Job 9:27

9:25-35 What little need have we of pastimes, and what great need to redeem time, when it runs on so fast towards eternity! How vain the enjoyments of time, which we may quite lose while yet time continues! The remembrance of having done our duty will be pleasing afterwards; so will not the remembrance of having got worldly wealth, when it is all lost and gone. Job's complaint of God, as one that could not be appeased and would not relent, was the language of his corruption. There is a Mediator, a Daysman, or Umpire, for us, even God's own beloved Son, who has purchased peace for us with the blood of his cross, who is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God through him. If we trust in his name, our sins will be buried in the depths of the sea, we shall be washed from all our filthiness, and made whiter than snow, so that none can lay any thing to our charge. We shall be clothed with the robes of righteousness and salvation, adorned with the graces of the Holy Spirit, and presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. May we learn the difference between justifying ourselves, and being thus justified by God himself. Let the tempest-tossed soul consider Job, and notice that others have passed this dreadful gulf; and though they found it hard to believe that God would hear or deliver them, yet he rebuked the storm, and brought them to the desired haven.

If I say, I will forget my complaint,.... The cause of it, the loss of his children, servants, substance, and health, and endeavour to think no more of these things, and cease complaining about them, and attempt to bury them in oblivion, and change his note: I will leave off my heaviness; his melancholy thoughts, words, airs, and looks; or "forsake my face" (h), put on another countenance, a more pleasent and cheerful one; the Jewish commentators generally interpret it, "my anger", either at the dispensations of Providence, or at his friends: and comfort myself; that things were not worse with him than they were; or strengthen (i) himself, as the word is rendered in Amos 5:9; against his fears, and troubles, and dejection of mind, determining to take heart, and be of good courage, and not sink, and succumb, and faint under his burdens: none but God, Father, Son, and Spirit, can give comfort to distressed ones, whether on temporal or spiritual accounts; but good men may make use of means for comfort, such as hearing the word, reading the Scriptures, prayer, meditation, and conversation with good men. (h) "relinquam facies meas", Montanus, Bolducius, Schmidt. (i) "confirmabo vel roborabo cor meum", Mercerus; so R. R.

Job 9:27-28 . If I say, I will forget my complaints, &c. — If I resolve within myself that I will cease complaining, and endeavour to take comfort. I am afraid of all my sorrows — Or, of my pains and griefs: I find all such endeavours vain; for if my griefs be suspended for a time, yet my fears continue. I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent — I plainly perceive that thou, O God, (to whom he makes a sudden address, as he does also Job 9:31 ,) wilt not clear my innocence by removing those afflictions which make them judge me guilty of some great crime. Words proceeding from despair and impatience.

27 . my complaint ] i. e. as always, my complaining, ch. Job 7:13 . my heaviness ] lit. my faces , my sad mien, 1 Samuel 1:18 . comfort myself ] lit. brighten up , ch. Job 10:20 ; Psalm 39:13 . The word in Arab, ( balija ) means to have a space clear of hair between the eyebrows, hence to have an open, bright countenance. A certain woman described the Prophet (Mohammed) as ablaju’lwajhi , bright in countenance. Then the word came to mean also to be bright , of the dawn or the day.

Verse 27. - If I say, I will forget my complaint (comp. above, Job 7:13 ). Job represents himself as sometimes, for a moment, imagining that he might put aside his load of sorrow by not thinking of it. He tries, and says to himself, "I will forget," etc.; but in vain. The whole mass of his sufferings seems to rise up against him, and make even momentary forgetfulness impossible. I will leave off my heaviness ; or, my black looks. And comfort myself (comp. Job 10:20 and Psalm 39:13 , where the same verb is rendered "recover strength"). Job 9:27

If I say, I will forget my complaint - If I resolve that I will leave off complaining, and will be more cheerful, I find it all in vain. My fears and sorrows return, and all my efforts to be cheerful are ineffectual I will leave off my heaviness - The word rendered "my heaviness" here (פני pânam) denotes literally "my face;" and the reference is to the sad and sorrowful countenance which he had. "If I should lay that aside, and endeavor to be cheerful." And comfort myself - The word rendered comfort here (בלג bâlag) in Arabic means to be bright, to shine forth; and it would here be better rendered by "brighten up." We have the same expression still when we say to one who is sad and melancholy, "brighten up; be cheerful." The meaning is, that Job endeavored to appear pleasant and cheerful, but it was in vain. His sorrows pressed heavily on him, and weighed down his spirits in spite of himself, and made him sad.

25 My days were swifter than a runner, They fled away without seeing prosperity, 26 They shot by as ships of reeds, As an eagle which dasheth upon its prey. 27 If my thought is: I will forget my complaint, I will give up my dark looks and look cheerful; 28 I shudder at all my pains, I feel that Thou dost not pronounce me innocent. Such, as described in the preceding strophe, is the lot of the innocent in general, and such (this is the connection) is also Job's lot: his swiftly passing life comes to an end amidst suffering, as that of an evil-doer whom God cuts off in judgment. In the midst of his present sufferings he has entirely forgotten his former prosperity; it is no happiness to him, because the very enjoyment of it makes the loss of it more grievous to bear. The days of prosperity are gone, have passed swiftly away without טובה, i.e., without lasting prosperity. They have been swifter רץ מנּי. By reference to Job 7:6, this might be considered as a figure borrowed from the weaver's loom, since in the Coptic the threads of the weft (fila subteminis) which are wound round the shuttle are called "runners" (vid., Ges. Thesaurus); but Rosenmller has correctly observed that, in order to describe the fleetness of his life, Job brings together that which is swiftest on land (the runners or couriers), in water (fast-sailing ships), and in the air (the swooping eagle). עם, Job 9:26, signifies, in comparison with, aeque ac.

But we possess only a rather uncertain tradition as to the kind of vessels meant by אבה אניות. Jerome translates, after the Targ.: naves poma portantes, by which one may understand the small vessels, according to Edrisi, common on the Dead Sea, in which corn and different kinds of fruits were carried from Zoar to Jericho and to other regions of the Jordan (Stickel, S. 267); but if אבה were connected with אב, we might rather expect אבּה, after the form אשּׁה (from אשׁ), instead of אבה. Others derive the word from אבה, avere: ships of desire, i.e., full-rigged and ready for sea (Gecatilia in Ges. Thes. suppl. p. 62), or struggling towards the goal (Kimchi), or steering towards (Zamora), and consequently hastening to (Symmachuc, σπευδούσαις), the harbour; but independently of the explanation not being suited to the description, it should then be accented beh, after the form נדה, קצה, instead of bh. The explanation, ships of hostility (Syr.), (Note: Luther also perhaps understood pirate ships, when he translated, "wie die starcken Schiff.") i.e., ships belonging to pirates or freebooters, privateers, which would suit the subject well, is still less admissible with the present pointing of the text, as it must then be אבה (איבה), with which the Egyptian uba, against, and adverse (contrarius), may be compared.