Job 40:8 Kommentar

Many humbling confounding questions God had put to Job, in the foregoing chapter; now, in this chapter, I. He demands an answer to them (Job 40:1, Job 40:2). II. Job submits in a humble silence (Job 40:3-5). III. God proceeds to reason with him, for his conviction, concerning the infinite distance and disproportion between him and God, showing that he was by no means an equal match for God. He challenges him (Job 40:6, Job 40:7) to vie with him, if he durst, for justice (Job 40:8), power (Job 40:9), majesty (Job 40:10), and dominion over the proud (Job 40:11-14), and he gives an instance of his power in one particular animal, here called "Behemoth," (Job 40:15-24).

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 40 In this chapter Job is called upon to give in his answer, Job 40:1, which he does in the most humble manner, acknowledging his vileness and folly, Job 40:3; and then the Lord proceeds to give him further conviction of his superior justice and power, Job 40:6; and one thing he proposes to him, to humble the proud, if he could, and then he would own his own right hand could save him, Job 40:10; and observes to him another instance of his power in a creature called behemoth, which he had made, and gives a description of, Job 40:15.

Wilt thou also disannul my judgment?.... The decrees and purposes of God concerning his dealings with men, particularly the afflictions of them, which are framed with the highest wisdom and reason, and according to the strictest justice, and can never be frustrated or made void; or the sentence of God concerning them, that is gone out of his mouth and cannot be altered; or the execution of it, which cannot be hindered: it respects the wisdom of God in the government of the world, as Aben Ezra observes, and the particular dealings of his providence with men, which ought to be submitted to; to do otherwise is for a man to set up his own judgment against the Lord's, which is as much as in him lies to disannul it; whereas God is a God of judgment, and his judgment is according to truth, and in righteousness, and will take place, let men do or say what they please; wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous? Is there no other way of vindicating thine own innocence and integrity, without charging me with unrighteousness; at least saying such things as are judged by others to be an arraignment of my justice, wisdom, and goodness, in the government of the world? Now though Job did not expressly and directly condemn the Lord, and arraign his justice, yet when he talked of his own righteousness and integrity, he was not upon his guard as he should have been with respect to the justice of God in his afflictions; for though a man may justify his own character when abused, he should take care to speak well of God; and be it as it will between man and man, God is not to be brought into the question; and though some of his providences are not so easily reconciled to his promises, yet let God be true and every man a liar.

Either he speaks here about his present intervention, as if to say, “I do not speak so in order to condemn you but to show that you are righteous”; or he wants to speak about his trial by calling intervention his approval. This means, “Do not think that I managed things in this manner for any other reason.” He did not say, “In order that you might be righteous” but “that you might appear to be righteous,” as you actually were, so that you might teach others. Finally, he may want to speak about his present intervention, as if to say, “If I said it, it is in order that you might appear to be righteous after the words that I had expressed, not in order to condemn you.” Then he places again before him his power and his hatred for the wicked, because I am not only powerful, he says, but I act and use my power against the wicked.

Wilt thou disannul My judgment, and condemn Me, that thou mayest be justified? 5. Whoever strives to defend himself against the scourges of God, endeavours to set aside the judgment of Him Who inflicts them. For when he says that he is not smitten for his own fault, what else does he but accuse the injustice of the Smiter? The scourges of heaven therefore smote not blessed Job to extinguish in him his faults, but rather to increase his merits, in order that he who in the season of tranquillity had shone forth in so great sanctity, might also manifest from the blow what virtue of patience lay concealed within him. But he, not detecting his fault during the scourges, and yet not discovering that those very scourges were the cause of increasing his merit, believed that he was unjustly smitten, when he found nothing in himself which required to be corrected. But, lest his very innocence should be puffed up into the swelling of pride, he is reproved by the Divine voice; and his mind, free from iniquity, but weighed down by scourges, is recalled to the secret judgments; in order that the sentence of heaven, though not understood, may not be considered unjust: but that he may at least believe that every thing which he suffers is just, as it is doubtless plain that he is suffering at the hands of God. For the righteous will of our Maker, is a great satisfaction for the blow. For since it is wont to do nothing unjust, it is acknowledged to be just even though hid. For when we are smitten for the sin of injustice, if we are conjoined to the Divine will in our smiting, we are soon released from our injustice by this very conjunction. For whoever now endures the blow, but still knows not the causes of the blow, if he welcomes this very sentence against him, believing it to be just, he is at once released from his unrighteousness, just as he rejoices that he has been justly smitten. For by associating himself with God in his own punishment, he sets up himself against himself; and great already is his righteousness, because he accords with the will of God in his punishment, from which he differed in sin. The holy man, therefore, because he had not disagreed with God through any sin, with difficulty, as it were, agreed with Him when in the midst of his punishments. For he believed not that the scourges, which commonly extinguish vices, were in him only increasing his merits. Whence he is now justly reproved, in order that even unwittingly he might be brought under the Divine judgments: and it is said to him; Wilt thou disannul My judgment, and wilt thou condemn Me, that thou mayest be justified? As if it were plainly said; Thou considerest indeed thine own good deeds, but thou knowest not My secret judgments. If therefore thou disputest against My scourges, on account of thy merits, what else dost thou, but hasten to convict Me of injustice, by justifying thyself?

Consider that Job in appealing to his own justice, did not intend to impute evil to the divine judgment as his three friends and Eliud wrongly understood. But he intended to show that he had not been punished in revenge for his sins as they reproached him, but to try him as he said already in Chapter 23, "He will prove me like gold which passes through fire." (v.10) Yet this still seems reprehensible because he so commended his own justice that he seemed to others to pass over into the derogation of divine justice, and so he says, "Will you make my justice without effect?", as if to say: Does it seem to you that in appealing to your own justice you bring it about that my justice be accounted by men as invalid, i.e. false? Falsity of judgment is the cause of condemnation of the judge who expresses an evil judgment either from ignorance or malice, and so he then says, "and will you condemn me to justify yourself? as if to say: Do you want to show yourself just so that I seem blameworthy before others? Note here that if two men were equals, and if it were necessary to impose the fault on one, it would not be reprehensible if the other one exonerates himself from an imputed fault even though the first may remain culpable in the opinion of others. For a man loves himself naturally more than others. But where there is such a great distance as exists between God and man, man ought rather to suffer a fault unjustly imputed to him rather than impute it unjustly to God.

Job humbles himself before the Lord, Job 40:1-5. And God again challenges him by a display of his power and judgments, Job 40:6-14. A description of behemoth, Job 40:15-24.

Wilt thou condemn me - Rather than submit to be thought in the wrong, wilt thou condemn My conduct, in order to justify thyself? Some men will never acknowledge themselves in the wrong. "God may err, but we cannot," seems to be their impious maxim. Unwillingness to acknowledge a fault frequently leads men, directly or indirectly, to this sort of blasphemy. There are three words most difficult to be pronounced in all languages, - I Am Wrong.

GOD'S SECOND ADDRESS. (Job 40:1-24) the Lord--Hebrew, "JEHOVAH."

Wilt thou not only contend with, but set aside My judgment or justice in the government of the world? condemn--declare Me unrighteous, in order that thou mayest be accounted righteous (innocent; undeservingly afflicted).