straight (literally or figuratively) · adjective, masculine singular absolute
dispute
נוֹכָ֣חno.Khach
H3198
to be right (i.e. correct) · verb, niphal active participle, masculine singular absolute
delivered
וַאֲפַלְּטָ֥הva.'a.fa.le.Tah
H6403
to slip out · conjunction + verb, piel infinitive construct, 1st person common singular
ever
לָ֝נֶ֗צַחla.Ne.tzach
H5331
properly · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
judge
מִשֹּׁפְטִֽיmi.sho.fe.Ti
H8199
to judge · preposition + verb, qal active participle, masculine singular construct + 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
Job 13:3 Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.
Isaiah 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red lik…
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Job 9:15 Whom, though I were righteous, yet would I not answer, but I would make supplication to my judge.
Jeremiah 3:5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.
Jeremiah 12:1 Righteous art thou, O LORD, when I plead with thee: yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments: Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper…
Romans 3:19-22 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the worl…
Romans 8:33-34 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 23:1-7
Job is confident that he has wrong done him by his friends, and therefore, ill as he is, he will not give up the cause, nor let them have the last word. Here,
I. He justifies his own resentments of his trouble (Job 23:2): Even to day, I own, my complaint is bitter; for the affliction, the cause of the complaint, is so. There are wormwood and gall in the affliction and misery; my soul has them still in remembrance and is embittered by them, Lam 3:19, Lam 3:20. Even to day is my complaint counted rebellion (so some read it); his friends construed the innocent expressions of his grief into reflections upon God and his providence, and called them rebellion. "But," says he, "I do not complain mor…
There--rather, "Then": if God would "attend" to me (Job 23:6).
righteous--that is, the result of my dispute would be, He would acknowledge me as righteous.
delivered--from suspicion of guilt on the part of my Judge.
John Gill on Job 23:7
There the righteous might dispute with him,.... That is, at his seat, either at his mercy seat, where even God allows sinners to come and reason with him, for pardoning grace and mercy, upon the foot of his own declarations and promises, and the blood and sacrifice of his son, Isaiah 1:18; or at his judgment seat, pleading the righteousness of Christ, which is fully satisfactory to law and justice. Job most probably means himself by the righteous or upright man, being conscious to himself of his sincerity and integrity; and relying on this, he feared not to appear before God as a Judge, and reason his case before him, dispute the matter with him, and in his presence, which was in controversy…
6 Will He contend with me with great power?
No, indeed; He will only regard me!
7 Then the upright would be disputing with Him,
And I should for ever escape my judge.
8 Yet I go eastward, He is not there,
And westward, but I perceive Him not;
9 Northwards where He worketh, but I behold Him not;
He turneth aside southwards, and I see Him not.
The question which Job, in Job 23:6, puts forth: will He contend with me in the greatness or fulness of His strength, i.e., (as Job 30:18) with a calling forth of all His strength? he himself answers in Job 23:6, hoping that the contrary may be the case: no, indeed, He will not do that.
(Note: With this interpretation, לא should certainly have Rebia mugr…
The Church Fathers
"The truth accompanies the reproach of his mouth. He never condemns unfairly. "And he judges my case entirely. If he punishes now, he will make all things known later.
Let Him put forth equity against me, and my judgment shall come unto victory. PROPHETICAL INTERPRETATION For who else saving the Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, is denoted by the title of 'equity?' Concerning Whom it is written, Who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness. And whereas this same righteousness came into this world against the ways of sinners, we get the better of our old enemy, by whom we were held captive. So let him say, I would not that He should contend with me with great power, nor oppress me with the weight of His mightiness. Let Him put forth equity against me, and my judgment shall come unto victory. i.e. 'for the rebuking of my ways, let Him send His Incarnate Son, and then the plotting foe, by the sentence of mine absolving, I as victor will turn out.' For if the Only-begotten Son of God had so remained invisible in the strength of the Divine Nature, as not to have admitted aught derived from our weakness, when could weak men ever have found the access of grace to Him? For the weight of His greatness, being considered, would rather have oppressed than aided him; but the Strong above all things came weak among all things, that whereas He agreed with us by assumed weakness, He might elevate us to His own abiding strength. For in Its loftiness the Divine Nature could never have been apprehended by us, inasmuch as being too little, but He bowed Himself down to man through human nature, and we as it were mounted up on Him laid low; He rose, and we were lifted up.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Earlier, Job had believed that God was too strong for him to summon (9:19), so he had requested an arbiter (9:33-34) and asked God not to terrify him (13:21). Here he expressed more hope that God would grant him a fair hearing. • acquitted: Job did not want to be pardoned as a guilty man but to be declared innocent (13:18; see Pss 17:2-3; 26:1-3).
Rashi on Job 23:7
There in the place of our contest.
integrity The propriety of my deeds will be proven, revealed, and it will appear with Him, i.e., before Him.
proven and there I will extricate [myself] forever because He will find no iniquity in me.