Charles Ellicott Commentary Job 23:15

"Therefore am I terrified at his presence; When I consider, I am afraid of him." — Job 23:15 (ASV)

Therefore I am troubled at his presence. — That is, though His presence is invisible and He is undiscoverable on every side (Job 23:8–9), Job is in a strait betwixt two (Philippians 1:23). He is the victim of an ever-present paradox and dilemma: afraid of God, yet longing to see Him; conscious of His presence, yet unable to find Him; assured of His absolute justice, and yet convinced of his own suffering innocence.

His history, in fact, was to the Old World what the Gospel is to the New: the exhibition of a perfectly righteous man, yet made perfect through suffering. It was therefore an effort to solve the problem of reconciling the inequality of life with the justice of God.