strength · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
heart
לִבִּ֑יli.Bi
H3820
the heart · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
soft
הֵרַ֣ךְhe.Rakh
H7401
to soften (intransitively or transitively) · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
Almighty
וְ֝שַׁדַּ֗יve.sha.Dai
H7706
the Almighty · conjunction + proper noun, a title
troubleth
הִבְהִילָֽנִיhiv.hi.La.ni
H926
to tremble inwardly (or palpitate) · verb, hiphil perfect, 3rd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix
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
Psalms 22:14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
Job 27:2 As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
Deuteronomy 20:3 And shall say unto them, Hear, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do…
Psalms 88:16 Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.
Isaiah 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine…
Ruth 1:20 And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.
Isaiah 57:16 For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
Joel 1:15 Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 23:13–end
Some make Job to complain here that God dealt unjustly and unfairly with him in proceeding to punish him without the least relenting or relaxation, though he had such incontestable evidences to produce of his innocency. I am loth to think holy Job would charge the holy God with iniquity; but his complaint is indeed bitter and peevish, and he reasons himself into a sort of patience per force, which he cannot do without reflecting upon God as dealing hardly with him, but he must bear it because he cannot help it; the worst he says is that God deals unaccountably with him.
I. He lays down good truths, and truths which were capable of a good improvement, Job 23:13, Job 23:14. 1. That God's couns…
soft--faint; hath melted my courage. Here again Job's language is that of Jesus Christ (Psa 22:14).
John Gill on Job 23:16
For God maketh my heart soft,.... Not tender as Josiah's was, 2 Kings 22:19, or as the heart of every penitent is, when God makes it humble and contrite by his spirit and grace, or takes away the stony heart, and gives an heart of flesh; though Job had such an heart, and God made it so; but he means a weak, feeble, fearful heart, pressed and broken with afflictions, that could not endure and bear up under the mighty hand of God; but became as water, and melted like wax in the midst of him, and was ready to faint, and sink, and die away:
and the Almighty troubleth me; by afflicting him; afflictions cause trouble, and these are of God; or he "astonishes" (a), amazes me, throws me into the utm…
14 For He accomplisheth that which is appointed for me,
And much of a like kind is with Him.
15 Therefore I am troubled at His presence;
If I consider it, I am afraid of Him.
16 And God hath caused my heart to be dejected,
And the Almighty hath put me to confusion;
17 For I have not been destroyed before darkness,
And before my countenance, which thick darkness covereth.
Now it is the will of God, the absolute, which has all at once turned against him, the innocent (Job 23:13); for what He has decreed against him (חקּי) He also brings to a complete fulfilment (השׁלים, as e.g., Isa 44:26); and the same troubles as those which he already suffers, God has still more abundantly decreed for him,…
The Church Fathers
This unexpected disaster, he says, did not happen according to human logic. I discern that this blow comes from the hand of God. And he is right in speaking of the darkness that "covers my face," because this darkness is not ordinary darkness but is of his own dejection.
"The Lord softens my heart. And this fear itself, which makes him avoid the penalties to come, is in his eyes a blessing of divine mercy: the evils he endures could not make him feel the pain and darkness of the other life, if the Lord did not soften his heart by the tribulations of the present life: in another sense it is said that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh.
For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me. By divine gift the heart of the righteous man is said to be made soft, in that it is penetrated with the fear of the judgment from Above. For that it is soft, which is capable of being penetrated, but that is hard, which cannot be penetrated. Whence it is said by Solomon, Happy is the man that feareth always, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. And so the merit of his dread he ascribes not to himself but to his Creator, who says, For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me. Now the hearts of good men are not secure but troubled, in that whilst they think of the heavy weight of the future reckoning, they do not seek to enjoy rest here, and they interrupt their security by the thought of the interior severity. Which persons nevertheless, in the midst of the very chastenings of fear, often recall their mind to the gifts, and that by comforting they may cheer themselves, amidst this which they fear, they bring back the eye to the gifts which they have received, that hope may buoy up him whom fear bears down.
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
Doubting · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
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).
terrified in his presence: See Pss 77:3; 88:16; 119:120. • Job had complained earlier of being plunged into darkness (Job 19:8); Eliphaz (15:22; 22:1) and Bildad (18:6, 18) ascribed this fate to the wicked.
Rashi on Job 23:15
Therefore Since He does not requite man according to his ways.
I am startled by Him and when I ponder His ways, I am frightened of Him.
