Job 9:17

“For he breaketh me with a tempest, etc.] Which rises suddenly, comes powerfully, and carries all before it irresistibly; hereby signifying the nature of his present sore afflictions, which came upon him at once, pressed him down, and utterly destroyed him, against which there was no standing: perhaps he may have some reference to the storm of wind that blew down the house, by which his children were destroyed. Schultens renders it, “a burning tempest” f390, such as is common in the eastern countries, which Thevenot f391 often makes mention of; which kills a man at once, and his flesh becomes as black as a coal, and comes off of his bones, and is plucked off by the hand that would lift him…”

“For he breaketh me - He is overwhelming me with a tempest; that is, with the storms of wrath. He shows me no mercy. The idea seems to be, that God acted toward him not as a judge determining matters by rule of law, but as a sovereign - determining them by his own will. If it were a matter of law; if he could come before him as a judge, and maintain his cause there; if the case could be fairly adjudicated whether he deserved the calamities that came upon him, he would be willing to enter into such a trial. But where the matter was determined solely by will, and God acted as a sovereign, doing as he pleased, and giving no account of his matters to anyone, then it would be useless to argue the…”

“Breaketh - Unexpectedly, violently, and irrecoverably. Cause - Not simply without any desert of his, but without any special cause of such singular afflictions; and peculiar and extraordinary guilt, such as his friends charged him with. Job 9:18”

“9:17 with a storm: Perhaps the words translated “with a storm” (bis’arah) are a double entendre with besa‘arah (“for a hair”; i.e., “for the littlest thing”), which would parallel without cause.”

“For he: Job 16:14; Psa 29:5, Psa 42:7, Psa 83:15; Isa 28:17; Jer 23:19; Eze 13:13; Mat 7:27, Mat 12:20 multiplieth: Job 1:14-19, Job 2:7, Job 2:13 without cause: Job 2:3, Job 16:17, Job 34:6; Psa 25:3; Joh 9:3, Joh 15:25 Job 9:18”