Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 35:1
Elihu spoke moreover, and said,
Elihu spake – Hebrew, vayaan And he answered; the word answer being used, as it is often in the Scriptures, to denote the commencement of a discourse. We may suppose that Elihu had paused at the close of his second discourse, possibly with a view to see whether there was any disposition to reply.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER XXXV
Elihu accuses Job of impious speeches, 1-4.
No man can affect God by his iniquity, nor profit him by his
righteousness, 5-8.
Many are afflicted and oppressed, but few cry to God for help;
and, for want of faith, they continue in affliction, 9-16.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXXV
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Elihu spake moreover, and said. Elihu very probably paused awhile, and waited to observe whether any of the company would rise up, and either contradict and refute what he had said, or declare their assent unto it and approbation of it; or rather to see whether Job would make any reply or not; but perceiving no inclination in him to it, he proceeded to take notice of some other undue expressions of Job, and refute them; one of which is observed in Job 35:2, and the proof of it given in Job 35:3.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1 Then began Elihu, and said:
2 Dost thou consider this to be right,
Sayest thou: my righteousness exceedeth God’s,
3 That thou sayest, what advantage is it to thee,
What doth it profit me more than my sin?
4 I will answer thee words,
And thy companions with thee.
The neutral , Job 35:2, refers prospectively to , Job 35:3: this that thou sayest. with acc. of the obj. and of the predicate, as Job 33:10, comp. Job 13:24, and freq. The second interrogative clause, Job 35:2, is co-ordinate with the first, and the collective thought of this ponderous construction, Job 35:2, Job 35:3, is this: Considerest thou this to be right, and thinkest thou on this account to be able to put thy righteousness above the divine, that, as thou maintainest, no righteousness on the side of God corresponds to this thy righteousness, because God makes no distinction between righteousness and the sin of man, and allows the former to go unrewarded? (for which Olsh. wishes to read , as Job 9:27 for ) forms with a substantival clause: justitia mea est prae Deo (prae divina ); comparative as Job 32:2, comp. on the matter Job 34:5, not equivalent to as Job 4:17. is first followed by the oratio obliqua : what it (viz., ) advantageth thee, then by the or. directa (on this change vid., Ew. 338, a): what profit have I (viz., ), prae peccato meo ; this is also comparative; the constantly ambiguous combination would be allowable from the fact that, according to the usage of the language, “to obtain profit from anything” is expressed by , not by . Moreover, prae peccato meo is equivalent to plus quam inde quod pecco , comp. Psa 18:24, , Hos 4:8 . We have already on Job 34:9 observed that Job has not directly said (he cites it, Job 21:15, as the saying of the ungodly) what Elihu in Job 35:3 puts into his mouth, but as an inference it certainly is implied in such utterances as Job 9:22. Elihu’s polemic against Job and his companions ( are not the three, as lxx and Jer. translate, but the , to whom Job is likened by such words as Job 34:8, Job 34:36) is therefore not unauthorized; especially since he assails the conclusion together with its premises. In the second strophe the vindication of the conclusion is now refuted.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Address of Elihu. | B. C. 1520. |
1 Elihu spake moreover, and said, 2 Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s? 3 For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin? 4 I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee. 5 Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou. 6 If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him? 7 If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand? 8 Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
We have here,
I. The bad words which Elihu charges upon Job, Job 35:2; Job 35:3. To evince the badness of them he appeals to Job himself, and his own sober thoughts, in the reflection: Thinkest thou this to be right? This intimates Elihu’s confidence that the reproof he now gave was just, for he could refer the judgment of it even to Job himself. Those that have truth and equity on their side sooner or later will have every man’s conscience on their side. It also intimates his good opinion of Job, that he thought better than he spoke, and that, though he had spoken amiss, yet, when he perceived his mistake, he would not stand to it. When we have said, in our haste, that which was not right, it becomes us to own that our second thoughts convince us that it was wrong. Two things Elihu here reproves Job for:– 1. For justifying himself more than God, which was the thing that first provoked him, ch. xxxii. 2. “Thou hast, in effect, said, My righteousness is more than God’s,” that is, “I have done more for God than ever he did for me; so that, when the accounts are balanced, he will be brought in debtor to me.” As if Job thought his services had been paid less than they deserved and his sins punished more than they deserved, which is a most unjust and wicked thought for any man to harbour and especially to utter. When Job insisted so much upon his own integrity, and the severity of God’s dealings with him, he did in effect say, My righteousness is more than God’s; whereas, though we be ever so good and our afflictions ever so great, we are chargeable with unrighteousness and God is not. 2. For disowning the benefits and advantages of religion because he suffered these things: What profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin? v. 3. This is gathered from Job 9:30; Job 9:31. Though I make my hands ever so clean, what the nearer am I? Thou shalt plunge me in the ditch. And ch. x. 15, If I be wicked, woe to me; but, if I be righteous, it is all the same. The psalmist, when he compared his own afflictions with the prosperity of the wicked, was tempted to say, Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, Ps. lxxiii. 13. And, if Job said so, he did in effect say, My righteousness is more than God’s (v. 9); for, if he got nothing by his religion, God was more beholden to him than he was to God. But, though there might be some colour for it, yet it was not fair to charge these words upon Job, when he himself had made them the wicked words of prospering sinners (ch. xxi. 15, What profit shall we have if we pray to him?) and had immediately disclaimed them. The counsel of the wicked is far from me, ch. xxi. 16. It is not a fair way of disputing to charge men with those consequences of their opinions which they expressly renounce.
II. The good answer which Elihu gives to this (v. 4): “I will undertake to answer thee, and thy companions with thee,” that is, “all those that approve thy sayings and are ready to justify thee in them, and all others that say as thou sayest: “I have that to offer which will silence them all.” To do this he has recourse to his old maxim (ch. xxxiii. 12), that God is greater than man. This is a truth which, if duly improved, will serve many good purposes, and particularly this to prove that God is debtor to no man. The greatest of men may be a debtor to the meanest; but such is the infinite disproportion between God and man that the great God cannot possibly receive any benefit by man, and therefore cannot be supposed to lie under any obligation to man; for, if he be obliged by his purpose and promise, it is only to himself. That is a challenge which no man can take up (Rom. xi. 35), Who hath first given to God, let him prove it, and it shall be recompensed to him again. Why should we demand it, as a just debt, to gain by our religion (as Job seemed to do), when the God we serve does not gain by it? 1. Elihu needs not prove that God is above man; it is agreed by all; but he endeavours to affect Job and us with it, by an ocular demonstration of the height of the heavens and the clouds, v. 5. They are far above us, and God is far above them; how much then is he set out of the reach either of our sins or of our services! Look unto the heavens, and behold the clouds. God made man erect, coelumque tueri jussit–and bade him look up to heaven. Idolaters looked up, and worshipped the hosts of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars; but we must look up to heaven, and worship the Lord of those hosts. They are higher than we, but God is infinitely above them. His glory is above the heavens (Ps. viii. 1) and the knowledge of him higher than heaven, ch. xi. 8. 2. But hence he infers that God is not affected, either one way or other, by any thing that we do. (1.) He owns that men may be either bettered or damaged by what we do (v. 8): Thy wickedness, perhaps, may hurt a man as thou art, may occasion him trouble in his outward concerns. A wicked man may wound, or rob, or slander his neighbour, or may draw him into sin and so prejudice his soul. Thy righteousness, thy justice, thy charity, thy wisdom, thy piety, may perhaps profit the son of man. Our goodness extends to the saints that are in the earth, Ps. xvi. 3. To men like ourselves we are in a capacity either of doing injury or of showing kindness; and in both these the sovereign Lord and Judge of all will interest himself, will reward those that do good and punish those that do hurt to their fellow-creatures and fellow-subjects. But, (2.) He utterly denies that God can really be either prejudiced or advantaged by what any, even the greatest men of the earth, do, or can do. [1.] The sins of the worst sinners are no damage to him (v. 6): “If thou sinnest wilfully, and of malice prepense, against him, with a high hand, nay, if thy transgressions be multiplied, and the acts of sin be ever so often repeated, yet what doest thou against him?” This is a challenge to the carnal mind, and defies the most daring sinner to do his worst. It speaks much for the greatness and glory of God that it is not in the power of his worst enemies to do him any real prejudice. Sin is said to be against God because so the sinner intends it and so God takes it, and it is an injury to his honour; yet it cannot do any thing against him. The malice of sinners is impotent malice: it cannot destroy his being or perfections, cannot dethrone him from his power and dominion, cannot disturb his peace and repose, cannot defeat his counsels and designs, nor can it derogate from his essential glory. Job therefore spoke amiss in saying What profit is it that I am cleansed from my sin? God was no gainer by his reformation; and who then would gain if he himself did not? [2.] The services of the best saints are no profit to him (v. 7): If thou be righteous, what givest thou to him? He needs not our service; or, if he did want to have the work done, he has better hands than ours at command. Our religion brings no accession at all to his felicity. He is so far from being beholden to us that we are beholden to him for making us righteous and accepting our righteousness; and therefore we can demand nothing from him, nor have any reason to complain if we have not what we expect, but to be thankful that we have better than we deserve.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JOB – CHAPTER 35
ELIHU FURTHER CONFRONTS JOB
Verses 1-16:
Verses 1, 2 recount Elihu’s further direct inquiry of Job, as he asked Job, “do you really consider yourself to be right in saying, my righteousness is more than God’s?” Elihu put these words in Job’s mouth, claiming that this was virtually his testimony, as he had heard it, Job 4:17.
Verse 3 continues to charge Job with having sins, in essence, what profit would it be to me, or what advantage does a righteous man have over a wicked man, since both are often afflicted in identical ways, a veritable truth, Job 21:15; Job 34:9.
Verses 4, 5 add that Elihu said directly to Job, “I will answer or respond to both you and your companions (three friends with you).” He asked all of them to look to the heavens, the clouds above, and observe them, to learn a lesson of natural phenomena, from the God. Job 34:8; Job 34:36; Job 22:12.
Verse 6-8 inquire and assent directly of Job, that if he continually sins, just what are you really doing against, in rebellion against Him? Or if his transgressions multiplied, just what did that do against God? He remained righteous, didn’t he? God was not hurt in character by any number of sins Job may have done, Jer 7:19.
Verse 7 adds that if Job did exist as an absolutely righteous man, which he maintained, did that give anything to God? Or did God receive anything of Job’s hands, any help, if Job was righteous, as he maintained? Pro 9:12. Would his sins not hurt a man and his goodness profit God nothing? Luk 17:10.
Verse 9 asserts that by reason of multitudes of oppressions, the oppressed are caused to cry; and they cry by reason of the arm of the mighty, those greater than they, as attested Exo 2:23; Exo 3:7; Exo 3:9; Neh 5:1-5; Job 24:12; Psa 12:5; Psa 43:2; Ecc 4:1.
Verses 10, 11 add however that none oppressed asks, “Where is God my maker who gives songs in the night?” Jer 2:6; Jer 2:8; Isa 51:13; There is none who cries with joys of deliverance in the night, because they do not seek the deliverer, Psa 42:8; Psa 149:5; Act 16:25; Psa 126:2; Ecc 12:1. He on high teaches more than beasts of the field and makes us to be wiser than the fowls of heaven that seek shelter from nature’s anger of storm, sleet, and cold, Psa 8:6; 1Jn 5:20; Job 28:21.
Verses 12, 13 state that there, or then, v.10, when none humbly falls before God, they cry against Him, rather than humbly to Him. The idea is that the purpose of suffering is to humble the afflicted. And no answer can be had to a prayer for relief until pride gives place to humility through penitent prayer, Psa 10:4; Jer 13:17; See too Psa 18:41; Pro 1:28; Joh 9:31. Elihu adds that God will not hear pleas of vanity, which he insinuates is evident in Job, nor will He regard his prayers as anything other than a cry of the wicked, Job 27:9; Pro 15:29.
Verse 14 continues that thou Job said he should not see the Lord as a temporal deliverer from affliction, yet judgment was to remain his lot, therefore Elihu admonishes him to keep on trusting in Him, Job 19:7; Job 30:20; Pro 3:3-5; Pro 31:5; Psa 37:7.
Verse 15 adds that because Job did not wait patiently and trustingly, v.14, God has visited him in His anger; yet Job does not recognize it in his great extremity of his sins, for which he is afflicted, Num 20:12; Zep 3:2; Mic 7:9; Job 7:20; Job 11:6.
Verse 16 concludes that Job therefore opens his mouth for release from his just afflictions, in vain, multiplying his words without knowledge, rashly, in vain, Job 3:1; Job 34:35; Job 34:37; Job 38:2.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
ELIHUS THIRD SPEECH
After a second pause, and no reply, Elihu again resumes. Renews his reproof of Job, and attempts to answer some of his cavils. Job. 35:1.Elihu spake moreover, &c.
I. Reproves Job for his improper language. Job. 35:2-3.Thinkest thou this to be right (or, Dost thou reckon this for judgment) that thou saidst, &c. Probably a sarcastic allusion to Jobs vehement complaints about the want of judgment. Care necessary that we do not ourselves offend in that for which we are forward to blame others. Judge not that ye be not Judged. Jobs language rather than his life still the subject of Elihus reproof. Job reproved
1. For maintaining his righteousness to be greater than Gods. Job. 35:2.My righteousness is more than Gods,allusion to such passages as ch. Job. 9:30-35; Job. 10:15. The supposed meaning rather than the exact words of Jobs speeches. Job had maintained that his life had been pure and righteous, and that he was, notwithstanding, treated by the Almighty as wicked. The natural inference from the complaintJob thinks himself more righteous than God. Job, judging from present appearances, often tempted to believe this. The same conclusion only avoided by the three friends by their falsely maintaining that Job must be a hypocrite and bad man. The error of both parties, that of judging of Gods justice from His present dealings. Neither of them fully aware that God, for special reasons, may allow a godly man to be very severely tried. Their error that of the period in which they lived. A future judgment not yet fully revealed. The pious inclined to expect rewards and punishments in the present life. The peculiarity of Abrahams faith that he acted as one that looked for a better country, that is, an heavenly; content meanwhile to live as a stranger and pilgrim on the earth (Heb. 11:13-16). Hence Abraham, not Job, the father of the faithful. The nature of faith to give substance and reality to things hoped for, and the certainty of conviction as regards things not seen (Heb. 11:1). Observe
(1) In judging in regard to God and His dealings, apart from faith, men certain to fall into error. Jobs error and consequent irreverent language, the result of defective faith.
(2) Inferences from our language often such as we ourselves should be shocked at. Probably Job himself would have recoiled from the language here ascribed to him.
(3) A good man responsible not only for his words, but from the inference that may justly be drawn from them.
2. For appearing to maintain that piety was profitless to its possessor. Job. 35:3.For thou saidst, what advantage will it be unto thee (viz., that thy life has been righteous and pure)? and what profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin (or as marginmore than by my sin)? Another inference from Jobs actual language, closely connected with the former one. Job maintained that his life had been pure, and that, notwithstanding, he was a most grievous sufferer. Inference: Job maintains that piety brings no profit. True, if such sufferings continued through life, and there were no hereafter. Jobs real assertion, however that in the present life, piety did no save its possessor from suffering. If the scourge stay suddenly, He mocketh at the trial of the innocent (ch. Job. 9:23). Satans challenge that Job only served God for present advantage, and that when this was withdrawn, he would cast off his religion. His great object to accomplish this. The temptation from Jobs wife. Against this, Job maintained that he was a righteous man, although he suffered so unusually, and that he would hold fast his religious character and conduct at all hazards (ch. Job. 13:15). ObserveThe sentiments ascribed to Job, the language of unbelief. Entertained by the unbelieving Jews in the days of Malachi (Mal. 3:14). Even the godly tempted at times to employ such language (Psa. 73:13). The opposite of the truth. Godliness profitable unto all things (1Ti. 4:8). Yet the godly often called to suffer severely in the present life. Through much tribulation we must enter the kingdom (Act. 14:22; Rev. 7:14; 2Ti. 3:11-12).
II. Elihu answers Jobs cavils. Job. 35:4, &c.I will answer thee and thy companions with thee,either the three friends and others present, some of whom perhaps appeared inclined to coincide with Job; or more generally, all those who entertained sentiments similar to those he had expressedlike ch. Job. 34:8. Observe
(1) The duty of the godly to be ready to answer for God and to correct the errors of brethren. Every one shall kiss his lips that giveth a right answer (Pro. 24:26). Believers to know how they ought to answer every man (Col. 4:6).
(2) Believers to be careful with whom they associate, and whose sentiments they espouse.Two considerations employed by Elihu to silence Jobs cavils:
1. Gods infinite superiority to, and absolute independence of, His creatures. Job. 35:5-8. Look unto the heavens and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou (hence, God who dwells above them not only incomprehensible to His creatures, but independent of and unaffected by them). If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him? Thy wickedness may hurt (or affect) a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit (or affect) the son of man (mankind, thyself or others like thee, but not God). Observe
(1) Men apt to think they lay God under an obligation by their piety or morality. Gods happiness not capable of being increased or diminished by His creatures doings (Psa. 16:2; Jer. 7:19). His creatures unable to give Him what is not already His own (1Ch. 23:14; Rom. 2:28-29). No good either possessed or practised by man but is received from God Himself.
(2.) Man apt to forget the distance between the creature and the Creator. Infinite condescension on the part of God to regard man as He does. Davids language that of wisdom and piety: Lord, what is man that thou art mindful of him? (Psa. 18:4; Psa. 144:3.) Self-humiliation in God to behold the things that are in heaven and on the earth (Psa. 113:6). Condescension and love on His part, that He receives glory from, and has pleasure in, those that fear and love, serve and trust in Him (Psa. 50:15; Psa. 147:11).
(3.) Man himself affected for weal or woe by his own conduct (Isa. 3:9; Isa. 3:11; Pro. 8:36; Pro. 9:12). Reaps what he sows now, either here or hereafter (Gal. 6:7-9.) Life and death, happiness and misery, the respective fruits of righteousness and sin (Pro. 2:19)
(4.) A mans conduct not only productive of weal and woe to himself but also to those around him. In the constitution of the world, one creature made to depend upon, and be affected for good or evil by, another. Each made either a blessing or a curse to his neighbour. One mans sin likely to be anothers misery as well as his own. The piety of one the profit of another as well as of himself. A godly man a blessing to the neighbourhood; an ungodly one its bane. Both a conscious and an unconscious influence exercised by each on those around him, either for good or evil. Unconscious often more effective than conscious influence. Each responsible to God for both. A man with a loving and Christlike spirit a perpetual benefaction. Such a spirit perceived in society as the perfume carried about on ones person. All men like boys writing with invisible ink. An impression left upon thousands by our spirit, words, and conduct, to be only known and seen hereafter.H. W. Beecher.
(5.) The sky over our head fitted to correct mans low and erroneous conceptions of the Divine Being. Profitable to look unto the heavens, and to study the lessons taught by the starry firmament. The nocturnal sky Natures system of Divinity. Gods ever open Bible
His universal temple, hung
With lustres, with innumerable lights,
That shed religion on the soul, at once
The temple and the preacher.
His love lets down these silver chains of light
To draw up mens ambition to Himself,
And bind his chaste affections to His throne.
One sun by day, by night ten thousand shine,
And light us deep into the Deity.
2. The cause of mens continued misery and Gods apparent disregard, to be found not in God but in themselves. Job. 35:8; Job. 35:13.By reason of the multitude of oppression, they make the oppressed to cry (or simply, men cry); they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty (the violence of tyrants and the ungodly rich). But none saith (under his trouble, in a grateful remembrance of past mercies and prayerful dependence for present aid), where is God my Maker (Heb., my makers, as Isa. 54:5; Ecc. 12:1; probably with allusion to Gen. 1:26indicating the plurality of Divine persons and the fulness of Divine perfections in the one God), who giveth songs in the night? who teacheth us more than (or above) the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven. There (in their afflicted and oppressed condition) they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men (who cause them by their cruelty and violence to cry out under their affliction). Surely God will not hear vanity (vain prayers that are destitute of faith or piety, and only extorted by suffering); neither will the Almighty regard it (viz., so long as they remain impenitent). From the whole passage, Observe
(1) Men often made to suffer grievously from the oppression and tyranny of others. Witness the Israelites in Egypt (Exo. 1:2). Possible allusion made by Elihu to the case of Job himself.
(2) Mens cries under oppression and trouble not always followed with Divine deliverance. They cry, but none giveth answer.
(3) The reason of such unanswered cries not in God, but in the sufferers themselves. Elihu indicates some
Reasons for continued suffering
1. Men do not pray to God in their affliction. They cry and cry out, but do not pray. Mens cries in trouble often not to God but against Him. Sufferers often cry to men, and cry out of men, without praying to God. All cries not prayer. Cries in suffering only heard and answered when they are cries to God.
2. Prayer made in trouble not answered, because not right prayers. God will not hear vanity. God hears only the prayer of piety or of penitencethe prayer of His servants or of those who desire to become such. No promise to impenitent prayers. God heareth not sinners, continuing such (Joh. 9:31). If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me (Psa. 66:18). When ye make many prayers, I will not hear; your hands are full of blood (Isa. 1:15). He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination (Pro. 28:9; Pro. 1:28-30). Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts (Jas. 4:3). Penitence and purity necessary to prevailing prayer. I will that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting (1Ti. 2:8). The prayer of the upright is Gods delight (Pro. 15:8). The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit (Psa. 51:17). Men may kneel upon their beds without being humbled in their hearts (Hos. 7:14). Prayer is vanity when
(1) Without sincerity;
(2) Without repentance;
(3) Without faith. Prayer without faith is like faith without works,dead, being alone (Jas. 2:17). Earnest and believing prayer either receives the thing asked or something better.
3. Deliverance not experienced, on account of forgetfulness of God. Job. 35:10.None saith, where is God my Maker? Men suffering at the hand of others apt to think more of the creature than the Creator (Isa. 51:12-13). God not acknowledged by the unregenerate either in their mercies or their afflictions. Gods object in afflicting men, to bring them to Himself. The prayer of the sufferer unanswered till the object is secured, or answered in wrath (Psa. 104:15). Affliction blessed when men turn to God and inquire after Him. Men, since the fall, naturally forgetful of God. Forgetfulness of God the sin that fills hell with inhabitants (Psa. 9:17). Men under suffering apt to inquire after mens help rather than Gods. Asa, in his affliction, sought not unto the Lord, but unto physicians (2Ch. 16:12). Righteous that God should disregard men who willingly forget Him. Seriously to inquire after God the first step in true repentance. ObserveGod to be remembered in affliction as our Maker. Our Maker, who is also our Redeemer, has the best right to our remembrance. To turn to Him who made us, our first duty in affliction. He who made us cannot but be able to help and deliver us. Our wisdom, when suffering at the hands of men, to turn from the creature to the Creator. Sin to be acknowledged in not having served and followed our Maker. In consequence of the Fall, God to be inquired and sought after as one who is lost. Affliction naturally finds men without God in the world (Eph. 2:12). God however to be found. Not far from every one of us. Savingly found in Christ (Joh. 14:6 2Co. 5:17).
4. Deliverance not vouchsafed on account of ingratitude for past mercies. Who giveth songs in the night. Past songs not to be forgotten in present sufferings. A thankful remembrance of past mercies the best way to obtain present deliverances. Remembrance of past triumphs a precious help under present troubles. Because Thou hast been my help, &c. (Psa. 63:7). The recollection of Gods past kindness Davids sweetest comfort in his most crushing trial (Psa. 42:6). Forgetfulness of Divine mercies one of our greatest sins (Isa. 1:2-3). The natural heart forgetful of Gods benefits as well as His being. The part of grace to resist this tendency (Psa. 103:2).
Two reasons on the part of God why He should be remembered and sought to under affliction and suffering:
First reason: He gives
Songs in the Night
Observe
1. What He gives. Songs. God the giver of songs. Songs the expression
(1) Of joy and gladness;
(2) Of praise and thanks-giving. God happy Himself, and delights in making His creatures happy. According to His nature to give songs rather than sorrows. To give joy, His delight; to cause sorrow, His strange act. God is love; and the nature of love to give songs. The songs that God gives are
(1) The sweetest;
(2) The holiest;
(3) The most lasting. Satan also gives songs,short songs the prelude to lasting sorrows. The world gives songssongs often sung to a heavy heart. All songs but those that God gives to be one day turned into howlings (Amo. 8:3). The instrument gives forth its sweetest music under the hands of Him that made it.
2. When He gives songs. In the night. First: In the natural night (Psa. 42:8). Night the time of reflection and meditation. Satan makes men howl upon their beds; God makes them sing upon them (Hos. 7:14; Psa. 149:5). God gives songs when there is nothing else to give themin the night. Paul and Silas sang praises at midnight (Act. 16:25). Musing on our bed the fire burns, and we rise at midnight to give thanks (Psa. 39:3; Psa. 119:62).Second: In the night of trouble (chap. Job. 36:20). God gives songs in the night
(1) Of personal affliction;
(2) Of temporal adversity;
(3) Of painful bereavement;
(4) Of persecution from the world;
(5) Of spiritual darkness and desertion;
(6) Of death and its solemn approaches (Hab. 3:17-18; Act. 16:25; Hos. 2:14-15; Psa. 23:4). No night of trouble too dark for God to give songs in it. Jesus sung a hymn with His disciples in the darkest night of His earthly life. John sung songs of joy and praise as an exile in Patmos, and Paul and Silas as prisoners in Philippi. God gives songs to His people when it is night to others as well as themselves. Israel had light in their dwellings when all Egypt was covered with darkness.
3. How God gives songs in the night.
(1) By bringing into trouble;
(2) By comforting under it;
(3) By delivering out of it (Hos. 2:14; Psa. 23:4). The songs God gives, generally songs of deliverance (Psa. 32:7). God puts songs into the mouth by putting gladness into the heart (Psa. 4:7). Puts a new song into our mouth by setting our feet upon a rock (Psa. 40:2-3). God gives songs in the night by sending and showing us a Saviour (Luk. 2:8). The office of Jesus to give the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness (Isa. 61:3.
Second reason: He teacheth us more than the beasts, &c.
(1) His special regard to His intelligent creatures, a reason for their seeking to Him in time of trouble. God cares for the lower animals, how much more for man? Man made rational and intelligent after his Makers likeness.
(2) The faculties with which God has endowed man, a reason why he should seek Him in trouble. Reason given to enable us to know God, and to understand that He is the helper and deliverer of all who truly seek Him. To be in trouble without inquiring after God, more the part of a beast than a man. Beasts cry in their sufferings, but unable to think of God in them. Sin degrades men below the brute creation. Beasts howl but cannot pray: men can pray but do not. Faculties given to beasts to apprehend the creature: to man to apprehend the Creator. A beast able to know the will of his master; a man to know the will of his God. Understanding given to the beasts to enable them to attend to their bodily wants and those of their offspring; a higher understanding given to man to enable him to attend also to his spiritual wants and those of others. Beasts endowed with sufficient intelligence for the preservation of themselves and others in the present life; man endowed with an intelligence to enable him to secure happiness for himself and others in the life to come. The understanding or instinct of the lower annimals ever the same; the understanding of man capable of continual increase.
III. Elihu exhorts Job to patience and hope. Job. 35:14.Although (or even when) thou sayest thou shalt not see Him (enjoy His returning favour; or, thou dost not see Him, i.e., understand His procedure), yet judgment is before Him (He ever acts according to judgment; or, the case is before Himunder His consideration); therefore trust thou in Him.
Notice
1. A temptation or complaint supposed.
(1) A temptation to despondency. Thou sayst thou shalt not see him. Job at times hard pressed with it (chap. Job. 17:15). Yet enabled to overcome it (chap. Job. 19:26-27). The part of believers to resist temptation (Psa. 42:5-11). To a believer the sun is only hidden by a cloud, not set. The hiding of Gods face no proof that He neglects our cause. Is glorified when He is trusted in the dark (Heb. 3:17-18). Or
(2) A complaint of darkness. Thou sayest thou dost not see him. Jobs trial that he was unable to comprehend Gods dealings (chap. Job. 9:11). Gods dealings with His people often dark, mysterious, and incomprehensible. Christs words to Peter spoken for the consolation of tried believers through all time,What I do, thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter (Joh. 13:7).
2. A truth stated. Judgment is before him. Gods dealings may be dark, but are never doubtful. While clouds of darkness are round about Him, justice and judgment are the basis of His throne (Psa. 97:2; Psa. 89:14). Purposes of wisdom and goodness in every event, though unknown to us. A God of truth and without iniquity. The cause of the poor and afflicted believer never really, though sometimes apparently, overlooked. I have seen, I have seen, the affliction of my people in Egypt, and I am come down to deliver them. Josephs case in the pit and then in the prison. Jacobs in Canaan: All these things are against me. Jobs case at present. Believers made to pass through fire and water, but are brought out into a wealthy place (Psa. 66:12).
3. An exhortation addressed. Trust thou in him.
Trust in God
The believers grand recipe in darkness and trouble. Implies
(1) Faith;
(2) Hope;
(3) Patience. Faith in Gods promise and perfections; hope of His deliverance; patience to wait His time for it. God delivers His people, but in His own time and way. Tarry thou the Lords leisure. The vision is for an appointed time; though it tarry, wait for it (Psa. 37:7-34; Hab. 2:3) Sinners not immediately punished, nor saints immediately delivered. Trust in God founded in the knowledge of Him. They that know Thy name will put their trust in Thee (Psa. 9:10). God to be trusted in, not an idol bearing His name; God as revealed in His Word, not as formed by our own imagination. To be trusted in as a God of justice as well as mercy. True trust in God founded on the atonement of His Son. God in Christ the revealed object of a sinners trust. Christ the only way to the Father. Trust in God implies trust in
(1) His goodness;
(2) His wisdom;
(3) His faithfulness;
(4) His justice;
(5) His power. God in Christ to be trusted in by the sinner for pardon; by the saint for purity. To be trusted in by believers
(1) In deepest darkness;
(2) Under greatest discouragements;
(3) In danger and difficulty;
(4) In the absence of all help from ourselves and others;
(5) In the face of all appearances. Trust, the grace that brings the greatest glory to God and the greatest comfort to ourselves (Isa. 12:2; Rom. 4:20).
IV. Elihu reproves Jobs obstinacy. Job. 35:15-16.But now because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger (or, because it is not so [that] his anger has visited, viz., Job, for his irreverent and unbecoming speeches), yet he knoweth it not in great extremity (or, and He [viz., God] hath not taken severe cognizance of his transgression); therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain (in vain and foolish complaints against God, without either reason or success); he multiplieth words without knowledge [either of God or himself]. One of the most obscure passages in the book. Elihus object to reprove Job either
(1) Because, while God was chastising, Job was still sinning by his rebellious murmurs; or
(2) Because while God was forbearing to punish Jobs irreverent speeches, Job still continued to indulge in them. Observe
(1) An evil case(i.) when God chastises, and we are either blind to the chastening or harden ourselves under it; (ii.) when Gods forbearance is abused to a continuance in sin.
(2) A child of God not always like himself in temptation and trial. Asaphs confession: So foolish was I, and ignorant; I was as a beast before thee (Psa. 73:22). A believer never entirely free from his old carnal nature in this life. Innate corruption liable at times to break out with great violence. Gods forbearance required as well in the case of a saint as of a sinner. Davids prayer needful for every child of God: Keep back Thy servant from presumptuous sins (Psa. 19:13). A strict watch required to be kept over heart and lips in time of temptation and trouble. A tendency in the best to impatience under intense and protracted suffering. New Testament grace required in order to fulfil the New Testament precept: Rejoice evermore; in everything give thanks (1Th. 5:16-17). The belevers privilege as well as duty to glory in tribulation (Rom. 5:3). Not too much, under the New Testament supplies of the Spirit, to be strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long suffering with joyfulness (Col. 1:11).
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D.
THE ACTS OF GOD AND THE ACTS OF MAN (Job. 35:1-16)
1. Job has said he has seen no profit in righteousness. (Job. 35:1-3)
TEXT 35:13
1 Moreover Elihu answered and said,
2 Thinkest thou this to be thy right,
Or sayest thou, My righteousness is more than Gods,
3 That thou sayest, What advantage will it be onto thee?
And, What profit shall I have more than if I had sinned?
COMMENT 35:13
Job. 35:1Elihu proceeds to respond to Jobs assertion that piety in no way affects God, but that both sin and piety affect only man. This speech is composed of two parts: (1) Elihu seeks to refute Jobs claim that the pious person is not rewarded by propertyJob. 35:2-8; and (2) when the cry of the afflicted is not heard by God, they have not responded to the lesson intended by the discipline of sufferingJob. 35:9-16. Elihu first defines the position of Job, then points to the greatness of God, who can neither be positively or negatively affected by anything man does. Man alone is affected by his own behavior.
Job. 35:2The antecedent of this refers to what follows in verse three. Elihu is quoting Jobs claim that he is in the right, or righteous. But Job has never claimed that he is more righteous than God; rather he has consistently asserted that he is innocent in the presence of GodJob. 4:17; Job. 13:18; Job. 19:6-7; and Job. 27:2-6.
Job. 35:3How am I profited from my sin? Job has never denied that he has sinned (Heb. means more than if I had sinned), but not serious enough to deserve the unbearable suffering which has fallen upon himJob. 32:2. Elihu could not admit that Job had correctly evaluated his spiritual condition, as that would impugn the justice of God. Job often seems to imply that it would not make any difference whether he had sinned or not, since justice seems to be abortive in the universe; i.e., the universe is amoralJob. 34:9. It is doubtful that the pronoun thee in the A. V. refers to God; perhaps it is best taken as a taunt hurled at another one of Jobs antagonists.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
ELIHU’S THIRD DISCOURSE.
1. Elihu spake moreover Job has made himself more righteous than God, in maintaining that he had not received his deserts. His claims of merit and reward for righteousness are met by the consideration that God is too elevated to be benefited by the virtue or harmed by the vice of man. Human actions redound to the good or ill of man himself. And yet God is not indifferent to the doings of men, though in times of suffering he may not hear their empty cries for help. They are not heard because they are wanting in humility and faith, not because God is not a moral governor of the universe.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job’s Standpoint of the Futility of Piety False
v. 1. Elihu spake moreover, v. 2. Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s? v. 3. For, v. 4. I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee, v. 5. Look unto the heavens and see, v. 6. If thou sinnest, what doest thou against Him? v. 7. If thou be righteous, what givest thou Him, or what receiveth He of thine hand? v. 8. Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Job 35:1-16
In this short chapter, once more Elihu addresses himself to Job, first (verses 1-8) answering his complaint that a life of righteousness has brought him no correspondent blessings; and then (verses 9-14) explaining to him that his prayers and appeals to God have probably not been answered because they were not preferred in a right spirit, i.e. with faith and humility. Finally (verse 15, 16), he condemns Job for haughtiness and arrogance, and reiterates the charge that he “multiplies words without knowledge” (comp. Job 34:35-37).
Job 35:1, Job 35:2
Elihu spake moreover, and said, Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s? Once more it is to be observed that Job had said no such thing. At the worst, he had made statements from which it might be argued that he regarded himself as having a more delicate sense of justice than God (e.g. Job 9:22-24; Job 10:3; Job 12:6, etc.). But Elihu insists on pushing Job’s intemperate phrases to their extremest logical issues, and taxing Job with having said all that his words might seem to a strict logician to involve (compare the comment on Job 34:5, Job 34:9).
Job 35:3
For thou saidst What advantage will it be unto thee? i.e. What advantage will thy righteousness be unto thee? Job had certainly argued that his righteousness brought him no temporal advantage; but he had always a conviction that he would ultimately be the better for it. Elihu, however, does not acknowledge this; and, assuming that Job expects to receive no advantage at all from his integrity, argues that God is not bound to afford him any. And, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin? rather, And what profit shall f have, more than if I had sinned? (see the Revised Version, and compare the comments of Rosenmuller and Canon Cook).
Job 35:4
I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee; i.e. “thy comforters, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.” Elihu has pledged himself to confute their reasonings, no less than those of Job (Job 32:5-20), and now proposes to carry out this intention. But it is not very clear that he accomplish, s his purpose. In point of fact, he does little more than repeat and expand the argument of Eliphaz (Job 22:2, Job 22:3).
Job 35:5
Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou; i.e. “look to the material sky and heavens, so far above thee and so unapproachable, and judge from them how far the God who made them is above thy puny, feeble selfhow incapable he is of being touched by any of thy doings.”
Job 35:6
If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? Man’s sins against God cannot injure him, diminish from his power, or lower his dignity. They can only injure the sinner himself. God does not punish them because they harm him, but because they are discords in the harmony of his moral universe. Or even if thy transgressions be multiplied; i.e. if thou persistest in a long course of sin, and addest “rebellion” to transgression, and self-complacency to rebellion, and “multipliest thy words against God” (Job 34:37)even then, what doest thou unto him? i.e; what hurt dost thou inflict upon him? None.
Job 35:7
If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? By parity of reasoning, as our sins do not injure God, so our righteousness cannot benefit him. As David says, “My goodness extendeth not to thee” (Psa 16:2). Or what receiveth he of thine hand? All things being already God’s, we can but give him of his own. We cannot really add to his possessions, or to his glory, or to his felicity. We cannot, as some have supposed they could, lay him under an obligation.
Job 35:8
Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son (rather, a son) of man. Job must not think, Elihu means, that, because his good actions benefit and his bad actions injure his fellow men, therefore they must also in the one case injure and in the other benefit God. The cases are not parallel. God is too remote, too powerful, too great, to be touched by his actions. Job has done wrong, therefore, to expect that God would necessarily reward his righteousness by prosper us, happy life, and worse to complain because his expectations have been disappointed. It is of his mere spontaneous goodness and bounty that God rewards the godly.
Job 35:9-14
Job had made it a frequent subject of complaint that God did not hear, or at any rate did not answer, his prayers and cries for relief. Elihu answers that Job’s case is not exceptional. Those who cry out against oppression and suffering frequently receive no answer, but it is because they “ask amiss.” Job should have patience and trust.
Job 35:9
By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry; rather, by reason of the multitude of oppressions, men cry out. It is not Job only who cries to God. Oppressors are numerous; the oppressed are numerous; everywhere there are complaints and outcries. They cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. The oppressors are, for the most part, the mighty of the earthkings, princes, nobles (see Isa 1:23; Isa 3:14, Isa 3:15; Hos 5:10; Amo 4:1, etc.).
Job 35:10
But none saith, Where is God my Maker? The oppressed, in many eases, do not appeal to God at all. They mutter and complain and groan because of their afflictions; but they have not enough faith in God to cry to him. Or, if they do so cry, it is not in a right spirit; it is despondingly, despairingly, not confidently or cheerfully. God is one who giveth songs in the night. The truly pious man sings hymns of praise in his affliction, as Paul and Silas did in the jail at Philippi, looking to God with faith and a lively hope for deliverance.
Job 35:11
Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth, and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven. Elihu probably alludes to Job’s defence of his complaints as natural, like the instinctive cries of beasts and birds (Job 6:5). God, he says, has given to man a higher nature than he has bestowal on the brutes; and this nature should teach him to carry his griefs to God in a proper spirit- a spirit of faith, piety, humility, and resignation. If men cried to him in this spirit, they would obtain an answer. If they do not obtain an answer, it must be that the proper spirit is lacking (comp. Jas 4:3).
Job 35:12
There they cry. “There,” smitten by calamity, they do at last cry to God. But none giveth answer. They “ask, and receive not.” Why? Because of the pride of evil men. Because, i.e; they ask proudly, not humbly; they claim relief as a right, not as a favour; they approach God in a spirit that offends him and prevents him from granting their requests.
Job 35:13
Surely God will not hear vanity. God will not hear prayers that are rendered “vain” by sin or defect in those who offer them, as by a want of faith, piety, humility, or resignation. Neither will the Almighty regard any such petitions.
Job 35:14
Although thou sayest thou shalt not see him; rather, How much less when thou sayest thou canst not see him! (compare the Revised Version); i.e. how much less will God attend to thy prayers when thou sayest that thou canst not see or find him (Job 9:11; Job 23:3, Job 23:8-10), that he is altogether hid from thee, and treats thee as an enemy (Job 33:10)! Still, judgment (or, the cause, i.e. “thy cause’) is before him, or “awaits his decision.” Therefore trust thou in him. Wait on, in patience and trust. The last word is not yet spoken.
Job 35:15, Job 35:16
Leaving his advice to sink into Job’s mind, Elihu turns from him to the bystanders, and remarks, with some severity, that it is because Job has not been punished enough, because God has not visited him for his petulance and arrogance, that he indulges in “high swelling words of vanity,” and continues to utter words which are foolish and” without knowledge.”
Job 35:15
But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger. This is an impossible rendering. The Hebrew is perfectly plain, and is to be translated literally as follows: But now, because he hath not visited his (i.e. Job’s) anger. (So Schultens, Canon Cook, and, with a slight difference, our Revisers.) God had not visited Job with any fresh afflictions on account of his vehement expostulations and overbold and reckless words. Yet he knoweth it not in great extremity. The Authorized Version again wholly misses the meaning. Translate, with the Revised Version, Neither doth he greatly regard (Job’s) arrogance.
Job 35:16
Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; or, in vanity (comp. verse 13). He multiplieth words without knowledge; i.e. he is bold to speak words that are vain and insensate, because God has not, as he might have done, punished him for his previous utterances.
HOMILETICS
Job 35:1-16
Elihu to Job: the trial of Job continued.
I. JOB‘S OFFENCE RESTATED. Returning to the charge, Elihu accuses Job of having given utterance to two dangerous assertions.
1. That his (Job‘s) righteousness was greater than God‘s. “Thinkest thou this to be right?”dost thou hold this for a sound judgment?”that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s?” (verse 2). That Job never used this expression may be true; but that Elihu does not unfairly represent the patriarch’s meaning may be inferred from the circumstance that even at an earlier stage in the controversy Eliphaz distinctly understood this to be the import of his language (Job 4:17). Besides, it is a legitimate deduction from those passages in which Job, maintaining his own integrity, complains that God does not accord to him even-handed justice, but treats him, though innocent, as a criminal; so that practically it is involved in the milder rendering, “I am righteous before God” (LXX; Umbreit, and others), Job meaning thereby to affirm that he failed to discern in God a corresponding righteousness to that which he beheld in himself, or, in other words, that his righteousness was more (visible and real) than God’s. Whether designed or not, the inevitable result of regarding with too much admiration one’s own righteousness (natural or gracious, legal or evangelical) is to obscure one’s perceptions of the righteousness of God, as, on the other hand, the more exalted views a saint entertains of the righteousness of God, the less will he feel disposed to magnify his own.
2. That his (Job‘s) piety was of no advantage to himself. “For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin?” literally, “(from it) more than from my sin” (verse 3). This, which Job himself had put into the mouth of the ungodly (Job 21:15), adding, “The counsel of the wicked be far from me,” had already been assigned to Job by Elihu (Job 34:9; vide homiletics), and might well seem to be implied in such utterances as Job 9:22-31, in which God is represented as involving “the perfect and the wicked ‘ in one indiscriminate destruction, and in a time of sudden and overwhelming calamity “laughing at the trial of the innocent” (Job 21:7-13; Job 24:18-24), and in which the prosperous lives and happy deaths of the ungodly are set over against the evil fortunes commonly allotted to the good. Such questions as these of Job about the profit of religion, though common in the mouths of saints (e.g. Asaph, Psa 73:13; St. Peter, Mat 19:27), proceed from mistaken views as to the essential character of piety, which is nothing if not disinterested. Yet, in the truest and most comprehensive sense, “godliness is profitable unto all things” (1Ti 4:8; cf. Mat 19:28).
II. JOB‘S FOLLY EXPOSED. Reversing the order of Elihu’s words, we discover:
1. A sound premiss. That a man may be hurt by the irreligion, and benefited by the godliness, of his neighbour. Nothing more demonstrable, or indeed less demanding demonstration, than that moral character is contagious, and evil character even more so than good. Every wicked man does an injury, directly as well as indirectly, unconsciously even when not consciously, to the world in which he lives, the neighbourhood in which he dwells, the Society in which he moves, the individuals with whom he comes in contact. The ungodly man may be compared to a walking pestilence. On the other hand, “the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life” (Pro 11:30). However humble the position he occupies or the talents he possesses, the good man, whose breast is the seat of fervent piety, is a distinct gain to the world and the age (Mat 5:13, Mat 5:14).
2. A fallacious deduction. Correct. enough in thinking that a man might make his fellow a debtor by his goodness, or incur towards his fellow obligations in consequence of damage done by his wickedness, Job was utterly at fault in inferring that the same relations could exist between man and God. “If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him? If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?” (verses 6, 7). That is, human piety cannot add to the blessedness of God in such a way as to make God the debtor of his creature, and lay him under obligation to make the good man happy; neither can man’s impiety so diminish the Divine felicity as to require God to protect himself against the machinations of the wicked by always entailing on them misery as the recompense of their wickedness (vide homiletics on Job 22:2-4). If God makes a good man happy, he does so of grace and favour; if he allows him to pass his life in misery, he does not thereby commit an act of injustice.
3. A complete refutation. Elihu disposes of Job’s bad logic by reminding him first of the lofty elevation of the heavens (verse 5), and a fortiori of the infinite exaltation of him who dwells above the heavens beyond the highest and purest creature on the earth. Since God thus transcends even the best of men, it is clearly impossible to suppose that he can be tried by purely human standards.
III. JOB‘S MISTAKES INDICATED.
1. Dwelling too exclusively upon the greatness of his misery. “By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry;” or they, i.e. the oppressed, raise a cry: “they cry out by reason of the arm,” i.e. violence, “of the mighty” (verse 9). So Job had complained (Job 24:12), animadverting severely on the seeming indifference of God to what he could not but be cognizant or; viz. man’s inhumanity to man; and to this Elihu now alludes with the view of suggesting to the mind of Job the direction in which to look for an explanation of this remarkable phenomenonGod’s silence in the presence of human sorrow. The cry which rises from the oppressed is in no sense a believing appeal to the Creator for assistance. It is simply a groan of anguish. Instead of turning with hope and expectation to their Maker, they fix their thoughts upon their misery and raise a shout. It is impossible not to think that, in holding up such a mirror before the mind of Job, Elihu designed the patriarch to catch a reflection of himself. Had not he too been crying out under the severity of the stroke which had fallen on him, rather than anticipating the hour of deliverance when God would fill his mouth with rejoicing? The mistake of magnifying one’s troubles, and dwelling too exclusively upon them, is one which even Christians, no less than Job, are not careful to avoid. Besides springing from unbelief, it has a tendency to hinder their beneficent design, and commonly obscures the soul’s discernment of the source as well as of the first approaches of relief.
2. Neglecting to repair to God for succour. “None saith, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?” Instead of giving way to wailing, the victim of oppression (and such Job deemed himself to be) ought to turn in believing confidence and with hopeful expectation, not to his fellows, like Asa the King of Israel (2Ch 16:12), or to false gods, like Ahaziah the son of Ahab (2Ki 1:2), or to any form of creature-help whatsoever (Psa 146:2), but like David to the living God (Psa 121:2), remembering
(1) who God is in himselfEloah, the all-powerful and all-sufficient One;
(2) the relation in which he stands to the sufferer, that of Maker; and
(3) the gracious character in which he delights to present himself to his creatures, viz. as a God “who giveth songs in the night,” i.e. who, by granting deliverance to afflicted sufferers in the night of tribulation, gives them occasion to celebrate his praise in anthems of gratitude and joy. Such nights of sorrow and tribulation occur in all men’s lives (Job 5:7), but especially in the lives of saints (Act 14:22). Yet no night is too dark for God to turn the shadow of death into the morning (Amo 5:8). God, who caused Israel to sing upon the shores of the Red Sea (Exo 15:1), and David after escaping from the hands of Saul (2Sa 22:1), and Paul and Silas in prison at Philippi (Act 16:25), can cause the most despairing sufferer to shout “Hallelujah!” Still nothing is more frequent than for saints to forget God, and turn to almost every other quarter before they seek unto him (Isa 51:13), though one principal end of affliction is to impel men to seek unto him who alone can put a new song into their mouths.
3. Forgetting the superior dignity of his nature. Simply to howl over one’s miseries. Elihu intends to say, is to reduce one’s self to the level of the brute creation, which express their natural sense of pain by means of such bellowings (Job 6:5). But man belongs to an order of creation loftier than the wild ass or the ox: and, being possessed of nobler faculties and larger intelligence than these, should not be content with such modes of giving utterance to emotion as are shared in by them, but should address himself to God in the filial confidence of prayer. And to this the example of the beasts, viewed in another light, may be said to urge him. Another rendering supplies the thought that God “teacheth us by the beasts of the earth”by the young lions, e.g; who roar after their prey, and seek their meat from God (Psa 145:21); “and maketh us wise by the fowls of heaven”for instance, by the ravens who cry to God for food (Psa 147:9).
4. Offering prayers that spring from vanity and pride. “There they cry, but none giveth answer, because of the pride of evil men. Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it” (verses 12, 13). Again under the general ease Elihu deals with the ease of Job. Job had repeatedly complained that his prayer had not been answered (Job 19:7; Job 30:20). Elihu indirectly meets his objection by explaining why the prayers of sufferers in general remain unheard. They are not prayers in the proper sense of the expression, being dictated by wounded pride rather than by conscious need, and consisting of emptiness and wind, mere “sound and fury signifying nothing,” rather than the aspirations and desires of a believing heart. It is impossible to resist the impression that Job’s outcries and entreaties were sometimes inspired by lacerated pride and insulted vanity rather than by lowly humility and fervent piety. Hence they were suffered to ring through the vault of heaven unheeded. So are all similar prayers by whomsoever presented (Psa 66:18; Isa 1:15; Pro 28:9; Joh 9:31; Jas 4:3). A prayer, to be acceptable, must be sincere, lowly, reverent, and devout.
5. Supposing God did not understand his case. This an extremely natural inference from the oft-reiterated demand that God would permit Job to lay his cause before him. But Elihu assures him that this was quite unnecessary; that, although he did not, and apparently could not, see God, i.e. come to God’s presence (Job 23:3-9), the whole case he wished to submit to God was already before him, and all he (Job) needed to do was simply to wait for God’s gracious intervention (verse 14)words suggestive of
(1) a great temptation to which suffering saints are not seldom exposed, viz. a temptation to despond of Divine succour and Divine favour, like Job himself (Job 23:3), like David (Psa 42:6), Asaph (Psa 77:7-9), Heman (Psa 88:6), Jonah (Jon 2:4), and others;
(2) a great consolation which all desponding and despairing ones may cling to, viz. that God perfectly understands their case in all its minutest details, as he knew the cases of Job (Job 23:10), Hagar (Gen 16:13), and Israel (Exo 3:7); and
(3) a great duty which is equally incumbent on all, to wait patiently on God till he is pleased to come with deliverance and favour (Psa 62:5; Lam 3:26; Mic 7:7; Hab 2:3).
6. Misimproving the Divine clemency. Understanding Elihu to say, “And now, because he, i.e. God, “does not visit” (i.e. hostilely, in the sense of punishing) “his,” i.e. Job’s, “anger, and does not know” (in the sense of regarding or taking notice of) “his wickedness or pride greatly; therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain, he multiplieth words without knowledge” (verses 15, 16), the meaning is that Job’s sufferings have not been severe enough, and that the Divine clemency in dealing sparingly with Job has only been recompensed by the continuatior. and manifestation in Job of a rebellious and refractory spirit.
Learn:
1. That God’s servants ought to cry aloud and spare not in exposing the wickedness of men, whether saints or sinners.
2. That it is of great advantage when a faithful reprover can particularly specify the sin which be condemns.
3. That men’s words commonly afford a good index to the state of their hearts.
4. That by the quality of their speech shall men eventually be either acquitted or condemned.
5. That preachers of the gospel should ever, like Elihu, be able to defend as well as recommend the faith which they proclaim.
6. That God is not too high to bless man, though he is certainly too exalted to be injured by man.
7. That while man can enrich God with nothing, God both can and does enrich man with all things.
8. That “man’s inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn.”
9. That God is perpetually cognizant of all the wickedness and misery, crime and wretchedness, that exists on earth.
10. That the only power competent to banish sin and sorrow from the heart of from the world is the power of God.
11. That men have usually themselves to blame when their prayers are not heard.
12. That God is infinitely worthy of the unwavering confidence of men.
Job 35:10
Man’s forgetfulness of God’ and God’s remembrance of man.
I. MAN‘S FORGETFULNESS OF GOD. “None saith, Where is God my Maker?”
1. The cause of it.
(1) Generally, the sinfulness of the human heart. That man should so habitually neglect God is inexplicable except upon the hypothesis of a fall. But sin, having intervened to separate man from God, has caused man to turn his back upon God, and to contrive to live without any sort of acquaintance with him.
(2) Particularly, man’s neglect of God may be traced to three things:
(a) a sense of guilt, which instinctively urges man to shun God’s presence (Gen 3:8);
(b) the dominion of the world, which over every sinful heart exercises an almost resistless fascination (1Jn 2:15); and
(c) an absorption in self, which, by magnifying all its own little interests and concerns, its sorrows no less than its joys, prevents the human soul from seeking after God.
2. The criminality of it.
(1) The character of God as Eloah, the all-sufficient and all-powerful One, demonstrates the wickedness of man in living so habitually in neglect of his service.
(2) The relation of God to man as his Maker attests the sinfulness of such behaviour on the part of man.
(3) The favour of God to man in first bestowing upon him a superior nature to that possessed by the animal creation, and secondly in making these lower creatures his instructors, gives additional evidence of man’s heinous guilt in thus neglecting to inquire after God.
(4) The power of God to assist man by giving “songs in the night” is a further proof of man’s amazing criminality in not remembering God.
II. GOD‘S REMEMBRANCE OF MAN. He “giveth songs in the night.”
1. In the night of natural day. By spreading out the star-illumined canopy above man’s head, he stirs, at least in thoughtful minds, such exalted ideas and holy emotions as frequently break out in anthems of praise: witness David (Psa 8:3, Psa 8:4), Job (Job 9:4-10), Isaiah (Isa 40:26), and the unknown Hebrew singer (Psa 147:4).
2. In the night of devout meditation. “Let the saints sing aloud upon their beds“ (Psa 149:5); and oftentimes when wrapt in heavenly contemplation, remembering God upon their beds, and meditating on him in the night-watches, the mouths of saints praise him with joyful lips (Psa 63:5, Psa 63:6).
3. In the night of spiritual conviction. In such a night David sang some of his sweetest songs (Psa 51:1-19.). And as God put a new song into David’s mouth when he was lifted out of the horrible pit and miry clay (Psa 40:3), so does he put a happy anthem of praise for forgiving mercy into the lips of every believing penitent: witness the jailor of Philippi (Act 16:34).
4. In the night of temporal affliction Israel, escaping from the land of Egypt in a night which at one period seemed dark enough (Exo 14:10), sang a song of deliverance before the morning dawn had fully risen (Exo 15:1). A dark dismal night of adversity it was for David when he was driven forth from his palace, from his capital, from his people, from the temple (2Sa 15:30); and yet then it was that David sang, “But thou, O Lord, art a Shield for me, and the Lifter-up of mine head “(Psa 3:3). Paul and Silas had their songs in the prison of Philippi (Act 16:25); and there is not a saint, however feeble, that may not chant in the darkest night of trouble a psalm of holy confidence in God.
5. In the night of approaching dissolution. Job himself at times was not without his song, though he felt that he was standing on the verge of the tomb (Job 19:25-27). So did God give an anthem to Hezekiah, when he raised that weeping and praying monarch from what seemed a couch of death (Isa 38:20). David, too, had a song ready for that dark sad night which he knew to be inevitable (Psa 23:4). It was a noble hymn which St. Paul sent forth from the Roman prison to his young son Timothy (2Ti 4:6). And so does God give to all saints, who seek after him in humility, penitence, and faith, a song to cheer them in the dying hour (1Co 15:55); and when the dark night of death breaks away, puts into their mouths the never-ending song of Moses and the Lamb.
Learn:
1. The advantage of seeking after God.
2. The kindness of God in thinking upon man.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Job 35:1-16
Elihu’s third speech: the profit of godliness.
I. FOLLY OF THE OPINION THAT THERE IS NO PROFIT IN GODLINESS. (Job 35:1-8.) A good man, says Elihu, would not speak as Job has done, questioning whether godliness is more profitable than sin. But what is the refutation of this dangerous notion? The speaker points to the blessed self-sufficiency of God, the exalted One in the heavens. In this light man must appear alone as one who draws advantage from his righteousness (comp. Job 7:20; Job 22:2, sqq.). Our evil deeds cannot injure God, neither can our good deeds add to his blessedness. To expect a return or recompense from God for obedience, as if we had given him a pleasure or conferred on him an advantage, is, according to Elihu, a sign that we have altogether forgotten the distance between ourselves and him, and the true relation in which we stand to him. A modern philosopher, indeed, says, using a bold expression, “Put God in your debt!” But this means onlyConform to God’s laws, and expect that God will be true to those relations expressed by his laws. The misery of Job is that he cannot, for the present, see that God is true to those relations. He has sown righteousness, but not, as it seems, reaped mercy. He is half in the right, and so is his present instructor. It remains for these two halves of truth to be united into a whole. Meanwhile Elihu points to a great canon of conduct, a great motive of right. Piety is always beneficial, ungodliness always hurtful to our fellow-men, in a sense in which this, of course, cannot be said of God. And this should sustain us in suffering: the thought of the example we may be permitted to set, the light that may shine out of our darkness, the image of those who may be deterred from evil or allured to good by what they see in us.
II. REASONS FOR UNANSWERED PRAYERS. (Verses 9-16.)
1. Want of true reverence for God. (Verses 9-14.) The cry of the oppressed goes up to heaven, and it is long before an answer comes. Help is delayed or denied. Why? In most cases it is probably the fault of the sufferer himself. There is something defective in the substance or in the spirit of his prayers. He does not cry: “Where is the Almighty, my Creator?” (Verse 10). This is the complaint which Jehovah makes by the mouth of Jeremiah (Jer 2:6, Jer 2:8). There is no injustice in him; but there is inconsistency in men. They do not trust him. They ungratefully forget his past providences. They disobey his laws, they meddle with forbidden things. There are conditions, moral conditions, under which alone it is possible for men to be heard, delivered, blessed. “Have I been a wilderness to Israel?” Behind these figures lies the truth that Divine blessing is conditioned by our own moral state and endeavour. Those grand relations of mercy in which God stands to mentheir Deliverer, the Giver of songs in the night of natural distress and emergency, the Instructor of their spirits in that life above that of the brutes who lead a blind life within the braincan only be realized by the faithful and the true. To know God as our Saviour, we must humbly and constantly trust him; to know him as our Teacher and Guide, we must diligently follow him. Pride, vain or evil desires in the heart, these, then, are the only permanent causes of unanswered prayers. And how much less are advantage and deliverance possible for Job, if he reproaches God with iniquity in being unwilling to regard his cause; if he waits as if that cause were not already laid before God (verse 14)! For he knows all; and we must commit our way to him, in the assurance that he will in due time bring it to pass.
2. Presumptuous language against God. (Verses 15, 16.) Though such folly has hitherto passed unpunished, it does not follow that God has not observed it. According to Job’s way of thinking, Elihu says, in effect, this would follow. But he will soon see the contrary. The passage is instructive as giving us searching admonition on the subject of unanswered prayer, unrelieved distress. It is a time for heart-searching. The fault cannot be with God; if fault there be, it lies at our door. The Word comes with power in such moments, “Cleanse your hands, ye sinners! Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” Read Isa 1:1-31. But to the true and contrite heart, mercy and deliverance may be delayed, never denied. And the lesson, then, isBe patient, wait, and hope.J.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN
Job 35:9-11
The cry that is not unto God.
Elihu continues to press Job severely. His teachings run in the lines of truth, and they approach more nearly to the design of Job’s suffering than those of Job’s friends, but they fail actually to reach it. He makes many sagacious reflections on human conduct. This is one. There is a cry raised by the suffering ones under the heavy burden of their multiplied oppressions, and “by reason of the arm of the mighty.” How often is it that these address not their cry to God! It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that relief does not come. Job seems to imply that God does not vindicate the sufferers. Here is a reason. They cry not to God. “None saith, Where is God. my Maker, who giveth songs in the night?”
I. THE ERROR OF SUCH A CRY. God only is able truly to respond to the cry of suffering. It is expending the breath in vain to invoke help from other sources. Man is often utterly powerless; and, even when able, is not always willing to help. If the cry is to a false god, it is a still greater error, and can only end in disappointment.
II. BUT THE CRY WHICH IS AN ERROR IS ALSO A FOLLY. Such a cry ends in vexation; the unheard cry aggravates the sorrow and makes the burden greater. Why should man in his feebleness appeal to his feeble fellow? and why forsake the Maker of all, who alone can give songs of joy in the night of mourning?
III. THIS CRY IS ALSO A WRONG. It is a moral wrong for man to turn his face away from God in the time of his trouble. It reflects upon the Divine goodness and upon the ability and willingness of God to help. It casts an unjust reproach upon a loving Creator, “who teacheth us” lessons by “the beasts of the earth,” and “maketh us wise” by the very “fowls of heaven.”
IV. BUT THIS IS ALTOGETHER A VAIN CRY. “None giveth answer.” Evil men in their pride will not humble themselves to call upon Jehovah; they will not acknowledge their dependence upon him, will not submit to him. Their cry is as one made to the wind. Even if addressed to God, it is void of all truth and meaning. It is the cry of vanity. “God will not hear, neither will the Almighty regard it.”
From all which comes the great lesson, Though God is hidden, and men see him not, “yet judgment is before him”: therefore may men trust in him, and, believing “that he is, and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him,” make their supplication unto God, their cry to the Almighty.R.G.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Job 35:2
An unjust inference.
Elihu represents Job as saying that his righteousness is greater than God’s, and he asks whether the patriarch thinks it right to use such language.
I. IT IS UNJUST TO ASCRIBE TO OUR FELLOW–MEN OPINIONS WHICH THEY HAVE NOT EXPRESSED. Job had not used such blasphemous language as Elihu attributed to him, and he would have repudiated the ideas that it conveyed. His young monitor was rudely asserting what he thought Job meant, what he took to be the underlying opinion of Job. But this was unjust. Half the controversies of the Church would have been avoided if people had not put into the mouths of others words that they never uttered. The only fair way is to listen to a man’s own statement of his case. The common injustice is to charge an opponent with holding all the opinions which we think can be deduced from his confessed beliefs. Thus we make him responsible for our inferences. “Judge not, that ye be not judged.”
II. WE SHOULD SEE THE NATURAL CONSEQUENCES OF OUR UTTERANCES, Although it was unjust to draw conclusions as Elihu was doing, it might be helpful for Job to see what conclusions were drawn from his hasty words. He would revolt from such ideas with horror. Then the question may well ariseDid he not provoke them? Though Elihu did wrong to make his assertion, Job may also have done wrong in speaking words that Elihu could use in such a way. We may learn from the false charges that are brought against us. Possibly these have been provoked by us. They are caricatures of our conduct. Therefore they show up the salient features of that conduct in a strong light. The very exaggeration calls attention to the points that have been unduly magnified. We need to consider the tendencies of what we say, and test the tendencies of our opinions by the inferences that are drawn from them.
III. MAN IS TEMPTED TO THINK HIMSELF MORE JUST THAN GOD. He would not own to such an idea openly, nor even in his own private thought. Nevertheless, in the heat of excitement, he acts as though this were his belief. Otherwise, why does he murmur? Why does he rebel? Why is he cast down into despair? We magnify our own opinions and we justify our own actions when these arc counter to the truth and will of God. Virtually this is making ourselves more just than God.
IV. THE JUSTICE OF GOD IS THE TYPE OF ALL JUSTICE. Evidently Elihu assumes that what is justice to man is in itself justice to God. This is assumed throughout the Bible, which makes no attempt to escape from the difficulties of providence by means of the “regulative ideas” advocated by Dean Mansel. Here we do not see that justice means one thing in God and another thing in man. But the perfection of justice may be applied to circumstances that are beyond our understanding. Then it may look unjust. Yet, if we knew all, we should see that it is the type and pattern of the very justice we are called to strive after.W.F.A.
Job 35:3, Job 35:4
Is goodness profitable?
I. A NATURAL QUESTION. Job is driven to put this question; or, rather, Elihu concludes that Job’s language shows that the patriarch is debating it within himself. Satan had sneered at the notion of disinterested goodness, and had asked, “Doth Job fear God for naught?” (Job 1:9). Now Job is begin-nine to see that the profits of goodness, as they are commonly believed in, do not accrue, for good men suffer as much as other men, if not more. The utilitarian question crops up in practice, whatever ethical theory we may have adopted. People will askWhat is the advantage of religion? Why should they deny their passions? What will they be the better for refraining from evil? The inquiry is natural for two reasons.
1. We naturally desire to see results. Men wish to know that some good end is to be reached. They are not satisfied with a good road; they must know where it leads to.
2. We naturally desire our own advantage. The instincts implanted in us encourage such a desire. In itself it is not bad, but natural. Evil comes from the abuse or the supremacy of it.
II. A SUPERFLUOUS QUESTION. Although the question is natural, we ought to be able to rise above it. After all, our chief concern is not with results, but with duty. Our part is to do the right, whether it leads to failure or to success. Obedience is our sphere; results are with God. We sow and water; he it is who gives the increase. It is difficult to learn this lesson, for we all gravitate to selfish and material ends unless we are lifted out of ourselves. Still, the lesson must be learnt. If a man is only virtuous on account of the rewards of virtue, he is not really virtuous at all. He who does not steal simply because be is persuaded that “honesty is the best policy,” is a thief at heart. Conscience is independent of advantage, and true goodness is only that which rests on conscience.
III. AN ANSWERABLE QUESTION. Elihu is ready with his reply. Perhaps it is not quite so simple a matter as he assumes, for he is one of those fearless talkers who handle the most difficult problems with jaunty confidence. Still, he helps us towards a reply. Goodness is not ignored by God. This Elihu show, in three ways.
1. God is too great to unjustly deprive men of the rewards of their deeds. These may not come at once; but God can have no conceivable motive for withholding them (verses 5-8).
2. The absence of immediate blessings is an proof of Divine negligence. While complaining that their rewards are not given them, men may not be treating God aright, and so nor deserving his blessing (verses 9-13).
3. God‘s watchfulness ensures his righteous treatment of his creatures. (Verses 14-16.) Thus according to Elihu goodness is ultimately for the advantage of its possessor. But may we not go further, and say that even if it brings no ultimate reward it is infinitely better than sin, for goodness is in itself a blessing? Few of us can be great, or rich, or very successful. But it is better to be good than to be great, or rich, or successful; for to be good is to be like Christ, like God.W.F.A.
Job 35:5-8
God’s independence of man.
I. GOD IS NOT DEPENDENT ON MAN‘S CONDUCT. We must agree in the main with what Elihu here states. God is serf-sufficient, and he owns all things. “The cattle upon a thousand hills are his.” If he were hungry he would not need to tell us. Our most active service is not necessary to God, our most virulent malignity cannot really touch him. He dwells in the fulness and serenity of his own perfection.
II. GOD CANNOT BE BRIBED BY MAN‘S GIFTS. The huge mistake of heathen worship is that it consists for the most part in attempts to buy off the anger and secure the favour of the gods by means of gifts and sacrifices. We meet with the same heathenish idea in all religious exercises that aim at being really profitable to God, not for his own sake, but to purchase his favour.
III. GOD IS UNDER NO INDUCEMENT TO BE UNJUST TO MAN. Between man and man injustice is common, because one man is much affected by the conduct of another. But if man can neither profit nor injure God, God can have no motive for dealing in any unequal way with man.
IV. GOD VOLUNTARILY CONCERNS HIMSELF WITH OUR CONDUCT BECAUSE HE LOVES us. Elihu’s description of God is one-sided. True in regard to the nature of things, it is false as it concerns the action and sympathy of God. Elihu’s God is too much like an Epicurean divinity. The love which is most characteristic of the Divine character, as it is revealed in the Bible, is here quite ignored. God may not be dependent on us. Yet his love leads him to be deeply concerned in what we do, and to entrust his designs to us as his servants. At the same time, seeing that love is his leading motive, there can be no need for us to try to bribe God, even if it were possible for us to do so; and we may be sure that, so far from dealing with harsh injustice, God will only desire our good.
V. GOD ACCEPTS MAN‘S TREATMENT OF HIS BROTHER–MAN AS THOUGH THIS AFFECTED HIMSELF. Christ has taught us that what is done to one of the least of his brethren is done to our Lord himself (Mat 25:40). God’s love for his children makes him regard any injury done to them as though it were an injury to his own person. The Father feels in the sufferings of his children. Thus we may benefit or injure God by benefiting or injuring our fellow-men. At the same time, this only results from the position which God voluntarily assumes towards us.
VI. MAN IS DEPENDENT ON GOD, AND HIS CONDUCT SHOULD BE A RESPONSE TO GOD‘S. Religion does not begin with our worship of God. Its commencement is earlier, in God’s goodness to man. All true worship springs from gratitude. Thus, while we cannot be useful or hurtful to God, excepting in so far as his love and sympathy permit us, we are urged to consider how completely our lives are in his hands, and how essential it is for us to live so that we may enjoy his continued favour.W.F.A.
Job 35:10
Songs in the night.
I. SONGS IN THE NIGHT ARE PECULIARLY HELPFUL. The thought is of a lonely and desolate nighta night of weary watching or painful suffering, when sleep cannot, or should not, be enjoyed. Travellers who dare not sleep in a perilous region infested by wild beasts, sing songs as they sit round their camp fire. Poor sufferers on beds of sickness welcome strains of well-known hymns in the long, wakeful night. The dreadful night of sorrow needs the cheering of some song of Zion. In the sunny day songs come readily enough; but then we could dispense with them. It is when darkness lies about our path that we need some uplifting and cheering influence.
II. SONGS IN THE NIGHT MAY BE ENJOYED. Elihu speaks in the present tense. Christian history tells of many a soul cheered by heavenly songs in darkest hours. Paul and Silas sang in prison with their feet in the stocks (Act 16:25).
“Stone walls do not a prison make,
Nor iron bars a cage.”
Sufferers have been cheerful with interior joy, even when their outer life has been hard and cruel The joy of God is never so real as when it breaks out in the midst of the deepest earthly trouble. This is an actual experience that lies within the reach of benighted souls, if only they will seek its cheering helpfulness.
III. SONGS IN THE NIGHT DO NOT ARISE SPONTANEOUSLY. There is something paradoxical in the phrase, “songs in the night,” for of course the context shows that it does not point to the noise of those who turn night into day with unseemly revelry. Elihu’s night-songs are of holy thoughts and heavenly music, or at least of pure and refreshing gladness, as his indication of the Source of them proves. Now, sorrow is not the parent of gladness. If we are to enjoy deep harmonies of thought, or to soar into high heavens of emotion among the depressing influences of treble, we must not look for the trouble to produce the songs. We must turn elsewhere, and if we have no higher than earthly supplies, we shall have no songs such as Elihu spoke of.
IV. SONGS IN THE NIGHT ARE GIVEN BY GOD. In the still hours of darkness he draws near to the soul. When the desolation and misery are greatest, God is most compassionate. He is not dependent on external circumstances. Night and day am alike to him. Thus it is possible for him to inspire his sweetest songs when we are drinking the most bitter cup. We must not delude ourselves into the notion that we shall not feel suffering if God is with us, although martyrs have been known to lose consciousness of the devouring flames in the ecstasy of their spiritual joy. The song does not dispel the darkness of night. But it drives out the terror and the despair, and brings peace and a deep joy that is nearer the true heart of man than the waves of sorrow which sweep over the surface of his life. The lark that soars to heaven’s high gate rises from a lowly nest on the ground. The sweetest songs of Zion that ascend to the gates of glory begin on the tearful earth.W.F.A.
Job 35:11
The superiority of men to animals.
Man is naturally superior to animals
I. IN INTELLIGENCE. We cannot but admire the intelligence of the horse, the dog, the elephant, the ant. There seems to be more than instinct in these creatures; we notice in them the germs of a reasoning power, because they can adapt means to ends, accommodate themselves to fresh circumstances, and overcome unexpected difficulties. Yet man’s intelligence far exceeds that of the animal world. Two striking characteristics which are peculiar to it may be noted.
1. The supremacy of man. Man is one of the weakest and most defenceless creatures. He has not the hide of the rhinoceros, nor the horns of the bull, nor the fangs of the lion, nor the strength of any of these creatures. Yet he masters them and rules the world, simply by means of superior intelligence.
2. The progress of man. Only man among the animals advances in civilization. Ants build now as their ancestors built ages ago. Man only moves onward. The savage may seem to be as low as the baboon; but he is susceptible of an education that his humble cousin can never enjoy.
II. IN CONSCIENCE. There seems to be a trace of conscience in the shame of the dog when he has done what he knows has been forbidden him. But though the animal may know shame, he does not know sin. Purity is an idea quite foreign to his nature. He may be generous, and he may sacrifice his life in devotion to his master. Yet he cannot feel the hunger and thirst after righteousness. The deep sense of sin and the great desire for holiness are peculiar to man.
III. IN RELIGION. A dim religious feeling may be dawning in the dog when he raises adoring looks to his master, often to a very unworthy masterlike poor Caliban worshipping drunken Stephano. But the animal cannot know God. Man alone of all God’s creatures knows his Maker. All nature praises God unconsciously, only man blesses him consciously. To man it is given to feel the love of God, and to love God in return. Man is permitted to hold communion with God; he is God’s child. Nature is the work of God; man his son. Nature is dependent on her Creator; man is sus-rained by his Father.
IV. IN DIVINE FAVOUR. This is implied by all that precedes. All the superiority of man is from God. Intelligence, conscience, and religion are Divine endowments. We could not raise ourselves above the animal world, for no creature could transcend its own nature. If our nature is superior to that of animals, this fact is wholly owing to the grace of God. But we may go further, and see that grace not only in our original creation and natural endowments, but also in our history. By his providence God has been adding to his favour. Not for the animals, but for man, and man alone, Christ came. The Incarnation was a fact of the human world, and in it man is supremely honoured by being united to God. Man is redeemed by the death of the Son of God.
V. IN OBLIGATION. Much is expected from him to whom much has been given. What is innocent in the animal may be sinful in man. It is a degradation for man to sink down to animalism. Brutal violence and bestial vice are utterly unworthy of a being exalted far above the animals by nature and the grace of God. When man sinks down to the level of the animals he really falls much lower. It is an insult to innocent brutes to associate them with the habits of corrupt men.W.F.A.
Job 35:14
From despair to trust.
Job had often expressed a deep desire to meet with God. He had longed for an opportunity of making his case clear, and having it tried by his great Judge. He had felt like a prisoner languishing in gaol without a trial, greatly wishing for an habeas corpus; and he had despaired of ever being brought face to face with his Accuser, who, as he thought, was also his Judge. Now Elihu tells him that God is already attending to his case, and therefore that he should have faith.
I. THE SUFFERER‘S DESPAIR. Job despairs of seeing God. He has indeed expressed a confident assurance that he will behold his Redeemer with his own eyes; he himself, and not another (Job 19:25-27). We need not be startled at the contradiction. In such darkness as that of Job’s faith ebbs and flows. For a moment the clouds break and a gleam of sunshine falls on the sufferer’s path, and at the sight of it he leaps up triumphant; but soon the blackness closes in again, and then the despair is as deep as ever.
1. God is not seen by the bodily eye. We may sweep the heavens with the most powerful telescope, but we shall never discover their King seated on his throne among the stars.
2. God does not give an immediate solution of our difficulties. We ask him to decide our case, to justify the right, and to destroy the false. Yet he does not seem to be interfering; for the confusion and the injustice remain. Then the weary waiting leads us to think that he will never appear. “Hope deferred maketh the heart sick,” and in its sickness it loses its hope.
II. THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO FAITH.
1. God is not neglecting us. Elihu assures Job that his case is already before his Judge. It is neither forgotten nor postponed. It is now being tried. Elihu was quite justified in making this statement, as we know from the prologue (Job 1:8-12). Job was being tried before God throughout; and so also were his friends, as the conclusion of the book shows (Job 42:7-9). Perhaps one lesson to be taught by this great poem is that God is watching man, and dealing justly with him, even when no indication of Divine interest or activity is vouchsafed to him. The verdict is not yet given nor the judgment pronounced; but the case is proceeding, and the Judge is carefully attending to it. That is what this book teaches concerning the great problem of life.
2. We should learn to trust God. We cannot see cur Judge as yet. We must wait for the verdict. All is dark to the eye of sense. But if we know that God is watching over us and considering our condition, we ought to be assured that we cannot suffer from neglect. The special region for faith is this present scene of darkness, and we are to expect the darkness to continue as long as the faith is to be exercised. But this will not be for ever. Job was right when, in a moment of strange elation, he leaped to the assurance that his Redeemer lived, and that he would see him at the latter day.W.F.A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
CHAP. XXXV.
Comparison is not to be made with God, because our good or evil cannot extend unto him. Many cry in their afflictions; but are not heard, for want of faith.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 35:1. Elihu spake moreover Elihu puts it to Job’s conscience, whether he thought it could be right to gain his acquittal by an impeachment of God’s justice; yet, he tells him, he must have thought after this manner, otherwise he would never have made use of such an atheistical expression, as, “that he had no profit by doing his duty, more than if he had sinned;” referring, probably, to chap. Job 23:11; Job 23:15. That he ought to consider that God was so far above the influence of all human actions, that neither could their good deeds be of any advantage to him, nor could their evil deeds affect him; Job 35:2-7. They might, indeed, affect themselves or their neighbours: they might suffer from the oppressions of men, and cry aloud to God to relieve them; but if this cry was not made with an entire dependance on, and a perfect resignation to the will of God, it would be quite fruitless: God would not give the least ear to it; Job 35:8-14. Much less ought they in every affliction to be flying in the face of the Almighty, and shaking off his sovereignty; that they ought rather to wait his leisure with patience; and that Job himself would not have acted in this manner had he not been hurried away by too great a self-confidence; Job 35:15-16. Heath.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
SECOND DISCOURSE
Proof that man is not right in doubting Gods righteousness:
Job 34
a. Opening: Censure of the doubt of Gods righteousness expressed by Job:
Job 34:1-9
1Furthermore Elihu answered and said:
2Hear my words, O ye wise men;
and give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge.
3For the ear trieth words,
as the mouth tasteth meat.
4Let us choose to us judgment:
let us know among ourselves what is good.
5For Job hath said: I am righteous;
and God hath taken away my judgment.
6Should I lie against my right?
my wound is incurable without transgression.
7What man is like Job,
who drinketh up scorning like water?
8Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity,
and walketh with wicked men?
9For he hath said: It profiteth a man nothing
that he should delight himself with God.
b. Proof that the Divine righteousness is necessary, and that it really exists
. From Gods disinterested love of His creatures:
Job 34:10-15
10Therefore hearken unto me, ye men of understanding!
Far be it from God that He should do wickedness;
and from the Almighty, that He should commit iniquity!
11For the work of a man shall He render unto him,
and cause every man to find according to his ways.
12Yea, surely God will not do wickedly,
Neither will the Almighty pervert judgment.
13Who hath given Him a charge over the earth?
or who hath disposed the whole world?
14If He set His heart upon man,
if He gather unto Himself his spirit and his breath;
15All flesh shall perish together,
and man shall turn again unto dust.
. From the idea of God as Ruler of the world:
Job 34:16-30.
16If now thou hast understanding, hear this:
hearken to the voice of my words.
17Shall even he that hateth right govern?
and wilt thou condemn Him that is Most Just?
18Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked?
and to princes, Ye are ungodly?
19How much less to Him that accepteth not the persons of princes,
nor regardeth the rich more than the poor?
for they all are the work of His hands.
20In a moment shall they die,
and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away:
and the mighty shall be taken away without hand.
21For His eyes are upon the ways of man,
and He seeth all his goings.
22There is no darkness, nor shadow of death,
where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.
23For He will not lay upon man more than right;
that he should enter into judgment with God.
24He shall break in pieces mighty men without number,
and set others in their stead.
25Therefore He knoweth their works,
and He overturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed.
26He striketh them as wicked men
in the open sight of others;
27Because they turned back from Him,
and would not consider any of His ways:
28So that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto Him,
and He heareth the cry of the afflicted.
29When He giveth quietness, who then can make trouble?
and when He hideth His face, who then can behold Him?
whether it be done against a nation, or against a man only:
30That the hypocrite reign not,
lest the people be ensnared.
c. Exhibition of Jobs inconsistency and folly in reproaching God with injustice, and at the same time appealing to His decision:
Job 34:31-37
31Surely it is meet to be said unto God
I have borne chastisement, and will not offend any more:
32That which I see not teach Thou me:
If I have done iniquity, I will do no more.
33Should it be according to thy mind? He will recompense it, whether thou refuse,
or whether thou choose; and not I:
therefore speak what thou knowest.
34Let men of understanding tell me,
and let a wise man hearken unto me.
35Job hath spoken without knowledge,
and his words were without wisdom.
36My desire is that Job may be tried unto the end,
because of his answers for wicked men.
37For he addeth rebellion unto his sin,
he clappeth his hands among us,
and multiplieth his words against God.
THIRD DISCOURSE.
Refutation of the false position that piety is not productive of happiness to men:
35
a. The folly of the erroneous notion that piety and godliness are alike of little advantage to men:
Job 35:1-8
1Elihu spake, moreover, and said:
2Thinkest thou this to be right,
that thou saidst My righteousness is more than Gods?
3For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee?
and, What profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin?
4I will answer thee,
and thy companions with thee.
5Look unto the heavens, and see;
and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.
6If thou sinnest, what doest thou against Him?
or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto Him?
7If thou be righteous, what givest thou Him?
or what receiveth He of thine hand?
8Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art,
and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
b. The true reason why the deliverance of the sufferer is often delayed, viz.:
. The lack of true godly fear:
Job 35:9-14
9By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry:
they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.
10But none saith, Where is God, my Maker,
who giveth songs in the night;
11Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth,
and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?
12There they cry, but none giveth answer,
because of the pride of evil men.
13Surely God will not hear vanity,
neither will the Almighty regard it.
14Although thou sayest, thou shalt not see Him,
yet judgment is before Him; therefore trust thou in Him.
. Dogmatic and presumptuous speeches against God:
Job 35:15-16
15But now, because it is not so, He hath visited in His anger;
yet He knoweth it not in great extremity:
16Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain;
he multiplieth words without knowledge.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Of the two charges which Elihu had brought forward against Job at the beginning of his first discourse (Job 33:9-11the one, that he regarded himself as perfectly pure and innocent,the other, that he accused God of treating him with cruel severitythe former was subjected to particular examination in the first discourse. The three remaining discourses of Elihu are devoted to the examination of the second charge in which Job represents God as a cruel, unjust, and unfriendly persecutor of his innocence, and consequently doubts the justice of Gods actions as Ruler of the Universe. Of the two discourses which are here combined together, the second (Job 34.) controverts Jobs denial of the justice of Gods conduct, proving that it is just on the positive sidea: from Gods absolutely unselfish disinterested love towards His creatures, and b: from the conception of God as Ruler of the universe (Job 34:10-30), while at the same time on the negative side it assails the folly and self-contradiction of Job in doubting the justice of the God to whom he himself appeals as Supreme Judge (Job 34:31-37). The third discourse (Job 35.) controverts more particularly Jobs doubt as to the utility of piety, his tendency, as repeatedly manifested by him, to call it a matter of indifference whether a mans actions were good or bad, seeing that no righteous retribution from God is to be looked for. In opposition to this dangerous error, which Job 34:9 had already put forward in all its pernicious force, this discourse maintains a: that such an opinion is irrational, and absolutely irreconcilable with Gods wonderful greatness (Job 34:1-8), and then defines b: the true reason why Gods righteous and saving activity is so often long delayed, the reason being : that he who is tried by such doubts is often wanting in true godly fear (Job 34:9-14); or : that he is guilty of speaking arrogantly and dogmatically against God, as had been the case in particular with Job (Job 34:15-16).These subdivisions coincide for the most part with the single strophes, except that some of the longer divisions contain two and three strophes each.Against the attempt of Kster and Schlottmann to throw suspicion on the genuineness of Job 35:1, see below on the passage.
2. The second discourse: Job 34 a. Opening: Job 34:1-9. And Elihu began and said, being incited by Jobs silence [hence as elsewhereand answered], who had nothing to reply to that which El. had hitherto brought forward. So again in Job 35:1 (but somewhat differently on the contrary in the introduction of the fourth discourse, Job 36:1).
Job 34:2. Hear, ye wise men, my words. The wise and knowing ones here appealed to (comp. Job 34:10, men of understanding) are neither all in the world capable of forming a judgment (Hirzel), nor the circle of listeners who had gathered around the disputants, i.e. to say, all those present with the exception of Job and the three, all impartial experts, whose presence is assumed (Schlott., Del., Dillm.). There is no reason apparent why Job and the three should be regarded as excluded from the number of the wise men addressed; except that they are included only in so far as they are prepared to lift themselves above their own partisan stand-point to those higher points of view established by Elihu. In other words that which is really wise and intelligent in them is set over against that which is erroneous and in need of correction.
Job 34:3. For the ear trieth words. Here Elihus own ear is intended as well as that of the wise men addressed; for it is a trial of the truth in common to which he would summon them by this appeal to the natural capacity of judgment, which man possesses. In regard to b, comp. Job 12:11. Instead of the form found there, we have here : proves, tastes in order to eat, i.e. when it would eat [or gerundive, vescendo.]
Job 34:4. The right would we choose for ourselves; i.e. in the controversy between God and Job we would test, find out, and choose for ourselves that which is right; comp. 1Th 5:21. It is to this testing and choosing in common that the knowing among ourselves what is good in b refers.
Job 34:5-9. The special theme of the investigation which now follows, accompanied by the expression of Elihus moral indignation over the fact that Job had been able to put forth such expressions. For Job has said: I am innocent; yet God has taken away from me my right. The clauseI am innocentis simply auxiliary or preparatory to what follows. The main emphasis rests on the second proposition, which is taken verbally from Job 27:2; in like manner as is taken from Job 13:18 (comp. Job 23:10; Job 27:7).
Job 34:6. In spite of my right I shall lie;i.e. notwithstanding as in Job 10:17; Job 16:17) that the right is on my side, I shall still be [accounted] a liar, if I maintain it. Job had not so expressed himself literally; nevertheless comp. the utterances, related in meaning, in Job 9:20; Job 16:8. [E. V. Should I lie against my right? i.e. confess my guilt when I am innocent?a suitable meaning, but less forcible than the above; and here it is natural to suppose that Elihu would refer to the strongest expressions which Job had used. Instead of the Masoretic Carey suggests : Concerning my right He [God] is a false one. The conjecture however is unnecessary.E.]. My arrow is incurable, i.e. the arrow of Gods wrath sticking in me, or rather the wound occasioned by the same (comp. Job 6:4); this being the case without transgression, without as in Job 8:11) my having deserved it; comp. Job 33:9.
Job 34:7 seq. Sharp rebuke of Jobs conduct in thus suspecting the divine justice: Where is there a man like Job, who drinketh scornful speeches like water?Elihu evidently borrows this harsh figurative expression from one of the earlier discourses of Eliphaz (Job 15:16), with a considerate limitation however of the charge there brought forward to Jobs scornful and blasphemous speeches against God (), which really deserved to be rebuked thus harshly, whereas the charge of Eliphaz, that he drank iniquity () as water, besides being urged indirectly and covertly, and so much the more irritatingly, was in its indefinite and general form much less accurate and must for that very reason have inflicted a much more cutting wound. The expression being thus palpably borrowed from that former attack on Job, the charge which from Antiquity has been founded on this passage of immoderate violence and bluntness on the part of Elihu, is certainly unmerited (against the Pseudo-Jerome, Gregory the Great, Beda, etc., also Delitzsch).
Job 34:8. And goes in company (lit. to the company) with evil-doers, and is wont to go about with men of wickedness. , continuation of the finite verb ; comp. Ewald, 351, 100. What is meant is, of course, only that by blasphemous speeches, such as might be quoted in the way of example, he lowers himself to the companionship of wicked men (comp. Psa 1:1 seq.), that accordingly by his frivolous and wanton sins of the tongue he puts himself on a level with the evil world. Elihu does intend an actual participation by Job in the society of evil-doers, as the following verse clearly shows.
Job 34:9. For he saith: A man hath no profit (comp. Job 22:2), if he lives in friendship with God (lit. from his having pleasure with God, i.e., in fellowship with God; comp. Psa 50:18). Job had never expressed himself in this way literally, but he had often uttered this sentiment; e.g., Job 9:22 seq.; Job 21:7 seq.; Job 24:1 seq. But how blameworthy such frivolous utterances were, he himself repeatedly acknowledged (Job 17:9; Job 21:15; Job 28:28), without however ceasing from them.
Continuation: Proof that God really is righteous in His dispensations: (a) from His love to His creatures: Job 34:10-15.
Job 34:10. Therefore men of understanding, hearken to me. Lit. men of heart (LXX. ); comp. Delitzsch, Biblical Psychology, p. 293; Beck, Umriss der bibl. Seelenlehre, 3d Ed., p. 99. Far from God be wickedness, etc. here with of the thing abjured, as in Gen 18:25. In the third member is used by abbreviation for ; comp. Job 15:3.
Job 34:11. Rather (, comp. Job 33:14) mans work He recompenseth to him, and according to a mans conduct (lit. way) He causeth it to be with him, lit. He causeth it to find him, to overtake him , only here and Job 37:13).
Job 34:12. Yea verily ( , as in Job 19:4) God doth not act wickedly, doth not act as a ( ). In respect to b comp. Job 8:3.
Job 34:13. Who hath delivered over to Him the earth? = only here, and Job 37:12 [with He paragogic therefore, not directive; see Green, 61, 6, a]. with , of the person and accus. of the thing, denotes: To trust any one with anything, to commit anything to any one, to deliver over to ones charge ( ); comp. Num 4:27; 2Ch 36:23. Without sufficient support from the language Hahn explains: Who besides (or except Him cares for the earth? and similarly Ewald: who investigates the earth against him [i.e., against man, in order to punish him when necessary]? And who hath established (founded, as in Job 38:5; Isa 44:7) the whole globe?The answer to both these questions is self-evident: None other than Himself. This reference however to Gods independent glory, and to the relation of absolute causality between Him and all that has been created, is made in order to exclude as strongly as possible the thought of any selfish, or unloving conduct whatever on the part of God.
Job 34:14. If He should set His heart only upon Himself, gather unto Himself (again) His spirit and His breath.The case here supposed is an impossible one, as Job 34:15 shows. The twice-used refers both times to God as subject, not merely the second time (as Jerome, Targ., Pesh., Grotius, Rosenm., Delitzsch [E. V. Scott, Con., Lee, Noyes] explain). In respect to the withdrawal of His spirit and breath, comp. Psa 104:29 seq.; Ecc 12:7, in which passages indeed the withdrawal of the divine vital spirit spoken of is not, as here sudden and total, but that successive and gradual process, which takes place continually in the death of individual creatures. The fact therefore that God does not, as He well might, put an end at once to the independent life of His creatures, but gives to each one of them a respite to enjoy life, this is here brought forward as proof of the disinterested fatherly love, and at the same time of the righteousness of His conduct. [Elihu says this, to assert Gods sovereignty, and the bearing of this on the main argument is, if God be sovereign, and amenable to no superior, then he can have no motive for doing what is otherwise than right. The argument is not unlike that of Abraham, Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? and that of St. Paul, Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance? God forbid, for then how shall God judge the world? Carey].
4. Continuation. The divine justice proved: () from the conception of God as Ruler of the universe: Job 34:16-30.
Job 34:16. And if there is understanding (with thee), then hear this.So according to the punctuation of as Milra, preferred by the Targ., Pesh., Jer., and in general most of the ancients, as well as the moderns [so E. V.]. If the word be rendered as Imperative, the preceding should be taken as an optative particleand oh that thou wouldst observe, oh understand now. (Del.). This rendering however is equally destitute of support from the language as the of the LXX., and various similar renderings. The punctuation of the Masoretes [as Milel] is to be explained by their desire to remove the apparent discourtesy and insult implied in the expressionand if there is understanding with thee. But this by no means implies a real doubt of Jobs intelligence. In regard to b comp. Job 33:8. Will even an enemy of the right be able to govern? here meaning even, as in Job 40:8 seq., not the object of : num. iram osor judicii refrenabit (Schult., Umbr., Welte, etc.), against which the position of the words is decisive. Rather is here objectless, meaning to bind, to hold the reins of authority, to govern, (as elsewhere , 1Sa 9:17). [Right and government are indeed mutually conditioned, without right everything would fall into anarchy and confusion. Delitzsch]. Or wilt thou condemn (i.e., declare unjust; here in its usual sense, differing in this from Job 34:12) the All-just; lit. the mighty just One; comp. Ewald, 270, d.
Job 34:18 seq. He who exercises justice in union with omnipotence is now more particularly described in this aspect of His activity. Him, who says to a king: Thou worthless one! So according to the reading , which is attested, not indeed by the Masoretes, but by the LXX. and Vulg., and in favor of which most of the moderns declare (Hirz., Ew., Hahn., Stick., Vaih., Dillm., [Renan, Elz.], etc.). The Mas., Targ., Luth., Del. [E. V., Con., Car., Noy., Rod., Ber., Bar., Lee, Schlott.], etc., read , Inf. constr. with interrogatives is it (fit) to say to a kingThou worthless one, etc.? But it would be very difficult to connect the clause in Job 34:18 with such a question, which would express a conclusio a min. ad majus (even to a human king one would not dare to speak thus, etc.).
Job 34:19. Him, who accepteth not the person of rulers (comp. Job 32:21), and knoweth not (i.e., considers, regards not; concerning see Job 21:29) the rich before the poor, i.e., in preference to the poor (comp., Job 8:12). God exercises this strict impartiality, because, as the parenthetical clause in c explains, His creatures are all of equal worth to Him.
Job 34:20. In a moment they perish, even at midnight, i.e., suddenly and unexpectedly, at night, (comp. Psa 119:62; and for the thought Job 27:19; also below Job 34:25). Their people are shaken and pass away.The subject of the verse is those who are expressly mentioned first in the third member as the strong or mighty ones, the same who are specially distinguished in the two preceding verses as kings, princes, rulers and rich men, and who then in Job 34:23 seq. become again the principal object of consideration. The clause in b, , is neither (with Ewald) to be explained they stagger in crowds, nor (with Hirzel and others) nations are shaken. The word admits of neither rendering; in connection with the princes it can signify only their people, their subjects. And the mighty are removed (lit. the mighty one is, etc.)not by the hand of man, i.e., without needing to be touched by hand, referring to a higher invisible power as cause; comp. Job 20:27; Zec 4:6; also the expression of Daniel, , Dan 8:25; comp. Dan 2:34.
Job 34:21-24 give the reason why such a mighty administration of justice on the part of God is possible, or rather why it actually exists, by calling attention to His omniscience. In respect to Job 34:21 comp. Job 31:4; on Job 34:22 see Job 24:13 seq.; Psa 139:11 seq.; and parallel passages.
Job 34:23. For He doth not long regard man;i.e., He needs not to wait a long time for him, until he submits himself to His judicial examination, because He has him, like all His creatures, continually present before Him. [A single thought of God, without the uttering of a word, is enough to summon the whole world to judgment. Job had earnestly craved for leave to enter into judgment with God (see Job 13:8; Job 16:21; Job 23:3; Job 31:35). Elihu replies that God of His own accord, finds out men in a moment, without any effort, and summons them to judgment. Job ought therefore to change his tone, and say, Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord, for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified (Psa 143:2). Wordsworth], here not again and again, a long time (Hirzel, Del. [Ber., Bar., Noy., Rod.] etc.) [nor more than right, E. V., Rashi, Wolfsohn, Elzas], but simply, more, yet, again, as e.g., Isa 5:4, and often.
Job 34:24. Respecting , instead of , comp. Job 12:24; Job 38:26. [Pesh. Vulg. E. V. Rod. render without number; but the meaning without inquiry, without undertaking a long process of investigation, is better suited to the context. E.]. In respect to in b, see Job 8:19; Isa 45:15.
Job 34:25-30 recur to the previous description of Gods fearful judgments upon the mighty of earth (Job 34:18 seq.). Therefore He knoweth their works., lit. therefore, on that account, means here accordingly, and so, hence, as a formula denoting a logical inference from that which precedes; comp. Job 42:3. Rosenmller, Umbreit erroneously: Because that He knoweth their works; for which meaning we should have rather . [Alike incorrect is the rendering forNoyes, Barnes, Rodwell]. , only here in Elihu, an Aramaizing word, used interchangeably with . And overthrows them in the night (i.e., suddenly; comp. Job 34:20) so that they are crushed; comp. Job 5:4. From this verb the object of the preceding verb is to be supplied (Pro 12:7). The object cannot be , (which is evidently an adverbial specification of time), as Umbreit renders it: He changes the night, i.e., into day.
Job 34:26. Instead of the wicked He scorns them, i.e., the mighty; lit. Ho claps, slaps them, as in Job 34:37, used metaphorically in the sense of scorning, mocking; comp. the full phrase , Job 27:23. [Vulg., E. V., Rosenm., Del., Con., Car., Noy., etc. render the verb to strike, smite, but less in accordance with the usage]. does not mean exactly in the place of execution of the wicked (Hirzel), but more in the stead, after the manner of the wicked comp. Vulg,: quasi impios) [and E. V. as wicked men]. In the place where all see it; lit. in the place of those seeing, i.e., publicly, in propatulo. [Grotius: ; Cocceius: (1) cum pudore el ignominia; (2) in exemplum].
Job 34:27-28. They, who for that reason turn away from Him, etc. points forward to that which follows (comp. Job 20:2), and is explained in , and so forth (Job 34:28). In order vividly to characterize the insolent, and persistently wicked conduct of evildoers, it is represented as their purpose to continue torturing the oppressed until their cry pierces through the clouds, and as it were compels God to hear it. [If be rendered because (LXX. E. V. Rosenm., Umbr., Hahn, Con., etc.). will be Inf. epexeget. In that case =, This however seems a less probable construction than that given above].
Job 34:29 seq. And if He giveth rest who will condemn (Him) , Hiph. of in the sense of Isa 14:7; Jdg 5:31, hence to give rest, viz. by resisting and overcoming the violence of mighty tyrants, which drives the poor to cry out for help (comp. Psa 94:13). , referring to God is prefixed for emphasis, as is the case also with at the head of the following interrogative sentence, which signifies that it would be impossible to object to that which has been ordained by God, or to condemn it (as e.g., Job had undertaken to do Job 9:22 seq.). [This is the meaning of favored by all the ancient versions, by usage, and by the parallelism, which suggests God as the object of the verb here, as in b. The meaning to make trouble (E. V.) is not inappropriate however: and either rendering leads to the same result, to wit, a rest for the oppressed against which oppressors will be impotent]. The structure of the second parallel member is essentially the same: if He hides His face (in wrath above those wicked ones)who will behold Him, again find Him graciously disposed? To the clause , from which it is separated only on account of the rhythm, belongs the close specification in the third member, together with the doubled negative statement of the end aimed at in Job 34:30 : alike above a people and above man ( serving to strengthen the correlation and correspondence expressed by ), in order that ungodly men might not rule (= that not; comp.2Ki 23:33, Kri), not ( by ellipsis, instead of the repetition of ) snares of the people;i.e., ungodly misleaders, who would plunge the people into ruin; comp. Exo 10:7; Hos 5:1.
5. Conclusion: Exhibition of the inconsistency and folly of Jobs accusations of the divine righteousness: Job 34:31-37.
Job 34:31-32. For does one say indeed to GodI expiate without doing evil; what I see not, that show Thou me; if I have done iniquity I will do it no more.So (in essential agreement with Schult., Ew., Vaih., Heil. Dillm.) are these two obscure verses to be rendered, which have been variously misunderstood by the ancient versions of expositors. For (1) , Job 34:31 a, can only be 3 Perf. sing. with interrogative (comp. Job 21:4; Eze 28:9), not Imperat. Niph. (= , dicendum est), as Rosenm., Schlottm. [E. V. Noy., Con., Rod.], etc., take it. The subject of this interrogative num. dicit however cannot be the of the preceding verses, but is indefinite, any one (comp. Job 21:22; Job 30:24.). [It is observed by Scott that the petition and confession, which Elihu recommends to Job, would be highly improper for one who knows himself to be guilty of heinous crimes, but highly fit for a person, who though good in the main, has reason to suspect somewhat amiss in his temper and conduct, for which God is displeased with him. It appears plainly that Elihu did not suppose Job to be a wicked man, suffering for his oppressions, bribery, inhumanity, and impiety, with which his three friends had charged him. Noyes]. (2) The difficult expression is most simply understood of the bearing of sins in respect of their punishment, an object which is easily supplied out of the asyndetically added circumstantial clause ; henceI bear (or expiate), without doing evil. ( as e.g., Neh 1:7; comp. Dan 6:23). This rendering of the second member of Job 34:31 is, on account of its simplicity, and the established character of the linguistic construction in all its parts, greatly to be preferred to any other, as e.g., to that of Rashi, Merc, Schlottmann [E. V. Noyes, Con., Rod., Bar.], etc. I expiate, I will do evil no more; of Hirzel I bear the yoke of punishment, and will not cast it off; of Hahn and DelitzschI have been proud, I will do evil no more; of Kamphausen (who following the LXX. reads )I have practiced oppression, I will take a pledge no moreLXX.: I have received (scil. blessings), I will not take a pledge], etc. (3) The elliptical objective clause the beginning of Job 34:32 is according to Ew., 333 b to be explained: that which lies beyond what I see, teach Thou me; i.e., that which lies beyond the circle of my vision, that which I do not see, teach Thou me respecting it. By this is meant the errors unknown to the speaker, which in Psa 19:13 are called only that here the person introduced as speaking is not a truly pious and penitent self-observer, like the poet of that Psalm, but one who confesses reluctantly, who regards himself as being, properly speaking, wholly innocent, and who (according to Job 34:32) announces himself as ready to repent only in case () iniquity should be proved upon him. And on the whole Job had indeed heretofore always expressed himself essentially in this impenitent, rather than in a truly contrite way; comp. Job 7:20; Job 19:4, etc.
Job 34:33. Should He recompense it to thee according to thy will ( as in Job 23:10; Job 27:11, and often), that thou hast despised, scil. His usual way of recompensing. The question may also be expressed thus: Should He allow thy discontented fault finding, and blaming of His method of retribution to go unpunished, and take up instead with a method corresponding to thy way of thinking? which is equivalent to saying: Should He change the laws of His righteous administration (his justitia retribuens) to please thee?so that thou must choose, and not I?i.e., so that thou wouldst have to determine the mode of retribution, and not I (God). Instead of we should properly expect , but Elihu here, after the manner of the prophets, introduces God Himself as speaking, and thus makes himself the organ of God (so correctly Rashi, Rosenm., Ewald, etc.). [The abrupt and bold personation of the Deity in the first person (and not I) is not unnatural in one who is speaking on behalf of God, and representing his just prerogatives and claims. Con.]. And what knowest thou then? speak; i.e., in respect to the only true method of retribution. What more correct knowledge than all others canst thou claim for thyself respecting this obscure province of the divine way of retribution?
On Job 34:34 comp. Job 34:2; Job 34:10.
Job 34:35-37 contain the speech of the men of understanding, to whose judgment Elihu appeals as agreeing with his own.
Job 34:35. Job speaks without knowledge, and his words are without wisdom., substant. Inf. absol. Hiph., instead of the usual form ; so also in Jer 3:15.
Job 34:36. O would that Job were proved continually. cannot signify my Father, as though it were an address to God (Vulg., Saad., Luther [Bernard], etc.), for in Elihus mouth, judging by numerous parallels, we should rather look for my Maker, or my God; and the address my Father does not once elsewhere throughout the Old Testament proceed from a single person to God, and just here would have but little propriety. [Words, suggests that it may have been addressed by Elihu, as a young man, to Job; which in view of the mention of Job immediately after in the third person, would be singularly harsh]. Hence the word should either (with Targ., Kimchi, Umbr., Schlottm. [E. V.], etc.) be derived from a subst. , wish, to be assumed, and to be rendered either my desire is, or I desire; orwhich is in any case to be preferredwith Dd., Ew., Del., Dillm., be rendered as an interjectional optative particle, synonymous with , and resting on a root or .Etymologically related are the well known in the formula , (quso domine), on the other side the optative interjection, still very common with the Syrian Arabs of Damascus, abi (which is formally inflicted ab, teb, jeb; neb, teb, Jeb); comp. the elaborate and learned discussion of Wetzstein in Delitzsch, p. 431 seq.In respect to , continually, or to the extreme end, comp. the similar in Job 23:7. What Elihu here desires for Job is not that the chastisements inflicted on him should increase in severity, that his sufferings should continually grow more intense (such cruelty would in connection with his mild and friendly treatment, of Job elsewhere be simply inconceivable). It is rather that the divine operation of proving his heart and working on his conscience now going on (comp. Psa 139:23; also in Job 7:18) should be carried on until he had been brought at last to confess his guilt, and to humble himself beneath the hand of God (comp. Brentius, and von Gerlach below, Homiletical Remarks). The reason why Elihu desires that he may thus continue under the influence of the divine process of proving and punishing him,or more accurately, why he introduces the men of understanding as uttering this wish in what they say, is given in Job 34:36 b taken together with Job 34:37 : on account of his answers after the manner of wicked men () replies, viz. to the speeches of the friends rebuking him; comp. Job 21:34; here signifying in the manner, after the fashion of).
Job 34:37. Because he addeth to his sin transgression (i.e. by his presumptuous speeches against God) [hence here may be rendered blasphemy], in the midst of us he mocks (claps [his hands in scorn]; see on Job 34:26), and multiplieth his speeches against God., imperf. apoc. Hiph. (as in Job 10:17) is used instead of the unabbreviated Imperf., like Job 13:27, instead of , or like , Job 33:27, etc., towards God, against God, refers back both to this and to ; for the mocking is also described as being against God.
6. The third discourse: Job 35. First Half: The folly of the erroneous notion that piety and ungodliness are alike of little profit: Job 35:1-8. In respect to Job 35:1, comp. Job 34:1. The conjecture of Kster and Schlottmann, that the verse is a later interpolation, because Job 35. gives evidence of being a simple appendage to Job 34., has no foundation. For with just as good right might Job 34. also be regarded as a simple appendage to Job 33., because the theme of this second discourse has also received expression at the beginning of the discourse preceding (Job 30:9 sq.). All four discourses are closely bound together, and Job 33:9-11 contains the common point of procedure for all alike (see on the passage).
Job 35:2-3 formulate, in an interrogative form, the special theme of the discourse, as a repetition of that which has already been said (Job 34:9).Hast thou considered this ( pointing forwards to Job 35:3) to be right (Job 33:10), and spoken of it as my righteousness before God (coram, as in Job 4:7; Job 32:2), that thou sayest, what advantage is it to thee ( as in oh. Job 34:9), what doth it profit me more than my sin?As frequently with Elihu, the direct interrogation interchanges here with the indirect (comp. e.g.Job 34:33). The force of the whole question, moreover, is that of a strong negation: a righteous man speaks not thus. [The construction here given of these two verses seems awkward and artificial. Extremely so in particular is it to render (hast thou) defined it as my righteousness before God that thou hast said, etc. And besides how can it be said that he had made his saying that there is no profit in holiness a part of his righteousness before God? Here, moreover, it cannot well be denied that the comparative sense of , my righteousness is more than Gods, makes the proposition introduced by more complete and forcible. Had he designed to say: I am righteous before God, he would have used the verb (which Olshausen indeed proposes to read), rather than . The meaning of the claim which Job had made, according to Elihu, is not that his character was more righteous than that of God, but that his cause, as against God, was more just than that of his Almighty antagonist. In Job 35:3 Elihu gives the proof, or rather the specification in support of his charge. Job had denied that there was any profit in holiness:in other words he had charged God with indifference to moral character in his treatment of men. The rendering of E. V. is to be preferred except in the last clause, where is again comparative, and which should be rendered, notwhat profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin? butwhat profit shall I have more than by my sin?E.]
Job 35:4. I will answer thee words (comp. Job 33:32), and thy companions with thee, i.e. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar, who have shown themselves incompetent to contend with thee effectively, and who deserve to be reprimanded together with thee (). We are scarcely to render (with Dillmann, etc.), who are with thee. Still more impossible is it to understand by not the three friends, but all others associated with Job in sentiment and character, the of Job 34:8; Job 34:36 (Umbr., Heil., Vaih., Del.), for constantly denotes throughout the book the three friends of Job (Job 2:11; Job 19:21; Job 32:3; Job 42:7).
Job 35:5-8. Refutation of the ensnaring proposition that it is useless to be pious by calling attention to Gods blessed self-sufficiency in His heavenly exaltation, the contemplation of which shows that of necessity man only can derive profit from his righteousness (a thought which had been already expressed by Job himself, Job 7:20; and by Eliphaz, Job 22:2 seq.).
Job 35:5. Look up to heaven, and see, etc.In the same way that Zophar (Job 11:7 seq.) points Job to the height of the heavenly vault, and its loftiest luminous fleece-like clouds (which is what means here, not precisely a synonym of heaven, or of the ether, as Vaihinger, Delitzsch, etc., say), in order to illustrate Gods absolute exaltation above the world.
On Job 35:6 seq. comp. ch Job 7:20; Job 22:2 seq.
Job 35:8. To man like thee thy wickedness availeth (i.e. it produces its effects on him), and for a son of man thy righteousness.By the son of man Job himself, or one of his kind, is again intended. The expression serves to set forth their need of help, and frailty in contrast with the exaltation and blessedness of God.
7. Continuation and close.Second Half: The true reason why sufferers remain for a long time unheard, to wit: a. Their lack of genuine reverence for God; b. The presumptuousness of their speeches against God.
a. Job 35:9-14. On account of the multitude of oppressions they cry out, they wail because of the violence (lit. because of the arm, as in Job 22:8) of the mighty ( here in another sense than in Job 32:9). The Hiph. in the sense of Kal, or as intensive of Kal (comp. Job 19:7; Job 31:18) [not Hiphil proper, they make the oppressed to cry, (E. V.) which is unsuitable in connection with ]. , oppressions, as in Amo 3:9; Ecc 4:1.
Job 35:10 seq. introduce the refutation of this objection [contained in Job 35:9, to wit, that oppression goes unpunished, hence that the wicked fare no worse than the righteous], by calling attention to the guilt of the suffering. But they do not say (as they could say)Where is Eloah my creator? This is the question asked by those who seek God (comp. Jer 2:6; Jer 2:8). intensive plur., as in Isa 22:11; Isa 54:5; Psa 149:2. Who giveth songs in the night; i.e., by granting sudden and wonderful deliverance (comp. Job 34:25).
Job 35:11. Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earthnot by them, as our mute instructors (Hahn, Delitzsch), but with a comparative rendering of , in preference to the beasts, esteeming us worthy of higher honor and blessing than they. The form is either an error of transcription, or syncopated from ; comp. in Job 15:5. On b comp. Job 12:7, where in like manner the mention of the birds of heaven is parallel to that of the beasts of the field. [A pregnant passage. The instinctive cry of distress for relief is not the prayer which God requires. The former goes up from the brute creature (comp. Psa 104:21; Joe 1:20; Psa 149:9); mans prayer should be worthy of a rational being, should proceed from the recognition of God the creator, and from gratitude for His interposition in our behalf in the night of calamity. If (as he proceeds to show) mans prayers are not heard, it is because they are too much the cry of animal instinct, not the outpouring of the heart, conscious of its wants, of God, and of His goodness.E.].
Job 35:12. There cry theybut He answers not (or: without indeed Gods answering them)on account of the pride of the evil.Respecting the construction of the verb with , before, or on account of, comp. Isa 19:20. [It seems most natural to put here in close connection with , He will not answer (so as to save them) from the force of wicked men. To make the pride of the oppressors the reason why God refuses to hear the oppressed, although the affirmation in itself might be made, would be out of harmony here. The reason as Elihu more explicitly declares in Job 35:13 is in the oppressed themselves.E.].
Job 35:13. The reason why God does not hear those oppressed when they cry: Only vanity (i.e., nothingness, empty, fruitless complaining [with restrictivethat which is only emptiness, that crying which has no heart in it]) God heareth not.but on the other hand (for this is the unspoken antithesis) He doth hear the righteous, pious prayer. And the Almighty regardeth it notviz., that crying and complaining. The neut. suffix in does not refer to the masc. , but to the crying spoken of in the preceding verse. Respecting to behold, observe, comp. Job 33:14.
Job 35:14. Much less then (would He hear thee) when thou sayest: thou beholdest Him not;i.e., He intentionally withdraws himself from thee; comp. Job 23:8 seq. In respect to quanto minus (here more precisely quanto minus si, comp. Job 4:19; Job 9:14; Eze 15:5. Neither the language nor the context justifies the rendering of Schlottmann and Delitzsch [also E. V.], who take to mean although, etimsi, which moreover receives no support from Neh 9:18. The cause lies before Him, and thou waitest (in vain) on Him;this being the continuation of the indirect address begun in a. (instead of which elsewhere we have ), the cause in controversy, the case on trial, as also to wait (instead of which elsewhere ), are both expressions peculiar to Elihu. Hirzel, Schlottmann, Delitzsch [E, V. Scott, Noyes, Barnes, Words., Ren., Rod.], etc., render this second member as an admonition to Jobthe controversy lies certainly before God, but thou shouldst calmly await His decision. But this is rendered impossible by the tone of stern censure in Job 35:15 seq. Still more out of the question (on account of ) is the rendering of Ewald who takes and as addressed to God.
.
Job 35:15-16. The complaint of Job, above cited, in respect to Gods assumed withdrawal and concealment of Himself, gives Elihu occasion to refer to Jobs presumptuous and dogmatic speeches as another reason for his being unheard. And now, because His anger has not yet punished (lit. because there is not [or nothing], which His anger has punished [visited]; i.e., because His anger has not yet interposed to punishcomp. Ew., 321, b), should He not nevertheless be well acquainted with presumption?In respect to with comp. Psa 139:14, and respecting in the sense of about (to know about anything), comp. above, Job 12:9., instead of which the LXX. and Vulg. read , seems to signify, according to the Arabic, arrogance, presumption, possibly also foolishness (the same with used elsewhere); scarcely however multitude, mass, as the Rabbis explain [nor extremity, as E. V. renders it]. The word is intended to designate Jobs presumptuous, intemperate speeches against God. The passage is in substance correctly rendered by Ewald, Delitzsch and Dillmann,only that the last named conjectures b to be a free citation from Jobs former discourses (say from Job 24:12), and thus needlessly obscures the explanation of the verse (to the extent that he conjectures either a corruption of the word , or the loss of two half verses from between a and b. The commentators follow different constructions of the passage, which in some particulars vary greatly among themselves, but which are largely agreed in taking Job 35:15 as protasis, and Job 35:16 as apodosis: on the basis of which construction Hahn e.g. translates: Especially now, because He (God) does not have regard for his (Jobs) anger, and does not trouble himself about wicked arrogance, Job opens, etc., (and so Kamph.; while Rosenm., Stick., Hirz., Schlottm., [Carey, with others who take in the sense of transgression, as, e.g., Conant, Noyes, Barnes, Rodwell, Renan] take in Job 35:15 a as subj. and understand by it Gods anger. But Job 35:16 cannot be the apodosis of Job 35:15, partly because of the way the subject is prefixed, and partly because the thought is rather the delivery of a final judgment in respect to the whole manner of Jobs appearance: But Job opens his mouth in vain (i.e., uselessly, to no purpose; as in Job 9:29; Job 21:34), and unintelligently multiplieth words.The opening of the mouth is not mentioned here as a gesture of scorn (as e.g., in Lam 2:16; Lam 3:46), but, as explained by the second member, as a symbol or means of unintelligent babbling and loquacity. here and Job 36:31=, (Job 34:37).
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
The many points of contact between the two discourses here considered and those of the three friends, especially in the words of blame and reproof addressed to Job have furnished those expositors in ancient and modern times, whose judgment respecting Elihu has been in general unfavorable, with abundant material for their disparaging judgments, and their attacks. That Elihu is a servile imitator, a mere reproducer and compiler of what has been said by previous speakers; that in repeating he weakens in many ways the statements of his predecessors; that he cites Jobs expressions, when he would controvert them, inaccurately, or in such a way as altogether to distort them; that he endeavors to surpass the three friends in the intemperate severity of his attacks on Job, etc., these and the like are the unfavorable judgments of the critics from the pseudo-Jerome, Gregory, and Bede, down to; Dillmann, and indeed even more considerate and favorably disposed critics fall in, at least in part, with this tone of remark. Thus Delitzsch asserts, at least in respect to Job 37, that the absence, in this third discourse of Elihu, of the bold original figures of the previous discourses, indicates on the part of this discourse as compared with the remainder of the poem a deficiency of skill, as now and then between Koheleth and Solomon; that not one of its thoughts is, strictly speaking, new, that, on the contrary, in one chief thought we have simply the repetition of what was said in a previous discourse of Eliphaz, to wit, that the piety of the pious profits himself; in the otherto wit, that the pious, in his necessity, does not put forth useless cries, but lifts himself in prayer to Goda repetition of what Job had said in his last discourse, Job 27:9 seq. But nevertheless Delitzsch is obliged to admit that Elihu deprives these thoughts of their hitherto erroneous application. He is constrained to acknowledge that the quickened consciousness of sin and guilt, which Elihu in this discourse occasions for Job, is perfectly in place, and must touch Jobs heart, especially in so far as it teaches him to seek the cause of his long-continued sufferings, and of the failure of his prayers hitherto to be heard n himself, in the inadequacy of his own purity and piety, in his lack of true submissiveness to Gods righteous decreeand not in any severity on the part of God. And still more favorable is his judgment respecting the value of the argument in his second discourse, directed principally against Jobs presumptuous doubt of the divine justice; respecting which he acknowledges that Elihu does not here coincide with what has been already said (especially Job 12:15 seq.), without applying it to another purpose; and that his theodicy differs essentially from that proclaimed by the friends. It is not derived from mere appearance, but lays hold of the very principles. It does not attempt the explanation of the many apparent contradictions to retributive justice which outward events manifest, as agreeing with it; it does not solve the question by mere empiricism, but from the idea of the Godhead and its relation to the world, and by such inner necessity guarantees to the mysteries still remaining to human short-sightedness their future solution (II., p. 266, comp. p. 276). When we see one of the weightiest opponents of the genuineness of the whole Elihu-section stripping of all its force and value that charge against these two chapters which is most frequently brought forward, and most persistently urged, the complaint that it is deficient in originality, and that its character is simply that of a compilation and reproduction, we shall not find it difficult to reply to the remaining objections made to the inward value and authenticity of the two discourses. As regards (a) the absence of ornament, the lack of original figures and similes which Del. urges as an objection, at least so far as Job 35. is concerned, it may be very much questioned whether the poet himself did not intend this as a characteristic of the utterances of Elihu here, whether, that is, this unadorned simplicity does not on the one side render effective support to that which Elihu has to say against Jobs intemperate speeches, greatly increasing its impressiveness, its power to speak to the heart, and to quicken the conscience, while, on the other side, it is intended to form a contrast to the final discourse which follows (Job 36-37), in which the wealth of picturesque illustration, bold imagery, and artistic rhetorical turns, which are characteristic of the book elsewhere, reappears in higher measures, and in a way which quite eclipses the splendor of the art of figurative representation as exercised by the preceding speakers. In other words, it may be questioned, whether it is not the poets purpose to introduce Elihu, the preacher of repentance, as speaking as plainly, simply, and with as little art as possible, but on the contrary to introduce Elihu, the inspired eulogist and glorifier of God, as surpassing the former speakers in the power, loftiness and adornment of his discourse, nay, even as rivalling in this respect the representation of Jehovah himself. (b) As regards the assertion that Elihu quotes those utterances of Job, which he opposes, incorrectly, and so as to distort them, this is by no means the case, as a close comparison of the quotations in question not only with similar utterances of Jobs or with such as are verbally identical, but also with the meaning of his language, teaches, and as the exegesis of the particular passages has already shown.
And finally (c): that Elihu here exhibits himself as still more inconsiderate and intemperate, in his censure of Job than the three friends, rests on the misinterpretation of particular passages which, when rightly judged according to their connection, reveal Elihu as being mildly disposed toward the person of his opponent. So in particular that passage, harsh, in some respects, which he has borrowed from the second discourse of Eliphaz, and subjected to a peculiar modification, where he speaks of drinking scorn like water (Job 34:8 seq., see on the passage). So again the wish, uttered at the close of the second discourse (or rather put in the mouth of certain men, who are there introduced as speaking), that Job might be continually proved to the end, in respect to which the necessary remarks have already been made in explaining the passage. So again the strong language at the close of Job 35. the severity of which is due simply to the circumstance that Elihu here gives expression to his indignation against that which was really most objectionable and criminal in Job, his presumptuous and intemperate speeches against God, as a cruel, unsympathizing Being. There is scarcely one of the objections which in these respects have been made to the discourses of Elihu, particularly the two discourses before us, which may not, with apparently equal justice, be urged against the concluding discourses of God, in which we also find a repetition of much of the thought in the previous chief divisions (the same being cited in part literally, in part freely), and in which Jobs fundamental moral fault, the arrogance and insolent presumption of his heart against God, is just as energetically arraigned, without for that reason occasioning any reasonable doubts touching the genuineness and originality of that section.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The practical and homiletic material, which these two intermediate discourses furnish, is small, compared with that which may be found in many other sections. Nevertheless the treatment of the two fundamental thoughtsthat God deals righteously, notwithstanding all appearances to the contraryand that true piety is always and infallibly blessedgives rise to many thoughts of peculiar theological and moral value, showing that these two chapters are mines of genuine revealed wisdom, and that they furnish much wholesome stimulus.
Particular Passages
Job 34:1 (Job 35:1): Vict. Andre: From this point on Job learns before all else to be silent. Without saying a word, he simply takes believingly to heart whatever is now made clear to him. In this way he really becomes another man than he has been heretofore, so that at last, because his frame of mind is become truly acceptable to God, he is ready to be completely delivered from his suffering, and to be doubly blessed by God.
Job 34:2 seq. Brentius (on Job 35:3): No man, however spiritual, has the right to judge the Word of God, but only the word of man, i.e., to determine whether what men teach, declare, and decree, is the word of God. E.g., Christ shed His blood for our sinsit is permitted to no men to sit in judgment on this saying, but it is the duty of all men to yield themselves captive to this saying, and to believe it. In the meanwhile however many persons put forth many and various opinions in respect to this saying, etc.Zeyss: We are to use our ears and mouth not only for the necessities of the body, but also for those of the soul, first of all however that we may hear and speak Gods word. We are to prove and to judge whether that which is spoken be right or wrong, in accordance with Gods Word, or not in accordance with it.
Job 34:12 seq. v. Gerlach: In what belongs to another it is possible for one to do injustice; but if God should do injustice to any one, He would injure Himself, destroy His own property, for all is His. A profound, a lofty thought! No one can conscientiously belie himself, do justice to himself. All that we call injustice becomes possible only because man has his equal as a free being beside himself, and has to do with the property of others on earth. This (injustice) is impossible with God, just for the reason that all belongs to Him.Andree: In opposition to Jobs assertion, that it is of no profit to a man with God to live a pious life, Elihu maintains calmly and firmly the irrefragable truththat both the holiness of God, which excludes every thought of tyranny, and His justice, which always renders to each one his own, yea even and His love, by which He maintains the whole world in existence, belong inseparably to the divine nature itself, so that Jobs speeches condemn themselves.
Job 34:20 seq. Starke (according to the Weim. Bib., and Cramer): God has power enough to bring the proud and the mighty to the punishment which is meet for them. The raging of all His foes is vain: God can destroy them quickly. He knows our need, however, and gives close attention to it.Andree: God does not need to institute long inquiries respecting the sins of men; He has immediate knowledge of all that they do, and executes His mighty judgments, without needing the help of men. He punishes or spares, as He may think best in His unsearchable Power and Wisdom.
Job 34:36 seq. Brentius: Elihu does not imprecate any evil on Job, but asks that he may be led to the acknowledgment of his own blasphemy, a result which can be brought about only by the cross and afflictions. Hence when he prays that he may be afflicted (crucified) unto the end, he at the same time prays that he may repent, for affliction (the cross) is the school of repentance.v. Gerlach: God is asked to prove and to search out Job even to the end, i.e., most deeply and thoroughly. Not that Elihu supposes him to be guilty of such sins as the friends had conjectured in his case; but he nevertheless misses in him the profound perception of secret sins, and wishes for him accordingly what the Psalmist wishes for himself (Psa 139:23).
Job 35:9 seq. Brentius: May we not infer that God is present with us and that He favors us, in that prona cum spectent animalia cetera terram, Os homini sublime dedit, clumque videre, Jussit et erecto ad cidera tollere vultus. For when He made the beasts and birds , He created us men so that we might be wise, endowed with reason, and lords of creation. Who then, pondering these things deeply in his mind, would not in affliction call upon the Lord, or hope for His aid?Wohlfarth: We must above all things show ourselves thankful for the spiritual endowments with which God has distinguished man (above all the beasts), by cultivating them with the utmost diligence, and by using them for Gods glory, and for the salvation of the world.Andree: God can cause a joyous song of jubilee to spring forth out of the deepest night of suffering provided we only understand His gracious purposes. All of these tend to the same end, to lift us men to something better and higher than the brute, which knows not God. But presumptuous cries and empty prayers will never find a hearing with God.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
We have a continuation of the speech of Elihu in this chapter. He is still prosecuting the same theme, in holding forth to Job’s view the perfectness and glory of the Lord, in all his dispensations.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
(1) Elihu spake moreover, and said, (2) Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness is more than God’s? (3) For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have, if I be cleansed from my sin? (4) I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee. (5) Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou. (6) If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him? (7) If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand? (8) Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art; and thy righteousness may profit the son of man.
Nothing can be more just and beautiful than this comparative statement between man’s righteousness, as extended towards man, and the same, as manifested towards GOD. We may be very helpful to one another, but when this kind of reasoning is brought forward, as it refers to GOD, it loseth its very name. There is a beautiful expression of David; with an eye to CHRIST, in his prophetical character, in one of the Psalms, which throws a light to illustrate this reasoning of Elihu’s very strikingly: O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord, my goodness extendeth not to thee; but to the Saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight. Psa 16:2-3 . This may be said of David, King of Israel, and of every man like David. All the goodness of the world is unprofitable to the LORD; for whether men bless GOD, or revile GOD, the one neither can add to his glory, nor the other tend to the lessening of it. The glory of the sun is never the less for any dark or bright clouds below. The LORD hath no need of our services. And indeed, all the good that any man is enabled to do, the ability must be derived from GOD to do it. So that in fact, in the very act of doing good (if there be anything among poor sinners which can deserve the name) there is a debt to GOD for being enabled to do it, instead of GOD being indebted to any to whom be gives that ability for doing it. But I rather would read the passage with an eye to JESUS, concerning whom, if I mistake not, David spoke these words by the spirit of prophecy. And here how precious is it to hear JESUS addressing our GOD and FATHER in these sweet words, That his goodness, in the redemption he wrought for poor sinners, extended not to the FATHER. His glory was and is eternally the same. But, saith JESUS, it is to the saints, to my redeemed, the excellent in me, for there is no excellency otherwise in themselves, but as they are related to me. In these, saith the LORD, is all my delight. Precious LORD! thy delights were with thy people from everlasting. And notwithstanding all our unworthiness, and baseness, thy delights are with us still; for having loved thine own, which are in the world, thou lovest them unto the end. Joh 13:1 . Elihu’s reasoning on this subject, as it refers to Job, is most decisive. The great defect all along of Job’s discourse had been, in seeking more his own justification than the divine glory. This therefore Elihu unanswerably refutes. He also reproves Job for denying the profitableness of affliction, and plainly shows that in all dispensations the grace of GOD is directed to man’s profit, not the LORD’S advantage, for that is impossible: neither our righteousness or un-righteousness can do anything to GOD.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 35:10
Do we not fail to accord to our nights their true value? We are ever giving our days the credit and blame of all we do and misdo, forgetting those silent, glimmering hours when plans and sometimes plots are laid; when resolutions are formed or changed; when heaven, and sometimes heaven’s enemies, are invoked; when anger and evil thoughts are recalled, and sometimes hate made to inflame and fester; when problems are solved, riddles guessed, and things made apparent in the dark, which day refused to reveal. Our nights are the keys to our days. They explain them. They are also the day’s correctors. Night’s leisure untangles the mistakes of day’s haste. We should not attempt to comprise our pasts in the phrase, ‘in those days’; we should rather say, ‘in those days and nights’.
G. W. Cable, The Grandissimes (chap. XVII.).
Nothing astonishes me more, when a little sickness clogs the wheels of life, than the thoughtless career we run in the hour of health. ‘None saith, where is God, my Maker, that giveth songs in the night, who teacheth us more knowledge than the beasts of the field, and more understanding than the fowls of the air?’ Give me, my Maker, to remember Thee!
Burns to Mrs. McLehose.
References. XXXV. 10. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliv. No. 2558. XXXV. 10, 11. Ibid. vol. xxvi. No. 1511. XXXVI. 2. Ibid. vol. xxiv. No. 1403.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
The Speech of Elihu. IV.
Job 35-37
Elihu says many beautiful things. There is some difficulty in tracing the uniting line of his numerous remarks, but the remarks themselves often glitter with a really beautiful light. Many of the independent sayings are like single jewels. We need not always look for the thread upon which the pearls are strung: sometimes it is enough to see the separate pearls themselves, to admire, to value, and spiritually to appropriate all their helpful suggestion. Elihu’s speech is like many a sermon: we may not be able to follow it in its continuity, and indeed in some instances, continuity may not be a feature of the discourse; yet what riches are found in separate sentences, in asides, in allusions whose meaning is not at first patent, but which grows as we peruse the words and consider the argument. We may know nothing of the discourse as a whole, and yet we may remember short sentences, brief references, and take them away as lights that will bless us in many a dark hour, or as birds that may sing to us when all human voices are silent.
Elihu says beautiful things about God, as we have already seen. He loved God. Was he sometimes too eager to defend God? Is it not possible for us to excite ourselves much too hotly in defending the eternal Name and in protecting the everlasting sanctuary? Who has called us to all this controversy, to all this angry hostility even against the foe? What if it had been more profitable to all if we had prayed with him instead of arguing; yea, even prayed for him in his absence; yea, higher miracle still prayed for him despite his sneering and bis mocking. Elihu may have been too vehement, too anxious to defend God, as if God needed him. And yet that can hardly have been his spirit, for one of the very first things to which we shall now call attention shows Elihu’s conception of God to be one of absolute independence of his creature’s. Let us see whether Elihu was right or wrong in this conception.
“If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him? If thou be righteous, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand?” ( Job 35:6-7 ).
This is true of God’s majesty, but it is not true of God’s fatherhood. God can do without any one of us, and yet his heart yearns if the very youngest of us be not at home, sitting at the table, and living on the bounty of his love. It is perfectly right to say what Elihu said: “If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him?” O thou puny transgressor, thou dost but bruise thine own hand when thou smitest against the rocks of eternity! “Or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?” Can thy sin tarnish his crown, or take away one jewel from his diadem, or abate the storm of heaven’s music that hails him eternal King? Consider, poor suffering patriarch: if thou be righteous even, on the other hand, what givest thou him? or what receiveth he of thine hand? And yet that statement is imperfect: it creates a chasm between the Creator and the creature; it sets God away at a great distance upon an inaccessible mountain, and clothes him with glories which dazzle the vision that would look upon them. From one side of the thought, it is good, it is glorious, but from the other side of the thought it is incomplete. Elihu speaks of the dazzling sun, but does he not forget to speak of the tender light that kisses every pane even in a poor man’s window, and comes with God’s benediction upon every flower planted by a child’s hand, and watched by a child’s love? We must not make God too imperious. There is a conception of God which represents him as keeping men at the staff-end, allowing them to approach so far but not one step beyond. That conception could be vindicated up to a given point, but there is the larger conception which says: We have boldness of access now; we have not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire; we have come unto mount Sion, where with reverent familiarity we may look face to face upon God, and speak to him, as a man speaketh with his friend, mouth to mouth, and return to our daily employment with the fragrance of heaven in our very breath, and with the almightiness of God as the fountain of our strength. This is the larger view. In all cases the larger view is the right view. He who has but a geographical view of the earth knows but little concerning it; as we have often had occasion to point out, the astronomical view involves the whole, and rules by infinite energy all that is apparently unequal and discrepant into serenest peace, into completest order. It is possible for us to be afraid of God: hence many minds would banish the thought of the divine love, saying, It is too high for us: no man may think of that and live: enough for us to deal with minor things: inferior concerns may well task our finite powers: we dare not lift up our eyes unto heaven: God is great, and may not be looked for. There was a time when that view might be historically correct, but Jesus Christ has come to present another aspect of God, to reveal him as Father, to declare his nearness, to preach his solicitude for the children of men, to describe him as so loving the world as to die for it. Let us repeat: that is the larger view, and until we have received it, we know nothing of what riches may be gathered in the sanctuary, and what triumphs may be won by the spirit of the Cross.
Elihu presents the same thought in another aspect; he says that man may do many things against God, and yet not injure him. That is not true. Here is opened to us a wild field of practical reflection. We cannot injure God without injuring ourselves. If we transgress against him, what does it amount to? Some may say, Who can blacken God’s whole universe by any sin he may commit? What can Iscariot himself do when he attempts to stain the infinite snow of the divine purity? There is also a sense in which that is true. God is not dependent upon us: our prayers do not make him what he is; our sacrifices do not constitute his heaven: he could do without every one of us; he could pay no heed to any action committed by any hand. But this is not the God of the Bible. Such a God is possible to the licentious imagination, but not possible to any one who has been trained in the Christian school, or who accepts Christian standards for the regulation of his thought, for the determination of his theology. We cannot omit a duty without grieving God; we cannot think an evil thought without troubling his heavens. He is concerned for us. Whilst we say we live, and move, and have our being in God, there is an obvious sense in which he may reply I live, and move, and have my being in man. He watches for us, longs for us, sends messages to us, seems to spend his eternity in thinking about us, and planning our whole life, and enriching us in all the regions and departments of our existence and nature. That is the Christian view. Never let the idea get into your mind that God cannot be interested in the individual man. Once let that conviction seize the mind, and despair quickly follows: you have not adopted a sentiment; you have given it the key of your heart; the enemy has seized it, and he says, Let that thought work a long while namely, that God does not care for the individual, that his universe is too large for him to pay any attention to details, and when that thought has well saturated the mind, I will go in and work all the mystery of damnation. We shall keep the enemy at bay, we shall affright him, in proportion as we are found standing hand in hand with God, saying loudly and sweetly, He is my God, and will not forsake me: he loves me as if I were an only child; he has been pleased to make me essential to the completeness of his joy. Words must fail when attempting to depict such a thought, but they help us, as a hint may help a man who is in difficulty. Beyond this we must not force words. If they bring us to feel that God numbers the hairs of our head, watches the falling sparrow, takes note of everything, is interested in our pulse that throbs within us, it is helpful, restful; meanwhile it is sufficient: preparation has been made for larger gifts, for fuller disclosures of divine decree and purpose.
Elihu has not been altogether poetical in his speech to Job: but we incidentally come upon an expression which proves that Elihu even could be poet as well as critic and accuser; he says
“But none saith, Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night?” (Job 35:10 .)
Whatever may be the exact critical definition of the phrase, who can fail to receive it as throwing an explanatory lustre upon many a human experience? Consider the words in their relation to one another. First look at them separately “songs”; then look at the next word, “night”; now connect them, “songs in the night,” apparently songs out of place, songs out of season, songs that have gone astray, angels that have lost their foothold in heaven and have fallen down into wildernesses and valleys of darkness. Such is not the case. “Song” and “night” are words which seem to have no reciprocal relation: but human experience is larger than human definitions, and it is true to the experience of mankind that whilst there has been a night the night has been made alive with music. Who will deny this? No man who has had experience of life; only he will deny it who has seen life in one aspect, and who has seen so little of life as really to have seen none of it. Life is not a flash, a transient phase, a cloud that comes and goes without leaving any impression behind it: life is a tragedy; life is a long, complicated, changeful experience, now joyous to ecstasy, now sad to despair; now a great harvest-field rich with the gold of wheat, and now a great sandy desert in which no flower can be found. Taking life through and through, in all its relations and inter-relations, how many men can testify that in the night they have heard sweeter music than they ever heard in the day! Do not the surroundings sometimes help the music? Some music is out of place at midday; we must wait for the quiet wood, for the heart of the deep plantation, for the top of the silent hill, for the place where there is no city: some music must come to the heart in solitude a weird, mystic, tender thing, frightful sometimes as a ghost, yet familiar oftentimes as a friend. Who has not seen more of God at the graveside than he ever saw elsewhere? Who has not had Scripture interpreted to him in the house of death which was never interpreted to him by eloquent Apollos or by reasoning Paul? and who has not had occasion to go back upon his life, and say, It was good for me that I was afflicted: now that I have had time to reflect, I see that all the while God was working for me, secretly, beneficently, and the result is morning, beauty, promise, early summer, almost heaven! But here we must interpose a word of wise caution. Do not let us expect songs in the night if we had not duty and sacrifice in the daytime. God does not throw songs away. God does not expend upon us what we ourselves have not been prepared to receive by industry, by patient suffering, by all-hopeful endurance: never does God withhold the song in the night time when the day has been devoted to him. The darkness and the light are both alike to him. If we sow tares in one part of the day, we shall reap them in the other part. Sometimes the relation is reversed: one great, sweet, solemn voice has said, “Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning”: there we seem to have the words set in right sequence weeping and night; joy and morning. What a balance of expression! How exquisite in criticism and appropriateness! and yet Elihu will have it the other way: difficulty in the daytime, songs in the night; a day of long labour and sore travail, but at night every star a gospel, and the whole arch of heaven a protection and a security. This may be poetry to some, it is solemn fact to others. Poetry is the fact. Poetry is truth blossoming, fact budding into broader and more generous life.
Then Elihu presents another feature of the divine character, which is full of delightful suggestion
“Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not any: he is mighty in strength and wisdom” ( Job 36:5 ).
Consider here the relation of terms: mighty, yet not contemptuous. This gives us the right interpretation of the very first passage which we quoted. God is mighty, yet condescending; God could crush us, yet he spares our life: because he is supremely mighty he is compassionate. Half-power is dangerous, almost mighty tempts the half-developed giant to tyrannous uses of his strength: but whole power, almightiness, omnipotence, by its very perfectness, can speak, can compassionate, can fall into the words of pity and solicitude and love. Thus justice becomes mercy; thus righteousness and peace have kissed each other; thought to be strangers, they have hailed one another as friends and brethren. Then the very omnipotence of God may be regarded as a gospel feature and as a gospel support. If he were less powerful he would be less pitiful. It is because he knows all that strength can do that he knows how little it can do Strength will never convert the world, omnipotence will never subdue creation, in the sense of exciting that creation to trust and worship, honour and love. What will overcome the universe of sin? Divine condescension, divine compassion, the cross of Christ. When are men ruled? When they are persuaded. When are men made loyal subjects? When they are fascinated by the king’s beauty, and delighted with the king’s compassion, clemency, and grace. For what king will man die? For the king who rules by righteousness and who is the subject of his own people. Thus God will not drive us into his kingdom. God spreads the feast and gives us welcome; he declares gospels, he offers hospitality: “The Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely;” and again, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in.” So says he who by a breath could obliterate the universe. He will rule by love; he will take up his abode where he is welcomed by the broken heart and the contrite spirit.
A sweet word Elihu uses again; he speaks of “the bright light which is in the clouds” ( Job 37:21 ). This is a sentence we have to stand side by side with “songs in the night.” Astronomical meanings there may be, literal criticism may take out of expressions of this kind all that is nourishing to the soul and all that is comforting to the troubled spirit; yet there the juice of the divine grace remains, the sap of the holy virtue is found, and may be received and appropriated by hearts that are in a fit condition. Astronomy shall not have all the grandeur and all the suggestion; the heart will have some of it. The heart says, The universe was made for man, not man for the universe, and man has a right to take his sickle into every field, and reap the bread which he finds growing there, for wherever there is bread it was meant for the satisfaction of hunger. “Men see not the bright light which is in the clouds,” the silver lining, the edge of glory. We ought to reckon up our mercies as well as talk of our judgments: “My song shall be of mercy and judgment” a complete song, a psalm wanting in no feature of sublimity and tenderness Suppose we sometimes reverse the usual process, and instead of writing down the name of the cloud and its size and density, we should take our pen and with a glad swift eagerness write down the lines we have seen, the sudden gleamings, the bright visions, the angel-forms, the messages of love, the compensations, the advantages of life. That would be but grateful; that would be but just. Is there any life that has not some brightness in it? How true it is that though in some cases the light is all gone, yet, even amongst little outcast children, see what laughter there is, what sunniness, what glee! Who has not seen this on the city streets? Looking at the little wayfarers we should say, There can be no happiness in such lives; such little ones can never know what it is to laugh; and lo, whilst we are musing and moralising, how they lilt and sing and show signs of inextinguishable gladness. This is the mystery of life. It always has with it some touch of heaven, some throb of immortality, some sign of all-conquering force. Here it is that the gospel will get its hold upon men. Begin with the joys they have, carry them forward with due amplification, and purify them until they turn into a reasonable and religious gladness. Seize the facts of life, and reason from them up into pious generalisations, rational religious conclusions, and force men by the very strenuousness of your argument to see that they have had seeds enough, but have never planted them; otherwise even their lives would have been blooming, blossoming, fruitful as the garden of God.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
(See the Job Book Comments for Introductory content and general conclusions and observations).
IX
ELIHU’S SPEECH, GOD’S INTERVENTION AND THE EPILOGUE
Job 32-42
The author’s introduction to Elihu’s speech consists of the prose section (Job 32:1-5 ), the several items of which are as follows:
1. Why the three friends ceased argument, viz: “Because he was righteous in his own eyes” (Job 32:1 ).
2. Elihu’s wrath against Job, viz: “Because he justified himself rather than God” (Job 32:2 ).
3. Elihu’s wrath against Job’s friends, viz: “Because they had found no answer, and yet had condemned Job” (Job 32:3 ; Job 32:5 ).
4. Why Elihu had waited to speak unto Job, viz: “Because they were older than he” (Job 32:4 ).
Elihu’s introduction (Job 32:6-22 ) consists of two sections as follows:
1. Elihu’s address to the three friends.
2. His soliloquy.
Now, an analysis of part one of this introduction consists of Elihu’s address to his three friends, with the following items:
1. He waited because he was young, and considered that days should speak and that years should teach wisdom (Job 32:6-7 ).
2. Yet there is individual intelligence, a spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty which gives understanding (Job 32:8 ).
3. And greatness, and age are not always wise, therefore, I speak (Job 32:9-10 ).
4. He had waited patiently and had listened for their reasonings while they fumbled for words (Job 32:11 ).
5. They had failed to answer Job’s argument, and therefore had failed to convince him (Job 32:12 ).
6. Now beware; do not say that you have found wisdom, for God can attend to his case, but not man (Job 32:13 ).
7. I will not answer him with your speeches (Job 32:14 ). Now let us analyze his soliloquy which is found in Job 32:15-22 and consists of the following items:
1. They are amazed and silent; they have not a word to say (Job 32:15 ).
2. Shall I wait? No; I will speak and show my opinion (Job 32:16-17 ).
3. I am full of words, and must speak or burst, therefore I will speak and be relieved (Job 32:18-20 ).
4. His method was not to respect persons nor give flattering titles, because he did not know how to do so and was afraid of his Maker (Job 32:21-22 ).
Elihu’s address to Job in 33:1-7 is as follows:
1. Hear me for the integrity and sincerity of my speech, since I have already begun and am speaking to you right out of my heart (Job 33:1-3 ).
2. I also am a man, being made as a man and since we are on a common level, answer me or stand aside (Job 33:4-5 ).
3. I will be for God, and being a man, I will not terrify you, for I will not bring great pressure upon you (Job 33:6-7 ).
The point of issue now is a general charge that Job’s heart attitude toward God is not right in view of these afflictions (Job 33:8-12 ). It will be seen that Elihu’s charge is different from that of the three friends, viz: That Job was guilty of past sins.
Elihu charged first that Job had said that God giveth no account of any of his matters (Job 33:13 ).. In his reply Elihu shows that this is untrue.
1. In that God reveals himself many times in dreams and visions in order to turn man from his purpose and to save him from eternal destruction (Job 33:14-18 ).
2. In that in afflictions God also talks to man as he often brings him down into the very jaws of death (Job 33:19-22 ). [Cf. Paul’s thorn in the flesh as a preventive.] None of the speakers before him brought out this thought. This is very much like the New Testament teachings; in fact, this thought is nowhere stated more clearly than here. It shows that afflictions are to the children of God what the storm is to the tree of the forest, its roots run deeper by use of the storm.
3. In that he sends an angel sometimes to interpret the things of God, to show man what is right for him (Job 33:23-28 ).
4. Therefore these things ought to be received graciously, since God’s purpose in it all is benevolent (Job 33:29-33 ). Elihu charged, in the second place, that Job had said that God had taken away his right and that it did not profit to be a righteous man (Job 34:5-9 ; Job 35:1-3 ).
His reply is as follows:
1. The nature of God disproves it; -he is not wicked and therefore will not pervert justice (Job 34:10-15 ).
2. Therefore Job’s accusation is unbecoming, for he is by right possessor of all things and governs the world on the principles of justice and benevolence (Job 34:21-30 ).
3. What Job should have said is altogether different from what he did say because he spoke without knowledge and his words were not wise (Job 34:31-37 ).
4. Whether Job was righteous or sinful did not affect God (Job 35:4-8 ).
Elihu charged, in the third place, that Job had said that he could not get a hearing because he could not see him (Job 35:14 ). His reply was that this was unbecoming and vanity in Job (Job 35:15-16 ).
Elihu’s fourth charge was that Job was angry at his chastisements (Job 36:18 ). He replied that such an attitude was sin; and therefore he defended God (36:1-16).
Elihu’s fifth charge was that Job sought death (Job 36:20 ). He replied that it was iniquity to suggest to God when life should end (Job 36:21-23 ).
Elihu discusses in Job 37 the approaching storm. He introduces it in Job 36:24 and in Job 36:33 he gives Job a gentle rebuke, showing him how God even tells the cows of the coming storm. Then he describes the approaching storm in Job 37 , giving the lesson in Job 36:13 , viz: It may be for correction, or it may be for the benefit of the earth, but “stand still and see.”
Elihu makes a distinct advance over the three friends toward the true meaning of the mystery. They claim to know the cause; he, the purpose. They said that the affliction was punitive; he, beneficent. His error is that he, too, makes sin in Job the occasion at least of his sorrow. His implied counsel to Job approaches the final climax of a practical solution. God’s first arraignment of Job is found in Job 38:1-40:2 . Tanner’s summary is as follows:
It is foolish presumption for the blind, dependent creature to challenge the infinite in the realm of providence. The government of the universe, physical and moral, is one; to question any point is to assume understanding of all. Job, behold some of the lower realms of the divine government and realize the absurdity of your complaint.
Job’s reply follows in Job 40:3-5 . Tanner’s summary: “I see it; I hush.”
God’s second arraignment of Job is recorded in Job 40:6-41:34 . Tanner:
To criticize God’s government of the universe is to claim the ability to do better. Assuming the role of God, suppose Job, you try your hand on two of your fellow creatures the hippopotamus and the crocodile.
Job’s reply is found in Job 42:1-6 , Tanner’s summary of which is: This new view of the nature of God reveals my wicked and disgusting folly in complaining; I repent. Gladly do I embrace his dispensations in loving faith.
There are some strange silences in this arraignment and some people have been disappointed that God did not bring out all the questions of the book at the close, as:
1. He says nothing of the heaven scenes in the Prologue and of Satan.
2. He gives no theoretic solution of the problems of the book.
3. He says nothing directly about future revelation and the Messiah.
The explanation of this is easy, when we consider the following facts:
1. That it was necessary that Job should come to the right heart attitude toward God without any explanation.
2. That to have answered concerning future revelation and the Messiah would have violated God’s plan of making revelation.
3. That bringing Job to an acceptance of God’s providence of whatever form without explanation, furnishes a better demonstration of disinterested righteousness.
This is true of life and the master stroke of the production is that the theoretical solution is withheld from the sufferer, while he is led to the practical solution which is a religious attitude of heart rather than an understanding of the head. A vital, personal, loving faith in God that welcomes from him all things is the noblest exercise of the human soul. The moral triumph came by a more just realization of the nature of God.
Job was right in some things and he was mistaken in other things. He was right in the following points:
1. In the main point of difference between him and the three friends, viz: That his suffering was not the result of justice meted out to him for his sins.
2. That even and exact justice is not meted out here on the earth.
3. In contending for the necessity of a revelation by which he could know what to do.
4. In believing God would ultimately vindicate him in the future.
5. In detecting supernatural intelligence and malice in his affliction.
He was mistaken in the following particulars:
1. In considering his case hopeless and wishing for death.
2. In attributing the malice of these things to God instead of Satan.
3. In questioning the mercy and justice of God’s providence and demanding that the Almighty should give him an explanation.
The literary value of these chapters (Job 38:1-42:6 ) is immense and matchless. The reference in Job 38:3 to “The cluster of the Pleiades” is to the “seven stars” which influence spring and represents youth. “Orion” in the same passage, stood for winter and represents death. The picture of the war horse in Job 39:19-25 has stood the challenge of the ages.
The lesson of this meeting of Job with God is tremendous. Job had said, “Oh, that I could appear before him!” but his appearing here to Job reveals to him his utter unworthiness. The man that claims sinlessness advertises his guilty distance from God. Compare the cases of Isaiah, Peter, and John. The Epilogue (Job 42:7-17 ) consists of three parts, as follows:
1. The vindication of Job and the condemnation of his three friends.
2. Job as a priest makes atonement and intercession for his friends.
3. The blessed latter end of Job: “So Jehovah blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.”
The extent and value of the Almighty’s vindication of Job and his condemnation of the three friends are important. In extent it applies to the issues between Job and the three friends and not to Job’s heart attitude toward God. This he had correct-ed in Job by his arraignment of him. In vindicating Job, God justifies his contention that even and exact justice is not meted out on earth and in lime, and condemned the converse which was held by his friends. Out of this contention of Job grows his much felt need of a future judgment, a redeemer, mediator, interpreter, and incarnation, and so forth. Or if this contention is true, then man needs these things just mentioned. If the necessity of these is established, then man needs a revelation explaining all these things.
Its value is seen in God’s confirming these needs as felt by Job, which gives to us, upon whom the end of the ages has come, implicit confidence in the revelation he has given us, pointing out the fact that Job’s need of a redeemer, umpire, interpreter, and so forth has been supplied to the human race with all the needed information upon the other philosophic discussions of the book.
The signification of the Almighty’s “turning the captivity of Job” just at the point “when he prayed for his friends” is seen in the fact that Job reached the point of right heart attitude toward God before the victory came. This was the supreme test of Job’s piety. One of the hardest things for a man to do is to invoke the blessings of heaven on his enemies. This demand that God made of Job is in line with New Testament teaching and light. Jesus said, “Love your enemies and pray for them,” and while dying he himself prayed for his executioners. Paul who was conquered by the prayer of dying Stephen often prayed for his persecutors. This shows that Job was indeed in possession of God’s grace, for without it a man is not able to thus pray. The lesson to us is that we may not expect God to turn our captivity and blessings if we are unable to do as Job did.
The more thoughtful student will see that God does not ex-plain the problem to Job in his later addresses to him, nor in the Epilogue, because to give this would anticipate, out of due time, the order of the development of revelation. Job must be content with the revelation of his day and trust God, who through good and ill will conduct both Job and the world to proper conclusions.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the author’s introduction to Elihu’s speech and what the several items of it?
2. What is Elihu’s introduction (Job 32:6-22 ) and what the two sections?
3. Give an analysis of part one of this introduction.
4. Give an analysis of his soliloquy?
5. Analyze Elihu’s address to Job in Job 33:1-7 .
6. What is the point al issue?
7. What did Elihu charge that Job had said and what Elihu’s reply?
8. What did Elihu charge, in the second place, that Job had said and what Elihu’s reply?
9. What did Elihu charge in the third place, that Job had said, and what Elihu’s answer to it?
10. What was Elihu’s fourth charge and what was Elihu’s answer?
11. What Elihu’s fifth charge and what his reply?
12. What does Elihu discuss in Job 37 ?
13. What the distinct advances made by Elihu and what his error?
14. What God’s first arraignment of Job?
15. What Job’s reply?
16. What God’s second arraignment of Job?
17. What Job’s reply?
18. What the strange silences in this arraignment and what your explanation of them?
19. What the character of the moral solution of the problem as attained by Job?
20. In what things was Job right and in what things was he mistaken?
21. What can you say of the literary value of these chapters (Job 33:1-42:6 )?
22. Explain the beauties of Job 38:31 .
23. What of the picture of the war horse in Job 39:19-25 ?
24. What the lesson of this meeting of Job with God?
25. Give an analysis of the epilogue.
26. What the extent and value of the Almighty’s vindication of Job and his condemnation of the three friends?
27. What the signification of the Almighty’s “turning the captivity of Job” just at the point “when he prayed for his friends”?
28. Does God give Job the explanation of life’s problem, and why?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Job 35:1 Elihu spake moreover, and said,
Ver. 1. Elihu spake moreover, and said ] His speech was for God, as before; and therefore he spake moreover. For, as Austin saith of the feast of Pentecost, Gaudet produci haec solennitas; so we may say of a discourse of this nature, Gaudet produci haec sermocinatio; the longer it is the better; since of God and his righteous dealing, Non saris unquam dici potest, as Lavater here hath it, never can enough be spoken. For although we all yield that God is just, yet if any cross befall us we are apt to question it, and to think ourselves hardly dealt with.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job Chapter 35
Now again, we come to a further step (Job 35 ). “Elihu spake moreover, and said, Thinkest thou this to be right, that thou saidst, My righteousness” – which was not only that he spake against God, but he thought so much of himself – “My righteousness is more than God’s.” That is what he practically meant, although he would not have said it. But Elihu put his finger upon the spot. “For thou saidst, What advantage will it be unto thee? and, What profit shall I have if I be cleansed from my sin? I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee. Look unto the heavens, and see, and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.” Can you bear in the face of that to speak against Him who is above them all? For man cannot look the sun in the face; who then is he to look God in the face? “If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him?” etc. (vers. 6-16). So that whether it was decrying God, or setting forward himself, Job was wrong on both counts.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Chapter 35
Elihu continues to speak, he said, Do you think this to be right, that you said, My righteousness is more than God’s? ( Job 35:1-2 )
Now Job didn’t actually say that, but he is taking Job’s words and showing that this would be the conclusion of what Job had said. “Do you think it is right that you said, ‘My righteousness is more than God’s’?”
For you said ( Job 35:3 ),
Here is what Job actually said,
What advantage will it be unto me? and, What profit shall I have, if I am cleansed from my sin? I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee. Look to the heavens, and see; behold the clouds which are higher than you. If you sin, what do you against him? or if any transgressions be multiplied, what do you do unto him? If thou be righteous, what do you give to him? or what receiveth he of your hand? Thy wickedness may hurt man as you are; and thy righteousness may profit the sons of men ( Job 35:3-8 ).
In other words, Elihu is saying to Job, “What can you add to God or what can you take away from God? If you live a righteous life, what’s it going to do, what’s it add to God? If you live a sinful life, what does it take away from God?” God is above man. So far above man. What advantage can God have in me living a good life? What does it disadvantage God for me to live a wicked life? You see, I can’t really touch God. Now, it touches others if I live a sinful life, others around me may be hurt by it. They may be disadvantaged by my lying or cheating or stealing. Or if I do good, others may be benefited by my good. If I feed the poor or help them out, then they can be benefited. Man can benefit by my righteousness or sinfulness, but what does it do for God? What does it add to God that I live a righteous, holy life? Interesting questions. What can a man add unto God?
He said,
By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty. But none says, Where is God my maker, who gives songs in the night; Who teaches us more than the beasts of the earth, and makes us wiser than the fowls of the heaven? There they cry, but none gives answer, because of the pride of evil men. Surely God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it. Although you say that you shall not see him, yet judgment is before him; therefore trust thou in him. But now, because it is not so, he hath visited in his anger; yet he knows it not in great extremity: Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain; he multiplies words without knowledge ( Job 35:9-16 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Job 35:1-8
Job 35
MORE OF THE SAME FROM ELIHU:
ELIHU’S REPLY TO JOB’S ALLEGED CONTENTION THAT THERE
IS THERE NO ADVANTAGE IN RIGHTEOUS CONDUCT
Job 35:1-8
“Moreover Elihu answered and said,
Thinkest thou this to be thy right,
Or sayest thou, My righteousness is more than God’s,
That thou sayest, What advantage will it be unto thee?
And what profit shall I have, more than if
I had sinned?
I will answer thee,
And thy companions with thee.
Look unto the heavens, and see;
And behold thy skies which are higher than thou.
If thou hast sinned, what effectest thou against him?
And if thy transgressions be multiplied, what dost thou unto him?
If thou be righteous, what givest thou unto him?
Or what receivest thee of thy hand?
Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art,
Or thy righteousness may profit a son of man.”
Back in Job 34:9, Elihu had mentioned a third accusation against Job, namely, that he had declared faithfulness to God as affording no profit; and here Elihu proposes to answer that alleged claim of Job. Elihu here ignored altogether the real point of whether or not there is profit in serving God in this life, focusing his attack against Job on whether or not Job had any right to complain.
This whole paragraph affirms the proposition that neither man’s righteousness nor his wickedness affects God. “Transgressions do not diminish God, nor do pious acts give him anything.” We are stunned and amazed at this ridiculous position of Elihu. “He comes very close here to viewing God as so far removed from human life, that he cannot be known or loved at all.” Against this colossal error, there stand the glorious facts: the Cross of Jesus Christ, God’s love of the whole world, and the willingness of the Son of God to die for human redemption. Elihu’s position here, as more fully expressed in the following paragraph, is that God is no more concerned with human prayer than he might be with the cry of a screaming rabbit in the clutches of a hawk.
E.M. Zerr:
Job 35:1-2. Elihu represented Job as saying he was more righteous than God. Not that Job actually made the claim in so many words, but that his refusal to acknowledge his sins in the face of his afflictions meant that.
Job 35:3. Here was another false statement. Elihu made as if Job asked what advantage there would be in his being righteous instead of sinful.
Job 35:4. Although the whole thing was false, Elihu pretended that Job had asked the question and then he proposed to answer it for the benefit of him and his friends.
Job 35:5-7. Job was told to observe the wonders of creation above him. These things are not affected by the conduct of man, whether good or bad.
Job 35:8. No, the conduct of man will not have any effect on creation; but it will have effect on the sinner and upon his fellow man.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Turning to the second quotation, Elihu suggested that when Job questioned the advantage of serving God, he set up his righteousness as being “more than God’s.” He then laid bare the very foundations of the truth concerning the divine sovereignty of God by declaring that there is a sense in which God is unaffected by man. Man’s sin does nothing to God, and man’s righteousness adds nothing to God.
This view had been advanced before in the controversy. Undoubtedly there is an element of truth in it, and yet the whole revelation of God shows that whereas according to the terms and requirements of Infinite Righteousness God is independent of man, according to the nature of His heart of love, which these men did not perfectly understand, He cannot be independent.
However, proceeding, Elihu declared that the reason why men do not find God is that the motive of their prayer is wrong. It is a cry for help rather than for God Himself. He declared that God will not hear vanity, and charged Job with this wrongness of motive in his search for God.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Songs in the Night
Job 35:1-16
God is so exalted above man in His nature that He is altogether independent of him. When men sin against Him, they hurt not Him but themselves. There is no motive, therefore, of retaliation or revenge in His chastisements. Not for His pleasure, the Holy Ghost saith in another place, but for our profit, Heb 12:10.
Instead of seeking after God our Maker, who can give songs in the darkest night that ever befell a human spirit, we are too apt to despair. Instead of crying to God, we cry against Him. We murmur and complain. We arraign God. There is our pride, Job 35:12. We regard iniquity in our heart, and God cannot answer us until we change our note for one of loving, trustful submission. God will not hear vanity, neither will the Almighty regard it.
Let us change our temper and our note. Have done with the proud self-will that chafes and argues and complains. This will not speed thy cause at Gods bar. Humble thyself under His mighty hand, and He will exalt thee. The meek He will teach His way.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 35
1. Remember the greatness of God (Job 35:1-8)
2. Why God is silent and does not answer (Job 35:9-16)
Job 35:1-8. Job having kept silence Elihu continues and asks him if this is sound judgment, what he had said, My righteousness is greater than Gods righteousness. This was the logical conclusion which Elihu drew from some of his words. Because God did not care for him the sufferer what profit was it to him if he had not sinned? Then Elihu answers and his friends as well by following Jobs unjustly charge. He points out the greatness of God and that cannot in any way be affected by what man does. That was Jobs contention. Look at the heavens which are higher than the creature of the dust. If thou hast sinned by thy many sins, what canst thou do to Him? If thou are just, what givest thou to Him? Thy sin may hurt thee, and thy righteousness may profit thee; how canst thou claim that He has afflicted you in an unrighteous way? In all this Elihu had accommodated himself to Jobs wrong reasoning.
Job 35:9-16. Furthermore, Elihu shows that this reasoning of Job is utterly false. Job had contradicted himself. God takes notice of man. Then he gives the reasons why God does not answer the cry of the afflicted. It is not His indifference but mans sin and forgetfulness of Him. None saith, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night? The true reason is the evil-doers pride. God will in nowise hear vanity. Pride, vanity, self-will and all that goes with it makes it impossible for a righteous God to hear. And therefore Jobs contention that it does not matter with God whether a man sins or is righteous is disproven.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
High Altitudes in Elihu’s Answer to Job
Job 32:1-22, Job 33:1-33, Job 34:1-37, Job 35:1-16, Job 36:1-33
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We now come to that part of the Book of Job which presents a most remarkable message spoken by a young man of spiritual integrity. Elihu had evidently been listening to the words of Job, and of his three friends. His spirit had waxed hot within him as he listened; and yet he did not deign to make a reply until the three men utterly collapsed in their arguments and expletives against Job.
1. Men who speak for God should be taught of God. Elihu said, “Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.” However, Elihu understood. “Great men are not always wise: neither do the aged understand judgment.” This is a message that all young people need to ponder. Men of years are not necessarily men who know God. One may be ever so well versed in human knowledge, and ever so brilliant in all things which pertain to psychical understanding, and yet, be altogether ignorant of the things of God. Here is the way Elihu put it: “There is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding” (Job 32:8).
We need this inspiration from on high-this gift of God. Daniel possessed Divine wisdom. How else could he have told the things of God and particularly those things which are being fulfilled in our own day.
2. Men who speak for God should realize that they stand in God’s stead. Elihu approached Job, not with a message of his own; neither did he come in his own name. Mark his words: “Behold, I am according to thy wish in God’s stead: I also am formed out of the clay.”
Job had desired to meet God, and lay his case before the Almighty. Elihu now tells Job that he is there in God’s stead. He feels that he can bring God’s message, because he was taught of God. Elihu’s claim may, at the first, seem like presumption. How can a man stand in God’s stead? We must stop and consider these words. Let us examine a Scripture to be found in 2Co 5:20. “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
The Spirit-sent believer holds a very vital relation to God in his delivery of a God-sent message. The Lord even says of Him, “He that receiveth you receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me.”
The authority of one who preaches the true Word of God is as high Heaven. There is an abiding sense of responsibility in all of this; and it lies with tremendous weight upon every one sent of God. If we are in God’s stead, we must speak the words of God. If we are in God’s stead, we must work the works of God.
3. Men who speak for God should express the compassion of God. Elihu said: “My terror shall not make thee afraid, neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee” (Job 33:7). “For I know not to give flattering titles; in so doing my Maker would soon take me away.”
We have then a twofold obligation: first, we must speak with all love; and yet, secondly, we must speak with all honesty and not with beguiling words, with which we would seek to please men. We may sum up our duty in this: “Speaking the truth in love.”
Job’s three friends had shown anything but the tender compassion of God. They had maligned Job, and criticised him, had continually charged him with wickedness, of which he knew he was not guilty. They expressed no Godlike sympathy, as they should have done.
Christ spoke bitter words of denunciation against the religious hypocrites of His day, but He spoke them with a heart of yearning. The darkest anathemas He ever uttered are recorded in Matthew twenty-three. Mark, therefore, how He closed His solemn series of terrific “woes.” Here are His closing words: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, * * how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, but ye would not!” Let us speak the truth in love.
I. HOW GOD REVEALS HIMSELF (Job 33:14-17)
1. God speaks in dreams. Not for a moment would Elihu suggest that all dreams are from God. However, it is often true that in the daytime God has but little opportunity to get in a word with those to whom He would give some warning. Thus, in the hours of the night, God does speak in “a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep faileth upon men, in slumberings upon the bed.”
Where is the individual who has not felt that he had, at some time in his life, some real message from God as he lay sleeping? And yet, we would give a warning that Elihu did not give. We believe that we need to be so in touch with the Lord, and in such fellowship with the Spirit that we will seek by day, and not when asleep at night, the will of God, and His message for our souls.
We need, moreover, to be so filled with His Word that we will receive many revelations from God in the Scriptures that come to our remembrances in special hours of need. If we will walk with God in full yieldedness to Him, it will not be difficult to find out what He has to say to us.
2. God’s purpose in speaking to us. This is the way Elihu put it:
(1) “That He may withdraw man from his purpose, and hide pride from man.” Alas, alas, so many men are rushing headlong on their way, without ever stopping to seek, much less to know, the will of God in their lives! God has said, “It is not in a man to order his steps”; and yet, few men, comparatively, ever ask God for guidance.
Why do we get into so many labyrinths of difficulty? It is because we sought to turn every one to his own way. The very essence of sin is “my way,” “my thought.” What is the finale of salvation? It is to turn men back to God, as Lord and Master. It is to save us from our transgression-going across the will of God.
The supreme call of God to the redeemed soul, is this: “Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God” (Rom 6:13).
(2) That He may keep “back his soul from the pit, and his life from perishing by the sword.” God does not want any of us to rush heedlessly on to our doom. He wants to bless us with all spiritual blessings. He wants to fill our lives with His good things. He has no pleasure that any man should perish. Let us, then, seek His face, and learn to trust His will.
II. GOD’S PURPOSE IN PAIN (Job 33:19-22)
Some one has said, “Sweet are the uses of adversity.” God has said, “No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but * * afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.” Back of all affliction, is the God of all grace.
1. Then He is gracious unto him. Elihu taught that all of the chastening of God led to a manifestation of God’s mercy. Man is chastened with pain upon his bed: his life abhorreth bread, and his soul dainty meat; his flesh is consumed away; his bones stick out, and his soul draweth near to the grave: then God is gracious unto him.
Elihu is right. God does use every bitter cup that we drink, every pain that we suffer, that He may perfect, strengthen, establish, and settle us. In all of our trials, God is seeking our good. In our anguish, He is leading us to His joy; in our poverty, He is leading us into His riches; in our shame, He is leading us into His glory.
What then should we do when afflictions befall us? We should drop our tired head over upon His arm and wait for His deliverance. He will be gracious unto us.
2. The basis of God’s graciousness. Here is a little expression found in the last clause of Job 33:24, which is well worth weighing. The clause reads: “I have found a Ransom.”
We do not doubt but Elihu is seeking to convey the basis upon which God’s grace operates. How can God be gracious unto the one who has sinned, and whom He has chastened? How can God deliver any soul from going down into the pit? All have sinned; and the wages of sin is death.
God’s deliverance is given on the basis of a Ransom. That Ransom is made in none other way than by the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the One who died, the Just for the unjust. He is the One who suffered for us. How truly grateful we should be because God found a basis upon which He could be just, and yet justify the ungodly!
There are some who feel that this Scripture in Job carries a wonderful message on God’s physical deliverances. This is no doubt true, particularly when sickness, with its contingent pain and bitterness, is due to sin. In such a case, the sin must be disposed of before the remedy can be applied.
Elihu, in Job 33:26, emphasizes the place of prayer, and confession, as a basis on which God’s grace, by way of His Ransom, operates. Elihu said, “He shall pray unto God, and He will be favourable unto him: and he shall see His face with joy.”
Elihu is pleading with Job to accept God’s graciousness by the way of His Ransom, and by means of the prayer of confession. Where can we find a better scriptural statement than this?
III. GOD’S RIGHTEOUS DEALINGS (Job 34:10-12)
During Job’s sickness and pain Elihu observed that Job was justifying himself. In this, Elihu contended that Job, of necessity, was condemning God. Elihu was right. To be sure, Job had been nagged on by the condemnatory words of his false friends; and besides, Job was righteous, so far as he knew. He was not guilty, as his friends asserted. However, Job should not have found fault with God. Here are the words of Elihu: “Far be it from God, that He should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that He should commit iniquity.”
Elihu further contended that the Almighty will not pervert judgment. As the result of Elihu’s contention, he made two statements in the form of two questions.
1. “Wilt thou condemn Him that is most just?” It is not fit for a subject to say to the King, “Thou art wicked.” Nor, for the plebian to say to the prince, “Ye are ungodly.” Then said Elihu, “How much less to Him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor?” Shall the created condemn the Creator? Shall the clay condemn the potter?
Abraham, when he prayed to God concerning Sodom, said, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Men may not always understand God’s dealings, but men should always bend the knee and acknowledge God’s righteousness.
All of Job’s complaints against Jehovah were due to Job’s ignorance. If he had only been able to have pierced the veil, and to have heard Satan’s challenge; or, if he had heard God’s marvelous commendation of his righteousness, he would have felt differently about it. The trouble with Job was that he argued in the dark.
2. Wilt thou condemn Him who is omniscient? Elihu presented before Job the fact that God knew all things. Here are Elihu’s words: “For His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.”
Man may not understand God, but God knows what is in man. God may hide Himself from the wicked, but they can never hide from Him. There is nothing that is not naked and open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
Since God knows the way we take, He also knows what is good for us. Elihu said, “He will not lay upon man more than right.” What then shall we do? We will trust and not be afraid. If we do not know the way, we know our Guide; if we do not know the why of our sorrows and our pains, we do know that God leads the way.
IV. GOD’S GREAT AND BENEFICENT HAND (Job 35:10-11)
We now come to one of the most beautiful verses of the whole Bible. They are words spoken by Elihu. “But none saith, Where is God my Maker, who giveth songs in the night” (Job 35:10). Elihu is intimating that Job should have been singing, instead of sighing. Some may now desire to take Job’s part. They may feel that if God sends tribulation, it is right and proper for saints to tribulate. With this, Elihu would not agree.
It was just here that Job, as a type of Christ, broke down. We have shown in a former study how the cries of Job, in the hour of his anguish, paralleled those of Christ as He went to the Cross. We have also shown how the treatment which Job received paralleled the treatment which Christ received. We now wish to observe, not the parallelism, but the contrast.
As Job faced his suffering, and drank the bitterness of his cup, he caught every now and then, through faith, a vision of ultimate victory; yet, Job continually bewailed his estate. Job wished to die. Job even condemned God, and continually bemoaned his lot.
Jesus Christ, on the contrary, as He faced the hour of His travail, faced it with joy. On the night of His betrayal, Christ uttered such words as these: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you.” “These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.”
In the Garden of Gethsemane, as the bitter cup was pressed to the lips of the Master, Christ said, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me: nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt.”
There never was a moment that the Lord Jesus complained; there was never a moment that He doubted. Our Lord was a nightingale, singing in the midnight hour of His travail. We read that after He had taken the bread and had broken it, saying, “This is My body”; and that after He had taken the cup, and had poured it forth, saying, “This is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many”; that afterward, “when they had SUNG AN HYMN, they went out.”
Thus, the Lord sang songs in the night. Is it possible for us to sing, as He sang? It was possible for Paul and Silas, for they sang at Philippi with their feet in the stocks, as they lay in the Roman jail.
V. ELIHU’S SOLEMN WARNING (Job 36:18)
We must bring this message shortly to a close, but we cannot do so until we emphasize Elihu’s three solemn warnings which he gave to Job.
1. “Beware lest.” “Beware lest He take thee away with His stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.” Elihu longed for Job to get into the place of victory, before God might take him away, Elihu taught that after death God’s great Ransom could not deliver. He who repents must repent in life, and never after death. The work of the Cross is effective by faith only among men who are yet in the flesh.
Let every one, therefore, beware lest God speak the word, “Cut him down: why cumbereth he the ground?”
2. “Remember that.” This is Elihu’s second warning. He said, “Remember that thou magnify His work, which men behold.” How marvelously did Elihu give glory to God! This is the whole duty of man.
There is a little verse in the New Testament that says: “Remember Jesus Christ.” People today are in danger of forgetting God, and of forgetting His Son our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. The world needs a renewed vision of God, and a new love for and trust in God.
3. “Behold, God.” The verse in full reads: “Behold, God is great, and we know Him not, neither can the number of His years be searched out.” The balance of Elihu’s speech, finishing the thirty-sixth and through the thirty-seventh chapter, is given to glorifying God, and to magnifying His greatness.
AN ILLUSTRATION
Let us know, with the faith of Elihu, that we have a Ransom. Let us not trust “Rotten Ships.”
Much has been said and written about rotten ships, and what a sad piece of iniquity it is for any, just for the sake of present gain, to attempt to trifle with human life, in sending men in ships that ought to have been broken up long years ago. Old unseaworthy hulks patched up and painted, then freighted with precious life, all sacrificed for the cupidity and covetousness of the owners, how the world reprobates such conduct, and cries out against it.
Would that all equally condemned the attempts to sail to Heaven in the rotten hulks of man’s providing.
When we try to gain everlasting life by anything that we do, say, or promise, ignoring the new and living way, what is it but sailing in a rotten ship that must founder. When we boast ourselves of our morality, sincerity, good deeds and intentions, ignoring the work and Person of Jesus the Saviour, what is it but a fair coat of bright paint that covers a worm-eaten, rotten ship, that will not stand one breath of God’s judgment. When we weary ourselves with the performance of outward forms and ceremonies of religion, and try to satisfy the conscience with acts of devotion and contrition, rejecting the work of Christ, who hath “by Himself purged our sins,” what is it but building again what God has destroyed, and embarking in that which will never reach the shore.
God condemned all these ways four thousand years ago, providing an “Ark,” even Christ Jesus, for the saving of the soul-the sinner’s refuge and way of escape. And what He said unto Noah, He says to you, “Come thou, and all thy house, into the Ark.”-Unknown.
Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water
Job 35:1. Elihu spake moreover Job still keeping silence, perhaps because he was convinced that although Elihu had made a very harsh construction of his words, he was influenced by a good motive in what he had advanced, and had now, in the conclusion, given him very wholesome counsel, and, allowing his integrity, had only charged him with some violent expressions, which had fallen from him when he was in great anguish of spirit; Elihu goes on in this chapter to fix the very same harsh sense upon Jobs words. He first puts it to his conscience whether he thought it could be right to gain his acquittal by an impeachment of Gods justice; yet, he tells him he must have thought after this manner, otherwise he would never have made use of such an atheistical expression as, that he had no profit by doing his duty, more than if he had sinned; referring, probably, to Job 23:11; Job 23:15. That he ought to consider that God was so far above the influence of all human actions, that neither could their good deeds be of any advantage to him, nor could their evil deeds affect him, Job 35:2-7. They might, indeed, affect themselves or their neighbours: they might suffer from the oppressions of men, and cry aloud to God to relieve them; but if this cry was not made with an entire dependance on, and a perfect resignation to, the will of God, it would be quite fruitless: God would not give the least ear to it, Job 35:8-14. Much less ought they, in every affliction, to be flying in the face of the Almighty and shaking off his sovereignty; that they ought rather to wait his leisure with patience; and that Job himself would not have acted in this manner, had he not been hurried away by too great a self-confidence, Job 35:15-16. Heath.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 35:2. My righteousness is more than Gods. The LXX react as the Hebrew, Thou saidest, I am righteous before God. Elihu makes too strong an inference from Jobs words, when he said, Job 33:9, I am clean without transgression: I am innocent of all those things with which you tacitly charge me.
Job 35:5. Look unto the heavens. Elihu in the rest of his speech refers Job to the grandeur of God in the heavens, to humble him before his Maker.
Job 35:10. Who giveth songs in the night. God inspires good men with good thoughts and dreams; and while they meditate on their beds, he satisfies their souls as with marrow and fatness. Psa 63:5. The LXX, Who appoints [his angels] keepers of the night: or as the Chaldaic, Before whose presence the highest angels are ordained to praise in the night. The sybils, pythonesses, or virgins, while guarding the holy fire in their temples, are mentioned as passing away the watches of the night in sacred songs. Gregory turns this to the joys with which God inspires his saints in the gloom of persecution. David says that God satisfied his soul when he remembered him in the night, as with marrow and fatness. Such should be our employment, especially when sleep is denied us in the night.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 35:1-8. Elihu inquires whether it is Jobs righteousness which finds expression in his question as to the profitableness of religion. Let him look to the heavens and see how far God is above him. Mans sin or righteousness in no way injures or profits God, but only other men. In Job 35:2 instead of Or sayest thou, my righteousness is more than Gods, translate And callest it my righteousness before God. With Job 35:5-7; cf. Job 22:2-3; cf. Job 22:12.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Elihu had spoken of God’s testing Job (ch.34:36), and in this chapter provides what is true of God’s test of mankind. It is clearly connected with chapter 34, but is distinct also, for chapter 34 deals with God’s character being vindicated, while now God’s character is seen in the way He tests all mankind. There are three divisions in the chapter, the first of which indicates that
GOD IS INFINITELY GREATER THAN MAN
(vv.1-8)
“Do you think this is right? Do you say, My righteousness is more than God’s? (v.2). This was very clearly what was implied in Job’s words, for he had said he was righteous and God was remiss in His not recognising Job’s righteousness. How careful we should be when we are tempted to complain, for we are saying in effect that God is not treating us rightly! Job had questioned if there was any advantage or profit in being righteous, more than if he had sinned (v.3), that is, he thought, “what is the use of being righteous if the results are not what I imagined thy should be?” How can a believer entertain such unbelieving thoughts?
Elihu answers this by directing Job’s eyes to heaven. Just to observe the heavens should make anyone bow with awe at the greatness of the glory of God. Both the heavens and the clouds are “higher than you.” The obscurity caused by clouds should move us to realise that it is impossible for mere man to perceive why God deals as He does: His ways are hidden from human observation.
If you sin, what do you accomplish against Him? Or, if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to Him?” (v.6). Do men think they can change the truth of God into a lie? Well might God laugh at their foolish impotence!
On the other hand, if one is righteous, does he think he is doing God a favour by this? (v.7). In being righteous, he is not doing more than he should. Why should he expect special recognition? Thus, Elihu levels man’s pride to the dust, whether pride in his own rebellious attitude, or pride in his righteous character. It is true enough that a man’s actions, bad or good, may affect other people (v.8), but they do not influence God.
Job had recognised before what Elihu insists on here, that his conduct, whether good or bad, did not really influence God. How inconsistent it was therefore that Job would accuse God of unfairness, for he was practically saying that God should make an exception in Job’s case because Job was such a righteous man! Unbelief contradicts itself.
WHY IS THERE NO ANSWER FROM GOD?
(vv.9-13)
Job was not the only one who suffered what he considered oppression. Elihu knew there were multitudes who cried out for help (v.9), and we know it is the same today. “But no one says, Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night?” (v.10). People do not find help because they cry out (not to God, but ) to governments or institutions, or more likely cry out against the government. But God can give songs in the night of man’s distress, yet man does not consider this. Elihu is speaking of people generally, not only of Job. Even though God is their Maker, they seem blinded to the fact that He is the only One who can truly relieve them.
Does God not teach us more than the beasts? Does He not give greater wisdom to man than to birds? (v.11). Yet beasts and birds are cared for by God’s preserving mercy. Why does man not consider this and realise that he too is dependent on his Creator? In other words, since God has given greater understanding to men than to beasts and birds, why do men not show it by relying on God?
People cry out, but God does not answer because of the pride that moves them (v.12). The many demonstrations today demanding the people’s rights are clearly the expression of man’s pride, for in so demonstrating, they are telling the world they are wise and those who oppose are not worth considering, – and even God Himself is given this inferior place. Can they expect God to listen to their empty talk? (v.13). They altogether forget that He is “the Almighty.”
THOUGH NOT SEEN, GOD MUST BE TRUSTED
(vv.14-16)
Because God is not visible, people excuse themselves from any responsibility toward Him (v.14), but the witness of creation and conscience combine to declare that He is a God of justice, and “you must wait for Him.” He does not act when we want it but in His own time He will bring everything into proper perspective, This therefore demands faith.
Job had criticised God for allowing the wicked to prosper while he, a righteous man, was suffering. Therefore Elihu tells him that because God had not in anger punished the wicked quickly, nor had apparently taken much notice of man’s folly, therefore Job had opened his mouth in vain criticism (v.16). He had not at least paused to consider wisely what he was saying, and his many words lacked knowledge (v.16).
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
4. Elihu’s third speech ch. 35
We could chart the differences in Elihu’s first three speeches this way.
|
Elihu’s Speech |
Job’s question that Elihu answered |
Job’s charge that Elihu refuted |
|
First |
Why doesn’t God respond to me? |
God is insensitive (ch. 33). |
|
Second |
Why doesn’t God relieve me? |
God is unjust (ch. 34). |
|
Third |
Why doesn’t God reward me? |
Holiness is unprofitable (ch. 35). |
Job felt that God should have rewarded him for his innocence, rather than subjecting him to suffering. Elihu replied that man’s sin or innocence does not affect God, and God was silent to Job because Job was proud. As before, Elihu first quoted Job (Job 35:1-3) and then refuted his statement (Job 35:4-16).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Job’s position of indifference 35:1-3
Job had said that living a righteous life does not benefit a person since God does not consistently bless the righteous and punish the wicked in this life (Job 9:30-31; cf. Job 34:9; Job 35:3). Elihu thought this assertion was hardly a sign of Job’s innocence. In Job 35:2 "more than God’s" is clearer if we read "before God." "You" in Job 35:3 probably refers to any person (impersonal "you") rather than God.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
XXVI.
THE DIVINE PREROGATIVE
Job 35:1-16; Job 36:1-33; Job 37:1-24
AFTER a long digression Elihu returns to consider the statement ascribed to Job, “It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.” {Job 34:9} This he laid hold of as meaning that the Almighty is unjust, and the accusation has been dealt with. Now he resumes the question of the profitableness of religion.
“Thinkest thou this to be in thy right, And callest thou it My just cause before God, That thou dost ask what advantage it is to thee, And What profit have I more than if I had sinned?”
In one of his replies Job, speaking of the wicked, represented them as saying, “What is the Almighty that we should serve Him? and what profit should we have if we pray unto him?”. {Job 21:15} He added then, “The counsel of the wicked be far from me.” Job is now declared to be of the same opinion as the wicked whom he condemned. The man who again and again appealed to God from the judgment of his friends, who found consolation in the thought that his witness was in heaven, who, when be was scorned, sought God in tears and hoped against hope for His redemption, is charged with holding, faith and religion of no advantage. Is it in misapprehension or with design the charge is made? Job did indeed occasionally seem to deny the profit of religion, but only when the false theology of his friends drove him to false judgment. His real conviction was right. Once Eliphaz pressed the same accusation and lost his way in trying to prove it. Elihu has no fresh evidence, and he too falls into error. He confounds the original charge against Job with another, and makes an offence of that which the whole scope of the poem and our sense of right completely justify.
“Look unto the heavens and see,
And regard the clouds which are higher than thou.
If thou sinnest, what doest thou against Him?
Or if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto Him?
If thou be righteous, what givest thou Him?
Or what receiveth He at thy hands?”
Elihu is actually proving, not that Job expects too little from religion and finds no profit in it, but that he expects too much. Anxious to convict, he will show that man has no right to make his faith depend on Gods care for his integrity. The prologue showed the Almighty pleased with His servants faithfulness. That, says Elihu, is a mistake.
Consider the clouds and the heavens which are far above the world. Thou canst not touch them, affect them. The sun and moon and stars shine with undiminished brightness, however vile men may be. The clouds come and go quite independently of the crimes of men. God is above those clouds, above that firmament. Neither can the evil hands of men reach His throne, nor the righteousness of men enhance His glory. It is precisely what we heard from the lips of Eliphaz, {Job 22:2-4} an argument which abuses man for the sake of exalting God. Elihu has no thought of the spiritual relationship between man and his Creator. He advances with perfect composure as a hard dogma what Job said in the bitterness of his soul.
If, however, the question must still be answered, What good end is served by human virtue? the reply is, –
“Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art;
And thy righteousness may profit a son of man.”
God sustains the righteous and punishes the wicked, not for the sake of righteousness itself but purely for the sake of men. The law is that of expediency. Let not man dream of witnessing for God, or upholding any eternal principle dear to God. Let him confine religious fidelity and aspiration to their true sphere, the service of mankind. Regarding which doctrine we may simply say that, if religion is profitable in this way only, it may as well be frankly given up and the cult of happiness adopted for it everywhere. But Elihu is not true to his own dogma.
The next passage, beginning with Job 35:9, seems to be an indictment of those who in grievous trouble do not see and acknowledge the Divine blessings which are the compensations of their lot. Many in the world are sorely oppressed. Elihu has heard their piteous cries. But he has this charge against them, that they do not realise what it is to be subjects of the heavenly King.
By reason of the multitude of oppressions men cry out,
They cry for help by reason of the arm of the mighty;
But none saith, Where is God my Maker,
Who giveth songs in the night,
Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth,
And maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?
There they cry because of the pride of evil men;
But none giveth answer.
These cries of the oppressed are complaints against pain, natural outbursts of feeling, like the moans of wounded animals. But those who are cruelly wronged may turn to God and endeavour to realise their position as intelligent creatures of His who should feel after Him and find Him. If they do so, then hope will mingle with their sorrow and light arise on their darkness. For in the deepest midnight Gods presence cheers the soul and tunes the voice to songs of praise. The intention is to show that when prayer seems of no avail and religion does not help, it is because there is no real faith, no right apprehension by men of their relation to God. Elihu, however, fails to see that if the righteousness of men is not important to God as righteousness, much less will He be interested in their grievances. The bond of union between the heavenly and the earthly is broken; and it cannot be restored by showing that the grief of men touches God more than their sin. Jobs distinction is that he clings to the ethical fellowship between a sincere man and his Maker and to the claim and the hope involved in that relationship. There we have the jewel in the lotus flower of this book, as in all true and noble literature. Elihu, like the rest, is far beneath Job. If he can be said to have a glimmering of the idea it is only that he may oppose it. This moral affinity with God as the principle of human life remains the secret of the inspired author; it lifts him above the finest minds of the Gentile world. The compiler of the Elihu portion, although he has the admirable sentiment that God giveth songs in the night, has missed the great and elevating truth which fills with prophetic force the original poem.
From Job 35:14 onward to the close of the chapter the argument is turned directly against Job, but is so obscure that the meaning can only be conjectured.
“Surely God will not hear vanity,
Neither will the Almighty regard it.”
If any one cries out against suffering as an animal in pain might cry, that is vanity, not merely emptiness but impiety, and God will not hear nor regard such a cry. Elihu means that Jobs complaints were essentially of this nature. True, he had called on God; that cannot be denied. He had laid his case before the Judge and professed to expect vindication. But he was at fault in that very appeal, for it was still of suffering he complained, and he was still impious.
“Even when thou sayest that thou seest Him not,
That thy cause is before Him and thou waitest for Him;
Even then because His anger visiteth not,
And He doth not strictly regard transgression,
Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vanity,
He muitiplieth words without knowledge.”
The argument seems to be: God rules in absolute supremacy, and His will is not to be questioned; it may not be demanded of Him that He do this or that. What is a man that he, should dare to state any “righteous cause” of his before God and claim justification? Let Job understand that the Almighty has been showing leniency, holding back His hand. He might kill any man outright and there would be no appeal nor ground of complaint. It is because He does not strictly regard iniquity that Job is still alive. Therefore appeals and hopes are offensive to God.
The insistence of this part of the book reaches a climax here and becomes repulsive. Elihus opinions oscillate we may say between Deism and Positivism, and on either side he is a special pleader. It is by the mercy of the Almighty all men live; yet the reasoning of Elihu makes mercy so remote and arbitrary that prayer becomes an impertinence. No doubt there are some cries out of trouble which cannot find response. But he ought to maintain, on the other hand, that if sincere prayer is addressed to God by one in sore affliction desiring to know wherein he has sinned and imploring deliverance, that appeal shall be heard. This, however, is denied. For the purpose of convicting Job Elihu takes the singular position that though there is mercy with God man is neither to expect nor ask it, that to make any claim upon Divine grace is impious. And there is no promise that suffering will bring spiritual gain. God has a right to afflict His creatures, and what He does is to be endured without a murmur because it is less than He has the right to appoint. The doctrine is adamantine and at the same time rent asunder by the error which is common to all Jobs opponents. The soul of a man resolutely faithful like Job would turn away from it with righteous contempt and indignation. The light which Elihu professes to enjoy is a midnight of dogmatic darkness.
Passing to chapter 36, we are still among vague surmisings which appear the more inconsequent that the speaker makes a large claim of knowledge.
“Suffer me a little and I will show thee,
For I have somewhat yet to say on Gods behalf.
I will fetch my knowledge from afar,
And will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
For truly my words are not false:
One that is perfect in knowledge is with thee.”
Elihu is zealous for the honour of that great Being whom he adores because from Him he has received life and light and power. He is sure of what he says, and proceeds with a firm step. Preparation thus made, the vindication of God follows-a series of sayings which draw to something useful only when the doctrine becomes hopelessly inconsistent with what has already been laid down.
Behold God is mighty and despiseth not any;
He is mighty in strength of understanding.
He preserveth not the life of the wicked,
But giveth right to the poor.
He withdraweth not His eyes from the righteous,
But, with kings on the throne,
He setteth them up forever, and they are exalted.
And if they be bound in fetters,
If they be held in cords of affliction,
Then He showeth them their work
And their transgressions, that they have acted proudly,
He openeth their ear to discipline
And commandeth that they return from iniquity.
“God despiseth not any”-this appears to have something of the humane breath hitherto wanting in the discourses of Elihu. He does not mean, however, that the Almighty estimates every life without contempt, counting the feeblest and most sinful as His creatures; but that He passes over none in the administration of His justice. Illustrations of the doctrine as Elihu intends it to be received are supplied in the couplet, “He preserveth not the life of the wicked, but giveth right to the poor.” The poor are helped, the wicked are given up to death. As for the righteous, two very different methods of dealing with them are described. For Elihu himself, and others favoured with prosperity, the law of the Divine order has been, “With kings on the throne God setteth them up forever.” A personal consciousness of merit leading to honourable rank in the state seems at variance with the hard dogma of the evil desert of all men. But the rabbi has his own position to fortify. The alternative, however, could, not be kept out of sight, since the misery of exile was a vivid recollection, if not an actual experience, with many reputable men who were bound in fetters and held by cords of affliction. It is implied that, though of good character, these are not equal in righteousness to the favourites of kings. Some errors require correction; and these men are cast into trouble, that they may learn to renounce pride and turn from iniquity. Elihu preaches the benefits of chastening, and in touching on pride he comes near the case of Job. But the argument is rude and indiscriminative. To admit that a man is righteous and then speak of his transgressions and iniquity, must mean that he is really far beneath his reputation or the estimate he has formed of himself.
It is difficult to see precisely what Elihu considers the proper frame of mind which God will reward. There must be humility, obedience, submission to discipline, renunciation of past errors. But we remember the doctrine that a mans righteousness cannot profit God, can only profit his fellow men. Does Elihu, then, make submission to the powers that be almost the same thing as religion? His reference to high position beside the throne is to a certain extent suggestive of this.
“If they obey and serve God,
They shall spend their days in prosperity
And their years in pleasures.
But if they obey not
They shall perish by the sword,
And they shall die without knowledge.”
Elihu thinks over much of kings and exaltation beside them and of years of prosperity and pleasure, and his own view of human character and merit follows the judgment of those who have honours to bestow and love the servile pliant mind.
In the dark hours of sorrow and pain, says Elihu, men have the choice to begin life anew in lowly obedience or else to harden their hearts against the providence of God. Instruction has been offered, and they must either embrace it or trample it under foot. And passing to the case of Job, who, it is plain, is afflicted because he needs chastisement, not having attained to Elihus perfectness in the art of life, the speaker cautiously offers a promise and gives an emphatic warning.
He delivereth the afflicted by his affliction
And openeth their ear in oppression.
Yea, He would allure thee out of the mouth of thy distress
Into a broad place where is no straitness;
And that which is set on thy table shall be full of fatness.
But if thou art full of the judgment of the wicked,
Judgment and justice shall keep hold on thee.
For beware lest wrath lead thee away to mockery,
And let not the greatness of the ransom turn thee aside.
Will thy riches suffice that are without stint?
Or all the forces of thy strength?
Choose not that night,
When the peoples are cut off in their place:
Take heed thou turn not to iniquity,
For this thou hast chosen rather than affliction.
A side reference here shows that the original writer dealing with his hero has been replaced by another who does not realise the circumstances of Job with the same dramatic skill. His appeal is forcible, however, in its place. There was danger that one long and grievously afflicted might be led away by wrath and turn to mockery or scornfulness, so forfeiting the possibility of redemption. Job might also say in bitterness of soul that he had paid a great price to God in losing all his riches. The warning has point, although Job never betrayed the least disposition to think the loss of property a ransom exacted of him by God. Elihus suggestion to this effect is by no means evangelical; it springs from a worldly conception of what is valuable to man and of great account with the Almighty. Observe, however, the reminiscences of national disaster. The picture of the night of a peoples calamity had force for Elihus generation, but here it is singularly inappropriate. Jobs night had come to himself alone. If his afflictions had been shared by others, a different complexion would have been given to them. The final thrust, that the sufferer had chosen iniquity rather than profitable chastisement, has no point whatsoever.
The section closes with a strophe (Job 36:22-25) which, calling for submission to the Divine ordinance and praise of the doings of the Almighty, forms a transition to the final theme of the address.
Job 36:1-33; Job 37:1-24
Job 36:26-33; Job 37:1-24
There need be little hesitation in regarding this passage as an ode supplied to the second writer or simply quoted by him for the purpose of giving strength to his argument. Scarcely a single note in the portion of Elihus address already considered approaches the poetical art of this. The glory of God in His creation and His unsearchable wisdom are illustrated from the phenomena of the heavens without reference to the previous sections of the address. One who was more a poet than a reasoner might indeed halt and stumble as the speaker has done up to this point and find liberty when he reached a theme congenial to his mind. But there are points at which we seem to hear the voice of Elihu interrupting the flow of the ode as no poet would check his muse. At Job 37:14 the sentence is interjected, like an aside of the writer drawing attention to the words he is quoting, -“Hearken unto this, O Job; stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.” Again (Job 37:19-20), between the description of the burnished mirror of the sky and that of the clearness after the sweeping wind, without any reference to the train of thought, the ejaculation is introduced, -“Teach us what we shall say unto Him, for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. Shall it be told Him that I speak? If a man speak surely he shall be swallowed up.” The final verses also seem to be in the manner of Elihu.
But the ode as a whole, though it has the fault of endeavouring to forestall what is put into the mouth of the Almighty speaking from the storm, is one of the fine passages of the book. We pass from “cold, heavy, and pretentious” dogmatic discussions to free and striking pictures of nature, with the feeling that one is guiding us who can present in eloquent language the fruits of his study of the works of God. The descriptions have been noted for their felicity and power by such observers as Baron Humboldt and Mr. Ruskin. While the point of view is that invariably taken by Hebrew writers, the originality of the ode lies in fresh observation and record of atmospheric phenomena, especially of the rain and snow, rolling clouds, thunderstorms and winds. The pictures do not seem to belong to the Arabian desert but to a fertile peopled region like Aram or the Chaldaean plain. Upon the fields and dwellings of men, not on wide expanses of barren sand, the rains and snows fall, and they seal up the hand of man. The lightning clouds cover the face of the “habitable world”; by them God judgeth the peoples.
In the opening verses the theme of the ode is set forth-the greatness of God, the vast duration of His being, transcending human knowledge.
“Behold God is great and we know Him not,
The number of His years is unsearchable.”
To estimate His majesty or fathom the depths of His eternal will is far beyond us who are creatures of a day. Yet we may have some vision of His power. Look up when rain is falling, mark how the clouds that float above distil the drops of water and pour down great floods upon the earth. Mark also how the dark cloud spreading from the horizon obscures the blue expanse of the sky. We cannot understand; but we can realise to some extent the majesty of Him whose is the light and the darkness, who is heard in the thunder peal and seen in the forked lightning.
“Can any understand the spreadings of the clouds,
The crashings of His pavilion?
Behold He spreadeth His light about Him;
And covereth it with the depths of the sea.
For by these judgeth He the peoples;
He giveth meat in abundance.”
Translating from the Vulgate the two following verses, Mr. Ruskin gives the meaning, “He hath hidden the light in His hands and commanded it that it should return. He speaks of it to His friend; that it is His possession, and that he may ascend thereto.” The rendering cannot be received, yet the comment may be cited. “These rain clouds are the robes of love of the Angel of the Sea. To these that name is chiefly given, the spreadings of the clouds, from their extent, their gentleness, their fulness of rain.” And this is “the meaning of those strange golden lights and purple flushes before the morning rain. The rain is sent to judge and feed us; but the light is the possession of the friends of God, that they may ascend thereto.-where the tabernacle veil will cross and part its rays no more.”
The real import does not reach this spiritual height. It is simply that the tremendous thunder brings to transgressors the terror of judgment, and the copious showers that follow water the parched earth for the sake of man. Of the justice and grace of God we are made aware when His angel spreads his wings over the world. In the darkened sky there is a crash as if the vast canopy of the firmament were torn asunder. And now a keen flash lights the gloom for a moment; anon it is swallowed up as if the inverted sea, poured in cataracts upon the flame, extinguished it. Men recognise the Divine indignation, and even the lower animals seem to be aware.
“He covereth His hands with the lightning,
He giveth it a charge against the adversary.
Its thunder telleth concerning Him,
Even the cattle concerning that which cometh up.”
Continued in the thirty-seventh chapter, the description appears to be from what is actually going on, a tremendous thunderstorm that shakes the earth.
The sound comes, as it were, out of the mouth of God, reverberating from sky to earth and from earth to sky, and rolling away under the whole heaven. Again there are lightnings, and “He stayeth them not when His voice is heard.” Swift ministers of judgment and death they are darted upon the world.
We are asked to consider a fresh wonder, that of the snow which at certain times replaces the gentle or copious rain. The cold fierce showers of winter arrest the labour of man, and even the wild beasts seek their dens and abide in their lurking places. “The Angel of the Sea,” says Mr. Ruskin, “has also another message, -in the great rain of His strength, rain of trial, sweeping away ill-set foundations. Then his robe is not spread softly over the whole heaven as a veil, but sweeps back from his shoulders, ponderous, oblique, terrible-leaving his sword arm free.” God is still directly at work. “Out of His chamber cometh the storm and cold out of the north.” His breath gives the frost and straitens the breadth of waters. Towards Armenia, perhaps, the poet has seen the rivers and lakes frozen from bank to bank. Our science explains the result of diminished temperature; we know under what conditions hoar frost is deposited and how hail is formed. Yet all we can say is that thus and thus the forces act. Beyond that we remain like this writer, awed in presence of a heavenly will which determines the course and appoints the marvels of nature.
“By the breath of God ice is given,
And the breadth of the waters is straitened.
Also He ladeth the thick cloud with moisture,
He spreadeth His lightning cloud abroad;
And it is turned about by His guidance,
That it may do whatsoever He commandeth
Upon the face of the whole earth.”
Here, again, moral purpose is found. The poet attributes to others his own susceptibility. Men see and learn and tremble. It is for correction, that the careless may be brought to think of Gods greatness, and the evildoers of His power, that sinners being made afraid may turn from their rebellion. Or, it is for His earth, that rain may beautify it and fill the rivers and springs at which the beasts of the valley drink. Or, yet again, the purpose is mercy. Even the tremendous thunderstorm may be fraught with mercy to men. From the burning heat, oppressive, intolerable, the rains that follow bring deliverance. Men are fainting for thirst, the fields are languishing. In compassion God sends His great cloud on its mission of life.
More delicate, needing finer observation, are the next objects of study.
“Dost thou know how God layeth His charge on them,
And causeth the light of His cloud to shine?
Dost thou know the balancings of the clouds,
The wondrous works of Him who is perfect in known edge?”
It is not clear whether the light of the cloud means the lightning again or the varied hues which make an Oriental sunset glorious in purple and gold. But the balancings of the clouds must be that singular power which the atmosphere has of sustaining vast quantities of watery vapour-either miles above the earths surface where the filmy cirrhus floats, dazzling white against the blue sky, or lower down where the rain cloud trails along the hill tops. Marvellous it is that, suspended thus in the air, immense volumes of water should be carried from the surface of the ocean to be discharged in fructifying rain.
Then again:-
“How are thy garments warm
When the earth is still because of the south wind?”
The sensation of dry hot clothing is said to be very notable in the season of the siroccos or south winds, also the extraordinary stillness of nature under the same oppressive influence. “There is no living thing abroad to make a noise. The air is too weak and languid to stir the pendant leaves even of the tall poplars.”
Finally the vast expanse of the sky, like a looking glass of burnished metal stretched far over sea and land, symbolises the immensity of Divine power.
“Canst thou with Him spread out the sky
Which is strong as a molten mirror?
And now men see not the light which is bright in the skies:
Yet the wind passeth and cleanseth them.”
It is always bright beyond. Clouds only hide the splendid sunshine for a time. A wind rises and sweeps away the vapours from the glorious dome of heaven. “Out of the north cometh golden splendour”-for it is the north wind that drives on the clouds which, as they fly southward, are gilded by the rays of the sun. But with God is a splendour greater far, that of terrible majesty.
So the ode finishes abruptly, and Elihu states his own conclusion:-
“The Almighty! we cannot find Him out;
He is excellent in power.
And in judgment and plenteous justice; He will not afflict.
Men do therefore fear Him;
He regardeth not any that are wise of heart.”
Is Job wise in his own conceit? Does he think he can challenge the Divine government and show how the affairs of the world might have been better ordered? Does he think that he is himself treated unjustly because loss and disease have been appointed to him? Right thoughts of God will check all such ignorant notions and bring him a penitent back to the throne of the Eternal. It is a good and wise deduction; but Elihu has not vindicated God by showing in harmony with the noblest and finest ideas of righteousness men have, God supremely righteous, and beyond the best and noblest mercy men love, God transcendently merciful and gracious. In effect his argument has been-The Almighty must be all righteous, and any one is impious who criticises life. The whole question between Job and the friends remains unsettled still.
Elihus failure is significant. It is the failure of an attempt made, as we have seen, centuries after the Book of Job was written, to bring it into the line of current religious opinion. Our examination of the whole reveals the narrow foundation on which Hebrew orthodoxy was reared and explains the developments of a later time. Job may be said to have left no disciples in Israel. His brave personal hope and passionate desire for union with God seem to have been lost in the fervid national bigotry of post-exilic ages; and while they faded, the Pharisee and Sadducee of after days began to exist. They are both here in germ. Springing from one seed, they are alike in their ignorance of Divine justice; and we do not wonder that Christ, coming to fulfil and more than fulfil the hope of humanity, appeared to both the Pharisee and Sadducee of His time as an enemy of religion, of the country, and of God.