to-day--implying, perhaps, that the debate was carried on through more days than one (see Introduction).
bitter-- (Job 7:11; Job 10:1).
my stroke--the hand of God on me (Margin, Job 19:21; Psa 32:4).
heavier than--is so heavy that I cannot relieve myself adequately by groaning.
Seat--The idea in the Hebrew is a well-prepared throne (Psa 9:7).
fill, &c.--I would have abundance of arguments to adduce.
strength--so as to prevail with Him: as in Jacob's case (Hos 12:3-4). UMBREIT and MAURER better translate as in Job 4:20 (I only wish that He) "would attend to me," that is, give me a patient hearing as an ordinary judge, not using His omnipotence, but only His divine knowledge of my innocence.
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.
forward . . . backward--rather, "to the east--to the west." The Hebrew geographers faced the east, that is, sunrise: not the north, as we do. So "before" means east: "behind," west (so the Hindus). Para, "before"--east: Apara, "behind"--west: Daschina, "the right hand"--south: Bama, "left"--north. A similar reference to sunrise appears in the name Asia, "sunrise," Europe, "sunset"; pure Babylonian names, as RAWLINSON shows.
work--God's glorious works are especially seen towards the north region of the sky by one in the northern hemisphere. The antithesis is between God working and yet not being beheld: as in Job 9:11, between "He goeth by," and "I see Him not." If the Hebrew bears it, the parallelism to the second clause is better suited by translating, as UMBREIT, "doth hide himself"; but then the antithesis to "behold" would be lost.
right hand--"in the south."
hideth--appropriately, of the unexplored south, then regarded as uninhabitable because of its heat (see Job 34:29).
when--let Him only but try my cause, I shall, &c.
declined-- (Psa 125:5).
necessary--"Appointed portion" (of food; as in Pro 30:8). UMBREIT and MAURER translate, "More than my law," my own will, in antithesis to "the words of His mouth" (Joh 6:38). Probably under the general term, "what is appointed to me" (the same Hebrew is in Job 23:14), all that ministers to the appetites of the body and carnal will is included.
soul--His will (Psa 115:3). God's sovereignty. He has one great purpose; nothing is haphazard; everything has its proper place with a view to His purpose.
cut off--rather, in the Arabic sense, brought to the land of silence; my sad complaint hushed in death [UMBREIT]. "Darkness" in the second clause, not the same Hebrew word as in the first, "cloud," "obscurity." Instead of "covering the cloud (of evil) from my face," He "covers" me with it (Job 22:11).