Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 34:5
For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.
5. I am righteous ] Or, in the right, I have right on my side.
my judgment ] As before means my right, what is rightly due to me God has dealt with me unjustly; comp. Job 9:15; Job 9:20, Job 13:18, Job 27:2; Job 27:6.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
5 9. Elihu recites Job’s statement of his cause against God, expressing his abhorrence of Job’s sentiments.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
For Job hath said, I am righteous – see Job 13:18, I know that I shall be justified; compare Job 23:10-11, where he says, if he was tried he would come forth as gold. Elihu may have also referred to the general course of remark which he had pursued as vindicating himself.
And God hath taken away my judgment – This sentiment is found in Job 27:2; see the notes at that place.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. Job hath said, I am righteous] Job had certainly said the words attributed to him by Elihu, particularly in Job 27:2, c., but it was in vindication of his aspersed character that he had asserted his own righteousness, and in a different sense to that in which Elihu appears to take it up. He asserted that he was righteous quoad the charges his friends had brought against him. And he never intimated that he had at all times a pure heart, and had never transgressed the laws of his Maker. It is true also that he said, God hath taken away my judgment but he most obviously does not mean to charge God with injustice, but to show that he had dealt with him in a way wholly mysterious, and not according to the ordinary dispensations of his providence; and that he did not interpose in his behalf, while his friends were overwhelming him with obloquy and reproach.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am righteous; either,
1. I am perfectly righteous. But this Job did not say, but the contrary, Job 9:2,3; 14:4. Or,
2. I am a sincere person, no hypocrite, as my friends made me. But this Elihu doth not deny. Or,
3. I am so far righteous, and have been so holy and blameless in my life, that I have not deserved, nor had any reason to expect, such hard usage from God. And this Job had oft intimated, and Elihu doth justly blame him for it, that he blazoned his own righteousness with tacit reflections upon God for dealing so severely with him.
God hath taken away my judgment; for so Job had said, Job 27:2; i.e. he denies me that which is but just and equal, to give me a fair hearing, to suffer me to plead my cause with or before him, to show me the reasons of his contending with me, and what sins besides common infirmities I have been guilty of, whereby I have deserved such extraordinary judgments; which Elihu justly taxeth him with as a very irreverent and presumptuous expression.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. judgmentmy right. Job’sown words (Job 13:18; Job 27:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For Job hath said, I am righteous,…. Not in express words, but what amounted to it: no doubt he was a righteous man in an evangelic sense, being justified by the righteousness of Christ, as all the Old Testament saints were, who looked to him and believed in him as the Lord their righteousness, and said, as the church in those times did, “surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength”;
Isa 45:24. And moreover he was an upright man, to which the Lord himself bore testimony, Job 1:8; and had the truth of grace in him, that “new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness”; and also lived an holy life and conversation; but then he did not say or think that he was righteous in or of himself, or so as to be free from sin: Job could not judge or speak thus of himself, which would be contrary to what he expressly declares, Job 7:20; though it must be owned, that he thought himself so righteous, holy, and good, that he ought not to have been afflicted in the manner he was; in which sense it is probable Elihu understood him: and besides, these words are not to be taken separately, but in connection with what follows, which shows Job’s sense, and how Elihu understood him, that though he was a righteous person, he had not justice done him:
and God hath taken away my judgment; which words he did say,
[See comments on Job 27:2]; or, as Mr. Broughton renders the words, “the Omnipotent keeps back my right”; does not vindicate my cause, nor so much as give it a hearing, nor lets me know why he contends with me; and, though I call for justice to be done, cannot be heard, Job 19:7; a like complaint of the church in Isa 40:27.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
5 For Job hath said: “I am guiltless,
“And God hath put aside my right.
6 “Shall I lie in spite of my right,
“Incurable is mine arrow without transgression.”
7 Where is there a man like Job,
Who drinketh scorning like water,
8 And keepeth company with the workers of iniquity,
And walketh with wicked men,
9 So that he saith: “A man hath no profit
“From entering into fellowship with God”?!
That in relation to God, thinking of Him as a punishing judge, he is righteous or in the right, i.e., guiltless ( with Pathach in pause, according to Ew. 93, c, from = , but perhaps, comp. Pro 24:30; Psa 102:26, because the Athnach is taken only as of the value of Zakeph), Job has said verbatim in Job 13:18, and according to meaning, Job 23:10; Job 27:7, and throughout; that He puts aside his right (the right of the guiltless, and therefore not of one coming under punishment): Job 27:2. That in spite of his right ( , to be interpreted, according to Schultens’ example, just like Job 10:7; Job 16:17), i.e., although right is on his side, yet he must be accounted a liar, since his own testimony is belied by the wrathful form of his affliction, that therefore the appearance of wrong remains inalienably attached to him, we find in idea in Job 9:20 and freq. Elihu makes Job call his affliction , i.e., an arrow sticking in him, viz., the arrow of the wrath of God (on the objective suff. comp. on Job 23:2), after Job 6:4; Job 16:9; Job 19:11; and that this his arrow, i.e., the pain which it causes him, is incurably bad, desperately malignant without ( as Job 8:11) , i.e., sins existing as the ground of it, from which he would be obliged to suppose they had thrust him out of the condition of favour, is Job’s constant complaint (vid., e.g., Job 13:23.). Another utterance of Job closely connected with it has so roused Elihu’s indignation, that he prefaces it with the exclamation of astonishment: Who is a man like Job, i.e., where in all the world ( as 2Sa 7:23) has this Job his equal, who … . The attributive clause refers to Job; “to drink scorn (here: blasphemy) like water,” is, according to Job 15:16, equivalent to to give one’s self up to mockery with delight, and to find satisfaction in it. , to go over to any one’s side, looks like a poeticized prose expression. is a continuation of the , according to Ew. 351, c, but not directly in the sense “and he goes,” but, as in the similar examples, Jer 17:10; Jer 44:19; 2Ch 7:17, and freq., in the sense of: “he is in the act of going;” comp. on Job 36:20 and Hab 1:17. The utterance runs: a man does not profit, viz., himself (on the use of of persons as well as of things, vid., on Job 22:2), by his having joyous and familiar intercourse ( , as little equivalent to as in Psa 50:18) with God. Job has nowhere expressly said this, but certainly the declaration in Job 9:22, in connection with the repeated complaints concerning the anomalous distribution of human destinies (vid., especially Job 21:7, Job 24:1), are the premises for such a conclusion. That Elihu, in Job 34:7, is more harsh against Job than the friends ever were (comp. e.g., the well-measured reproach of Eliphaz, Job 15:4), and that he puts words into Job’s moth which occur nowhere verbatim in his speeches, is worked up by the Latin fathers (Jer., Philippus Presbyter, Beda,
(Note: Philippus Presbyter was a disciple of Jerome. His Comm. in Iobum is extant in many forms, partly epitomized, partly interpolated (on this subject, vid., Hieronymi Opp. ed. Vallarsi, iii. 895ff.). The commentary of Beda, dedicated to a certain Nectarius (Vecterius), is fundamentally that of this Philippus.)
Gregory) in favour of their unfavourable judgment of Elihu; the Greek fathers, however, are deprived of all opportunity of understanding him by the translation of the lxx (in which signifies the scorn of others which Job must swallow down, comp. Pro 26:6), which here perverts everything.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
(5) For Job hath said.See Job. 13:18-19; Job. 27:2, especially.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
b. Elihu proceeds to cite Job’s objectionable sayings, which he thinks contain the most dangerous sentiments of the wicked, and which reasonably give rise to suspicions as to the company and associations of Job , vv5-9.
5. For Job hath said See outline, page 202. Job has been guilty of a twofold error; first in asserting his own righteousness, and secondly in declaring that God had not treated him according to right. Job 10:7; Job 27:6; Job 27:2. The first of these citations is but preparatory to the second, which contains the theme he is about to treat, and which is taken verbally from Job 27:2.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 34:5. God hath taken away my judgment This refers to the words of Job, chap. Job 27:2 and the force of the exception lies in a misinterpretation. Job had said, God hath respited my judgment: this Elihu turns to, God hath refused me justice.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Job 34:5 For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.
Ver. 5. For Job hath said, I am righteous ] So he was with a twofold righteousness: imputed, or the righteousness of justification; and imparted, or the righteousness of sanctification. But Elihu understood him as if he had said, I am sinless. This Job never said; only he cleared himself of foul offences wherewith his friends falsely charged him; and asserted his own integrity, whereof he seemed to be more solicitous than of giving God the glory of his justice; and therein he was to be blamed, as here he is to some purpose.
And God hath taken away my judgment
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I am righteous. Compare Job 9:21-24; Job 10:15; Job 27:6; Job 13:15, Job 13:18, Job 13:23; Job 16:17; Job 19:7; Job 23:7, Job 23:10-12; Job 27:5, &c.
GOD. Hebrew El. App-4.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
I: Job 10:7, Job 11:4, Job 16:17, Job 29:14, Job 32:1, Job 33:9
God: Job 9:17, Job 27:2
Reciprocal: 1Sa 15:20 – Yea Job 8:3 – God Job 9:2 – how Job 10:3 – Is it good Job 15:6 – thine own Job 19:7 – no judgment Job 32:2 – because Job 33:10 – he findeth Job 35:2 – My Job 36:3 – ascribe Job 40:8 – wilt thou condemn Isa 40:27 – my judgment Eze 18:25 – way Mal 2:17 – Every Act 8:33 – judgment
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 34:5-6. Job hath said, I am righteous I am so far righteous that I have not deserved, nor had any reason to expect, such hard usage from God. God hath taken away my judgment So Job had said, Job 27:2; that is, he denies me that which is just and equal, namely, to give me a fair hearing. Should I lie against my right Thus Job had spoken in effect, Job 27:4-6. Should I falsely accuse myself of sins of which I am not guilty? Should I betray mine own cause, and deny that integrity which I am conscious I possess? My wound is incurable without transgression Without any such crying sin as might reasonably bring down such terrible judgments upon my head.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
34:5 For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken {c} away my judgment.
(c) That is, has afflicted me without measure.