Job 9:33

Lay his hand upon. It has been suggested that this may refer to some ancient ceremony in which, for some cause, the umpire, or arbiter, laid his hands upon both the parties in a legal dispute. It may mean that the umpire had the power of control over both parties, that it was his office to restrain them within proper limits, to check any improper expressions, and to see that the argument was fairly conducted on both sides. This figure could, of course, not be applied to God as one of the parties, though in Job’s concept the application was valid.

Daysman. Or, “umpire.” In his argument with God, Job feels that there is no one to whom he can look as an arbiter. On one of two conditions only, he thinks, could the contest be more even between himself and God: (1) If God, divesting Himself of all His divine attributes, became man, and (2) if some umpire, or arbiter, could be found to decide the contest. Neither condition, however, did Job think possible. The gospel provides a fulfillment of both conditions. “The I AM is the Daysman between God and humanity, laying His hand upon both” (DA 25). Not that we need to conceive of Jesus as settling an argument between man and God, but He is the One who represents God to man, the One through whom man can understand and approach God. See Heb. 2:17, 18.