(10) Behold, he findeth occasions against me.--See Job 13:24; Job 13:26-27; Job 19:11.

Verse 10. - Behold, he findeth occasions against me. This charge may perhaps be justified by reference to Job's complaints in Job 7:17-19 and Job 10:3-6; but the exact words are not Job's. He counteth me for his enemy. Certainly, Job had said this more than ones (see Job 16:9; Job 19. l 1). But he cannot really have believed it, or his trust in God must have failed. The fact that to the last he clung to God, appealed to him, hoped to receive judgment from him (Job 31:2, 6, 28, 35-37), is proof sufficient that he knew God was not really alienated from him, but would in the end acknowledge him and vindicate his character.

33:8-13 Elihu charges Job with reflecting upon the justice and goodness of God. When we hear any thing said to God's dishonour, we ought to bear our testimony against it. Job had represented God as severe in marking what he did amiss. Elihu urges that he had spoken wrong, and that he ought to humble himself before God, and by repentance to unsay it. God is not accountable to us. It is unreasonable for weak, sinful creatures, to strive with a God of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. He acts with perfect justice, wisdom, and goodness, where we cannot perceive it.Behold, he findeth occasions against me,.... That is, sought in order to find them; so Job in some places suggests, that God inquired after his sins, and sought diligently after them, that he might have something to bring against him; and because he could not find great sins, gross enormities, he sought after lesser sins; so some render the word, "staggerings", "totterings" (h); frailties, failings, and infirmities; and because he could find none of late of a very heinous nature, he went back as far as the sins of his youth; see Job 10:6; and this in order to pick a quarrel with him; and so Mr. Broughton renders the words, "lo, he picketh quarrels against me"; or that he might have just reason to depart from him, or to break from him, or to break off friendship with him, or to break him to pieces in his estate, family, and health; all which senses some observe the words will bear: but it would be needless for God to seek in order to find occasions against men; there is enough ready at hand, the sins that are about them; and to represent the Lord as dealing thus with good men is to represent him as acting contrary to the declarations and methods of his grace; yea, as doing what wicked men do to good men, as the enemies of David, Daniel, and Jeremiah, did to them; nay, even as Satan himself does, who goes about and seeks for, and picks up accusations against the saints; this must be owned to be a very irreverent and unbecoming expression of Job's, and for which he deserved to be sharply rebuked, as well as for some following ones, and for which he afterwards was thoroughly humbled:

he counteth me for his enemy; this he had often said, but very wrongly; See Gill on Job 13:24, and See Gill on Job 16:9, and See Gill on Job 19:11.

(h) "vacillationes", Cocceius; "aut mutationes", Michaelis.