job-23:2-12

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 23:1-7

Job is confident that he has wrong done him by his friends, and therefore, ill as he is, he will not give up the cause, nor let them have the last word. Here, I. He justifies his own resentments of his trouble (Job 23:2): Even to day, I own, my complaint is bitter; for the affliction, the cause of the complaint, is so. There are wormwood and gall in the affliction and misery; my soul has them still in remembrance and is embittered by them, Lam. 3:19, 20. Even to day is my complaint counted... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 23:8-12

Here, I. Job complains that he cannot understand the meaning of God's providences concerning him, but is quite at a loss about them (Job 23:8, 9): I go forward, but he is not there, etc. Eliphaz had bid him acquaint himself with God. ?So I would, with all my heart,? says Job, ?If I knew how to get acquainted with him.? He had himself a great desire to appear before God, and get a hearing of his case, but the Judge was not to be found. Look which way he would, he could see no sign of God's... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:2

Even today is my complaint bitter ,.... Job's afflictions were continued on him long; he was made to possess months of vanity; and, as he had been complaining ever since they were upon him, he still continued to complain to that day, "even" after all the comforts his friends pretended to administer to him, as Jarchi observes: his complaints were concerning his afflictions, and his friends' ill usage of him under them; not of injustice in God in afflicting him, though he thought he dealt... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:3

O that I knew where I might find him ,.... That is, God, who is understood, though not expressed, a relative without an antecedent, as in Psalm 87:1 ; Jarchi supplies, and interprets it, "my Judge", from Job 23:7 ; and certain it is Job did desire to find God as a judge sitting on his throne, doing right, that he might have justice done to him: indeed he might be under the hidings of God's face, which added to his affliction, and made it the heavier; in which case, the people of God are... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:4

I would order my cause before him ,.... Either, as a praying person, direct his prayer to him, and set it in order before him, see Psalm 5:3 ; or else as pleading in his own defence, and in justification of himself; not of his person before God, setting his works of righteousness in order before him, and pleading his justification on the foot of them; for, by these no flesh living can be justified before God; but of his cause, for, as a man may vindicate his cause before men, and clear... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:5

I would know the words which he would answer me ,.... Being a God hearing and answering prayer, who always hears, and sooner or later answers the petitions of his people in his own way; and which when he does, they know, take notice, and observe it: or then he should know the reason why the Lord contended with him, and what were his sins and transgressions, which were the cause of his afflictions; things he had desired to know, but as yet had no answer, see Job 10:2 ; and understand... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:6

Will he plead against me with his great power ?.... God will not plead against his people at all, but for them: much less will he plead against them with his great strength, use all his power to run them down, crush, and oppress them; for he is a great God, and of great power, he is mighty in strength, and there is no contending with him, or answering of him, Job 9:3 ; nor will he deal with them according to the strict rigour of his justice, nor stir up all his wrath, nor contend for... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:7

There the righteous might dispute with him ,.... That is, at his seat, either at his mercy seat, where even God allows sinners to come and reason with him, for pardoning grace and mercy, upon the foot of his own declarations and promises, and the blood and sacrifice of his son, Isaiah 1:18 ; or at his judgment seat, pleading the righteousness of Christ, which is fully satisfactory to law and justice. Job most probably means himself by the righteous or upright man, being conscious to... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:8

Behold, I go forward, but he is not there ,.... Job here returns to what he had said before, Job 23:3 ; as Jarchi observes, where he expresses his earnest desire after God, that he might know where he was, and come up to his seat; here he relates the various ways he took to find him, and his fruitless search of him. Cocceius thinks, by these phrases "forward" and "backward", are meant times future and past; and that the sense is, that Job looked into the future times of the Messiah,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:9

On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him ,.... The northern part of the world, where his seat is, or the circle of the earth, says Bar Tzemach, and who has stretched out the north over the empty place, Job 26:7 . Jarchi's note is, when he created it, he did not make it the place of his throne: God works everywhere in a way of providence, but in some places more eminently than in others; the northern part of the world is observed to be more inhabited than the... read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 23:1-7

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Job 23:8-12

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:2

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:3

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:4

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:5

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:6

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:7

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:8

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Job 23:9

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