Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 22:22
Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
22. the law ] Or, instruction. The word is a general expression for “every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” as the parallel “his words” in the next clause indicates. Comp. Job’s reply to this advice, ch. Job 23:11-12.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth – Listen to his commands, and obey his precepts.
And lay up his words in thine heart – Embrace his truth, and do not forget it. Let it abide with you, and let it influence your secret feelings and the purposes of the soul.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 22:22
And lay up His words in thine heart.
Meditation
What is meditation? It is thinking steadily, continuously, repeatedly, on a subject. Surely we can find time to think in this steady way, of your business, your family, your politics, your amusements even? Is it so impossible, then, to think thus of your God? How can you expect to grow in the knowledge of God if you never think of Him? It wants no learning, no singular vigour or acuteness, to think Christian thoughts; but it does want a Christian inclination: and if you have not that, do not blame the subject, but blame yourself. You may be sure that no man is better than he means to be. It is the seeker who finds. Idleness about ones soul often goes side by side with industry in our affairs, and the same person who is careful and troubled about many lesser things, will be seen neglecting the one thing needful. In the way of meditation, we set up defences of piety, taking home common rules, and building them into our secret resolves. God blesses these exercises of meditation, that they may lead us on in goodness, so that what, we find true in thinking, we should make come true in acting. The rule runs, In meditation strive for graces, not for gifts; that is, do not aim at impressions and emotions only, but try to become a better person, and more Christian in life. Warnings–
1. Every light throws a shadow; every virtue is haunted by a counterfeit. Meditation should never lead the fancy into false familiarity with heaven. The good man is, in a humble way, a friend of God, and a child of God, but a child still in minority.
2. Turn the matter of salvation, as the saying is, with a daily and nightly hand. Thoughts come to us first as strangers; if received, they return as guests; if well entertained, they stay as members of the family, and end as part of our life and self. So bad thoughts grow into oppressors, and good ones into echoes and reflections of heaven. (T. F. Crosse, D. C. L.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 22. Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth] Some, who wish to place Job before the law given by Moses, say that this means the Noahic precepts; others, that the law of nature is intended! Stuff and vanity! The allusion is plainly to the law given by God to the children of Israel, called here by way of emphasis, torah, the LAW, which contained amaraiv, his WORDS, the words or sayings of God himself; consequently, it is not the Noahic precepts, nor the law of nature, neither of which were ever written or registered as the words of God’s mouth.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Take the law and rule whereby thou governest thy thoughts, and words, and whole life, not from profane heathens, whose opinion concerning Gods providence thou hast embraced, nor from thy own vain imaginations or violent passions, which have led thee into thy present errors and miscarriages, but from God, and from his word, and from his law, which is written in thy own mind, and from the doctrines and instructions of the holy men of God, who are all of our mind in this matter.
Lay up his words in thine heart, i.e. do not only hear them with thine ears, but let them sink into thy heart being received there by hearty affection, and fixed by serious, and frequent, and practical consideration of them, Psa 119:11; Mat 13:9; Luk 2:19,51.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
22. lay up (Ps119:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth,…. Not the law of Moses; for it is a question whether that was as yet, or could come to the knowledge of Job; rather any doctrine, as the word signifies, any revelation of the mind and will of God, made unto the patriarchs in former times, and which was handed down from one to another, and was to be received as coming from the mouth of God, not as the word of man, but as the word of God; and as such to be received with meekness and reverence, with readiness, cheerfulness, and gladness; and not only to be attended to but obeyed:
and lay up his words in thine heart: as a rich treasure, very valuable, and preferable to gold, silver, and precious stones, laid up in chests and cabinets because of their value, and that they might not be lost, but be preserved safe and sure, and that they might be come at, and made use of on proper occasions; as the words of God and doctrines of the Scriptures may be, against the temptations of Satan, the lusts of the flesh, and for the instruction of ourselves and others; and therefore should be retained in our minds, hid in our hearts, and dwell richly in us; and, unless they are in the heart, and have a place there, they will be of little avail to have them in the head or on the tongue; but if they come with power into the heart, and have a place there, they work effectually, and influence the life and conversation: these Job had, and had a great value for them; see Job 6:10.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(22) The law from his mouth.It would be highly interesting to know whether by this law (Torah), the Law, the Torah, was in any way alluded to. One is naturally disposed to think that since Job seems to be the one Gentile book of the Old Testament, the one book in which the literature of Israel touches the world at large, it must, therefore, be prior to the Law, or else have been written in independence and ignorance of it. The former seems by far the more reasonable supposition, and certainly the life depicted appears to be that of the patriarchal times before the giving of the Law. And yet, on the other hand, it is hard to know what could be meant by His words prior to the Mosaic Revelation, unless, indeed, the expression is a witness to the consciousness of that inner revelation of the voice of God in the conscience which the holy in all ages have never wanted.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
22. The law Thorah, the law, written or unwritten. There is no evidence that this refers to the Mosaic law. The word thorah, so common in the Old Testament, appears only this once in Job.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 22:22. Receive, I pray thee, &c. This phrase, says Bishop Warburton, was taken from the verbal delivery of the Jewish law from Mount Sinai. He adds, “The rabbins were so sensible of the expressive peculiarity of this phrase, that they say the law of Moses is here spoken of by a kind of prophetic anticipation.” It is of little moment, in the present case, what the rabbins say; the argument, if it carries any weight with it, must proceed upon this supposition, that men were under no divine law; had no precepts of their duty given them by God, before the law was published from Mount Sinai; or at least, whatever precepts might be given them, they were not distinguished by the term here used, of a law. But neither of these points can be allowed. God says to Isaac, Gen 26:5. I will bless thee, because that Abraham kept my charge, and my law, or laws. This, we are assured, was long before the law of Moses was given; and therefore means probably some divine precepts of religion, delivered down from Adam, or from Noah, to succeeding generations. These are what Job calls the words of the holy One, chap. Job 6:10 and remarkably, chap. Job 23:12 the words of God’s mouth, which he esteemed more than his necessary food.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 22:22 Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.
Ver. 22. Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth ] Now he speaks Job fair whom before he had sufficiently ripped up, and roughly hewen without mercy, or so much as truth. That which he here persuadeth him to is to depend upon God for direction and success in all his enterprises; to consult with him upon all occasions, and not to do aught without his warranty and approbation. God’s testimonies were David’s delight and his counsellors, Psa 119:24 . All that advise not with these must needs be without understanding, a nation void of counsel, Deu 32:28 .
And lay up his words in thine heart
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
receive: Deu 4:1, Deu 4:2, Pro 2:1-9, 1Th 4:1, 1Th 4:2
lay up: Job 23:12, Deu 6:6-9, Psa 119:11, Pro 4:4, Pro 4:21, Jer 15:16, Mat 12:35, Mat 13:52, Luk 2:19, Luk 2:51
Reciprocal: Job 11:13 – prepare Job 35:13 – God Pro 1:3 – receive Pro 4:10 – my Pro 7:1 – lay Isa 48:17 – which teacheth Jer 9:20 – receive Eze 3:10 – receive
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 22:22. Receive the law from his mouth Take the rule, whereby thou mayest govern thy thoughts, and words, and whole life, not from idolaters and profane heathen, whose opinion concerning Gods providence thou appearest to have embraced, nor from thy own imaginations or violent passions, which have led thee into thy present errors; but from God, and from his law, which is written in thy own mind, and from the doctrines and instructions of the wise and holy men of God, who are all of our mind in this matter. And lay up his words in thy heart Not only hear them with thine ears, but let them sink into thy heart, being received there with hearty affection, and fixed by the serious, frequent, and practical consideration of them.