Chapter Overview
Summary
Job 10 continues Job's response to Bildad — directly-challenging God with the question 'why do you contend against me?' (v. 2). The chapter's signature image is the divine-craftsman / divine-shepherd making-and-watching-Job (vv. 8–12) — beautiful-creation-imagery turned-bitter-by Job's-suffering.
Notable Variants
10:8–12 'your hands fashioned and made me' creation-imagery; 10:11 'you clothed me with skin and flesh' womb-formation; 10:21–22 'land of darkness and deep shadow' Sheol-cosmology.
Structural Notes
MT Job 10 = LXX Job 10. 22 verses.
My soul is disgusted with my life. I will give my complaint free rein; I will speak from the bitterness of my soul.
'I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul' tracks MT.
I will say to God: Do not just condemn me — tell me what charges you bring against me.
'I will say to God: Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me' tracks MT.
Does it benefit you to oppress, to reject what your own hands have made, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked?
'Does it seem good to you to oppress, to despise the work of your hands and favor the designs of the wicked?' tracks MT.
Do you have eyes of flesh? Do you see the way mortals see?
'Have you eyes of flesh? Do you see as man sees?' tracks MT.
Are your days like the days of a mortal? Are your years like a man's lifespan?
'Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man's years' tracks MT.
That you hunt for my guilt and search out my sin?
'That you seek out my iniquity and search for my sin' tracks MT.
You know full well that I am not guilty, yet no one can rescue me from your hand.
'Although you know that I am not guilty, and there is none to deliver out of your hand' tracks MT.
Your hands shaped me and formed me, every part of me together — and now you swallow me up?
'Your hands fashioned and made me, and now you have destroyed me altogether' tracks MT. HANDS-FASHIONED-ME. Ps 119:73 ('your hands have made and fashioned me') parallels. Ephesians 2:10 ('we are his workmanship') extends Christologically.
Remember that you made me from clay — will you turn me back to dust?
'Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust?' tracks MT. CLAY-AND-DUST anthropology — Genesis 2:7's formed-from-dust echoed.
Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?
'Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese?' tracks MT. POUR-AND-CURDLE — embryological-imagery for womb-formation.
You clothed me with skin and flesh; you wove me together with bones and sinews.
'You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews' tracks MT. KNIT-IN-WOMB. Ps 139:13 ('you knit me together in my mother's womb') parallels — both texts establish biblical pre-natal-anthropology.
You gave me life and faithful love, and your watchful care preserved my spirit.
'You have granted me life and steadfast love, and your care has preserved my spirit' tracks MT. CHESED-AND-PRESERVATION — Job acknowledges past-grace even-in-protest.
But all along you were hiding this in your heart. I know — this was your plan all along.
'Yet these things you hid in your heart; I know that this was your purpose' tracks MT.
If I sin, you are watching. You will not clear me of my guilt.
'If I sin, you watch me and do not acquit me of my iniquity' tracks MT.
If I am guilty — woe to me. If I am innocent — still I cannot lift my head. I am filled with disgrace; look at my misery!
'If I am guilty, woe to me! If I am in the right, I cannot lift up my head' tracks MT.
If I hold my head high, you hunt me like a lion. Again and again you show your terrifying power against me.
'And were my head lifted up, you would hunt me like a lion and again work wonders against me' tracks MT.
You bring fresh witnesses against me and increase your anger toward me — wave after wave of troops against me.
'You renew your witnesses against me and increase your vexation toward me' tracks MT.
Why did you bring me out of the womb? I wish I had died before any eye saw me —
'Why did you bring me out from the womb? Would that I had died before any eye had seen me' tracks MT. // Job 3:11 echo.
as though I had never existed, carried straight from the womb to the grave.
'And were as though I had not been, carried from the womb to the grave' tracks MT.
Are not my days nearly over? Stop. Leave me alone so I can have a moment of relief
'Are not my days few? Then cease, and leave me alone, that I may find a little cheer' tracks MT.
before I go to the place of no return — to the land of darkness and death-shadow,
'Before I go — and I shall not return — to the land of darkness and deep shadow' tracks MT. LAND-OF-DARKNESS Sheol-vocabulary. Luke 1:79's 'those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death' Christologically extends.
a land of deep gloom like thick darkness, of death-shadow and chaos, where even the light is like darkness.
'The land of gloom like thick darkness, like deep shadow without any order, where light is as thick darkness' tracks MT. SHEOL-AS-DISORDER. Pre-Christian Hades-cosmology that resurrection-hope ultimately overturns.