Job 9:27

27 "If I say, 'I'll forget my complaining, I'll put off my sad face and be cheerful,'

Job 9:27 Meaning and Commentary

Job 9:27

If I say, I will forget my complaint
The cause of it, the loss of his children, servants, substance, and health, and endeavour to think no more of these things, and cease complaining about them, and attempt to bury them in oblivion, and change his note:

I will leave off my heaviness;
his melancholy thoughts, words, airs, and looks; or "forsake my face" F8, put on another countenance, a more pleasent and cheerful one; the Jewish commentators generally interpret it, "my anger", either at the dispensations of Providence, or at his friends:

and comfort [myself];
that things were not worse with him than they were; or strengthen F9 himself, as the word is rendered in ( Amos 5:9 ) ; against his fears, and troubles, and dejection of mind, determining to take heart, and be of good courage, and not sink, and succumb, and faint under his burdens: none but God, Father, Son, and Spirit, can give comfort to distressed ones, whether on temporal or spiritual accounts; but good men may make use of means for comfort, such as hearing the word, reading the Scriptures, prayer, meditation, and conversation with good men.


FOOTNOTES:

F8 (ynp hbzea) "relinquam facies meas", Montanus, Bolducius, Schmidt.
F9 (hgylba) "confirmabo vel roborabo cor meum", Mercerus; so R. R.

Job 9:27 In-Context

25 My days pass on more swiftly than a runner; they flee without seeing anything good.
26 They skim by like skiffs built of reeds, like an eagle swooping down on its prey.
27 "If I say, 'I'll forget my complaining, I'll put off my sad face and be cheerful,'
28 then I'm still afraid of all my pain, and I know you will not hold me innocent.
29 I will be condemned, so why waste my efforts?
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.