Since you have closed their hearts to understanding, therefore you will not let them triumph.
Job's three friends have failed him, so he turns to God and asks God to stand as his guarantee. Verse 4 says why they failed: their hearts are shut to understanding, and Job traces that shutting to God's own hand.
The Plea Behind the Verse
Job has just asked God to be his surety. Verse 4 gives his reason, and it settles what will become of his friends.
William KellySo Job begs God to step in and be his guarantee with Himself: who else would shake hands on it with him? His friends had shown they were morally unfit, and the One who had closed their heart to understanding would not exalt them. If someone betrays his friends so they are plundered, the eyes of his children will waste away.
Why Their Hearts Were Shut
Their blindness had a shape to it. It grew out of an assumption about when God settles accounts.
William KellyThe natural mind, following this thought, concludes that God's moral government is exact now. It does not know that God is waiting instead for His direct government. Then Christ will rule, and He alone is able to hold the reins and govern.
The Root of Their Blindness
Their mistake went deeper than a theory. It reached to what they knew of God Himself.
J. N. DarbyThey had no true understanding of God's character, so they could not understand His dealings with a soul. They had no proper sense of sin. So they did not know that if God would deal in blessing with man, it must be entirely on the ground of grace. They did not know how to meet his case. They had said many true things, but not one single right thing as it applied to Job, because they did not understand him.
"You Will Not Let Them Triumph"
Job says God will not raise these men up; older translations read "you will not exalt them." The lesson that came instead fell on men who looked impressive.
William KellySomething in Job's heart had to come out somehow. It is remarkable that Job's friends, not the enemy, seem to have been the means. And God has a very humbling lesson for them, as He has a humbling lesson for Job. They all got it. In fact, Job's friends were more ignorant of God's ways than Job. They took a very bad view of his case, and that is always a danger when it is about a good man... I have no doubt that they were highly respectable, and that people also thought them very pious men indeed. But pious men have to find their level.
What Happens to the Sufferer
Comfort from people without understanding does more than fail. It pushes the sufferer somewhere else.
The Bible TreasuryAll human efforts to comfort, apart from God and the truth, are ineffective, because they are more or less ignorant. The more bitter the trial, the plainer that failure becomes... These friends did not understand the ways of God with His own at all. Their false and unworthy suggestions made Job feel how completely unable they were to help him, and threw him back on God Himself.
A Sufferer's Word, Not God's
This verse is Job's own word, not God's verdict. Commentators point out a fault in his tone here.
Samuel RidoutAgain he spoils his testimony. He blames his misery on God as well as on man, and says that his sufferings stumble upright people. Even so, Job keeps on his steady way. But in the way he meets the friends' attack there is a tone of self-satisfaction, and it does not quite suit the truly lowly. Verse 10 seems to be a challenge to keep up their attacks, since they utterly lack the discernment that marks the wise.
Summary
- Closed — Job's friends could not understand his case. Job traces that closed heart to God's hand, not just to their unkindness.
- Cause — They held that God's government is exact right now. They knew neither His character nor His grace, so they said many true things and not one right word for Job.
- Consequence — God closed their hearts, so He would not exalt them. He had a humbling lesson for them as well as for Job: pious, respectable men have to find their level.
- Redirect — Comfort cut off from God and the truth fails hardest in the bitterest trial. That failure threw Job back on God Himself, and he asks God to be his surety.
- Caution — Job's charge is a sufferer's word, not the last word. He also blames God for his misery, and his tone shows a self-satisfaction that does not suit true lowliness.