Bible Commentary - Job 23

In this chapter, Job says that even if he argued his case before God, that God would still do whatever he wants.

This chapter has three parts that form a single logical thought, which I will lay out in order.

In the first part, verses 2-9 describe Job’s desire to argue his case before the LORD.  He wishes that he could find the place of God and argue before him, even though he ultimately recognizes the futility of seeking God because God is impossible to find in the natural world (v. 8-9).  In this sense he is stymied by the invisible nature of God; even if you want to find God, you cannot travel and find him.

Interestingly, this pattern is somewhat broken during the OT era because the temple in Jerusalem becomes a “house” for God’s dwelling place, and many generations of Israelites would travel there to go meet with God.  Of course, this was not always a manifest reality because the visible cloud of glory was rarely present in day to day situations.  I’m not sure how ancient Israelites would have understood Job’s comments in these verses.  Perhaps the most accurate way to read it is that whenever we travel around from day to day, we know that God is active and moving all around us but we are not aware of his presence in a physical way.  Even though we could travel to th temple in Jerusalem to “meet” with God, we don’t see him in our local village or city or whatever even if we theologically recognize that God is the one who causes the sun to shine, rain to fall, etc.

So anyway, Job desires to present his arguments before God, but is not able to find a place where he can stand before God and argue.  Verses 10-12 continue the thought, with Job claiming that if God did judge him, God would realize that Job is a righteous man who has not strayed from the path of goodness.  Connecting it to the previous thought, it means that if Job could argue his case before God, he thinks that he would win the case.

In the final section, verses 13-16 says that even if Job found some way to argue his case, and even if Job were living righteously before God, that God does whatever he wants and nobody is capable of “turning” him (v. 13) or changing his mind.  This means that in practical terms, everything Job was just talking about is pointless.  It doesn’t matter if Job can find God, and it doesn’t matter if he was living righteously.  God is the strong one here, God does whatever he pleases, and Job’s arguments and rhetoric can accomplish nothing.

This whole chapter is largely consistent with everything Job has said before.  In fact I would say it hardly addresses Eliphaz’s commentary in any meaningful way, other than to continue insisting upon Job’s righteousness and that he hasn’t committed any of the crimes of which Eliphaz accuses him.  Instead, Job is reiterating the same basic point that he considers himself righteous, that God is mistreating him, but that it’s impossible to bring God before a neutral arbiter and get an injunction against God’s mistreatment.  Job has said the same thing in many ways before, and this is little different.  In verse 17 Job insists he will continue to speak and argue his case, but it also feels like Job recognizes the pointlessness of his task.

In the next chapter, Job concludes his speech.