Seventh-day Adventist Bible CommentaryJob 23

Job answered. Job replies to Eliphaz in a speech occupying two chapters (chs. 23 and 24) of 42 verses. Unlike Job’s previous replies, this speech is in the form of a monologue, without direct address to the friends. He begins by justifying the vehemence of his complaints. In ch. 24 he reviews his previous arguments, maintaining that the wicked enjoy prosperity. He closes with a challenge to his opponents to disprove the truth of what he has said.

Bitter. Literally, “rebellious.” “Bitter” is the reading of the Syriac, the Vulgate, and the Targums. Job does not apologize for his complaints. He acknowledges that, notwithstanding all his opponents have said about his right to complain, he still complains as bitterly as ever. Stroke. Literally, “hand.” The expression may be translated “my hand is [lies] heavy upon my groaning,” meaning that Job tries to repress his groaning, which in no adequate measure reflects his calamities. The LXX renders the sentence, “His hand has been made heavy upon my groaning.”

To his seat. That is, to his dwelling place. Job is plagued with a sense of the remoteness and inaccessibility of God. He feels that he must somehow find God. He repeats his desire to carry his case directly to God. 5 He would answer. Job is weary of human reasoning. He is anxious to know God’s attitude.

Will he plead? Job manifests confidence in divine justice.

The righteous. Job’s conscience testifies to his basic integrity and uprightness. He feels that if he can obtain the ear of God, he will be vindicated, once and for all. His basic

complaint in vs. 1–7 is that he does not know how to find his way to God. He seems to feel that God will be kind to him, if only he can come into His presence.

I go forward. A new stanza begins here. Verses 8 and 9 graphically describe Job’s futile search for God. Job looks to all points of the compass in his search for God, but all in vain. The Oriental geographers considered themselves as facing the east instead of the north, as we do. The west was behind them. The south was on the right hand and the north on the left.

Come forth. This is one of the key verses of the book. Although Job could not seem to find God, he believed that God was aware of his ways and purposeful in His dealings with him. Job was beginning to understand that he was being tried. He still did not know of Satan’s challenge regarding him. One of the rungs of the ladder by which Job climbed from despair to faith was the recognition on his part that he was not being punished or unjustly treated, but rather was being tested that he might emerge as pure gold from a furnace.

My necessary food. Heb. chuqqi, literally, “my prescribed portion.” It may be food (see Gen. 47:22, where choq is translated “portion”), or anything else that is prescribed. Choq is frequently translated “statute” (Ex. 15:25, 26; 18:16; etc.), and sometimes “law” (Gen. 47:26; 1 Chron. 16:17; Ps. 94:20; 105:10). Hence some interpret the expression, “more than [or above] my own law,” meaning that he gave God’s will preference over his own inclinations. Others follow the reading of the LXX, “in my bosom.” If this is the intended figure, Job intimates that the words of God’s mouth are to him a most precious treasure. (But see a different interpretation under v. 14.)

One mind. See James 1:17. Job clearly understood the sovereignty of God.

Appointed for me. Heb. chuqqi, literally, “my prescribed portion.” Compare the use of this word in v. 12. The fact that the translation in v. 14 so obviously requires the sense of “appointed” rather than “bosom,” makes it seem reasonable that the same translation should be followed in both verses (see on v. 12).

Troubled. Job’s fear was provoked by his suffering and his uncertain future. One of the great purposes of the message of God to Job (chs. 38 to 41) was to dispel this fear and uncertainty. God does not leave His children in fear.

Soft. Or, “faint” (see Deut. 20:3).

Darkness. The thing that crushed Job was not so much his suffering as the thought that the God whom he had loved and served had caused the suffering to come upon him. He acknowledges the darkness that surrounds him, and wonders why God did not destroy him before his calamity, or remove it from him. He continues his complaints in ch. 24.