Behold, I go forward, but he [is] not [there]
Job here returns to what he had said before, ( Job 23:3 ) ; as Jarchi
observes, where he expresses his earnest desire after God, that
he might know where he was, and come up to his seat; here he
relates the various ways he took to find him, and his fruitless
search of him. Cocceius thinks, by these phrases "forward" and
"backward", are meant times future and past; and that the sense
is, that Job looked into the future times of the Messiah, and the
grace promised him, his living Redeemer, that should stand on the
earth in the latter day; and that he looked back to the ages
before him, and to the first promise made to Adam; but could not
understand by either the reason why good men were afflicted; and
by the "right" hand and "left", the different dispensations of
God to men, granting protection with his right hand, and
distributing the blessings of his goodness by it; and with his
left hand laying afflictions and evils upon them; and yet,
neither from the one nor the other could he learn the mind and
will of God concerning men, since love and hatred are not to be
known by these things: but rather, with the Jewish commentators
in general, we are to understand places by these various
expressions; even each of the parts of the world, east, west,
north, and south; which Job went through, and surveyed in his
mind, to find God in, but to no purpose; for, when a man stands
with his face to the rising sun, the east is before him, and, if
he goes forward, he goes eastward; and behind him is the west,
and, if he goes that way, he goes backward; so the eastern sea is
called the former sea, and the western, or Mediterranean sea, the
hinder sea, ( Zechariah
14:8 ) ; and a man, in this position, will have the north on
his left hand, and the south on his right; see ( Genesis 13:9
) ; now Job says that he went "forward", that is, eastward; but,
says he of God, "he [is] not [there]", or "is not" F7;
meaning not that he was not in being, did not exist; for he most
firmly believed the existence of God, or that he was, but, as we
rightly supply, he was not there, that is, eastward; and yet the
greatest, the most glorious, and most gracious appearances of him
were in the east; man was made in the east; the garden of Eden
was planted eastward; here God appeared to Adam, both before and
after his fall; and it was in the east, Christ, the second Adam,
was born; his star appeared in it, and his Gospel was first
preached in the eastern parts; in the east Job now lived, and had
been the greatest man in it; but now God did not appear to him,
as the Vulgate Latin version, not in a kind and gracious manner;
nor could he find him at his throne of justice here, as he wished
for; he was there, though Job saw him not; for he is everywhere;
indeed he is not confined or limited to any place; for, as the
heaven of heavens cannot contain him, so much less any part or
corner of the earth:
and backward, but I cannot perceive him;
or understand where he is, or get intelligence of him, and of the
reason of his dispensations, especially concerning himself.