Job 10

1 My soul is tired of life; I will let my sad thoughts go free in words; my soul will make a bitter outcry.
2 I will say to God, Do not put me down as a sinner; make clear to me what you have against me.
3 What profit is it to you to be cruel, to give up the work of your hands, looking kindly on the design of evil-doers?
4 Have you eyes of flesh, or do you see as man sees?
5 Are your days as the days of man, or your years like his,
6 That you take note of my sin, searching after my wrongdoing,
7 Though you see that I am not an evil-doer; and there is no one who is able to take a man out of your hands?
8 Your hands made me, and I was formed by you, but then, changing your purpose, you gave me up to destruction.
9 O keep in mind that you made me out of earth; and will you send me back again to dust?
10 Was I not drained out like milk, becoming hard like cheese?
11 By you I was clothed with skin and flesh, and joined together with bones and muscles.
12 You have been kind to me, and your grace has been with me, and your care has kept my spirit safe.
13 But you kept these things in the secret of your heart; I am certain this was in your thoughts:
14 That, if I did wrong, you would take note of it, and would not make me clear from sin:
15 That, if I was an evil-doer, the curse would come on me; and if I was upright, my head would not be lifted up, being full of shame and overcome with trouble.
16 And that if there was cause for pride, you would go after me like a lion; and again put out your wonders against me:
17 That you would send new witnesses against me, increasing your wrath against me, and letting loose new armies on me.
18 Why then did you make me come out of my mother's body? It would have been better for me to have taken my last breath, and for no eye to have seen me,
19 And for me to have been as if I had not been; to have been taken from my mother's body straight to my last resting-place.
20 Are not the days of my life small in number? Let your eyes be turned away from me, so that I may have a little pleasure,
21 Before I go to the place from which I will not come back, to the land where all is dark and black,
22 A land of thick dark, without order, where the very light is dark.

Job 10 Commentary

Chapter 10

Job complains of his hardships. (1-7) He pleads with God as his Maker. (8-13) He complains of God's severity. (14-22)

Verses 1-7 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.

Verses 8-13 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.

Verses 14-22 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.

Chapter Summary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 10

Job here declares the greatness of his afflictions, which made him weary of his life, and could not help complaining; entreats the Lord not to condemn him but show him the reason of his thus dealing with him, Job 10:1,2; and expostulates with him about it, and suggests as if it was severe, and not easily reconciled to his perfections, when he knew he was not a wicked man, Job 10:3-7; he puts him in mind of his formation and preservation of him, and after all destroyed him, Job 10:8-12; and represents his case as very distressed; whether he was wicked or righteous it mattered not, his afflictions were increasing upon him, Job 10:13-17; and all this he observes, in order to justify his eager desire after death, which he renews, Job 10:18,19; and entreats, since his days he had to live were but few, that God would give him some respite before he went into another state, which he describes, Job 10:20-22.

Job 10 Commentaries

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