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God is that all-wise and Almighty Being Who in His answer dislodges mountains, and continents, obscures the
sun and stars, lowers the heavens, governs the sea, causes the constellations to appear, and does what is beyond
all search and computation, a Being invisible and incomprehensible, Sovereign in His will, and irresistible and
implacable till proud man submits. How then could he (Job), even if he were righteous, venture to justify
himself with such a Being, or suppose that God would condescend to argue with him; and the more so, as God
was treating him with great severity. Whether he had recourse to force or to law would be equally vain; for
however guiltless, he would only condemn himself if he set up a plea of innocence, and which in point of fact, he
could not do: and in any case (innocent or guilty) instances showed that the position is not tenable, that the good
always escape trouble; man may be innocent, but injustice often reigns, and the innocent suffer. In his own case,
his days had sped rapidly, without realizing true happiness; if he determined upon banishing his anxieties, then,
the conviction that God would hold him guilty overwhelmed him with fear, and made him feel the folly of an
attempt at self-justification with God, Who could, if He pleased, soon prove him, however generally innocent, to
be guilty: indeed, God's divine nature rendered a controversy between Him and man ill-matched, and he (Job)
regrets that there is no arbitrator to act between them, as in that case he would be able to speak without fear'.
The comment of Cartaret Prioul Carey, M.A., written to accompany his translation of Job 8:20 to 9:35.
We observe that in spite of his further relapses and abortive attempts at self-vindication as the book proceeds,
Job recognizes, as here in chapter 9, that no man can claim complete exemption from trial and affliction, nor to be so
innocent as to be free from the sorrows and afflictions of this mortal life. He sees, moreover, that affliction and trial
do not necessarily follow wickedness, but that the wicked may actually prosper sometimes while the godly suffer.
At the close of this chapter we see Job groping for the one great solution, The Daysman, the One Whom all who
believe God today acclaim as `The Power of God, and the Wisdom of God', the One Who in His own good time will
make all crooked places straight and rough places plain, wipe away all tears, give a complete and harmonious
explanation of the wilderness journey of every one of His redeemed children; the Son of God, the One Mediator
between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.
The Goal of the Ages foreshadowed
The book of Job contains in dramatized form the problem of the ages, and in the opening and closing chapters,
the key to the enigma is supplied. We who read the complete book, have the advantage of Job and of his friends, for
we see that Job's trouble arose, not so much from his own doings or circumstances, but from the enmity that is
inherent between the two seeds. Satan is seen attacking Job, whose name actually means `The Attacked'. God's
permission of the evil endured by Job was, as we learn, limited. His life could not be touched. We have also seen
that there are two essential features in this great outworking of the Divine purpose. Patience, `Ye have heard of the
patience of Job' and End, `and have seen the end of the Lord'. The fact that Job received `double' for all his
sufferings and loss is stressed at the close of the book. In the first chapter he is said to have had `seven sons and
three daughters', he also possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 she asses. In chapter 42
we learn that the Lord turned the captivity of Job, and gave him twice as much as he had before. The Lord blessed
the latter end of Job more than his beginning, and he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000
she asses (42:10,12). The number of his children was not doubled, but he was given seven sons and three daughters
as at the beginning. The names given to the three daughters suggest that Job had been entirely delivered from the
loathsome disease that had been inflicted upon him for Jemima probably means `as the day', betokening Job's
emergence from the shadow of death. Kezia means `cassia' (Psa. 45:8), and Keren-happuch `horn for paint',
indicating rare beauty. The comment is added:
`And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job' (Job 42:15).
The name of Job's third daughter is prophetic, for the Hebrew word puk meaning `paint' is found in Isaiah 54:11
where we read `I will lay thy stones with fair colours'. The same word is used in 1 Chronicles 29:2, for the