Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 31:5
If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;
5. “Falsehood” or vanity, which is not merely in word but in thought, and “deceit” are here treated as persons; with the one Job denies that he has “walked,” i. e. accompanied it, and the other he denies that he “hasted after,” i. e. followed it. He has made no companion of falsity nor followed after deceit, to do aught that they would seduce him to. From the imprecation in Job 31:8, Let me sow and another eat! it is probable that what Job clears himself of is all false dealing prompted by cupidity.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
5 8. These verses continue to amplify the thought that Job refused to give way to any evil desire. The protestation lies in Job 31:5 and Job 31:7, the curse imprecated on himself in Job 31:8, while Job 31:6 is parenthetical, thrown in to confirm the denial implicitly contained in Job 31:5.
5. If I have walked with falsehood,
And my foot hath hasted after deceit
6. (Let him weigh me in an even balance,
And let God know mine integrity),
7. If my step hath turned out of the way, &c.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
If I have walked with vanity – This is the second specification in regard to his private deportment. He says that his life had been sincere, upright, honest. The word vanity here is equivalent to falsehood, for so the parallelism demands, and so the word ( shav’) is often used; Psa 12:3; Psa 41:7; Exo 23:1; Deu 5:20; compare Isa, Deu 1:13. The meaning of Job here is, that he had been true and honest. In his dealings with others he had not defrauded them; he had not misrepresented things; he had spoken the exact truth, and had done that which was without deception or guile.
If my foot hath hasted to deceit – That is, if I have gone to execute a purpose of deceit or fraud. He had never, on seeing an opportunity where others might be defrauded, hastened to embrace it. The Septuagint renders this verse, If I have walked with scoffers – meta geloiaston – and if my foot has hastened to deceit.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. If I have walked with vanity] If I have been guilty of idolatry, or the worshipping of a false god: for thus shau, which we here translate vanity, is used Jer 18:15; (compare with Ps 31:6; Ho 12:11; and Jon 2:9,) and it seems evident that the whole of Job’s discourse here is a vindication of himself from all idolatrous dispositions and practices.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Walked, i.e. conversed in the world, dealt with men.
With vanity, i.e. with lying, or falsehood, or hypocrisy, as this word is oft used, as Psa 4:2; 12:3; 36:3; Pro 30:8, and as the next words explain it.
If my foot hath hasted to deceit; if when I have had any temptation or opportunity of enriching myself, by defrauding or wronging others, I have readily and greedily complied with it, as hypocrites (such as you account me) use to do, and have not rejected and abhorred it; for more is here understood than is expressed. The sense is imperfect, and supposeth an imprecation, which is either understood, after the manner of the Hebrews, or expressed in the next verse.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. Job’s abstinence from evildeeds.
vanitythat is,falsehood (Ps 12:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If I have walked with vanity,…. Or with vain men, as Bar Tzemach interprets it, keeping company and having fellowship with them in their vain and sinful practices; or in the vanity of his mind, indulging himself in impurity of heart and life; or rather using deceitful methods to cheat and defraud others; for this seems to be another vice Job clears himself of, acting unjustly in his dealings with men, or dealing falsely with them:
or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; to cheat men in buying and selling, being ready and swift to do it, and in haste to become rich, which puts men oftentimes on evil ways and methods to attain it; see
Pr 28:20.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5 If I had intercourse with falsehood,
And my foot hastened after deceit:
6 Let Him weigh me in the balances of justice,
And let Eloah know my innocence.
7 If my steps turned aside from the way,
And my heart followed mine eyes,
And any spot hath cleaved to my hands:
8 May I sow and another eat,
And let my shoots be rooted out.
We have translated (on the form vid., on Job 15:31, and the idea on Job 11:11) falsehood, for it signifies desolateness and hollowness under a concealing mask, therefore the contradiction between what is without and within, lying and deceit, parall. , deceit, delusion, imposition. The phrase is based on the personification of deceit, or on thinking of it in connection with the (Job 11:11). The form cannot be derived from , from which it ought to be , like Jdg 4:18 and freq., ( serravit ) 1Ch 20:3, ( increpavit ) 1Sa 25:14. Many grammarians (Ges. 72, rem. 9; Olsh. 257, g) explain the Pathach instead of Kametz as arising from the virtual doubling of the guttural ( Dagesh forte implicitum), for which, however, no ground exists here; Ewald (232, b) explains it by “the hastening of the tone towards the beginning,” which explains nothing, since the retreat of the tone has not this effect anywhere else. We must content ourselves with the supposition that is formed from a having a similar meaning to ( ), as also , 1Sa 15:19, comp. 1Sa 14:32, is from a of similar signification with . The hypothetical antecedent, Job 31:5, is followed by the conclusion, Job 31:6: If he have done this, may God not spare him. He has, however, not done it; and if God puts him to an impartial trial, He will learn his , integritas , purity of character. The “balance of justice” is the balance of the final judgment, which the Arabs call Arab. mzan ‘l – amal , “the balance of actions (works).”
(Note: The manual of ethics by Ghazzli is entitled mzan el – amal in the original, in Bar-Chisdai’s translation, vid., Gosche on Ghazzli’s life and works, S. 261 of the volume of the Berliner Akademie d. Wissensch. for 1858.)
Job 31:7 also begins hypothetically: if my steps ( from , which is used alternately with without distinction, contrary to Ew. 260, b) swerve ( , the predicate to the plur. which follows, designating a thing, according to Ges. 146, 3) from the way (i.e., the one right way), and my heart went after my eyes, i.e., if it followed the drawing of the lust of the eye, viz., to obtain by deceit or extortion the property of another, and if a spot ( , macula, as Dan 1:4, = , Job 11:15; according to Ew., equivalent to , what is blackened and blackens, then a blemish, and according to Olsh., in … , like the French ne … point) clave to my hands: I will sow, and let another eat, and let my shoots be rooted out. The poet uses elsewhere of offspring of the body or posterity, Job 5:25; Job 21:8; Job 27:14; here, however, as in Isaiah, with whom he has this word in common, Job 34:2; Job 42:5, the produce of the ground is meant. Job 31:8 is, according to Joh 4:37, a , a proverb. In so far as he may have acted thus, Job calls down upon himself the curse of Deut. 38:20f.: what he sows, let strangers reap and eat; and even when that which is sown does not fall into the hands of strangers, let it be uprooted.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
b. Job’s first protestation is, that he has not practiced deceit, nor acted on dishonest principles, nor departed from the way of chastity, ( as indicated in Job 31:1,) a specification which prepares the way for the next protestation, Job 31:5-8.
5. If The usual form of oaths. See note on Job 27:2; Job 27:4-5. He means to attest his innocence under the most solemn sanctions.
Vanity The prime meaning of the Hebrew is, falsity. A sad companionship is that of a false, hollow, hypocritical nature; such every corrupt man must “walk with.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 31:5. If I have walked with vanity If I have followed after a lie, or my foot hath hastened to fraud. Houbigant.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 31:5 If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;
Ver. 5. If I have walked with vanity ] As they do who disquiet themselves in vain, in heaping up riches by evil arts, by deceits and covin in bargaining; by getting other men’s means fraudulently, &c. “The getting of treasures by a lying tongue” (or any the like indirect course) “is a vanity tossed to and fro for them who seek death,” Pro 21:6 . Eventually such do seek death, though not intentionally; they spin a fair thread to strangle themselves, both temporally and eternally. Such vain and vile ways, therefore, Job carefully declined; for he knew them to be both base and bootless, Furtum a Virg. vocatur inane (Aeneid 6). Ephraim fed upon the wind, the balances of deceit were in his hand; if, thereby, he filled his purse with coin, yet he had emptiness in his soul; Lucrum in arca, damnum in conscientia: filled he was with air, and that air was pestilential too; his breath and death he drew in together. Job would have none of that.
Or if my foot hath hasted to deceit
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 31:5-8
Job 31:5-8
JOB’S OATHS OF IMPRECATION ATTEST HIS INNOCENCE
“If I have walked with falsehood,
And my foot hath hasted to deceit
(Let me be weighed in an even balance,
That God may know mine integrity);
If my step hath turned out of the way,
And mine heart walked after mine eyes,
And if any spot hath cleaved to my hands:
Then let me sow, and let another eat:
Yea, let the produce of my field be rooted out.”
“If I have walked … if my step … if any spot … etc.” (Job 31:5; Job 31:7). Nearly twenty times in this chapter we encounter these “if’ clauses; and their significance was explained by Van Selms. “Job here appealed to the self-imprecatory oath: “God do so to me, and more also, if I … etc. (2Sa 3:35).”
“Then let me sow, and let another eat” (Job 31:8). This is the imprecation Job invoked upon himself in case he was found to be lying. In this chapter, we may understand all of the “if” clauses as an appeal to exactly this same kind of an oath, even though an imprecation is not always stated. It was the most solemn way that any man could affirm and protest his innocence in ancient times.
Job’s saying, “Let me sow; and let another eat,” is only one of a whole avalanche of curses given in Deuteronomy 28.” This particular one is Deu 28:30.
E.M. Zerr:
Job 31:5-6. Weighed in an even balance signifies Job was willing to be tested. If his conduct proved to be evil he would submit to the discipline of the Lord.
Job 31:7. The eye might behold something that is alluring and sinful. One would not be guilty if he merely saw the sinful thing, but he would be if he walked after the thing his eyes had beheld. In that case the evil thing would cling to him which is the meaning of the words blot, cleaved and hands.
Job 31:8. Let me sow, etc., is a clear instance of what is meant by “cursing” another. To wish some misfortune to come to one is the meaning of the word when it is used concerning the action of a man who is uninspired.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
If: Psa 7:3-5
walked: Psa 4:2, Psa 12:2, Psa 44:20, Psa 44:21, Pro 12:11, Jer 2:5, Eze 13:8
Reciprocal: Jos 22:22 – if it be Psa 1:1 – walketh Psa 7:5 – Let Pro 19:2 – and Luk 7:2 – who
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 31:5-6. If I have walked with vanity Conversed in the world, or dealt with men, with lying, falsehood, or hypocrisy, as the word vanity is often used; or if my foot hath hasted to deceit If, when I had an opportunity of enriching myself by wronging others, I have readily and greedily complied with it. Let me be weighed, &c. I desire nothing more than to have my heart and life weighed in just balances, and searched out by the all-seeing God. That God may know Or, and he will know (upon search he will find out: which is spoken of God after the manner of men) mine integrity So this is an appeal to God to be witness of his sincerity.