Then Job answered and said:
Job 23:1 is only a hinge line, but it opens one of the most revealing speeches in the book. Eliphaz has just accused Job outright, and from here Job stops arguing with his friends to plead with God Himself — why can a sincere man feel that God is nowhere to be found?
Whom Job Is Really Answering
Job answers, but not point by point. One writer says Job walks past the charges, because his real trouble is that he has lost sight of God:
Samuel RidoutJob does not trouble himself to reply to the grievous charges of Eliphaz. The time for that has passed. He has declared his righteousness so often that there is little need to repeat it here... Here his concern is with God. The cloud has fallen again and hidden Him from the view of faith, which had shone out brightly a little while before. This sad eclipse leads Job to say hard things against the Lord. But we can see it comes from having lost sight of God, not from the malice of one who turns against Him.
The Tone of the Answer
The speech that begins here is not simply sad. One reading of Job's opening complaint makes it protest rather than grief:
Samuel Ridout"Even today" (after so much discussion and accusation by the friends) "my complaint still bids defiance." That is how it has been rendered, rather than "is bitter." It is the bitterness of resistance against their charges, not the bitterness of grief. He brings out his groaning in protest against the unfairness of his treatment... Ah, if he had only known it, Job's acknowledgment would have been, "He has not dealt with me after my sins." If we got what we deserve, where would we be!
A Living Soul Groping in the Dark
Job feels far from God and hates the distance. One writer treats this searching as a mark of spiritual life:
The Bible TreasuryIn Job 23 and Job 24 two points come out. The first is that Job is aware of his distance from God, and, aware of it, he wants to be brought near. That is the true exercise of a soul made alive — groping, as it were, in the dark for what it longs after... And yet he does know the true fear, the solemn effect of His presence, for he says, "I am troubled at His presence; when I consider, I am afraid of Him."
Commentators differ here. One puts Job's longing above anything his friends say: "Is this the language or the feeling of one conscious of wickedness before God? We never hear such language even from Eliphaz or any other of the friends" (William Kelly).
What the Answer Also Exposes
The same speech that longs for God also assumes Job has a case to win:
F. B. HoleThe stroke came from God, yet he did not know where He was nor how he might find Him. If only he could find Him and lay out his case before Him, he felt sure relief would come, and he would be delivered... So once more Job assumed his own uprightness. His complaint was that the Almighty troubled him — and he could not reach Him or come into His presence.
Another writer names the root problem:
J. N. DarbyJob was upright, but he began to make this his righteousness. That proves he had never really been in the presence of God. As a result, he charged God with injustice and with wanting to harass him for no reason — even though he reasoned better than his friends, and showed a heart that felt far more than theirs what God was.
The Answer Job Gets
Job does get his wish to argue his case — with the roles reversed:
F. B. HoleAt the beginning of Job 23, Job in a self-confident way had expressed his wish to get into contact with God. He felt sure that he could lay out his case before Him, fill his mouth with arguments, and know the words in which God would answer him. Now the moment had come for his wish to be granted. Jehovah tells him to brace himself like a man and be ready to answer the voice of God. The questioning now should come from God.
The Cry Behind Every Human Search
Job's question is not his alone. Neither creation nor human wisdom can answer it:
J Wilson SmithCreation with its complex wonders cannot help him. The wisdom of the world is only speculation, leaving the poor student in a cloud of uncertainty... But still the cry of man is, "Oh that I knew where I might find Him!" (Job 23:3). For, after all, the poor needy creature longs for a knowledge of his Creator, and man must find out God.
Summary
- Answered — to God. Job stops replying to Eliphaz. From this verse on he speaks upward, because the cloud has hidden God from his view.
- Answered in protest. His complaint carries defiance, not just grief. He protests the unfairness of his treatment — yet God had not dealt with him after his sins.
- Answered in the dark. He feels his distance from God and wants to be brought near. That is the true exercise of a soul made alive.
- Answered with self-confidence. The same speech assumes Job's own uprightness. He had begun to make that uprightness his righteousness — proof he had never really been in God's presence.
- Answered by God. Job gets his wish to plead his case — but God asks the questions. The man who cried, "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!" is the one God finally answers.