a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
answer
אֶֽעֱנֶ֑נּוּ'e.'e.Ne.nu
H6030
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
come
נָב֥וֹאna.Vo'
H935
to go or come (in a wide variety of applications) · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common plural
together
יַ֝חְדָּ֗וyach.Dav
H3162
properly · adverb
judgment
בַּמִּשְׁפָּֽטba.mish.Pat
H4941
properly · 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
Romans 9:20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
Ecclesiastes 6:10 That which hath been is named already, and it is known that it is man: neither may he contend with him that is mightier than he.
Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken…
Psalms 143:2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.
Isaiah 45:9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashionet…
1 Samuel 16:7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth…
Job 13:18-23 Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.
Job 23:3-7 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 9:25–end
Job here grows more and more querulous, and does not conclude this chapter with such reverent expressions of God's wisdom and justice as he began with. Those that indulge a complaining humour know not to what indecencies, nay, to what impieties, it will hurry them. The beginning of that strife with God is as the letting forth of water; therefore leave it off before it be meddled with. When we are in trouble we are allowed to complain to God, as the Psalmist often, but must by no means complain of God, as Job here.
I. His complaint here of the passing away of the days of his prosperity is proper enough (Job 9:25, Job 9:26): "My days (that is, all my good days) are gone, never to return, gone…
For he is not a man, as I am,.... For though the parts and members of an human body are sometimes ascribed to him, yet these are to be understood by an anthropopathy, speaking after the manner of men, there being something in him, which in a figurative sense answers to these; otherwise we are not to conceive of any corporeal shape in him, or that there is any likeness to which he is to be compared: he is a spirit infinite, immortal, immense, invisible, pure and holy, just and true, and without iniquity; whereas Job was but a man, a finite, feeble, mortal creature, and a sinful one; and therefore there being such a vast disparity between them, it was in vain to litigate a point with him, to p…
29 If I am wicked, why do I exert myself in vain?
30 If I should wash myself with snow water,
And make my hands clean with lye,
31 Then thou wouldst plunge me into the pit,
And my clothes would abhor me.
32 For He is not a man as I, that I should answer Him,
That we should go together to judgment.
33 There is not an arbitrator between us
Who should lay his hand upon us both.
The clause with strongly accented "I" affirms that in relation to God is from the first, and unchangeably, a wicked, i.e., guilty, man (Psa 109:7) (רשׁע, to be a wicked man, means either to act as such Job 10:15, or to appear as such, be accounted as such, as here and Job 10:7; Hiph., Job 9:20, to condemn). Why, therefor…
The Church Fathers
"You are not a man like me, whom I can contradict. Before a man I could proclaim my justice, but in your court, I am only a sinner.
This is what he means, if he who punishes were a man, his punishment would not have entirely condemned the one in affliction. I could have been judged before him and proved that he too is unjust. But since you are God, that is impossible. It is sufficient to be punished and to suffer the greatest condemnation.
For He is not a man, such as I am, that I should answer Him, or that He can be heard with me in Judgment on an equal footing. When we 'contend with another in judgment on an equal footing,' we both learn what is urged against us, and in all we allege we are heard, and in proportion as we apprehend the points openly objected, we reply with boldness to the points propounded. In this way forasmuch as the invisible Judge sees all that we do, it is as if He hears things that we say. But because we never know fully the thing that displeases Him, it is as if what He Himself says, we know not. Thus the holy man, considering the 'abhorrence of his own clothes,' is the more filled with fears, that he cannot 'be heard with Him in judgment on an equal footing.' In that so long as he is burthened with the load of his corruption, he meets with this worst evil in his punishment, that he does not even know the view that his Reprover takes. As though he said in plain words; 'Herein I am not heard on an equal footing, in that while all that I do is open to view, yet I myself cannot tell under what liabilities I am arrested.'
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
Intercession · OF MAN WITH GOD — OF MAN WITH GOD
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).
A mediator would not judge God and man but would work to bring them together (see 16:19-21).
Rashi on Job 9:32
in debate Heb. במשפט, in words of debate. [The word] משפט is used in three expressions: 1) its beginning, viz. the clarification of the matters, 2) its middle, viz. the verdict, and 3) its end, viz. the meting out of the tortures and the collection of the debt. Sometimes Scripture writes it as referring to the beginning, sometimes to the middle, and sometimes to the end.
