "snow water," Job is emphasizing that even the most perfect human effort at self-purification would still be insufficient to make him truly clean in God's eyes. It highlights the ultimate futility of human attempts to achieve righteousness on their own terms, underscoring the vast gap between human effort and divine perfection.
Does this verse suggest that human effort towards righteousness is pointless?
Answer: This verse does not suggest that human effort towards righteousness is entirely pointless in terms of moral living or obedience to God's commands, but rather that it is utterly insufficient for achieving justification or acceptance before a holy God. Job is not advocating for moral apathy but expressing the profound theological truth that no amount of human striving, no matter how intense or sincere, can bridge the gap between human sinfulness and divine perfection. It points to the reality that true righteousness must be imputed or gifted by God, not earned by human merit. This idea is foundational to understanding the concept of grace later revealed in the New Testament, where salvation is by grace through faith, not by works (e.g., Ephesians 2:8-9). While we are called to strive for holiness (e.g., Hebrews 12:14), this striving is a response to grace, not a means of earning it.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Job 9:30, with its poignant expression of human inadequacy in the face of divine holiness, powerfully foreshadows the absolute necessity of Christ's perfect work. Job's despair over the impossibility of self-cleansing highlights humanity's universal predicament: no amount of ritual washing, moral striving, or personal effort could ever make us truly righteous before a perfectly holy God. This verse sets the stage for the New Testament revelation that what humanity could never achieve, God accomplished through His Son. Jesus Christ is the ultimate "snow water," the pure and unblemished Lamb of God whose sacrifice provides the only true and effective cleansing for sin. His blood, unlike any earthly water, purifies us from all unrighteousness, making us clean in God's sight (e.g., 1 John 1:7). Through faith in Him, we are not merely cleansed but are clothed in His perfect righteousness (e.g., 2 Corinthians 5:21). Thus, Job's lament becomes a profound cry for the very solution that God, in His boundless love and grace, provided in Jesus Christ, who alone makes us "never so clean" and presents us blameless before the Father (e.g., Colossians 1:22).