The upright are appalled at this, and the innocent stirs himself up against the godless.
Job has become a byword among people, and his three friends treat his sufferings as proof of hidden guilt. Here he looks past them to a wider audience: honest people watching his ruin, and what they will make of it.
The shock of the onlookers
Where the ESV says the upright are "appalled," older translations say "astonied" — which means stunned. Job pictures honest people staring at his case and unable to make sense of it. One writer points to the contrast with the men sitting in front of him:
Leslie M. GrantIf men were upright they would be astonished at Job's sufferings, but his friends showed no such astonishment. Job knew he was innocent of the charges against him. So his friends' hypocrisy stirred him up, and he would hold to his way despite their opposition. As he says, "he who has clean hands grows stronger and stronger" (v.9). This is true, but at the time did Job feel stronger and stronger? Thank God, his experience would surely end with him strengthened.
Job turns the charge back
Job's friends had charged him with hidden guilt. Here he turns the accusation around, hinting that the men pointing fingers are the ones the label fits.
F. B. HoleAmong the people generally he had become a "byword," or a "proverb," and the second half of verse 6 is translated elsewhere as, "I have become one to be spit on in the face." This, however, would astonish upright men. Job seems to turn the tables on his critics by implying that they might turn out to be the hypocrites, while the righteous would hold on his way, and the man with clean hands would grow stronger. As for these "friends," there was not one wise man among them.
From amazement to action
The two halves of the verse describe two different responses. The first is bewilderment; the second is something more active. One writer retells the verse in his own words and shows what Job had been reduced to:
William KellyHe himself might now be a byword and an open object of insult, his eye dim through grief and his whole body a shadow. Even so, upright men should be amazed at this, and the guiltless stirred up against the ungodly. But the righteous should hold fast to their way, and the man of clean hands should grow stronger.
The point where the lament turns
Up to this point the chapter has been a descent into darkness. Here the direction changes, and one writer marks the exact turn:
William Kelly"Yet the righteous" — you see it is turned for good — "holds to his way." That is what he was looking ahead to. His record was on high; his witness was in heaven; he clung to God.
A less flattering reading
Commentators differ on whether Job speaks well here. One writer reads the same words as a complaint with an edge of self-satisfaction. In his reading the upright are not amazed but tripped up by what they see:
Samuel RidoutOnce again he spoils his testimony. He blames his misery on God as well as on people, and says that his sufferings make upright people stumble. Still, despite it all, Job keeps steadily on his way. But in the way he meets his friends' attacks there is a tone of self-satisfaction that does not suit a truly humble man.
Why good men became harsh judges
The verse carries a warning. The men Job treats as the real hypocrites were religious men. That is the danger:
William KellyBut how did these godly men come to make such a strange mistake? Nobody makes stranger mistakes than godly people who are not walking in dependence on God. Their very godliness gives them a stronger hatred of evil. And if the power of grace is missing, and the sense that they need God Himself to guard them by His grace, then no one will be more severe and no one less just. This is a solemn warning.
Summary
- Stunned. Honest onlookers are stunned. They cannot square Job's ruin with the charge that he is secretly guilty — and his friends felt no such shock.
- Stirred. Bewilderment does not stay still. The guiltless stir themselves up against the ungodly, and Job hands his critics the very label they pinned on him.
- Steady. The verse is the hinge where the lament turns for good: the righteous holds to his way, and the man with clean hands grows stronger.
- Slow. Job did not feel stronger while saying it. The strengthening was real but came at the end of the experience, not in the middle of it.
- Sobering. Commentators differ on whether Job speaks here in faith or in self-satisfaction. But the harshest judges in his story were the religious men. That is what godliness becomes when it stops depending on God.