Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 22:19

The righteous see [it], and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.

19. The righteous see it and are glad,

And the innocent laugh them to scorn,

20. Saying, Surely our adversaries are cut off,

And that which they have left the fire hath consumed.

The “remnant” of the wicked, or “that which they leave,” is their substance and possessions.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

19, 20. These two verses are connected together,

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The righteous see it, and are glad – see the destruction of the wicked; compare Rev 15:3; Rev 16:7; Rev 19:1-2. This is designed by Eliphaz, probably, not only to state a fact about the righteous of other times who saw the wicked punished, but, also, to vindicate his own conduct and that of his two friends in regard to Job. If the righteous of other times had rejoiced when the wicked were punished, they inferred that it was not improper for them to manifest similar rejoicings when God had overtaken one who was so signally depraved as they supposed Job to be. Their lack of sympathy for him, therefore, they would defend by a reference to the conduct of the people of other times. There is a sense in which good people rejoice when the wicked are detected and punished. It is not:

(1) that they rejoice that the sin was committed; nor

(2) that they rejoice in misery; nor

(3) that they would not rejoice more if the wicked had been righteous, and had escaped suffering altogether.

But it is the kind of joy which we have when a murderer, a robber, or a pirate is seized – when a counterfeiter is detected – when a man who prowls around the dwelling at night to murder its inmates is brought to punishment. It is joy, not that the sin was committed, but that the laws are executed; and who should not rejoice in that? We have joy in the character of an upright judge when he impartially and faithfully administers the laws; and why should we not rejoice in God when he does the same? We rejoice in the manifestation of truth and justice among people – why should we not in the exhibition of the same things in God? We rejoice in a police that can ferret out every form of iniquity, and bring offenders to justice; and why should we not rejoice in that government which is infinitely more perfect than any police ever was among people?

And the innocent laugh them to scorn – This is another way of saying that they exult or rejoice; compare Pro 1:26-27. No consideration can justify people in deriding and mocking those who are subjected to punishment; and it is by no means certain that the speaker meant to refer to such derision.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 19. The righteous see it, and are glad] They see God’s judgments on the incorrigibly wicked, and know that the Judge of all the earth does right; hence they rejoice in all the dispensations of his providence.

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

The righteous see it; whom God oft spares in common calamities, and makes them to survive and see the destruction of the wicked; as Noah, Lot, &c.

Are glad; not that they insult over or rejoice in the ruin of any men, but because they delight in the vindication of Gods honour, and justice, and holiness, which is conjoined with the destruction of his enemies, and which is and ought to be dearer to them than all the interests of men.

The innocent laugh them to scorn; they justly deride them, for their vain and yet strong confidences, which are now destroyed; and for their profane contempt of God and of his judgments, which now they feel; and for their deep and crafty counsels, which are now frustrated and turned against themselves.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

19. Triumph of the pious at thefall of the recent followers of the antediluvian sinners. While inthe act of denying that God can do them any good or harm, they arecut off by Him. Eliphaz hereby justifies himself and the friends fortheir conduct to Job: not derision of the wretched, but joy at thevindication of God’s ways (Psa 107:42;Rev 15:3; Rev 16:7;Rev 19:1; Rev 19:2).

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

The righteous see it, and are glad,…. Not the counsel of the wicked, nor their outward prosperity, but their ruin and destruction, which is sure and certain; though it may sometimes seem to linger, it is often public and visible to the view of every man, being made public examples, see Ps 91:8; and which is matter of joy and gladness to truly good and righteous men; who have the righteousness of Christ on them, his grace in them, and in consequence of that live soberly, righteously, and godly; these rejoice at the vengeance of God on wicked men, Ps 52:5; not that the misery of their fellow creatures is pleasing to them as such; this would be brutish and inhuman, as well as contrary to the grace of God, and to their character as good men, and also would be displeasing to God,

Pr 24:17; but partly because they themselves, through the grace and goodness of God, have been kept from such sins as bring to ruin and destruction; and partly because they are delivered out of the hands of these wicked men, who were distressing to them; and chiefly because of the glory of the divine perfections, particularly the holiness and justice of God displayed herein; for God is known and glorified by the judgments which he executeth, see Ps 9:16;

and the innocent laugh them to scorn; such as are upright and sincere, live holy and harmless lives and conversations, though not entirely free from sin; these deride them for their impieties, and observe to them the justness of the divine judgments upon them. The Jewish writers, many of them f, restrain these words to Noah and his sons, who saw with their eyes the flood that destroyed the world of the ungodly, and rejoiced at it, and in their turn had them in derision, who had made a mock at Noah’s building of the ark, and at his exhortations to them; but though the characters of righteous and innocent agree with Noah, who was just and perfect in his generation, yet not with all his sons; and it is best to understand this of good men in general; though it must be observed and owned, that the destruction of the wicked by the flood is before spoken of, and their character described. The word “saying” is by some supplied at the close of this verse, and so the following words are what the righteous are represented as saying, upon sight of the destruction of the wicked.

f Aben Ezra, Ben Gersom, Sephorno, et alii.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

19 The righteous see it and rejoice,

And the innocent mock at them:

20 “Verily our opponent is destroyed,

And the fire hath devoured their abundance.”

This thought corresponds to that expressed as a wish, hope, or anticipation at the close of many of the Psalms, that the retributive justice of God, though we may have to wait a long time for it, becomes at length the more gloriously manifest to the joy of those hitherto innocently persecuted, Psa 58:11. The obj. of , as in Psa 107:42, is this its manifestation. is not an ethical dative, as in Psa 80:7, but as in Psa 2:4 refers to the ungodly whose mocking pride comes to such an ignominious end. What follow in Job 22:20 are the words of the godly; the introductory is wanting, as e.g., Psa 2:3. can signify neither si non , as Job 9:24; Job 24:25; Job 31:31, nor annon , as in a disjunctive question, Job 17:2; Job 30:25; it is affirmative, as Job 1:11; Job 2:5; Job 31:36 – an Amen to God’s peremptory judgment. On (he is drawn away, put aside, become annulled), vid., supra, p. 398. (for which Aben-Ezra is also acquainted with the reading with , i.e., ) has a pausal springing from , as Job 20:27, for ; Rth 3:2, ; Isa 47:10, (together with the reading , comp. 1Ch 12:17, ). The form is remarkable; it may be more readily taken as part. pass. (like , positus) than as nom. infin. (the act of raising for those who raise themselves); perhaps the original text had ( ). is no more to be translated their remnant (Hirz.) here than in Psa 17:14, at least not in the sense of Exo 23:11; that which exceeds the necessity is intended, their surplus, their riches. It is said of Job in b. Megilla, 28 a: , he was extravagant ( prodigus) with his property. The fire devouring the wealth of the godless is an allusion to the misfortune which has befallen him.

After this terrible picture, Eliphaz turns to the exhortation of him who may be now perhaps become ripe for repentance.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

(19) The righteous see it.That is, the destruction of the wicked, as in the days of Noah.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

19. Are glad They rejoice, not in the sufferings of the wicked, but in the triumph of justice. Aristotle observes that “no good man is troubled when parricides, for instance, meet with their deserved punishment; for it is our duty to rejoice on such occasions.”

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

Job 22:19 The righteous see [it], and are glad: and the innocent laugh them to scorn.

Ver. 19. The righteous see it, and are glad ] And as or myself, the counsel of the wicked is far from me: I do therefore abominate their present prosperity, because they shall shortly be for a laughing stock to all good men; the upright shall see it and be glad, and all iniquity shall stop her mouth, as self condemned, and therefore by the saints (swallowed up with a zeal of God’s glory) rightly derided, Psa 52:9 ; Psa 58:11 .

And the innocent laugh them to scorn ] Not out of ill will, or envy, or other corrupt affection; but, 1. For the glory of God, whose power, justice, and goodness is hereby evinced and evidenced. 2. For the good of others, who stumble at the prosperity of the ungodly, or else are eased of their cruelty. 3. Add hereunto, that it is never the worse for the wicked themselves that God taketh them off. For if they be elect, they repent ere they die; as if reprobates, they are kept hereby from adding to their sin and so to their torments, which shall be proportioned thereunto. Those who understand this verse of Noah and his sons, rejoicing when they saw the rest drowned and themselves preserved, render the words thus, The righteous saw it and were glad, and the innocent laughed them to scorn. A late reverend man of God among us, in a discourse of his about the benefit of a good conscience in times of common calamity, brings in Noah and those with him in the ark, insulting over the perishing old world thus (Mr Jeremy Dyke, p. 1 83):

“Now, Jubal, let us hear one of your merry songs; pipe now, and make yourself merry, as you were wont in jibing at Noah’s folly in making a ship to sail on dry land. What ailest thou, Jubal, to howl and wring thine hands thus? Where is thy harp and organs now? Now the flood is come, now Noah is in his cabin, and the water begins to be chin deep, tell me, O Jubal, whether building of tents or building of an ark be the wiser work? Would you not give all the shoes in your shop, all the tools in your tents, all the cattle in your flocks, to be but where Noah’s dog lies? And now, sirs, you that were such men of renown, Gen 6:4 , you that were the brave gallants of the earth, now tell me who is the fool and who is the wise man now.”

Piscator takes the next verse, “Whereas” (or, though) “our substance is not cut down, but” (or yet) “the remnant of them the fire consumeth,” to be spoken in the person of Noah, whom he makes the innocent man here mentioned; and adds, saying in the beginning of the next verse: as if Noah coining out of the ark should wash his feet in the blood of those wicked; and say, God hath preserved me and mine (our sincerity hath prevailed for our safety), and in his wrath destroyed the ungodly. But I rather concur with Tremellius, and Merlin, and others, who make this verse coherent with, and preparatory to, the following famous exhortation to repentance, Job 22:21-23 , &c. Acquaint thyself now with him, and be at peace, &c. But be sure thou do it now, that is, speedily and timously.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

righteous: Psa 48:11, Psa 58:10, Psa 97:8, Psa 107:42, Pro 11:10, Rev 18:20, Rev 19:1-3

innocent: Job 9:23, Psa 52:6

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 22:19. The righteous see it Whom God often spares in common calamities, and gives them to see the destruction of the wicked; as Noah, Lot, &c. And are glad Not that they insult over, or rejoice in, the ruin of any men, but because they delight in the vindication of Gods honour, and justice, and holiness, which is connected with the destruction of his enemies, and which is, and ought to be, dearer to them than all the interests of men. And the innocent laugh them to scorn Justly deride them, for their vain and strong confidences, which are now destroyed; for their profane contempt of Gods wrath and judgments, which they now feel; and for their deep and crafty counsels, which are now frustrated and turned against themselves.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

22:19 The righteous see [it], and are glad: {n} and the innocent laugh them to scorn.

(n) The just rejoice at the destruction of the wicked for two reasons, first because God shows himself judge of the world and by this means continues his honour and glory: secondly because God shows that he had care over his in that he punished their enemies.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes