Job 10:1 Commentary and Bible Study

Job had been addressing his friends and answering them, but now he begins to speak directly to God. The extreme nature of his suffering urges him to overcome the reluctance that he feels. He will not hold back his complaint, and yet he still exercises a degree of reverence and restraint. Throughout the chapter he brings to God his weakness and vulnerability as an argument in his defence. He still looks for answers and hopes by these words to return to the favour of God. He forces himself to come in spite of the fear that he felt in doing so, expressed in the previous two verses. Though he believes that God may well end his life if he speaks in this way, he is so desperate that he is ready to risk this. He will allow the bitterness of his soul to direct his words and give free reign to his complaint. He implies that he had been holding back, and surely during his period of silence he had wrestled with the same thoughts, but refrained from expressing them.He has lost his sense of the lovingkindness of God – ‘God must explain himself.’ This is completely out of line. ‘Is it good for you, O God, to despise the person you have saved, and smile on the wicked?’ He questions God’s goodness.