job-23:9-bsb

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Job 23:8-9

Job 23:8-9. I go forward קדם , kedem, ad orientem, toward the east: אחור , achor, ad occidentem, toward the west; so the Vulgate, which is likewise the interpretation of the Jewish commentators, who by the left hand, and the right, in the next verse, understand the north and the south. They have a tradition that Adam was created with his face placed toward the east, that he might see the rising sun. From whence they say the east was to him kedem, the anterior part of the... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Job 23:1-17

Job’s reply to Eliphaz (23:1-24:25)Again Job says that he is not rebelling against God or running away from him as his friends claim. On the contrary he wants to meet God, so that he can present his case to him and listen to God’s answer (23:1-5). He is confident that God will declare him innocent of the charges people have made against him (6-7).No matter where Job has searched for God, he has not found him. He cannot see God, but God can see him. God knows he is upright, and one day, when... read more

Robert Jamieson; A. R. Fausset; David Brown

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Job 23:9

9. Rather, "To the north." work—God's glorious works are especially seen towards the north region of the sky by one in the northern hemisphere. The antithesis is between God working and yet not being beheld: as in :-, between "He goeth by," and "I see Him not." If the Hebrew bears it, the parallelism to the second clause is better suited by translating, as UMBREIT, "doth hide himself"; but then the antithesis to "behold" would be lost. right hand—"in the south." hideth—appropriately, of the... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Job 23:1-25

2. Job’s third reply to Eliphaz chs. 23-24Job temporarily ignored Eliphaz’s groundless charges of sin and proceeded to reflect on the problem of God’s injustice."The first part of this speech is superb. The option placed before Job by Eliphaz has clarified his thinking. He has come to quite different conclusions, and he expresses them in a soliloquy, for he does not appear to be addressing either Eliphaz or God." [Note: Andersen, p. 207.] read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Job 23:8-12

Job’s innocence 23:8-12Wherever Job looked, he could not find God. Two paraphrases of Job 23:10 are these. Because (the first word in the verse in Hebrew) He knows my ways, God is evading me. "He knows I am innocent and therefore is refusing to appear in court, for once He heard my case He would have to admit to injustice." [Note: Zuck, Job, p. 108.] A better explanation, I think, follows."A more literal translation . . . yields: ’But he (God) knows (his) way with me.’ Because God knows what He... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Job 23:1-17

Job’s Seventh Speech (Job 23, 24)Job makes but slight reference to the remarks of Eliphaz, but continues to brood over the mysteries of God’s dealings with himself (Job 23), and with mankind (Job 24). All seems to betoken a God that hideth Himself. Yet he is evidently calmer and more trustful in God’s justice than in earlier speeches.1-7. Job longs that he may find God and plead his cause before Him, confident that He wifl acquit him of guilt.2b. RM ’My hand is heavy upon my groaning,’ i.e. I... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Dictionary of Texts - Job 23:1-17

Job 23:3 'I remember one day in the early springtide,' Tolstoy writes in his Confessions, 'I was listening to the sounds of a forest, and thinking only of one thing, a thing of which I had thought for two years on end I was again seeking for a God.... I remembered that I had lived only when I believed in a God. As it was before, so was it now; I had but to know God, in order to live; I had but to forget Him, to cease believing in Him, and I died. What was the meaning of this despair and... read more

William Nicoll

Expositor's Bible Commentary - Job 23:1-17

XX.WHERE IS ELOAH?Job 23:1-17; Job 24:1-25Job SPEAKSTHE obscure couplet with which Job begins appears to involve some reference to his whole condition alike of body and mind."Again today, my plaint, my rebellion! The hand upon me is heavier than my groanings."I must speak of my trouble and you will count it rebellion. Yet, if I moan and sigh, my pain and weariness are more than excuse. The crisis of faith is with him, a protracted misery, and hope hangs trembling in the balance. The false... read more

Arno Clemens Gaebelein

Arno Gaebelein's Annotated Bible - Job 23:1-17

CHAPTERS 23-24 Job’s Reply 1. O that I knew where I may find Him (Job 23:1-8 ) 2. Trusting yet doubting (Job 23:10-17 ) 3. Hath God failed? (Job 24:1-12 ) 4. Job’s further testimony as to the wicked (Job 24:13-25 ) Job 23:1-9 . Job here does not disprove at once the false charges of Eliphaz. He can afford to wait till later, till their mouths are completely silenced. Then he speaks the final word. He acknowledgeth that he is still rebellious. His hand which is upon him is heavier than... read more

L.M. Grant

L. M. Grant's Commentary on the Bible - Job 23:1-17

HE LONGS TO LAY HIS CASE BEFORE GOD (vv.1-9) What Eliphaz has said to Job was hardly worth an answer, so that Job practically ignores this and lays before his friends the actual distresses that occupied his mind and heart. They had had no answer for this before, and when he is finished they still have no answer. In spite of all that his friends have said, he tells them, "Even today my complaint is bitter" (v.2). Their much talk had not changed anything for him. He continued to groan in... read more