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to-day be worthy to sit at his feet. Let us at least weigh his words as we would the words
of our most respected and valued friend.
In chapter 10: Job is baffled by the experiences through which he is passing, and is
beset by the growing fear that he has misunderstood the nature and character of God.
Barnes, whose commentary on Job is considered his best work, writes with regard to
Job 10::
"Is it good unto Thee that Thou shouldest oppress? The sense is, that it could not be
with God a matter of personal gratification to inflict pain wantonly. There must be a
reason why He did it . . . . . The state of his mind appears to have been that he is a sincere
friend of God, and He is unwilling to believe that God can wantonly inflict pain."
In verse 8 we read: "Thine hands have made me." The Margin reads "Took pains
about me", while Gesenius says that the primary idea is that of cutting, either in word or
stone, and hence cutting or carving with a view to the forming of an image. It would,
however, be quite misleading to compel the word to conform to its ancestry and early
history. Words are used to-day with a meaning far removed from their etymology. The
finest literature would become nonsense if every word were given its primitive meaning.
Usage is far more important than etymology, and it is to this that we appeal. The reader
may have no facilities for the investigation of dead Hebrew roots, but he can survey the
language of Scripture, and from the testimony of the word's usage discover its true
meaning.
The verb "to make" in Job 10: 8 is the Hebrew atsab. It occurs in a variety of forms
and, if we include derived substantives, is found in the O.T. 55 times. It is translated
"grieve" 10 times as we have already seen in the preceding article. The substantives, in
Genesis, refer to the "sorrow" of child-bearing (Gen. 3: 16), and of human toil
(Gen. 3: 17; 5: 29). In Psalm 127: 2 we read of the "bread of sorrows", and in
Isa. 58: 3, where the translation "labours" occurs, the Margin suggests "griefs" or
"things wherein ye grieve others".
Judging by its usage in Scripture, we fail to see any justification for the exceptional
treatment of atsab in Job 10: 8. Exactly the same form of the verb is used in Isa. 63: 10,
where we read: "They rebelled and vexed His holy Spirit." It would obviously be
impossible to translate this passage in the same way as in the A.V. of Job 10: 8, and yet
the two passages are practically identical.
Leaving this passage, for the moment, we pass on now to another passage in the same
book. Job is still pondering the same problem, but the light of resurrection and hope now
illuminates some of the obscurity. In Job 14: 14 the question is asked: "If a man die,
shall he live again?" In the same verse the answer is given:
"All my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou shalt call, and I will
answer Thee; Thou wilt have a desire to the work of Thine hands" (Job 14: 14, 15).
The word translated "to have desire" here is kasaph, which gives the word for "silver"
and means "to be pale" with longing and desire. The Psalmist says: "My soul longeth,