CHAPTER 9 Dec. 7 
Job’s Response to Bildad
Then Job answered, 2Truly I know that it is so, but how can man be just with God? 3If He wishes to contend with him, he can’t answer Him one time in a thousand. 4God who is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who has hardened himself against Him, and prospered? 5He removes the mountains, and they don’t know it, when He overturns them in His anger. 6He shakes the earth out of its place. Its pillars tremble. 7He commands the sun, and it doesn’t rise, and seals up the stars. 8He alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the back of Yam. 9He makes the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades, and the rooms of the south. 10He does great things past finding out; yes, marvellous things without number. 11Behold, He goes by me, and I don’t see Him. He passes on also, but I don’t perceive Him. 12Behold, He snatches away. Who can hinder Him? Who will ask Him, ‘What are you doing?’. 13God will not withdraw His anger. The cohorts of Rahab stoop under Him. 14How much less shall I answer Him, and choose my words to argue with Him? 15Though I were righteous, yet I wouldn’t answer Him. I would make supplication to my judge. 16If I had called, and He had answered me, yet I wouldn’t believe that He listened to my voice. 17For He bruises me with a storm, and multiplies my wounds without cause. 18He will not allow me to catch my breath, but fills me with bitterness. 19If it is a matter of strength, behold, He is mighty! If of justice, ‘Who’, says He, ‘will summon me?’. 20Though I am righteous, my own mouth shall condemn me. Though I am blameless, it shall prove me perverse. 21I am blameless. I don’t respect myself. I despise my life. 22It is all the same. Therefore I say that He destroys the blameless and the wicked. 23If the scourge kills suddenly, He will mock at the trial of the innocent. 24The earth is given into the hand of the wicked. He covers the faces of its judges. If it be not He, then who is it? 25Now my days are swifter than a runner. They flee away, they see no good, 26they have passed away as the swift ships, as the eagle that swoops on the prey. 27If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and cheer up’; 28I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that You will not hold me innocent. 29I shall be condemned. Why then do I labour in vain? 30If I wash myself with snow, and cleanse my hands with lye, 31yet You will plunge me in the ditch. My own clothes shall abhor me. 32For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, that we should come together in judgment. 33There is no umpire between us, that might lay his hand on us both. 34Let Him take his rod away from me. Let His terror not make me afraid, 35then I would speak, and not fear Him; but I am not in such a position within myself. 

Commentary

9:16 I wouldn’t believe that He listened to my voice- In times of depression, even clearly answered prayer fails to spiritually register with us. And the ending of the book of Job shows that God in His grace understands that.
9:21 See on 21:7.
9:24 The G.N.B. puts it: “If God didn’t do it, who did?”. This is a key verse in understanding the book of Job. After all the theories of ‘Who’s responsible for all this evil in Job’s life?’, Job concludes that the source simply has to be God- and not anyone else. If He truly is all powerful, then who else could ultimately be responsible? Job states that “the cohorts of Rahab [a Canaanite ‘Satan’ figure] shall stoop under [God]” (:13), clearly alluding to the helpers of Tiamat in the Babylonian myth. “God alone stretches out the heavens, and treads on the back of Yam”- the sea, or sea-monster (:8). Job believed that it was God who was seeking to swallow him up in death (10:8)- surely alluding to how Mot, the god of death, was thought to have jaws encompassing the earth and swallowing up people at their death into the underworld. But Job rejected that myth- he saw God as the swallower, and death as a return to the dust, albeit in hope of bodily resurrection at the last day (19:25-27).
9:28 I know that You- Note the change of pronoun. As Job talks about God as “He” in replying to Bildad, he moves on to address himself directly to God (see too 16:5-7). Dialogue with others about our faith and turmoils often leads to our direct approach to Him in a way which would never have happened if we’d not bothered to have that dialogue but stored all these things up internally.
9:32 Come together in judgment- The prologue opens with the court of Heaven. The ‘Satan’ figure is not in itself evil, but could refer to an Angel [a 'good' one, as there are no 'sinful' Angels], or an Angel representative of a fellow worshipper on earth. The debates in Heaven between the Angels are reflected and carried out on earth- rather like how in Daniel 1-6 we have events on earth described in historical terms, and then we are given an insight into what's been going on in Heaven in Daniel 7-12. Yet the court / legal language continues throughout the book- e.g. Job is “perfect”, i.e. legally blameless. Job appeals for ‘witnesses’ (:33-35; 16:18-22; 19:20-27), an advocate in Heaven (:33), denies his guilt and demands a legal list of his sins (13:19), wishes for God to come to trial (:3), and thus Job is described as a man who has taken out a ‘case’ with God (23:4; 40:2). Job 29-31 is effectively Job’s declaration of legal innocence and an appeal to God to hear his case more sympathetically (31:35). God pronounces a final legal verdict at the end (42:7). It’s as if the whole experience of Job was [at least partly] in order to test out the Canaanite theories of ‘Satan’, suffering and evil in the court of Heaven. The friends represent the traditional views of evil, and often make reference to the myths of their day about ‘Satan’ figures. They speak as if they are the final court- Eliphaz speaks of how the judges and elders of their day, the “holy ones”, had concluded Job was guilty, and that they, the friends, were right: “To which of the holy ones will you appeal [legal language]?... we have [legally] examined this, and it [Job’s guilt] is true” (5:1,27). This is of great comfort to those who feel misjudged by man- above them in Heaven the ultimate Heavenly court is considering our case, and that is all that matters. Job perhaps perceived this, even though the vision of the court of Heaven in chapters 1 and 2 was presumably unknown to him as he endured his sufferings; for in response to the friends’ wrong judgment of him, he comments that “God covers the faces of the judges of the earth” (Job 9:24). The final summing up speeches from both God and Job simply emphasize the omnipotence of God; how ultimately He has been the adversary to Job, and there is no room in the cosmos of His creation for any other power, especially any of the various personal ‘Satan’ figures believed in by the worlds of both Canaan and Babylon. The heavenly court of "sons of God" is paralleled with all the stars in 38:7. Bear in mind that the stars were understood as pagan deities. The whole pagan understanding of the cosmos is being deconstructed. The stars are paralleled with the Angelic sons of God who are all totally under God's control; they are His Heavenly court. 
9:33 There is no umpire between us- Job’s sufferings and mental torments led him to perceive the need for a mediator; he was led through it all to understand his need for Christ. And our experiences are designed the same way. See on 10:4.