Job 9:24

The earth is given into the hands of the wicked,.... Either the wicked one, Satan, as Jarchi and Bar Tzemach, who is the god of this world; or some wicked tyrant, as Nimrod, or some other known by

The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, and who is he?

The earth, i.e. the possession and dominion of men and things on earth. Is given, to wit, by God, the great Lord and Disposer of it, by his providence. Into the hand of the wicked; into their power. As good men are scourged, , so the wicked are advanced and prospered, in this world. He covereth the faces of the judges thereof, i.e. he blinds their eyes, that they cannot discern between truth and falsehood, justice and unrighteousness. He. Who? Either, 1. The wicked last mentioned, who either by power or by gifts corrupts the officers of justice. Or rather, 2. God, whom the pronoun he designed all along this chapter; who is oft said to blind the minds of men, which he doth not positively, by making them blind, but privatively, by withdrawing his own light, and leaving them to their own mistakes and lusts. Or by judges he may hear mean those who are worthy of that name, and duly administer that office; whose faces God may be said to cover, because he removeth them from their high places into obscurity, and covers them with contempt, and in a manner passeth a sentence of condemnation and destruction upon them; covering of the face being the usual posture of condemned persons, and of men in great misery; of which see . So the sense of this verse is, God commonly advanceth wicked men into power and honour, and casteth down men of true worth and virtue from their seats. If not; if it be not as I say, if God do not these things. Where, and who is he? either, 1. Who will confute me by solid arguments? Or, 2. Who doth these things? Who but God doth dispose of the world in this manner?

Job 9:24 The earth is given into the hand of the wicked: he covereth the faces of the judges thereof; if not, where, [and] who [is] he?Ver. 24. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked] God many times suffereth the wicked most licentiously to reign in the world, Jeremiah 27:6 Daniel 5:18-19. And it is thought by some that Job, speaking here in the singular number, aims at some famous tyrant in those parts, known both to himself and to his friends; such as was Phocas the emperor, who, when he had slain his master Mauritius, and was set up in his stead, there was an honest poor man (saith Cedrenus) who was wonderfully importunate at the throne of grace to know a reason why that wicked man prospered so in his design? he was answered again by a voice, that there could not be a worse man found; and that the sins of Christians and of the city of Constantinople did require it. He covereth the faces of the judges thereof] i.e. That tyrant, above mentioned, subverteth all order of justice, condemneth and putteth to death even the judges themselves, if they will not pervert justice, as Bassianus did Papinian (Spartian). The covering of the face was the mark of a condemned man, Esther 7:8 Job 40:8 Isaiah 8:17 Mark 14:65. Or thus, God blindeth the judges by giving them over to error, or permitting them to take bribes, so that they cannot discern right from wrong, &c. Some by judges here understand the saints who shall one day judge the world, but are in the mean while grievously afflicted by the wicked. If not, where, and who is he?] Which things, if we say they are done, besides the will and foreknowledge of God, we shall thrust God out of the world, and set up fate and blind fortune; or thus, it is even so; or if not, where is he, and who is he that can disprove what I have asserted? prodeat, siquis me potest falsi arguere, I would fain see the man that can convince me of error (Mercer, Pagnin., Vatab.).

Verse 24. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked] Is it not most evident that the worst men possess most of this world's goods, and that the righteous are scarcely ever in power or affluence? This was the case in Job's time; it is the case still. Therefore prosperity and adversity in this life are no marks either of God's approbation or disapprobation. He covereth the faces of the judges thereon] Or, The faces of its decisions he shall cover. God is often stated in Scripture as doing a thing which he only permits to be done. So he permits the eyes of judgment to be blinded; and hence false decisions. Mr. Good translates the verse thus: - "The earth is given over to the hand of INJUSTICE; She hoodwinketh the faces of its judges. Where every one liveth is it not so?" And vindicates the translation in his learned notes: but I think the Hebrew will not bear this rendering; especially that in the third line. Where, and who is he?] If this be not the case, who is he that acts in this way, and where is he to be found? If God does not permit these things, who is it that orders them? Coverdale translates, As for the worlde, he geveth it over into the power of the wicked, such as the rulers be wherof all londes are full. Is it not so? Where is there eny, but he is soch one? This sense is clear enough, if the original will bear it. The last clause is thus rendered by the Syriac and Arabic, Who can bear his indignation?

24. The same illustrated on the widest scale. Job 9:23 spoke of particular calamities afflicting portions of the earth. At the despair of the innocent under these God mocks, distant and indifferent. Now Job makes the sweeping statement that the earth is one scene of injustice. The wicked prevail in it, it is given into their hand, to rule and dominate within it. Comp. ch. 24. covereth the faces of the judges] that they cannot see the right, to give the innocent justice. It is God who covereth their faces; He not only does not hinder wrong, He ensures that it prevail and have the upper hand. if not, where, and who is he] Rather, if not He, who then is it—who does all this (Job 9:24), if it is not He? Others besides Job have asked such questions. In this passage Job’s spirit reaches the lowest abyss of its alienation from God. From this time onwards his mind is calmer and the moral idea of God begins to reassert its place in his thoughts. Here God appears to him as a mere omnipotent power, with a bias, if He have one, to evil and cruelty, and he speaks of Him distantly as “he” (cf. ch. Job 3:20). His conception is but the reflection of his own case, as he conceived it, flung over the world, though his conception of his own case was false. To a Shemitic mind who had no conception of second causes or of general laws or of a scheme of providence, but regarded God as the immediate author of every single occurrence, the danger must always have been imminent of being driven to conclude that God was the author of the misery and wrong and cruel hardship under which men groaned. In these verses Job traverses directly the maxim of his friends in regard to the discriminating righteousness of God, and the examples which he cites he might have used to demolish their theory. But he is little concerned with their theory here; later he does use his examples to drive them from the field. But here he is occupied with himself, with the impossibility of making his innocence which he is conscious of to appear and be admitted; for, of course, to himself and to all others his afflictions were the testimony of God to his guilt. And thus, though in the last verses his view extends to the world in general, he comes back in Job 9:25 to himself.

The earth is given into the hand of the wicked - This is evidently designed as an illustration of the sentiment that Job was maintaining - that there was not a distribution of rewards and punishments

24. “In this second illustration there is an advance in the thought, in so far as here a part, at least, of the wicked are excepted from the general ruin: nay, appear even as threatening the same to the pious.” — Schlottmann.