“Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.”
Would God contend with Job in the fullness of divine strength, or would God instead listen with merciful attention to Job's complaint, demonstrating through action the justice that Job's friends have merely proclaimed in words. The conditional structure reveals Job's uncertainty about which response God will give, though his language suggests confidence that divine strength would be deployed justly rather than capriciously. This question probes the fundamental mystery of divine power and divine mercy, asking whether they coexist harmoniously or whether might inevitably overwrites compassion. Job's uncertainty about God's response coexists with certainty about God's power, suggesting that Job's real struggle concerns the direction of that power.
Church Fathers on Job 23:6
Then Job answered and said, Now also is my complaint bitter: and the hand of my stroke is heavier than my groaning. In his own way blessed Job sets out with the plainer sort of words, but his declaration he closes by the deep following on of mystery. For the pain of the afflicted man ought to have been healed by the consoling of his friends, but because their consoling broke out into the soothings of deceit, the pain of the stricken man was made harsher. For whereas Eliphaz…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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