Job 3:23

Why to a man whose way is hidden,

                Whom God has hedged in?

In the new political realm where it is out of fashion to be a man, I used the term man in this verse. Someone I know has a shirt that says, “suck it up buttercup”. It is a phrase that seeks to encourage people to not be so sensitive and to ignore the immaterial and focus on the things that matter and work through the struggle.

In a discussion with a friend, I referenced a blog I found that discussed how, in the author’s opinion, Satan had watered down a particular Bible version to the point it led people astray. One particular description of this version has been “neutered” due to its replacing nearly every reference to “man” with a “gender neutral” term. I admit that many times when the Bible references the term “man” it is not indicating a specific gender, but any person in general. If we hope that someone can accept Jesus as God’s Son, surely, we can expect them to understand when man refers to a person, a male human, or a specific individual.

That being said, I have skipped a number of uses of man so far in Job. It is my party, so to speak, and I have tried to err on the side of making the meaning clear to me. Often, I have tried to use terms like mortal or human to make sure the topic applies to “man” and not to spiritual beings. It is kind of like using meters when discussing distance with foreigners, it helps them understand, even if I hate using “commy” units.

The reference here is to Job himself, in my opinion, so I used man. As we think back to the beginning of the story, Job does not understand what is going on and his path forward is “hidden” and this verse is all about himself.

Some sources add to the first stitch a reference to life or light that is given. I and many of my sources drop this reference since these aspects are included in verse 20 and are redundant here.

As opposed to hidden, some references suggest someone who cannot see their way or who is lost. The use of “see their way” would tie into the reference to “light”. The idea being that you would not provide light to a blind man who cannot use it. In the same way, light does not help someone who is lost and has no idea which way to go. Using “whose way is hidden” transcends both of these. The man can see, but he has no idea how to get from where he is to where he is going. This is Job. He is in a bad spot, and cannot make use of light, nor can he make use of life as, in his mind, he has lost everything worth living for. It does not say much for his opinion of his wife.

In a surprising stance, my favorite reference has thrown in a dozy here. Instead of God, he has inserted the term “a god”. The poet reference has often done this, but I always ignore it out of a disrespect for his opinion, but this usage is not so easily dismissed. My assumption is that the author is implying that Job has either blasphemed God by calling him simply “a god” which does not fit his character nor the story, or I made a mistake and did the references out of order. After some research,  it is the latter as it turns out. “My bad” as they say.

In the last phrase, alternatives to hedged in were “fenced in”, “hedged about”, or “blocked his path”. The path is from the poet so discarded.  “About” is passive where as “in” implies action, so I used the action of hedging or fencing in. I chose hedged mainly because I used it in the early prose part, but also because hedging seems more natural, and fencing seems more manly.

They say that life is a journey and not a destination. The world around us is on a journey and it has a destination, hell. God gave Satan dominion over the earth to test man and find out who had faith and who did not. God gave Job a great life with the purpose of having Satan take it all away and test Job’s faith. It may seem cruel and may bring people to question why the perfection of God allows sin and suffering. But at the end of his trial, Job’s love for God was made complete. Not even Satan could question that Job’s love for God was genuine and not based on circumstances. That is the why for Job, and it is the why for us. When you quit relying on yourself and trust it all to God, then He can work the wonders He created you for.