Job 23:4

4 I would set judgment before him, and would fill my mouth with complaints

Job 23:4 Meaning and Commentary

Job 23:4

I would order [my] cause before him
Either, as a praying person, direct his prayer to him, and set it in order before him, see ( Psalms 5:3 ) ; or else as pleading in his own defence, and in justification of himself; not of his person before God, setting his works of righteousness in order before him, and pleading his justification on the foot of them; for, by these no flesh living can be justified before God; but of his cause, for, as a man may vindicate his cause before men, and clear himself from aspersions cast upon him, as Samuel did, ( 1 Samuel 12:5 ) ; so he may before God, with respect to the charges he is falsely loaded with, and may appeal to him for justice, and desire he would stir up himself, and awake to his judgment, even to his cause, and plead it against those that strive with him, as David did, ( Psalms 35:1 Psalms 35:23 ) ( 43:1 ) ;

and fill my mouth with arguments;
either in prayer, as a good man may; not with such as are taken from his goodness and righteousness, but from the person, office, grace, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice of Christ, and from the declarations of God's grace, and the promises of his word; or else as in a court of judicature, bringing forth his strong reasons, and giving proofs of his innocence, such as would be demonstrative, even convincing to all that should hear, and be not only proofs for him, and in his favour, but reproofs also, as the word F3 signifies, to those that contended with him.


FOOTNOTES:

F3 (twxkwt) "increpationibus", V. L. and so Montanus, Beza, Mercerus, Drusius, Schultens.

Job 23:4 In-Context

2 Now also my words are in bitterness, and the hand of my scourge is more grievous than my mourning.
3 Who will grant me that I might know and find him, and come even to his throne?
4 I would set judgment before him, and would fill my mouth with complaints
5 That I might know the words that he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me.
6 I would not that he should contend with me with much strength, nor overwhelm me with the weight of his greatness.
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