10:1 My soul is a weary of my life; I will leave my b
complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my
soul.
(a) I am more like a dead man, than to one that lives.
(b) I will make an ample declaration of my torments,
accusing myself and not God.
10:2 I will say unto God, Do not c condemn me; shew me
wherefore thou contendest with me.
(c) He would not that God would proceed against him by his
secret justice, but by the ordinary means that he
punishes others.
10:3 [Is it] d good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress,
that thou shouldest despise the e work of thine hands,
and shine upon the f counsel of the wicked?
(d) Is it agreeable to your justice to do me wrong?
(e) Will you be without compassions?
(f) Will you gratify the wicked and condemn me?
10:4 Hast thou eyes of g flesh? or seest thou as man seeth?
(g) Do you do this of ignorance.
10:5 [Are] thy days as the h days of man? [are] thy years as
man's days,
(h) Are you inconstant and changeable as the times, today a
friend, tomorrow an enemy?
10:7 Thou knowest that I am not i wicked; and [there is] none
that can deliver out of thine hand.
(i) By affliction you keep me as in a prison, and restrain
me from doing evil, neither can any set me free.
10:8 Thine k hands have made me and fashioned me together
round about; yet thou dost destroy me.
(k) In these eight verses following he describes the mercy
of God, in the wonderful creation of man: and on it
grounds that God should not show himself rigorous
against him.
10:9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as l the
clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?
(l) As brittle as a pot of clay.
10:12 Thou hast granted me life and m favour, and thy n
visitation hath preserved my spirit.
(m) That is, reason and understanding, and many other
gifts, by which man excels all earthly creatures.
(n) That is, the fatherly care and providence by which you
preserved me, and without which I would perish
immediately.
10:13 And these [things] hast thou hid in thine heart: I know
o that this [is] with thee.
(o) Though I am not fully able to comprehend these things,
yet I must confess that it is so.
10:15 If I be wicked, woe unto me; and [if] I be righteous,
[yet] will I not p lift up my head. [I am] full of
confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction;
(p) I will always walk in fear and humility, knowing that
no one is just before you.
10:16 For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and
again thou shewest thyself q marvellous upon me.
(q) Job being sore assaulted in this battle between the
flesh and the spirit, breaks out into these
affections, wishing rather for short days than long
pain.
10:17 Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest
thine indignation upon me; r changes and war [are]
against me.
(r) That is, diversity of diseases and in great abundance;
showing that God has infinite means to punish man.
10:20 [Are] not my days few? s cease [then, and] let me alone,
that I may take comfort a little,
(s) He wishes that God would leave off his affliction,
considering his great misery and the shortness of his
life.
10:21 Before I go [whence] I shall not t return, [even] to the
land of darkness and the shadow of death;
(t) He speaks this in the person of a sinner, that is
overcome with passions and with the feeling of God's
judgments and therefore cannot apprehend in that state
the mercies of God, and the comfort of the
resurrection.
10:22 A land of darkness, as darkness [itself; and] of the
shadow of death, without any u order, and [where] the
light [is] as darkness.
(u) No distinction between light and darkness but where
there is very darkness itself.
