Job 10, "Open, Grave, and Take Me!"

Job continues to give voice to his pain.

Job 10:1-3, What charges?

"I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my

     complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul.

I will say to God: Do not condemn me, 

but tell me what charges you have against me.

Does it please you to oppress me, 

to spurn the work of your hands,

     while you smile on the schemes of the wicked?

Job continues his lament that although he is innocent, he is being punished. (Hartley claims that verse 3 contains the only place in the Old Testament where God is the subject of the verb "oppress.") Job will continue to insist in his innocence, demanding a day in God's court to defend himself. As part of that plea, Job asks why God does all this while allowing the wicked to succeed.

Job 10:4-7, Do you feel what I feel?

Do you have eyes of flesh? 

Do you see as a mortal sees?

Are your days like those of a mortal 

or your years like those of a man,

that you must search out my faults 

and probe after my sin--

though you know that I am not guilty 

and that no one can rescue me from your hand?

God is not mortal. So how can He know how mortal men and women feel?  Maybe God has no real understanding of human nature? (This lament is a legitimate one.  Is it possible God has no understanding of the pain we humans go through?  For the Christian, this lament is answered in the personhood of Messiah Jesus (Hebrews 4: 14-16.)

Job 10:8-12, But you molded me!

"Your hands shaped me and made me. 

Will you now turn and destroy me?

Remember that you molded me like clay. 

Will you now turn me to dust again?

Did you not pour me out like milk 

and curdle me like cheese,

clothe me with skin and flesh 

and knit me together with bones and sinews?

You gave me life and showed me kindness, 

and in your providence watched over my spirit.

Job reminds God that it was God Himself who made him, who created him and gave him life.  So, why does God oversee this dramatic change, moving from giving such blessings to suddenly giving pain and suffering? God so beautifully molded him and now is going to trash the clay pot into dust.

The metaphor of God making people as a potter molds clay appears in Jeremiah 18: 1-10.

Job 10:13-17, Witness against me?

"But this is what you concealed in your heart, 

and I know that this was in your mind:

If I sinned, you would be watching me 

and would not let my offense go unpunished.

If I am guilty--woe to me! 

Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head, 

for I am full of shame and drowned in my affliction.

If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lion 

and again display your awesome power against me.

You bring new witnesses against me 

and increase your anger toward me;

     your forces come against me 

wave upon wave.

Despite Job's perceived innocent, God is suddenly attacking him like an enemy! Attacks come like those of an angry lion.  Attacks come wave upon wave. There is nothing Job can do but protest his innocence!

Hartley says that the word shamar, translated "watched over" at the end of verse 12 is also used in verse 14, where it appears as "watching me". In verse 14 Job accuses God of "watching" (guarding) him as if he was a criminal while in verse 12 Job recalls times before when God would "watch over" (protect) him.

Job 10:18-19, Straight from womb to grave

"Why then did you bring me out of the womb? 

I wish I had died before any eye saw me.

If only I had never come into being, 

or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!

Job repeats his questioning of his own birth and wishes he had been stillborn, going straight into the grav e.

Job 10:20-22, The darkness of Sheol

Are not my few days almost over? 

Turn away from me so I can have a moment's joy

before I go to the place of no return, 

to the land of gloom and deep shadow,

to the land of deepest night, of deep shadow and disorder, 

where even the light is like darkness."

Job begs for a little peace before he dies.  He sees the grave (Sheol) as a place of gloom, darkness, shadow, chaos, disorder -- but empty of pain. The Sons of Korah will argue in Psalm 88:10-12 that they cannot praise God from the grave and so argue for life. Hartley suggests that likewise Job is here begging for God to come and rescue him.