Jobchapter 23
17 verses · KJVJob book hub →
Key verse
But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
It stands in scene B of the chapter, verses 10 to 17.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Job replies, and his complaint becomes a search. 'Oh that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! I would set my cause in order before him, and fill my mouth with arguments' (23:3-4). Certain that God would give heed and not merely overwhelm him with power. Then the search fails in every direction: 'I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him.' Out of that blindness comes one of Scripture's great confessions of faith in the dark: 'he knoweth the way that I take; when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold' (23:10).
Context
Poetry · Unknown · Job overview
Where the chapter sits
Job 23 falls in Dialogue: three cycles (chapters 3–27). Job's opening complaint (3); three rounds with Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar; the friends' rigid retribution theology; the third cycle breaks: Zophar does not speak again. The dialogue exhausts itself as argument.
Before it: Prose prologue: heavenly court, chapters 1–2. After it: Hymn to wisdom, chapters 28.
The whole shape of Job→The world behind this chapter
Job 23The history
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.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
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.
What it meant to them
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.
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.
Sources cited
- Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job
- John E. Hartley, The Book of Job
A. Job: Oh That I Knew Where I Might Find Him!
1. (vv. 1-2)
a.Then Job answered: Job's sixth reply opens by naming what has not changed through five rounds of speeches: even to day is my complaint bitter, and my stroke is heavier than my groaning. Henry notes that Job does not retract the complaint the friends have been rebuking; he restates it, because the affliction still outweighs anything his words have said about it. Gill reads the stroke heavier than the groaning as Job's own defense against the charge of excess, his laments have understated his suffering rather than overstated it.
Job 23:2, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Job 23:2
“In his discourse Eliphaz proposed two changes against Job. First, that he had been punished because of his very great evil. Second, that he had doubted or even denied divine providence. Now men are often saddened when any charges are falsely made against them, and …”
Thomas Aquinas· written before 1274· Commentary on Jobpatristic
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
2. (vv. 3-5)
a.Oh that I knew where I might find him!: The wish is not for escape but for access: Job wants God's own seat, a place he could come to and order his cause, filling his mouth with arguments the way a man prepares a case for a court he trusts. Barnes notes that this is confidence, not despair, since Job wants to hear what God would answer rather than dreading it. Delitzsch reads the whole verse as the presence longing that runs under the entire chapter, a man shut out from an audience he is certain would clear him.
Job 23:3, 3 voices
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! - 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.”
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
Job 23:4, 1 voice
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.”
Job 23:5, 1 voice
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?”
3. (vv. 6-7)
a.Will he plead against me with his great power?: Job answers his own question before the friends can press it further: he does not expect God to overpower a defendant with mere force, but to put strength in me, giving him standing to plead rather than crushing him into silence. Gill reads there the righteous might dispute with him as Job's settled expectation of acquittal, a courtroom where the outcome is a verdict and not annihilation. So should I be delivered for ever from my judge looks past the present ordeal to a final and lasting resolution.
Job 23:6, 2 voices
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
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
Job 23:7, 2 voices
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
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
4. (vv. 8-9)
a.Behold, I go forward: The imagined courtroom of the verses before this one collapses against the fact stated here in four directions: forward, backward, left and right, Job cannot perceive, behold or see the God whose seat he was just describing. Clarke notes the irony the arrangement makes plain, a man confident of his case has no way to bring it, because the judge he seeks will not be found by searching. Davidson reads the fourfold search as the honest center of the chapter, longing answered later by the whirlwind in a manner Job does not yet expect.
Job 23:8, 3 voices
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
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.”
Job 23:8
“For "behold," &c. forward . . . backward--rather, "to the east--to the west." The Hebrew geographers faced the east, that is, sunrise: not the north, as we do. So "before" means east: "behind," west (so the Hindus).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Job 23:9, 1 voice
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.”
B. Job: He Knoweth the Way That I Take
1. (v. 10)
a.But he knoweth the way that I take: Against the searching that just failed on every side, Job turns the ignorance around: he cannot find God, but God has never lost sight of him. He knoweth the way that I take answers the fourfold blindness of verses eight and nine directly, and when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold states the refiner's confidence that the present darkness has a purpose and an end. Watson reads the verse as the chapter's turn, the sufferer's own ignorance of God's whereabouts answered by God's unbroken knowledge of the sufferer's own way.
Job 23:10, 2 voices
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 23:10
“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
2. (vv. 11-12)
a.My foot hath held his steps: Job's confidence in verse ten rests on a life he can account for: his foot has held God's own steps, his way kept without turning aside, and no going back from the commandment of his lips. I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food is the book's own doctrine of appetite for Scripture, placing God's word above the daily bread the body cannot do without. Henry reads the comparison as Job's strongest self-defense, a man who has fed on obedience longer than he has fed on bread.
Job 23:11, 2 voices
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.”
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
Job 23:12, 3 voices
Job 23:12
“Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips,.... From any of the commandments his lips had uttered; meaning not the ten commandments given to Israel, which perhaps as yet were not given, or had not come to the knowledge of Job; some speak of the seven commandments, given to the sons of Noah; See Gill on Gen 9:”
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
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
3. (vv. 13-14)
a.But he is in one mind: The chapter turns from Job's own record to the will he cannot move: he is in one mind, and who can turn him, a plain statement of unchangeable sovereignty. What his soul desireth, even that he doeth extends to Job's own case, he performeth the thing that is appointed for me, and many such things are with him. Barnes notes that this is not yet the worship of the ash heap, it is a harder acknowledgment, that the suffering is decreed and the decree will not bend to argument.
Job 23:13, 2 voices
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.”
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
Job 23:14, 2 voices
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
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
4. (vv. 15-17)
a.Therefore am I troubled at his presence: The confidence of verse ten does not hold the whole chapter, and the dread returns here at its close: therefore am I troubled at his presence, when I consider, I am afraid of him. God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me, and the chapter ends wishing for a darkness he was not cut off before, rather than the darkness he now faces uncovered. Gill notes that this is the chapter's honest shape, a peak of confidence between the redeemer of chapter nineteen and the book's end that still closes in the same fear it opened with.
Job 23:15, 1 voice
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.”
Job 23:16, 2 voices
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
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
Job 23:17, 3 voices
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
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.”
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
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Job 23. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on 12 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on A. B. Davidson, The Book of Job, Cambridge Bible; Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Charles Spurgeon; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XVI; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Matthew Henry; R. A. Watson, The Book of Job, Expositor's Bible and Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Job.
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