Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 19:4

And be it indeed [that] I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.

4. In this verse Job must mean to repudiate the offences insinuated against him. The precise force of the second clause, however, is obscure. It might mean, “my error is my own and no matter for your intermeddling”; or, “I alone am conscious of it and you can know nothing regarding it,” in either case a mere passing rejection of the charges of his friends. Or, “had I indeed sinned my error would remain with myself, I should be conscious of it,” cf. ch. 9:36. Ewald’s idea that the “error” which Job alludes to is his mistaken hope of judgment and righteousness on God’s part is less suitable to the connexion.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

And be it indeed that I have erred – Admitting that I have erred, it is my own concern. You have a right to reproach and revile me in this manner.

Mine error abideth with myself – I must abide the consequences of the error. The design of this seems to be to reprove what he regarded as an improper and meddlesome interference with his concerns. Or it may be an expression of a willingness to bear all the consequences himself. He was willing to meet all the fair results of his own conduct.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 4. And be it indeed that I have erred] Suppose indeed that I have been mistaken in any thing, that in the simplicity of my heart I have gone astray, and that this matter remains with myself, (for most certainly there is no public stain on my life,) you must grant that this error, whatsoever it is, has hurt no person except myself. Why then do ye treat me as a person whose life has been a general blot, and whose example must be a public curse?

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

If my opinion in this point be faulty and erroneous, as you pretend it is. Or, if I have sinned, (for sin is oft called error in Scripture,) and am therefore punished.

Mine error remaineth with myself; either,

1. It is likely to continue, I see no cause from your reasons to change my judgment. Or,

2. I suffer deeply for my sins, and therefore deserve your pity and help, rather than your reproaches, whereby you add affliction to the afflicted.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

4.erredThe Hebrewexpresses unconscious error. Job was unconscious of wilfulsin.

remainethliterally,”passeth the night.” An image from harboring an unpleasantguest for the night. I bear the consequences.

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

And be it indeed [that] I have erred,…. Which is a concession for argument’s sake, but not an acknowledgment that he had erred; though it is possible he might have erred, and it is certain he did in some things, though not in that respect with which he was charged; “humanum est errare”, all men are subject to mistakes, good men may err; they may err in judgment, or from the truth in some respect, and be carried away for a while and to some degree with the error the wicked, though they shall be turned from it again; they may err in practice, and wander from the way of God’s commandments; and indeed their strayings and aberrations of this sort are so many, that David says, “who can understand his errors?” Ps 19:12; and they may err in words, or make a mistake in speech; but then no man should be made an offender for a word for he must be a perfect man that is free from mistakes of this kind: now Job argues that supposing this to be his case in any of the above instances; yet, says he,

mine error remaineth with myself; I only am chargeable with it, and answerable for it; it is nothing to you, and why should you trouble yourselves about it? it will not be imputed to you, nor will you suffer on account of it; or, admitting I have imbibed an error, I do not publish it abroad; I keep it to myself; it lies and lodges in my own breast, and nobody is the worse for it: or “let it remain”, or “lodge with me” k; Why should my mistakes be published abroad, and all the world be made acquainted with them? or else this expresses his resolution to abide by what his friends called an error; and then the so is, if this is an error which I have asserted, that God afflicts both good and bad men, and that afflictions are no argument of a man’s being an hypocrite and a wicked man, I am determined to continue in it; I will not give it up, I will hold it fast; it shall remain with me as a principle never to be departed from; or it may be rather his meaning is, that this notion he had imbibed would remain with him, and was likely to do so, for anything they had said, or could say to the contrary.

k “mecum maneat”, Beza; to the same sense Mercerus, Schmidt, Junius and Tremellius, Piscator, Michaelis, Schultens.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

4. Remaineth Literally, Passes the night, , with me. The busy and absorbing scenes of the day divert the mind from its errors, guilt, and wretchedness. At night, left to itself, the soul becomes the prey of thought and of the remindings of conscience. Amid the darkness, conscience asserts her supremacy, and lords it over the man. What of the man, if the night be forever protracted! An inscription on an Assyrian tablet (in the British Museum, K, No. 44) gives an invocation to the fire-god:

God of fire, with the bright fire, In the house of darkness, light thou establishest.

To the wicked in the night , the causes of trembling art thou.

The works of man, the child of his God, do thou purify.

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