Words in italic type have been added for clarity. They are not found in the original Hebrew or Aramaic.

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Job 9

Satan accuses God of favoring Job because of Job’s righteousness. God does not justify Himself, but He allows Satan to give trials to Job to prove there are men of faith who will stand by their faith. The messengers of God are watching.

If this were a court case we might say that Satan is the accuser, the prosecutor while the watcher angels take the role of a jury.

Job is the evidence.

Job, unaware, is in a “trial” and God is “on trial” by the accuser, Satan.

Job: There Is No Mediator

Job 9:¹ Then Job answered and said:

Job 9:² “Truly I know it is so,
But how can a man be righteous before God (‘ēl)?

Job 9:³ If one wished to contend (argue) with Him,
He could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.

Job 9:⁴ God is wise in heart and mighty in strength.
Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?

Job 9:⁵ He removes the mountains, and they do not know
When He overturns them in His anger;

• Symbolically, mountains are kingdoms.

Job 9:⁶ He shakes the earth out of its place,
And its pillars tremble;

• In Egypt pillars were called witnesses because they were written on in hieroglyphs.

• Psalm 75:3 The earth and all its inhabitants are dissolved; I set up its pillars firmly. Selah
• @Prophecy Alert yet to come: God will indeed shake the earth out of its place.
  
  • Nahum 1:5 The mountains quake before Him, The hills melt, And the earth heaves at His presence, Yes, the world and all who dwell in it.
  • Isaiah 13:13 Therefore I will shake the heavens, And the earth will move out of her place, In the wrath of the Lord of hosts And in the day of His fierce anger.
  • Isaiah 24:19 The earth is violently broken, The earth is split open, The earth is shaken exceedingly.
  • Isaiah 24:20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, And shall totter like a hut; Its transgression shall be heavy upon it, And it will fall, and not rise again.
  • Psalm 46:2 Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
  • Psalm 60:2 You have made the earth tremble; You have broken it; Heal its breaches, for it is shaking.
  • Psalm 77:18 The voice of Your thunder was in the whirlwind; The lightnings lit up the world; The earth trembled and shook.

Job 9:⁷ He commands the sun, and it does not rise;
He seals off the stars;

Job 9:⁸ He alone spreads out the heavens,
And treads (walks) on the waves (Lit. heights) of the sea;

Job 9:⁹ He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades (Heb. Ash, Kesil, and Kimah),
And the chambers of the south;

Job 9:¹⁰ He does great things past finding out,
Yes, wonders without number.

Job 9:¹¹ If He goes by me, I do not see Him;
If He moves past, I do not perceive Him;

Job 9:¹² If He takes away, who can hinder Him (Lit. who can turn Him back?)?
Who can say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’

Job 9:¹³ God (‘ĕlôha) will not withdraw His anger,
The allies (friends) of the proud (Heb. Rahab) lie prostrate beneath Him.

• Rahab is Satan. The name for the Leviathan dragon/beast/sea monster who swims in a sea of people is Rahab.
  • Isa 51:9
    Awake, awake, put on strength, O Arm of the LORD! Awake as in the ancient days, In the generations of old. Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart, And wounded the serpent/dragon? H7292
  • 

Job 9:¹⁴ “How then can I answer Him,
And choose my words to reason with Him?

Job 9:¹⁵ For though I were righteous, I could not answer Him;
I would beg mercy of my Judge.

Job 9:¹⁶ If I called and He answered me,
I would not believe that He was listening to my voice.

Job 9:¹⁷ For He crushes me with a tempest,
And multiplies my wounds without cause.

Job 9:¹⁸ He will not allow me to catch my breath,
But fills me with bitterness.

Job 9:¹⁹ If it is a matter of strength, indeed He is strong;
And if of justice, who will appoint my day in court?

• Isn’t Job in God’s court of justice? Job’s actions, while the angels watch, are proving God to be True and Satan a liar.

Job 9:²⁰ Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me;
Though I were blameless, it would prove me perverse.

Job 9:²¹ “I am blameless, yet I do not know myself;
I despise my life.

• Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
• The sins of the heart become the sins of the hands. All sins begin in the heart. All sins begin as covetousness to fill the hole in man’s needy heart with pride rather than with God’s Word.
• God provides the sacrifice in the temple for unintentional sins only.

Job 9:²² It is all one thing;
Therefore I say, ‘He destroys the blameless and the wicked.’

Job 9:²³ If the scourge slays suddenly,
He laughs at the plight of the innocent.

Job 9:²⁴ The earth is given into the hand of the wicked.
He covers the faces of its judges.
If it is not He, who else could it be?

• Could it be … Satan?

Job 9:²⁵ “Now my days are swifter than a runner;
They flee away, they see no good.

Job 9:²⁶ They pass by like swift ships,

• Swift ships are literally ships of reeds
• Reeds are literally “spear-men”; those who pierce
• Metaphorically, Our days pass like spear-men which pierce daily and are gone

Like an eagle swooping on its prey.

Job 9:²⁷ If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint,
I will put off my sad face and wear a smile,’

Job 9:²⁸ I am afraid of all my sufferings;
I know that You will not hold me innocent.

Job 9:²⁹ If I am condemned,
Why then do I labor in vain?

Job 9:³⁰ If I wash myself with snow water,
And cleanse my hands with soap (lye),

Job 9:³¹ Yet You will plunge me into the pit (grave),
And my own clothes will abhor (loathe) me.

Job 9:³² “For He is not a man, as I am,
That I may answer Him,
And that we should go to court together.

Job 9:³³ Nor is there any mediator between us,
Who may lay his hand on us both.

• Prophecy Fulfillment Alert: (Old Testament prophecy fulfilled by Jesus)
• Reference Verses:
  • I Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus,
  • Hebrews 12:24 To Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Job 9:³⁴ Let Him take His (whipping) rod away from me,
And do not let dread of Him terrify me.

Job 9:³⁵ Then I would speak and not fear Him,
But it is not so with me.

Comments and Considerations:

The name for God is El in verse 2 and Eloha in verse 13, both of which are singular. Elohim is plural representing the Godhead. Which person of the Godhead is El/Eloha?

The ancient writing in Hebrew for El is like hieroglyphics: written as an ox head and a yoke with the idea that God is yoked to man and will carry man’s burdens. This brings to mind one particular verse in Matthew:

• Matthew 11:²⁸ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

• Was Jesus referring to Himself as “El”?

What is the difference between El and Eloha?

• When the first two letters of the Tetragrammaton are added to El, the resulting word is Elohei (א-להי).
• When the last two letters of the Tetragrammaton are added to El, the resultant is Eloah (א-לוה).
• The Tetragrammaton is YHWH also called Yehova or Jehovah: In Hebrew it is written as this:
  

The ancient letters were

What are special about these four letters? As in the Ox head and Yoke to spell “El”, These four letters also have their own representation:

BEHOLD! (Something supernatural-awestruck)…also drawn as

PEG or NAIL

BEHOLD! (Something supernatural-awestruck)…also drawn as

HAND OR ARM

Together, these four letters produce a sentence: Behold! Nail. Behold! Hand.

Another interesting notation is that “Behold” looks like a man praising God in this pictograph …

And like a Man on a cross with both feet nailed together in this pictograph. (The man crucified on the Shroud of Turin, said to be the burial cloth of Jesus, shows both feet nailed together.)

For more See: Topic El Eloha Elohim Ayil Yehova