25 My days have been swifter than a runner, They have fled, they have not seen good, 26 They have passed on with ships of reed, As an eagle darteth on food. 27 Though I say, 'I forget my talking, I forsake my corner, and I brighten up!' 28 I have been afraid of all my griefs, I have known that Thou dost not acquit me. 29 I—I am become wicked; why 'is' this? 'In' vain I labour. 30 If I have washed myself with snow-water, And purified with soap my hands, 31 Then in corruption Thou dost dip me, And my garments have abominated me. 32 But if a man like myself—I answer him, We come together into judgment. 33 If there were between us an umpire, He doth place his hand on us both. 34 He doth turn aside from off me his rod, And His terror doth not make me afraid, 35 I speak, and do not fear Him, But I am not right with myself.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Job 9:25-35
Commentary on Job 9:25-35
(Read Job 9:25-35)
What little need have we of pastimes, and what great need to redeem time, when it runs on so fast towards eternity! How vain the enjoyments of time, which we may quite lose while yet time continues! The remembrance of having done our duty will be pleasing afterwards; so will not the remembrance of having got worldly wealth, when it is all lost and gone. Job's complaint of God, as one that could not be appeased and would not relent, was the language of his corruption. There is a Mediator, a Daysman, or Umpire, for us, even God's own beloved Son, who has purchased peace for us with the blood of his cross, who is able to save to the uttermost all who come unto God through him. If we trust in his name, our sins will be buried in the depths of the sea, we shall be washed from all our filthiness, and made whiter than snow, so that none can lay any thing to our charge. We shall be clothed with the robes of righteousness and salvation, adorned with the graces of the Holy Spirit, and presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. May we learn the difference between justifying ourselves, and being thus justified by God himself. Let the tempest-tossed soul consider Job, and notice that others have passed this dreadful gulf; and though they found it hard to believe that God would hear or deliver them, yet he rebuked the storm, and brought them to the desired haven. Resist the devil; give not place to hard thoughts of God, or desperate conclusions about thyself. Come to Him who invites the weary and heavy laden; who promises in nowise to cast them out.