Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 16:11
God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
11. hath delivered ] delivereth. Similarly, turneth or casteth me into. By the “ungodly” Job does not mean his friends, but the low rabble of men, such as are described in ch. 30.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
God hath delivered me – Margin shut me up. The meaning is, that God had committed him to their hands as a prisoner or captive. They had power over him to do as they pleased.
To the ungodly – Into the hands of wicked people – meaning undoubtedly his professed friends.
And turned me over – The word used here (from yarat) means to throw head long, to precipitate, to cast down. Here it means, he has thrown me headlong into the hands of the wicked.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 16:11
God hath delivered me to the ungodly.
Tracing all to God
But Job gets some notion of the reality of things when he traces all to God, saving, God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked. I begin to feel that even the devil is but a black servant in Gods house. There is a sense, perhaps hardly open to a definition in words, in which the devil belongs to God as certainly as does the first archangel. There is no separate province of Gods universe: hell burns at the very footstool of His throne. We must not allow ourselves to believe that there are rival powers and competing dynasties in any sense which diminishes the almightiness of God. If you say, as some distinguished philosophers have lately said, God cannot be almighty because there is evil in the world, you are limiting the discussion within too narrow a boundary. We must await the explanation. Give God time. Let Him work in His eternity. We are not called upon now to answer questions. Oh! could we hold our peace, and say, We do not know; do not press us for answers; let patience have her perfect work: this is the time for labour, for education, for study, for prayer, for sacrifice: this poor twilight scene is neither fair enough nor large enough to admit the whole of Gods explanation: we must carry forward our study to the place which is as lofty as heaven, to the time which is as endless as eternity. We all have suffering. Every man is struck at some point. Let not him who is capable of using some strength speak contemptuously of his weak brother. It is easy for a man who has no temptation in a certain direction to lecture another upon going in that direction. What we want is a juster comprehension of one another. We should say, This, my brother, cannot stand such and such a fire; therefore we try to come between him and the flame: this other brother can stand that fire perfectly well, but there is another fire which he dare not approach; therefore we should interpose ourselves between him and the dread furnace, knowing that we all have some weakness, some point of failure, some signature of the dust. Blessed are they who have great, generous, royal, Divine hearts! The more a man can forgive, the more does he resemble God. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
To the ungodly; either,
1. To my friends, who act the part of the wicked, in censuring and condemning the righteous, whom God approveth, and in pleading for a false and wicked cause. Or rather,
2. To the Chaldeans and Sabeans, who were a most wicked people, living in gross contempt of God, and injuriousness to all sorts of men. For this best suits both with the first clause of the next verse, which showeth that he speaketh of Jobs first afflictions, which befell him when he was at ease; and with Jobs principal scope, which was to prove that both eminent prosperity and affliction did indifferently happen to good and bad men; and this was evident from this example, because holy Job was ruined, when these wicked people were most victorious and successful.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
11. the ungodlynamely, hisprofessed friends, who persecuted him with unkind speeches.
turned me overliterally,”cast me headlong into the hands of the wicked.”
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
God hath delivered me up to the ungodly,…. The evil or wicked one, for it is in the singular number; and designs either Satan, into whose hands God had not only delivered his substance, but his person, excepting his life; though it may be, and which is an objection to this sense, Job as yet knew it not; or else Eliphaz, or, the singular number being put for the plural, as the next clause explains it, all his friends, whom he in turn calls evil and wicked men, because of their treatment of him; or else the Sabeans and Chaldeans are intended, who were suffered to plunder him of his substance; the words are very applicable to Christ, who was delivered to the Gentiles, and into the hands of sinners and wicked men, and that by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, who with wicked hands took him, and crucified him, Mt 20:19; or God “shut [him] up”, or “delivered [him] bound” d, as the word signifies; which was literally true of Christ, who was bound by the Jews, and delivered first to the high priest, and then to the Roman governor, in such circumstances,
Joh 18:12;
and turned me over into the hands of the wicked; signifying the same as before, unless it should be rendered, “and caused me to decline”, or “come down by the hands of the wicked” e that is, from his former state of prosperity and happiness, into the low circumstances in which he was, and which he was brought into by the means of wicked men, God suffering it so to be.
d “vinctum me tradidit”, Grotius, Michaelis, Schultens. e “divertere fecit a vita”, Pagninus; “declinare me facit”, Beza, Drusius, Mercerus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(11) The ungodly and the wicked are the terms he retorts upon his friends, and they have certainly earned them. Now follows
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
11. Delivered Hurled, cast head-long.
The ungodly , the evil one, , Mat 13:19. The word is in the singular number, and seems to denote the same being of whom mention is made in chaps. 1, 2.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
“Handfuls of Purpose”
For All Gleaners
“God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked,” Job 16:11
This is not the speech of ignorance; nor is this a mere ebullition of fretful-ness or peevishness: the man who speaks is a wise man, whose character God himself has recognised and commended as good, even supremely good. Nor is this speech an exaggeration. This is precisely what God has done. The patriarch now seems to realise the simple truth of the situation. As a matter of fact God had delivered Job to the ungodly, and turned him over into the hands of the wicked. But God had done more, and it is that additional something which is so often forgotten in our surveys and estimates of Divine Providence. God had pledged his word that Job would be constant in the hour of trial, and that all the fire of hell would not burn him when he passed through the furnace. Where God has made such a pledge he will supply the needful grace. The battle was really not between Job and the devil, but between God himself and Satan: Job was, so to say, but the battlefield, on which the great combatants stood face to face. If Job failed, God failed. It is so now, that good men are handed over to be tried, tempted, and put to every test to which virtue can be subjected. Godly men are not taken out of the world: they are still left in its atmosphere, and in immediate touch with all its customs and principles. To be in the world is to be in temptation; to live is to do battle with evil. It is unprofitable to disguise from ourselves the reality of our spiritual position. It is foolish to appear to be in the world, and yet to be independent of it; we are not to hide ourselves from its appeals or temptations, or from any part of its manifold discipline: we are called upon to show that how severe soever may be our trial, he who is with us is more than all that can be against us. The consolatory thought which every Christian should apply to himself is, that temptation is but for a moment; it is not the evil that can endure for ever. The Son of man had to work today and tomorrow, and on the third clay he was perfected. We have to follow his example. We are trained to strength by daily conflicts. The spirit of wisdom is wrought in us by being exercised in discerning good and evil, and determining to follow that which is right, not only in preference to that which is wrong, but in absolute abhorrence of everything that is unlike the holiness of God. Let the suffering Christian be cheered and animated by the reflection, that no temptation hath happened unto him but such as is common to man.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Job 16:11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.
Ver. 11. God hath delivered me to the ungodly ] i.e. To the devil and his instruments, those Chaldean and Sabean robbers, Job 1:15 ; Job 1:17 , together with his hard hearted friends, who, for want of the true fear of God, added to his afflictions, Job 6:14 . See Trapp on “ Job 6:14 “
And turned me over, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the ungodly = an evil one. Hebrew. ‘aval. App-44.
the wicked = the lawless ones. Hebrew. rasha’. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
delivered me: Heb. shut me up, 1Sa 24:18, *marg. Psa 31:8, Rom 11:32, *marg.
to the ungodly: Job 1:13-19, Job 2:7, Psa 7:14, Joh 19:16, 2Co 12:7
turned: Psa 27:12
Reciprocal: Deu 32:30 – shut them Job 10:17 – war Job 12:14 – he shutteth Job 19:6 – God Job 19:12 – His Job 20:22 – every hand Job 40:2 – he that reproveth Jer 45:3 – added
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 16:11. God hath delivered me to the ungodly Either, 1st, To my friends, who act the part of the wicked in censuring and condemning the righteous, whom God approveth, and in pleading for a false and wicked cause. Or, rather, to the Chaldeans and Sabeans, who were a most ungodly and wicked people, living in gross contempt of God, and injurious to all sorts of men. This seems best to suit both with the first clause of the next verse, which shows that Job speaks of his first afflictions which befell him when he was at ease, and with his principal design, which was to prove that both eminent prosperity and affliction did indifferently happen both to good and bad men, which indeed was evident from this example: because holy Job was ruined at the very time when this wicked people were most victorious and successful.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
16:11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the {m} hands of the wicked.
(m) They have led me where they would.