Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 31:12

For it [is] a fire [that] consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

12. to destruction ] Heb. abaddon, i. e. Sheol or Death, as a place, ch. Job 26:6, Job 28:22. As to the complete ruin which this sin entailed comp. the passage Pro 6:24-35, particularly the last verses; see also Pro 5:8-14; Pro 7:26-27.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction – This may mean that such an offence would be a crime that would provoke God to send destruction, like a consuming fire upon the offender (Rosenmuller and Noyes), or more likely it is designed to be descriptive of the nature of the sin itself. According to this, the meaning is, that indulgence in this sin tends wholly to ruin and destroy a man. It is like a consuming fire, which sweeps away everything before it. It is destructive to the body, the morals, the soul. Accordingly, it may be remarked that there is no one vice which pours such desolation through the soul as licentiousness. See Rush on the Diseases of the Mind. It corrupts and taints all the fountains of morals, and utterly annihilates all purity of the heart. An intelligent gentleman, and a careful observer of the state of things in society, once remarked to me, that on coming to the city of Philadelphia, it was his fortune to be in the same boarding-house with a number of young men, nearly all of whom were known to him to be of licentious habits. He has lived to watch their course of life; and he remarked, that there was not one of them who did not ultimately show that he was essentially corrupt and unprincipled in every department of morals. There is not any one propensity of man that spreads such a withering influence over the soul as this; and, however it may be accounted for, it is certain that indulgence in this vice is a certain evidence that the whole soul is corrupt, and that no reliance is to be placed on the mans virtue in any respect, or in reference to any relation of life.

And would root out all mine increase – By its desolating effects on my heart and life. The meaning is, that it would utterly ruin him; compare Luk 15:13, Luk 15:30. How many a wretched sensualist can bear testimony to the truth of this statement! How many a young man has been wholly ruined in reference to his worldly interests, as well as in reference to his soul, by this vice compare Prov. 7: No young man could do a better service to himself than to commit the whole of that chapter to memory, and so engrave it on his soul that it never could be forgotten.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 12. For it is a fire] Nothing is so destructive of domestic peace. Where jealousy exists, unmixed misery dwells; and the adulterer and fornicator waste their substance on the unlawful objects of their impure affections.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

For this sin would be as a secret but consuming fire, wasting my estate and reputation, and body and soul too, provoking God and enraging the husband, and bringing down some extraordinary vengeance upon me; and therefore the fear of God kept me from this and such-like wickedness.

All mine increase, i.e. all my estate: compare Pro 6:27.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

12. (Pro 6:27-35;Pro 8:6-23; Pro 8:26;Pro 8:27). No crime more provokesGod to send destruction as a consuming fire; none so desolatesthe soul.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

For it [is] a fire [that] consumeth to destruction,…. Referring either to the nature of the sin of uncleanness; it is inflammatory, a burning lust, a fire burning in the breast; see 1Co 7:9; or to the effect of it, either the rage of jealousy in the injured person, which is exceeding fierce, furious, and cruel, like devouring fire, not to be appeased or mitigated, Pr 6:34; or else it may respect the punishment of this sin in the times of Job, and which we find was practised among the Gentiles, as the Canaanites, Job’s neighbours, burning such delinquents with fire; see Ge 38:24; or rather the wrath of God for it, which is poured forth as fire, and burns to the lowest hell, and into which lake of fire all such impure persons will be cast, unless the grace of God prevents; and which will be a fire that will consume and destroy both soul and body, and so be an utter and everlasting destruction,

Re 21:8;

and would root out all my increase; even in this world; adultery is a sin that not only ruins a man’s character, fixes an indelible blot upon him, a reproach that shall not be wiped off, and consumes a man’s body, and destroys the health of it, but his substance also, the increase of his fields, and of his fruits, and by means of it a man is brought to a piece of bread, to beg it, and to be glad of it, Pr 6:26.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

12. Destruction Hebrews Abaddon. The sin spoken of is a fire that ceases not to burn till it has taken hold of hell itself. (Pro 7:27.) “It drags him whom it has seized down with it into the deepest depth of ruin, and as it were melts him away.” Delitzsch. See Caryl, in loc. In the earliest ages adultery was punished by burning. Gen 38:24.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 31:12 For it [is] a fire [that] consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

Ver. 12. For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction ] Ad Gehennam usque, to the place of destruction. Heb. to Abaddon, that burneth as low as hell itself. In case men should be slack to punish this heinous crime, yet whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, Heb 13:3 , shutting them out of heaven, Rev 22:15 (for what should any such dirty dog do trampling on that golden pavement?), and thrusting them into hell, as he did the filthy Sodomites, Jdg 1:7 , beside that hell above ground which he rained from heaven upon them, hot fire for their burning lusts, and stinking brimstone for their stinking brutishness. How God signally punished this sin in Charles II, king of Navarre, roasting him to death. See Trapp on “ Gen 19:24 “ Joan of Naples also, and Mary of Arragon, wife to the Emperor Otho III, burnt at a stake, are set upon record as instances of the Divine displeasure against adultery, a fire which burns hearts and consumes houses.

And would root out all mine increase ] Leaving me nothing. As a devouring fire burns up men, cattle, houses, corn, trees, &c.; so doth this sin all a man’s income, baring him to the very bones, and exhausting him to the utmost: so that, like Tiberius at Capreae, he doth indies perire, which is a bitterness beyond that of death, Ecc 7:26 . Or like Samson, befooled and bereft of all by Delilah, who had not her name for nought, for it comes from Dalal, to exhaust and impoverish. And indeed such kind of creatures do ordinarily drain the strength, exhaust the purses, dry up the credit, waste and consume the all of the mightiest Samsons, besides the loss of their immortal souls, and perpetual shame at the last day (when all their faults shall be written in their foreheads), unless the matter be taken up in the judge’s privy chamber of mercy; and unless, by timely repentance, course be taken to stop his open judicial proceeding in court.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Pro 3:33, Pro 6:27, Jer 5:7-9, Mal 3:5, Heb 13:4

Reciprocal: Isa 9:18 – wickedness

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

31:12 For it [is] a fire [that] consumeth {h} to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

(h) He shows that although man neglects the punishment of adultery, yet the wrath of God will never cease till such are destroyed.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes