Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 21:22
Shall [any] teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.
22. The emphasis falls on God Shall any teach knowledge unto God? The principles of providence insisted on by the friends were not those according to which God’s actual providence was administered. They were substituting their principles for His.
seeing he judgeth ] The clause emphasises the word God: Shall any teach knowledge unto God God who judges those that are high? “Those that are high” are the inhabitants of the heavens; and to “judge” means to decide in regard to, to bring His judicial power to bear upon; the word does not mean to condemn. God judges the heavens, and shall one teach Him how to rule the affairs of earth? Cf. ch. Job 22:13.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
22 26. By insisting on a doctrine of providence which did not correspond to God’s providence as actually seen in facts, Job’s friends were making themselves wiser than God and becoming His teachers Will any teach knowledge unto God? Shall we insist on His method of government being what it plainly is not? This is what it is: One man dieth in his full prosperity, wholly at ease and quiet. Another man dieth in the bitterness of his soul and has not tasted pleasure. They lie down alike in the dust and the worm covers them. Their different fortune is not determined by their different character. The one is not good and the other wicked. But God distributes to them as He chooses.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Shall any teach God knowledge? – This commences the reply of Job to the sentiments of his friends to which he had just adverted. The substance of the reply is, that no one could prescribe to God how he should deal with people, and that it; was not a FACT that people were treated as they had supposed. Instead of its being true, as they maintained, that wicked people would all be cut down in some fearful and violent manner, as a punishment for their sins, Job goes on Job 21:23-26 to show that they died in a great variety of ways – one in full age and prosperity, and another in another manner. This, he says, God directs as he pleases. No one can teach him knowledge; no one can tell him what he ought to do. The reasoning of his friends, Job seems to imply, had been rather an attempt to teach God how he ought to deal with people, than a patient and candid inquiry into the facts in the case, and he says the facts were not as they supposed they ought to be.
Seeing he judgeth those that are high – Or rather, he judges among the things that are high. He rules over the great affairs of the universe, and it is presumptuous in us to attempt to prescribe to him how he shall govern the world. The design of this and the following verses is to show, that, from the manner in which people actually die, no argument can be derived to determine what was their religious condition, or their real character. Nothing is more fallacious than that kind of reasoning.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 21:22
Shall any teach God knowledge?
Mental independence of God
The mental independency of God involves two things–uninstructibleness and irresponsibleness. The former in man is either a calamity or a crime. But that which in any finite intelligence would be either a misfortune or a sin, is a glorious perfection in God. It is the glory of God that He cannot be instructed–that no one can teach Him knowledge. He knows all things, actual and possible. But whilst the former ought not to exist in any intelligent creature, the latter irresponsibility does not exist. No being is authorised to use his knowledge in any way he may think fit. All rational creatures are accountable for the use of their knowledge. Not so with God. He can use His infinite knowledge in any way He pleases. He is answerable to none: all are responsible to Him.
I. That all His operations must emanate from pure sovereignty. All that exists must be traced to the counsel of His own will. He received neither the plan nor motive for any act. Creation–redemption–conversion–every part of each–every Divine movement in connection with each–rises out of benevolent spontaneity.
II. That all His laws must be the transcript of His own mind. It is seldom just to regard human laws as a correct reflection of the mind of the sovereign, for a human sovereign, in most cases, receives counsels and suggestions from others; but as God has had no counsellor, His laws are the expression of Himself. What they are, He is. The history of His government is the history of Himself. Irresponsible power in a creature would be despotism, but in God it has, from the beginning, been mercy.
III. That all His dispensations should be cordially acquiesced in.
1. Rectitude dictates this. The Absolute Mind has a right to do what He does.
2. Expediency dictates this. Opposition is useless. No being can give Him a new idea or motive, and, therefore, no one can turn Him from His course.
IV. That all His revelations should be properly studied. A book from a Mind absolutely independent should be studied–
1. With an expectation of difficulties.
2. With the profoundest reverence. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. Shall any teach God knowledge?] Who among the sons of men can pretend to teach GOD how to govern the world, who himself teaches those that are high-the heavenly inhabitants, that excel us infinitely both in knowledge and wisdom? Neither angels nor men can comprehend the reasons of the Divine providence. It is a depth known only to God.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Knowledge, i.e. discretion, or how to govern the world. For so you do, whilst you tell him that he must not sorely afflict the godly, nor give the wicked much and long prosperity here.
He judgeth those that are high; either,
1. The highest persons, whether in earth, as the greatest kings; or in heaven, as the angels: he judgeth them, i.e. he exactly knows them, and accordingly gives sentence concerning them, as he sees fit; and therefore it is great folly and presumption in us to direct or correct his judgments. Or,
2. Those things that are high, and deep, and far out of our reach, as Gods secret counsels and judgments are.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. Reply of Job, “In allthese assertions you try to teach God how He ought to dealwith men, rather than prove that He does in fact so deal withthem. Experience is against you. God gives prosperity and adversityas it pleases Him, not as man’s wisdom would have it, on principlesinscrutable to us” (Isa 40:13;Rom 11:34).
those . . . highthehigh ones, not only angels, but men (Isa2:12-17).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Shall [any] teach God knowledge?…. Who is a God of knowledge, and knows all things, that teaches men knowledge; will any one take upon him to teach him the path of judgment, and the way of understanding, how he shall govern the world, and dispose of men and things in it? see Isa 40:13. Will anyone be so bold and audacious as to pretend to direct and instruct him whom he shall afflict, and whom not, and when he shall do it, and in what manner? should not these things be left to him, who does all things after the counsel of his own will? shall his dealings with men in an outward way of providence be the criterions of the characters and estates of men, as if love and hatred were to be known by those things, and therefore God must be taught what he should do in order to fix them?
seeing he judgeth those that are high; not the high heavens, as the Targum, nor the angels in them, though he has judged them that sinned, and cast them down to hell; but the high ones on earth, kings, princes, and civil magistrates, such as are in high places, and are lifted up with pride above others: God is above them; he is higher than the highest, and judges them; he is the Judge of all the earth, that will do right, the Governor of the universe, and who overrules all things for his own glory and the good of his creatures; and therefore none should pretend to direct him what is fit and proper to be done by him, who is a Sovereign, and distinguishes men in his providence, in life, and at death, as follows; but their characters, as good or bad men, are not to be determined thereby.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
22 Shall one teach God knowledge,
Who judgeth those who are in heaven?
23 One dieth in his full strength,
Being still cheerful and free from care.
24 His troughs are full of milk,
And the marrow of his bones is well watered.
25 And another dieth with a sorrowing spirit,
And hath not enjoyed wealth.
26 They lie beside one another in the dust,
And worms cover them both.
The question, Job 21:22, concerns the friends. Since they maintain that necessarily and constantly virtue is rewarded by prosperity, and sin by misfortune, but without this law of the divine order of the world which is maintained by them being supported by experience: if they set themselves up as teachers of God, they will teach Him the right understanding of the conduct which is to be followed by Him as a ruler and judge of men, while nevertheless He is the Absolute One, beneath whose judicial rule not merely man, but also the heavenly spirits, are placed, and to which they must conform and bow. The verb , instead of being construed with two acc., as in the dependent passage Isa 40:14, is here construed with the dat. of the person (which is not to be judged according to Job 5:2; Job 19:3, but according to , to teach one anything, beside the other prevailing construction). With a circumstantial clause begins regularly: while He, however, etc. Arnh. and Lwenth. translate: while, however, He exaltedly judges, i.e., according to a law that infinitely transcends man; but that must have been (and even thus it would still be liable to be misunderstood). Hahn (whom Olsh. is inclined to support): but He will judge the proud, to which first the circumstantial clause, and secondly the parallels, Job 35:2; Job 15:15; Job 4:18 (comp. Isa 24:21), from which it is evident that signifies the heavenly beings (as Psa 78:69, the heights of heaven), are opposed: it is a fundamental thought of this book, which abounds in allusions to the angels, that the angels, although exalted above men, are nevertheless in contrast with God imperfect, and therefore are removed neither from the possibility of sin nor the necessity of a government which holds them together in unity, and exercises a judicial authority over them. The rule of the all-exalted Judge is different from that which the three presumptuously prescribe to Him.
The one (viz., the evil-doer) dies , in ipsa sua integritate , like , ipso illo die ; the Arabic would be f yn , since there the eye, here the bone (comp. Uhlemann, Syr. Gramm. 58), denote corporeality, duration, existence, and therefore identity. is intended of perfect external health, as elsewhere ; comp. , Pro 1:12. In Job 21:23 the pointing ( adj.) and (3 praet.) are interchanged in the Codd.; the following verbal adjective favours the form of writing with Kametz. As to the form, however (which Rd. and Olsh. consider to be an error in writing), it is either a mixed form from and with the blended meaning of both (Ew. 106, c), to which the comparison with (= ) is not altogether suitable, or it is formed from by means of an epenthesis (as from , aestuare , and , , from ), and of similar but intensified signification; we prefer the latter, without however denying the real existence of such mixed forms (vid., on Job 26:9; Job 33:25). This fulness of health and prosperity is depicted in Job 21:24. The ancient translators think, because the bones are mentioned in the parallel line, must also be understood of a part of the body: lxx , Jer. viscera ; Targ. , his breasts,
(Note: Vid., Handschriftliche Funde, 2. S. V.)
(for Hebr. , ); Syr. version gabauh (= ganbauh ), his sides in regard to , Syr. attmo = , side, hip; Saad. audaguhu , his jugular veins, in connection with which (not, however, by this last rendering) is read instead of : his bowels, etc., are full of fat.
(Note: Gesenius in his Thes. corrects the which was found in Saadia’s manuscript translation to , Arab. awdauhu , which is intended to mean repositoria ejus , but is really not Arabic; whereas is the correct plur. of Arab. wadaj : his jugular veins, which occurs not merely of horses, but also of animals and men. Saadia, with reference to the following , has thought of the metaphorical phrase Arab. halaba awdajahu : “he has milked his jugular vein,” i.e., he has, as it were, drawn the blood from his jugular veins = eum jugulavit , vid., Bibliotheca Arabo-Sicula, p. 563: “and with the freshly milked juice of the jugular veins, viz., of the enemy (Arab. w – mn hlb ‘l – ‘wdaj ), our infant ready to be weaned is nourished in the midst of the tumult of battle, as soon as he is weaned.” The meaning of Saadia’s translation is then: his jugular veins are filled with fresh blood swollen with fulness of blood. – Fl.)
But the assumption that must be a part of the body is without satisfactory ground (comp. against it e.g., Job 20:17, and for it Job 20:11); and Schlottm. very correctly observes, that in the contrast in connection with the representation of the well-watered marrow one expects a reference to a rich nutritious drink. To this expectation corresponds the translation: “his resting-places (i.e., of his flocks) are full of milk,” after the Arab. atan or matin . which was not first compared by Schultens and Reiske ( epaulia), but even by Abul-walid, Aben-Ezra, and others.
But since the reference of what was intended to be said of the cattle at the watering-places to the places where the water is, possesses no poetic beauty, and the Hebrew language furnished the poet with an abundance of other words for pastures and meadows, it is from the first more probable that are large troughs, – like Talm. , a trough, in which the unripe olives were laid in order that they might become tender and give forth oil, that they may then be ready for the oil-press ( ), and denotes this laying in itself, – and indeed either milk-tubs or milk-pails ( ), or with Kimchi (who rightly characterizes this as more in accordance with the prosperous condition which is intended to be described), the troughs for the store of milk, which also accords better with the meaning of the verb , Arab. atana , to lay in, confire.
(Note: The Arab. verb ‘tn, compared by the Orientals themselves with Arab. wtn, cognate in sound and meaning, has the primary signification to lie secure and to lay secure, as Arab. ‘atan, a resting-place of camels, sheep, and goats about the watering-places, is only specifically distinct from Arab. watan, a cow-shed, cow-stall. The common generic notion is always a resting-place, wherefore the Kamus interprets ‘attan by wattan wa-mebrek, viz., round about the drinking-places. Arab. ma’tin as n. loci, written m’atn by Barth in his Wanderungen durch die Kstenlnder des Mittelmeeres, Bd. i. (vid., Deutsch. Morgenlnd. Zeitschrift, iv. S. 275) S. 500, 517, is similar in meaning. The Arab. verb ‘atana, impf. j’attunu, also j’attina, n. act. ‘uttn, a v. instrans., signifies, viz., of camels, etc., to lay themselves down around the drinking-troughs, after or even before drinking from them. On the other hand, Arab. ‘atana, impf. j’attinu, also j’attunu, n. act. ‘attn, a v. trans. used by the dresser of skins: to lay the skins in the tan or ooze (French, confire; low Latin, tanare, tannare, whence French, tanner, to tan, tan, the bark) until they are ready for dressing, and the hairs will easily scrape off. Hence Arab. ‘atina, impf. j’attanu, n. act. ‘attan, a v. intrans. used of skins: to become tender by lying in the ooze, and to smell musty, to stink, which is then transferred to men and animals: to stink like a skin in the ooze, comp. situs, mould, mildew, rest. – Fl. Starting from the latter signification, macerare pellem, Lee explains: his bottles (viz., made of leather); and Carey: his half-dressed skins (because the store of milk is so great that he cannot wait for the preparation of the leather for the bottles); but the former is impossible, the latter out of taste, and both are far-fetched.)
From the abundance of nutriment in Job 21:24, the description passes over in Job 21:24 to the well-nourished condition of the rich man himself in consequence of this abundance. (Arab. muchch , or even nuchch , as = , naurag = ) is the marrow in the bones, e.g., the spinal marrow, but also the brain as the marrow of the head ( Psychol. S. 233). The bones (Pro 3:8), or as it is here more exactly expressed, their marrow, is watered, when the body is inwardly filled with vigour, strength, and health; Isaiah, Isa 58:11, fills up the picture more (as a well-watered garden), and carries it still further in Isa 66:14 (thy bones shall blossom like a tender herb). The counterpart now follows with (and the other, like Job 1:16). The other (viz., the righteous) dies with a sorrowful soul (comp. Job’s lament, Job 7:11; Job 10:1), i.e., one which is called to experience the bitterness of a suffering life; he dies and has not enjoyed , any of the wealth (with partitive Beth, as Psa 141:4, comp. supra, Job 7:13), has had no portion in the enjoyment of it (comp. Job’s lament, Job 9:25). In death they are then both, unrighteous and righteous, alike, as the Preacher said: comes upon the wise as upon the fool, Ecc 2:15, comp. Job 9:2. They lie together in the dust, i.e., the dust of the grave (vid., on Job 19:25), and worms cover them. What then is become of the law of retribution in the present world, which the friends maintained with such rigid pertinacity, and so regardless of the deep wound they were inflicting on Job?
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(22) Shall any teach God knowledge? may be regarded as the hypothetical reply of the antagonist. If the reader prefers to understand these latter verses in any other way, it is open to him to do so, but in our judgment it seems better to understand them thus. The supposed alternative hypothetical argument seems to throw much light upon them.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. Teach God knowledge Prescribe to God what he ought to do! (Job 20:23,) who is perfectly competent to administer his own government.
Those that are high Literally, For he judgeth the high, that is, angels. (Job 4:18; Job 15:15.)
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 21:22 Shall [any] teach God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.
Ver. 22. Shall any teach God knowledge? ] None but a presumptuous fool will take upon him to do that. Such as was Alphonso the wise (the fool rather), who feared not to say openly, that if he had been of God’s counsel at the creation, some things should have been better made and marshalled (Roderic, Sanct. Hist. Hispan, p. 4, ch. 5). The wisest men are benighted in many things; and whatever light they have it is from the Father of lights, whose judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out. What a madness were it therefore for any mortal to prescribe to the Almighty, or to define whom, when, by what means, and in what measure he must punish offenders! Herein Job’s friends took too much upon them; and he gives them the telling of it, wishing them to be wise to sobriety, and not to give laws to God, who well knoweth what he hath to do, and how to order his earthly kingdom. To disallow of his dealings is to teach him knowledge; which is greatest sauciness.
Seeing he judgeth those that are high
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
teach: Job 40:2, Isa 40:13, Isa 40:14, Isa 45:9, Rom 11:34, 1Co 2:16
he judgeth: Job 34:17-19, Psa 113:5, Psa 113:6, Ecc 5:8, Isa 40:22, Isa 40:23, 1Co 6:3, 2Pe 2:4, Jud 1:6, Rev 20:1-3, Rev 20:12-15
Reciprocal: Luk 4:27 – Naaman
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 21:22. Shall any teach God knowledge How to govern the world? For so you do while you tell him that he must not afflict the godly, nor give the wicked prosperity; that he must invariably punish the wicked, and reward the righteous in this world. No: he will act as sovereign, and with great variety in his providential dispensations. Seeing he judgeth those that are high The highest persons on earth, he exactly knows them, and gives sentence concerning them, as he sees fit. Thus, as Job had introduced the foregoing particular, namely, that wicked men are sometimes severely punished in this world, by an easy transition, at Job 21:16; so, by another as easy, he here introduces the remaining article of his discourse above mentioned, namely, that God deals out things promiscuously in this world, not according to mens merit or demerit, which he pursues in the following verses.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
21:22 Shall [any] teach {l} God knowledge? seeing he judgeth those that are high.
(l) Who sends to the wicked prosperity and punishes the godly.