Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 21:34
How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?
34. Job feels he has refuted the theories of his friends in regard to the pretended calamities and misery of the wicked man, whether in life or death. Hence their attempts to comfort him by this line of thinking are vain.
there remaineth falsehood ] i. e. there is left (only) falsehood. When Job’s proofs to the contrary are subtracted from the answers of his friends, there is left in them only the wrongful, false disposition they shew towards him.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
How then comfort ye me in vain … – That is, how can you be qualified to give me consolation in my trials, who have such erroneous views of the government and dealings of God? True consolation could be founded only on correct views of the divine government; but such views, Job says, they had not. With their conceptions of the divine administration, they could not administer to him any real consolation. We may learn hence,
(1) That all real consolation in trial must be based on correct apprehensions of the divine character and plans. Falsehood, delusion, error, can give no permanent comfort.
(2) They whose office it is to administer consolation to the afflicted, should seek after the truth about God and his government.
They should endeavor to learn why he afflicts people, what purpose he proposes to accomplish, and what are the proper ends of trial. They should have an unwavering conviction that he is right, and should see as far as possible why he is right, before they attempt to comfort others. Their own souls should be imbued with the fullest conviction that all the ways of God are holy, and then they should go and endeavor to pour their convictions into other hearts, and make them feel so too. A minister of the gospel, who has unsettled, erroneous, or false views of the character and government of God, is poorly qualified for his station, and will be a miserable comforter to those who are in trial. Truth alone sustains the soul in affliction. Truth only can inspire confidence in God. Truth only can break the force of sorrow, and enable the sufferer to look up to God and to heaven with confidence and joy.
(The end of Part One of the Commentary on Job)
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 21:34
How then comfort ye me in vain?
False comfort
Some years ago, I met a woman in Philadelphia, who was anxious about her soul, and had been a long time in that state. I conversed with her, and endeavoured to learn her state. She told me a good many things, and finally said she knew she ought to be willing to wait on God as long as He had waited upon her. She said God had waited on her a great many years before she would give any attention to His calls, and now she believed it was her duty to wait Gods time to show mercy and convert her soul. And she said this was the instruction she had received. She must be patient, and wait Gods time, and, by and by, He would give her relief. Oh! amazing folly! Here is the sinner in rebellion. God comes with pardon in one hand, and a sword in the other, and tells the sinner to repent and receive pardon, or refuse and perish. And now here comes a minister of the Gospel, and tells the sinner to wait Gods time. Virtually, he says that God is not ready to have him repent now, and is not ready to pardon him now, and thus, in fact, throws off the blame of his impenitence upon God. Instead of pointing out the sinners guilt, in not submitting at once to God, he points out Gods insincerity in making the offer, when, in fact, He was not ready to grant the blessing. (C. G. Finney.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 34. How then comfort ye me in vain] Mr. Good translates: “How vainly then would ye make me retract!” See the note on Job 21:2. I cannot retract any thing I have said, as I have proved by fact and testimony that your positions are false and unfounded. Your pretensions to comfort me are as hollow as the arguments you bring in support of your exceptionable doctrines.
THIS chapter may be called Job’s triumph over the insinuated calumnies, and specious but false doctrines, of his opponents. The irritability of his temper no longer appears: from the time he got that glorious discovery of his Redeemer, and the JOYOUS hope of an eternal inheritance, Job 19:25, c., we find no more murmurings, nor unsanctified complainings. He is now full master of himself and reasons conclusively, because he reasons coolly. Impassioned transports no longer carry him away: his mind is serene; his heart, fixed; his hope, steady; and his faith, strong. Zophar the Naamathite is now, in his presence, as an infant in the gripe of a mighty giant. Another of these pretended friends but real enemies comes forward to renew the attack with virulent invective, malevolent insinuation, and unsupported assertion. Him, Job meets, and vanquishes by pious resignation and fervent prayer. Though, at different times after this, Job had his buffetings from his grand adversary, and some seasons of comparative darkness, yet his faith is unshaken, and he stands as a beaten anvil to the stroke. He effectually exculpates himself, and vindicates the dispensations of his Maker.
There appears to be something in the 29th verse which requires to be farther examined: Have ye not asked them that go by the way? And do ye not know their tokens? It is probable that this verse may allude to the custom of burying the dead by the way-side, and raising up specious and descriptive monuments over them. Job argues that the lot of outward prosperity fell alike to the just and to the unjust, and that the sepulchral monuments by the wayside were proofs of his assertion; for his friends, as well as himself and others, had noted them, and asked the history of such and such persons, from the nearest inhabitants of the place; and the answers, in a great variety of cases, had been: “That monument points out the place where a wicked man lies, who was all his lifetime in prosperity and affluence, yet oppressed the poor, and shut up the bowels of his compassion against the destitute; and this belongs to a man who lived only to serve his God, and to do good to man according to his power, yet had not a day of health, nor an hour of prosperity; God having given to the former his portion in this life, and reserved the recompense of the latter to a future state.”
The Septuagint render the verse thus: – , , “Inquire of those who pass by the way, and their signs [monuments] ye will not alienate.” That is, When ye hear the history of these persons, ye will not then assert that the man who lived in prosperity was a genuine worshipper of the true God, and therefore was blessed with temporal good, and that he who lived in adversity was an enemy to God and was consequently cursed with the want of secular blessings. Of the former ye will hear a different account from those who dare now speak the truth, because the prosperous oppressor is no more; And of the latter ye shall learn that, though afflicted, destitute, and distressed, he was one of those who acknowledged God in all his ways, and never performed an act of religious service to him in hope of secular gain; sought his approbation only, and met death cheerfully, in the hope of being eternally with the Lord.
Neither good nor evil can be known by the occurrences of this life. Every thing argues the certainty of a future state, and the necessity of a day of judgment. They who are in the habit of marking casualties, especially if those whom they love not are the subjects of them, as tokens of Divine displeasure, only show an ignorance of God’s dispensations, and a malevolence of mind that would fain arm itself with the celestial thunders, in order to transfix those whom they deem their enemies.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Why then do you seek to comfort me with vain hopes of recovering my prosperity if I repent, seeing your grounds are manifestly false, and common experience showeth that good men are very oft in great tribulation, while the vilest of men thrive and prosper in the world?
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
34. falsehoodliterally,”transgression.” Your boasted “consolations” (Job15:11) are contradicted by facts (“vain”); theytherefore only betray your evil intent (“wickedness”)against me.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
How then comfort ye me in vain,…. This is the conclusion Job draws from the above observations: his friends came to comfort him, and they took methods for it, as they thought, but miserable comforters were they all; what they administered for comfort was in vain, and to no purpose; nor could any be expected from them, on the plan upon which they proceeded; they suggested he was a bad man, because of his afflictions, and they exhorted him to repentance and reformation, and then promised him happiness and prosperity upon it; which could not be expected, as appeared from the face of things in Providence; since, according to the above instances and proofs, wicked men enjoy prosperity, and good men had usually a great share of adversity:
seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood; all their replies to Job were filled with these intimations and suggestions, that wicked men were only and always afflicted; or if they were at any time in prosperity, it was but for a little while; that good men were seldom or never afflicted, at least as Job was, or but a little afflicted, and for a little while: now Job had proved the contrary to all this, and therefore no consolation could be hoped for from men that held such tenets; comfort only springs from truth, and not falsehood; a man that speaks the truths, or delivers out the truths of God’s word, he speaks to comfort and edification; but he that brings nothing but error and falsehood can never be the means and instrument of true solid comfort to any. Job having thus fully proved his point, and confuted the notions of his friends, it might have been thought they would have sat down in silence, and made no further answer; but Eliphaz rises up a third time, and makes a reply, as follows.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(34) There remaineth falsehood.Or, all that is left of them is transgression, that is to say, it is not only worthless, but yet more, it is even harmful and wrong.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
34. Falsehood Malice or treachery. Having subjected their consolatory speeches to the test of reason, and having eliminated that which seemed to be truth, Job declares the residuum to be solely the perfidious or malicious disposition by which they have been actuated. Comp. Job 21:27.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
REFLECTIONS
READER! let us pause over the perusal of this chapter, and, for the moment, drop the recollection of both Job and his friends, to bring the subject itself a little nearer home, as it concerns the same circumstances here described in the present day in which we dwell.
If we look at human life as it appears in the great mass of men, what a confused state of affairs it seems! In the bulk, no doubt, as to outward things, the ungodly and the despisers of GOD are the most prosperous. They are as Job hath here described them. Hence if we allowed ourselves to reason from outside show, we should frequently pronounce the sinner happy, and the saint miserable. But what an erroneous calculation should we then make! To form a proper estimate even of the real enjoyment of prosperous circumstances, we must look within as well as without. We must follow the great man, or the rich man, into his retirement. We must see him according to what he feels and what he confesses, and not by what the world have concluded concerning his real happiness. And if we were to do this, we should discover many an aching heart in a fine house; and many a miserable man, who to the world looks gay and smiling. So that even in respect to the happiness of this life, the prosperous sinner hath not the best of it. And uniformly is it found, that they who follow the world, as well as they who follow CHRIST, must and do take up a cross; and sometimes a very heavy galling cross to such it is.
But whatever be the enjoyments of the sinner here, what can be the frothy unsatisfying pleasures of the whole carnal world, compared with that glory which shall be revealed? Oh! precious JESUS! in the recollection of thee and of thy presence, how doth everything sink to nothing in the view of the soul. Truly hast thou promised that, in this life, they that love thee shall inherit substance, and that thou wilt fill all their treasures. And solid, satisfying, and substantial, all thy mercies are. But who shall describe, or what heart shall conceive, the nature, the extent, the durableness, the vast joys which thou hast laid up for, and which thou art thyself to impart to, thy redeemed in glory! LORD! let a conviction of them continually warm my soul, and animate my heart; and do thou enable me, oh! thou bountiful LORD! so to pursue thee, in all the paths of grace here below, that I may at length attain to that glory which shall be revealed; to the everlasting enjoyment of the presence of GOD and the LAMB, and those unspeakable felicities which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man to conceive, but which are at thy right hand forevermore.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 21:34 How then comfort ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?
Ver. 34. How then comfort ye me in vain ] Since ye apply nothing rightly to me, nor affirm nothing rightly of me, but, instead of comforting me, which you came for, ye trouble me. And such are all those consolatiunculae, creaturulae (as Luther finely phraseth it), petty creature comforts, waterish and empty businesses; an unsubstantial substance, as one saith of the bulrush.
Seeing in your answers remaineth falsehood?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
falsehood = perverseness. Hebrew. ma’al. App-44.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
comfort: Job 16:2
seeing: Job 13:4, Job 32:3, Job 42:7
falsehood: Heb. transgression
Reciprocal: Job 6:25 – what doth Job 36:4 – my Dan 5:10 – let not Zec 10:2 – they comfort
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 21:34. How then comfort ye me in vain? See then how ill you discharge the office of comforters, whose arguments have so little truth in them. Or, Why do you seek to comfort me with vain hopes of recovering my prosperity if I repent, seeing your grounds are manifestly false, and common experience shows, what also every body can tell you, that good men are very often in great tribulation, while the vilest of men thrive and prosper in the world.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
21:34 How then comfort {u} ye me in vain, seeing in your answers there remaineth falsehood?
(u) Saying that the just in this world have prosperity and the wicked adversity.