הֵ֤ן קֶ֣דֶם אֶהֱלֹ֣ךְ וְאֵינֶ֑נּוּ וְ֝אָח֗וֹר וְֽלֹא־אָבִ֥ין לֽוֹ׃
Sesungguhnya, jika aku berjalan ke timur, Ia tidak ada di sana; dan ke barat, aku pun tidak dapat menangkap kehadiran-Nya.
Rashi
Behold...east it refers to the above (verse 3), “Would that I knew etc.”
Malbim
Job complains that God is avoiding him though he had faithfully kept His commandments.2The Hebrew text has קדם - forward and אחור - backwards, but like the medieval commentators Rashi and Ibn Ezra, Malbim understands them, respectively, as east and west. Malbim adds:
The ancients imagined that the Divine Presence was in the west and that the host of the heavens all journeyed from east to west, on their way to giving homage before His Throne of Glory, which is situated there.
The ancients imagined that the Divine Presence was in the west and that the host of the heavens all journeyed from east to west, on their way to giving homage before His Throne of Glory, which is situated there.
Rashi
east as it is stated (Exod. 27: 13): “on the east side (קדמה), eastward.”
Rashi
and to the west Heb. ואחור. Since the east is the front of the world (קדמה), the west is found to be the back of the world (אחור).