Matthew Henry on Job 40:6-14
Job was greatly humbled for what God had already said, but not sufficiently; he was brought low, but not low enough; and therefore God here proceeds to reason with him in the same manner and to the same purport as before, Job 40:6. Observe, 1. Those who duly receive what they have heard from God, and profit by it, shall hear more from him. 2. Those who are truly convinced of sin, and penitent for it, yet have need to be more thoroughly convinced and to be made more deeply penitent. Those who are under convictions, who have their sins set in order before their eyes and their hearts broken for them, must learn from this instance not to catch at comfort too soon; it will be everlasting when it…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 40:7
(See on Job 38:3). Since Job has not only spoken against God, but accused Him of injustice, God challenges him to try, could he govern the world, as God by His power doth, and punish the proud and wicked (Job 40:7-14).
Adam Clarke on Job 40:7
Gird up thy loins - See Job 38:1-3. Some think that this and the preceding verse have been repeated here from Job 38:1-3, and that several of the words there, here, and Job 42:3, have been repeated, in after times, to connect some false gatherings of the sheets of parchment, on which the end of this poem was originally written. See on Job 40:1 (note), and at the end of the chapter.
John Gill on Job 40:7
Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and,
declare thou unto me,.... And prepare to give an answer to what should be demanded of him. The same way of speaking is used in Job 38:3; See Gill on Job 38:3.
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 40:7-9
7 Gird up thy loins manfully:
I will question thee, and do thou answer me!
8 Wilt thou altogether annul my right,
Condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
9 And hast thou then an arm like God,
And canst thou with the voice thunder like Him?
The question with האף stands to Job 40:2 in the relation of a climax: Job contended not alone with God, which is in itself wrong, let it be whatsoever it may; he went so far as to lose sight of the divine justice in the government of the world, and in order not to be obliged to give up his own righteousness, so far as to doubt the divine. ואם, Job 40:9, is also interrogative, as Job 8:3; Job 21:4; Job 34:17, comp. Job 39:13, not expressive of a wish, as…