Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 6:22
Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?
22. a reward ] Rather, a gift.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
22, 23. He had not asked anything very great from his friends, which would have been too severe a strain on their friendship, only sympathy, and straightforward dealing, and that they should consider him the truthful man whom they knew him to be.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Did I say, Bring unto me? – Job proceeds to state that their conduct in this had been greatly aggravated by the fact that they had come voluntarily. He had not asked them to come. He had desired no gift; no favor. He had not applied to them in any way or form for help. They had come of their own accord, and when they came they uttered only the language of severity and reproach. If he had asked them to aid him, the case would have been different. That would have given them some excuse for interposing in the case. But now the whole was gratuitous and unasked. He did not desire their interference, and he implies by these remarks that if they could say nothing that would console him, it would have been kindness in them to have said nothing.
Or, Give a reward for me of your substance? – That is, did I ask a present from you out of your property? I asked nothing. I have on no occasion asked you to interpose and aid me.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 22. Did I say, Bring unto me?] Why do you stand aloof? Have I asked you to bring me any presents? or to supply my wants out of your stores?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Did I say? or, Is it because I said? Is this, or what else is the reason why you are afraid of me, or alienated from me? Bring unto me; give me something for my support or relief. Did either my former covetousness or my present necessity make me troublesome or chargeable to you? Give a reward for me; either to the judge before whom I am brought and accused, that he may give a favourable sentence in my behalf; or to the enemy who hath taken me captive. Or, give a gift for me, i.e. for my use or need. Did I send for you to come and visit me for this end? nay, did you not come of your own accords. Why then are you thus unmerciful to me? Methinks you might at least have given me good and comfortable words, which is the easiest and cheapest part of a friends work, when I desired and expected nothing else from you.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. And yet I did not ask you to”bring me” a gift; or to “pay for me out of yoursubstance a reward” (to the Judge, to redeem me from mypunishment); all I asked from you was affectionate treatment.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Did I say, bring unto me?…. Or, “give unto me” b; did I invite you to come to me, and bring in your hands presents for me, to support me under my necessitous circumstances?
or give a reward for me of your substance? did I ever ask anything of you? if I had, it would have been but your duty to have given freely to me in my deplorable circumstances; and it might have been expected you would have given without asking, seeing my necessities so great: or did I desire you to communicate out of the great wealth and abundant riches you are possessed of to others on my behalf, to plead my cause among men, and to get a favourable sentence upon me, that I might not be traduced as a wicked man by censorious tongues? had I ever been troublesome to you in any respect, you might have been provoked to use me ill; but since nothing of this kind has ever been requested of you, you might have forborne ill language and hard words; which are often given to beggars; for when a man is fallen to decay, and becomes troublesome by his importunity, twenty things are raked up by his friends against his character; as that he has been lazy and indolent, or lavish and extravagant, c. to save their money, and excuse them from acts of charity but this was not the case here.
b “date mihi”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Drusius, Cocceius, Michaelis.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
22 Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance? 23 Or, Deliver me from the enemy’s hand? or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty? 24 Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred. 25 How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove? 26 Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind? 27 Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherless, and ye dig a pit for your friend. 28 Now therefore be content, look upon me; for it is evident unto you if I lie. 29 Return, I pray you, let it not be iniquity; yea, return again, my righteousness is in it. 30 Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?
Poor Job goes on here to upbraid his friends with their unkindness and the hard usage they gave him. He here appeals to themselves concerning several things which tended both to justify him and to condemn them. If they would but think impartially, and speak as they thought, they could not but own,
I. That, though he was necessitous, yet he was not craving, nor burdensome to his friends. Those that are so, whose troubles serve them to beg by, are commonly less pitied than the silent poor. Job would be glad to see his friends, but he did not say, Bring unto me (v. 22), or, Deliver me, v. 23. He did not desire to put them to any expense, did not urge his friends either, 1. To make a collection for him, to set him up again in the world. Though he could plead that his losses came upon him by the hand of God and not by any fault or folly of his own,–that he was utterly ruined and impoverished,–that he had lived in good condition, and that when he had wherewithal he was charitable and ready to help those that were in distress,–that his friends were rich, and able to help him, yet he did not say, Give me of your substance. Note, A good man, when troubled himself, is afraid of being troublesome to his friends. Or, 2. To raise the country for him, to help him to recover his cattle out of the hands of the Sabeans and Chaldeans, or to make reprisals upon them: “Did I send for you to deliver me out of the hand of the mighty? No, I never expected you should either expose yourselves to any danger or put yourselves to any charge upon my account. I will rather sit down content under my affliction, and make the best of it, than sponge upon my friends.” St. Paul worked with his hands, that he might not be burdensome to any. Job’s not asking their help did not excuse them from offering it when he needed it and it was in the power of their hands to give it; but it much aggravated their unkindness when he desired no more from them than a good look, and a good word, and yet could not obtain them. It often happens that from man, even when we expect little, we have less, but from God, even when we expect much, we have more, Eph. iii. 20.
II. That, though he differed in opinion from them, yet he was not obstinate, but ready to yield to conviction, and to strike sail to truth as soon as ever it was made to appear to him that he was in an error (Job 6:24; Job 6:25): “If, instead of invidious reflections and uncharitable insinuations, you will give me plain instructions and solid arguments, which shall carry their own evidence along with them, I am ready to acknowledge my error and own myself in a fault: Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; for I have often found, with pleasure and wonder, how forcible right words are. But the method you take will never make proselytes: What doth your arguing reprove? Your hypothesis is false, your surmises are groundless, your management is weak, and your application peevish and uncharitable.” Note, 1. Fair reasoning has a commanding power, and it is a wonder if men are not conquered by it; but railing and foul language are impotent and foolish, and it is no wonder if men are exasperated and hardened by them. 2. It is the undoubted character of every honest man that he is truly desirous to have his mistakes rectified, and to be made to understand wherein he has erred; and he will acknowledge that right words, when they appear to him to be so, though contrary to his former sentiments, are both forcible and acceptable.
III. That, though he had been indeed in a fault, yet they ought not to have given him such hard usage (Job 6:26; Job 6:27): “Do you imagine, or contrive with a great deal of art” (for so the word signifies), “to reprove words, some passionate expressions of mine in this desperate condition, as if they were certain indications of reigning impiety and atheism? A little candour and charity would have served to excuse them, and to put a better construction upon them. Shall a man’s spiritual state be judged of by some rash and hasty words, which a surprising trouble extorts from him? Is it fair, is it kind, is it just, to criticize in such a case? Would you yourselves be served thus?” Two things aggravated their unkind treatment of him:– 1. That they took advantage of his weakness and the helpless condition he was in: You overwhelm the fatherless, a proverbial expression, denoting that which is most barbarous and inhuman. “The fatherless cannot secure themselves from insults, which emboldens men of base and sordid spirits to insult them and trample upon them; and you do so by me.” Job, being a childless father, thought himself as much exposed to injury as a fatherless child (Ps. cxxvii. 5) and had reason to be offended with those who therefore triumphed over him. Let those who overwhelm and overpower such as upon any account may be looked upon as fatherless know that therein they not only put off the compassions of man, but fight against the compassions of God, who is, and will be, a Father of the fatherless and a helper of the helpless. 2. That they made a pretence of kindness: “You dig a pit for your friend; not only you are unkind to me, who am your friend, but, under colour of friendship, you ensnare me.” When they came to see and sit with him he thought he might speak his mind freely to them, and that the more bitter his complaints to them were the more they would endeavour to comfort him. This made him take a greater liberty than otherwise he would have done. David, though he smothered his resentments when the wicked were before him, would probably have given vent to them if none had been by but friends, Ps. xxxix. 1. But this freedom of speech, which their professions of concern for him made him use, had exposed him to their censures, and so they might be said to dig a pit for him. Thus, when our hearts are hot within us, what is ill done we are apt to misrepresent as if done designedly.
IV. That, though he had let fall some passionate expressions, yet in the main he was in the right, and that his afflictions, though very extraordinary, did not prove him to be a hypocrite or a wicked man. His righteousness he holds fast, and will not let it go. For the evincing of it he here appeals, 1. To what they saw in him (v. 28): “Be content, and look upon me; what do you see in me that bespeaks me either a madman or a wicked man? Nay, look in my face, and you may discern there the indications of a patient and submissive spirit, for all this. Let the show of my countenance witness for me that, though I have cursed my day, I do not curse my God.” Or rather, “Look upon my ulcers and sore boils, and by them it will be evident to you that I do not lie,” that is, “that I do not complain without cause. Let your own eyes convince you that my condition is very sad, and that I do not quarrel with God by making it worse than it is.” 2. To what they heard from him, v. 30. “You hear what I have to say: Is there iniquity in my tongue? that iniquity that you charge me with? Have I blasphemed God or renounced him? Are not my present arguings right? Do not you perceive, by what I say, that I can discern perverse things? I can discover your fallacies and mistakes, and, if I were myself in an error, I could perceive it. Whatever you think of me, I know what I say.” 3. To their own second and sober thoughts (v. 29): “Return, I pray you, consider the thing over again without prejudice and partiality, and let not the result be iniquity, let it not be an unrighteous sentence; and you will find my righteousness is in it,” that is, “I am in the right in this matter; and, though I cannot keep my temper as I should, I keep my integrity, and have not said, nor done, nor suffered, any thing which will prove me other than an honest man.” A just cause desires nothing more than a just hearing, and if need be a re-hearing.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
(22) Did I say, Bring unto me?It is not as though I had abused your former kindness. I never laid myself under obligations to you; I never asked for your help before. Had I done so, I might have wearied out your patience, and brought upon myself your present conduct justly; but you cannot convict me of this.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Give a reward For the purpose of bribing, say some, since the verb will bear such a rendering. The questions are evidently meant in derision.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 6:22 Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your substance?
Ver. 22. Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give, &c. ] Did I ever charge you for my reparation or redemption? This interrogation is more emphatic than a simple negation: q.d. I never did it, and, therefore, unless you had been at more charge with me, you should have bestowed better words upon me; those would have cost you nothing certainly.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Did I say . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6. Continued in Job 6:23.
substance. Hebrew strength; put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), App-6, for what is produced by it.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Bring unto me: Job 42:11, 1Sa 12:3, Act 20:33
Reciprocal: Gen 32:5 – have oxen Psa 106:10 – redeemed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 6:22-23. Did I say Or, is it because I said; Bring unto me? Give me something for my support or relief? Is this, or what else is the reason why you are afraid of me, or alienated from me? Did either my former covetousness, or my present necessity, make me troublesome or chargeable to you? or, Give a reward for me of your substance Or, Give a gift for my use or need? Did I send for you to come and visit me for this end? Nay, did you not come of your own accord? Why then are you so unmerciful to me? You might at least have given me comfortable words, when I expected nothing else from you. Or, Deliver me from the enemys hand? By power and the force of your arms, as Abraham delivered Lot; or, Redeem me from the hand of the mighty? Namely, by price or ransom.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
6:22 Did I say, Bring unto me? or, Give a reward for me of your {n} substance?
(n) He touches the worldlings who for need will give part of their goods, and much more these men, who would not give him comfortable words.