Job 7:17

Job here reasons with God,

I. Concerning his dealings with man in general (Job 7:17, Job 7:18): What is man, that thou shouldst magnify him? This may be looked upon either, 1. As a passionate reflection upon the proceedings of divine justice; as if the great God did diminish and disparage himself in contending with man. "Great men think it below them to take cognizance of those who are much their inferiors so far as to reprove and correct their follies and indecencies; why then does God magnify man, by visiting him, and trying him, and making so much ado about him? Why will he thus pour all his forces upon one that is such an unequal match for him? Why will he visit him with afflictions, which, like a quotidian ague, return as duly and constantly as the morning light, and try, every moment, what he can bear?" We mistake God, and the nature of his providence, if we think it any lessening to him to take notice of the meanest of his creatures. Or, 2. As a pious admiration of the condescensions of divine grace, like that, Psa 8:4; Psa 144:3. He owns God's favour to man in general, even when he complains of his own particular troubles. "What is man, miserable man, a poor, mean, weak creature, that thou, the great and glorious God, shouldst deal with him as thou dost? What is man," (1.) "That thou shouldst put such honour upon him, shouldst magnify him, by taking him into covenant and communion with thyself?" (2.) "That thou shouldst concern thyself so much about him, shouldst set thy heart upon him, as dear to thee, and one that thou hast a kindness for?" (3.) "That thou shouldst visit him with thy compassions every morning, as we daily visit a particular friend, or as the physician visits his patients every morning to help them?" (4.) "That thou shouldst try him, shouldst feel his pulse and observe his looks, every moment, as in care about him and jealous over him?" That such a worm of the earth as man is should be the darling and favourite of heaven is what we have reason for ever to admire.

II. Concerning his dealings with him in particular. Observe,

1. The complaint he makes of his afflictions, which he here aggravates, and (as we are all too apt to do) makes the worst of, in three expressions: - (1.) That he was the butt to God's arrows: "Thou hast set me as a mark against thee," Job 7:20. "My case is singular, and none is shot at as I am." (2.) That he was a burden to himself, ready to sink under the load of his own life. How much delight soever we take in ourselves God can, when he pleases, make us burdens to ourselves. What comfort can we take in ourselves if God appear against us as an enemy and we have not comfort in him. (3.) That he had no intermission of his griefs (Job 7:19): "How long will it be ere thou cause thy rod to depart from me, or abate the rigour of the correction, at least for so long as that I may swallow down my spittle?" It should seem, Job's distemper lay much in his throat, and almost choked him, so that he could not swallow his spittle. He complains (Job 30:18) that it bound him about like the collar of his coat. "Lord," says he, "wilt not thou give me some respite, some breathing time?" Job 9:18.

2. The concern he is in about his sins. The best men have sin to complain of, and the better they are the more they will complain of it. (1.) He ingenuously owns himself guilty before God: I have sinned. God had said of him that he was a perfect and an upright man; yet he says of himself, I have sinned. Those may be upright who yet are not sinless; and those who are sincerely penitent are accepted, through a Mediator, as evangelically perfect. Job maintained, against his friends, that he was not a hypocrite, not a wicked man; and yet he owned to his God that he had sinned. If we have been kept from gross acts of sin, it does not therefore follow that we are innocent. The best must acknowledge, before God, that they have sinned. His calling God the observer, or preserver, of men, may be looked upon as designed for an aggravation of his sin: "Though God has had his eye upon me, his eye upon me for good, yet I have sinned against him." When we are in affliction it is seasonable to confess sin, as the procuring cause of our affliction. Penitent confessions would drown and silence passionate complaints. (2.) He seriously enquires how he may make his peace with God: "What shall I do unto thee, having done so much against thee?" Are we convinced that we have sinned, and are we brought to own it? We cannot but conclude that something must be done to prevent the fatal consequences of it. The matter must not rest as it is, but some course must be taken to undo what has been ill done. And, if we are truly sensible of the danger we have run ourselves into, we shall be willing to do any thing, to take a pardon upon any terms; and therefore shall be inquisitive as to what we shall do (Mic 6:6, Mic 6:7), what we shall do to God, not to satisfy the demands of his justice (that is done only by the Mediator), but to qualify ourselves for the tokens of his favour, according to the tenour of the gospel-covenant. In making this enquiry it is good to eye God as the preserver or Saviour of men, not their destroyer. In our repentance we must keep up good thoughts of God, as one that delights not in the ruin of his creatures, but would rather they should return and live. "Thou art the Saviour of men; be my Saviour, for I cast myself upon thy mercy." (3.) He earnestly begs for the forgiveness of his sins, Job 7:21. The heat of his spirit, as, on the one hand, it made his complaints the more bitter, so, on the other hand, it made his prayers the more lively and importunate; as here: "Why dost thou not pardon my transgression? Art thou not a God of infinite mercy, that art ready to forgive? Hast not thou wrought repentance in me? Why then dost thou not give me the pardon of my sin, and make me to hear the voice of that joy and gladness?" Surely he means more than barely the removing of his outward trouble, and is herein earnest for the return of God's favour, which he complained of the want of, Job 6:4. "Lord, pardon my sins, and give me the comfort of that pardon, and then I can easily bear my afflictions," Mat 9:2; Isa 33:24. When the mercy of God pardons the transgression that is committed by us the grace of God takes away the iniquity that reigns in us. Wherever God removes the guilt of sin he breaks the power of sin. (4.) To enforce his prayer for pardon he pleads the prospect he had of dying quickly: For now shall I sleep in the dust. Death will lay us in the dust, will lay us to sleep there, and perhaps presently, now in a little time. Job had been complaining of restless nights, and that sleep departed from his eyes (Job 7:3, Job 7:4, Job 7:13, Job 7:14); but those who cannot sleep on a bed of down will shortly sleep in a bed of dust, and not be scared with dreams nor tossed to and fro: "Thou shalt seek me in the morning, to show me favour, but I shall not be; it will be too late then. If my sins be not pardoned while I live, I am lost and undone for ever." Note, The consideration of this, that we must shortly die, and perhaps may die suddenly, should make us all very solicitous to get our sins pardoned and our iniquity taken away.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Job 7:17 What [is] man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?

Ver. 17. What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?] i.e. Make so much ado about him, or look upon him as a fit match for the great God to grapple with, Psa 14:3, or to take care of his affairs? Debile argumentum, saith Vatablus here, a poor argument; but Job maketh use of all kinds of arguments to move God to make an end of him: Domine, fac finem, fac finem, God, make an end, make an end! said dying Erasmus; but what he meant by those words I know not, saith Melancthon, who reporteth it.

And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?] So as to make any account of so mean and miserable a creature, Psa 144:3, to magnify him whom thou mightest rather vilify, or indeed, nullify; or, that thou shouldest set thy heart against him, sc. to destroy him, as Job 34:14. That is but an ignoble contest, ubi et vincere inglorium est, et atteri sordidum.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job_7:17

What is man, that Thou shouldst magnify him?

Divine condescension

Here is a question that is both answered and unanswerable.

I. A scriptural solution of the question.

1. What is man as a creature? A piece of modified dust, enlivened by the breath of God (Gen_2:7). An earthen vessel (2Co_4:7). He is grass (Isa_40:6; Isa_40:8). A drop of a bucket, or dust that will not turn the scale (Isa_40:15). Vanity (Job_7:16; Isa_40:17).

2. What is man as a fallen creature? An ignorant creature (Isa_1:3). A guilty (Rom_3:23). A condemned (Joh_3:18-19). A polluted (Job_15:16; Isa_1:16). A diseased (Isa_1:6). Impotent (Eze_16:4; Eze_16:6). Rebellious (Num_20:10; Isa_1:2).

II. In what respects it may be said that the Lord magnified man. He magnified man at the creation. By the care He showeth towards him in the course of His providence. By assuming human nature. By giving us such great and precious promises. By making man a sharer of His throne. Observe--

1. How amazing that the Lord should thus notice sinful man! He who is the High and Lofty One.

2. The base ingratitude of sinners who rebel against so kind a Benefactor.

3. If God thus magnify man, ought not man to endeavour to magnify God, i.e., praise and extol Him? (T. Hannam.)

The dignity and possibility of manhood

The doctrine of this text seems to be that man is a creature of such insignificance, so sinful, frail, and unimportant, that he is utterly unworthy of the care and attention that God pays to him. That this is true, none of us doubt. Infidels have often used this truth in their attempts to prove that God cannot pay the regard to man that the Bible declares He does. Yet these words of the text clearly and distinctly teach other truths--the greatness of man, because God has magnified him; the duty of man, because God has blessed him; the possibilities of man, because God has set His heart upon him. View man in the light of his privileges, in the light of his possibilities, in the light of Calvary, he then becomes a creature of infinite worth; and the highest service which a servant of God can be engaged in, is that of seeking the elevation, the conversion of men. It is the nobler aspect of man we are to study. I would lead you young men to self-respect. Distinguish between self-respect and self-conceit. One is the child of ignorance, the other the fair daughter of knowledge.

I. The dignity of man.

1. We are dignified because magnified of God. So far as we know, man is the consummation of creative skill. Man is both material and spiritual, presenting a marvellous combination of the two. He is a middle link in the chain of being, holding both ends together. He partakes much of the grossness of earth, yet much of the refinement of heaven. Without man, between the atom and the angel there would be a chasm, Man is the golden chain between the two. He is a little world in miniature, for in his frame there is an epitome of the universe. Truly, in the character of his being he is magnified. No one who thinks of his capabilities can dispute it. The capabilities of some men must be enormous. The dignity of man is further enhanced, if we consider that he possesses an immortal soul. He has a life that must run parallel with the life of the Eternal; a life that neither sin, death nor hell can quench. How awful does this make the importance of even a single man! Notice also mans exalted position in this world. He is lord of creation. This world was built as a house, for which man is the tenant.

2. We are dignified, because beloved of God. Our text says that God has set His heart upon man. This glorious truth is written on the page of inspiration with the clearness of a sunbeam (Joh_3:16). Surely such love must make man the envy of the angels. It seems as though man had received more care, attention, and love than all other parts of His dominion put together. On our weal the Deity has expended Himself, communicated to us in Christ Jesus all that was communicative in His being and character.

II. What conduct is worthy of the dignity of man? I take a high standard of appeal, and ask you, in the light of your noble faculties, in the light of all the mercies bestowed on you in creation and providence, in the light of Gods infinite love, what conduct becomes you? What should be your bearing towards yourselves, your Saviour, your God? You are unanimous in your verdict that a sinful, sensual life is utterly beneath the dignity of manhood. Take another kind of life. A life of mere self-gratification. Perhaps more promising young men are ruined through this kind of living than any other. But it is unworthy of a man. The end of a life that is true is not happiness in any shape or form, but character that shall fit us for eternity. In every man that has not this as his supreme desire, his one aim, only a fraction of manhood is awakened. The portions of his nature which make it worth while to be, are dormant. The trembling anxiety about our privileges, our welfare, our debt to God--which leads us to trust in Him--this makes a life true.

III. What are the possibilities of such a magnified being?

1. There is a possibility of any lost self-respect being restored. Some of you may have started wrong. This has destroyed self-respect. This is one of the most potent evils incident to a sinful life. Remember that character is under a law of perpetuity. It has an element in it which will make it almost immutable. Evil tends to evil permanence. Then let me tell you the glad news of the Gospel. There is a possibility of self-conquest. Self-control, for real usefulness, is as necessary as self-respect. How are we to exercise it? Will resolution, will determination do? My only hope is in God the Holy Spirit; in seeking Divine grace and power. To all of us there is the joyous possibility of a sublime life. Then, talk not of destiny, but believe in your own, and working like men, trusting like children, fulfil it. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The philosophy of human worth

From the East proceeded first the light of Divine knowledge, of art, and of science, that threefold cord with which the loins of our civilisation are girded. In what boasted philosopher of heathendom do we find a single sentiment, on the subject in point, equal to the one contained in our text? To a Father the patriarch Job confidently looked, both in his prosperity and adversity; it was not to a God afar off that he poured out the feelings of his heart. It is true he was deeply awed at the infinity and consequent mysteriousness of his Divine Father; but while, on the one hand, he was overwhelmed with majesty and incomprehensibility, on the other, he was soothed and cheered with condescension and love. The Divine character, and the ways of providence, appear to have occupied the thoughts of this large-minded and holy man, to the exclusion of almost everything else. It was not a thing, it was a person towards whom his thoughts and affections rationally and instinctively turned. The law which influenced this good man was moral. The grand centre of attraction, and source of all spiritual life and glory, was God Himself, the Father of lights. Now wherefore did Job thus seek after God, and look upon righteousness, or moral excellence, as the chief concern of his existence? Because something within prompted him to do so. There are two great generic ways in which God reveals Himself to man. Objectively, or through any physical medium such as His works, or assumed experiences, and subjectively, or in the conscious spirit. There was something more than mere figure in these words of our blessed Saviour, He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father. What is man that Thou shouldst magnify him? The patriarch appears to have been astonished that so vile, impotent, and short-lived a creature as man, should be specially noticed and favoured by his Maker. Whatever his ideas may have been of human dignity and worth, it is quite obvious that they were associated with a strong conviction of human degradation and vanity. And is not this a true estimate, the proper mean between two extremes, one of which exalts man far too high, whilst the other debases him far too low? If we looked no further than the outward nature and condition of man, we could only regard him as a unique kind of animal, inferior in some respects, though superior in others, to his fellow tenants of the earth. Were his animal nature the whole of man, in what would consist his preeminence over the beasts that perish? And yet this animal nature is all that our senses can take cognisance of. Considering him, however, in the light of analogy, it is clear that there may be undeveloped faculties and destinies, Of a high and inconceivable order, slumbering in his breast, but concealed from all inspection. Such was the pleasing theme of poetic song and philosophic speculation. These are by no means adequate effectively to counteract the sceptical conclusions of sense respecting the nature and destinies of man. Hence the uncertainty of the wisest and best of the old heathen philosophers. The plain truth is that the world by wisdom knew nothing conclusively about these things. The vantage ground on which the Bible places our feet, has raised us immeasurably higher than the wisest heathen, as such, ever stood. Guided by the torch of heaven, let us consider why God may be said to magnify man, and set His heart upon him.

1. Man is magnified by the gift of an intellectual nature.

2. In the possession of a moral nature.

3. In being the object of a Divine redemption.

4. In the omnipresent and omniactive superintendence of Divine providence over human affairs.

5. Immortality and future blessedness strikingly illustrate the text. If you believe these things, what manner of persons ought you to be? (Jabez Cole.)

Man magnified by the Divine regard

It is the character of almost all speculative systems of unbelief, that, whilst they palliate or excuse the moral pravity of our nature, they depreciate and undervalue that nature itself. Some deny that there is a spirit in man. Others deny man an immortality. Some would persuade us that we are but atoms in the mass of beings; and to suppose ourselves noticed by the Great Supreme, either in judgment or in mercy, is an unfounded and presumptuous conceit. The Word of God stands in illustrious and cheering contrast to all these chilling and vicious speculations. As to our moral condition, it lays us deep in the dust, and brings down every high imagination. But it never abases our nature itself. Man is the head and chief of the system he inhabits, and the image of God. He is arrayed in immortality, and invested with high and awful capacities both of good and evil.

I. Certain considerations illustrative of the doctrine of the text.

1. God hath magnified man by the gift of an intellectual nature. We see unorganised matter without life; matter organised, as in vegetables, with life, but without sensation; and, in the inferior animals, with life, sense, and a portion of knowledge, but without reason. But, in man, the scale rises unspeakably higher. His endowments are beyond animal life and sensation, and beyond instinct. Man is the only visible creature which God, in the proper sense of the word, could love. No creature is capable of being loved, but one which is also capable of reciprocal knowledge, regard, and intercourse.

2. By the variety and the superior nature of the pleasures of which He has made him capable. His are the pleasures of contemplation. These the inferior animals have not. The pleasures of contemplation are inexhaustible, and the powers we may apply to them are capable of unmeasurable enlargement. His are the pleasures of devotion. Can it be rationally denied that devotion is the source of even a still higher pleasure than knowledge? His are the pleasures of sympathy and benevolence. His are the pleasures of hope.

3. The text receives its most striking illustration from the conduct of God to man considered as a sinner. If under this character we have still been loved; if still, notwithstanding ingratitude and rebellion, we are loved; then, in a most emphatic sense, in a sense which we cannot adequately conceive or express, God hath set His heart upon us. Mark the means of our reconciliation to God, and mark the result.

4. Consider the means by which Gods gracious purpose of magnifying man, by raising him out of his fallen condition, is pursued and effected.

(1) He has, with the kindest regard for our higher interests, attached emptiness to worldly good, and misery to vice.

(2) He has been pleased to establish a constant connection between our discipline and correction, between His providential dispensations and moral ends.

(3) He has opened His ears to our prayers, and invites them both by command and promise.

(4) To bring men to feel their own wants, He sends forth His Gospel, accompanied by His quickening Spirit, thus to render it, what in the mere letter it could not be, the Word of fife, the Gospel of salvation.

II. The practical improvement which flows from facts so established.

1. We are taught the folly and voluntary degradation of the greater part of the unhappy race of mankind.

2. The subject affords an instructive test of our religious pretensions.

3. To form a proper estimate of our fellow men, and of our obligations to promote their spiritual and eternal benefit. (R. Watson.)

On the nature and character of man

The heathen sage, who bid us know ourselves, might give the precept, but it was out of his power to put us in a way of obtaining the proper information. The present state of man can only be understood from the history of man, as the best natural philosophy must be built upon the history of nature. When man came first from the hands of his Creator, he was neither sinful nor mortal; but as the happiness of a rational being must be the object of his free choice, and cannot possibly be otherwise, life and happiness were proposed to man on such terms as put him to a trial. There can be no reward but to obedience, and there can be no obedience without liberty, that is, without the liberty of falling away into disobedience and rebellion. As man consists of soul and body, and is allied to the visible and invisible world, no transactions pass between God and man without some intermediate visible figure; therefore life and death were proposed to Adam, under the two symbols of the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The latter was the instrument of temptation. By partaking of the tree of life, the nature of man would have been refined and spiritualised upon earth. The enemy of Gods glory and mans happiness was permitted to enter into paradise in the form of a serpent, who having prevailed first upon the weaker sex, deceived Adam by her means. Thus the life of paradise was forfeited. It appears then that man is now in a state of banishment from his native paradise, and driven out into the wide world. The tempter who first seduced him into sin, is carrying on the same plan of enmity and opposition to this day. We find such contrarieties in the nature of man as can never be accounted for but from the history of his fall. In the fall of man there are two things to be considered, the sin and the punishment. The act of disobedience proceeded from a sinful desire, suggested by the devil, of rising by forbidden means, and without any dependence upon God, to a state of superior wisdom and greatness. Look attentively into this original act of mans disobedience, and you will discover that every lust and passion of which man is capable, prevailed on that occasion. The lust of the flesh was indulged in eating; the lust of the eye in coveting what was forbidden; and the pride of life in the affectation of a superior condition, to which there was no title. Man cannot now sin by the same act as Adam did; but all his sin is after that pattern. His three vices are, intemperance, covetousness, and pride. There is an irregular conflict in human nature which we cannot account for, but upon the principle of original sin. The effect of original sin is evident from that lamentable symptom of it, an alienation of the mind from God: for there certainly is in man, such as he is now, a distaste of God, and of all that relates to Him. This cannot be nature, it must be a depravation of nature. The other evidences of the fall of man are to be found in its punishment, which comprehends the several particulars of labour, poverty, sickness, and death. It appears then that man is in a fallen state, subject to the power of sin, and the penalty of disobedience. In consequence of this evil nature, it is good for man to be afflicted, as it is necessary that his dross should be separated by a fiery trial in the furnace. (W. Jones, M. A.)

Gods dealings with insignificant man

Pride is the great besetting sin of our corrupt nature. This it is which unfolds mans self-righteousness, self-seeking, self-dependence, and self-complacency, in all their varied forms. It will show itself as family pride, professional pride, intellectual pride, yea, and in that low and contemptible exhibition of it, even the love of personal attraction.

I. Mans littleness. As a creature. As a fallen creature. Is it too much to say that he is lower than the beasts? It is a strong expression. Is it too much to say that sin has sunk man as low as Satan? Man is a sinful, guilty, and condemned creature. The law condemns him. All that is in God condemns the impenitent, unbelieving sinner. Man is a proud, self-righteous sinner. There is no man but what has some apparently good qualities--at least, he thinks he has them--and these blind him to all his bad qualities, and he thinks he can blind God with them.

II. Gods most wondrous dealings with man. Out of these materials does God choose a people and erect a temple to His own glory. How wonderful is the exhibition of Gods grace in the conversion of a sinner! Look at the wondrous display of grace in redemption, and in bringing all the redeemed ones safe to glory. See in this subject the greatness of God: notice how contemptible is our pride when we can look down upon others. Though our Lord shows us our littleness, yet we ought not to forget that He has magnified us. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)

Gods perpetual providence in life; its mystery and its meaning

The question must have been asked by Job in the profoundest earnestness. The sudden shocks of sorrow had been bringing him face to face with the awful mysteries of eternal providence, and making him feel their power as he had never felt it before. The question expresses each of the first of those great mysteries which the stern reality of trouble had forced upon his thoughts. It was no curious inquiry on his part; it was one which the agony of his life had compelled him to meet. You will perceive this by considering the experience he had recently passed through. He had reached that desire for death which sometimes rises from the strong pressure of deep and sorrowful thought. Then arose the mysterious question, Why did God prolong his life? To live amid the desolation of his great sorrow: and struggling with awful doubts, was a constant trial, and why did God thus try him every moment by keeping him alive? Remember, too, that Job had remained for days and nights in silence under the open sky. Looking at nature in his sorrow, the mighty march of the stars, in the far-off wilderness of space, and the solemn glory of the day as it rose and faded, and the voices of the winds as they came and went through the land, would all make him feel the majesty of God and the insignificance of man. Taking the words in their broadest meaning, the subject presented by them is Gods perpetual providence in life.

I. Its mystery. We shall not feel it as Job felt it unless we accept his belief in the incessant action of Gods providence in human history. He did not regard life as governed by general laws usually, and by the living God only occasionally. He said God visited man every morning. Jobs view of human life was that the souls of men were surrounded and influenced by the ever-present, ever-acting God, How common is the belief that in the beginning God created certain general laws, and that He has retired into His eternity, leaving them to govern the universe, interfering Himself now and then, when a great crisis demands His action. We speak of general and special providence as if there were some real distinction between the two, and as if all providence were not the activity of the living God, equally present everywhere. Now this distinction is unscriptural and unreasonable. If God directs the great events, He also directs every event, for all are bound together. Besides, how do we know which are great and which are small? We must go back to the strong, simple faith of such men as Job and David before we can realise the mystery which they felt in life. Accepting, then, that view of an incessant providence, the difficulty which Job felt must have risen from two sources: the greatness of God, What is man, that Thou shouldst magnify him? and the nature of the discipline through which He conducted life, That Thou shouldst try him every moment?

1. Take the first source of the mystery which Job felt in the unceasing providence of God: the greatness of God compared with the insignificance of man. He felt God was so great, that for Him to visit man in sorrow was to magnify the frail child of time by exalting it to even a moments notice of the Infinite One. We do not feel the mystery of Gods dealings with man with the same intensity as Job and the men of old time must have felt it.

2. Look at the other aspect of Gods perpetual providence--The nature of the discipline through which God conducts life. This was evidently the other source of the difficulty that perplexed the patriarch. Life had become to him one overwhelming trial, yet he believed that every element of that trial was sent or permitted by God. Why? Some men have to learn the mystery of discipline in the sternest school of suffering. Now, accepting the Bible faith that God orders all our life, is it not evident He is trying us every moment? Why does He stoop from His vast empire to visit thus the creatures of a day? Christianity has revealed two things, corresponding to the two-fold character of this mystery.

(1) The boundless capacities of man. Christianity throughout magnifies man, by representing him as at present but in the childhood of his eternal growth. It is true that men in the old time felt the dignity of humanity, but Christ, by taking it upon Himself, clothed it with a new grandeur. Until He came, men, in a great measure, looked on life from the side of time. Christ dwarfed the temporal by revealing the immortal. At the same time, He made men feel the awfulness of life, by showing how it might be the commencement of an infinite progress towards the holiest. Gods infinite eye sees in every man the germ of what he may and will become. Frail, feeble, fading like the grass he may be, but in him is the germ of a nature that will unfold and greaten into an angel of God; and within the sin-scarred and suffering body of humanity, the Divine Eye sees spirits whose capacities only the life of eternity can unfold.

(2) The education of man by trial. Christianity brings this out with peculiar force. Our characters must be tested. We fancy we hold the reins of our natures. We think we are strong, and rejoice in our fancied strength. And then God sends us trials, disappointments, bitter lessons of sorrow, and under their startling light we discover our weakness and evil. We grow earth bound, become wrapped in lifes transient interests: God sends us suffering, and in the long, lonely watchings of pain, we catch glimpses of eternal realities. This, then, is the meaning of Gods perpetual providence in life. Seeing man as he is to be; seeing that his infirmities must be removed by trial, He visits him every morning, and tries him every moment. (E. L. Hull, B. A.)

The tragedy of life

This is a cry wrung from the heart of a man who was passing through a season of awful tribulation. His life, which was formerly smooth and prosperous, had now become, all at once, a very tragedy of sorrow. Not one gleam of hope was visible throughout the whole range of his earthly circumstances. His misfortunes had indeed come in battalions. What wonder if Job, thus crushed to the very dust by his calamities and by his friends, deserted, as it seemed, both by God and man, and left to wrestle all alone with his sorrow, should, out of his weakness, utter this cry of remonstrance to the Almighty? Here Job, feeling himself overwhelmed by his calamities, is remonstrating with God for taking so much notice of man as even to visit him with trial. Why cannot the Almighty let a poor worm alone? Surely it is magnifying man unduly--it is making altogether too much of a creature so frail--for God thus to turn His thoughts towards man, and visit him with such incessant and overwhelming trials! When we ourselves have been passing through some bitter experience, have we not been tempted to feel as if the trial were overdone? Have we not been tempted to think, Surely the Almighty could have effected His purpose with less expenditure of suffering? Thinking of the woes of humanity, we ask, Why is there not more economy of all this pain? Why break a butterfly on the wheel? It is the old thought of Job, born of the old and ever-recurring mystery that attends so much of the earths sorrow. We must meet the mystery with faith. We ought to believe that He who can keep in their places Orion and the Pleiades; can make no mistake in guiding and overruling human destinies. We ought to believe that the Father of all is as loving as He is wise, and that, in spite of all appearances, there is throughout His universe a true economy of suffering. What God Himself is, remains our best reason for trusting Him in everything He does. Consider some of the ends which are subserved by what we may call the tragic element in our human life.

1. It tends to deliver us from shallow and frivolous conceptions of our own nature. There are many influences at work which tend to give to human nature and life an aspect of littleness. Our very being is itself animal as well as spiritual. We have many needs and cravings in common with the brutes. Our nature, moreover, touches the surrounding world at countless points, many of which are as pin points. Things which are in themselves but trifles, have often a wondrous power over us. No doubt the comedy of life has also its uses. God has not endowed us with the sense of humour for nothing. Laughter is a kind of safety valve. But there is danger of our life being dwarfed into pettiness, and of our losing a true sense of the inherent dignity of our nature. Precisely here comes in the tragic element of life to counteract this tendency. Just as the loftiest mountains throw the largest and deepest shadows, so these dark shadows of human experience bear witness to the original grandeur of our being. You cannot have tragedy without a certain greatness. Even those tragedies of life which are due directly to human sins, testify to the greatness of the nature which has been so sadly and shamefully perverted. With regard to those terrible calamities which sometimes come into mens experience without any fault of their own, how often is it the case that these ordeals of trial bring to light the noblest traits of character. Is not the Cross of Calvary itself the crowning illustration of how the loftiest greatness of humanity may be revealed against the dark background of the deepest sorrow? Look also at affliction as a means of discipline and education, and we can scarcely fail to be impressed with the greatness of that nature which God subjects to trials so great. This is the thought which lies latent even in poor Jobs remonstrance. Whatever we may do with our life, God evidently does not trifle with it; whatever we may think of our nature, God evidently does not think lightly of it. Thus, then, the tragic element in our life tends to redeem it from pettiness, to deliver us alike from prosaic stolidity and shallow sentimentalism, and to inspire us with a sense of the sacredness of our being.

2. This same element in life confronts men directly with the thought of God. Men, in their sinfulness, banish God from their hearts, and try to forget Him in their lives. But God refuses to be forgotten. For our own good, He will, if necessary, simply compel us to recognise His presence. He will make men feel that a higher will than theirs is at work. When there comes some sudden and extraordinary visitation, men are aroused to reflection. The appalling magnitude of the calamity startles them. The very fact that some event presents an inscrutable mystery, awakens them to the sense of an infinite wisdom overruling the projects and actions of mankind.

3. This same tragic element of life tends to deepen our reverence and tenderness towards our fellowmen. Our very experience of the world sometimes tends to make us hard and cold and censorious. Even our own troubles do not always deepen the springs of our charity. We may shut ourselves up in our griefs, and morbidly exaggerate our trials until we become morose and peevish, instead of sympathetic and gentle. But here, too, comes in the tragedy of life to counteract this selfish tendency. Ever and again there occurs some terrible event involving others in a sorrow which dwarfs our own griefs. And a great calamity invests even the meanest with interest. It tends to draw us out of ourselves, and to open the floodgates of sympathy and benevolence. Think, finally, how we are living together under the shadow of the closing tragedy of all. Prince and peasant, master and servant, all are travelling to that. Death gives a tragic touch even to the beggars personality. Let us cultivate reverence and tenderness towards one another; for we are all of us living in a world that has its terrible possibilities of experience. (T. Campbell Finlayson.)

Measured by the shadow

So Job speaks out of deep affliction; he is puzzled to know why God heaps sorrows on man and makes his life one long trial. How is it that the Almighty should consider a weak mortal sufficiently important to be made the object of so much interest and the subject of such severe correction? Let us attempt an answer to this question.

I. Man is a creature of consequence, or God would not thus visit him. The Psalmist asks the same question, but from a very different point of view (Psa_8:3-4). It is here that we usually look for the signs of human greatness and royalty--in the direction of mans power, action, rule, and achievement. Job is concerned with mans weakness, perplexity, suffering, humiliation, and failure. What is man, that Thou shouldst magnify him with miseries? Job feels the greatness of man in the greatness of his suffering. The conflict and sorrow of human life are indubitable signs of dignity. We often enough look poor, feel poor, but we cannot be poor. There is a singular greatness about us somewhere, or we should not be distinguished by infinite and endless sorrows. Our importance is demonstrated by the length and depth of the shadows that we make. The shouts of conquerors, the sceptres of princes, the triumphs of scientists, the masterpieces of artists, and the scarlet of merchantmen are so many signs of our status; yet the sense of anxiety, the problems which torture the intellect, our wounded affections, the smart of conscience, our painful sense of limitation and disability, the groan of the afflicted, the burden of living, and the terror of dying are not less signs of our fundamental greatness. Is it not, indeed, often the case that we are more affected by the dignity of men when they suffer than when they are strong? that in misfortune we discern a loftiness and sacredness never discovered in them in their prosperity? and if we never felt their majesty in life, do we not awake to it when they die, and uncover at their grave? It is also true that in deep affliction we realise most vividly the greatness of our own nature. Stripped of outward, meretricious greatness, Job begins to feel that he is great; his sorrows show him his consequence before God. The very humility born of trouble is a sign of greatness.

II. Man is a creature of guilt, or God would not thus visit him.

1. There is no cruelty in God. Nero condemned men to prison and then treated them as condemned malefactors simply to feast his eyes on their agonies, by, and by releasing them. This world is no laboratory of aimless vivisection. For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

2. There is no injustice in God. The right of a man before the face of the Most High. Nowhere is the right of a man more sacred than before the face of the Most High.

3. There is no levity in God. Some talk as if this world were a mere spectacle, a great theatre of shadows where God watches the long tragedy with an aesthetic eye. But there is no levity in the Ruler of the universe. All revelation teaches how real human sorrow is to God. What, then, is man, that God visits him with endless correction? Why does He fill his soul with anguish? There is only one answer: man is an offender, his sin is the secret of his misery. In vindicating himself against his friends Job denied that he was guilty of any conscious, specific, secret transgression; but he knew that he was a sinner before God. Immediately after the text he confesses, I have sinned. It was all there: his suffering brought home the sense of guilt. The broken law makes the shadow of death.

III. Man is a creature of hope, or God would not thus visit him. What is man, that Thou shouldst magnify him? Sinful and afflicted as he may be, he is yet a creature of hope, or God would not thus lavish discipline upon him. Terrible as this world may be, it is not hell, nor the region of despair. Hope is written with sunbeams on the forehead of the morning; spring writes the lovely word in the grass with flowers; it is emblazoned in the colours of the rainbow. God visits us, then, that He may awake in us the consciousness of sin, and discipline us out of our sin into health of spirit. Again and again Job says, Let me alone. And that appeal is often on our lips. Let me alone, cries one, that I may examine this curious world, and do not disturb me with thoughts of infinity and eternity. Let me alone, pleads another, so that I may enjoy life, and do not harass me about righteousness, guilt, and judgment. Let me alone, entreats a third, and cease to interrupt my money making by sickness and misfortune. Let me alone, cry those whose hearths are threatened; leave my friends, and spare me bitter bereavements. But this is exactly what God will not do. He visits us every morning, and tries us every moment, that He may arouse us to our true state, great need, and awful danger. Having awoke in us the sense of sin, through the discipline of suffering God perfects us. Yes, this--this is the grand end. Behold, I will melt them, and try them (Jer_9:7). The Lord hath proved thee and humbled thee, to do thee good at thy latter end. (W. L. Watkinson.)

And try him every moment.--

Continual trial

Why doth God try us every moment? Because we are one moment in one temper, and the next moment in another. The acting frame of a mans heart this hour cannot be collected from the frame it was in an hour before; therefore there is a continual trial. Some things if they be tried once, they are tried forever; if we try gold, it will ever be as good as we found it, unless we alter it: as we try it to be, so it continues to be. But try the heart of man this day, and come again the next and you may find it in a different condition; today believing, tomorrow unbelieving; today humble, tomorrow proud; today meek, tomorrow passionate; today lively and enlarged, tomorrow dead and straightened; pure gold today, and tomorrow exceeding drossy. As it is with the pulse of a sick man, it varieth every quarter of an hour, therefore the physician tries his pulse every time he comes, because his disease alters the state of his body. So it is with the distempered condition of mans spirit. God having tried our pulse, the state of our spirit, by crones or by mercies this day, next day He tries us too, and the third day He tries us again, and so keeps us in continual trials, because we are in continual variations. That sickness and disease within us alters the state and condition of the soul every moment. Our comfort is that God hath a time wherein He will set our souls up in such a frame as He shall need to try us, but that once. Having set us up in a frame of glory, He shall not need to try our hearts for us, or to put us to the trial of ourselves any more, we shall stand as He sets us up to all eternity. (J. Caryl.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 7:17. What is man — Enosh, lapsed, fallen man; that thou shouldest magnify him? — What is there in that poor, mean creature called man, miserable man, which can induce thee to take any notice of him, or to make such account of him? Man is not worthy of thy favour, and he is below thy anger. It is too great a condescension in thee, and too great an honour done to man, that thou shouldst contend with him, and draw forth all thy forces against him, as if he were a fit match for thee. Therefore do not, O Lord, thus dishonour thyself or magnify me; and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him — Shouldst concern thyself so much about him, as though he were a creature of great dignity and worth, or were near and dear to thee.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17 What is man that Thou magnifiest him,

And that Thou turnest Thy heart toward him,

18 And visitest him every morning,

Triest him every moment?

19 How long dost Thou not look away from me,

Nor lettest me alone till I swallow down my spittle?

The questions in Job 7:17. are in some degree a parody on Psa 8:5, comp. Psa 144:3, Lam 3:23. There it is said that God exalts puny man to a kingly and divine position among His creatures, and distinguishes him continually with new tokens of His favour; here, that instead of ignoring him, He makes too much of him, by selecting him, perishable as he is, as the object of ever new and ceaseless sufferings. כּמּה, quamdiu, Job 7:19, is construed with the praet. instead of the fut.: how long will it continue that Thou turnest not away Thy look of anger from me? as the synonymous עד־מתי, quousque, is sometimes construed with the praet. instead of the fut., e.g., Psa 80:5. "Until I swallow my spittle" is a proverbial expression for the minimum of time.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

7:17-18 that you should make so much of us: Cp. Ps 8:4-5, which treats the same thoughts positively. • examine (Hebrew paqad): In Ps 8:4, the same term means “to honor or care for”; Job used the term ironically, meaning “to be pestered” (cp. “attacked,” Isa 26:14).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Seeing that man of himself is so vile, why dost thou give him that honor to contend against him? Job useth all kinds of persuasion with God, that he might stay his hand.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(Psa 8:4; Psa 144:3). Job means, "What is man that thou shouldst make him [of so much importance], and that thou shouldst expend such attention [or, heart-thought] upon him" as to make him the subject of so severe trials? Job ought rather to have reasoned from God's condescending so far to notice man as to try him, that there must be a wise and loving purpose in trial. David uses the same words, in their right application, to express wonder that God should do so much as He does for insignificant man. Christians who know God manifest in the man Christ Jesus may use them still more.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse. 17. What is man that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?] Two different ideas have been drawn from these words: -

1. Man is not worth thy notice; why therefore dost thou contend with him?

2. How astonishing is thy kindness that thou shouldest fix thy heart - thy strongest affections, on such a poor, base, vile, impotent creature as man, (אנוש enosh,) that thou shouldest so highly exalt him beyond all other creatures, and mark him with the most particular notice of thy providence and grace!

The paraphrase of Calmet is as follows: "Does man, such as he at present is, merit thy attention! What is man that God should make it his business to examine, try, prove, and afflict him? Is it not doing him too much honour to think thus seriously about him? O Lord! I am not worthy that thou shouldest concern thyself about me!"

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(17, 18) What is man . . .?—Here is another point of contact with Psa_8:5; but the spirit of the Psalmist was one of devout adoration, whereas that of Job is one of agony and desperation.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17–19. Second, Job asks, If man be not too mean a thing for God thus to busy Himself with and persecute? cf. ch. Job_14:3.

set thine heart] that is, thy mind; as magnify means, to think great, to consider of importance.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?.... Man in his best estate, in his original state, was but of the earth, earthly; a mutable creature, and altogether vanity; so that it was wonderful God should magnify him as be did, raise him to such honour and dignity, as to set him over all the works of his hands, and bestow peculiar marks of his favour upon him in Eden's garden; but man in his low and fallen estate, being, as the word here used is generally observed to signify, a frail, feeble, weak, and mortal creature; yea, a sinful one; it is much more marvellous that God should magnify him, or make him great, that is, any of the human race, as he has some, so as "to set his heart upon them", as Jarchi connects this with the following clause; to think of them and provide for them in his purposes and decrees, in his council and covenant, to choose any of them to grace here, and glory hereafter: he has magnified them, by espousing them to his Son, whereby they share with him in his glory, and in all the blessings of his goodness; through the incarnation of Christ, by means of which the human nature is greatly advanced and honoured; and by their redemption through Christ, whereby they are raised to an higher dignity, and restored to a greater estate than they lost by the fall; by clothing them with the rich robe of Christ's righteousness, comparable to the gold of Ophir, and raiment of needlework; and by adorning them with the graces of the blessed Spirit; and, in a word, by taking them into his family, making them his children and his heirs, rich in grace, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven, and kings and priests unto him; taking them as beggars from the dunghill, to sit among princes, and to inherit the throne of glory. The words may be understood in a different sense, and more agreeably to the context, and to the scope of Job's discourse, as they are by some (o), of God's magnifying men by afflicting them; according to which, man is represented as a poor, weak, strengthless creature, a worm and clod of the earth; and the Lord as the mighty God, as of great and infinite power and strength, between whom there is no manner of proportion; God is not a man, that they should come together, or as if on equal foot; nor man a match for God; to wrestle with principalities and powers, which are not flesh and blood, is too much for men of themselves, and how much less able are they to contend with God? Now Job by this suggests, that his thought and sentiment of the matter was, and in which he has a particular view to himself, and his own case; that as on the one hand it was a demeaning the might and majesty of God, by making himself a combatant with man; so on the other hand it was doing man too much honour, as if he was one of more importance and consequence, and more mighty and powerful than he is; whereas he is unworthy of the divine notice in any respect, either to bestow his favours, or lay his afflicting hand upon him; compare with this Sa1 24:14. Hence a late learned writer (p), agreeably to the use of the word in the Arabic language, renders it, "what is mortal man, that thou shouldest wrestle with him?" strive and contend with him as if he was thy match, when thou couldest at one blow, and even at a touch, dispatch him at once?

and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? have an affection for him, love him, delight in him, highly value and esteem him; it is wonderful that God should have such a regard to any of the sons of men; and yet it is certain that he has, as appears by the good things he has provided and laid up for them in covenant, by sending his Son to die for them, by calling and quickening them by his Spirit and grace, and drawing them with loving kindness to himself; by taking continual care of them, and keeping them as the apple of his eye: though these words may be interpreted agreeably to the other sense, "that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?" or towards him, to afflict him and chastise him with afflictions, so Bar Tzemach; or to stir up himself against him, as Sephorno: and the above late learned writer chooses to render them, "that thou shouldest set thine heart against him?" (q) and so the Hebrew (r) particle is used in many other places; see Eze 13:2; compare with this Job 34:14, where R. Simeon Bar Tzemach (s) thinks Elihu has respect to this passage of Job, and reproves him for it.

(o) So Simeon Bar Tzemach, Sephorno, Mercerus, Diodati, Schultens. (p) Schultens. (q) "et quod intendas cor tuum". (r) "Adversus eum". ibid. (s) Vid. Noldii Ebr. Partic. Concord. p. 57.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? - That thou shouldst make him great, or that thou shouldst regard him as of so great importance as to fix thine eye attentively upon him. The idea here is, that it was unworthy the character of so great a being as God to bestow so much time and attention on a creature so insignificant as man; and especially that man could not be of so much importance that it was necessary for God to watch all his defects with vigilance, and take special pains to mark and punish all his offences. This question might be asked in another sense, and with another view. Man is so insignificant compared with God, that it may be asked why he should so carefully provide for his needs? Why make so ample provision for his welfare? Why institute measures so amazing and so wonderful for his recovery from sin? The answers to all these questions must be substantially the same.

(1) It is a part of the great plan of a condescending God. No insect is so small as to be beneath his notice. On the humblest and feeblest animalcula a care is bestowed in its formation and support as if God had nothing else to regard or provide for.

(2) Man is of importance. He has an immortal soul, and the salvation of that soul is worth all which it costs, even when it costs the blood of the Son of God.

(3) A creature who sins, always makes himself of importance. The murderer has an importance in the view of the community which he never had before. All good citizens become interested to arrest and punish him. There is no more certain way for a man to give consequence to himself, than to violate the laws, and to subject himself to punishment. An offending member of a family has an importance which he had not before, and all eyes are turned to him with deep interest. So it is with man - a part of the great family of God.

(4) A sufferer is a being of importance, and man as a sufferer is worthy of the notice of God. However feeble may be the powers of anyone, or humble his rank, yet if he suffers, and especially if he is likely to suffer forever, he becomes at once an object of the highest importance: Such is man; a sufferer here, and liable to eternal pain hereafter; and hence, the God of mercy has interposed to visit him, and to devise a way to rescue him from his sorrows, and from eternal death. The Syriac renders this, “What is man, that thou shouldst destroy him?” - but the Hebrew means. “to magnify him, to make him great or of importance.”

That thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? - Not with affection, but to punish him - for so the expression in this connection evidently means. The phrase itself might mean, “Why shouldst thou love him?” - implying that there was nothing in a creature so insignificant that could render him a proper object of the divine regard. But as used here by Job it means, “Why dost thou fix thy attention upon him so closely - marking the slightest offence, and seeming to take a special pleasure in inflicting pain and torture?” The Psalmist makes use of almost the same language, and not improbably copied it from this, though he employs it in a somewhat different sense. As used by him, it means that it was wonderful that the God who made the heavens should condescend to notice a creature so insignificant as man.

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers;

The moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

What is man, that thou art mindful of him?

And the son of man, that thou visitest him:

Psa 8:3-4.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Magnify him, or put his to such severe trials. He is not worthy of thy attention. (Calmet) --- Hebrews ii. 6. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

What is there in that poor, mean, contemptible creature called man, miserable man, as this word signifies, which can induce or incline thee to take any notice of him, to show him such respect, or to make such account of him? Man is not worthy of thy favour, and he is below thy anger. It is too great a condescension to thee, and too great an honour for man, that thou wilt contend with him, and draw forth all thy forces against him, as if he were a fit match for thee; whereas men use to neglect and slight mean adversaries, and will not do them the honour to fight with them. Compare 1Sa 24:14. Therefore do not, O Lord, thus dishonour thyself, nor magnify me. I acknowledge that even thy corrections are mercies and honours; but, Lord, let me be no more so honoured.

Set thine heart upon him, i.e. have any regard to him, so far as to afflict him, which though it be grievous in itself, especially when it is aggravated as mine is, yet unto thy people it is a great mercy and blessing, as being highly necessary and useful to humble them, and purge them from sin, and prepare them for glory; as, on the contrary, those wicked men whom thou dost despise and hate, and design to destroy, thou dost forbear to punish or afflict them.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

b. The other conceivable cause of Job’s sufferings — SIN. (Davidson.) Sorrowing man is too small an object for God’s disciplinary care, or (as Hitzig suggests) his hostile vigilance over him. Job questions whether sin be the reason (whether this solves the mystery) that God should make MAN the object of his painful visitations. Ewald well remarks that Job, for the first time, admits that sin may possibly be the hidden cause of his sorrows.

17. Man… magnify him — Hirtzel is hardly justified in thinking that this verse is spoken in bitter irony. “Why shouldest thou break a fly upon a wheel?” — Wordsworth. The Psalmist subsequently enlarges upon the thought of the text, Psa_8:3-5. His sublime conception, What is man that God should honour him and visit him (פקד, as here) with blessings, is no more sublime than this of Job, that God should also think of man and unremittingly try him, even by making him the mark (Job_7:20) at which, like an archer, he shoots his arrows. In the one case man is dwarfed in the comparison with the wonder-working of God in the field of creation — here, in the comparison with his wonder-doing within the more wonderful scheme of Providence.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? or, make so much of him regard him as of such great importance. (comp. Psa_8:4) It seems, at first sight, an exalted idea of God to regard him as too lofty, too great, to be really concerned about so mean a creature, so poor a being, as man. Hence, among the Greeks, the Epicureans maintained that God paid no attention at all to this world, or to anything that happened in it, but dwelt secure and tranquil in the empyrean, with nothing to disturb, displease, or vex him. And the holy men of old sometimes fell into this same phase of thought, and expressed surprise and wonder that God, who dwelt on high, should "humble himself to consider the things in heaven and earth." "Lord," says David, or whoever was the author of the hundred and forty-fourth psalm, "what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him? or the son of man, that thou makest account of him? Man k like to vanity; his days are as a shadow that passeth away". (Psa_144:3, Psa_144:4) But all, except Epicureans, agree that God does, in fact, so concern himself, and a little reflection is enough to show us that the opposite view, instead of exalting, really degrades God. To bring conscious, sentient beings into the world beings capable of the intensest happiness or misery, and then to leave them wholly to themselves, to have no further care or thought of them, would be the part, not of a grand, glorious, and adorable Being, but of one destitute of any claim to our admiration. And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? This strong expression is not used of God elsewhere. But it well expresses the extreme tenderness and consideration that God has for man, and the deep love from which that tenderness and consideration spring.

Vers. 17-21. Job to God: 1. A remonstrance with Heaven.

I THE DIVINE CONDUCT DEPICTED. As that of:

1. A Man-watcher. (Ver. 20; cf. ver. 12) Concerning this Divine espionage may be noted:

(1) The object of it. Man (ver. 17). Not some formidable opponent or powerful adversary, of whose movements the Almighty might reasonably be apprehensive, not some all-devouring ocean, or fierce ungovernable sea-monster (ver. 12), but a poor, feeble, insignificant creature (enosh)" a dull and spiritless hireling (soldier or slave), dragging out a term of hard service on the earth (ver. 1), burdened with intolerable miseries (ver. 3), whose days are swifter than a weaver"s shuttle (ver. 6), are even vanity (ver. 16), and whose whole term of existence in this sublunary sphere is like a passing wind or vanishing cloud (vers. 7-9), that melts away and never more returns.

(2) The character of it. Job supposes that this great Man-watcher whom he describes first attributes an extravagant importance to the feeble and insignificant creature whose portrait has just been sketched: "What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?" (cf. David"s language to Saul, 1Sa_24:14) then constitutes him an object of special, close, earnest, vigilant observation: "And that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?"; (Psa_8:4 Psa_144:3 Heb_2:6) next treats him like a prisoner subjected to regular inspection, in case he should either escape from confinement or be guilty of hatching plots against his keeper: "And that thou shouldest visit him every morning;" and finally puts him severely to the proof, i.e. by the thumbscrews and stocks of affliction: "And try him every moment.

(3) The constancy of it. This terrible inspection Job represents, not as occasional or exceptional, which might have been tolerable, but as perpetual, without interruption and without cessations" every morning" and "every moment," the Divine eye never leaving him so long as to pin nit, him to swallow down his spittle.

(4) The purpose of it. Not to bless man, as David liked to think of the Divine guardianship, (Psa_8:4) but to curse him, to find out his faults, to detect his failings, to discover his sins. This horrible picture of the all-seeing, silent, never-sleeping eye of the Eternal always fixed on man with its cold, clear, cruel, calculating, gaze, never seeming to move, but ever there, in the daytime and in the night season, dogging him at every turn, is happily not true of the saint, (Psa_34:15 Psa_37:32 Psa_121:1-8) though, alas it affords a fearfully vivid representation of the misery of the lost. (Rev_6:16, Rev_6:17)

2. A Man-shooter. "Why hast thou set me as a mark against thee?" i.e. as a target to shoot at. (cf. Job_6:4) Another outrageous impeachment of the Deity, implying that God, in afflicting Job, had been guilty of:

(1) Manifest favouritism, in passing by others and selecting him as the object of his attacks.

(2) Deliberate cruelty, in not merely sending a random or occasional shaft against Job, but in, so to speak, setting him up like a target, and taking calm and deliberate aim at his bosom.

(3) Deep malevolence, as if God took the same delight in directing his arrows against him, Job, that an archer might do in practising at a butt, or a soldier in sending a shaft against a foe.

(4) Unjustifiable hostility, since Job at least was quite unable to discern any cause for such extraordinary procedure.

3. A Man-oppressor. "Why hast thou made me an obstacle in thy way?" (according to another and perhaps a more exact translation); the idea being that Job was perpetually in God"s path, and that God, hating him and feeling him a burden (according to another reading of the next clause), rushed against him as if to destroy him, and so get rid of him. But God never so feels toward any man. He may hate man"s sin, but man himself he never hates. He may often find man, through sin, an obstacle in his path, but he never sets man up before him as an object of hostile assault.

II THE DIVINE CONDUCT CHARACTERIZED. AS:

1. Unworthy. Job designs to hint that man"s insignificance makes it wholly unbecoming, if not mean, on God"s part to visit him with affliction; that such incessant vigilance as God exercises over man is altogether to attribute to him too much importance, that man, being so utterly frail and short-lived, it were nobler in God to permit him to enjoy his brief span of life in ease and comfort. A fallacious argument, since:

(1) No being that God has made is too insignificant for God to care for. He cares for sparrows, (Mat_10:29) and for oxen, (1Co_9:9) and why not for man? (Mat_10:31)

(2) If man is not too insignificant to sin, he cannot be too insignificant for God to keep his eye upon. The capacity of sinning gives man an importance in God"s universe that he would not otherwise have possessed.

(3) Though man"s life on earth be short, the consequences of his evil deeds may live behind him; hence the impossibility of God withdrawing his control of mundane things.

(4) The charge completely falls to the ground, since God watches over man, not in an evil sense, but in a good.

2. Unkind. Job"s language sets forth the Divine conduct in a most offensive light, as never for a solitary instant looking away from man, or allowing him a moment"s ease; but harassing him so incessantly that life becomes a burden, pursuing him so remorselessly that, do what he will, he can never get out of the Creator"s way. Thank God, such a picture is only true of the impenitent. "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth". (Psa_34:16)

3. Ungracious. Granting that he had committed faults, and that the great Man-watcher had detected sin in his past life. "Why dost thou not pardon my transgression?" asks Job, "and take away mine iniquity?" An exceedingly natural question, not, however, because man is so insignificant a creature, and human life so evanescent, and sin so comparatively trifling, but because

(1) God is essentially merciful and gracious; (Exo_34:6)

(2) in the exercise of mercy God specially delights; (Jer_9:24 Isa_43:25 Eze_33:11 Mic_7:18)

(3) the exercise of mercy is perfectly consistent with the other attributes of his Divine nature; (Rom_3:25, Rom_3:26)

(4) mercy more than justice redounds to the glory of God; (2Co_4:15 Eph_1:6 Jam_2:13)

(5) mercy is more calculated to soften and subdue man than punishment;

(6) no one but God can pardon transgression or take away sin; (Psa_32:5 Psa_103:3 Isa_43:25 Luk_5:21) and

(7) God has distinctly promised to pardon them that cast themselves upon his mercy. (Rom_10:12, 13 1Jn_1:9)

Yet in perfect harmony with all this, the awakened sinner may, like Job, be denied the sense or the outward sign of forgiveness (in Job"s case the removal of trouble), because

(1) he does not ask m the right spirit, with humility and self-abasement, (Psa_32:5 Psa_51:4, Psa_51:11) asking that as a matter of right which can only be obtained as a gift of grace, men who think they have a claim on God cannot be forgiven; (Luk_18:14)

(2) he does not ask with the right plea, viz. in the Name of God (Isa_43:25) or of Christ, (Joh_14:13) but comes expecting to find favour on the ground of his own righteousness; (Rom_9:32)

(3) he does not ask for the right purpose, his object being escape from sin"s punishment rather than from sin itself; (Jam_4:3)

(4) he does not ask with sincere faith, but staggers at the promise through unbelief ever an insuperable barrier to forgiveness; (Jam_1:6) and sometimes

(5) though he asks, God may have reasons for delay in granting the soul"s request, as e.g. to test the soul"s sincerity or earnestness, to complete the soul"s penitential submission, to quicken and intensify the soul"s faith, to heighten the soul"s appreciation of Divine mercy when it comes.

4. Unwise. "For now shall I sleep in the dust etc. Job meant to say that, if God had any thoughts of mercy toward him at all, it was unwise to delay putting them into execution. Burdened with misery and unpardoned sin as he was, he would soon be gone. The pressure of such calamities as he endured must soon crush him into his grave; and then, should God, relenting, seek him to extend to him kindness, lo! he should not be. A beautiful picture, that of the Deity relenting towards man; (cf. Isa_54:6-10 Jer_31:18-20) an impressive sermon, that sow is the day of grace for both God and man for man to seek, (2Co_6:2) and for God to grant salvation. (Joh_9:4)

Learn:

1. That the most maligned Being in the universe is God, even his own people not always speaking him fair.

2. That, however mean and insignificant in himself, ms, has been more magnified by God than any other of his creatures.

3. That even afflictions are a token of God"s desire to exalt man, since only through them can he attain to purity.

4. That if man"s miseries are a heavy burden to himself, man"s sins are a heavier to God.

5. That if man"s iniquities are not removed, the reason lies with man, and not with God.

6. That God"s love to his people is unchanging; since, however he may seem to be angry with them, he is certain in the end to relent.

7. That God is grieved when men pass away from earth without experiencing his favour.

"Lord, what is man?

I THE INSIGNIFICANCE OF MAN.

1. I n origin, allied to the dust.

2. In character"defiled by sin.

3. In experience"weighted with misery.

4. In duration, short-lived and evanescent.

5. In destiny"doomed to dissolution.

II THE GREATNESS OF MAN.

1. Created in the Divine image.

2. Preserved by Divine care.

3. Redeemed by Divine love.

4. Renewed (or may be) by Divine grace.

5. I mmortalized (or may be) by Divine life.

6. Crowned with Divine glory, already in Christ Jesus, and afterwards in them that are his.

Lessons.

1. Since man is so insignificant, be humble.

2. Since man is so great be good.

"What is man?

The answer to this question must come from afar. No sudden or hasty conclusion must be made. The whole conditions under which life is held, the influence which life exerts, the final issue of life with all other considerations, must be regarded. Here frail, perishing man is seen to be magnified by God, who sets his heart upon him and visits him every moment. Why is so much made of life? "What must man be that thou takest such knowledge of him?" The answer is only to be found in a just view of the real greatness of human life. The human greatness is seen

I IN THE CAPABILITIES OF THE HUMAN MIND. All truth may be stored in it. It is exalted by its great capacities for knowledge, memory, reason, judgment, etc.

II IN THE CAPACITY OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS. Every holy emotion may find a home in the human soul. Every lofty sentiment sweep across it as any strain across a lyre. All holy affections may be cherished. Man may know and love the highest objects of knowledge and affection. He may illustrate nobleness, patience, charity, faith, hope, gentleness every grace.

III HUMAN GREATNESS IS FURTHER SEEN IN THE WIDESPREAD INFLUENCE OF HUMAN ACTION. To-day the world is living in the light of the deeds of Job"s life. The impulses of the deeds of past millenniums are felt to-day. A wide illustration possible.

IV IN THE SKILFULNESS OF THE HUMAN HAND.

V IN THE SUPREMACY OF MAN IN THE EARTH.

VI IN THE DESTINY OF MAN, AND ESPECIALLY IN HIS ENDOWMENT OF IMMORTALITY. Although of earth, he aspires to heaven; though a child of time, he rises to eternity; though sinful, he can illustrate all holiness.

VII THE HIGHEST EVIDENCE OF THE GREATNESS OF THE HUMAN LIFE SEEN IN THE INCARNATION, wherein the Divine life could manifest itself through the medium of the human. When life is thus duly estimated, and when it is known that the sorrows of life are used for its chastening and perfecting, then the answer is found to the question Why dost thou "try him every moment"? It is because life is so precious and so capable of culture and deserving of it, that he thus seeks to discipline, refine, instruct, and perfect it. R.G.

Vers. 17, 18. The littleness of man.

These verses have been characterized as a parody on Psa_8:5. While following the form of the psalmist"s language, and proceeding on the same general thesis, they suggest a very different inference. The psalmist was amazed at the condescension of God in noticing man, and filled with wonder at the honour that is put on so puny a creature. But Job is here represented as expressing his dismay that God should stoop to try and trouble so small a being. There is no equality in the contest, and it appears to Job as though God were taking advantage of the weakness of his victim. In spite of Job"s perplexity and shortsighted complaints, there are truths behind what he says. We must endeavour to disentangle these truths, and separate them from the illusions unworthy of the goodness of God with which they are confused.

I GOD IS WRONGLY CHARGED WITH WHAT HE DOES NOT DO. We know from the prologue that it is not God, but Satan, who is the "watcher of men," in the sense of the spy who delights to pounce on a fault and to worry the miserable in their helplessness. Most of the sufferings of life do not come directly from the Divine will, but proceed from the injustice of other men, from our own faults and mistakes, and from "spiritual wickedness in high places." We must beware of the dualism which would give this evil an independent power over against God. Satan can only go as far as God permits him. Still, the evil is from Satan, not from God. It is sin, not providence, that brings the greatest trouble of life, and yet providence overrules that trouble for ultimate good.

II THE SUFFERER IS TEMPTED TO MAGNIFY HIS OWN IMPORTANCE. Job"s troubles were unique. But every sufferer is tempted to think that no one was ever troubled as he is. Feeling his own pain most intensely, he is inclined to make this the central experience of the universe, and to fancy that he is singled out for peculiar attacks of adversity. Job, however, generalizes, and regards himself as a specimen of mankind. Man himself seems unduly marked out for affliction. But no one is justified in coming to this conclusion till he knows how other beings are treated. It may be that man"s hardships are but a part, and a fair part, of the hardships of the universe.

III TO BE SPECIALLY TROUBLED IS TO BE MAGNIFIED IN IMPORTANCE. If it be so that man is specially singled out for affliction, no doubt a peculiar, though a most painful, importance is attached to him. Job becomes a great figure in Scripture through his troubles. Christ, crowned with thorns, is most significant on his cross. The sublimity of supreme sorrow is the inspiration of tragedy. Man is sometimes called out of his littleness by being made to suffer greatly. If God has a hand in all human sufferings as God had in Job"s, behind Satan he is honouring man by condescending to permit him to receive exceptional trials.

IV GREAT SUFFERING IS PERMITTED FOR THE SAKE OF GREAT GOOD. This is seen in the final outcome of Job"s sufferings. They throw light on the higher life, and demonstrate the existence of disinterested devotion. The parody in Job is not so far from the original in the psalm. It is wonderful that God should permit human life to be honoured as the theatre in which the great tragedy of the conflict between evil and good is displayed. God is not stooping to torment men like a giant torturing an insect as to Job he appears to be doing with surprising effort. He is condescending to lead man on to greatness through suffering. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

What, &c. - What is there in that poor, mean, creature called man, miserable man, as this word signifies, which can induce thee to take any notice of him, or to make such account of him? Man is not worthy of thy favour, and he is below thy anger; that thou shouldest concern thyself so much about him, as one near and dear to thee?

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

that You should give him importance to pay attention to him, to visit his deeds every morning and test him every moment?

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.