He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior.
In his second reply to Eliphaz, Job pictures his suffering as a walled city under siege. One gap is smashed in the wall after another, and a warrior charges through. Job names God as the one running at him — but is he reading God rightly?
The picture behind the words
The language here is the language of war. Job has already described being seized, shattered, and set up as a target for arrows. The breaking is the last stage. One writer traces the whole attack:
William KellyNothing can exceed the vivid power with which he describes his troubles. He is taken from ease and seized by the neck, smashed and broken in pieces. He is set up as a target to be struck, with arrows whirring round him. His inward parts are split without mercy and his gall poured out on the earth. He is broken by breach upon breach, as could not fail to happen if such a warrior ran at him.
The Hebrew word behind "warrior" is gibbor. Elsewhere the Old Testament uses the same word for sheer strength:
Morrish Bible Dictionarygibbor, "mighty, strong," as the word is often translated elsewhere. Job 16:14.
Where Job traces the blow
Job could have blamed the raiders who took his herds. He does not.
William KellyHe acknowledged the truth. He does not lay his ruin on the Chaldeans, or on other secondary causes. He does not explain it away by circumstances. He saw God's hand. But he did not enter at all into God's mind about the trial, still less into His love. That is why none of it made sense to his soul.
That refusal is faith, even when it sounds like an accusation.
Where his sight blurs
Seeing God's hand is right. Reading God's heart from that hand is where Job goes wrong. He mixes his human tormentors with God in one breath:
Samuel RidoutIn his blind misery Job links the scoffs of the ungodly, glad at his disaster, with the hand of God. It is hard in these words of Job to separate God from evil men; in his blurred view they are all acting together.
The same writer goes further and names the root failure:
Samuel RidoutHe sees only bitter suffering with no cause for it. He is unwilling or unable to trust God in the dark. This is Job's great error, and tied to it is a protest of his own righteousness, as if he deserved credit for it.
A sufferer who did not speak this way
Job's words in this chapter sound much like the Psalms. One comparison shows the difference:
William KellyWho in the Psalms speaks of their gaping like a ravening lion? It is the Lord on the cross. But what a difference! "Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel." Not a word of this is heard from Job... The state of the soul must always depend on how one looks, or fails to look, at God.
The one who allowed it
Commentators differ on Job's "He." One argues that Job does not mean God struck him, only that God allowed it:
William KellyHe does not say it was God. I think it is going too far to suppose he means that; but he does mean that God allowed it... It was God allowing the devil — Job's enemy — to do it. Otherwise his words would clash dreadfully with the rest of his language.
Job did not know what the blows were for. Another writer names what he could not yet see:
Leslie M. GrantIf Job had only realised that it was because of God's pure love to him that He allowed such things to try him, how different his attitude would have been! Eventually he was brought to that conclusion, so that the end of the story is bright with God's praise and Job's great blessing.
Summary
- The blow — the verse is siege language. A wall is breached again and again, and a strong warrior charges through the gap.
- The hand — Job will not blame raiders or weather. He traces the trouble to God. But he never enters into God's mind about it, so the trial stays unexplained.
- The blur — in his misery he mixes his human mockers with God. He will not trust God in the dark, and he holds up his own record. That is his great error.
- The contrast — the Psalms put almost the same words on the lips of the Lord on the cross. But there He still calls God holy. How the soul fares depends on how it looks at God.
- The love — pure love allowed what looked like an enemy's charge, and the story ends in praise and blessing.