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Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.
Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.
There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.
Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:
On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:
But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.
Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.
For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:
Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.

New Defender's Study Bible Notes

23:3 where I might find. This poignant cry is bound to be answered eventually, even though it seems long delayed, for God “is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).


23:10 he hath tried me. Job’s faith is still strong and, by this time, he is beginning to sense that his sufferings somehow are being used by God as a test of his faith—as, indeed, they were!


23:12 the commandment. See note on Job 22:22; also Genesis 26:5. Although it is now lost to us, God had given early man some kind of law code, long before Moses. Whatever this was, it was eventually superseded by the Mosaic laws and the rest of the Scriptures as we now have them.


23:12 necessary food. Job loved and esteemed the words of God, in whatever form he may have had them. God’s Word as our spiritual sustenance, is frequently compared to physical food (Psalm 19:10; Matthew 4:4; Hebrews 5:13-14; I Peter 2:2-3).


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