to know (properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
way
דֶּ֣רֶךְDe.rekh
H1870
a road (as trodden) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
take
עִמָּדִ֑י'i.ma.Di
H5978
along with · preposition + pronominal suffix
tried
בְּ֝חָנַ֗נִיbe.cha.Na.ni
H974
to test (especially metals) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
forth
אֵצֵֽא'e.Tze'
H3318
to go (causatively · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
gold
כַּזָּהָ֥בka.za.Hav
H2091
gold · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
James 1:12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them…
James 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
1 Peter 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise…
Psalms 139:1-3 O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.
Psalms 66:10 For thou, O God, hast proved us: thou hast tried us, as silver is tried.
Proverbs 17:3 The fining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold: but the LORD trieth the hearts.
Zechariah 13:9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall…
Psalms 17:3 Thou hast proved mine heart; thou hast visited me in the night; thou hast tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am purposed that my mouth shal…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 23:8-12
Here, I. Job complains that he cannot understand the meaning of God's providences concerning him, but is quite at a loss about them (Job 23:8, Job 23:9): I go forward, but he is not there, etc. Eliphaz had bid him acquaint himself with God. "So I would, with all my heart," says Job, "If I knew how to get acquainted with him." He had himself a great desire to appear before God, and get a hearing of his case, but the Judge was not to be found. Look which way he would, he could see no sign of God's appearing for him to clear up his innocency. Job, no doubt, believed that God is every where present; but three things he seems to complain of here: - 1. That he could not fix his thoughts, nor form…
But--correcting himself for the wish that his cause should be known before God. The omniscient One already knoweth the way in me (my inward principles: His outward way or course of acts is mentioned in Job 23:11. So in me, Job 4:21); though for some inscrutable cause He as yet hides Himself (Job 23:8-9).
when--let Him only but try my cause, I shall, &c.
John Gill on Job 23:10
But he knoweth the way that I take,.... This he seems to say in a way of solace to himself, comforting and contenting himself, that though he could not find God, nor knew where he was, or what way he took, nor the reasons of his ways and dispensations with the children of men, and with himself, yet God knew where he was, and what way he took; by which he means either the way he took, being directed to it for his acceptance with God, his justification before him, and eternal salvation; which was his living Redeemer, he looked unto by faith for righteousness and eternal life: or rather the way and manner of life he took to, the course of his conversation, walking in all the commandments and or…
10 For He knoweth the way that is with me:
If He should prove me, I should come forth as gold.
11 My foot held firm to His steps;
His way I kept, and turned not aside.
12 The command of His lips - I departed not from it;
More than my own determination I kept the words of His mouth.
13 Yet He remaineth by one thing, and who can turn Him?
And He accomplisheth what His soul desireth.
That which is not merely outwardly, but inwardly with (אם) any one, is that which he thinks and knows (his consciousness), Job 9:35; Job 15:9, or his willing and acting, Job 10:13; Job 27:11 : he is conscious of it, he intends to do it; here, Job 23:10, עם is intended in the former sense, in Job 23:14 in the latter…
The Church Fathers
"He himself knows the way that I am," to make me walk after him, when he leads me through tribulations. "He tested me like gold," within these tribulations.
But He Himself knoweth the way that I take. And He shall try me like gold which passeth through the fire. LITERAL INTERPRETATION As if he said in plain terms, 'I for mine own part both search myself strictly, and am not able to know myself thoroughly; yet He, Whom I have not power to see, seeth most minutely all the things that I do.' Gold in the furnace is advanced to the brightness of its nature, whilst it loses the dross. And so like 'gold that passeth through the fire' the souls of the righteous are tried, which by the burning of tribulation through and through, both have their defects removed, and their good points increased. Nor was it of pride that the holy man likened himself as set in tribulation to gold, in that he who, by the voice of God, was pronounced righteous before the stroke, was not for this reason permitted to be tried that bad qualities might be cleared off, but that excellences might be heightened; but gold is purified by fire; less then than he was did he think of his own self, in that, being delivered over to suffer tribulation, he believed that he was being purified, whereas he had not any thing in him to be purified. Now it is necessary for us to know, that though the mind of the righteous entertains humble thoughts touching itself, yet the several things that they do, they see to be as right as they are, while they never presume on the rightness of them.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Afflictions Made Beneficial · In testing and exhibiting our sincerity — In testing and exhibiting our sincerity
Gold · Illustrative of: Saints after affliction — Illustrative of: Saints after affliction
Righteous · .Gold — .Gold
Saints, Compared To · Gold — Gold
Wisdom Of God, The · Exhibited in knowing: The way of saints — Exhibited in knowing: The way of saints
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
tests me: Job did not want the kind of chastising that would cleanse him like a refiner’s fire (Prov 17:3; Zech 13:9; Mal 3:2-3). He wanted an examination that would prove that he had been as pure as gold and did not need to amend his life (Job 22:23).
Rashi on Job 23:10
Because He knows the way that is with me therefore, He does not come to contend with me.
He has tested me that I will emerge like gold if He contends with me.
