Job began his response to Bildad by acknowledging that much of what his friends had said was true (v. 2). Many of Job's speeches began with sarcasm or irony. He then turned to a question that Eliphaz had raised earlier (4:17) that seems to have stuck in Job's mind. How could he, a righteous man, much less the ungodly, stand righteous before God, as Eliphaz had urged him to do (5:8), since God was tormenting him. God appeared to Job to be acting arbitrarily and capriciously. How can anyone be right before such a God?
Because God is who He is Job recognized that man cannot go into court against God and win (cf. 40:1-5; 42:2). It would be useless to try for four reasons.
"1. If I disputed with Him, I could not answer Him, because He is so mighty (9:3-14).
2. If God did respond to my cry, I do not think He would be listening, because He is against me (9:15-19).
3. If I am righteous, He will declare me guilty, because He destroys both the innocent and the wicked (9:20-24).
4. If I try to forget my problems or even confess my sins, He would still consider me guilty (9:25-32)."56
Job concluded that God was unjust because He cut off both the guilty and the guiltless. Job's concept of God was becoming fuzzy because God did not seem to him to be acting in ways that were consistent with Job's limited understanding of Him. We have the same problem. We need to get our concept of God from Scripture that gives us the fullest, most balanced view of God possible for us now.
The Bear, Orion, and the Pleides (v. 9) are constellations of stars.
