Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 24:25
And if [it be] not [so] now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?
25. Job alas! is only too sure of his facts, and conscious that he has history and experience at his back he victoriously exclaims, Who will make me a liar?
Job has gained his victory over his friends, but he has received, or rather inflicted on himself, an almost mortal wound in achieving it. He has shewn that God’s rule of the world is not just, in the sense in which the friends insisted that it was just, and in the sense in which his own moral feeling demanded that it should be just. God is not righteous, in the sense that he punishes wickedness with outward calamity and rewards the righteous with outward good. So far the three friends are defeated, and with their defeat on the general question their inferences from Job’s calamities as to his guilt fall to the ground. To this extent Job has gained a victory. But his victory, if it secures the possibility of his own innocence, leaves to his mind a God whom he believes to be unrighteous. For his view of what could be called “righteousness” in the Ruler of the world coincides entirely with the view of his friends.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar? – A challenge to anyone to prove the contrary to what he had said. Job had now attacked their main position, and had appealed to facts in defense of what he held. He maintained that, as a matter of fact, the wicked were prospered, that they often lived to old age, and that they then died a peaceful death, without any direct demonstration of the divine displeasure. He boldly appeals, now, to anyone to deny this, or to prove the contrary. The appeal was decisive. The fact was undeniable, and the controversy was closed. Bildad Job 25:1-6 attempts a brief reply, but he does not touch the question about the facts to which Job had appealed, but utters a few vague and irrelevant proverbial maxims, about the greatness of God, and is silent. His proverbs appear to be exhausted, and the theory which he and his friends had so carefully built up, and in which they had been so confident, was now overthrown. Perhaps this was one design of the Holy Spirit, in recording the argument thus far conducted, to show that the theory of the divine administration, which had been built up with so much care, and which was sustained by so many proverbial maxims, was false. The overthrow of this theory was of sufficient importance to justify this protracted argument, because:
(1) it was and is of the highest importance that correct views should prevail of the nature of the divine administration; and
(2) it is of special importance in comforting the afflicted people of God.
Job had experienced great aggravation, in his sufferings, from the position which his friends had maintained, and from the arguments which they had been able to adduce, to prove that his sufferings were proof that he was a hypocrite. But it is worth all which it has cost; all the experience of the afflicted friends of God, and all the pains taken to reveal it, to show that affliction is no certain proof of the divine displeasure, and that important ends may be accomplished by means of trial.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 25. And if it be not so now] Job has proved by examples that the righteous are often oppressed; that the wicked often triumph over the just, that the impious are always wretched even in the midst of their greatest prosperity; and he defies his friends to show one flaw in his argument, or an error in his illustration of it; and that existing facts are farther proofs of what he has advanced.
IN the preceding chapters we find Job’s friends having continual recourse to this assertion, which it is the grand object of all their discourses to prove, viz., The righteous are so distinguished in the approbation of God, that they live always in prosperity, and die in peace.
On the other hand, Job contends that the dispensations of Providence are by no means thus equal in this life; that experience shows that the righteous are often in adversity, and the wicked in power and prosperity.
Job’s friends had also endeavoured to prove that if a reported good man fell into adversity, it was a proof that his character had been mistaken, that he was an internal sinner and hypocrite; and that God, by these manifest proofs of his disapprobation, unmasked him. Hence they charged Job with hypocrisy and secret sins, because he was now suffering adversity, and that his sins must be of the most heinous nature, because his afflictions were uncommonly great. This Job repels by appeals to numerous facts where there was nothing equivocal in the character; where the bad was demonstrably bad, and yet in prosperity; and the good demonstrably good, and yet in adversity. It is strange that none of these could hit on a middle way: viz., The wicked may be in prosperity, but he is ever miserable in his soul: the righteous may be in adversity, but he is ever happy in his God. In these respects, God’s ways are always equal.
On Job 24:14, I have referred to the case of unfortunate men who, falling into adversity, madly have recourse to plunder to restore their ruined circumstances. The following anecdote is told of the justly celebrated Dr. Sharp, archbishop of York, the grandfather of that highly benevolent, useful, learned, and eminent man, Granville Sharp, Esq., with whom I had for several years the honour of a personal acquaintance.
“Never was any man, as well by the tenderness of his nature as by the impulse of religion, better disposed to succour the distressed, and relieve the necessities of the poor; to which merciful offices he had so strong an inclination that no reasonable solicitations were ever in danger of meeting with a repulse. Nay, he was more prone to seek out proper objects of his bounty, than to reject them when recommended; and so far was his charity from any suspicion of being extorted by importunity, that it appeared rather a delight than uneasiness to him to extend his liberality upon all proper occasions.”
For the same reason, a singular anecdote of the archbishop, related in the London Chronicle of Aug. 13, 1785, and always credited by his family, may be thought worth preserving.
“It was his lordship’s custom to have a saddle-horse attend his carriage, that in case of fatigue from sitting, he might take the refreshment of a ride. As he was thus going to his episcopal residence, and was got a mile or two before his carriage, a decent, well-looking young man came up with him; and, with a trembling hand and a faltering tongue presented a pistol to his lordship’s breast, and demanded his money. The archbishop, with great composure, turned about; and, looking steadfastly at him, desired he would remove that dangerous weapon, and tell him fairly his condition. ‘Sir! sir!’ with great agitation, cried the youth; ‘no words, ’tis not a time; your money instantly.’ ‘Hear me, young man,’ said the archbishop; ‘you see I am an old man, and my life is of very little consequence: yours seems far otherwise. I am named Sharp, and am archbishop of York; my carriage and servants are behind. Tell me what money you want, and who you are, and I will not injure you, but prove a friend. Here, take this; and now ingenuously tell me how much you want to make you independent of so destructive a business as you are now engaged in.’ ‘O sir,’ replied the man, ‘I detest the business as much as you. I am-but-but-at home there are creditors who will not stay – fifty pounds, my lord, indeed would do what no tongue besides my own can tell.’ ‘Well, sir, I take it on your word; and, upon my honour, if you will, in a day or two, call on me at ___, what I have now given you shall be made up that sum.’ The highwayman looked at him, was silent, and went off; and, at the time appointed, actually waited on the archbishop, and assured his lordship his words had left impressions which nothing could ever destroy.
“Nothing more transpired for a year and a half or more; when one morning a person knocked at his grace’s gate, and with peculiar earnestness desired to see him. The archbishop ordered the stranger to be brought in. He entered the room where his lordship was, but had scarce advanced a few steps before his countenance changed, his knees tottered, and he sank almost breathless on the floor. On recovering, he requested an audience in private. The apartment being cleared, ‘My lord,’ said he, ‘you cannot have forgotten the circumstances at such a time and place; gratitude will never suffer them to be obliterated from my mind. In me, my lord, you now behold that once most wretched of mankind; but now, by your inexpressible humanity, rendered equal, perhaps superior, in happiness to millions. O, my lord!’ tears for a while preventing his utterance, ”tis you, ’tis you that have saved me, body and soul; ’tis you that have saved a dear and much-loved wife, and a little brood of children, whom I tendered dearer than my life. Here are the fifty pounds; but never shall I find language to testify what I feel. Your God is your witness; your deed itself is your glory; and may heaven and all its blessings be your present and everlasting reward! I was the younger son of a wealthy man; your lordship knows him; his name was ___. My marriage alienated his affection; and my brother withdrew his love, and left me to sorrow and penury. A month since my brother died a bachelor and intestate. What was his, is become mine; and by your astonishing goodness, I am now at once the most penitent, the most grateful, and happiest of my species.'”
See Prince Hoar’s life of Granville Sharp, Esq., page 13.
I have no doubt there have been several cases of a similar kind, when the first step in delinquency was urged by necessity; but few of such wretched adventurers have met with an Archhishop Sharp. An early and pious education is the only means under God to prevent such dangerous steps, which generally lead to the most fearful catastrophe. Teach a child, that whom God loveth he chasteneth. Teach him, that God suffers men to hunger, and be in want, that he may try them if they will be faithful, and do them good in their latter end. Teach him, that he who patiently and meekly bears providential afflictions, shall be relieved and exalted in due time. Teach him, that it is no sin to die in the most abject poverty and affliction, brought on in the course of Divine providence, but that any attempts to alter his condition by robbery, knavery, cozening, and fraud, will be distinguished with heavy curses from the Almighty, and necessarily end in perdition and ruin. A child thus educated is not likely to abandon himself to unlawful courses.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If it be not so now, to wit, as I have discoursed; if God doth not suffer wicked men to live long and prosperously in the world before he punisheth them; and if good men be not sometimes sorely afflicted there, if all things do not fall alike to all men in these matters.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
25. (So Job9:24).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And if [it be] not [so] now,…. If this is not the case of men of such wicked lives as above described, do not prosper in the world, and increase in riches, and do not pass through the world with impunity, and die quietly, in the full possession of their honour and wealth:
who will make me a liar? where is the man? let him stand forth and appear, and disprove what has been said, and make out the doctrine delivered to be false doctrine, and a lie; for no lie is of the truth:
and make my speech nothing worth; vain, useless, and unprofitable; truth is valuable, like gold, silver and precious stones; but error is as wood, hay, and stubble, and nothing worth, yea, to be detested and rejected: or let him make what I have said to stand “for nothing” l; let him show, if he can, that it is impertinent, and not to the purpose, that it does not prove the point for which it is brought: thus Job was willing to have what he had said tried by every method that could be made use of, that it might appear whether what he had said was true or false, worthy to be regarded, or worthless; and he here bids defiance to his friends, or to any other, and triumphs over them, as having gained his point; and, as it appears by the sequel, he had, at least in a great measure, and however with respect to this matter, that good men are afflicted in this life, and wicked men prosper; of which there are many instances,
l “ad nihilum”, Pagninus, Montanus; so Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(25) And if it be not so now.Job also has his facts, as ready and as incontrovertible as those of his friends, and yet irreconcilable with theirs.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Job 24:25. And if it be not so now But since this is by no means the case at present, who, &c. See Houb. and Heath.
REFLECTIONS.1st. The argument in dispute is, whether the wicked were not always pursued with marks of the divine displeasure in this world. Job constantly denies the assertion.
1. He begins with an inference drawn from the close of the former chapter: Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, whose all-capacious mind comprehends in one view the past, the present, and the future, and according to whose will all events are directed; Why, if, as you assert, the wicked are always miserable, do they that know him, who are acquainted with his will and ways, and favoured with his love, not see his days of executing judgment in this life on the ungodly? which they certainly would, if, as you affirm, they were always punished here, whereas the very contrary is evident. Note; Whatever strange dispensations of Providence appear, we may be assured that God hath not forsaken the earth: he sees and orders all with infinite wisdom, and at last we shall adore, and wonder, and praise him, when we shall see his great designs laid open to our view.
2. He proves, in a variety of instances, the prosperity of the wicked; who, though the most unjust and cruel oppressors, go on with impunity. They rob men of their estates, and plunder them of their cattle. If the poor have but a single beast, they make a prey of it, and regard not the cries of the widow or fatherless: insolent and overbearing, it is dangerous but to stand in their way, and the poor are forced to hide themselves for safety. Intractable and wanton as the wild asses, they make plunder their trade, and, rising early, pursue their prey, living upon the fruits of their robbery. The corn which others sowed they reap, and gather the vintage of the wicked, devouring even one another; or the wicked gather the vintage of the just, oppressed by them. The almost naked are stripped of the few rags which covered them, and, merciless, they leave them in cold and hunger to pine and shiver on the barren mountain, or under the dreary rock. Even the fatherless babe they pluck from the breast, to sell as a slave, and take the pledge of the poor, or the poor for a pledge, seize them for debt, and make them their bondmen: they have no pity on the naked to cover them; and if he has gleaned but one sheaf of corn to satisfy his hunger, even that they violently take from him. Imprisoned within their walls, and doomed to hard servitude, the poor are compelled to make their oil, and tread their wine-presses, yet dare not quench their thirst with the juice of the grape. Under such oppression, even in the cities as well as the country, men groan without redress; and the soul of the wounded, struck and hurt for daring perhaps to complain, crieth out, but in vain; yet God layeth not folly to them, suffers all this sin of grievous rapine and cruelty, and interposes not with any distinguished judgments. Note; (1.) God takes notice of the sinner’s wickedness, though he, from his success, promises himself impunity. (2.) It is doubly cruel to injure the fatherless and widow. (3.) They are wicked and hard-hearted masters, whose servants are scarcely suffered to live by their labour; and there is a master in heaven, who will right them shortly.
2nd, Like Ezekiel’s chamber of imagery, Job goes on to describe greater abominations which pass in this world often with impunity. They are of those that rebel against the light, resist the remonstrances of conscience, and wilfully and deliberately plunge themselves into the grossest crimes; they know not the ways thereof, they refuse to know, and shun the light of truth, nor abide in the paths thereof, preferring the dark ways of wickedness before it: or, literally, the daylight is odious to them; they choose the darkness, if possible, to hide their guilty deeds. Vain attempt! while God’s eye, clearer than the sun, pierces the thickest shades, and the night to him is as bright as the day. We have,
1. Their sinsmurder, adultery, and house-breaking. Rising with the light, the murderer seizes the early traveller, and, though poor and needy, and there is little to be got from him, yet killeth him, as if thirsting for blood, and at night is as a thief, robbing whatever he can seize. The adulterer, ashamed to perpetrate his designs publicly, waiteth for the night, and still, in fear of discovery, disguiseth his face; and, tempted by the false hope of secrecy, rushes to the horrid deed. The robber, in the day, prowls in quest of prey, and, having marked the place and house, at night breaks through and steals. Note; (1.) Though blood in many instances be not discovered here, the day will come when it will cry for vengeance. (2.) However secret the adulterer’s crime be kept, his shame shall not be covered when, on the day of judgment, the mask is plucked away.
2. Though they succeed in their enterprises, they carry about them continual terror. They know not the light, dare not be seen in it, are afraid of discovery. The morning is to them as the shadow of death, so unwelcome; if one know them, guilt flashes in their faces, and dread of deserved shame and punishment seizes them; they are like men just expiring in the terrors of the shadow of death. Note; A state of wickedness is a state of trembling: however pleasurable or profitable the sin, the continual alarm, through fear of discovery, embitters all.
3rdly. We have,
1. The farther character of the wicked. He afflicts the barren with reproach, oppresses the widow, and not even the mighty are safe; so daring is he, that when he riseth up no man’s life is secure.
2. Notwithstanding all his complicated sins, it is given him to be in safety; and, instead of being affected with God’s patience, and becoming penitent, he resteth thereon, promising himself continual impunity. Yea, he is exalted; so far from undergoing any distinguished suffering, he rears his head high, and, if not beloved, is feared and obeyed. Note; Prosperity often hardens the sinner, but he is least safe when most secure. For,
3. The time of recompence will come, though not here, yet in death at least. Short lived is his joy, though it endure to the last gasp; for swift as water his days are hurrying by; and, however happy he appears, the curse of God is upon him; and when he is gone, he shall no more behold the possessions in which he gloried. His remembrance shall be blotted from his parent earth. Broken down as a tree, the worms shall feed upon his carcase in the dark: secure as he was, God’s eye still marked his winding way; and, as wicked men before him were, he shall be swept away from the earth, when the measure of his iniquities is full, as the ears of ripe corn are cut down. In the grave he shall be consumed, and there all his glory shall perish with him, as the snow is melted before the scorching sun. Note; Though vengeance be slow, it is sure: the longest period of a sinner’s reign is a few short days, a fleeting moment of life.
4. He challenges them to confute the truths that he had advanced, to prove him a liar, or invalidate his arguments; else must they quit the field, and own the prosperity of the wicked; and that not here, but hereafter, their recompence from God awaited them; and, consequently, that their judgment, who concluded him a wicked man merely because of his afflictions, was rash and censorious.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
(25) And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?
Job having finished his sermon, demands of his friends to confront it if they could. The man of Uz, it is evident all along, had his eye to himself, and their unjust censuring of him: therefore he makes from a long discourse, a short but striking application, that, if they could disprove what he had said, and show the reverse, agreeable to what they had insisted upon, that no good man was made to mourn, nor the wicked to rejoice, then his miseries might be supposed to be the result of his sins.
REFLECTIONS
WHAT a blessed resource is it, at any time, and at all times, when beholding the seeming prosperity of the wicked, and the apparent, misery of the righteous, we take shelter, not only in GOD’S sovereignty, but GOD’S justice. When we lay this down as a sure and unerring maxim, that GOD is true, let every man be false, we are enabled from thence to draw as sure a conclusion, that however unable we may be to explain what we see, or to reconcile what we behold, yet they are all easy to be explained by GOD’S right standard, and to be reconciled upon his divine principles of truth and justice. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Reader, make application of this doctrine in every difficult providence with which the LORD may be pleased to exercise you. Behold everything, and every event, as originating in his wise appointment. He cannot do iniquity. And when we are enabled to trace, in one point of view, the beautiful order that there is in all his dispensations concerning his church and people; what he hath done, what he is now doing, and what he will do: all the events thus brought into one connection; then the glory of his wisdom is made in some measure and degree to appear. Such views, as they concern ourselves in the common circumstances of life, serve to reconcile all things we behold in the apparent joy of sinners, and the seeming sorrow of saints.
But to what sublimity of thought doth the subject arise, when beheld with an eye to JESUS! The unequalled sorrows of the Son of GOD, when he tabernacled among us, and the taunts and reproaches he sustained from the ungodly, unless looked at in this point of view, would involve the mind in endless perplexity. But when I behold thee, thou blessed JESUS, as the sinners surety, sustaining the curse, being made sin, and standing forth the free-will offering of a righteous, spotless sacrifice for thy people, then, on these precious principles, I can well explain why it should have been, as it really was, that thou shouldest justly endure that wrath which was due to sin; and, having placed thyself in the sinner’s stead, to receive all that was the sinner’s due, that divine justice might be satisfied, the law of GOD magnified, and everlasting righteousness brought in, for the salvation of thy people. O sweet and glorious view of JESUS in his sufferings! Here Job, had he lived to these days, might have looked, and from hence drawn all his arguments, that GOD can be just in afflicting, as in the case of his dear Son, the righteous, and making him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might he made the righteousness of GOD in him. Precious JESUS! never, never let me lose sight of thee and thy sufferings, when anything perplexing ariseth. And when under my trifling exercises my mind is giving way, through unbelief; when all refuge fails me, and no man careth for my soul, then LORD be thou my refuge, my portion, and my hope, in the land of the living.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 24:25 And if [it be] not [so] now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?
Ver. 25. And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar? ] Quis ementietur me? Who shall disprove or confute what I have affirmed? viz. That God doth many things, the depth whereof we cannot fathom, and that he let wicked men many times spend their days in pleasure, and end them without pain. This I will abide by, and I would fain see the man, qui ausit et possit, who can and will maintain the contrary.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
who will make: Job 9:24, Job 11:2, Job 11:3, Job 15:2
Reciprocal: Job 6:25 – what doth Job 32:3 – because Job 38:2 – General 2Co 12:6 – I will 1Jo 1:10 – we make 1Jo 5:10 – hath made
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 24:25. And if it be not so now Namely, as I have discoursed; if God does not often suffer wicked men to live long and prosperously in the world, before he punishes them; and if good men be not sometimes sorely afflicted here; if all things do not fall alike to all men in these matters; and if it do not from hence follow, that I am unjustly injured and condemned: who will make me a liar? Or, as Sol. Jarchi interprets the words, Let one of you come and make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth Let them that can undertake to prove that my discourse is either false in itself, and then they prove me a liar; or foreign, and nothing to the purpose, and then they prove it frivolous and nothing worth. That, indeed, which is false is nothing worth: where there is not truth, how can there be goodness? But they that speak the words of truth and soberness, need not fear having what they say brought to the test, but can cheerfully submit it to a fair examination, as Job here submits what he had spoken.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
24:25 And if [it be] not {z} [so] now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?
(z) That is, contrary to your reasoning no man can give perfect reasons for God’s judgments, let me be reproved.