Albert Barnes Commentary Job 23

Even today - At the present time. I am not relieved. You afford me no consolation. All that you say only aggravates my woes.

My complaint - See the notes at Job 21:3.

Bitter - Sad, melancholy, distressing. The meaning is not that he made bitter complaints in the sense which those words would naturally convey, or that he meant to find fault with God, but that his case was a hard one. His friends furnished him no relief, and he had in vain endeavored to bring his cause before God.

This is now, as he proceeds to state, the principal cause of his difficulty. He does not know where to find God; he cannot get his cause before Him.

My stroke - Margin, as in Hebrew “hand;” that is, the hand that is upon me, or the calamity that is inflicted upon me. The hand is represented as the instrument of inflicting punishment or causing affliction; see the notes at Job 19:21.

Heavier than my groaning - My sighs bear no proportion to my sufferings. They are no adequate expression of my woes. If you think I complain, if I am heard to groan, yet the sufferings which I endure are far beyond what these would seem to indicate. Sighs and groans are not improper. They are prompted by nature, and they furnish some relief to a sufferer. But they should not be:

1. with a spirit of murmuring or complaining;
2. they should not be beyond what our sufferings demand, or the proper expression of our sufferings. They should not be such as to lead others to suppose we suffer more than we actually do.
3. they should—when they are extorted from us by the severity of suffering—lead us to look to that world where no groan will ever be heard.

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 (Job 13:20). But he had not yet been able to do this.

His argument had been with his three friends, and he saw that there was no use in further attempting to convince them. If he could get the cause before God and be allowed to plead it there, he felt assured that justice would be done to him. But he had not been able to do this; God had not come forth in any visible and public manner as he wished, so that the cause could be fairly tried before such a tribunal, and he was in darkness.

The language used here expresses the condition of a pious man in times of spiritual darkness. He cannot find God. He has no near access to Him as he once had. In such a state, he anxiously seeks to find God, but he cannot. There is no light and no comfort to his soul.

This language may further describe the state of one who is conscious of uprightness and is exposed to the suspicion or unkind remarks of the world. His character is attacked, his motives are impugned, his designs are suspected, and no one is disposed to do him justice. In such a state, he feels that God alone will do him justice. He knows the sincerity of his heart, and he can safely commit his cause to Him.

It is always the privilege of the calumniated and the slandered to make an appeal to the divine tribunal, and to feel that whatever injustice our fellow men may be disposed to do to us, there is One who will never do a wrong.

That I might come even to his seat - To His throne, or tribunal. Job wished to carry the cause directly before Him. Probably he desired some manifestation of God—such as he was afterward favored with—when God would declare His judgment on the whole matter of the controversy.

I would order my cause before him - Compare the notes at Isaiah 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.

And fill my mouth with arguments - Probably he means that he would appeal to the evidence furnished by a life of benevolence and justice, that he was not a hypocrite or a man of distinguished wickedness, as his friends maintained.

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 concerning 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? There is no information so valuable to us as that would be; for on “his” estimate hangs our eternal doom, and yet there is nothing which people more instinctively dread than to know what God thinks of their character. It would be well for each one to ask himself, “Why is it so?”

Will he plead against me with his great power? Will he make use of his mere power to overwhelm and confound me? Will he take advantage of omnipotence to triumph over me, instead of argument and justice? No; he will not do it. The discussion would be fair. He would hear what I have to say and would decide according to truth. Though he is Almighty, yet he would not take advantage of that to prostrate and confound me.

When Job (Job 13:3) wished to carry the cause directly before God, he asked of Him two conditions only. One was that He would take off his hand from him, or remove his afflictions for a time, so that he might be able to manage his own cause. The other was that He would not take advantage of his power to overwhelm him in the debate and prevent his making a fair statement of his case (see the notes at Job 13:20-21). Job here expresses his firm conviction that his wish in this respect would be granted. He would listen, Job says, to what I have to say in my defense as if I were an equal.

No; but he would put strength in me. The word “strength” is not improperly supplied by our translators. It means that he would enable him to make a fair presentation of his cause. So far from taking advantage of his mere “power” to crush him, and thus obtain an ascendancy in the argument, he would rather “strengthen” him, so that he might be able to make his case as strong as possible. He would rather aid him, though presenting his own cause in the controversy, than seek to weaken his arguments, or so to awe him by his dread majesty as to prevent his making the case as strong as it might be. This indicates remarkable confidence in God.