Job 9:27

27 Even if I say, 'I'll put all this behind me, I'll look on the bright side and force a smile,'

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 time is short - what's left of my life races off too fast for me to even glimpse the good.
26 My life is going fast, like a ship under full sail, like an eagle plummeting to its prey.
27 Even if I say, 'I'll put all this behind me, I'll look on the bright side and force a smile,'
28 All these troubles would still be like grit in my gut since it's clear you're not going to let up.
29 The verdict has already been handed down - 'Guilty!' - so what's the use of protests or appeals?
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.