His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent.
Job has just accused God of hedging in his way, stripping his glory and uprooting his hope. Now he switches to a picture of war, and the hard question is whether the besieging army was God's at all.
The Picture Behind the Words
The words are those of ancient siege warfare. Troops gather, earthworks rise, and a ring of tents closes in on one thin dwelling. One writer traces each blow in Job's complaint back to Eloah, a name for God used throughout this book.
William KellyIt was Eloah who had hedged up his way so that he could not escape. He covered his path with darkness, stripped him of honour, and took the crown off his head. He crushed him on every side, so that he was going, and uprooted even his hope. It was He whose anger burned against him, and who counted him as one of His foes. He massed His troops, piled up mounds against him, and camped right around.
Who the Troops Were
The army was made of real people. One writer names them, and says Job misread who had sent them.
Leslie M. GrantJob counted them as God's troops come together, "building roads" against him. Of course Job's surmise was wrong. God did not move these people against him, though no doubt Satan did so. Job's brothers had removed themselves from him, and Job blamed God for this. His acquaintances, relatives and close friends had distanced themselves from him. Even those living in his own house treated him as a stranger, a foreigner not worth considering.
Commentators differ on how far God's own hand lay behind the siege. Others hold that Job was right to trace his trouble to God, and wrong only about the anger.
Where Job's Reading Went Wrong
Job did not just say that God allowed the siege. He said God's wrath had been kindled against him, and that God counted him an enemy. One writer stops the reading right there:
William Kelly"He has also kindled His wrath against me …" — there he was wrong — "and He counts me to Him as one of His enemies. His troops come on together; they have cast up their siege ramp against me and encamp around my tent."
Three Levels in One Siege
One writer compares Job's case with God's use of the Assyrian army against His own guilty people. He sorts out three levels at work at once.
J. N. DarbyThe Assyrians were only instruments in His hand. He would Himself strike, but not wipe out His guilty people. He does not destroy them; He chastens them. This humbles, but it also comforts, for love is there. See the case of Job. There are the instruments of judgment, and Satan behind them, but God above, who directs everything for Job's good. At the end Job is more blessed by Jehovah than at the beginning, bright as that beginning was.
Another writer names every attacker in the ring, and adds the one enemy Job had not yet counted.
James BoydJob thought God was against him; but he has to learn that God was the only One that was truly for him. Satan, the Sabeans, the winds and the fire of heaven, his wife and his three friends — all were against him, and set on his destruction or condemnation. And last of all he has to learn that he was against himself. There was only One in the universe who was his Friend, and He was the One Job regarded as his enemy. God controlled all the enemies mentioned. He let them go only a certain length.
The Patience That Absorbs the Charge
Job lays a heavy charge against God, and God does not answer it with anger.
Samuel RidoutWhat follows is a fearful charge laid against God. It is well for Job that he is accusing infinite patience, or he might have had a real taste of divine anger. But God bears with it all, waiting His own time to bring the poor distracted man into His own holy presence.
From the Besieged Tent, a Confession
A few verses later, from inside that same tent, Job says something his friends' arguments could never have produced.
Samuel RidoutThen, in the middle of all these laments, he speaks those magnificent words of faith: "I know that my Redeemer lives." But this was the very God he had just been charging with injustice! How good it is to see Job's faith, in all this turmoil, turning to the very One he was maligning!
Summary
- Siege. An army masses, builds earthworks and camps around Job's tent. The pressure closes in from every side.
- Misread. The besieging force was people who had pulled away from him, with Satan at work behind them. Job blamed the whole campaign on God.
- Wrong. Job did not just say God permitted it. He said God's wrath was burning and that God counted him an enemy. There he was wrong.
- Above. Instruments below, Satan behind them, God above. God directed it all for Job's good, and let each attacker go only so far.
- Answered. God bore the charge without striking back. He waited for His own time, and from that same tent came the words: "I know that my Redeemer lives."