Wisdom · Chapter 10 of 42

Job 10

Weary of life, Job pours out his complaint to God, asking why his Maker would oppress the very work of his hands. He reminds God that he was fashioned like clay, poured out like milk, clothed with skin and bones, given life and favor. Yet now God hunts him like a lion. He asks why he was ever born, and begs for a little comfort before he goes to the land of darkness.

What happens in Job 10

Job, weary of his life, resolves to speak to God directly. He asks God not to condemn him but to show him the charge, wondering whether it pleases God to oppress and despise the work of his own hands while smiling on the wicked. Does God have mere human eyes, that he must hunt out Job's sin? Job appeals movingly to his own creation: God's hands made and fashioned him, poured him out like milk and curdled him like cheese, clothed him with skin and flesh, knit him with bones and sinews, and preserved his spirit.

How can the Maker now destroy what he so carefully formed? Whether wicked or righteous, Job feels he cannot lift his head, hunted like a lion. He returns to wishing he had died at birth, and pleads with God to give him a little comfort before he departs to the land of darkness and the shadow of death, where light itself is like darkness.

Job 10 in context

Job 10 is sustained prayer, a lament addressed wholly to God. Its most memorable feature is Job's meditation on being formed by God, imagery of clay, milk, and knitted bones that anticipates Psalm 139's wonder, though Job turns it into a protest: why craft me so lovingly only to destroy me? The chapter holds together two truths Job cannot reconcile, that God made him with care and that God now seems to hunt him.

He does not resolve the tension; he lays it bare before God.

Main themes of Job 10

Job 10 (KJV)

1My soul is weary of my life; I will leave my complaint upon myself; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul. 2I will say unto God, Do not condemn me; shew me wherefore thou contendest with me. 3Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel of the wicked? 4Hast thou eyes of flesh? or seest thou as man seeth? 5Are thy days as the days of man? are thy years as man’s days, 6That thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and searchest after my sin? 7Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand. 8Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me. 9Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again? 10Hast thou not poured me out as milk, and curdled me like cheese? 11Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews. 12Thou hast granted me life and favour, and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit. 13And these things hast thou hid in thine heart: I know that this is with thee. 14If I sin, then thou markest me, and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity. 15If I be wicked, woe unto me; and if I be righteous, yet will I not lift up my head. I am full of confusion; therefore see thou mine affliction; 16For it increaseth. Thou huntest me as a fierce lion: and again thou shewest thyself marvellous upon me. 17Thou renewest thy witnesses against me, and increasest thine indignation upon me; changes and war are against me. 18Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me! 19I should have been as though I had not been; I should have been carried from the womb to the grave. 20Are not my days few? cease then, and let me alone, that I may take comfort a little, 21Before I go whence I shall not return, even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death; 22A land of darkness, as darkness itself; and of the shadow of death, without any order, and where the light is as darkness.

Verses to carry from Job 10

“Thine hands have made me and fashioned me together round about; yet thou dost destroy me.”Job 10:8

“Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, and hast fenced me with bones and sinews.”Job 10:11

“Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me!”Job 10:18

Reflection

Job held two things he could not reconcile: God made me with love, and God seems to be against me. You may hold the same tension in a hard season. Do not resolve it by dropping either truth. Lay both before God as Job did. And remember that the Maker who formed you came in Christ to share your darkness and lead you through it.

A prayer from Job 10