Job10
English Standard Version
1I ; I will give free my ; I will in the of my .
2I will to , Do not me; let me why you contend against me.
3Does it seem to you to , to the of your and the of the ?
4Have you of ? Do you as ?
5Are your as the of , or your as a ,
6that you and my ,
7although you that I am not , and there is none to out of your ?
8Your and me, and now you have me .
9 that you have me like clay; and will you return me ?
10Did you not pour me like and me like ?
11You me with and , and me together with and .
12You have me and steadfast love, and your has my .
13Yet these things you in your ; I that this was your purpose.
14If I , you me and do not me of my .
15If I am , to me! If I am in the , I cannot my , for I am with and my .
16And were my head , you would and work against me.
17You and your me; you bring against me.
18Why did you ? Would that I had died had me
19and were as though I had not been, from the to the .
20Are not my ? Then , and leave me , that I may a cheer
21before I —and I shall not — to the of and deep ,
22the of gloom like , like without any , where is as thick .
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Job 10.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: Job complains of his hardships. (1–7). He pleads with God as his Maker. (8–13). He complains of God's severity. (14–22).
vv1-7
Job, being weary of his life, resolves to complain, but he will not charge God with unrighteousness. Here is a prayer that he might be delivered from the sting of his afflictions, which is sin. When God afflicts us, he contends with us; when he contends with us, there is always a reason; and it is desirable to know the reason, that we may repent of and forsake the sin for which God has a controversy with us. But when, like Job, we speak in the bitterness of our souls, we increase guilt and vexation. Let us harbour no hard thoughts of God; we shall hereafter see there was no cause for them. Job is sure that God does not discover things, nor judge of them, as men do; therefore he thinks it strange that God continues him under affliction, as if he must take time to inquire into his sin.
vv8-13
Job seems to argue with God, as if he only formed and preserved him for misery. God made us, not we ourselves. How sad that those bodies should be instruments of unrighteousness, which are capable of being temples of the Holy Ghost! But the soul is the life, the soul is the man, and this is the gift of God. If we plead with ourselves as an inducement to duty, God made me and maintains me, we may plead as an argument for mercy, Thou hast made me, do thou new-make me; I am thine, save me.
vv14-22
Job did not deny that as a sinner he deserved his sufferings; but he thought that justice was executed upon him with peculiar rigour. His gloom, unbelief, and hard thoughts of God, were as much to be ascribed to Satan's inward temptations, and his anguish of soul, under the sense of God's displeasure, as to his outward trials, and remaining depravity. Our Creator, become in Christ our Redeemer also, will not destroy the work of his hands in any humble believer; but will renew him unto holiness, that he may enjoy eternal life. If anguish on earth renders the grave a desirable refuge, what will be their condition who are condemned to the blackness of darkness for ever? Let every sinner seek deliverance from that dreadful state, and every believer be thankful to Jesus, who delivereth from the wrath to come.
Key Words
חַי: alive; hence, raw (flesh); fresh (plant, water, year), strong; also (as noun, especially in the feminine singular and masculine plural) life (or living thing), whether literally or figuratively
עָזַב: to loosen, i.e. relinquish, permit, etc.
שִׂיחַ: a contemplation; by implication, an utterance
דָבַר: perhaps properly, to arrange; but used figuratively (of words), to speak; rarely (in a destructive sense) to subdue
מַר: bitter (literally or figuratively); also (as noun) bitterness, or (adverbially) bitterly
נֶפֶשׁ: properly, a breathing creature, i.e. animal of (abstractly) vitality; used very widely in a literal, accommodated or figurative sense (bodily or mental)
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
אֱלוֹהַּ: a deity or the Deity
רָשַׁע: to be (causatively, do or declare) wrong; by implication, to disturb, violate
טוֹב: to be (transitively, do or make) good (or well) in the widest sense
Cross References
Job 10Slight verbal echo and deep thematic parallel to the wondrous, gradual fashioning of the human body in utero.
Supported by JFB
Contrasts Job's fear that God despises His own handiwork with the Psalmist's assurance of God's enduring care.
Supported by JFB
Identical phrase asserting the sovereign, absolute power of God: "neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand."
Supported by Matthew Poole
Uses the same physical imagery of God's hands making and fashioning a person, pleading for divine mercy.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallels Job's recurring bitter lamentation and desire that he had died in or immediately after the womb.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Identical desperate prayer to be spared and left alone to recover strength before passing away.
Supported by JFB
Contrasts human eyes that look only on outward appearances with God's search of the heart.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Echoes Job's complaint that God strictly tracks, marks, and searches out his microscopic, minute errors.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Illuminates Job's clay/potter imagery representing human frailty and God's absolute sovereign shaping of man.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Parallels the terrifying, graphic metaphor of God actively hunting and attacking the sufferer like a fierce lion.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Direct parallel in phrasing where Job expresses that his soul loathes and is weary of his life.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Contrasts Job's fear that God despises His work with his later hope that God will yearn for it.
Supported by JFB
Similar lamentation of God lying in wait and attacking the sufferer like a bear or a lion.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Job's consistent, grim description of death as a place of absolute finality from which none return.
Supported by Matthew Poole