The MacArthur Study Bible, NKJV

by John MacArthur

  34:34–37 Apparently, Elihu was convinced Job hadn’t had enough chastening because of how he answered his prosecutors. He continued to defend his innocence and speak to God.

  Job 35

  35:1–16 Elihu again referred to Job’s complaints, first of all his thinking that there appeared to be no advantage to being righteous (v. 3), which Job had said, as recorded in 21:15 and 34:9. The first part of his answer is that Job gained nothing by sinning or not sinning because God was so high that nothing men do affects Him (vv. 5–7). It only affects other men (v. 8). Job had also complained that God did not answer his prayers when he cried under this oppression (see 24:12; 30:20). Elihu coldly gave 3 reasons why Job’s prayers had not been heard: pride (vv. 10, 12), wrong motives (v. 13), and lack of patient trust (v. 14). Again, all this theoretical talk missed Job’s predicament completely because he was righteous. Elihu was no more help than the other counselors.

  35:15, 16 Elihu suggested that although Job had suffered, his suffering was not the fullness of God’s anger or He would have punished Job more for the sinfulness of his speeches. He thought God had actually overlooked the folly of Job in his useless words.

  Job 36

  36:1—37:24 Elihu had agreed with his 3 co-counselors that Job had sinned, if nowhere else, in the way he questioned God (33:12), by seeing his suffering as indicating God is unjust (34:34–37) and by feeling that righteousness had no reward (chap. 35). In this final answer to Job, he turned to focus mostly on God rather than the sufferer (v. 2).

  36:4 One who is perfect in knowledge. Elihu made what appeared to be an outrageous claim in order to give credibility to his remarks.

  36:5–12 Elihu began by repeating the thought that though God sends trouble, He is just and merciful (v. 6); He watches over the righteous (v. 7); He convicts them of sin (vv. 8, 9); He teaches them to turn from it (v. 10) and rewards their obedience (v. 11) or punishes their rebellion (vv. 12–14).

  36:15 opens their ears in oppression. This was a new insight and perhaps the most helpful thing Elihu said. He went beyond all that had been said about God’s using suffering to chasten and bring repentance. He was saying that God used suffering to open men’s ears, to draw them to Himself. But as long as Job kept complaining, he was turning to iniquity rather than drawing near to God in his suffering (vv. 16–21).

  36:22—37:24 Instead of complaining and questioning God, as Job had been doing, which was sin (as Job will later confess in 42:6), he needed to see God in his suffering and worship Him (33:24).

  36:26 we do not know Him. Though one may have a personal knowledge of God in salvation, the fullness of His glory is beyond human comprehension.

  36:27—37:4 Elihu gave a picture of God’s power in the rain storm.

  36:31 judges…gives food. The rain storm can be a disaster of punishment from God or a source of abundant crops.

  Job 37

  37:5–13 He described God’s power expressed in the cold winter. The storms and the hard winters remind us of the world in which harsh things occur, but for God’s good purposes of either “correction” or “mercy” (37:13).

  37:14–18 These words picture the scene in the sky when the storms and winters have passed, the sunlight breaks through, the warm wind blows, and the sky clears.

  37:19, 20 In this passage Elihu reminded Job that since man can’t explain the wonders of God’s power and purpose, he ought to be silent and not contend with God. What a man has to say against God’s plans is not worthy to utter and could bring judgment.

  37:21–23 Elihu illustrated the folly of telling God what to do by describing staring into the golden sun on a brilliant day (vv. 21, 22). We can’t confront God in His great glory; we are not even able to look at the sun He created (v. 21).

  37:24 shows no partiality. God is the Righteous Judge who will not take a bribe or perform favors in judgment. Thus, in his concluding speech, Elihu had pointed both Job and the reader up to God, who was ready, at last, to speak (38:1).

  Job 38

  38:1—40:2 God appeared and engaged in His first interrogation of Job, who had raised some accusations against Him. God had His day in court with Job.

  38:1 the LORD. Yahweh, the covenant LORD, was the name used for God in the book’s prologue, where the reader was introduced to Job and his relationship with God. However, in chaps. 3–37, the name Yahweh is not used. God is called El Shaddai, God the Almighty. In this book that change becomes a way of illustrating that God has been detached and distant. The relationship is restored in rich terms as God reveals Himself to Job using His covenant name. out of the whirlwind. Job had repeatedly called God to court in order to verify his innocence. God finally came to interrogate Job on some of the comments he had made to his own accusers. God was about to be Job’s vindicator, but He first brought Job to a right understanding of Himself.

  38:2 Job’s words had only further confused matters already confused by useless counselors.

  38:3 I will question you. God silenced Job’s presumption in constantly wanting to ask the questions of God, by becoming Job’s questioner. It must be noted that God never told Job about the reason for his pain, about the conflict between Himself and Satan, which was the reason for Job’s suffering. He never gave Job any explanation at all about the circumstances of his trouble. He did one thing in all He said. He asked Job if he was as eternal, great, powerful, wise, and perfect as God. If not, Job would have been better off to be quiet and trust Him.

  38:4–38 God asked Job if he participated in creation as He did. That was a crushing, humbling query with an obvious “no” answer.

  38:4–7 Creation is spoken of using the language of building construction.

  38:7 morning stars…sons of God. The angelic realm, God’s ministering spirits.

  38:8–11 God’s power over the sea by raising the continents is described, along with the thick clouds that draw up its water to carry rain to the land.

  38:12, 13 The dawn rises, and as it spreads light over the earth, it exposes the wicked, like shaking the corners of a cloth exposes dirt.

  38:14 clay under a seal. Documents written on clay tablets were signed using personal engraved seals upon which was written the bearer’s name. The Heb. for “takes on form” is “turned.” It conveys the idea that the earth is turned or rotated like a cylindrical seal rolled over the soft clay. Such rolling cylinder seals were found in Babylon. This speaks of the earth, rotating on its axis, an amazing statement that only God could reveal in ancient days. The dawn rolls across the earth as it rotates.

  38:15 their light. The light of the wicked is darkness, because that is when they do their works. The dawn takes away their opportunity to do their deeds and stops their arm lifted and ready to harm. Was Job around when God created light? (v. 21).

  38:22 treasury. The storehouse of these elements is the clouds.

  38:31, 32 Pleiades…Orion…Mazzaroth…Great Bear. Stellar constellations (cf. Job 9:9) are in view.

  38:33 ordinances of the heavens. The laws and powers that regulate all heavenly bodies.

  38:36 wisdom…understanding. This is at the heart of the real issue. The wisdom of God which created and sustains the universe is at work in Job’s suffering also. See also 39:17.

  38:39—39:30 God asked Job the humiliating questions about whether he could take care of the animal kingdom. Job must have been feeling less and less significant under the crushing indictment of such comparisons with God.

  Job 39

  39:5 onager. Another kind of donkey.

  39:13–18 ostrich. The silly bird that leaves her eggs on the ground lacks sense. God has not given her wisdom. She is almost a picture of Job, who is a mixture of foolishness and strength (v. 18).

  39:19–25 Here is a magnificent, vivid picture of the war horse.

  Job 40

  40:2 God challenged Job to answer all the questions he had posed. God didn’t need to know the answer, but Job needed to admit his weakness, inferiority, and inability to even try to figure out God�
��s infinite mind. God’s wisdom was so superior, His sovereign control of everything so complete, that this was all Job needed to know.

  40:3–5 Job’s first response to God was “I am guilty as charged. I will say no more.” He knows he should not have found fault with the Almighty. He should not have insisted on his own understanding. He should not have thought God unjust. So he was reduced to silence at last.

  40:6—41:34 As if the first was not enough, God’s second interrogation of Job commenced along the very same lines, only focusing on two unique animals in God’s creation: Behemoth (40:15–24) and Leviathan (41:1–34), two creatures powerful and fearful who embodied all that is overwhelming, uncontrollable, and terrorizing in this world. Man can’t control them, but God can.

  40:8–14 God unleashed another torrent of crushing rebukes to Job, in which He mocked Job’s questionings of Him by telling the sufferer that if he really thought he knew what was best for him rather than God (v. 8), then he should take over being God! (vv. 9–14).

  40:15–24 behemoth. While this is a generic term used commonly in the OT for large cattle or land animals, the description in this passage suggests an extraordinary creature. The hippopotamus has been suggested by the details in the passage (vv. 19–24). However, the short tail of a hippo is hardly consistent with v. 17, where tail could be translated “trunk.” It could refer to an elephant, who could be considered “first” or chief of God’s creatures whom only He can control (v. 19). Some believe God is describing His most impressive creation of land animals, the dinosaur species, which fit all the characteristics.

  40:23 God was not saying this creature lived in the Jordan River, but rather, recognizing that the Jordan was familiar to Job, used it to illustrate how much water this beast could ingest. He could swallow the Jordan! It was a word used to refer to something of enormous size and threatening power.

  Job 41

  41:1 Leviathan. This term appears in 4 other OT texts (Job 3:8; Pss. 74:14; 104:26; Is. 27:1). In each case Leviathan refers to some mighty creature who can overwhelm man but who is no match for God. Since this creature lives in the sea among ships (Ps. 104:26), some form of sea monster, possibly an ancient dinosaur, is in view. Some feel it was a crocodile, which had scaly hide (v. 15), terrible teeth (v. 14) and speed in the water (v. 32). But crocodiles are not sea creatures, and clearly this one was (v. 31). Some have thought it was a killer whale or a Great White Shark, because he is the ultimate killer beast over all other proud beasts (v. 34). It could also have been some sea-going dinosaur.

  41:4 Will he make a covenant with you? “Will this monstrous creature need, for any reason, to come to terms with you, Job? Are you able to control him?” God asked.

  41:10 Who then is able to stand against Me? This was the essential question being asked in both the Behemoth and Leviathan passages. God created these awesome creatures, and His might is far greater than theirs. If Job couldn’t stand against them, what was he doing contending with God? He would be better off to fight a dinosaur or a killer shark.

  41:11 God did not need to buy anything; He already owned all things. Paul quoted this in Rom. 11:35.

  Job 42

  42:1–6 Job’s confession and repentance took place finally. He still did not know why he suffered so profoundly, but he was done complaining, questioning, and challenging God’s wisdom and justice. He was reduced to such utter humility, crushed beneath the weight of God’s greatness, that all he could do was repent for his insolence. Without answers to all of his questions, Job quietly bowed in humble submission before his Creator and admitted that God was sovereign (cf. Is. 14:24; 46:8–11). Most importantly for the message of the book, Job was still diseased and without his children and possessions, and God had not changed anything (except for the humbling of the heart of His servant). Satan had been proven completely wrong in the charges he brought against Job and in thinking he could destroy true saving faith; Job’s companions were completely wrong in the charges they brought against him; but most critically, Job himself was completely wrong in the charges he had raised against God. He expressed his own sorrowful regret that he had not just accepted God’s will without such ignorant complaints and questions.

  42:3, 4 You asked…You said. Job twice alluded to statements God had made in His interrogation of Job. The first allusion “Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?” (38:2) indicted Job’s pride and presumption regarding God’s counsel. The second, “I will question you, and you shall answer Me” (38:3; 40:7) expressed God’s judicial authority to demand answers from His own accuser, Job. The two quotes manifested that Job understood the divine rebuke.

  42:5 have heard…now my eye sees You. At last, Job said he understood God whom he had seen with the eyes of faith. He had never so well grasped the greatness, majesty, sovereignty, and independence of God as he did at that moment.

  42:6 repent in dust and ashes. All that was left to do was repent! The ashes upon which the broken man sat had not changed; but the heart of God’s suffering servant had. Job did not need to repent of some sins which Satan or his accusers had raised. But Job had exercised presumption and allegations of unfairness against his Lord and hated himself for this in a way that called for brokenness and contrition.

  42:7–17 The text goes back to prose, from the poetry begun in 3:1.

  42:7, 8 you have not spoken of Me what is right. God directly vindicated Job by saying that Job had spoken right about God in rejecting the error of his friends. They are then rebuked for those misrepresentations of insensitivity and arrogance. This does not mean that everything they said was incorrect, but they had made wrong statements about the character and works of God, and also had raised erroneous allegations against Job.

  42:8 seven bulls and seven rams. This was the number of sacrifices specified in Num 23:1 by Balaam the prophet, so perhaps it was a traditional kind of burnt offering for sin.

  42:8, 9 As God had been gracious to Job, so He was to Job’s friends, by means of sacrifice and prayer. Here the book points to the need for a sacrifice for sin, fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ who gave Himself as an offering for sins and ever lives to intercede (cf. 1 Tim. 2:5). Even before the Levitical priesthood, family heads acted as priests, offering sacrifices and mediating through prayer.

  42:13 seven sons…three daughters. While the animals are double the number of Job 1:3, why are not the children? It is obvious that Job still had 7 sons and 3 daughters waiting for him in the presence of God (42:17).

  42:14 These names are representative of the joys of restoration. Jemimah means “day light,” Keziah means “sweet smelling,” and Keren-Happuch describes a beautiful color ladies used to paint their eyelids.

  42:15 gave them an inheritance. This was unusual in the East. By Jewish law, daughters only received an inheritance when there were no sons (Num. 27:8). Job had plenty for all.

  42:17 So Job died, old and full of days. These concluding words take the reader back to where the account began (1:1). Job died in prosperity and his days were counted as a blessing. In the words of James (5:11), we have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is “very compassionate and merciful.” But the “accuser of the brethren” (Rev. 12:10) is still “going to and fro on the earth” (1 Pet. 5:8) and God’s servants are still learning to trust in the all-wise, all-powerful Judge of the universe for what they cannot understand.

  Job 1

  1:1 a 1 Chr. 1:17

  1:1 b Ezek. 14:14, 20; James 5:11

  1:1 c Gen. 6:9; 17:1; (Deut. 18:13)

  1:1 d (Prov. 16:6)

  1:1 1 Lit. turned away from

  1:3 2 Lit. sons

  1:5 e Gen. 8:20; (Job 42:8)

  1:5 f 1 Kin. 21:10, 13

  1:5 3 consecrate

  1:5 4 Lit. blessed, but in an evil sense; cf. Job 1:11; 2:5, 9

  1:6 g Job 2:1

  1:6 5 Lit. the Adversary

  1:7 h (1 Pet. 5:8)

  1:7 6 Lit. the Adversary

  1:8 7 Lit. set your heart on<
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  1:8 8 Lit. turns away from

  1:10 i Job 29:2–6; Ps. 34:7; Is. 5:2

  1:10 j (Ps. 128:1, 2; Prov. 10:22)

  1:10 9 Protected him

  1:11 k Job 2:5; 19:21

  1:11 l Is. 8:21; Mal. 3:13, 14

  1:11 10 Lit. bless, but in an evil sense; cf. Job 1:5

  1:12 11 Lit. hand

  1:13 m (Eccl. 9:12)

  1:15 12 Lit. Sheba; cf. Job 6:19

  1:15 13 Lit. fell upon

  1:16 14 destroyed

  1:18 n Job 1:4, 13

  1:19 15 LXX omits across

  1:20 o Gen. 37:29, 34; Josh. 7:6; Ezra 9:3

  1:20 p (1 Pet. 5:6)

  1:21 q (Ps. 49:17; Eccl. 5:15); 1 Tim. 6:7

  1:21 r Eccl. 5:19; (James 1:17)

  1:21 s Gen. 31:16; (1 Sam. 2:6)

  1:21 t Eph. 5:20; (1 Thess. 5:18)

  1:22 u Job 2:10

  Job 2

  2:1 a Job 1:6–8

  2:2 b Job 1:7

  2:3 c Job 1:1, 8

  2:3 d Job 27:5, 6

  2:3 e Job 9:17

  2:3 1 Lit. consume

  2:5 f Job 1:11

  2:5 g Job 19:20

  2:5 2 Lit. bless, but in an evil sense; cf. Job 1:5

  2:6 h Job 1:12

  2:7 i Is. 1:6

  2:8 j Job 42:6; Jer. 6:26; Ezek. 27:30; Jon. 3:6; Matt. 11:21

  2:9 3 Lit. Bless, but in an evil sense; cf. Job 1:5

  2:10 k Job 1:21, 22; (Heb. 12:6; James 5:10, 11)

  2:10 l Job 1:22; (James 1:12)

  2:10 m Ps. 39:1

  2:11 n Gen. 36:11; 1 Chr. 1:36; Job 6:19; Jer. 49:7; Obad. 9

  2:11 o Gen. 25:2; 1 Chr. 1:32

  2:11 p Job 42:11; Rom. 12:15

  2:12 q Josh. 7:6; Neh. 9:1; Lam. 2:10; Ezek. 27:30

  2:13 r Gen. 50:10; Ezek. 3:15

  Job 3

  3:2 1 Lit. answered

  3:3 a Job 10:18, 19; Jer. 20:14–18

  3:5 b Job 10:21, 22; Jer. 13:16; Amos 5:8