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Job 9:1–10:22 Job responds, in a speech that is relentlessly legal: ch. 9 is framed by the term contend (9:3; 10:2), and legal terms occur throughout the chapter (e.g., 9:2, 3, 14, 19, 20, 32, 33).
Job 9:1–2 When Job says, “I know that it is so,” he is most likely affirming that Bildad is right: God is just, and he will not reject the upright (8:3, 20). However, in light of these truths, and in light of how the friends have interpreted Job’s circumstances, Job slightly modifies the original question of Eliphaz (4:17) and asks, But how can a man be in the right before God? If God is just and Job is in fact innocent of the foolishness or wickedness his friends accuse him of, how can he go about arguing his case?
Job 9:3–10 Job does not respond further to the specifics of Bildad’s argument. Instead he describes the difficulty of anyone arguing a case before God (vv. 3–4), given his power and strength (vv. 5–10).
Job 9:13 Rahab, like Leviathan (see 3:8; compare 7:12), is the name of a beast from the myths of the non-Israelite peoples. Here the name seems to represent the forces of chaos (but see note on Isa. 30:6–7).
Job 9:15 Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him. Job states here (and again in v. 20) that his friends have applied their theology to him and his circumstances in a way that traps him. Job agrees that God is just, but he feels there is no room for him to make the case for his innocence.
Job 9:20 Job thinks that no matter what he says, God will find his words unpersuasive and perverse. When Job says, “I am blameless” (also in v. 21), he echoes God’s description of him in 1:8; 2:3.
Job 9:21 I regard not myself. Job seems to be saying that he does not care whether he lives or dies. He is prepared to risk his life to find justice (13:14).
Job 9:22–24 Job argues that, from what one can observe in the world, both the blameless and the wicked are destroyed, both fall prey to disaster, and both suffer injustice. All of these things are governed by God (if it is not he, who then is it?).
Job 9:32–35 There is no arbiter. Job criticizes his friends for not comforting him. He longs for an impartial party to hear his case (see v. 33, esv footnote). He also wants the threat of further suffering removed, so that he could speak freely.
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