Job 9

General context

Job answers Bildad. He grants that what Bildad says is true, then asks how a man can be just with God, since if God contends with him he cannot answer one of a thousand. He describes God as wise in heart and mighty in strength, one who removes mountains, shakes the earth, commands the sun not to rise, seals the stars, spreads out the heavens, treads the waves, makes Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades, and does wonders without number. God passes by unseen and takes away without anyone able to hinder him or ask what he does. Job says he could not choose words to reason with God; even if righteous he would not answer but plead with his judge, and if God answered he would not believe he had been heard, because God breaks him with a tempest and multiplies his wounds without cause. If he justifies himself his own mouth condemns him; even perfect, he would despise his life. He says it is one thing: God destroys the perfect and the wicked, laughs at the trial of the innocent, and gives the earth into the hand of the wicked, and he asks who else could be doing it. His days flee like a post, like swift ships, like an eagle. If he tries to forget his complaint he is afraid, knowing God will not hold him innocent; washing with snow water would not help, since God would plunge him in the ditch. God is not a man to be met in judgment, and there is no daysman to lay a hand on both. If God took his rod away and his fear did not terrify, Job would speak; but it is not so with him.

Cited passages: Job 9:1, Job 9:2, Job 9:3, Job 9:4, Job 9:6, Job 9:7, Job 9:8, Job 9:9, Job 9:10, Job 9:11, Job 9:12, Job 9:14, Job 9:15, Job 9:16, Job 9:17, Job 9:20, Job 9:21, Job 9:22, Job 9:23, Job 9:24, Job 9:25, Job 9:27, Job 9:28, Job 9:31, Job 9:32, Job 9:33, Job 9:34, Job 9:35

Job 9 (KJV)

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Historical context

The narrator's only line is Then Job answered and said; Job answers Bildad's speech of chapter 8. I know it is so of a truth concedes Bildad's principle that God does not pervert judgment, before Job asks how the principle helps him. Job's statement that God multiplieth my wounds without cause uses the same phrase the Lord used of Job in 2.3, to destroy him without cause, but Job has not heard that speech. The claims that God destroys the perfect and the wicked alike and laughs at the trial of the innocent are Job's, spoken as his own conclusion; the narrator does not comment. Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades are the names as printed, and the text explains nothing about them. The word daysman in verse 33 describes someone who could lay a hand on both parties; Job says there is none, and no such figure appears here. The speech alternates between speaking of God as he and addressing him as thou, as in verses 28 and 31, and continues without a break into chapter 10.

Cited passages: Job 9:1, Job 9:2, Job 8:3, Job 9:17, Job 2:3, Job 9:22, Job 9:23, Job 9:9, Job 9:33, Job 9:28, Job 9:31, Job 10:1

Literary context

The chapter is built on the language of a lawsuit: contend, answer, judge, plead, justify, condemn, judgment, daysman. Job takes Bildad's question, Doth God pervert judgment, and turns it into a different question, whether a man could ever get a hearing. The hymn of verses 5 to 10, a chain of Which clauses, uses the form Eliphaz used in 5.9 to 16 and echoes his line Which doeth great things and unsearchable with Which doeth great things past finding out; but where Eliphaz used the hymn to promise rescue, Job uses it to show why he cannot answer. The repeated If, in verses 3, 13, 16, 19, 20, 23, 27, 29 and 30, marks a mind testing every route and finding each closed. The images of speed in verses 25 and 26, a post, ships, an eagle, sit against a God who goeth by me, and I see him not. The chapter ends with a condition for speech, Let him take his rod away from me, and a flat denial, but it is not so with me, which chapter 10 then overrides as Job speaks anyway.

Cited passages: Job 9:3, Job 9:15, Job 9:20, Job 9:32, Job 9:33, Job 8:3, Job 9:5, Job 9:10, Job 5:9, Job 9:13, Job 9:16, Job 9:11, Job 9:25, Job 9:26, Job 9:34, Job 9:35, Job 10:1

Key moments

1. It is so, but how? (Job 9:2). Job grants Bildad's point and asks how a man can be just with God.
2. Maker of the constellations (Job 9:9). Job names Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades among God's works.
3. Wounds without cause (Job 9:17). Job says God breaks him with a tempest and multiplies his wounds without cause.
4. Perfect and wicked alike (Job 9:22). Job says God destroys the perfect and the wicked.
5. Days swifter than a post (Job 9:25). Job says his days flee away and see no good.
6. No daysman between us (Job 9:33). Job says there is no one to lay a hand on both him and God.
7. Take away the rod (Job 9:34). Job says he would speak if God's rod and fear were removed.

For reflection

Job says God destroys the perfect and the wicked together, and asks who else could be responsible. What does it mean that the text lets Job say this without correcting him on the spot?

People in this chapter

• Job