know then that God has put me in the wrong and closed his net about me.
Bildad has just described how a wicked man walks into a trap of his own making. Job turns the picture around — the net around him is God's — and that raises the question the whole book turns on: was he right about what God was doing?
Bildad's Snare Turned Back
The picture of a hidden trap was not Job's. Bildad had used it against him first.
Samuel RidoutHe tells him that the wicked man is driven into the net by his own feet. His twisted ways carry him down paths that end in destruction. True, he was stating a solemn fact about the wicked, but nobody had yet proved that Job was such a man... The snare lies cleverly hidden in the ground, ready for him. The net in his path is ready to close over him like a bird that suspects nothing.
Job refuses the charge that his own feet carried him into the trap, and names another hand behind it.
The Bible TreasuryJob rejects the charge that he was caught in his own snare. He answers, "Know now that God has overthrown me, and has closed his net about me." He traces it to God, but he cannot see any reason for it.
What the Overthrow Looked Like
The ESV says God has "put me in the wrong." The older translation these writers quote reads "God has overthrown me." Job lists what that overthrow looked like.
William KellyIt was He who had hurled him down, and closed His net around him so that he could not get free. It was He who refused to listen to his cry, and gave no ear to his appeals. It was God who had fenced up his way so that he could not escape. He covered his path with darkness, stripped him of honour, and took the crown from his head.
Faith in Naming God
Job does not blame bad luck, enemies, or his own folly. He traces his ruin to God — and one writer sees real faith in that.
William Kelly"Know now that God has overthrown me." How boldly he speaks out. And this, as far as it goes, could not have been without real faith, though it was far below the meek submission of our blessed Lord. Did they say that God was against Job? "God has overthrown me," he acknowledges. If it was any comfort for them to know, he confesses that his trouble came from His hand.
Where the Charge Goes Wrong
But Job says more than that God did it. He says God wronged him. That charge rests on a belief he shared with the men he was arguing against.
Leslie M. GrantBut he insists that God has wronged him and has, in effect, bound him in a net (v.6). This is strong language against God. He felt that his troubles were not deserved. He shared the same mistaken idea as his friends: that God measured out suffering according to the measure of a man's guilt. So he concluded that in his case God had been unfair.
Truth and error stand side by side in the same speech. One writer marks the line sentence by sentence.
William Kelly"Know now that God has overthrown me" — it is perfectly true, it must have been God allowing all this... "He has destroyed me on every side, and I am gone; and my hope he has removed like a tree. He has also kindled his wrath against me" — there he was wrong — "and he counts me to him as one of his enemies."
The Root That Had to Be Dug Out
The friends' attacks never reached Job's real problem. They pushed him further into it.
Samuel RidoutThey push him into declaring, as he had already done, that the wrong was not his but God's! This root of suspicion of the Almighty is what must be dug out — and these men's false charges will never do it.
The Net Seen From Above
Job knew a net had closed on him. He could not see who had set its limits.
Numerical Bible NotesGod takes away Job's hedge and allows Satan wide limits within which to deal with him. The end is, of course, blessing for the sufferer and full vindication of God's perfect ways.
Summary
- The net. Bildad said the wicked man's own feet drive him into the net; Job throws the image back and says the net is God's.
- The hand. He will not blame chance or enemies. He confesses that his trouble came from God's hand — and that confession shows real faith.
- The flaw. He and his friends shared one false rule: that God hands out suffering by the measure of guilt. From that rule, an innocent sufferer can only conclude that God is unfair.
- The line. "God has overthrown me" was true. "He has kindled his wrath against me" was not. The same speech holds both.
- The end. God took the hedge away, kept the limits in His own hand, and brought blessing to the sufferer — and full proof that His ways are perfect.