Jobchapter 23
17 verses · unknown · 10th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
Yet He knows the way I have taken; when He has tested me, I will come forth as gold.
Introduction
unknown, Wisdom and poetry, Job Overview.
Job answers Eliphaz's third speech, and in this chapter he barely addresses the friends. He speaks as a man with a case prepared and no courtroom to bring it to. His hearers knew the raised seat where a ruler heard disputes, and they knew how a smith refined metal in the fire. Listen for the directions in which Job searches. Listen also for what he believes would happen if he were given a hearing. The chapter holds fear and confidence side by side in the same man.
Context
- Who
- Hearers who had prayed into silence and kept praying
- What
- Job's reply to Eliphaz, a longing to find God's judgment seat and state his case, with confidence that testing would prove him true.
- Where
- The ash heap outside Job's town, as Job searches in every direction for God.
- When
- The third round of speeches, Job's reply to Eliphaz.
- Why
- To show Job trusting God's justice while he fears that God will not grant him a hearing.
Historical context
Job's opening wish is procedural: 'Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!' The seat is the judgment seat, the raised place where a ruler or elder sat to hear cases. Job wants an address to file at. He says he would order his cause before him and fill his mouth with arguments, the language of a prepared litigant, not a rebel.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
And then he says the thing that separates him from every accuser: he would not need to be overpowered. He would know the words God answered him with, and God would not plead against him with his great power but would put strength in him. Job trusts the judge more than he trusts the process.
The search that follows uses the four directions, the ancient way of saying everywhere: forward and he is not there, backward and he cannot perceive him, on the left where he works and cannot behold him, on the right where he hides himself. This is not a claim that God is absent; it is a claim that God will not be summoned.
'When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold' comes from metalworking. Ore was heated in a crucible until the impurities separated and could be skimmed, and refined gold was the standard image of something proved genuine by fire. Job's confidence is that a genuine test would clear him, and his terror is that God is not obliged to hold one.
Significance
The line hearers took away is the one about the refiner: he knows the way that I take; when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. It is the first time in the book that Job frames his suffering as a test rather than only as an attack.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
He is closer to the truth than his friends and still cannot see it. Chapter 1 has already told the audience that this is exactly what is happening.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for the book of Job, and no festival reading.
The corpus joins it to the study of the Torah portions through the Midrash arranged by them. Under the third verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 12:1. Under the third verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 11:4. Under the fifth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Kedoshim 15:1. Under the fifth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Kedoshim 15:1. Under the tenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 13:1. Under the thirteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shemot 14:1. Under the thirteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shemot 14:2. Under the thirteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 21:1. Under the thirteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 18:1. Under the thirteenth verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 18:3.
How it is read
The corpus carries the English of two commentators on this chapter. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, and Malbim from Malbim's Job, trans. Jeremy I. Pfeffer. Ktav, 2003. Sefaria reports both as CC-BY. Malbim frames the chapter as the fifteenth speech, Job's reply to the third speech of Eliphaz (Malbim on Job 23:1:1). He notes that Eliphaz's new approach had offered a separate solution to each issue under discussion (Malbim on Job 23:1:2).
Rashi hears Job saying that his speech stays bitter even after all these consolations, because the friends' words hold no consolation (Rashi on Job 23:2:1, Rashi on Job 23:2:2). Job wishes to find his Judge at the place prepared for His throne and to set out his argument there (Rashi on Job 23:3:1, Rashi on Job 23:3:2, Rashi on Job 23:4:1). Even if God stopped him from speaking, perhaps God would speak with him, and Job would know His answer (Rashi on Job 23:5:1).
At the sixth verse Rashi gives two readings. In the first, God will not cast His coercion and His awe upon Job. In the second, God will cast on Job only the contest of rebukes for his sins, and no false accusations (Rashi on Job 23:6:2). In the place of that contest, the propriety of Job's deeds would be revealed before God (Rashi on Job 23:7:1, Rashi on Job 23:7:2).
Rashi ties the eighth verse back to the wish of the third (Rashi on Job 23:8:1). Because God knows the way that is with Job, He does not come to contend with him (Rashi on Job 23:10:1). Job was more eager to keep the words of God's mouth than to eat his daily food (Rashi on Job 23:12:1). God is One and knows what every creature would reply, so replies are prepared before Him (Rashi on Job 23:13:1). Rashi gives Job's expectation in his own words. "I know that He will not draw back His hand until He completes the sentence of His decrees" (Rashi on Job 23:14:1).
Malbim reads the sixteenth verse as a condition. If Job has failed the test and now seems to have served for benefit, God broke him and left him alive to suffer (Malbim on Job 23:16:1). A numbered note says Malbim quotes TB Ketuboth 33b. There Rab is reported saying that Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah would have worshipped the image had they been lashed (Malbim on Job 23:16:1). Rashi ends on Job's fright that he was not laid in the grave before this darkness came upon him (Rashi on Job 23:17:1).
The corpus carries two further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited by ref and unquoted. Two stand at Metzudat David on Job 23:4:1 and 23:5:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries thirty-four rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the second verse it holds Pesikta Rabbati 47:1. On the third verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 12:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Mishpatim 11:4, Shemot Rabbah 30:11, Shemot Rabbah 31:12, Shemot Rabbah 40:3 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 653:4. On the fourth verse it holds Devarim Rabbah 2:4 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 812:2. On the fifth verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Kedoshim 15:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Kedoshim 15:1.
On the ninth verse it holds Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair 1:4. On the tenth verse it holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bereshit 13:1 and Midrash Tehillim 139:1. On the twelfth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:2.
On the thirteenth verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 14:6, Bereshit Rabbah 50:1, Bereshit Rabbah 50:2, Devarim Rabbah 1:10 and Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 14:27. It also holds Mekhilta DeRabbi Yishmael, Tractate Vayehi Beshalach 7:9, Midrash Lekach Tov, Deuteronomy 3:24:1, Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 23:8:2 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shemot 14:1. It also holds Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Shemot 14:2, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Vayera 21:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 18:1, Midrash Tanchuma, Shemot 18:3 and Midrash Tehillim 119:25. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Midrash on Psalms, Addendum to Psalm 118 40, Shemot Rabbah 4:3, Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:9:1 and Sifrei Bamidbar 134:5. The corpus also anchors one locator past the seventeenth verse, which is the last verse of this chapter in the Berean Standard Bible count the site carries. Each is listed as the corpus prints it. The corpus sets Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Shabbat 2:19 at Job 23:23. Sefaria numbers by the Hebrew text, and a locator here is checked against that numbering before it is quoted. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Malbim, Malbim on Job 23:1:1 to 23:16:1, Malbim's Job, trans. Jeremy I. Pfeffer. Ktav, 2003, reported CC-BY; Rashi, Rashi on Job 23:2:1 to 23:17:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Job 23:4:1 and 23:5:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/job/23.json, the 34 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Job: Oh That I Knew Where I Might Find Him!
Job 23:1-2
Then Job answered: Job's reply opens by naming what has not changed through the speeches so far: "Even today my complaint is bitter". Henry notes that Job restates the complaint the friends have been rebuking, because the affliction has not lifted: "His hand is heavy despite my groaning".
Job 23:1
“Then Job answered and said.”
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Job 23:1
“Then Job answered and said, Now also is my complaint bitter: and the hand of my stroke is heavier than my groaning. ALLEGORICAL INTERPRETATION In his own way blessed Job sets out with the plainer sort of words, but his declaration he closes by the deep following on of mystery. For the pain of the afflicted man ought to have been healed by the consoling of his friends, but because their consoling broke out into the soothings of deceit, the pain of the stricken man was made harsher.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIpatristic
Job 23:1
"Then Job answered and said, 'Yes, I know that my accusation comes from my hands.' " This means, I carry along with me the evidence that accuses me. I draw from myself the demonstration of my afflictions. "His hand has been made heavy upon me, and I groan over me." If it were possible, he says, to discuss my punishments with him, it would also be possible to find them out. If only I could plead my case in justice, he says, and meet him and learn what he would have answered me!
John Chrysostom · written before 407 · Commentary on Job 23:2Bpatristic
Job 23:1
"Today also my speech is bitter," that is, my words happen to be harsh and irksome to both our ears. In a different sense [we may interpret the passage as] you, indeed, to use harsher speech against you, drive me with your words.
Ephrem the Syrian · written before 373 · Commentary on Job 23:2patristic
Job stands by the complaint Eliphaz has rebuked. Clarke reads the verse as a claim that the affliction is heavier than his complaint is loud, so his groaning understates it. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown take the heavy hand as the hand of God on him, as at Job 19:21.
Job 23:2
“Even to-day is my complaint bitter - Job goes on to maintain his own innocence, and shows that he has derived neither conviction nor consolation from the discourses of his friends. He grants that his complaint is bitter; but states that, loud as it may be, the affliction which he endures is heavier than his complaints are loud. Mr. Good translates: “And still is my complaint rebellion?” Do ye construe my lamentations over my unparalleled sufferings as rebellion against God?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Job 23:3-5
If only I knew where to find Him: Job wishes for access: "If only I knew where to find Him, so that I could go to His seat". There he would "plead my case before Him and fill my mouth with arguments", as a man prepares a case for a court he trusts.
Job 23:3
“Oh that I knew where I might find him! - Where I might find “God.” He had often expressed a wish to bring his cause directly before God, and to be permitted to plead his cause there; see Job 13:3, note; Job 13:20, notes. But this he had not yet been able to do. The argument had been with his three friends, and he saw that there was no use in attempting further to convince them. If he could get the cause before God, and be allowed go plead it there, he felt assured that justice would be done him.”
2 more voices on this verse
Job 23:3
“O that one would grant me that I might know and find Him, that I might come even to His seat! An elect person if he did not know God, assuredly would not love Him. But it is one thing to 'know' by faith, and another to know by His own Form, one thing to find by trustfulness, another to find Him by contemplation. In consequence whereof it is brought to pass that Him Whom they know by faith, all of the Elect long to see by His own Form as well.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIpatristic
Job 23:3
“Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!" Observe that Job is so taken up with his one great desire that he forgets that everybody else is not thinking in the same way—and he uses a pronoun, though he has not before uttered the name of God. The man is carried away with his desire. He does not say, "Oh, that I knew where I might find God!" but, "where I might find Elm'" An overwhelming passion will often speak like that.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2272: “Longing To Find God” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
fill my mouth with arguments: Job pictures a court where he could plead his case. Barnes reads the arguments as a case set in order before the Judge of verse 7, as at Isaiah 43:26. Henry learns from it that prayer may plead with God and fill its mouth with arguments.
Job 23:4
“I would order my cause before him - Compare the notes at Isa 43:26. That is, I would arrange my arguments, or plead my cause, as one does in a court of justice. I would suggest the considerations which would show that I am not guilty in the sense charged by my friends, and that notwithstanding my calamities, I am the real friend of God.”
I would learn how He would answer: Job would learn the answer from God himself. Henry notes that he already knew what the friends would say, and he wanted to hear what God would say, whose judgment is true. Wesley finds a readiness to be humbled if God would show him a hidden sin.
Job 23:5
“I would know the words which he would answer me - That is, I wish to understand what would be “his” decision in the case - and what would be his judgment in regard to me. That was of infinitely more importance than any opinion which “man” could form, and Job was anxious to have the matter decided by a tribunal which could not err. Why should “we” not desire to know exactly what God thinks of us, and what estimate he has formed of our character?”
Job 23:6-7
Would He contend with me in His great power?: Job answers his own question with "No, He would certainly take note of me", a hearing that gives him standing to plead. The line "Then an upright man could reason with Him" expects acquittal. The words "I would be delivered forever from my Judge" look past the present ordeal.
Job 23:6
“I would not that He should contend with me with great power, nor oppress me with the weight of His mightiness. For the soul of one however righteous, if he be judged with strictness by Almighty God, is borne down by the weight of His mightiness. In which same words this is likewise to be understood, that whereas the holy man shews the might of God, what else of Him does he desire, but His weakness? And it is written, the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Job 23:6
“Will he plead against me - He would not exhibit his majesty and his sovereign authority to strike me dumb, or so overawe me that I could not speak in my own vindication. No; but he would put strength in me - On the contrary, he would treat me with tenderness, he would rectify my mistakes, he would show me what was in my favor, and would temper the rigid demands of justice by the mild interpretations of equity; and where law could not clear me, mercy would conduct all to the most favorable issue.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
an upright man could reason with Him: Barnes holds that Job means himself by the upright man, though he speaks in the third person. Clarke notes that the Hebrew for forever may also be read as to victory, the sense the Vulgate took. Either way, the case ends in acquittal.
Job 23:7
“Let Him put forth equity against me, and my judgment shall come unto victory. PROPHETICAL INTERPRETATION For who else saving the Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, is denoted by the title of 'equity?' Concerning Whom it is written, Who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness. And whereas this same righteousness came into this world against the ways of sinners, we get the better of our old enemy, by whom we were held captive.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Job 23:7
“There, in the court of heaven, when the final sentence is to be given, the righteous might dispute with him and come off in his righteousness. Now, even the upright are often chastened of the Lord, and they cannot dispute against it; integrity itself is no fence either against calamity or calumny; but in that day they shall not be condemned with the world, though God may afflict by prerogative.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Job 23:8-9
If I go east: The courtroom of verses 3 to 7 collapses: "If I go east, He is not there, and if I go west, I cannot find Him". Clarke notes the irony, a man confident of his case with no way to bring it. The search is answered from the whirlwind at 38:1.
Job 23:8
“If I go to the East, He appeareth not; if I go to the West, I shall not understand Him; if I go to the left hand, what shall I do? I shall not comprehend Him; if I turn myself to the right hand I shall not see Him. For the Creator of all things is not in a part, inasmuch as He is every where. And then He is found the less, when He, That is whole every where, is sought in a part.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
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.”
When He is at work in the north: The search of verse 8 reaches all four quarters. Clarke notes that the Hebrew names them as a man facing east would: before, behind, left and right. Barnes adds that the word for north comes from a root meaning to hide, the hidden region where God is at work unseen.
Job 23:9
“On the left hand - That is, in the North - at the left hand when the face was turned to the East. So the Chaldee, בצפונא - “on the North.” The other versions, the Vulgate, the Septuagint, the Syriac, Castellio, Luther, etc., render it “on the left hand.” The common term among the Hebrews for the “North” is צפון tsâphôn - (from צפן tsâphan - “to hide,” or “conceal”), meaning the hidden, concealed, or dark region, since the ancients regarded the North as the seat of gloom and darkness, (Homer, Odyssey ix.”
Job: He Knoweth the Way That I Take
Yet He knows the way I have taken: Job cannot find God, and God has never lost sight of him. "Yet He knows the way I have taken" answers the fourfold search. Watson reads the verse as the turn of the chapter, Job's ignorance of where God is answered by God's knowledge of Job's way.
Job 23:10
“But he knoweth the way that I take - He approves of my conduct; my ways please him. He tries me: but, like gold, I shall lose nothing in the fire; I shall come forth more pure and luminous. If that which is reputed to be gold is exposed to the action of a strong fire, if it be genuine, it will lose nothing of its quality, nor of its weight. If it went into the fire gold, it will come out gold; the strongest fire will neither alter nor destroy it.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Job 23:10
“But He Himself knoweth the way that I take. And He shall try me like gold which passeth through the fire. LITERAL INTERPRETATION As if he said in plain terms, 'I for mine own part both search myself strictly, and am not able to know myself thoroughly; yet He, Whom I have not power to see, seeth most minutely all the things that I do.' Gold in the furnace is advanced to the brightness of its nature, whilst it loses the dross.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIpatristic
Job 23:11-12
My feet have followed in His tracks: Job's confidence rests on his record: "My feet have followed in His tracks; I have kept His way without turning aside". The line "I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread" is the book's own doctrine of appetite for Scripture.
Job 23:11
“THUS Job speaks of himself, not by way of boasting, but by way of vindication. Eliphaz the Temanite and his two companions had brought distinct charges against Job's character. Because they saw him in such utter misery they concluded that his adversity must have been sent as a punishment for his sin and, therefore, they judged him to be a hypocrite who, under cover of religion, had exercised oppression and tyranny. Zophar had hinted that wickedness was sweet in Job's mouth and that he hid iniquity under his tongue.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 23:11
“The law is in Old Testament poetry regarded as a way, God going before us as our guide, in whose footsteps we must tread (Ps 17:5). declined-- (Ps 125:5).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
I have treasured the words of His mouth: Barnes notes that the Hebrew behind treasured means to hide or lay up, the word used for storing valuables. Clarke adds that the peoples of Asia carried precious things in the bosom. God's words were Job's treasure, kept above his daily bread.
Job 23:12
“The commandment of his lips - The written law that proceeded from his own mouth. I have esteemed the words of his mouth - Mr. Good has given a better version of the original: In my bosom have I stored up the words of his mouth. The Asiatics carry every thing precious or valuable in their bosom, their handkerchiefs, jewels, purses, etc. Job, therefore, intimates that the words of God’s mouth were to him a most precious treasure.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Job 23:12
“UMBREIT and MAURER translate, "More than my law," my own will, in antithesis to "the words of His mouth" (Joh 6:38). Probably under the general term, "what is appointed to me" (the same Hebrew is in Job 23:14), all that ministers to the appetites of the body and carnal will is included.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Job 23:13-14
But He is unchangeable: The chapter turns from Job's record to the will he cannot move: "But He is unchangeable, and who can oppose Him". "He does what He desires" reaches Job's case, "For He carries out His decree against me, and He has many such plans". The decree will not bend to argument.
Job 23:13
“Prayer has prevailed to change God's way and his providence, but never was his will or purpose changed; for known unto God are all his works. That his power is irresistible: What his soul desires or designs even that he does, and nothing can stand in his way or put him upon new counsels.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Job 23:13
“But he is in one mind - He is unchangeable. He has formed his plans, and no one can divert him from them. Of the truth of this sentiment there can be no dispute. The only difficulty in the case is to see why Job adverted to it here, and how it bears on the train of thought which he was pursuing.”
He carries out His decree against me: The God of verse 13 who cannot be opposed is carrying out a decree against Job. Barnes reads the suffering as part of God's settled plan, whose reason Job cannot see. Gregory hears dread of further trials in the many plans.
Job 23:14
“For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me - Coverdale translates: - He rewardeth me into my bosome, and many other thinges mo doth he, as he maye by his power. חקי chukki may as well be translated bosom here as in Job 23:12; but probably it may mean a portion, lot, sufficiency: For he hath appointed me my lot; and like these there are multitudes with him. He diversifies human affairs: scarcely any two men have the same lot; nor has the same person the same portion at all times.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Job 23:14
“This may silence us, for what is appointed cannot be altered. But to consider that, when God was appointing us to eternal life and glory as our end, he was appointing to this condition, this affliction, whatever it is, in our way, this may do more than silence us, it may satisfy us that it is all for the best; though what he does we know not now, yet we shall know hereafter.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Job 23:15-17
Therefore I am terrified in His presence: The confidence of verse 10 gives way. Dread returns: "Therefore I am terrified in His presence; when I consider this, I fear Him", and "the Almighty has terrified me". Gill notes the shape of the chapter, a peak of confidence, closing in the same fear it opened with.
Job 23:15
“Therefore am I troubled at his presence - The doctrine of divine purposes and decrees “is fitted to impress the mind with awe.” So vast are the plans of God; so uncertain to us is it what will be developed next; so impossible is it to resist God when he comes forth to execute his plans, that they fill the mind with reverence and fear. And this is one of the objects for which the doctrine is revealed.”
God has made my heart faint: Barnes reads the faint heart as the loss of strength, and he finds its cause in Job's thought of God's plan and power. Gregory takes the soft heart as one opened to the fear of judgment. Henry calls it a grievous softness that dreads every coming thing.
Job 23:16
“For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me. By divine gift the heart of the righteous man is said to be made soft, in that it is penetrated with the fear of the judgment from Above. For that it is soft, which is capable of being penetrated, but that is hard, which cannot be penetrated. Whence it is said by Solomon, Happy is the man that feareth always, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Job 23:16
“There is a gracious softness, like that of Josiah, whose heart was tender, and trembled at the word of God; but this is meant of a grievous softness which apprehends every thing that is present to be pressing and every thing future to be threatening.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Yet I am not silenced by the darkness: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown follow Umbreit and read silenced, as the Berean does. They hear in the thick darkness the darkness Eliphaz threatened at Job 22:11. God has terrified Job in verse 16, yet the darkness that covers his face leaves his mouth open.
Job 23:17
“Because I have not perished on account of the overhanging darkness; neither hath the darkness covered my face. For he, being set under the scourge, dies off from the health of the body 'on account of the overhanging darkness,' who is for this reason smitten for the past that he may be shielded from future punishments. For scourges inflicted on the good either wipe out evil things done, or parry off future ones which might have been done.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVIpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 23:17
“Because I was not taken away by death from the evil to come (literally, "from before the face of the darkness," Isa 57:1). Alluding to the words of Eliphaz (Job 22:11), "darkness," that is, calamity. cut off--rather, in the Arabic sense, brought to the land of silence; my sad complaint hushed in death [UMBREIT].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Job 23:17
“Because I was not cut off before the darkness - Before these calamities came upon me. Because I was not taken away in the midst of prosperity, and while I was enjoying his smiles and the proofs of his love. His trouble is, that he was spared to pass through these trials, and to be treated as if he were one of the worst of men. This is what now perplexes him, and what he cannot understand. He does not know why God had reserved him to treat him as if he were the chief of sinners.”
Keep studying
Studies5
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
A. B. Davidson, The Book of Job, Cambridge Bible; Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and R. A. Watson, The Book of Job, Expositor's Bible.