Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 4:17
Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
17. be more just than God ] This translation is possible. It is very unnatural, however; for though, if a man were found complaining of God’s ways, the immediate inference might be that he was making himself more righteous (at least in the perception of moral rectitude) than God, such an inference does not seem drawn by any of the speakers, the idea of a man being more righteous than God being too absurd to suggest itself. The charge brought against Job was that he made God unrighteous, not that he claimed to be more righteous than He. Two senses seem possible, either,
Can man be righteous before God?
Can a man be pure before his Maker?
a sense which the phrase has Num 32:22, and is adopted by the Sept.; or, can man be in the right in his plea against God? a meaning which the phrase has in the speeches of Elihu, ch. Job 32:2. This latter sense is less suitable to the second clause of the verse. The first and more general sense is the more probable because, of course, the vision appeared to Eliphaz before Job’s calamities befell him and had no direct reference to them. This sense also suits the scope of the following verses, and the general aphorism ch. Job 5:6-7 with which Eliphaz sums up this paragraph of his speech, and is most in harmony with the studiously general tone of Eliphaz’s first discourse.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Shall mortal man – Or, shall feeble man. The idea of mortal is not necessarily implied in the word used here, ‘enosh. It means man; and is usually applied to the lower classes or ranks of people; see the notes at Isa 8:1. The common opinion in regard to this word is, that it is derived from ‘anash, to be sick, or ill at ease; and then desperate, or incurable – as of a disease or wound; Jer 15:18; Mic 1:9; Job 34:6. Gesenius (Lex) calls this derivation in question; but if it be the correct idea, then the word used here originally referred to man as feeble, and as liable to sickness and calamity. I see no reason to doubt that the common idea is correct, and that it refers to man as weak and feeble. The other word used here to denote man ( geber) is given to him on account of his strength. The two words, therefore, embrace man whether considered as feeble or strong – and the idea is, that none of the race could be more pure than God.
Be more just than God – Some expositors have supposed that the sense of this expression in the Hebrew is, Can man be pure before God, or in the sight of God? They allege that it could not have been made a question whether man could be more pure than God, or more just than his Maker. Such is the view presented of the passage by Rosenmuller, Good, Noyes, and Umbreit:
Shall mortal man be just before God?
Shall man be pure before his Maker?
In support of this view, and this use of the Hebrew preposition (m), Rosenmuller appeals to Jer 51:5; Num 32:29; Eze 34:18. This, however, is not wholly satisfactory. The more literal translation is that which occurs in the common version, and this accords with the Vulgate and the Chaldee. If so understood, it is designed to repress and reprove the pride of men, which arraigns the equity of the divine government, and which seems to be wiser and better than God. Thus, understood, it would be a pertinent reproof of Job, who in his complaint Job 3 had seemed to be wiser than God. He had impliedly charged him with injustice and lack of goodness. All people who complain against God, and who arraign the equity and goodness of the divine dispensations, claim to be wiser and better than he is. They would have ordered flyings more wisely, and in a better manner. They would have kept the world from the disorders and sins which actually exist, and would have made it pure and happy. How pertinent, therefore, was it to ask whether man could be more pure or just than his Maker! And how pertinent was the solemn question propounded in the hearing of Eliphaz by the celestial messenger – a question that seems to have been originally proposed in view of the complaints and murmurs of a self-confident race!
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 4:17
Shall a man he more pure than his Maker?
Man compared with God
The sum of the assertion in this verse is, that no man can be more pure and just than God. Let a man be never so just or sincere, yet there ought no comparison be made betwixt his righteousness and Gods. Learn–
1. God is most righteous, pure, and holy, within Himself and in His administration, so that He can do no wrong, nor ought He to be challenged by any. Sufficient arguments are not wanting whereby to clear this righteousness of God in all His dealings, and particularly in His afflicting godly men, and suffering the wicked to prosper; but when we consider His absolute dominion and sovereignty, and His holiness in Himself, it will put the matter beyond all debate, though we dip no further into the particulars.
2. This righteousness and holiness of God is so infinitely transcendent, that the holiness of the best of men cannot compare with it; but it becomes impurity, except he look on them in a Mediator.
3. Though God be thus just and holy, and that infinitely above the best of men, yet men are not wanting, in many cases, to reproach and reflect upon the righteousness of God, yea, and to cry up their own worth and holiness, to the prejudice of His righteousness.
4. An impatient complainer under affliction doth, in effect, wrong God and His righteousness, and sinfully extol his own holiness.
5. Whatever liberty men take to vent their passions, and to judge harshly of God and His dealing; and whatever their passion suggest for justifying thereof, yet mens own consciences and reason, in cold blood, will tell them that their sentence is unjust.
6. Mens frailty and mortality bear witness against them, that they are not perfectly pure, and that they may not compare with God.
7. Man, considered not only in his frailties, but even in his strength and best endowments, is infinitely inferior to God.
8. If men consider that God is their Creator and Maker, and that they have no degree of perfection which is not from God, they will find it a high presumption to compete with Him in the point of perfection. (George Hutcheson.)
On humility
Shall man be more just than God? The vision described in the passage from which the text is taken, is awful and sublime. Its spiritual meaning, and the moral instruction it conveys, are of superior interest and importance. That the acknowledged probity of Jobs life might not justify such impatience and complaint, Eliphaz, from a vision that was revealed unto him, disparages all human attainments and excellency before God, in order to vindicate the ways of God to man; to prove that all His laws are holy, just, and good; to repress pride and inculcate humility. The duty of humility may be proved–
I. From mans relative condition in the world. That we did not bring ourselves into existence, and are incapable, for a moment, to support ourselves in it, are self-evident truths. If we, and all that belongs to us, be the gift of God, of what have we to be proud, even in the most favourable estimate we can make of ourselves, and of all our acquisitions? Of scientific improvement and cultivated talents how little reason there is for boasting. Of moral and religious improvement how can he boast who even knows not his secret errors?
II. From the example of our Saviour. As it is a perfect pattern of universal excellence, so in the display of this virtue it is eminently instructive. If anything could give addition to such illustrious acts of goodness, it was the mildness, the tenderness, the humility, with which they were conferred. If we be His true disciples, we, like Him, will be clothed with humility, and consider it as the distinguishing characteristic of our Christian profession.
III. The advantages with which it is attended, strongly enforce the practice of this virtue. It paves the way for general esteem, exempts us from the mortifications of vanity and pride; by enabling us to form just views of our own characters, it teaches us where to correct them when wrong, and where to improve their excellence when good; it leaves us in full possession of all our powers and attainments, without envy and without detraction; it repels chagrin and engenders contentment; it is a sunshine of the mind, which throws its mild lustre on every object; and affords to every intellectual and moral excellence the most advantageous light in which it can appear. In short, it is leasing to God, and equally ornamental and advantageous to man. (A. Stifling, L. L. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 17. Shall mortal man] enosh; Greek . poor, weak, dying man.
Be more just than God?] Or, haenosh meeloah yitsdak; shall poor, weak, sinful man be justified before God?
Shall a man] gaber, shall even the strong and mighty man, be pure before his Maker? Is any man, considered merely in and of himself, either holy in his conduct, or pure in his heart? No. He must be justified by the mercy of God, through an atoning sacrifice; he must be sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God, and thus made a partaker of the Divine nature. Then he is justified before God, and pure in the sight of his Maker: and this is a work which God himself alone can do; so the work is not man’s work, but God’s. It is false to infer, from the words of this spectre, (whether it came from heaven or hell, we know not, for its communication shows and rankles a wound, without providing a cure,) that no man can be justified, and that no man can be purified, when God both justifies the ungodly, and sanctifies the unholy. The meaning can be no more than this: no man can make an atonement for his own sins, nor purify his own heart. Hence all boasting is for ever excluded. Of this Eliphaz believed Job to be guilty, as he appeared to talk of his righteousness and purity, as if they had been his own acquisition.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The sense is, Thou, O Job, dost presumptuously accuse God for dealing harshly and unrighteously with thee, in sending thee into the world upon such hard terms, and punishing all innocent and righteous man with such unparalleled severity; but consider things calmly within thyself; if God and thou come to a trial before any equal judge, canst thou think that thou wilt go away justified, and the great God shall be condemned? No righteous man will punish another without cause, or more than he deserves; and therefore if God do so with thee, as thy words imply, he is less just than a man; which is blasphemous and absurd to imagine.
Shall a man; a great and mighty man, as this word signifies, a man eminent for wisdom, or justice, or power, or any other perfections, such as thou art thought by thyself or others to be; who therefore might expect more favour than a poor miserable and contemptible man, which the word enosch, used in the former branch, signifies. So he anticipates this objection which Job might make.
Be more pure than his Maker? an unanswerable argument against Job. He made thee, and that for himself and his own glory, and therefore hath an unquestionable right to deal with thee, and dispose of thee, the work of his hands, as he sees fit. Woe to him that striveth with his maker! Isa 45:9. Besides, he made man just and pure; if any man have any thing of justice or purity in him, it is derived from God, the undoubted and only fountain of it; and therefore it must necessarily be in God in a far more eminent degree.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
17. mortal man . . . a manTwoHebrew words for “man” are used; the first implyinghis feebleness; the second his strength. Whether feeble or strong,man is not righteous before God.
more just than God . . . morepure than his makerBut this would be self-evident without anoracle.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Shall mortal man be more just than God?…. Poor, weak, frail, dying man, and so sinful, as his mortality shows, which is the effect of sin; how should such a man be more righteous than God? who is so originally and essentially of himself, completely, perfectly, yea, infinitely righteous in his nature, and in his works, both of providence and grace; in chastising his people, punishing the wicked, and bestowing favours upon his friends, even in their election, redemption, justification, pardon, and eternal happiness: yea, not only profane wicked sinners can make no pretensions to anything of this kind, but even the best of men, none being without sin, no, not man in his best estate; for the righteousness he had then was of God, and therefore he could not be more just than he that made him upright. This comparative sense, which our version leads to, is more generally received; but it seems not to be the sense of the passage, since this is a truth clear from reason, and needed no vision or revelation to discover it; nor can it be thought that God would send an angelic spirit in such an awful and pompous manner, to declare that which every one knew, and no man would contradict; even the most self-righteous and self-sufficient man would never be so daring and insolent as to say he was more righteous than God; but the words should be rather rendered, “shall mortal man be justified by God, or be just from God?” or “with” him, or “before” him t, in his sight, by any righteousness in him, or done by him? shall he enter into his presence, stand at his bar, and be examined there, and go away from thence, in the sight and account of God, as a righteous person of himself? no, he cannot; now this is a doctrine opposed to carnal reasoning and the common sentiments of men, a doctrine of divine revelation, a precious truth: this is the string of pearls Eliphaz received, see Job 4:12; that mortal man is of himself an unrighteous creature; that he cannot be justified by his own righteousness in the sight of God; and that he must look and seek out for a better righteousness than his own, to justify him before God; and this agrees with Eliphaz’s interpretation of the vision, Job 15:14; with the sentiments of his friend Bildad, who seems to have some respect to it, Job 25:4; and also of Job himself, Job 9:2; and in like manner are we to understand the following clause:
shall a man be more pure than his Maker? even the greatest and best of men, since what purity was in Adam, in a state of innocence, was from God; and what good men have, in a state of grace, is from the grace of God and blood of Christ, without which no man is pure at all, and therefore cannot be purer than him from whom they have it: or rather “be pure from”, or “with”, or “before his Maker” u, or be so accounted by him; every man is impure by his first birth, and in his nature state, and therefore cannot stand before a pure and holy God, who of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; or go away his presence, and be reckoned by him a pure and holy creature of himself; nor can any thing that he can do, in a moral or ceremonial manner, cleanse him from his impurity; and therefore it is necessary he should apply to the grace of God, and blood of Christ, for his purification.
t “an mortalis a Deo justificabitur?” Codurcus’ Bolducius, Deodatus, Gussetius, Ebr. Comment. p. 709. “Num mortalis a numine justus erit?” Schultens; so Mr. Broughton, “can the sorrowful man be holden just before the Puissant?” u “an quisquam vir a factore suo mundus habebitur?” Codurcus; “an a conditore suo purus erit vir?” Schultens; so Mr. Broughton, “can the human being be clear before him that was his Maker?”
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
17 Is a mortal just before Eloah,
Or a man pure before his Maker?
18 Behold, He trusteth not His servants!
And His angels He chargeth with imperfection.
19 How much more those who dwell in houses of clay,
They are crushed as though they were moths.
20 From morning until evening, – so are they broken in pieces:
Unobserved they perish for ever.
21 Is it not so: the cord of their tent in them is torn away,
So they die, and not in wisdom?
The question arises whether is comparative: prae Deo , on which Mercier with penetration remarks: justior sit oportet qui immerito affligitur quam qui immerito affligit ; or causal: a Deo, h.e., ita ut a Deo justificetur . All modern expositors rightly decide on the latter. Hahn justly maintains that and are found in a similar connection in other places; and Job 32:2 is perhaps not to be explained in any other way, at least that does not restrict the present passage. By the servants of God, none but the angels, mentioned in the following line of the verse, are intended. with signifies imputare ( 1Sa 22:15); in Job 24:12 (comp. Job 1:22) we read , absurditatem (which Hupf. wishes to restore even here), joined with the verb in this signification. The form is certainly not to be taken as stultitia from the verb ; the half vowel, and still less the absence of the Dagesh, will not allow this. (Olsh. 213, c), itself uncertain in its etymology, presents no available analogy. The form points to a Lamedh-He verb, as from , so perhaps from , Niph. , remotus , Mic 4:7: being distant, being behind the perfect, difference; or even from (Targ. , Pa. ) = , weakness, want of strength.
(Note: Schnurrer compares the Arabic wahila , which signifies to be relaxed, forgetful, to err, to neglect. Ewald, considering the as radical, compares the Arabic dll , to err, and tal , med. wau , to be dizzy, unconscious; but neither from nor from can the substantival form be sustained.)
Both significations will do, for it is not meant that the good spirits positively sin, as if sin were a natural necessary consequence of their creatureship and finite existence, but that even the holiness of the good spirits is never equal to the absolute holiness of God, and that this deficiency is still greater in spirit-corporeal man, who has earthiness as the basis of his original nature. At the same time, it is presupposed that the distance between God and created earth is disproportionately greater than between God and created spirit, since matter is destined to be exalted to the nature of the spirit, but also brings the spirit into the danger of being degraded to its own level.
Job 4:19 signifies, like , quanto minus , or quanto magis , according as a negative or positive sentence precedes: since Job 4:18 is positive, we translate it here quanto magis , as 2Sa 16:11. Men are called dwellers in clay houses: the house of clay is their , as being taken de limo terrae (Job 33:6; comp. Wis. 9:15); it is a fragile habitation, formed of inferior materials, and destined to destruction. The explanation which follows – those whose , i.e., foundation of existence, is in dust – shows still more clearly that the poet has Gen 2:7; Gen 3:19, in his mind. It crushes them (subject, everything that operates destructively on the life of man) , i.e., not: sooner than the moth is crushed (Hahn), or more rapidly than a moth destroys (Oehler, Fries), or even appointed to the moth for destruction (Schlottm.); but signifies, as Job 3:24 (cf. 1Sa 1:16), ad instar : as easily as a moth is crushed. They last only from morning until evening: they are broken in pieces ( , from , for ); they are therefore as ephemerae. They perish for ever, without any one taking it to heart ( suppl. , Isa 42:25; Isa 57:1), or directing the heart towards it, animum advertit ( suppl. , Job 1:8).
In Job 4:21 the soul is compared to the cord of a tent, which stretches out and holds up the body as a tent, like Ecc 12:6, with a silver cord, which holds the lamp hanging from the covering of the tent. Olshausen is inclined to read , their tent-pole, instead of , and at any rate thinks the accompanying superfluous and awkward. But (1) the comparison used here of the soul, and of the life sustained by it, corresponds to its comparison elsewhere with a thread or weft, of which death is the cutting through or loosing (Job 6:9; Job 27:8; Isa 38:12); (12) is neither superfluous nor awkward, since it is intended to say, that their duration of life falls in all at once like a tent when that which in them ( ) corresponds to the cord of a tent (i.e., the ) is drawn away from it. The relation of the members of the sentence in Job 4:21 is just the same as in Job 4:2: Will they not die when it is torn away, etc. They then die off in lack of wisdom, i.e., without having acted in accordance with the perishableness of their nature and their distance from God; therefore, rightly considered: unprepared and suddenly, comp. Job 36:12; Pro 5:23. Oehler, correctly: without having been made wiser by the afflictions of God. The utterance of the Spirit, the compass of which is unmistakeably manifest by the strophic division, ends here. Eliphaz now, with reference to it, turns to Job.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(17) Shall mortal man be more just than God?This is the burden, or refrain, upon which the friends of Job are for ever harping. It is perfectly orthodox, but at the same time perfectly inadequate to deal with the necessities of Jobs case. He is willing to admit that it is impossible for any man to be just with God; but then arises Jobs dilemma, Where is Gods justice if He punishes the innocent as the guilty? The word rendered mortal man is really weak, frail man, involving, it may be, the idea of mortality, but not immediately suggesting it. As far as mortality implies sin, the notion of being just is absurd; and even a strong mansuch is the antithesiscannot be more pure than He that made him, who, it is assumed, must be both strong and righteous.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Second strophe The purport of the revelation whose faintest whisper Eliphaz heard, Job 4:17-21. Job 4:17 contains the thesis which the subsequent portion of the disclosure illustrates.
17. Man Geber, the mighty one, forms a climax with mortal man, ( enosh,) sickly man; the latter being a collective word for the entire race. The root of this word man ( enosh) involves moral disease, as in Jer 17:9, where a participial form ( anush) is translated desperately wicked.
More just than God The Septuagint, ( ,) Rosenmuller, and the Germans generally, render , min, before God.
Thus, “Is a mortal just before God? Is a man pure before his Maker?” They base their translation on the objection of Codurcus, that no one was ever so foolish as to suppose that man is more just than God. The Hebrew, however, will admit also of the rendering of the text, which is that of the Chaldee and the Vulgate more just than God. This view Conant judiciously defends: “Whoever censures the course of Providence by complaining of his own lot (as Job had done) claims to be more just than God, the equity of whose government he thus arraigns.” With this view agrees that of Hengstenberg. Each complaint over too hard a fate is a pretension that we may be more just than God; that we may have received less from God than we have given him. Such pretensions Job had made by his murmurings against the divine dispensations. These pretensions are refuted in what follows by adducing the sinfulness of our race. Compare H. Melville’s sermon, ( in loc.,) “The Spectre’s Sermon a Truism.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 4:17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
Ver. 17. Shall mortal man ] Sorry sinful man, a very mixture and hodge podge of dirt and sin, Miser, aerumnis et peccatis obnoxius.
Be more just than God?
Shall man be more pure than his maker?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Shall. ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6.
mortal man. Hebrew. ‘enosh. App-14.
man = strong man. Hebrew. geber. App-14.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Shall mortal: Job 8:3, Job 9:2, Job 35:2, Job 40:8, Gen 18:25, Psa 143:2, Psa 145:17, Ecc 7:20, Jer 12:1, Rom 2:5, Rom 3:4-7, Rom 9:20, Rom 11:33
shall a man: Job 9:30, Job 9:31, Job 14:4, Job 15:14, Job 25:4, Jer 17:9, Mar 7:20-23, Rev 4:8
Reciprocal: Job 9:20 – justify
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 4:17. Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall man, fallen man, as the word , enosh, here used, signifies, subject as he is to diseases, troubles, and all those calamities which are the necessary consequences of sin and disobedience, pretend more strictly to observe the laws of justice, and therefore to be more just, than the righteous God? The sense is, Thou, O Job, dost presumptuously accuse God of dealing harshly and unrighteously with thee in sending thee into the world upon such hard terms, and punishing an innocent and righteous man with unparalleled severity; but, consider things calmly within thyself. Were it possible for God and thee to come to trial before any equal and impartial judge, canst thou think that thou wouldest go away justified, and that the great God would be condemned? No righteous man will punish another without cause, or more than he deserves; and, therefore, if God do so with thee, as thy words imply, he is less just than man, which it is blasphemous and absurd to imagine. Shall a man Hebrew, , geber, a great and mighty man, as this word signifies; shall even such a one a man eminent for wisdom, or holiness, or power, or any other perfections, who therefore might expect more favour than a poor, miserable, and contemptible man, signified by the former word enosh; be more pure than his Maker? More holy and righteous; show a greater hatred to injustice, or be more equitable in his proceedings, which he would be if he could justly reprehend any of the divine dispensations, and would not act toward his fellow-creatures, as he supposes God acts toward him or others? No, this cannot be: it would be the most daring presumption to entertain a thought of the kind; for though a man may have some qualifications which are not in others of his fellow-creatures, and some pre-eminences above many of them; yet, in the presence of his Maker, from whom he has received every excellence which he possesses, and on whom he is daily dependant for them, and all things, he must acknowledge his own comparative nothingness, and confess that the highest qualities which are in him are both derived from God, and exist in God in an infinitely greater degree. It is not without reason that enosh, fallen man, is here placed in opposition to Eloath, the great and holy God; and geber, a mighty man, to gnoseh, his Maker. For the contrast in both cases is remarkably striking, namely, between man, sinful, miserable, mortal, and the immutable, holy, blessed, and immortal God; and between even a great and mighty man, and the Being from whom he has received all his might and greatness, nay, and his very existence, and on whom he is dependant for them every moment; or between the man of power, and the maker and upholder of that power. In this expression of the angel, Shall a man be more pure than his Maker?
was contained an unanswerable argument against, and a forcible reproof of, Jobs impatience and complaints: as if he had said, He made thee, and that for himself and his own glory; and therefore he hath an unquestionable right to deal with thee and dispose of thee, who art the work of his hands, as he sees fit. Wo to him that striveth with his Maker, Isa 45:9.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 4:17-21. This is what the vision said. Translate as mg.: Shall mortal man be just before God, shall a man be pure before his maker? Even the angels are fallible, how much more man, who inhabits a house of clay, i.e. a body formed from the dust (Gen 2:7; Gen 3:19, 2Co 5:1). Observe that we are not yet at the point of view of the later Judaism and the NT, according to which some angels are good, some bad. All are fallible. Again, observe that mans sin fulness is deduced simply from his creatureliness, especially, however, from his being made from the dust. The spirit that appears to Eliphaz knows nothing of the Fall as an explanation of human sin. His thought is rather that if the angels, who are of spirit (which was conceived by the ancient world in general as a finer kind of matter) are not perfect in Gods sight, man. who is of the dust, must even less be so. Men are ephemerals (Job 4:20) they are crushed like the moth (Job 4:19 mg.): how can such creatures claim perfection before God, or have a right against Him. Men die, just as a tent is taken down when the tent cord is plucked up, and their life comes to an end without their having obtained wisdom, i.e. in the context, the fear of God, that absolute submission to Him, which is the only wisdom for such moths.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
4:17 Shall mortal man be more {l} just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker?
(l) He proves that if God punished the innocent, the creature would be more just than the creator, which was blasphemy.