Bible Commentary - Job 10

In this chapter, Job continues his complaint against God.

The biggest theme I see in this chapter is creation and rejection.  Verse 8 captures it pretty well; Job is asking if God, who created him, is now also choosing to destroy him.  Why create a person only to destroy him?  It seems pointless.  Like making a pot and then smashing it, Job says it would have been better for him to have not been born at all.

Job knows that if he had sinned God would judge him for it (v. 14), but since he hasn’t sinned, it means that his suffering must be some kind of personal rejection from God.  This introduces another paradox for Job.  Job understands that sinners will be judged, but since God created Job and Job hasn’t sinned, it doesn’t make sense why God would reject him now.  If God did not like Job, then God could have just never created him or let him die in the womb like he is asking.

Why would God choose to create Job, and then without any wrongdoing, later choose to destroy him?  It doesn’t make sense.  From our perspective, we can see that God is not choosing to destroy him, and that Job misunderstands God’s heart and God’s intentions.  However, from Job’s perspective this is another contradiction.

In the end, Job petitions God to “withdraw” his judgments from Job’s life, so that Job might live in peace for a little while before he dies.

In the next chapter, Job’s third friend Zophar speaks, joining the other two friends in rebuking Job.