| Scripture |
Expanded Comments |
| 1 Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it. |
Lo – Commencing Job's masterly reply. R5402:1
Hath heard – The false reasonings of his friends (which many improperly quote as inspired). R5402:1
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| 2 What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you. |
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| 3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God. |
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| 4 But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value. |
Of no value – His friends told him that he must have been a great sinner and a hypocrite. R5401:6
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| 5 O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom. |
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| 6 Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips. |
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| 7 Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him? |
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| 8 Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God? |
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| 9 Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him? |
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| 10 He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons. |
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| 11 Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you? |
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| 12 Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay. |
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| 13 Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will. |
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| 14 Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand? |
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| 15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him. |
Though he slay me – Though much cast down, he maintained his integrity and his faith in the Lord. R5803:4
He sought in vain for an explanation. R5401:6
Many of God's people since have been similarly confused as to why God permits evil to come upon his faithful servants. R5402:1
Yet will I trust – Job's expression of confidence in God and in his ultimate deliverance. R5402:1
I shall yet receive his favor and learn what he means by these afflictions coming upon me. R5333:4
His trust was not misplaced. After his testings, God gave him back children, houses, lands and friends which foreshadowed the coming blessings of restitution. R5333:4
Mine own ways – Conscious of his own heart-honesty toward God, Job defends himself, but goes to too great an extreme in declaring his own innocence. R5401:6
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| 16 He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him. |
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| 17 Hear diligently my speech, and my declaration with your ears. |
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| 18 Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified. |
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| 19 Who is he that will plead with me? for now, if I hold my tongue, I shall give up the ghost. |
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| 20 Only do not two things unto me: then will I not hide myself from thee. |
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| 21 Withdraw thine hand far from me: and let not thy dread make me afraid. |
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| 22 Then call thou, and I will answer: or let me speak, and answer thou me. |
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| 23 How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin. |
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| 24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and holdest me for thine enemy? |
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| 25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro? and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble? |
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| 26 For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth. |
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| 27 Thou puttest my feet also in the stocks, and lookest narrowly unto all my paths; thou settest a print upon the heels of my feet. |
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| 28 And he, as a rotten thing, consumeth, as a garment that is moth eaten. |
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