Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 27:1
Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Job continued – Margin, as in Hebrew added to take up. Probably he had paused for Zophar to reply, but since he said nothing he now resumed his argument.
His parable – A parable properly denotes a comparison of one thing with another, or a fable or allegorical representation from which moral instruction is derived. It was a favorite mode of conveying truth in the East, and indeed is found in all countries; see the notes at Mat 13:3. It is evident, however, that Job did not deliver his sentiments in this manner; and the word rendered parable here ( mashal) means, as it often does, a sententious discourse or argument. The word is used in the Scriptures to denote a parable, properly so called; then a sententious saying; an apothegm; a proverb; or a poem or song; see the notes at Isa 14:4. It is rendered here by the Vulgate, parabolam; by the Septuagint, prooimio – Job spake by preface; Luther, fuhr fort – Job continued; Noyes, discourse; Good, high argument. The meaning is, that Job continued his discourse; but there is in the word a reference to the kind of discourse which he employed, as being sententious and apothegmatical.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Job 27:1-10
Moreover Job continued his parable.
Points in Jobs parable
I. A solemn asseveration. As God liveth. The words imply a belief–
1. In the reality of the Divine existence. Whilst some deny this fact, the bulk of the race practically ignore it.
2. In the awfulness of the Divine existence. There is a sublime awfulness in the words, As God liveth.
3. In the severity of the Divine existence. Who hath taken away my judgment, and the Almighty who hath vexed my soul. As nature has winter as well as summer, so God has a severe as well as a benign aspect.
4. In the nearness of the Divine existence. The spirit of God is in my nostrils. His breath is my life.
II. A noble determination. My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me; my righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. What does he determine?
1. Never to swerve from rectitude. Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me; my righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go. Whatever happens to me, I will not play the false, I will not be insincere. No one can rob me of my integrity.
2. Never to vindicate wickedness. Job has so many times alluded to the prosperity of the wicked that he is apprehensive he may be suspected of envying their lot, and wishing to be in their place. Great is the tendency of some men to vindicate wickedness in connection with wealth and worldly power.
III. A weighty reflection. What is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? The writer reflects here upon the wicked men of wealth, and he concludes–
1. That in death they will have no hope.
2. That in trouble they will have no answer to their prayers or delight in God. Conclusion–
(1) The greatest reality outside of us. What is that? God. All else is shadow.
(2) The greatest worth inside of us. What is that? Virtue, or what is here called integrity, righteousness. (Homilist.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER XXVII
Job strongly asserts his innocence; determines to maintain
it, and to avoid every evil way, 1-7.
Shows his abhorrence of the hypocrite by describing his
infamous character, accumulated miseries, and wretched end,
8-23.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXVII
Verse 1. Continued his parable] After having delivered the preceding discourse, Job appears to have paused to see if any of his friends chose to make any reply; but finding them all silent, he resumed his discourse, which is here called meshalo, his parable, his authoritative weighty discourse; from mashal, to exercise rule, authority, dominion, or power. – Parkhurst. And it must be granted that in this speech he assumes great boldness, exhibits his own unsullied character, and treats his friends with little ceremony.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
When he had waited a while to hear what his friends would reply, and perceived them to be silent. His parable; his grave and weighty, but withal dark and difficult, discourse, such as are oft called parables, as Num 23:7; 24:3-15; Psa 49:4; 88:2; Pro 26:7.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. parableapplied in the Eastto a figurative sententious embodiment of wisdom in poetic form, agnome (Ps 49:4).
continuedproceeded toput forth; implying elevation of discourse.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Moreover Job continued his parable,…. Having finished his discourse concerning the worlds and ways of God, and the display of his majesty, power, and glory, in them, he pauses awhile, waiting for Zophar, whose turn was next to rise up, and make a reply to him; but neither he, nor any of his friends, reassumed the debate, but kept a profound silence, and chose not to carry on the dispute any further with him; either concluding him to be an obstinate man, not open to conviction, and on whom no impressions could be made, and that it was all lost time and labour to use any argument with him; or else being convicted in their minds that he was in the right, and they in the wrong, though they did not choose to own it; and especially being surprised with what he had last said concerning God and his works, whereby they perceived he had great knowledge of divine things, and could not be the man they had suspected him to be from his afflictions: however, though they are silent, Job was not, “he added to take or lift up his parable” a, as the words may be rendered; or his oration, as Mr. Broughton, his discourse; which, because it consisted of choice and principal things, which command regard and attention, of wise, grave, serious, and sententious sayings, and some of them such as not easy to be understood, being delivered in similes and figurative expressions, as particularly in the following chapter, it is called his parable; what are called parables being proverbial phrases, dark sayings, allegorical or metaphorical expressions, and the like; and which way of speaking Job is here said to take, “and lift up”, which is an eastern phraseology, as appears from Balaam’s use of it, Nu 23:7; and may signify, that he delivered the following oration with great freedom, boldness, and confidence, and with a high tone and loud voice; to all which he might be induced by observing, through the silence of his friends, that he had got the advantage of them, and had carried his point, and had brought them to conviction or confusion, or however to silence, which gave him heart and spirit to proceed on with his oration, which he added to his former discourse:
and said; as follows.
a “et addidit assumere suam parabolam”, Pagninus, Montanus.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1 Then Job continued to take up his proverb, and said:
2 As God liveth, who hath deprived me of my right,
And the Almighty, who hath sorely saddened my soul –
3 For still all my breath is in me,
And the breath of Eloah in my nostrils –
4 My lips do not speak what is false,
And my tongue uttereth not deceit!
5 Far be it from me, to grant that you are in the right:
Till I die I will not remove my innocence from me.
6 My righteousness I hold fast, and let it not go:
My heart reproacheth not any of my days.
7 Mine enemy must appear as an evil-doer,
And he who riseth up against me as unrighteous.
The friends are silent, Job remains master of the discourse, and his continued speech is introduced as a continued (after the analogy of the phrase ), as in Num 23:7 and further on, the oracles of Balaam. is speech of a more elevated tone and more figurative character; here, as frequently, the unaffected outgrowth of an elevated solemn mood. The introduction of the ultimatum, as , reminds one of “the proverb ( el – methel ) seals it” in the mouth of the Arab, since in common life it is customary to use a pithy saying as the final proof at the conclusion of a speech.
Job begins with an asseveration of his truthfulness (i.e., the agreement of his confession with his consciousness) by the life of God. From this oath, which in the form bi – hajat allah has become later on a common formula of assurance, R. Joshua, in his tractate Sota, infers that Job served God from love to Him, for we only swear by the life of that which we honour and love; it is more natural to conclude that the God by whom on the one hand, he believes himself to be so unjustly treated, still appears to him, on the other hand, to be the highest manifestation of truth. The interjectional clause: living is God! is equivalent to, as true as God liveth. That which is affirmed is not what immediately follows: He has set aside my right, and the Almighty has sorely grieved my soul (Raschi); but and are attributive clauses, by which what is denied in the form of an oath introduced by (as Gen 42:15; 1Sa 14:45; 2Sa 11:11, Ges. 155, 2, f) is contained in Job 27:4; his special reference to the false semblance of an evil-doer shows that semblance which suffering casts upon him, but which he constantly repudiates as surely not lying, as that God liveth. Among moderns, Schlottm. (comp. Ges. 150, 3), like most of the old expositors, translates: so long as my breath is in me,…my lips shall speak no wrong, so that Job 27:3 and Job 27:4 together contain what is affirmed. By (1) indeed sometimes introduces that which shall happen as affirmed by oath, Jer 22:5; Jer 49:13; but here that which shall not take place is affirmed, which would be introduced first in a general form by explic. s. recitativum , then according to its special negative contents by , – a construction which is perhaps possible according to syntax, but it is nevertheless perplexing; (2) it may perhaps be thought that “the whole continuance of my breath in me” is conceived as accusative and adverbial, and is equivalent to, so long as my breath may remain in me ( , as long as ever, like the Arab. cullama , as often as ever); but the usage of the language does not favour this explanation, for 2Sa 1:9, , signifies my whole soul (my full life) is still in me; and we have a third instance of this prominently placed per hypallagen in Hos 14:3, , omnem auferas iniquitatem , Ew. 289, a (comp. Ges. 114, rem. 1). Accordingly, with Ew., Hirz., Hahn, and most modern expositors, we take Job 27:3 as a parenthetical confirmatory clause, by which Job gives the ground of his solemn affirmation that he is still in possession of his full consciousness, and cannot help feeling and expressing the contradiction between his lot of suffering, which brand shim as an evil-doer, and his moral integrity. The which precedes the signifies, according to the prevailing usage of the language, the intellectual, and therefore self-conscious, soul of man ( Psychol. S. 76f.). This is in man and in his nostrils, inasmuch as the breath which passes in and out by these is the outward and visible form of its being, which is in every respect the condition of life ( ib. S. 82f.). The suff. of is unaccented; on account of the word which follows being a monosyllable, the tone has retreated ( , to use a technical grammatical expression), as e.g., also in Job 19:25; Job 20:2; Psa 22:20. Because he lives, and, living, cannot deny his own existence, he swears that his own testimony, which is suspected by the friends, and on account of which they charge him with falsehood, is perfect truth.
Job 27:4 is not to be translated: “my lips shall never speak what is false;” for it is not a resolve which Job thus strongly makes, after the manner of a vow, but the agreement of his confession, which he has now so frequently made, and which remains unalterable, with the abiding fact. Far be from me – he continues in Job 27:5 – to admit that you are right ( with unaccented ah, not of the fem., comp. Job 34:10, but of direction: for a profanation to me, i.e., let it be profane to me, Ew. 329, a, Arab. hasha li , in the like sense); until I expire (prop.: sink together), I will not put my innocence ( , perfection, in the sense of purity of character) away from me, i.e., I will not cease from asserting it. I will hold fast (as ever) my righteousness, and leave it not, i.e., let it not go or fall away; my heart does not reproach even one of my days. is virtually an obj. in a partitive sense: mon coeur ne me reproche pas un seul de mes jours (Renan). The heart is used here as the seat of the conscience, which is the knowledge possessed by the heart, by which it excuses or accuses a man ( Psychol. S. 134); (whence , the season in which the fruits are gathered) signifies carpere , to pluck = to pinch, lash, inveigh against. Jos. Kimchi and Ralbag explain: my heart draws not back) from the confession of my innocence) my whole life long (as Maimonides explains , Lev 19:20, of the female slave who is inclined to, i.e., stands near to, the position of a free woman), by comparison with the Arabic inharafa , deflectere ; it is not, however, Arab. hrf , but chrf , decerpere , that is to be compared in the tropical sense of the prevailing usage of the Hebrew specified. The old expositors were all misled by the misunderstood partitive , which they translated ex (= inde a ) diebus meis . There is in Job 27:7 no ground for taking , with Hahn, as a strong affirmative, as supposed in Job 18:12, and not as expressive of desire; but the meaning is not: let my opponents be evil-doers, I at least am not one (Hirz.). The voluntative expresses far more emotion: the relation must be reversed; he who will brand me as an evil-doer, must by that very act brand himself as such, inasmuch as the of a really shows himself to be a , and by recklessly judging the righteous, is bringing down upon himself a like well-merited judgment. The is the so-called Caph veritatis, since , instar , signifies not only similarity, but also quality. Instead of , the less manageable, primitive form, which the poet used in Job 22:20 (comp. p. 483), and beside which ( , 2Ki 16:7) does not occur in the book, we here find the more usual form (comp. Job 20:27).
(Note: In Beduin the enemy is called qomani (vid., supra, on Job 24:12, p. 505), a denominative from qom , Arab. qawm , war, feud; but qm has also the signification of a collective of qomani , and one can also say: entum wa – ijana qom , you and we are enemies, and benatna qom , there is war between us. – Wetzst.)
The description of the misfortune of the ungodly which now follows, beginning with , requires no connecting thought, as for instance: My enemy must be accounted as ungodly, on account of his hostility; I abhor ungodliness, for, etc.; but that he who regards him as a is himself a , Job shows from the fact of the having no hope in death, whilst, when dying, he can give no confident hope of a divine vindication of his innocence.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Job’s Protestation of His Sincerity. | B. C. 1520. |
1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said, 2 As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; 3 All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; 4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. 5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. 6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job’s discourse here is called a parable (mashal), the title of Solomon’s proverbs, because it was grave and weighty, and very instructive, and he spoke as one having authority. It comes from a word that signifies to rule, or have dominion; and some think it intimates that Job now triumphed over his opponents, and spoke as one that had baffled them. We say of an excellent preacher that he knows how dominari in concionibus–to command his hearers. Job did so here. A long strife there had been between Job and his friends; they seemed disposed to have the matter compromised; and therefore, since an oath for confirmation is an end of strife (Heb. vi. 16), Job here backs all he had said in maintenance of his own integrity with a solemn oath, to silence contradiction, and take the blame entirely upon himself if he prevaricated. Observe,
I. The form of his oath (v. 2): As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment. Here, 1. He speaks highly of God, in calling him the living God (which means everliving, the eternal God, that has life in himself) and in appealing to him as the sole and sovereign Judge. We can swear by no greater, and it is an affront to him to swear by any other. 2. Yet he speaks hardly of him, and unbecomingly, in saying that he had taken away his judgment (that is, refused to do him justice in this controversy and to appear in defence of him), and that by continuing his troubles, on which his friends grounded their censures of him, he had taken from him the opportunity he hoped ere now to have of clearing himself. Elihu reproved him for this word (ch. xxxiv. 5); for God is righteous in all his ways, and takes away no man’s judgment. But see how apt we are to despair of favour if it be not shown us immediately, so poor-spirited are we and so soon weary of waiting God’s time. He also charges it upon God that he had vexed his soul, had not only not appeared for him, but had appeared against him, and, by laying such grievous afflictions upon him had quite embittered his life to him and all the comforts of it. We, by our impatience, vex our own souls and then complain of God that he has vexed them. Yet see Job’s confidence in the goodness both of his cause and of his God, that though God seemed to be angry with him, and to act against him for the present, yet he could cheerfully commit his cause to him.
II. The matter of his oath, Job 27:3; Job 27:4. 1. That he would not speak wickedness, nor utter deceit–that, in general, he would never allow himself in the way of lying, that, as in this debate he had all along spoken as he thought, so he would never wrong his conscience by speaking otherwise; he would never maintain any doctrine, nor assert any matter of fact, but what he believed to be true; nor would he deny the truth, how much soever it might make against him: and, whereas his friends charged him with being a hypocrite, he was ready to answer, upon oath, to all their interrogatories, if called to do so. On the one hand he would not, for all the world, deny the charge if he knew himself guilty, but would declare the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and take to himself the shame of his hypocrisy. On the other hand, since he was conscious to himself of his integrity, and that he was not such a man as his friends represented him, he would never betray his integrity, nor charge himself with that which he was innocent of. He would not be brought, no, not by the rack of their unjust censures, falsely to accuse himself. If we must not bear false witness against our neighbour, then not against ourselves. 2. That he would adhere to this resolution as long as he lived (v. 3): All the while my breath is in me. Our resolutions against sin should be thus constant, resolutions for life. In things doubtful and indifferent, it is not safe to be thus peremptory. We know not what reason we may see to change our mind: God may reveal to us that which we now are not aware of. But in so plain a thing as this we cannot be too positive that we will never speak wickedness. Something of a reason for his resolution is here implied–that our breath will not be always in us. We must shortly breathe our last, and therefore, while our breath is in us, we must never breathe wickedness and deceit, nor allow ourselves to say or do any thing which will make against us when our breath shall depart. The breath in us is called the spirit of God, because he breathed it into us; and this is another reason why we must not speak wickedness. It is God that gives us life and breath, and therefore, while we have breath, we must praise him.
III. The explication of his oath (Job 27:5; Job 27:6): “God forbid that I should justify you in your uncharitable censures of me, by owning myself a hypocrite: no, until I die I will not remove my integrity from me; my righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go.” 1. He would always be an honest man, would hold fast his integrity, and not curse God, as Satan, by his wife, urged him to do, ch. ii. 9. Job here thinks of dying, and of getting ready for death, and therefore resolves never to part with his religion, though he had lost all he had in the world. Note, The best preparative for death is perseverance to death in our integrity. “Until I die,” that is, “though I die by this affliction, I will not thereby be put out of conceit with my God and my religion. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” 2. He would always stand to it that he was an honest man; he would not remove, he would not part with, the conscience, and comfort, and credit of his integrity; he was resolved to defend it to the last. “God knows, and my own heart knows, that I always meant well, and did not allow myself in the omission of any known duty or the commission of any known sin. This is my rejoicing, and no man shall rob me of it; I will never lie against my right.” It has often been the lot of upright men to be censured and condemned as hypocrites; but it well becomes them to bear up boldly against such censures, and not to be discouraged by them nor think the worse of themselves for them; as the apostle (Heb. xiii. 18): We have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly.
| Hic murus aheneus esto, nil conscire sibi. Be this thy brazen bulwark of defence, Still to preserve thy conscious innocence. |
Job complained much of the reproaches of his friends; but (says he) my heart shall not reproach me, that is, “I will never give my heart cause to reproach me, but will keep a conscience void of offence; and, while I do so, I will not give my heart leave to reproach me.” Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifies. To resolve that our hearts shall not reproach us when we give them cause to do so is to affront God, whose deputy conscience is, and to wrong ourselves; for it is a good thing, when a man has sinned, to have a heart within him to smite him for it, 2 Sam. xxiv. 10. But to resolve that our hearts shall not reproach us while we still hold fast our integrity is to baffle the designs of the evil spirit (who tempts good Christians to question their adoption, If thou be the Son of God) and to concur with the operations of the good Spirit, who witnesses to their adoption.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JOB – CHAPTER 27
Verses 1-23:
Verses 1, 2 state that Job proceeded to take up his parable. It was Zophar’s turn to speak; but as he and the other two were silent, virtually conceding defeat, after a pause, Job proceeded to lift up or elevate his discourse, Job 34:4. Job asserts that as God liveth (lives on, without cessation) it was He who had taken away Job’s judgment, foreshadowing that of Jesus Christ as yet set forth, 1Sa 20:3; Isa 53:8; Act 8:33. He too declared that the Lord had “vexed his soul,” or made him bitter, by permitting Satan to smite him with loss of his family, his property, his health, and his wife who turned against him, Rth 2:20; Job 2:6-10.
Verses 3, 4 pledge, however, that as long as breath is in him, the spirit of God is in his nostrils, he would not speak wickedly, nor permit his tongue to utter deceit. In spite of his trials he did not grow bitter, by permitting Satan to smite him with loss of his family, his property, his health, and his wife who turned against him, Rth 2:20; Job 2:6-10.
Verses 3, 4 pledges, however, that as long as breath is in him, and the spirit of God is in his nostrils, he would not speak wickedly, nor permit his tongue to utter deceit. In spite of his trials he did not grow bitter against God; to admit guilt, against the witness of his conscience, would be deceitful, a thing he resolved he would not do, Job 6:28; Job 6:30.
Verse 5 is a direct address to his accusing friends. He said that God forbid him to justify his friend’s views of his guilt, to accept their charges against him, in his innocence, would be to give up his integrity. It was a thing he certified to them that he would not do, Job 13:15.
Verse 6 recounts Job’s vow at this moment, to hold fast to his rightousness as long as he lived, Job 2:3. He asserted that he would so live in his trials that his heart or conscience would not reproach or taunt him as long as he lived, a noble resolve, Act 24:16.
Verse 7 pleads for the Lord to let Job’s enemy become as wicked, even those who rose up against him as the unrighteous, to be judged for their words and deeds of wickedness, Mat 12:36; Ecc 12:13-14.
Verse 8 Inquires just what hope has an hypocrite, without regards to his gain, when his life has been taken away or cut off? When his soul departs to give account to his Maker, what gain has he then? Psa 104:29; Dan 7:15; 2Pe 1:14. Job’s calling on God, in spite of all his loss, trials, and suffering shows that he is no hypocrite, as Bildad and Zophar had charged him to be, Job 8:13; Job 20:5. See also Mat 16:28; Luk 12:20.
Verse 9 inquires further, “will God hear his cry (as an hypocrite) when trouble comes upon him?” Of course David wrote, “if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me,” Psa 66:18. See also Job 35:12; Psa 18:41; Psa 109:7; Pro 1:28; Jer 14:12; Ezr 8:18; Mic 3:4; Jas 4:3.
Verse 10 presses the question, “will he, the hypocrite, delight himself in the Almighty? Will he call on God? Will he pray to Him in times of calamities, facing death as well in times of prosperity, as I have done?” Job asks his accusers, Job 19:25; Therefore, I can not be an hypocrites, Job contends, Job 20:5; Job 22:26; Psa 62:8.
Verses 11, 12 recount Job’s assurance to his super-wise feigned friends that he would teach them by the hand of the Lord, not withholding or concealing what was in harmony with the Almighty, regarding why the righteous suffer. He then assured them that each of them had seen this, but was too slow to grasp the truth: 1) Some suffer for their own sins; 2) Some suffer because of the sins of others; and 3) Some suffer simply that the Lord may be glorified in their testing, Joh 9:2-3; Joh 11:4; 1Pe 4:12-16.
Verses 13, 14 describe the portion of the willful wicked one, who deliberately sins against God, to bring punishment of the Laws of nature, natural laws, upon himself and his heritage or posterity, Exo 20:4-5; Gal 6:7-8. If his children be multiplied, be many, it is for the sword; Even his offspring will not be satisfied with good, Ezr 9:10; Hos 9:13-14; Jer 18:21. But all human suffering is not evidence of such personal wickedness. This, Job’s friends did not recognize!
Verse 15 adds that those who remain of his family will be buried in death, and his widows shall not weep, shall have no more children over which to weep, Psa 78:64; Jer 15:2; Jer 22:18; Rev 6:8.
Verses 16, 17 declare that though the wicked heap up or accumulate silver as the dust and prepare raiment as the clay hill, he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on or wear it. And the innocent shall divide the silver one day. The clay is an image of multitudes, Zec 9:3; And many changes of garments is a chief source of wealth in the East, Pro 13:22; Pro 28:8; Ecc 2:16.
Verses 18, 19 state that the wicked, wealthy, hypocrite builds his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper makes. It is a temporary dwelling, subject to sudden destruction at any moment, La 2:6. He lies down in death but he shall not be gathered, given an honorable burial. He lies down to rest no more. His ease is over and torments are at hand, Num 20:26; Jer 8:2; Mat 3:12; Mat 23:37; Heb 9:27.
Verses 20, 21 state that terror or horror takes hold of the prosperous wicked in the throes of death, like a rapid, violent flood, and he is swept away from his wealth like a tempest in the night, unexpectedly and unprepared, Job 18:11; Isa 8:7-8; Jer 47:2. The east wind takes him in life’s departure, as a storm, hurling him out of his place, to which he may not return, Psa 58:9.
Verses 22, 23 conclude that God will cast thunderbolts of judgment upon him, and will not spare; Though the wicked would long to flee out of His hand, as the rich man in hell desired escape from his torments, Luk 16:19-31; Job 16:13; Psa 7:12-13. It is declared that men shall clap their hands and hiss at his death and downfall as a thieving wealthy hypocrite, La 2:15; Nah 3:19. Job alludes to the words of Bildad, Job 18:18; Jer 15:9. See also Exo 14:25; Jdg 4:17; Isa 10:3; Amo 2:14.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
JOBS REPLY TO THE FRIENDS IN GENERAL
Job now alone in the field. Zophar, who should have followed Bildad, and to whom Job had given opportunity to speak, has apparently nothing to say. Job, therefore, after a pause, resumes his discourse, but in a different tone. Speaks more calmly, and even more solemnly. Declares, even with an appeal to the Almighty, that, notwithstanding all he still suffers at the hand of God, and however God seems to treat him as a guilty person, he is resolved, as a sincere and upright man, to maintain the integrity of his past life, and not, for the sake of bettering his condition, as his friends would persuade him, admit hypocritically the justice of their reasoning and of their charges against him. Declares His utter abhorrence of all ungodliness, oppression, and hypocrisy, and maintains, along with the friends, that however wickedness may appear for a time to prosper, it is certain, sooner or later, to end in misery and ruin.
Job represented (Job. 27:1) as again taking up his parable, or proverba weighty, sententious discourse or saying, such as uttered by sages and prophets (Num. 23:7; Num. 24:3-15; Psa. 49:4; Psa. 78:2; Pro. 1:16; Pro. 26:7). In the New Testament used in the sense of extended similitude. The latter part of the chapter, from Job. 27:11 to the end, from its connection and position, one of the most perplexing portions of the book.
I. Jobs resolution to maintain his innocence. Job. 27:2.As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment (has for some mysterious purpose, dealt with me contrary to the justice of my cause and the uprightness of my character, and who still refrains from declaring my innocence, or affording me an opportunity of pleading my cause before Him), and the Almighty who hath vexed (or embittered) my soul (with such severe afflictions); all the while my breath is in me, and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils (so long as I have life continued to me; apparent allusion to Gen. 2:7), my lips shall not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit (in falsely and contrary to my conscience admitting myself to have been a secret and guilty transgressor). God forbid that I should justify you (in your erroneous reasoning, and your consequent charges against me, by acknowledging myself a wicked man); my heart shall not reproach me, so long as I live (or, doth not and shall not reproach me for any of my days, as having at any time lived in the practice of secret ungodliness, or for now denying the truth concerning myself).
Job now speaks as victor in the controversy. More solemnly than ever declares his purpose to maintain his innocence, notwithstanding his present treatment. Gives his asseveration the form of an oathAs God liveth. Here, therefore, the controversy proper between him and his three friends takes end. Lawful in certain circumstances to appeal to God for the truth of what we affirm, and to confirm a holy righteous resolution by a solemn oath. So Luther, at the Diet of Worms: Here I stand; I can do nothing else; so God help me. An oath for confirmation is an end of all strife.
Job an illustrious example of a man suffering innocently, yet resolutely refusing to utter a single word contrary to his conscience. Thus confirms the testimony given of him by God Himself. Satan thus defeated and shown to be a lying slanderer in asserting that, if only sufficiently afflicted, Job would renounce his religionwould curse God to his face. Job thus eminently belonging to the noble army of martyrs. Would rather still underlie the false accusations of his friends, and suffer as an apparently wicked man the severities of his present distressing condition, than speak or act contrary to the dictates of his conscience, or deny what he knew to be true. Observe
1. A truly good man will be driven by no sufferings, threatened or endured, absolutely to renounce his religion. Through the weakness of the flesh, extreme torture may force out a recantation, which by the strength of grace will speedily be withdrawn. Cranmer an exampleholding over the flames the hand that signed the recantation, and exclaiming: That unworthy hand! Torture me if you will; but whatever the weakness of my nature may force me in my suffering to confess contrary to the truth of Christ, I will recall as soon as the torture is withdrawn.An Early Female Martyr to her Persecutors. The spirit of the martyrs expressed in the language of the three godly youths in Babylon (Dan. 3:16-18).
2. The part of true piety to wait Gods own time for declaring our innocence, and to take no hasty measures for clearing our character or avoiding suffering and reproach. Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Commit thy way to the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass; and he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day (Psa. 37:5-8).
3. Lawful in certain circumstances strongly to declare the sincerity of our character and the integrity of our life. So Paul before the Sanhedrim: Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day (Act. 23:1). Our own uprightness to be maintained on such occasions, as due
(1) To God.
(2) To our neighbour.
(3) To ourselves. Our own righteousness of life valuable
(1) As a fruit of Divine grace and the work of Gods Spirit in our hearts.
(2) As the evidence of our reconciliation and sonship to God.
(3) As an example to our fellow-men. Worthless as the ground of our justification before God. A twofold righteousness belonging to the believeran imputed, and an inherent or personal one. The latter to be maintained for our justification before men; the former for our justification before God; viz., the righteousness of the man Christ Jesus, our Head and Representative, the Lord our righteousness (Isa. 45:24-25; Jer. 23:6; Act. 13:39; Rom. 3:20-24). Imputed righteousness to be held fast by a steadfast faith; personal righteousness by holy resolution, dependence on Divine grace, and, if need be, a fearless declaration.
4. Believers so to live that their hearts may not condemn them. If our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God (1Jn. 3:21).
5. Job in his suffering from false charges, and in the maintenance of his integrity under them, a type of the Messiah (Isa. 53:8; Act. 8:33; Isa. 50:5-9).
II. Declares his abhorrence of ungodliness, and his assurance of being one day justified. Job. 27:7.Let mine enemy be as the wicked (or mine enemy shall be &c.), and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous. May be viewed either as in the form of a wish or of a declaration. As the formerstrongly expresses his abhorrence of ungodliness. A godless character the worst thing he could wish to his enemy. Thus a form of the assertion of his integrity, without implying any evil wish against his enemies. As the latterexpresses the conviction that the day would come when those who now opposed him would appear to be the guilty party. This conviction ultimately realized, ch. Job. 42:7-8. Observe
1. Abhorrence of ungodliness to be deeply cherished, and on all due occasions to be boldly declared.
2. Sin to be regarded and avoided as the greatest evil, both to ourselves and others.
3. Certain that Gods faithful servants will not always underlie false charges (Isa. 66:5; Rev. 3:9). A day at hand when all shall be brought out in their blacks and whites.S. Rutherford.
4. A good man to be careful that his enemies are only the ungodly. A faithful follower of Jesus likely, sooner or later, to have the ungodly for his enemies and calumniators. A woe pronounced on the disciples when all men shall speak well of them; a blessing, when men shall revile them, and speak all manner of evil against them, falsely, for their Masters sake. Christ Himself hated by the world, because He testified of it that its deeds are evil. His followers to imitate His example and partake of His experience (Joh. 7:7; Joh. 15:18-21; Mat. 10:24-25).
III. Gives his reasons for his abhorrence of ungodliness and hypocrisy, as well as a proof that his was not such a character (Job. 27:8-10 Four things not found in a hypocrite or godless person, but which Job possessed
(1) A good hope.
(2) A hearing with God.
(3) A holy joy in God Himself.
(4) A heart always to pray.
1. The hope of the ungodly, however prosperous in this world, doomed to disappointment. Job. 27:8.For what is the hope of the hypocrite (or godless person), though he have gained (or, when God cuts him off, as in ch. Job. 6:9; Isa. 38:12), when God takes away (or draws forth) his soul? The hope of the prosperous hypocrite doomed to perish. Riches profit not in the day of wrath. The sinner may live to do evil a hundred times, but must, if impenitent, perish in the end. The rich fool in the Gospel cut off in the midst of his prosperity, and in the height of his hope. Dives taken from his sumptuous table, to cry in hell for a drop of water to cool his tongue. The Saviours problem for a worldly man,What shall a man be profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? (Mat. 16:26). Solons maxim not far from the truth,Call no man happy till his death. Observe
(1) Our course of life to be constantly viewed in the light of eternity and a dying bed.
Thrones will then be toys,
And earth and skies seem dust upon the scales.
(2) A man is happy according to his character rather than his condition.
(3) The text an emphatic testimony to a future life. But for this, the case of the prosperous wicked might have the best of it. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, then are we of all men most miserable (1Co. 15:19).
(4) A prosperous life often suddenly cut short by the stroke of death. Life in Gods hands. The thread cut off at His pleasure.
(5) The soul of the ungodly man forced to quit the body; that of the godly gladly departs from it. The wicked is driven away in his death. Body and soul must part; the question is, how?
(6) That hope only worth having that looks beyond the grave. He builds too low that builds beneath the skies.
(7) The gain of the world a poor compensation for the loss of the soul.
(8) Awful condition for a man to be suddenly called into eternity in the midst of his earthly enjoyments, and unprepared.
How shocking must thy summons be, O death.
To him who is at ease in his possessions!
Who, counting on long years of pleasure here,
Is quite unfurnishd for that world to come.
(9) Gold able to procure entrance anywhere but into the kingdom of God.
(10) True wisdom to ask, What is my hope in the event of a sudden death? Reader, what is yours? Only faith in Christs blood and righteousness, confirmed by a life of love towards God and men, the only sure foundation of a geea hope. Christ our hope. Such hope the anchor of the soul amid the storms of life and the swellings of Jordan.
2. The prayer of the ungodly unheard in the time of trouble. Job. 27:9Will God hear his cry, when trouble cometh upon him? Two questions implied
(1) Will the ungodly pray in time of trouble?
(2) Will God hear him if he does? A heart to pray not always found in time of trouble. The spirit to pray a gift from God. A prayerless life often followed by a prayerless death. Prayer, even if offered, in time of trouble not always heard (Pro. 1:24-28; Isa. 1:15). Acceptable prayer implies both repentance and faith. Both wanting in the prayer of the ungodly and the hypocrite. An acceptable time when God may be found and prayer heard;and the contrary. A time when knocking at mercys gate will be followed by no opening (Mat. 25:11-12). He who will not pray when he might, perhaps cannot pray when he would, or is unheard when he does. To shut the door of our heart in Gods face, is the way to have the door of his heaven shut in ours. Observe
(1) A time of trouble sure sooner or later to come upon each one.
(2) To pray in the time of trouble the language of nature. So the heathen sailors in the ship with Jonah (Jon. 1:5-6). In ordinary circumstances the Athenians prayed to their false deities, but in public distress to the unknown God
(3) The ungodly either not able to pray in time of trouble, or not heard if they do.
(4) The mark of a hypocrite to pray only when trouble comes upon him.
3. The ungodly has no delight in God. (Job. 27:10)Will he delight himself in the Almighty? The ungodly would have Gods gifts, but not Himself; the godly would rather have God than His gifts. A mark of grace to delight oneself in God. An unholy heart unable to delight in a holy God.
Delight in God
(1) A leading part in true piety. God desires not that we serve Him as a slave, but that we delight in Him as a child.
(2) God Himself the chief good to an intelligent creature. Everything in Him for such a creature to delight in. The source and centre of all good. Of all Thy gifts Thyself the crown. All the beauty, loveliness, and sweetness in the creature, in comparison with what is in God, only a drop compared with the ocean. Not to delight in God is either not to know Him or to be under the power of a nature that hates Him. They that know Him not only trust but delight in Him. The greatest misery, as well as sin, of an intelligent creature, not to delight in God. Not to delight in God is either to be ignorant of Him, or to declare that we see nothing in Him to delight in. If God, only as God, is such as to be supremely delighted in by unfallen intelligent creatures, much more is He, as a God in Christ, to be delighted in by fallen ones.
(3) God the delight of heaven. Hence no unregenerate or unholy person able to enter, or find enjoyment there if he could. To delight in God hereafter, we must first learn to delight in Him here.
(4) Delight in the creature only right when we first delight supremely in God. Delight in the creature instead of God, not only idolatry but insult.
(5) A sinners greatest delight often his greatest sin. The greater the delight in the creature to the rejection of God, the deeper the idolatry and the fouler the insult.
(6) A mans character proclaimed by what he delights in. The sow delights in the mire, the crow in carrion, the cock in the dunghill, and the worm in corruption. The delight of the holy, in God; that of the unholy, in the creature. Important questionWhat do I delight in? God, or the creature?
(7) Delight in God not affected by outward circumstances. Often highest when outward circumstances are lowest.
(8) The mark of a godly man, that, when in deepest affliction, he can delight himself in God. Jobs case. Here apparently appealed to by Him as a proof of the sincerity of his piety.
4. The prayers of the ungodly are only casual and temporary. Will he always call upon God?
Persevering Prayer
1. The ungodly man prays in sickness and trouble, but not in health and prosperity. Fitful prayers like smoke driven aside by the wind and never reaching the clouds. Answers to prayer often withheld to prove its faith and sincerity. Some pray only in the sunshine, others only in the storm; the believer prays always.
2. The ungodly mans prayers not persevered in. Prayer, wanting the wings of faith, soon tires and comes to the ground. Prayer proves its sincerity by its continuance. Fallen nature prays; but only grace prays always. The hypocrite and unbeliever draws in his hand if not immediately filled. Many lose their prayers by not drawing the bow sufficiently for the discharge of the arrow. Successful prayer a bolt shot up into heaven. The believer stands knocking at Gods door, and waiting His own time of opening. Christ taught His disciples always to pray, and not to faint (Luk. 18:1). Answers only promised to persevering prayer. He who prays successfully finds enjoyment in the exercise which brings him back to it. A mans religion which is only by fits and starts wants the stamp of divinity. Prayer, without perseverance, not current at the gate of heaven.
Job able to stand both tests. Prayed both in prosperity and adversity, and persevered in his prayers.
IV. Declares his faith in the rectitude of the Divine government
1. Speak as one conscious of greater illumination than his pretentious friends. Job. 27:11.I will teach you by the hand of God (or, concerning Gods dealings with men; and what is with the almighty (His purposes and procedure in regard to evil doers) I will not conceal. ObserveLight given in order to be communicated. A good man constituted by God himself a teacher of others. Made a light in the world to hold forth the word of life (Php. 2:15-16). Truth not to be concealed from selfish love of ease or slavish fear of consequences.
2. Yet appeals to their own observation, and professes only to communicate facts with which they themselves were already acquainted. Job. 27:12.Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it. His friends had already referred to the facts, but failed to make a right application of them. Their error not in respect to the facts, but the use of them; not in asserting that hypocrites and oppressors sooner or later suffer the punishment of their sins, but that Job, who was now suffering apparently at the hand of God, must be one of them. Job asserts the fact, but denies the inference. Maintains that all oppressors and bad men, sooner or later, suffer; but denies
(1) That therefore all oppressors and bad men suffer in this life.
(2) That all that suffer are oppressors and bad men. Observe
(1) Hearers themselves to be often appealed to for the truth of what is asserted. Appeals to the hearers own observation and experience often the most convincing argument. Hearers frequently do not so much require the knowledge of truths or facts, as the right use and application of them.
(2) The dealings of Divine Providence open to mens view, and calling for observation and reflection.
3. Hence reproves them for their vain and useless arguments. Why then are ye thus altogether vain? (or babble forth such vanities?) Their vanity
(1) In addressing Job as if ignorant of, or absolutely denying, the facts they so much insisted on in regard to the fate of the ungodly.
(2) In erroneously arguing from those facts that Job, who suffered so much, must be a bad man. That Job could maintain the facts as decidedly as themselves, a proof
(1) That he was not the wicked man they had represented him to be.
(2) That he needed not their instruction on the subject.
(3) That they had only been vainly insisting on things which he himself admitted.
(4) That they had been one-sided in their views and representations. They had, therefore, poured forth their eloquence, whether original or second-hand, only as one that beateth the air.
(1) Preachers to see that in their discourses they are aiming at a right object, and employing right arguments in support of it.
(2) Preachers not to dwell on known and admitted truths without shewing the right use and application of them. Not enough to repeat that all who believe and come to Christ will be saved, but to endeavour to shew what it is to believe and come to Him, and how people may do so. Not sufficient to insist that Christ died for sinners, but to show how a man obtains a saving interest in His death.
V. Describes the lot of oppressors and of the prosperous ungodly. Job. 27:13.This is the portion of wicked men with God, and the heritage of oppressors which they shall receive of the Almighty. Seems to take up the language of Zophar (ch. Job. 20:29). Observe
(1) Faith and piety look to the end.
(2) Each mans destiny faithfully meted out by the Almighty according to his character and conduct.
(3). The main question for a manwhat shall I receive at the hands of the Almighty? Man kills the body; but the soul still in Gods hands.
The lot of the ungodly described in reference to
1. Their children. Job. 27:14.If his children be multiplied (or become greata mark of propriety), it is for the sword (or they are doomed to the swordshall fall in the siege or battle as threatened, Hos. 9:13), and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. Misery often entailed on children by their parents sin, an acknowledged fact. The seed of evil doers shall never be renowneda standing maxim. Children usually serve themselves heirs of their parents sufferings by practising their parents sins. Effects of the sins of parents often in this world more visible in the children than in themselves. Proof of a judgment to come and a future life. Effects from parents sins, suffered by children in this life, may be overruled by a gracious Providence for their benefit in the next. Contrast the text with what is stated of the children of the godly (Psa. 37:25-26). Jobs children neither perished by the sword nor suffered want of bread. Job. 27:15.Those that remain of him (escaping the sword) shall be buried in death (immediately on their death as in a time of pestilence, or buried by the pestilence as the cause of their death); and his (or their) widows shall not weep (as in an ordinary case of burial, the want of such funeral lamentation being with Orientals a grievous misfortunethe burial of an ass, Jer. 22:18-19).
2. Their possessions. Job. 27:16.Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment (another form of Oriental riches) as the clay; He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. The answer to the question put to the rich fool: Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? (Luk. 12:20). The sinners wages earned to be put into a bag with holes. Himself often snatched away by death when expecting to enjoy his acquired possessions. In the Providence of God a good man often made to reap the benefit of a bad mans gains. Insecurity and transitoriness the characteristics of the prosperous sinners earthly goods. Job. 27:18.He buildeth his house as the moth (which is easily shaken out of the garment where it has made its nest, and which often devours its own house), and as a booth (or hut) which the keeper [of a vineyard] maketh (intended only to last for the season, and to be taken down as soon the fruit is gathered).
3. His person. He is often
(1) Carried off by a sudden and unexpected death. Job. 27:19.The rich man shall lie down [at night on his bed of rest], but he shall not be gathered (or, according to another reading, he shall not do so any more,he lies down for the last time); he openeth his eyes (or, as quickly as one opens ones eyesin the twinkling of an eye) and he is not (is no more in this world, having been carried often by a sudden death during the night). Exemplified in the rich fool of the Gospel, and perhaps forming the foundation of the Saviours illustration: This night thy soul shall be required of thee (Luk. 12:20).
(2) Seized with sudden fear of approaching judgment. Job. 27:20.Terrors take hold on him as waters (suddenly overwhelming him like a mountain-torrent rushing down with widespread ruin); a tempest stealeth him away in the night (some judgment carrying him away like a sudden tornado, never dreaming of such an event). The east wind (the most vehement and destructive in Oriental countries) carrieth him away, and he departeth (no more to be seen), and as a storm hurleth him out of his place (his fancied paradise, where he expected to remain, and long enjoy his accumulated wealth.
(3) Visited with calamity from which he is unable to escape. Job. 27:22.For God shall cast [His judgments] upon him, and not spare; he would fain flee out of His hand. Unsparing sin prepares for unsparing judgment. Escape often sought only when too late. The prudent foresecth the evil and hideth himself; the foolish passeth on and is punished. A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
(4) Made the object of execration and abhorrence to his fellow-man. Job. 27:23.Men shall clap their hands at him (in abhorrence of his character and joy at his fall), and shall hiss him out of his place (as an object of execration and a nuisance to society). The most prosperous evil-doer made one day an abhorrence to all flesh. Some to leave their graves unto everlasting life; some to shame and everlasting contempt (Dan. 12:2; Isa. 66:24). Observe(i.) Power of faith and a good conscience to enable a man, while deeply suffering both outwardly and inwardly, calmly to contemplate and boldly to declare the consequences of a life of sin. (ii.) A godly man, however tried and afflicted, takes the part of God against evil-doers, however prosperous in this world. (iii.) Terrible consequences, sooner or later, to a life of worldliness and ungodliness. (iv.) The tinsel of worldly prosperity to be one day stripped off from the godless possessor of it. (v.) Awful madness to peril the destinies of eternity for the momentary pleasures of time.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
IV. THE LONELINESS AND ISOLATION OF JOB (Job. 27:1Job. 31:40)
A. THE AFFIRMATION OF INNOCENCE (Job. 27:1-6)
TEXT 27:16
27 And Job again took up his parable and said,
2 As God liveth, who hath taken away my right,
And the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul
3 (For my life is yet whole in me,
And the spirit of God is in my nostrils);
4 Surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness,
Neither shall my tongue utter deceit.
5 Far be it from me that I should justify you:
Till I die I will not put away mine integrity from me.
6 My righteousness I hold fast,
and will not let it go:
My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
COMMENT 27:16
Job. 27:1The preceding chapter contains the most powerful cosmological section in the dialogue for insight and scope of expression. All the verbs in Job. 27:5-11 are participles or the imperfect describing Gods constant Lordship over nature. Now Job resumes his response to Bildad by his inflexible protestation of innocenceJob. 27:1-6. Job continues his parable (masal[276]not always a parable, mesalimcollections in Book of Proverbs; brief saying1Sa. 10:12; longer sayingIsa. 14:4; taunt or mockDeu. 28:37), preferably discourse, taunt, or mock here. Masai is often associated in parallel with hidahriddle or dark saying as in Psa. 49:5; Eze. 17:2; Hab. 2:6. It also appears in contexts with words of derision such as Deu. 28:37; 1Sa. 10:12; Isa. 14:4; Jer. 24:9; and Hab. 2:6. Clearly masal covers a wide variety of literary compositions, thus we should not be alarmed that Job is not uttering a parable.
[276] For examination of the meaning of masal and extensive bibliography, see A. R. Johnson, Vetus Testamentum, Supplement, 1955, pp. 162ff; also F. Hauck, Parabole, TWNT, Vol. 5, 744761, esp. 747751.
Job. 27:2The verse is introduced by an oath formula as God lives1Sa. 14:39 and 1Sa. 2:27. The tension, still unresolved, is present here as Job swears by the God (Elsee my theological essay Is Jobs God in Exile? in this commentary),[277] who has wronged him, i.e., made my soul bitterJob. 7:11; Job. 10:1; Job. 21:25. The fact that Job made his vow in Gods name suggests that he loved Him. Near Eastern custom would suggest this. From this curious tension the ancient rabbis deduced that Job served God out of loveJob. 7:11; Job. 10:1; Job. 21:25; Job. 34:5; Job. 36:6; and Rth. 1:20.
[277] See M. Pope, El in the Ugaritic Texts, Supplement, Vetus Testamentum II, 1955, esp. 1215, 104; that this is the most solemn oath possible see I. Guillet, Lhomme devant Dieu (Paris, 1964), pp. 1920.
Job. 27:3Job is affirming that though he is suffering, he still has control over his mental faculties. The conviction of this battered giant remains unshaken. The use of first person pronoun (12 occurrences) in Job. 27:2-6 is our assurance that Job has introspectively searched out his past and does not remember a single unrighteous act. He will maintain his integrity (tummahJob. 2:3) until his death. As long as my life (nepheshderives from GodGen. 2:7; and returns to GodJob. 34:14) is intact and Gods ruah enlivens me, I will swear loyal allegiance to Him.
Job. 27:4He contends that all along he has spoken the truth. This is the content of the oath. He swears in Els name to speak only the truth in defending his innocence. The A. V. rendering of utter derives from a verb which means moanIsa. 38:14; meditatePsa. 1:2; devisePsa. 2:1; and here speakPsa. 71:24; deceit is the same word found in Job. 13:7.
Job. 27:5As long as Job lives, he will not grant his friends the right to assert his guilt. The formula used, far be it from me, implies that there is something profane in the idea which he is rejecting2Sa. 20:20. So long as he lives, he could not deny his own integrity before God. I could never justify you (the pronoun is plural), i.e., admit that you are correct regarding my righteousness; the A. V. rendering of will not put away comes from a word meaning withhold and also appears in verse two.
Job. 27:6The heart is the Hebrew seat of intelligence, reasonJob. 2:9; 1Sa. 24:6. Job denies any awareness of sins such as his consolers had charged to himJob. 22:6-9. Nothing new is advanced in this speech, but he continues to scorn Bildads defense of God, and to affirm his own innocence.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
XXVII.
(1) Job continued his parable.The remainder of Jobs speechnow, for the first time, called his parableconsists of his determination not to renounce his righteousness (Job. 27:2-6); his own estimate of the fate of the wicked (Job. 27:7-23); his magnificent estimate of the nature of wisdom (Job 28); his comparison of his former life (Job 29) with that of his present experience (Job 30); his final declaration of his innocent and irreproachable conduct (Job 31).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
1. Job waits for an answer. The friends are silenced. He is now master of the field. The mists that surrounded his opponents had served to magnify them and their cause. Job now stands forth in the clear sunlight of truth, alone and conqueror. He confirms his integrity by the most solemn appeal to God and his conscience. No one, he says, could maintain such hope in the sight of death, such trust in God’s help, such joyous confidence in him, and be conscious of such guilt as they had charged. (Job 27:8-10.) Now that he has driven his friends from their extreme positions, he reviews the ground he has gained, and brings out into stronger relief some principles he himself had advanced, at least in theory, one of which was that the prosperity of the wicked was apparent, and could not endure, (Job 21:16; Job 21:21, etc.,) but which, in the heat of the controversy, had not received their proper attention. (See note on Job 27:13.) His argument throughout had assumed a future adjustment of wrong and sin, (Job 27:8.) But this is not sufficient. The doctrine of future awards lacks substantial basis if there be no retributive government of the wicked in this life.
Parable Mashal: a discourse conveying important truth in language concise and to a high degree poetical. Balaam took up his parable. Num 23:1. “The introduction of the ultimatum, as mashal, reminds one of ‘ the proverb ( el-methel,) seals it,’ in the mouth of the Arab, since in common life it is customary to use a pithy saying as the final proof at the conclusion of a speech.” Delitzsch. The phrase Job “continued to take up his parable,” serves to mark the pause that must have ensued upon the close of his reply to Bildad, while he waited in vain to hear from the discomfited Zophar.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 27:6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job 27:6
Joh 3:20-21, “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”
Job 27:15 Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep.
Job 27:15
Job 27:16 Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay;
Job 27:17 Job 27:16-17
Ecc 2:26, “For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.”
Pro 13:22, “A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.”
Pro 28:8, “He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Job’s Dialogue with Three Friends – Job 3:1 to Job 31:40, which makes up the major portion of this book, consists of a dialogue between Job and his three friends. In this dialogue, Job’s friends engage in three rounds of accusations against Job, with him offering three defenses of his righteousness. Thus, Job and his friends are able to confirm each of their views with three speeches, since the Scriptures tell us that a matter is confirmed in the mouth of two or three witnesses (2Co 13:1). The underlying theme of this lengthy dialogue is man’s attempt to explain how a person is justified before God. Job will express his intense grief (Job 3:1-26), in which his three friends will answer by finding fault with Job. He will eventually respond to this condemnation in a declaration of faith that God Himself will provide a redeemer, who shall stand on earth in the latter days (Job 19:25-27). This is generally understood as a reference to the coming of Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from their sins.
Job’s declaration of his redeemer in Job 19:23-29, which would be recorded for ever, certainly moved the heart of God. This is perhaps the most popular passage in the book of Job, and reflects the depth of Job’s suffering and plea to God for redemption. God certainly answered his prayer by recording Job’s story in the eternal Word of God and by allowing Job to meet His Redeemer in Heaven. I can imagine God being moved by this prayer of Job and moving upon earth to provide someone to record Job’s testimony, and moving in the life of a man, such as Abraham, to prepare for the Coming of Christ. Perhaps it is this prayer that moved God to call Abraham out of the East and into the Promised Land.
The order in which these three friends deliver their speeches probably reflects their age of seniority, or their position in society.
Scene 1 First Round of Speeches Job 3:1 to Job 14:22
Scene 2 Second Round of Speeches Job 15:1 to Job 21:34
Scene 3 Third Round of Speeches Job 22:1 to Job 31:40
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Job’s Again Protests his Innocence
v. 1. Moreover, Job continued his parable, v. 2. As God liveth, v. 3. all the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, v. 4. my lips shall not speak wickedness, v. 5. God forbid that I should justify you, v. 6. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go, v. 7. Let mine enemy be as the wicked and he that riseth up against me, v. 8. For what is the hope of the hypocrite, v. 9. Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? v. 10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God?
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Job 27:1-23
This chapter divides itself into three distinct portions. In the first, which extends to the end of Job 27:6, Job is engaged in maintaining, with the utmost possible solemnity (verse 2), both his actual integrity (verse 6) and his determination to hold fast his integrity as long as he lives (verses 4-6). In the second (verses 7-10) he implicates a curse upon his enemies. In the third (verses 11-23) he returns to the consideration of God’s treatment of the wicked, and retracts the view which he had maintained controversially in Job 24:2-24, with respect to their prosperity, impunity, and equalization with the righteous in death. The retractation is so complete, the concessions are so large, that some have been induced to question whether they can possibly have been made by Job, and have been led on to suggest that we have here a third speech of Zophar’s, such as “the symmetry of the general form” requires, which by accident or design has been transferred from him to Job. But the improbability of such a transfer, considering how in the Book of Job the speech of each separate interlocutor is introduced, is palpable; the dissimilarity between the speech and the other utterances of Zophar is striking; and.
Job 27:1
Moreover Job continued his parable, and said. The word translated “parable” () is only used previously in Num 23:1-30, and Num 24:1-25. It is thought to “comprehend all discourses in which the results of discursive thought are concisely or figuratively expressed” (Cook). The introduction of a new term seems to imply that the present discourse occupies a position different from that of all the preceding ones. It is not tentative, controversial, or emotional, but expresses the deliberate judgment of the patriarch on the subjects discussed in it. Note the repetition of the term in Job 29:1.
Job 27:2
As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment, Job has not previously introduced any form of adjuration. His “yea has been yea, and his nay nay.” Now, however, under the solemn circumstances of the occasion, when he is making his last appeal to his friends for a favourable judgment, he thinks it not inappropriate to preface what he is about to say by an appeal to God as his Witness. “As God liveth,” or “As the Lord liveth,” was the customary oath of pious Israelites and of God-fearing men generally in the ancient world (see Jdg 8:19; Rth 3:13; 1Sa 14:39; 1Sa 20:3; 2Sa 4:9; 2Sa 12:5; 1Ki 2:24; 1Ki 17:21; 2Ki 5:20; 2Ch 18:13; Jer 38:16). Job adds that the God to whom he appeals is he who has “taken away,” or “withheld,” his judgment, i.e. who has declined to enter with him into a controversy as to the justice of his doings (Job 9:32-35; Job 13:1-28 :31; Job 23:3-7). And the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; or, made my soul bitter. Though he slays him, yet does Job trust in God (Job 13:15). He is his Witness, his Helper, his Redeemer (Job 19:25).
Job 27:3
All the while my breath is in me. This verse is parenthetic. Job claims in it to be in possession of all his faculties, notwithstanding his sufferings. The right translation would seem to be, “For my life is yet whole within me” (see the Revised Version). And the spirit of God is in my nostrils. The spirit of God, originally breathed into man’s nostrils, whereby he became a living soul (Gen 2:7), is still, Job says, within him, and makes him capable of judging and declaring what is right.
Job 27:4
My lips shall not speak wickedness. Nothing shall induce him, Job says, to speak knowingly wicked words. Nor my tongue utter deceit. Neither will he be induced, whatever happens, to utter untruth. A confession of guilt, such as his friends have endeavoured to extort from him, would be both wicked and false.
Job 27:5
God forbid that I should justify you; i.e. allow that you have been right all along, and that I have drawn these judgments down upon me by secret sins. Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. So long as he continues to live, Job will not cease to maintain his innocence. It has been repeatedly pointed out that he does not mean to declare himself absolutely without sin, but only to deny such heinous guilt as his friends imputed to him (see Job 22:5-9).
Job 27:6
My righteousness I held fast, and will not let it go. Not only will Job never cease to maintain his integrity in the past, but he will hold fast to the same course of blameless life in the future. He will not “curse God, and die.” Resolutely he will maintain his faith in God, and his dependence on him. “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. This is probably the true meaning, though some suggest “My heart doth not reproach me for any of my days” Job determines to “have always a conscience void of offence, both toward God and toward man” (Act 24:16; comp. Act 23:1; 1Co 4:4; 2Ti 1:3; 1Jn 3:21).
Job 27:7
Let mine enemy be as the wicked. The nexus of this passage with what goes before is uncertain. Some suppose Job’s full thought to have been, “Ye try to persuade me to act wickedly by making a false representation of my feelings and convictions; but I absolutely refuse to do so. Let that rather be the act of my enemy.” Others regard him as simply so vexed by his pretended friends, who are his real enemies, that he is driven to utter an imprecation against them. And he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous. This is another instance of a mere pleonastic hemisticha repetition of the preceding clause in different words.
Job 27:8
For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained. The hypocrite and liar may get advantage in this life by his lies and his hypocrisy. He may deceive men; he may raise himself in their opinion; he may derive worldly advantage from having secured their approval But what will he have to look forward rein the end, when God taketh away (i.e. removeth from earth) his soul? Job evidently regards the soul that is “taken away” or removed from earth as still existing, still conscious, still capable of hope or of despair, and asks what hope of a happy future could the man who had lived a hypocrite entertain, when God required his soul, and he felt under God’s judgment. The question reminds us of those words of our blessed Lord‘ “What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”.
Job 27:9
Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon Him? Can he expect that in the day of trouble, “when distress and anguish come upon him” (Pro 1:27), God will hear his cry, and respond to it, and give him relief? No; conscious hypocrisyliving a liecuts off from God, severs between a man and his Maker, makes all prayers for help vain, until it is repented of and put away from us. The man who dies in it is in a desperate case.
Job 27:10
Will he delight himself in the Almighty? A further ill result of hypocrisy is noted. Not only does it alienate God from us, but it nile,ares us from God. The hypocrite cannot “delight in the Almighty.” He must shriek from him, tear him, dislike to dwell on the thought of his presence and realize it. His natural inclination must be to withdraw his thoughts from God, and give himself up to the worldliness which has been his attraction to assume the hypocrite’s part. Will he always call upon God? Can be even be depended on not to renounce the service of God altogether? The mutual alienation above spoken of must tend to check communion, to disincline to prayer and calling upon God, to erect a barrier between the hypocrite and the Almighty, which, though for a while it may be insufficient to withstand the force of use and wont, will yet, in the long run, be sure to tell, and will either put an end to prayer altogether, or reduce it to a formality.
Job 27:11-23
It is impossible to deny that this passage directly contradicts Job’s former utterances, especially Job 24:2-24. But the hypotheses which would make Job irresponsible for the present utterance and fix on him, as his steadfast conviction, the opposite theory, are unsatisfactory and have no solid basis. To suppose that Zophar is the real speaker is to imagine the absolute loss and suppression of two entire versesone between verses 10 and 11, assigning the speech to him, and another at the beginning of Job 28:1-28; reintroducing Job and making him once more the interlocutor. That this should have happened by accident is inconceivable. To ascribe it to intentional corruption by a Hebrew redactor, bent on maintaining the old orthodox view, and on falsely and wickedly giving the authority of Job to it, is to take away all authority from the existing text of the Hebrew Scriptures, and to open a door to any amount of wild suggestion and conjectural emendation. The other hypothesisthat of Eichhornthat Job is here simply anticipating what his adversaries will say, though a less dangerous view, is untenable, since Job never does this without following up his statement of the adversaries’ ease with a reply, and here is no reply whatever, but a simple turning away, after verse 23, to another subject. The explanation of the contradiction by supposing that Job’s former statement was tentative and controversial, or else hasty and ill-considered, and that now, to prevent misconception, he determines to set himself right, is, on the other hand, thoroughly defensible, and receives a strong support from the remarkable introduction in verse 11, which “prepares us, if not for a recantation, yet (at any rate) for a modification of statements wrung from the speaker when his words flowed over from a spirit drunk with the poison of God’s arrows”.
Job 27:11
I will teach you by (or, concerning) the hand of God. Job is now at last about to deliver his real sentiments respecting God’s dealings with men in the world, and prefaces his. remarks with this solemn introduction, to draw special attention to them. He is aware that his previous statements on the subject, especially in Job 24:2-24, have been overstrained and exaggerated, and wishes, now that he is uttering his last words (Job 31:40), to correct his previous hasty utterances, and put on record his true views. That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal. By “that which is with the Almighty” Job means the Divine principles of action.
Job 27:12
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it. The true Divine scheme of action has been so long and so frequently made manifestopenly set forth in the sight o! menthat Job cannot believe that those whom he addresses are ignorant of it. They must themselves have seen the scheme at work. Why then are ye thus altogether vain? Why, then, do they not draw true inferences from the facts that come under their notice?
Job 27:13
This is the portion of a wicked men with God. In “this” Job includes all that follows from verse 14 to verse 23″this, which I am going to lay down.” He pointedly takes up the words of Zophar in Job 20:29, admitting their general truth. And the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. Retribution is “their portion,” “their heritage,” i.e. the natural result and consequence of their precedent sin.
Job 27:14
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword. Among the items of prosperity which Job had assigned to the wicked man in one of his previous discourses (Job 21:8, Job 21:11) was a numerous and flourishing offspring. Now he feels forced to admit that, frequently at any rate, this flourishing offspring is overtaken by calamity (Job 21:19)it falls by the sword, either in predatory warfare, to which it was bred up, or as the consequence of a blood-feud inherited from its progenitor. They who “take the sword,” either in their own persons or in their posterity, “perish with the sword.” And his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. If they escape this fate, then, mostly, they fall into poverty, and suffer want, no one caring to relieve them, since they have an ill reputation, the memory of their parent’s wickedness clinging to them long after his decease.
Job 27:15
Those that remain of him shall be buried in death. Not simply “shall die,” but shall “be buried,” i.e. lost sight of, and forgotten, “in death.” And his widows shall not weep (comp. Psa 78:64). The deaths of his offspring shall not be lamented by their widowsa very grievous omission in the eyes of Orientals.
Job 27:16
Though he heap up silver as the dust. The city of Tyro, we are told by Zechariah, “heaped up silver as the dust“ (Zec 9:3), i.e. in vast quantities, beyond count. So might the wicked man do. He might also prepare raiment as the clay; i.e. fill his house with rich dresses, partly for his own wear, partly to be given as robes of honour to his friends and boon companions (setup. Gen 45:22; 2Ki 5:22; 2Ki 10:22, Mat 6:19; Jas 5:2). Robes of honour are still kept in store by Eastern monarchs, and presented as marks of favour to visitors of importance,
Job 27:17
He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on. The raiment thus accumulated shall pass from the wicked into the hands of the just, who at his death shall enter upon his inheritance (Job 20:18, Job 20:28). And the innocent shall divide the silver (see the first clause of Job 27:16).
Job 27:18
He buildeth his house as a moth. The moth is the symbol of fragility, decay, and weakness. The wicked man’s attempt to build himself up a house, and establish a powerful family, is no better than a moth’s attempt to make itself a permanent habitation. As moths do not construct dwellings for themselves, it has been proposed (Merx) to read , “as a spider,” for , “as a moth;” but the change is too great to be at all probable. May not the cocoon, from which the moth issues as. from a house, have been in Job’s mind? The hawk-moth buries itself in a neat cave for the pupa stage; and there may have been even better examples in Uz. But we ourselves have not known these facts long, and therefore we need not be surprised to find Job making a mistake in natural history. And as a booth that the keeper maketh. Huts or lodges of boughs were set up in vineyards and orchards by those who had to watch them (see Isa 1:8; Lam 2:6). They were habitations of the weakest and frailest kind.
Job 27:19
The rich man lieth down; rather, he lieth down rich (see the Revised Version). But he shall not be gathered. If we accept the present text, we may translate, But it (i.e. his wealth) shall not be gathered‘ and suppose his wealth to have consisted in agricultural produce. Or we may alter into , and translate, He lieth down rich, but he shall do so no morea correction to which the of the Septuagint points. He openeth his eyes, and he is not. Some translate, “It is not;” i.e. the harvest, in which his wealth consisted, is notit has been all destroyed by blight or robbers Those who render, “He is not,” generally suppose that he opens his eyes only to find himself in the hands of murderers.
Job 27:20
Terrors take hold on him as waters (comp. Job 18:11). Terrors sweep over the wicked man like a flood of watersvague terrors with respect to the past, the present, and the future. He fears the vengeance of these whom he has oppressed and injured, the loss of his prosperity at any moment by a reverse of fortune, and a final retribution at the hand of God commensurate with his ill desert. He is at all times uneasy; sometimes he experiences a sudden rush upon him of such gloomy thoughts, which overwhelms him, and sweeps him away like a mighty stream. A tempest stealeth him away in the night. While he is off his guard, as it were, in the night, a sudden storm bursts on him, and removes him from his place.
Job 27:21
The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth. The khamsin wind, coming with all its violence and burning heat, drives him before it, and is irresistible. And as a storm hurleth him out of his place. This is little more than a repetition of the previous hemistich. The man is swept from the earth by a storm of calamity
Job 27:22
For God shall out upon him, and not spare. Some commentators regard the storm as still the subject, and translate, “For it shall east itself upon him [or, ‘rush upon him’] and not spore” (Sohultens, Merx). The difference is not great, since the storm represents God’s judgment. He would fain flee out of his hand; or, if the storm is meant, out of its hand.
Job 27:23
Men shall clap their hands at him. Applauding, i.e. the just judgment of God upon him. And shall hiss him out of his place. Accompany with hisses his final ruin and downfallhissing him, while they applaud the action of God in respect to him.
HOMILETICS
Job 27:1-10
Job’s first parable: 1. The transgressions of a godly man.
I. A DARING ACCUSATION.
1. Against whom directed? Against Eloah, the All-sufficient One; Shaddai, the All-powerful One, the Self-existent, Living One, whose universal dominion, resistless might, and ineffable majesty Bildad (Job 25:1-3) and Job himself (Job 26:5-14) had eloquently pictured. With exalted conceptions of the transcendent greatness of the invisible Supreme, whose continual presence also he vividly realized (Job 23:8, Job 23:9, Job 23:15), Job should have feared to speak rashly, much more accusingly, before him (Deu 28:58; Psa 76:7, Psa 76:11; Jer 5:22). But clear and accurate notions of Divine truth do not always possess that moral force, even over good men, that they should. Job a little while ago was afraid of God and troubled at his presence (Job 23:15); now, having lost, perhaps, his former luminous sense of the Divine presence, he hesitates not to bring against him a serious accusation.
2. By whom uttered? Job, a man who had not only been fashioned by the hands of Shaddai (Job 10:8, Job 10:9), but depended for life every moment on the breath of Eloah in his nostrils (verse 3), and therefore should have paused ere he called into question the conduct of a Being who could any instant cause him to return to the dust; a feeble man, wasted into a skeleton, shivering on the edge of the tomb, expecting every second to pass into God’s presence in the world of spiritshence one who should have feared to affront the Eternal; a guilty man, i.e. a man who, however conscious of integrity, was yet sinful in God’s sight, and whom accordingly it ill became to question the proceedings of God; and likewise a pardoned man, whom God hath accepted as righteous, in proof thereof sending answers to his prayers (verse 9), which only added to the rashness of Job in impeaching Eloah as he did.
3. Of what composed? The charge preferred against God was twofold in appearance, vexing Job’s soul, and taking away Job’s judgment, though in reality the two things were connected as cause and effect. What irritated and inflamed the patriarch’s spirit was the thought which he here, indirectly indeed but none the less really on that account, utters, viz. that God, the righteous Judge of all the earth, had denied him justice. Already had he complained that God seemed to treat him as an enemy (Job 9:28; Job 13:24; Job 14:16, Job 14:17); never until now does he in terms so explicit accuse God of withholding from him justice. For this sin Job was afterwards reproved by Elihu (Job 34:5) and by God (Job 40:8).
II. AN OVERWEENING ASSUMPTION.
1. To declare the truth about himself. There was nothing wrong or extravagantly self-asserting in the declaration that “his lips should not speak wickedness, nor his tongue utter deceit” (verse 4; cf. 2Co 11:31; Gal 1:20). Not only should good men tell no lies (Exo 20:16; Le Exo 19:11; Psa 34:13), though, alas! they sometimes do (Gen 12:13; Gen 26:7), but they should so hate untruthfulness (Pro 13:5) as to render the utterance of falsehoods impossible (Isa 63:8; Col 3:9). Job, however, claimed that he would state the exact truth about his own inward integrity, forgetting that “the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jer 17:9), that God alone is competent to pronounce an accurate verdict on its character (Jer 17:10; Job 36:4; Psa 7:9; Pro 15:11), and that not even a saint can be trusted to deliver a perfectly unblessed judgment about himself.
“If self the wavering balance shake,
It’s rarely right adjusted.”
(Burns.)
2. To reveal the mind of God concerning others. With an air of authority Job avows his ability to give what he had often stormed at his friends for professing to deliveran oracular exposition of the Divine mode of action in dealing with ungodly men (verse 11). Though “the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him” (Psa 25:14; Pro 3:32), it is not absolutely certain that good men do not sometimes mistake their own cogitations for Heaven’s inspirations. Under any circumstances good men, in setting forth what they believe to be Divine truth, should avoid the appearance and tone of dogmatical assertion. Least of all should they speak dictatorially to those whom they have already charged with the same offence (Rom 2:21).
III. AN OVERBOLD PROTESTATION.
1. With solemn adjuration. That Job should have maintained his integrity against the calumniations of his friends was both legitimate and reasonable. That he should even have exhibited a degree of warmth in repelling their accusations was perhaps excusable. But that he should have deemed it fitting to preface his self-vindication by an oath betrayed a degree of confidence, if not of self-righteousness, which was unbecoming in a humble-hearted and truly pious man. The matter was one that did not require more than calm, quiet, modest affirmation. Yet Job, in at least two different forms, adds an oath for confirmation (verses 2, 5), as if the vindication of his (i.e. the creature’s) righteousness were, and ought to be, the supreme end of his existence, and not rather the maintenance of the unchallengable righteousness of God. Nevertheless, Job’s conduct in thus asserting with an oath that he faithfully followed God compares favourably with that or Peter, who with curses affirmed that he knew not the Man (Mar 14:71).
2. With vehement repetition. Not content with one affirmation of his integrity, Job insists upon it with a fourfold asseveration (verses 5, 6), declaring
(1) that he could not justify his friends, i.e. admit the truth of their contention with regard to himself without profanity;
(2) that he would continue to assert his innocence while he lived;
(3) that his righteousness he would on no account let go; and
(4) that his heart should not reproach him even one of his days. So Paul protested to the Sanhedrin that he had lived in all good conscience before God up till then (Act 23:1); and, writing to the Corinthians (2Co 1:12), rejoiced in the testimony of his conscience theft in simplicity and godly sincerity he had had his conversation in the world. The words, “not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God,” exhibit the difference between St. Paul’s assertion of his personal integrity and Job’s.
IV. A WICKED IMPRECATION.
1. The persons upon whom it is pronounced. Job’s “enemy;” not the ungodly in general, but the men who rose up against him to impeach his integrity (verse 7). While it is well-nigh certain that a good man will have enemies (Mat 10:22; Joh 15:19), who hate him because they first dislike his principles (1Pe 3:16; 1Pe 4:4), it is a splendid testimony to a good man’s character when he has no enemies except the ungodly. The mere fact, however, that his integrity is challenged by another is no proof that that other is either wicked in himself or hostilely disposed toward him. Though keenly resenting, therefore, the unjust imputations of his friends, it was wrong in Job to denounce them, as they had denounced him, as inherently ungodly.
2. The malediction of which it consists. Nothing is really gained by endeavouring to soften down Job’s language into a prediction. Supposing him to merely signify that the man who spoke against him was a wicked person who would eventually meet the wicked person’s recompense, he asserts it with a degree of confidence which was not warranted by the facts of the case, and which painfully suggests that the wish was father to the thought. The language of Job towards Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar finds an echo in the terrific outburst of David against his adversaries in the imprecatory psalms (Psa 69:22-28; Psa 109:6-15; Psa 140:8-11), which, in so far as it was directed against individuals, we are not required to regard as entirely free from blame.
V. A SELF–EXALTING COMPARISON. In order further to set forth his integrity, Job tacitly contrasts his own case with that of the hypocrite, indirectly exhibiting himself as possessed of:
1. A better hope. However prosperous the wicked man may be in life, however successful in heaping up wealth, when he comes to die he has no hope whatever to sustain him (cf. Job 8:13; Job 20:5, homiletics), no expectation of acceptance with God; while be, Job, though standing on the verge of the grave, has. Worldly success cannot provide, and will not suffice as a substitute for, hope in death. Accumulated wealth prevents not death’s approach. If God does not cut off a man’s gains before death, he will certainly cut off a wicked man’s soul at death. It is a poor bargain to gain the world which one must soon leave, and lose the soul which one cannot regain throughout eternity (Mat 16:26).
2. A better privilege. When trouble comes upon the wicked man so severely as to make him cry unto the Lord, the Lord turns a deaf ear to his entreaty (Pro 1:28). But the good man, i.e. Job, can reckon that his prayer will find an entrance into God’s ear (Psa 34:17; Psa 1:1-6 :15; Psa 107:13; Psa 145:18, Psa 145:19); the good man’s supplication being breathed forth in penitence, humility, and faith, the outcry of the hypocrite being merely an exclamation of alarm.
3. A better spirit. The imperilled hypocrite may cry to God when the fear of death is on him, or when trouble crushes him; but he has no true delight in fellowship with God. The good man derives his principal felicity from such communion with Heaven (Isa 58:14; 1Jn 1:3), as Eliphaz had already admitted (Job 22:15); and such a good man Job distinctly claims to be. Delight in God expresses itself in happy meditation on and cheerful obedience to God’s Law (Psa 119:16, Psa 119:35, Psa 119:47, Psa 119:70); it is an indispensable condition of receiving answers to prayers (Psa 37:4).
4. A better practice. The devotion of the hypocrite is only exceptional, whereas Job’s was habitual (verse 10) An occasional prayer is no true mark of piety. The child of God should be instant in prayer (Rom 12:12), and should pray without ceasing (Eph 6:18; Php 4:6; 1Th 5:17). Christ’s disciples should pray always, and not faint (Luk 18:1).
Learn:
1. That the most eminent saints are not beyond the danger of falling into grievous sins.
2. That good men, while conscious of their integrity, should guard against self-exaltation on that account.
3. That piety as little as impiety stands in need of oaths to support it.
4. That good men should never renounce their integrity while they live, however they may sometimes forbear from asserting it.
5. That however much a wicked man may gain on earth, he loses all at death.
6. That that hope only is good which extends beyond the grave.
7. That God delights in them who delight in him.
8. That a man’s piety can be pretty accurately gauged by the intensity and frequency of his prayers.
Job 27:11-23
Job’s first parable: 2. The portion of a wicked man with God.
I. JOB‘S LANGUAGE EXPLAINED. The lot, or earthly inheritance, of the ungodly Job exhibits in three particulars.
1. The wicked man‘s family. However numerous the children that gather round a sinner’s hearth, they will all be overwhelmed in eventual destruction.
(1) Designed. If his sons and daughters multiply, it is not because of any special favour with which they are regarded by Heaven, but only to meet their appointed portion. If the wicked send forth their little ones like a flock (Job 21:11), it is purely that, like oxen, they may be fattened for the slaughter.
(2) Violent. Instead of dying peacefully in the course of nature after long, prosperous, and happy lives, they shall perish by the sword, by famine, or by pestilencethe three most usual forms of calamity in the East, and the three customary modes of inflicting Divine punishment (2Sa 24:13; Jer 14:12). Job’s children were not removed in either of these ways.
(3) Humiliating. Such indignity will fall upon his offspring, when they in turn follow him to the grave, that they shall be “buried in death,” meaning either left unburied, or, as is more probable, totally forgotten the instant they are dead. Contrast the picture of the wicked man’s funeral in a previous oration (Job 21:9, Job 21:32).
(4) Appalling. Either so complete will the ruin of this ungodly person’s family be that no widows shall remain to mourn for himself and children; or so sudden will be the shock of bereavement, that, paralyzed with grief, they will be unable to weep; or so attended with indications of Divine displeasure that they will fear to indulge in outward tokens of sorrow.
2. The wicked man’s wealth. This also shall be dissipated.
(1) His money. Should it be plentiful as the dust (Zec 9:3; cf. 1Ki 10:27), he must leave it behind him, but not to his children, for “his silver the innocent shall divide” (verse 17). The dying millionaire cannot calculate, or secure, that his accumulated treasures will be enjoyed by his family (Psa 39:6; Luk 12:20). God can scatter a man’s wealth as easily as destroy a man’s life or extinguish a man’s house.
(2) His raiment. This is another form of Oriental wealth (vide Exposition), which, though abundant as the mire, must share the same fate, and become the property of the righteous.
(3) His palace. Strongly built and gorgeously decorated, it yet is frail and brittle, as easily destroyed and as quickly removed as a moth-web (Job 8:15) or a watchman’s hut (Isa 1:8).
3. The wicked man‘s person. Equally with his family and possessions, the wicked man himself is engulfed in an awful doom.
(1) Surprised by sudden death. At night retiring to bed rich, he knows not that before morning he shall be removed from life and fiches at a stroke; or, if permitted to see the dawn, he is quite unconscious that he does so for the last time, and that, ere the night falls, he shall be no more (verse 19). Death, which comes to all men suddenly (Mat 24:44), is no surprise to them who habitually look for its approach (2Ti 4:6), but a fearful awakening to them who live in careless unconcern about their latter end (1Th 5:3).
(2) Terrified by impending judgment. While the violent surprise with which death seizes on the sinner is represented by three more metaphorsof a flood from which it is impossible to run (Psa 18:4), a tempest or whirlwind which stealeth one away by night (Job 21:18; Pro 10:25), and an east wind accompanied by destructive storms (Isa 41:16), sometimes “so severe as to smite down whole villages and uproot the largest trees” (Cox)the effect produced upon the sinner’s mind is depicted as one of paralyzing, overwhelming, devouring consternation (Psa 73:19). This fear is probably the apprehension of something after death (cf. ‘Macbeth,’ act 1. so. 7).
(3) Overtaken by merited punishment. Upon the head of this unhappy wretch God shall rain down calamities so fast and furious that every attempt to escape his doom will be in vain. Such also David thought would be the portion of the wicked (Psa 11:6); and such St. Paul asserts will be the ultimate reward of the unbelieving and impenitent (Rom 2:9).
(4) Pursued by universal execration. Even if we read (Carey) it, i.e. the wind, shall clap its hands at him, and whistle at him in derision, the image must be interpreted to mean that the storm-chased sinner will be beheld with malignant joy and withering scorn; that, in fact, men will clap their hands with infinite delight over his tragic fate, and hunt his guilty spirit from the world with expressions of bitter hatred and contempt.
II. JOB‘S MEANING CLEARED.
1. The difficulty. The above exposition of the wicked man’s portion bears so close a resemblance to the pictures already sketched by the friends, that much perplexity has been occasioned by Job’s seeming inconsistency; in at this stage admitting the very dogma he had so powerfully assailed in his previous contendings. If this were true, it would only prove that great men sometimes change their rain, Is and modify their opinions. But the contradiction is more apparent than real.
2. The solution. For a detailed statement of the different schemes proposed with a view to either bridge over or remove this difficulty, the Exposition may be consulted. Here it may suffice to say that either we may understand Job as recapitulating the theory of the friends, which he has just characterized as “foolish notions” (verse 12); or, holding that the sentiments he delivers are his own, we may affirm that in previously painting the prosperous fortunes of the ungodly (e.g. Job 12:6; Job 21:7) he was merely placing exceptional cases against the exclusive theory of the friends, that ungodly men have always evil fortunes, which was all that strict logic required as its refutation, but that here he desires to intimate his acquiescence in the main element of their dogma, viz. that as a rule “the retributive justice of God is manifest in the case of the evil-doer” (Delitzsch).
Learn:
1. That every man’s portion from God is twofold, relating to the life that is to come as well as to that which now is.
2. That the higher a wicked man rises in worldly prosperity, the more ignominious will be his final overthrow.
3. That God can effect sudden and surprising translers of property on earth.
4. That sudden death may overtake the person who appears best secured against it.
5. That sudden death is not the same thing to a wicked man that it is to a good one.
6. That the wicked man cannot face the future without a fear.
7. That if a wicked man’s death is a cause of joy to the world, the departure of a saint should be a source of lamentation.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON
Job 27:1-23
Job a victor in the controversy.
After the last speech of Job the friends appear to be completely overcome and silenced, and the third of them does not venture to renew the attack. The sufferer therefore continues, in a speech of high poetic beauty, to instruct the friends, while once more insisting on his own innocence.
I. INNOCENCE MAINTAINED. (Verses 2-10.)
1. Conscious rectitude of resolve. (Verses 2-4.) In the profoundest sense that his thoughts are open to the eye of the all-seeing God, and that he need not fear to have his words overheard, Job speaks. He declares that he has still strength and sanity enough to know what he is saying, and to speak as a responsible witness on this quest on of his innocence. And although it has pleased God, as he thinks, to withhold justice from him, and to distress his soul, the light of duty and of conscience shines as brightly as ever. He will be true in word and deed to the last. Truth is the supreme duty we owe to ourselves, to our fellows, to our God, to eternity. The resolve to be true should be inseparable from the resolve to live; and we should part with life sooner than with truth. And no suffering should be allowed to disturb our genuine convictions about ourselves. The discouragement of others’ harsh opinion may well lead us to cast more searching glances into the state of our heart, but ought not to extort confessions of guilt which are exaggerated and unreel. It is only superstition which can suppose such to be acceptable to God. But this is the language of a man who has found, deep below all his doubts, an immovable ground of confidence in God. This makes him bold in the presence of his fellow-men. Happy those whose hearts condemn them not, and who have confidence with God. A false humility is an affectation of being worse than we really are. A genuine humility teaches us to see ourselves as we are; and every recognition of facts as facts, truths as truths, gives confidence.
2. The steadfastness of a good conscience. (Verses 5-7.) Job will never give way to his friends, nor own them in the right. The language of dogged egotism and stupid obstinacy imitates that of conscious right: “I will never give in!” But the one is the mark of folly and weakness, the other is the evidence of vitality and strength. He will not part with the sense of his integrity; it is as the jewel for which he has sold everything, which represents, amidst poverty and suffering and shame, all the property he has in the world. “Conscience is the great magazine and repository of all those pleasures that can afford any solid refreshment to the soul. When this is calm and serene and absolving, then properly a man enjoys all things, and what is more, himself; for that he must do before he can enjoy anything else. But it is only a pious life, led exactly by the rules of a severe religion, that can authorize a man’s conscience to speak comfortably to him; it is this that must word the sentence before the conscience can pronounce it, and then it will do it with majesty and authority; it will not whisper, but proclaim a jubilee to the mind; it will not drop, but pour in oil upon the wounded heart” (South).
3. Inward peace and joy denied to the wicked. (Verses 8-10.) This is a further argument of innocence. How can Job be numbered amongst the wicked? No hypocrite can possibly enjoy this serenity and unshaken hope in God which have been the portion of his soul amidst all calamities, and in the approach of death (Job 17:1-16. and 19.). When the cords of his life-tent are cut (comp. Job 4:21), the wick d man has nothing more to hope for. His prayers will receive no answer, and joyous and trustful intimacy with God is denied him. Whatever disturbs innocence, in the same degree makes inroad upon ‘the comfort of the soul. To be in the dark; to find that the gate of prayer is closed; to carry about a sick, ulcerated mind; to be harassed by the returning paroxysms of diffidence and despair; to be haunted with the dismal apparitions of a reviving guiltthe old black sores of past forgotten sins; to have the merciless handwriting against him, presented in new and flowing characters to his apprehensionis the case and condition of the sinner. But “why should a man choose to go to heaven through sloughs and ditches, briars and thorns, diffidence and desertion, trembling and misgiving, and by the very borders of hell, with death staring him in the face, when he might pass from comfort to comfort, and have all his way paved with assurance, and made easy and pleasant to him by the inward invaluable satisfaction of a well-grounded peace’? (South).
II. INSTRUCTION ON THE FATE OF THE WICKED. (Verses 11-23.)
1. Introduction (Verses 11-13; comp. Job 20:29; Job 16:20.) The theme of discourse is to be the “hand of God”his power and his mode of moral government as seen by daily examples in the lives of men; and the “sense” or mind of the Almightythe contents of his thoughts and counsels (Job 10:13; Job 23:10). And experience is to furnish the evidence and the illustrations (verse 12). The facts are open to the view of all, but what was wanting in the friends of Job, as in many others, is a correct understanding and appreciation of them. Wisdom to mark the signs of the times, the hints of God’s will, his meanings, his judgments, not only in the course of nations, the great crises of history, but in the smaller sphere of every day, is what we need. Then the theme is announced (verse 13): “the lot of the wicked manthe heritage of the tyrant.” Compare the words of Zopbar (Job 20:29).
2. The instability of the wicked man‘s condition His household and family are first mentioned. The corruption working outward is first felt in the nearest circle and surrounding of his life. The sins of the father are visited upon the children. The sword, or famine, or pestilence makes them a prey. All modern as well as ancient experience confirms this law. The doctrine of “heredity” throws light upon many diseases, many vices, many woes. The children’s teeth are set on edge because the fathers have eaten sour grapes. And this law of eternal retribution would seem intolerably stern and harsh did we not perceive that it is thus God constantly warns the world. The connection of causes and effects, constant, unbroken, alike in the physical, the moral, and the spiritual sphere, is the natural revelation of the will of God. But there are compensations, redeeming agencies at work for the individual. He suffers often as the scapegoat of others’ sins externally; he is the victim of a solemn necessity; but in the large realm of inward freedom he may be emancipated, redeemed, and blessed. “His widows weep not” (verse 15) behind his bier, perhaps because in the fearful raw, gee of the pestilence the funeral rites are suspended. The plural is used to indicate the wives of the heads of other families and relatives of the deceased generally. Then, not only is the wicked cursed in his family, but in his property. A picture of immense wealth and profuse display follows (verse 16)his silver being heaped up like dust, and fine raiment being as common as dirt. Yet there is no more real substantiality in all this than in the frail cocoon of the moth, or the hut which the watchman puts up in the vineyard or orchard (Isa 1:8). The striking story is told by Herodotus (6:86) of one Glaucus, the son of Epicydes, who was requested by a man of Miletus to take charge of the half of his fortune. When the sons el the Milesian claimed the money, Olaucus denied all knowledge of it, and consulted the oracle as to the results of perjury, and whether he could safely retain the money. The oracle replied, “Glaucus, son of Epicydes, for the present moment, indeed, it is more profitable to prevail by an oath, and to make the money thy booty. Swear; for death in truth awaits the man who is true to his oath. But, on the other hand, the child of the oath is nameless, and hath neither hands nor feet; yet he swiftly comes on, until he has ruined and destroyed thy whole race, yea, all thy house. With the race of the faithful man it shall fare better hereafter.” He restored the money, but was told it was too late; and Leotychides, who related the story to the Athenians, says, “There is now no descendant of Glaucus living, no hearth that owns his name; he has been utterly rooted out, and has passed away from Sparta.”
3. Insecurity of life. (Verses 19-23.) “He lies down rich, anddoth it not again,” according to the best reading. This is a picture of the evening. The next is a picture of the morning. “Opens his eyes, andis gone!” Both depict the suddenness of the wicked man’s end (verse 19). A multitude of terrors rush in upon him, like the waters of an inundation (verse 20; comp. Job 20:28; Psa 18:5; Jer 47:2), and fill his death-bed with horror (comp. Job 18:14; Job 20:25), and the east wind carries him away (verse 21)the east wind being often mentioned as one of great violence (Job 1:19; Job 15:2; Job 38:24; Isa 27:8; Eze 27:26). God slings without sparing the bolts of his wrath against him, and he must flee before his hand (verse 22). The fearful scene closes amidst the scornful laughter and clapping of hands of those who exult in the tyrant’s doom (verse 23; comp. Job 34:37; Lam 2:15; Nah 3:19), and he departs from his place amidst the hisses of execration. The powerful picture of the great moralist, Juvenal, may be compared with this passage (‘Sat.,’ 13:210, sqq.). Alter depicting the sufferings of a guilty conscience, he proceeds, “What, then, if the sinner has achieved his purpose? A respiteless anxiety is his, that ceases not, even at the hours of meals; his jaws are parched as though with fever, and the food he loathes swells between his teeth. All wines the miserable wretch spits out; old Alban wine, of highly prized antiquity, disgusts him. At night, if anxious care has granted him perchance some brief slumber, and his limbs, that have been tossing over the whole bed, at length are at rest, immediately he sees in dreams the temple and altar of the deity he has insulted; and, what weighs upon his soul with especial terror, he sees thee [the wronged one]! Thy awful form, of more than human bulk, confounds the trembling wretch, and wrings confession from him!” These pictures of the doom of the godless are fitted to teach patience to all the ill-used and the suffering in this world. God forgets nothing; neither the work of faith and labour of love of his children, nor the rank offences of the rebels against his laws. In due time he will both reward and punish, commonly even in this life (Exo 32:34; Rom 2:1-29.). Calamity is not a mere accident, as the worldly and the infidel think. It follows sin, according to a fixed connection, by the will of God (Amo 3:6).J.
HOMILIES BY R. GREEN
Job 27:5, Job 27:6
Determined integrity.
Job is resolved to retain his integrity in spite of every rude assault. He will not suffer himself to be withdrawn from his fixed resolve. By firm resolution integrity may be preserved, though a boastful spirit exposes itself to temptation. Between the perils of presumptuous boasting on the one hand and timid irresolution on the other, lies the path of safety in a lowly, humble determination.
I. RESOLUTION FORTIFIES THE MIND AGAINST THE ATTACKS OF TEMPTATION. Evil finds its easiest prey in the irresolute and undetermined. Subtle and sudden suggestions of wrong are instantly rejected by the determined mind. They are cast off. There is a spirit of antagonisma cherished antipathy to wrong; and before temptation has power to draw away the feet of the unwary, the determined one casts back the oftenting presence. He waits not to parley. There is a law established to cleave to the right; and the presence of the wrong becomes the watchword for an uprising of the whole strength against the usurper.
II. RESOLUTION, BY ITS DECISIONS, PREVENTS THE MIND FROM THE INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF VACILLATION. The mind is kept braced up to its duty. Its judgments are formed beforehand. It has not to wait for any mental process. The instant wrong is suggested, that instant its reply is at hand. While the wavering and uncertain are being overcome, the resolute man walks on his plain path fearlessly and safe.
III. RESOLUTION TO MAINTAIN INTEGRITY ARISING OUT OF A JUST ESTIMATE OF ITS WORTH PRESERVES FROM DECEPTION BY FALSE VIEWS. Low estimates of the worth of personal integrity make a man the sport of the trafficker in evil. Personal rectitude being held cheaply would be bartered away for any gilded bait.
IV. THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF RESOLUTENESS OF SPIRIT BECOMES AN OBVIOUS AND PRESSING DUTY. No one can be neglectful of this without doing great wrong to himself. To stand firm, entrenched by a strong will, guards the soul from the delusions that are rife enough; but that the will may be well supported, it is needful to encourage the spirit of resolute, unyielding determination. Then, with a high sense of the preciousness of conscious integrity, and with a mind adjusted to an attitude of proposed resistance against whatever would threaten to impair that integrity, the faithful one holds fast to his possession, and gains, in addition to his own quiet approval, that of all observers, and, above all, that of the great Judge of human conduct. In this Job succeeds, and becomes a pattern to all tempted ones. From the depth of his acute and prolonged suffering arises the cry of holy resolve, “Till I die will I not remove mine integrity from me.” So that from his inmost heart cometh no reproach upon his days.
He that. thus acts secures
(1) peace of mind;
(2) consciousness of the Divine approval;
(3) the benefit of daily growth in goodness;
(4) the final reward of fidelity.R.G.
Job 27:8-12
The hope of the hypocrite.
Job, the man of integrity, who was determined to hold fast his integrity until death, saw plainly that the hypocrite had no ground of confidence, and he boldly makes the demand,” What is the hope of the hypocrite?“ It is an appeal that can receive no satisfying answer. There is no hope for him, indeed; whatever he may imagine it to be, it is as a bubble that floats on the water for a short time, then bursts, and no trace is left of it. His confidence is placed on an unsafe foundation; he may build his expectations upon it, but the inevitable flood of time will wash it away. It is a vain, groundless, lost, disappointed hope. Job directs his inquiry into one channelWhat is the hypocrite’s hope as towards God? The earthly hopes of the hypocrite are not safe, though for a time he may prosper. But his hopes towards God are vain indeed. The hypocrite is estranged from God.
I. HE HAS NO HOPE IN GOD IN DEATH. When the righteous man filleth his bosom with sheaves, the hope of the wicked is found to be cut off. Beyond the grave all is darkness.
II. HE CANNOT TURN TO GOD IN TIME OF TROUBLE. When affliction falls upon the humble and righteous one, he whom he has sought to know and obey proves to be a reality to him. But the hypocrite has made God to be a sham. He has not known or obeyed him, or acted towards him as though he were a reality. To him, indeed, there is no God. How can he call on him in trouble whom he has denied in health?
III. HE CANNOT FIND IN GOD A SPRING OF JOY. He cannot delight himself in him whom he has represented to himself as an unreality. God has not been really G-d in the estimate of the hypocrite. The man who is himself conscious of being false makes all false around him. He does not live in a real but a deceitful world. He has deceived himself in respect of it.
IV. HE CANNOT CALL UPON GOD IN PRAYER. Thus the hope of the hypocrite perishes. It is vain. In the exigencies of life, when he most needs help, the false foundation which he has laid for himself fails him. The man who acts falsely towards God really acts falsely towards himself, and turns the most substantial grounds of hope into airy nothingness.R.G.
Job 27:13-23
The reward of iniquity.
Job’s eye had been open to behold the ways of God with men. He had seen the effects of righteous living and of wickedness. His own suffering, coupled with his consciousness of integrity, would quicken his inquiries and his observations on the relative results of these two methods of living. He now pronounces his judgment on the fruits of ungodly living: “This is the portion of a wicked man.” Whatever may be the temporary prosperity of the wicked (and of such prosperity Job had already spoken), yet it lacks permanence, and it is associated with much sorrow. He traces the sorrow in the following particulars.
I. AFFLICTION UPON HIS FAMILY. A curse is upon his home. The sword, the famine, the pestilence, carry off his children, even if they be multiplied.
II. INSECURITY OF HIS WEALTH. Yea, “though he heap up silver as the dust.” The Divine retributions are everywhere acknowledge
. This, in Job’s view, is the lot of the ungodly; and though he himself has Suffered many things at the hands of the Lord, he is conscious of his righteousness, and has confident hope of final vindication.R.G.
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY
Job 27:1-4
Moral honesty.
Job now almost loses sight of his vexatious friends as he breaks out into a long discourse. His first thought is to assert his integrity, without flinching before the charges that have been so recklessly flung at him. He will not confess sins of which he is not guilty. It required some courage for him to take this stand, for he was sorely pressed to yield to insincerity.
I. THE TEMPTATION TO INSINCERITY. This is many-sided, springing from various sources.
1. The desire to conciliate God. Job is persuaded that it is the Almighty who has vexed his soul. If he will abase himself and confess his utter unworthiness, it would seem that perhaps God would be propitiated.
2. The persuasive urgency of others. Each of the three friends had set before Job the same picture, and had suggested that the only security, the only hope, lay in abject penitence. It is difficult to hold to our course when it is resisted and reprobated by our friends.
3. The true humility of a good man. Job knew that he was a frail creature, and that he was as nothing before the might and holiness of God (Job 7:1-8). Good men are more or less conscious of their own littleness. It seems a mark of modesty to depreciate one’s self. Job must have been deeply pained at the unfairness that drove him to take the opposite course and vindicate his own uprightness. We are all tempted to insincere confession of guilt which we do not feel in order to please God or men, or as a sign of humility.
II. THE WEAKNESS OF YIELDING TO THIS TEMPTATION. All the inducements that may be brought to urge a person to insincerity are just temptations to sin. They are attacks upon the conscience. To yield to them is a sign of weakness. The important point is that insincerity is always wrong, even when it is in the direction of self-humiliation. There may be a hypocritical penitence as well as a hypocritical pride. We cannot be too deeply humble; when the thought of our sin dawns upon us we cannot grieve over the guilt and shame of it too intensely. But if we do not feel this profound penitence it is nothing but falsehood and empty pretence to make a confession of it with our lips. For the language of penitence to exceed the feeling of it is not a mark of real humility. Any insincerity is injurious to the conscience and wrong in the sight of God, and the fact that it tends to self-depreciation rather than to self-exaltation does not alter its essential character.
III. THE MORAL HONESTY OF RESISTING THE TEMPTATION TO INSINCERITY. We cannot but admire the manliness of Job. It was difficult for him not to be cowed before the array of adverse influences brought to bear upon him. His sickness of body, his mental distress and perplexity, and the unanimous opinion of his friends, might well have deprived him of all courage. Yet he holds up his head and asserts the right. On what is such moral honesty based?
1. Reverence for truth. Truth is imperious and must be respected at any cost.
2. Belief in justice. In the end right must prevail. It cannot be well to renounce it in favour of temporary appearances.
3. Trust in God. Job still clings to his faith, although he believes that all his troubles come from God. Now, no insincerity can please God or deceive him. If we think of our standing in his sight, rather than our position in the eyes of men, we must be true and honest.W.F.A.
Job 27:8-10
An empty hope.
The wicked man may have gained much of earthly goods. But all he has is temporal and external. Therefore it is useless to him at death, and in regard to all his spiritual needs. We can see the dark features of his miserable prospect in the picture that Job has drawn.
I. HE HAS EARTHLY POSSESSIONS. The foolish man has made gain; but it is useless to him. He is like the rich man in the parable, who was about to build new barns lot his goods when his life was taken and all his wealth lost at a stroke. If a person trusts to his earthly prosperity he is not prepared to confess his true needs. He thinks he is rich when he is miserable and blind and naked (Rev 3:17). If he has acquired his wealth for himself, if it is his gain, he is in the greater danger of over-estimating it. Self-made men are tempted to think too much of what they have won by their own hard toil.
II. HE HAS NO CLAIM ON THE HEAVENLY INHERITANCE. There is nothing for the future. Yet life is brief and uncertain. It must end soon; it may end at any moment. Riches may have been got by a man’s own energy; but life is dependent on the will of God. Thus a man gains earthly things; but God disposes of his life. The greater concerns are altogether outside his powers, as they are beyond the region of his calculations.
III. HE HAS NO ACCESS TO GOD IN PRAYER. The wicked man has no right to expect God to hear him in trouble.
1. He will have trouble. All his prosperity cannot exclude the possibility, nay, the certainty, of adversity.
2. He will need God. In trouble he may shriek to Heaven for help, though he never dreams of acknowledging God in times of prosperity. Prayer is so natural to man that it is forced out of the most unaccustomed lips by the pressure of great distress.
3. He will not be heard. Job is right. There are men whose prayers God will not hear. The reason is simply that they do not fulfil the necessary conditions of successful prayer. No man can fall so low, but that if he humble himself and turn and repent, God will hear him. But God will not hear the prayer of the impenitent. When the wicked man fails into trouble, very naturally he will desire to be saved from it. But possibly he may not repent of his sin nor desire to be saved from that; then all his prayer comes from a low, selfish desire to escape what hurts him. Such a prayer cannot be heard.
IV. HE HAS NO DELIGHT IN GOD.
1. He misses the one source of perfect good. Though he gains much, his possessions are external; they do not help or Iced his soul. They are but temporal; when he dies he will leave them all behind. But God, as the Portion of his people, is a satisfying and permanent possession. He, and he alone, both fills all their real need now and endures for ever. To miss God in pursuit of any other aim is to light on an empty hope.
2. He will not continue to seek God. In the agony of the moment a miserable, selfish cry to Heaven is wrung from his heart. But when the trouble is past he forgets his prayer. He will not “always call upon God.” So-called death-bed repentances are justly viewed with suspicion. Too often the dying man is only afraid of the dread unknown, naturally desirous of being delivered from its terrors. Too often, if he recovers, his penitence is forgotten with his fears of death, and he lives his old evil life again.W.F.A.
Job 27:11
Teachings concerning God.
I. THE HIGHEST TEACHINGS. Our thoughts am too much chained to the earths and too much centred in self. Even in religion we tend to subjective feelings rather than to worshipthe contemplation and the service of God. Now, the chief end of revelation is to make God known to us, and the highest occupation for our minds is to rise to the thought of God. The character of God should make this clear to us.
1. His greatness. Knowledge should seek a worthy object. We should desire to know what is greatest, rather than petty details.
2. His holiness. Teachings about God are teachings about goodness. Here we come to the source of true ethics. We cannot study “the good” till we know God.
3. His love. That is supreme in God, and it is supreme in the universe. To know the love of God is to know what is highest and best of all things.
II. PRACTICAL TEACHINGS. It may be urged that we cannot afford to spend our time in contemplation, that we want to know how to live our present life, and that therefore earthly and human knowledge is the most important knowledge. But this is a mistake. For God is not separated from this world and the affairs of daily life. The knowledge of God is not abstract theology. God is our Father, our Master, our Guide. To know God is to know how to live; it is to know what character and conduct are in harmony with the mind of our supreme King. We cannot live aright without knowing him. Moreover, it is a matter of profound interest to know how God is disposed towards us. Is he gracious and forgiving? how may we best please him? These are practical questions. But apart from the ends of knowledge, the knowledge of God is itself a source of blessedness. To know God is eternal life (Joh 17:3).
III. DIFFICULT TEACHINGS. Experience shows how grievously men have erred in their teachings about God. Not only has heathenism gone astray in its manifold and monstrous perversions of Divinity, but Christians have set forth the most erroneous conceptions of God. With some he has been regarded as a stern despot, an arbitrary autocrat; with others he has been represented as a mere personification of amiable and compliant good will, without regard to moral considerations. It is not wonderful that the teachings are difficult, considering:
1. The greatness of God. One can know but a very little of so awful a Being. We see but “parts of his ways;” “but the thunder of his power who can understand?”
2. The blindness of men. Sin blinds us; prejudice perverts our notions of God instead of allowing us to see the truth about him.
IV. POSSIBLE TEACHINGS.
1. From revelation. God has not hidden himself in the thick darkness. He has made himself known in his works, by the inspiration of prophecy, and above all in the Person of Christ. Agnosticism is only defensible if all revelation is discarded, and agnosticism cannot account for Christ.
2. By spiritual grace. The knowledge of God is an inward revelation. We can only read nature, the Bible, and Christ aright when the Spirit of God is in our hearts. By the gift of his Spirit God opens our eyes to the knowledge of himself.W.F.A.
Job 27:13-23
The portion of a wicked man.
Job seems to be echoing the teaching of his friends which he has previously repudiated. Now he urges that the wicked man does meet with trouble as the wages of his misdeeds. But Job looks further than his friends. He does not associate particular and immediate troubles with guilt as they do; he takes a large view of life; he embraces the whole career; and from that he draws his conclusions. The striking thing about this picture is that success is converted into disappointment. The wicked man prospers. He is not poor and miserable, as the old, conventional, orthodox creed assumed. But his very wealth and success are turned to failure and wretchedness.
I. FAMILY DISAPPOINTMENTS. (Verses 13-15.) The wicked man is not childless. He has children who are to be regarded as “a heritage from the Lord.” His family grows up about him. But wait for the end. Clouds gather and break over the home. Brave sons are slain by the sword. Famine visits the land, or business failure impoverishes the store, and then many children only mean many mouths to feed. If the calamity does not always come in this visible way, in some way or other the bad man must miss the true blessings of family life, for he has not the pure and generous spirit out of which they are produced.
II. USELESS WEALTH. (Verses 16, 17.) He may heap up silver as the dust, but he will not be able to enjoy it. Mere money is not happiness. Money may be married to misery, while peace may dwell with poverty. The wealth may not be forfeited; yet the life of its owner is but brief. After he has gone another will enjoy the product of his labours, Thus, while he has it, it will not satisfy his deepest wants, and at best his tenure of it is temporary and hazardous.
III. DANGER IN THE MIDST OF SECURITY. (Verses 18, 19.) He has built him a house. But in the day of trial this will prove flimsy as a silken cocoon spun by a moth, frail as a booth of green boughs. Thus he deceives himself. If he had not been prosperous he would have been more ready to confess his helplessness. But his very success has blinded him, and lulled him to sleep in a false sense of ease and safety. Yet his ruin is preparing for him, and it will burst over him when he least expects it. Such a sudden and startling surprise must be overwhelming. The miserable man will be crushed by it.
IV. TERRORS AND IRRESISTIBLE DESTRUCTION. (Verses 20, 21.) When the day of reckoning comes there will be no possibility of mistaking it. All signs of prosperity now disappear. There is only an awakening to terror and tempest. The fierce east wind sweeps the wicked man away. No one can resist the judgment of God. It is sudden, swift, complete, like the desolating hurricane.
V. REPROBATION INSTEAD OF POPULARITY. (Verses 22, 23.) In his prosperity the wicked man was fawned upon by flatterers. Then he had society and admirers. Now he has lost all, and is desolate. God is against him. Men mock at him. A miserable, hunted creature, he has no hope and no refuge. Around and before him are only foes and dangers. He can but despair.
This awful fate is set forth as a warning. It is possible for the wicked man to repeat and find deliverance in the grace of Christ.W.F.A.
Job 27:17
The wicked working for the good.
This is not intentional. But it is a fact of observation and experience. Let us consider first the fact, and then how it is brought about.
I. THAT THE WORK OF THE WICKED IS FOR THE ADVANTAGE OF THE GOOD. First there is the negative side of the truth. Bad people do not enjoy the fruits of their own misdeeds. They may heap up riches, but they are not able to keep possession of them; for even if they meet with no reverse of fortune, they must forsake all when they die. But now we are carried a step further. What becomes of the forsaken wealth? Job says that it falls into the hands of the just, who put on the raiment which the wicked have prepared. This does not always happen in the direct manner that Job’s words indicate, though sometimes his statement is literally verified. But in indirect ways it has a much wider application. “All things work together for good to them that love God” (Rom 8:28). The earth helps the woman (Rev 12:16). The meek shall inherit the earth (Mat 5:5). Nebuchadnezzar fought for his own advantage only. Yet he was used as God’s servant (Jer 25:9), and his achievements were turned to the real advantage of the devout remnant of Israel. Persecution has spread the gospel, as when the Church was scattered at the death of Stephen, and so became missionary. Thus “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Modern wars have opened up countries to the gospel of Christnot wars of the cross in the interests of Christianity, but selfish, wicked wars, the leaders of which had no good end in view. So it may be that all sin and Satanic evil will be utilized, like offensive manure out of which spring beautiful and fragrant flowers.
II. HOW THE WORK OF THE WICKED COMES TO BE FOR THE ADVANTAGE OF THE GOOD. This thing is not aimed at by the wicked, nor do they imagine that it will come about. How, then, is it produced?
1. By the overruling providence of God. God governs even through the wicked deeds of bad men. He “shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.” “Man proposes, and God disposes.” We are not like pawns on the chess-board, because we have free-will. But God is infinitely greater than a skilful chess-player. He does more than manipulate inert things. He works among the wild and wayward wills of men, and so acts that they result in accomplishing his great purposes. Thus God employs unconscious agents and brings good out of evil.
2. Through human fitness. The good must be fit to profit by God’s providential use of the work of the wicked. That work tends to their advantage just in proportion as they are capable of being benefited.
(1) Moral fitness. This is a condition of the special favour that is indicated by the providential action. God will give as a favour what, indeed, is not earned, but what is in a measure the reward of fidelity.
(2) Personal fitness. We can only receive real good in proportion to our capacity for it. There are men who cannot take God’s blessings, simply because they have no susceptibility for them. Now, the real good even of property is not in the thing itself, but in the right use of it. God will make things a blessing to those who are in the condition to use them well.W.F.A.
Job 27:21
The east wind.
Kingsley wrote an ode to the east wind. But few men have a good word for it. We in England, however, have quite our share of the presence of this unwelcome visitor. Has the east wind any religious significance to us.
I. THERE ARE DESTRUCTIVE FORCES IN NATURE. The east wind is destructive. It brings blight to plants and illness to men. We might have expected that a perfect world would have only fresh, healthy west winds. Yet we must recognize the fact that, like the east wind, lightning, tempest, earthquakes, drought, and deluge are naturally hurtful influences. We need not resort to a Manichaean explanation, and suppose that a malignant being is at the root of these things. For scientific research teaches us that the destroying agencies of nature minister to its progress. The biting east wind that cuts off the more tender plants leaves the hardier ones to flourish with greater freedom, and so tends to promote their growth and propagation. The buffeting of the world helps to develop robustness of character.
II. INFLUENCE PARTAKES OF THE CHARACTER OF ITS ORIGIN. The east wind is gendered on the dreary steppes of Russia. Arid plains suck out of it all its exhilarating properties. Cold regions lend it cruel barbs of ice. Even in beautiful, smiling England, the east wind comes as a blast from Siberia, and the desolation of the land of exile accompanies it. Spiritual influence is like its origin. Cruel natures can only spread an atmosphere of cruelty and distress about them. No man can influence others excepting through what he possesses. We cannot permanently disguise our characters. As we are in our hearts and homes, so shall we be ultimately in our work and in the outcome of our lives.
III. CHILDHOOD DETERMINES MANHOOD. Leagues away beyond whole empires the east wind is born in the far-off Russian solitude. Yet when it flies over our fields and rushes in at our doors it is true to the character it received in the land of its birth. Not only is its influence true to its origin, but the wind itself continues of the same harsh character, although it is now surrounded by very genial circumstances. The tone and set of life are determined in youth. Some asperity may be softened and mellowed by the discipline of later years; but in the main most men are of the character of their youth. Hence the great importance of a right life at the start.
IV. EAST WINDS ARE CONFINED TO EARTH. There are none in heaven. The storms and terrors of life that beset God’s children are peculiar to this brief time of discipline. The fruits of the heavenly Eden are not touched by frost or blighting blast. Those people who have no portion in the better land may well dread the destructive agencies of nature, which tear away all that they have to live for. But true Christians should learn to face the east wind of cutting calamity, knowing that they have but to cross the moor, and a cheerful home will welcome them on the other side.W.F.A.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
CHAP. XXVII.
Job protesteth his sincerity. The hypocrite is without hope. The blessings which the wicked have are turned into curses.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 27:1. Moreover, Job continued his parable, and said Concerning the word parable, see Num 21:27. We add another criticism upon it from Mr. Peters. “The word mashal, is the same as is used in Scripture for a proverb, and is the very title given in the book of Proverbs. If we refer to the etymology of the word from the verb mashal, to rule, we shall find that it means no more than a powerful or commanding sentence or speech; and a good speaker in those ancient times had, no doubt, a great command in their assemblies. The Proverbs are called meshalim for no other reason, than for the weight and authority that they carry with them; for as to other things, we know that some are delivered in plain, some in figurative expressions; some in similies, and some without. A book of sentences of Epicurus, of so much authority with his followers that they used to get it by heart, was for the same reason, as I take it, called , an expression exactly answering to the Hebrew meshalim, and rendered by Tully, sententiae maxime ratae. With the same regard to the original idea of the word, a taunting domineering speech, or by-word, is likewise called mashal: as Psa 44:14. Thou makest us a by-word among the Heathen. And for the same reason, a song of victory, or triumphal speech in a good cause, is also called mashal; as Isa 14:4 where our translators read, Thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, how hath the oppressor ceased! &c. But this proverb, as appears by what follows, is no other than a triumphal song or speech, and that as noble a one as ever was composed, from Isa 14:4-23 of that chapter. And here we are brought home:by Job’s continuing his parable, is only meant that he went on in a triumphant way of speech, like one who had got the better of the argument, as he certainly had. For his antagonists, though they might not be convinced, were put to silence at least, and had nothing to reply.” Commentators differ much concerning the argument of Job in this chapter. Mr. Heath seems to have placed it in its true light. “Job,” says he, “having refuted thoroughly the principle on which his friends had argued, and having silenced them; he now, in this chapter, undertakes to prove to them on their own principles, that their reasoning was false; and, having first declared his purpose to maintain his innocence, he then desires them to consider how, on their own principles, they could suppose him a hypocrite; for, as he had given up all hopes of life, what end would it answer to play the hypocrite; a part which could not deceive the all-seeing eye of God? and what reliance could such an one have on the Almighty? Could he have the face to call upon him in the time of calamity? His own conscience must tell him that it would be in vain. ‘But, to put the matter out of all dispute, I will prove to you (says he,) by arguments irrefragable, (at least to you, for they are your own) that it must be foolish to the last degree to play the hypocrite in my condition; for all that I could propose to gain by it, is the long catalogue of misery which I shall run over. This you must allow to be true, for you yourselves tell me that you have seen it;'” referring to chap. Job 4:8 Job 15:17 Job 20:4.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
III. Job alone: His closing address to the vanquished friends. Chap. 2728
a. Renewed asseveration of his innocence, accompanied by a reference to his joy inGod, which had not forsaken him even in the midst of his deepest misery Job 27:1-10
1Moreover Job continued his parable, and said:
2As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment;
and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
3all the while my breath is in me,
and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
4 my lips shall not speak wickedness
nor my tongue utter deceit.
5 God forbid that I should justify you:
till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
6 My righteousness I hold fast, I will not let it go:
my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
7 Let mine enemy be as the wicked,
and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.
8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained,
when God taketh away his soul?
9Will God hear his cry
when trouble cometh upon him?
10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty?
will he always call upon God?
b. Statement of his belief that the prosperity of the ungodly cannot endure, but that they must infallibly come to a terrible end. Job 27:11-23
11 I will teach you by the hand of God;
that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.
12 Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it;
why then are ye thus altogether vain?
13 This is the portion of a wicked man with God,
and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.
14 If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword;
and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
15 Those that remain of him shall be buried in death;
and his widows shall not weep.
16 Though he heap up silver as the dust,
and prepare raiment as the clay;
17 he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on,
and the innocent shall divide the silver.
18 He buildeth his house as a moth,
and as a booth that the keeper maketh.
19 The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered;
he openeth his eyes, and he is not!
20 Terrors take hold on him as waters,
a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
21 The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth:
and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.
22 For God shall cast upon him, and not spare:
He would fain flee out of his hand.
23 Men shall clap their hands at him,
and hiss him out of his place.
c. Declaration that true Wisdom, which alone can secure real well-being, and a correct solution of the dark enigmas of mans destiny, is to be found nowhere on earth, but only with God, and by means of a pious submission to God. Chap. 28
1 Surely there is a vein for the silver,
and a place for gold where they fine it.
2 Iron is taken out of the earth.
and brass is molten out of the stone.
3 He setteth an end to darkness,
and searcheth out all perfection:
the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.
4 The flood breaketh out from the inhabitants;
even the waters forgotten of the foot:
they are dried up, they are gone away from men.
5 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread:
and under it is turned up as it were fire.
6 The stones of it are the place of sapphires:
and it hath dust of gold.
7 There is a path which no fowl knoweth,
and which the vultures eye hath not seen.
8 The lions whelps have not trodden it
nor the fierce lion passed by it.
9He putteth forth his hand upon the rock;
10 He cutteth out rivers among the rocks;
and his eye seeth every precious thing.
he overturneth the mountains by the roots.
11 He bindeth the floods from overflowing;
and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
12 But where shall wisdom be found?
and where is the place of understanding?
13 Man knoweth not the price thereof:
neither is it found in the land of the living.
14 The depth saith, It is not in me;
and the sea saith, It is not with me.
15 It cannot be gotten for gold,
neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir,
with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
17 The gold and the crystal cannot equal it:
and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
18 No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls;
for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,
neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
20 Whence then cometh wisdom?
and where if the place of understanding?
21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living,
and kept close from the fowls of the air.
22Destruction and death say,
we have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
23 God understandeth the way thereof,
and He knoweth the place thereof.
24For He looketh to the ends of the earth,
and seeth under the whole heaven;
25to make the weight for the winds;
and He weigheth the waters by measure.
26When He made a decree for the rain,
and a way for the lightning of the thunder;
27Then did He see it, and declare it;
He prepared it, yea, and searched it out.
28And unto man He said:
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
and to depart from evil is understanding.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Inasmuch as the opposition of the friends is silenced, before the last of the number attempts a third reply, the victor, after a short pause, takes up his discourse, in order that, by collecting himself after the passion of the strife, he might express with greater calmness and clearness the convictions which have been formed within him as results of the colloquy thus far, and so to give to the colloquy the internal solution which was wanting (Dillm.). It is not so much a triumphant self-contemplation, or a pathetic monologue, that he delivers, but a genuine didactic discourse, addressed to the vanquished friends, which, like the discourses of the previous discussion, is cast in the form, characteristic of the Chokmah, of a series of proverbs. It is hence expressly termed in the introductory verse (Job 27:1) a continuation of the Mashal, i. e. of the proverbial discourse (in regard to , to utter, lit. to raise a proverb; comp. Num 23:7, where the same expression is applied to a prophetic vaticinium of Balaams). [ is speech of a more elevated tone and more figurative character; here, as frequently, the unaffected outgrowth of an elevated solemn mood. The introduction of the ultimatum as reminds one of the proverb (el–methel) seals it in the mouth of the Arab, since in common life it is customary to use a pithy saying as the final proof at the conclusion of a speech. Delitzsch.]The following are the contents of this proverbial discourse, which is somewhat extended, and which, especially in its last principal division, is exceedingly lofty and poetic: (1) An emphatic asseveration of his own innocence, which he has made repeatedly during the previous colloquy, and which he now puts forth as attested by his continued experience of Gods friendship, and his joy in God (Job 27:2-10); (2) A descriptionimitating and surpassing the similar descriptions of the friends in chs. 15; 18; 20, etc.of the fearful divine judgment, which must of necessity overtake the ungodly, and in view of which he indeed has every reason to adhere earnestly and zealously to Gods ways (Job 27:11-23); (3) An exhibition of the nature of true wisdom, which alone can furnish correct solutions of the dark enigmas of this earthly life, and which is here set forth as a blessing absolutely supra-sensual, to be obtained only through God, and the closest union with Him (Job 28.).These three sections are differently divided, the two former consisting of three short strophes (of three to five verses), the third of three long strophes (two of eleven, and one of six verses).
2. First Section: The asseveration of his innocence: Job 27:2-10.
First Strophe: Job 27:2-4.As God liveth (lit. living is God! a well-known Hebrew, and also Arabic formula of adjuration) [the only place where Job resorts to the oath], who hath taken away from me my right, and the Almighty who hath vexed my soul; lit. who hath made bitter my soul (LXX.: , comp. Col 3:19 : ).
Job 27:3. For still all my breath is in me, and Gods breath is in my nostrils, i. e. I am still possessed of enough freshness and vigor of spirit to know what I say, to be a responsible witness in behalf of my innocence. The older expositors, and among the moderns Schlottmann [Good, Noyes, Conant, Bernard, Carey, Rodwell, Elzas, Renan, Merx, and so E. V.] take the verse not as a parenthetic reason for the adjuration in Job 27:2, but as the antecedent of Job 27:4 : so long as my breath is yet in me, etc. But in that case the contents of the oath would have a double introduction, first by , then by . Moreover the words , as the parallel passages, 2Sa 1:9; Hos 14:3, show, have not in the least the appearance of an adverbial antecedent determination of time.[The older rendering is certainly to be preferred. (1) It expresses a thought much more suitable for incorporation into an oath. As God liveswhile I liveI will speak only the truthis natural. As God livesand I take this oath because I am fully competent to stand up to what I am swearingmy lips shall not, etc.is decidedly unnatural. (2) The language at once suggests the simple idea of livingbreath () yet in methe breath of Eloah in my nostril. This is scarcely the language one would use in describing a particular inward condition. (3) is simply transitional, introducing after the oath a thought preparatory to the principal thought introduced by , a construction which Delitzsch admits to be possible, though what there is perplexing in it, it is difficult to see. (4) is used adverbially as in Psa 39:6; Psa 45:14; Ecc 5:15; herewholly as long as (see Gesenius and Frst). It thus strengthens the expression in a way that is altogether appropriate to the strong feeling which prompts the oath.E.]
Job 27:4 gives the contents of the oath, which the following verses unfold still more specifically and comprehensively. In regard to , lit. perverseness, hence falsehood, untruthfulness, and its synonym , comp. Job 13:7.
Second Strophe: Job 27:5-7.Far be it from me (lit. for a profanation be it to me, comp. Ew. 329, a) to grant that you are in the right:wherein is seen in the second memberuntil I die I will not let my innocence be taken away from me (lit. I will not let it depart from me), i. e. I will not cease from asserting it continually.
Job 27:6. In regard to in a, meaning to let something go, to let it fall, comp. Job 7:19.My heart reproacheth not one of my days., lit. to pluck, to pick off, carpere, vellicare. here is unquestionably synonymous substantially with conscience. So Luther translated it both here and in Jos 14:7; comp. also 1Sa 24:6 [5]; 2Sa 24:10, where it may also be translated conscience (see in general Vilmar, Theolog. Moral. I., p. 66). Most modern commentators rightly take in , as partitiveone of my days; the temporal rendering of the expression adopted by the ancients, as also by Ewald (= while I live, in omni vita mea, Vulg.) [E. V.], necessitates the harsh and scarcely admissible rendering of as intransitive, or as reflexive (does not blame itself, Ewald) [E. V. supplies me]. It remains to be said, that this asseveration of innocence (like that in Job 23:10 seq.) is, in some measure, exaggerated, when compared with the mention which Job makes earlier of the sins of his youth, Job 13:26.
Job 27:7. Mine enemy must appear as the wicked, and mine adversary as the unrighteous:viz. as the penalty of their falsely suspecting and disputing my innocence. Only this optative rendering of the Jussive is suited to the context, not the concessive: though mine enemy be an evil-doer, I am none (Hirz.). As to , comp. Job 20:27; Psa 59:2. [The idea conveyed in is hostility of feeling; in , hostility of action, and that initiative. It is, to some extent, expressive of unprovoked assault. Carey.]
Third Strophe: Job 27:8-10.For what is the hope of an ungodly man when He cutteth off, when Eloah draweth out his soul?This question is to be understood from the two former discourses of Job, in which, when confronting death he placed his hope with animated emphasis on God, as his final deliverer and avenger (chs. 17. and 19.). In contrast with such a joyful hope reaching out beyond death, the evil-doer has nothing more to hope for, when once God has cut off his thread of life, and drawn out his soul out of the mortal body enclosing it ( Imperf. apoc. Kal. from , extrahere, cognate with and ). The figurative expression: cutting off the soul, has always for its basis the same conception of the body as a tent, and of the internal thread of life as the tent-cord, which we came across in Job 4:21. Possibly the expression: drawing out has the same explanation, although this seems to have rather for its basis the comparison of the body to a sheath for the soul (Dan 7:15), so that accordingly we have a transition from one figure to another. [E. V. (after the Vulgate, Syr., Targ.), Gesenius in Thes., Frst, Con., Ber., Merx, Rod., Elz., translate though he hath gained soil, riches, or though he despoil. The meaning to plunder or gain is certainly more in harmony with the usage of the verb in Kal, and avoids the mixture of metaphor according to the other construction.E.]
Job 27:9-10. Will God hear his cry? Can he delight himself in the Almighty?etc. The meaning of these questions is that to him there shall be neither the hearing of his prayers, nor a joyful, trustful and loving fellowship with God ( as in Job 22:26). Job accordingly claims for himself both these things (comp. Job 13:16), and thereby leaves out of the account transient obscurations of his spirit, like that in consequence of which he mourns (Job 19:7) that his prayer is not heard.
3. Second Section: Description of the inevitable overthrow of the wicked: Job 27:11-23. The striking correspondence which this description by Job seems at first sight to exhibit with the well-known descriptions of the friends, especially in the second series of the colloquy, and this notwithstanding the fact that Job himself only just before, in chs. 21 and 24, has maintained the happiness of the wicked to the end of their life, have led some to assume a transposition, or confusion of the text (Kennicott, Stuhlmann, Bernstein, [Bernard, Wemyss, Elzas]; comp. Introd. 9, 1); others, to suppose that Job is here simply repeating the opinion of his opponents, without purposing to make it his own (Eichhorn, Das Buch Hiob bers., etc., 1824; Bckel, 2d Ed. 1830). But the contradiction to Jobs former utterances is only apparent, for: (1) The opinion that the prosperity of the wicked cannot endure has been repeatedly put forth even by himself, at least in principle (comp. Job 21:16; Job 23:15; Job 24:12; comp. also below Job 31:3 seq.). (2) The erroneous and objectionably one-sided utterances regarding God as a hard-hearted persecutor of innocence, and author of the prosperity of many evil-doers, which he has heretofore frequently put forth, needed to be counteracted by the truths which supplement and rectify these one-sided errors. (3) It was of importance to Job, not so much to instruct the friends in regard to the fact that the impending destruction of the ungodly was certainfor that they had long known this fact is expressly set forth in Job 27:12as rather to place this phenomenon in the right light, in opposition to the perverted application which they had made of it, and to exhibit its profound connection with the order of the universe as established by the only wise God. This end he accomplishes by subsequently introducing a description of true wisdom and understanding, a treasure deeply hidden, and to be possessed only through the fear of God, and humble submission to Him.This is the end which Job has in view in the present discourse. It is not necessary (with Brentius and others of the older expositors, also Schlottmann) to find in it a warning purpose, i. e., the purpose to set before the friends the end of those who judge unjustly, and who render unfriendly decisions, with a view of terrifying thema purpose of which there is nowhere any indication, and for which there would seem to be no particular motive, seeing that the discussion has come to an end, and that any attempt to move the vanquished opponents by warnings would be cruelly and most injuriously at variance with the conciliatory mildness which this last discourse of Jobs elsewhere breathes.
[a. The attempts to relieve the difficulty connected with the passage before us by changing and transposing the text are arbitrary and unsatisfactory, producing abrupt connections, or rather breaks, and a confusion of thought and impression more serious than that which it is sought to remove.
b. Especially does it betray a total want of appreciation of the authors skill in managing the plot and development of the drama to force in Zophar for a third speech. The logical and rhetorical exhaustion of the friends could not well be more effectively indicated than by the way in which the colloquy on their part tapers and dwindlesfirst in the short, and so far as ideas are concerned, poverty-stricken speech of Bildad, and finally in the complete dumbness of Zophar, perhaps of all three the most consummate master of words.
c. The theory that Job is here going over the ground of the friends, and repeating their position, is disproved negatively by the absence of anything to indicate such a course, and positively by the straightforward earnestness and deep feeling which pervade the passage, as well as by what he says in the introductory verses 11, 12.
d. Regarded as Jobs own earnest affirmations the following considerations should be borne in mind.
(1) As shown above by Zckler, isolated statements have already proceeded in harmony with the representation given here. At the same time it cannot be denied that this is much the most extended and emphatic expression by Job of the view here set forth, and that it is in form much more nearly allied to the representations of the friends. But:
(2) It is no part of the poets plan to preserve Jobs unalterable consistency. Jobs experiences are most various, and his utterances change with them. They strike each various chord of sorrow, joy, doubt, confidence, despair, hope, fear, yearning, victory. Through all it is true there is an underlying unity and identity of character; but the variations exist, and are full of dramatic interest and importance, and yet more of sacred practical suggestiveness.
(3) These inconsistencies still further prepare the way for a termination and solution of the controversy. As Umbreit has shown, without the apparent contradiction in Jobs speeches, the interchange of words would have been endless; or as Delitzsch has stated it: Had Jobs stand-point been absolutely immovable, the controversy could not possibly have come to a well-adjusted decision, which the poet must have planned, and which he also really brings about, by causing his hero still to retain an imperturbable consciousness of his innocence, but also allowing his irritation to subside, and his extreme harshness to become moderated.
(4) In the particular passage before us, Jobs utterance is to be explained largely in the light of the victory which he has just achieved. In the hour of triumph a great soul is moderate, calm, just. So here Job shows the greatness of his strength by conceding to the friends the truth in their position, and by stating that truth with a power equal to their own. It is a masterly touch of the poets art that shows itself here in this picture of a great soul in the hour of victory.
(5) There is, however, as suggested above by Zckler, a still more conscious and controlling purpose in the following description. Job describes the certain destruction of the wicked, not mainly in the way of concession to the friends, but rather for his own vindication. The friends had portrayed such descriptions to show how much there are in the evil-doers fate to remind of Jobs calamities. Job takes up the theme to show how unlike his fate, with all its tragic lineaments, and the abandoned sinners. He still holds fast to his righteousness, is heard by God, delights in God, is on terms of intimacy with God, is competent to instruct in behalf of God;the wicked man has a very different portion with God! As ever therefore Job is not merely eloquent, but cogent; and when he accepts their conclusions, it is to overwhelm them yet more completely with their own arguments.E.]
First Strophes: Job 27:11-13. Introduction to the following description.
Job 27:11. I will teach you concerning Gods hand:i. e. concerning His doings, His mode of working. In regard to with verbs of teaching or instructing, comp. Psa 25:8; Psa 25:12; Psa 32:8; Pro 4:11 (Ew. 217, f).The mind of the Almighty will I not conceal from you: lit. what is with the Almighty, that which forms the contents of His thoughts and counsels; comp. Job 10:13; Job 23:10, etc.
Job 27:12. See now, all ye yourselves [ emphatic] have seen it, have become familiar with it by observation (, as in Job 15:17), so that ye do not need to learn the thing itself, but only to acquire a more correct, unprejudiced understanding of it. The second member points to the latter: and why are ye then vain with vanity? i. e. so altogether vain, so completely entangled in perverse delusion? (Ew. 281, a).
Job 27:13 announces the theme treated of in the passage following, in words which purposely convey a reminder of the language used by one of the opponents, Zophar, at the close of his discourse (Job 20:29).
Second Strophe: Job 27:14-18. The judgment, upon the family, possessions, and homestead of the evil-doer.
Job 27:14. If his children multiply (it is) for the sword. sc. . In respect to , found only in Job, comp. Job 29:21; Job 38:40; Job 40:4 (Ew. 221, b).
Job 27:15. The remnant of those who are his shall be buried by the pestilence. his escaped ones (comp. Job 20:21; Job 20:26), are the descendants still remaining to him, after that the sword and famine have already thinned their ranks. This remainder the Pestilence will carry off, that third destroying angel, in addition to the sword and famine, mentioned also in Jer 14:12; Jer 15:2; Jer 18:21; 2Sa 24:13; Lev 26:25 seq. Here, as also in Jer 15:2, this is simply designated death (); and by the phrase, in death (or by death) they are buried, allusion is made to the quick succession of death and burial, which is customary in such epidemics (comp. Amo 6:9 seq.). This bold and truly poetic thought is destroyed if, with Bttcher, we take to mean in momento mortis, or if, with Olshausen [Merx], we arbitrarily insert a before . [Carey explains: They shall be sepulchred by Death. This is literal, and a bold figure, by which is signified that they should have no other burial than such as Death should give them on the open field, where they had fallen, either by sword or by famine. This, however, is somewhat too artificial and modern]. And his widows weep notto wit, in following the coffin, because by reason of the frightful raging of the disease, funeral solemnities are not observed. His widows may mean both the principal wives and concubines of the head of the family, and those of his deceased sons and grandsons; these latter even, in a certain sense, belonging to him, the patriarch. Comp. the literal repetition of this member in Psa 78:64, where the twofold possibility mentioned here is not recognized, because the there refers to the people, .
Job 27:16. If he heapeth up for himself silver as the dust, etc.The same figures used to designate material regarded as worthless on account of its great quantity in Zec 9:3.
Job 27:17. Apodosis to the preceding verse, expressing the same thought as, e. g., Psa 37:29; Psa 37:34; Ecc 2:16.
Job 27:18. He hath built, like a moth, his house, and like a booth, which a watchman puts up (in a vineyard, or an orchard, Isa 1:8). The point of comparison for both members is the laxity, frailty, destructibility of such structures, which are intended to be broken up soon.
Third Strophe: Job 27:19-23. He lieth down rich, and doeth it not again.So according to the reading (=), which already the LXX. ( ), Itala, and Pesh. followed, which is favored by parallel passages, such as Job 20:9; Job 40:5, and is accordingly preferred by the leading modern commentators, such as Ewald, Hirzel, Delitzsch, Dillmann [Renan, Rodwell, Merx]. The renderings based on the reading are not so good; as, e. g., and yet nothing is taken away (Schnurr., Umbreit, Stick. [Elzas, Wemyss: but he shall take nothing away];and he is not buried (Ralbag, Rosenmller, Schlottmann) [Noyes, E. V.: he shall not be gathered, and so Con., Lee, Scott, etc. Carey explains the familiar phrase, to be gathered (to ones fathers, etc.), not of being buried in the grave, but of being removed to the place of spirits. The objections to referring the clause to the rich mans burial, as stated by Delitzsch, are, that the preceding strophe has already referred to his not being buried, and that the relation of the two parts of the verse in this interpretation is unsatisfactory]. The same may be said of the reading , and takes not with him (Jerome, and some MSS.). Openeth his eyesand is gone! (comp. Job 24:24).This further description of the sudden end of the wicked relates to the morning, the time of awakening, as the preceding clause refers to the evening hour of going to bed.
Job 27:20. The multitude of terrors (i. e., the sudden terrors of death; comp. Job 18:14; Job 20:25) like the waters (like the torrents of a sudden overflowcomp. Job 20:28; Jer 47:2; Psa 18:5 [4]) overtakes him (, 3d Perf. sing. fem, referring to the plur. ; comp. Job 14:19). On b comp. Job 21:18.
Job 27:21. Further descriptive expansion of the figure of a tempest: The east wind lifteth him up.This wind being elsewhere frequently described as particularly violent and descriptive; comp. Job 1:19; Job 15:2; Job 38:24; Isa 27:8; Eze 27:26. Concerning , ut pereat, comp. Job 14:20; Job 19:10.
Job 27:22. The subj. of can be only God, the secret Author of the whole judgment of wrath here described. Of Him it is said: He hurleth upon him without sparingto wit, arrows; comp. Job 16:13; and in regard to the objectless =to shoot, see Num 35:20. Before His hand must he fleelit. must he fleeing flee.The Inf. Absol. expresses the strenuousness and yet the futility of his various attempts to flee (Del.: before His hand he fleeth hither and thither).
Job 27:23. They clap their hands at himrejoicing at his calamity and mocking him; comp. Job 34:37; Lam 2:15; Nah 3:19. The plural suffixes in and are used poetically for the sing., as in Job 20:23; Job 22:2. The accumulation of the terminations mo and mo gives a tone of thunder and a gloomy impress to this conclusion of the description of judgment, as these terminations frequently occur in the book of Psalms, where moral depravity is mourned and divine judgment threatened (e. g., in Psalms 73). DelThey hiss him out of his placeso that he must leave his dwelling-place (comp. Job 8:18) in the midst of scorn and hissing (comp. Zep 2:15; Jer 49:17). Or out of his home (Hirz.), which rendering gives essentially the same meaning.
4. Third Section: first Strophe. Job 28:1-11. The difficulty, indeed the absolute impossibility, of attaining true wisdom by human skill and endeavor, described by means of an illustration taken from mining, which gives man access to all valuable treasures of a material sort, but which can by no means put him in possession of that spiritual good which comes from God. The questionwhence the author had acquired so accurate a knowledge of mining as he here displays, seeing that the land of the Israelites was comparatively poor in mineral treasures (comp. Keil, Bibl. Archol., p. 35 seq., 38)? may be answered, on the basis of Biblical and extra-Biblical sources of information, as follows: (1) The Jews in Palestine could not have been absolutely, strangers to the business of mining, seeing that in Deu 8:9 there is expressly promised to them a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. (2) Both Lebanon in the north, and the Idumean mountains in the south-east of Palestine proper, had copper mines, the particular location of these being at Phunon, or Phaino, Num 33:42 seq., in the working of which it is certain that the Jews were occasionally interested; comp. Volneys Travels; Ritter, Erdkunde XVII. 1063; Gesenius, Thes. p. 1095; v. Rougemont, Bronzezeit, p. 87. (3) The Israelites possessed iron pits, possibly in South Lebanon, where in modern times such may still be found, together with smelting furnaces (Russegger, Reise I. 779, 778 seq.), but certainly in the country east of the Jordan, where, according to the testimony of Josephus, de B. Jud. IV. 8, 2, there was an iron mountain ( ) north of Moabitis, the Cross Mountain, El Mird of to-day, between the gorges of the Wadi Zerka and Wadi Arabun, west of Gerash; a mountain district in which in our own century iron mines have been worked here and there (v. Rougemont, l. c.; Wetzstein in Delitzsch, II. 9091). (4) Jerome testifies to the existence of ancient gold mines in Idumea (Opp. ed. Vail. III. 183). (5) The Israelites might also come occasionally into connection with the copper and iron mines of the Sinai-peninsula, in the development of which the Egyptian Pharaohs were conspicuously energetic (comp. Aristeas v. Haverkamp, p. 114; Lepsius, Briefe, p. 335 seq.; Ritter, Erdkunde XIV. 784 seq; v. Rougemont, l. c.1 (6) What has been said above by no means excludes the possibility that in this description the poet in many particulars took for his basis traditional reports concerning the mines of distant lands, e. g. concerning the gold mines of Upper Egypt and Nubia (Diodorus Job 3:11 seq.), concerning the gold and silver mines of the Phenicians in Spain (1Ma 8:3; Plin. Job 3:4; Diod. 5:35 seq.), concerning the emerald quarries of the Egyptians at Berenice, and other deposits of precious stones, more or less remote. Comp. above Introd. 7, b; and see a fuller discussion of the subject in Delitzsch 2:8689; to some extent also the mining experts who have commented on the following verses, such as v. Weltheim (in J. D. Mich., Orient. Bibl. 23,. 7 seq.), and Rud. Nasse (Stud. u. Krit., 1863, p. 105 seq.)
Job 28:1. For there is for the silver a vein [Germ. Fundort, place where it is found], and a place for the gold, which they refine.The connection between this section and the preceding, which is indicated by the causal for, is this: The phenomenon described in Job 27:11-23, that the wickedwith whom, according to Job 28:2-10 Job is not to be classedmeet with a terrible end without deliverance, is to be explained by the fact that they do not possess true wisdom, which can be acquired only through the fear of God, which cannot, like the treasures of this earth (the only object for which the wicked plan and toil), be dug out, exchanged or bought. The proposition introduced by accordingly assigns a reason first of all for that which forms the contents of Job 27:11-23 (the prosperity of the ungodly cannot endure), but secondarily and indirectly also that which is announced in Job 27:2-10 (Job is an upright man, and one who fears God, whose joy in God does not forsake him even in the midst of the deepest misery). [The miserable end of the ungodly is confirmed by this, that the wisdom of man, which he has despised, consists in the fear of God; and Job thereby attains at the same time the special aim of his teaching, which is announced at Job 27:11 by ; viz. he has at the same time proved that he who retains the fear of God in the midst of his sufferings, though those sufferings are an insoluble mystery, cannot be a . And if we ponder the fact that Job has depicted the ungodly as a covetous rich man who is snatched away by sudden death from his immense possession of silver and other costly treasures, we see that Job 28. confirms the preceding picture of punitive judgment in the following manner: silver and other precious metals come out of the earth, but wisdom, whose value exceeds all these earthly treasures, is to be found nowhere within the province of the creature; God alone possesses it, and from God alone it comes; and so far as man can and is to attain to it, it consists in the fear of the Lord and the forsaking of evil. Delitzsch.] The first verses of the chapter indeed down to the 11th, present nothing whatever as yet of that which serves directly to establish those antecedent propositions, they simply prepare the way for the demonstration proper, by describing the achievements of art and labor in the accumulation by men of their treasures, by means of which nevertheless wisdom can not be found. Hence may appropriately be rendered for truly (the but in Job 28:12 corresponding to the truly). This connection between Job 28, 27 is erroneously exhibited, when any subordinate proposition of Job 27 is regarded as that which is to be established (as e. g., according to Hirzel, the question in Job 28:12 : why are ye so altogether vain? why do ye adhere to so perverse a delusion? or according to Schlottmann the purpose to warn against the sin of making unfriendly charges, which he thinks is to be read between the lines in the description Job 28:11-23). These false conceptions of the connection, alike with the total abandonment of all connection, which has led many critics to resort to arbitrary attempts to assign to Job 28. another position (e. g. according to Pareau after Job 26.; according to Stuhlmann after Job 25) or to question altogether its genuineness (Knobel, Bernsteincomp. Introd. 9, 1)all these one-sided conceptions rest, for the most part, on the assumption that it is the divine wisdom, which rules the universe, whose unsearchableness is described in our chapter, and not rather wisdom regarded as a human possession, as a moral and intellectual blessing bestowed by God on men, connected with genuine fear of God. Comp. Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks, No. 1. [E. V.s rendering of by surely overlooks the connection, and was probably prompted by the difficulty attending it]., lit. outlet (comp. 1Ki 10:28), the place where anything may be found, synonymous with the following .The word is a relative clause: gold, which they refine, or wash out. In regard to , lit. to filter, to strain, as a technical term for purifying the precious metals from the stone-alloy which is mixed with them, comp. Mal 3:3; Psa 12:7 [6]; 1Ch 28:18. Comp. the passage relative to the gold mines of Upper Egypt, describing this process of crushing fine the gold-quartz, and of washing it out, this process accordingly of gold-washing, as practised by the ancients, in Diodor. Job 3:11 seq., as well as the explanations in Klemms Allgem. Kulturgesch. V. 503 seq., and in M. Uhlemann, Egypt.Alterthumskunde, II. 148 seq.
Job 28:2. Iron is brought up out of the ground. here of the interior or deep ground, not of the surface as in Job 39:14; Job 41:25 [33], and stone is smelted into copper. here not as in Job 41:15 Partic. Pual of , but as in Job 29:6 Imperf. of = (the 3d pers. sing. masc. expressing the indefinite subj.). [Gesenius not so well makes the verb transitive: and stone pours out brass.]
Job 28:3. He has put an end [ still the indefinite subj., but as the description becomes more individual and concrete, it is better with E. V. to use from this point on the personal pron. he] to the darkness, viz. by the miners lamp; and in every direction (lit. to each remotest point, to every extremity, in all directions) [not as E. V. all perfection, which is too general, missing the idiomatic use of the phrase; nor adverbially: to the utmost, or most closely: might be used thus adverbially, but is to be explained according to , Eze 5:10, to all the winds. Delitzsch]he searcheth the stones of darkness and of death-shade,i. e. the stones under the earth, hidden in deep darkness. before refers back to the indefinite subj. of , who is continued through Job 28:4, and again in Job 28:9-11.
Job 28:4. He breaketh [openeth, cutteth through] a shaft away from those who sojourn (above). , elsewhere river, valley [river-bed] (Wadi), is hereas is already made probable by the verb , pointing to a violent breaking through (comp. Job 16:14), and as is made still more apparent by the third member of the versea mining passage in the earth, and that moreover a perpendicular shaft rather than a sloping gallery. , lit. away from one tarrying, a dweller, i. e. removed from the human habitations found above, removing from them ever further and deeper into the bowels of the earth. [Schlottmann understands by the miner himself dwelling as a stranger in his loneliness; i. e. his shaft sinks ever further from the hut in which he dwells above. The use of is doubtless a little singular, and Schlottmanns explanation may be accepted so far as it may serve to account for it by the suggestion that those who do live in the vicinity of mines are naturally , sojourners, living there to ply their trade and shifting about as new mines or veins are discovered.E.]Who are forgotten of every step, lit. of a foot (), i. e. of the foot or step of one travelling above on the surface of the earth [=totally vanished from the remembrance of those who pass by above], not the foot of the man himself that is spoken of, as though his descent by a rope in the depths of the shaft were here described (V. Leonhardt in Umbr. and Hirzel). [On this use of after , comp. Deu 31:21; Psa 31:13; forgotten out of the mind, out of the heart]. Moreover are identical, according to the accents, with the indef. subj. of (the interchange between sing, and plur. acc. to Ew. 319, a); hence the meaning is: those who work deep down in the shafts of the mines. They are again referred to in the finite verbs in c, which continue the participial construction: they hang far away from men, and swing. from (related to ) deorsum pendere, according to the accents, accompanies (meaning the same with ), not , as Hahn and Schlottm. think. The adventurous swinging of those engaged in digging the ore out of the steep sides of the shafts, hanging down by a rope, is in these few, simple words beautifully and clearly portrayed. It is the situation described by Pliny (H. N. Job 33:4, Job 21 : is qui cdit, funibus pendet, ut procul intuenti species ne ferarum quidem, sed alitum fiat. Pendentes majori ex parte librant et lineas itineri prducunt, etc. [The above rendering, adopted by all modern exegetes, gives a meaning so appropriate to the language and connection, and withal so beautiful, vivid and graphic that it seems Strange that all the ancient and most of the modern versions of Scripture, including E. V., should have so completely darkened the meaning. The source of the difficulty lay doubtless in which being taken in its customary meaning of river, flood, threw everything into confusion. Add to this a probable want of familiarity with mining operations on the part of the early translators, and the result will not seem so surprising.E.]
Job 28:5 states what the miners are doing in the depths.The earthout of it cometh forth the bread-corn ( as in Psa 104:14), but under it it is overturned like fire:i. e. as fire incessantly destroys, and turns what is uppermost lowermost. [Mans restless search, which rummages everything through, is compared to the unrestrainable ravaging fire. Del.] Instead of Jerome reads : is overturned with fire, which some moderns prefer (Hirz., Schlott.), who find a reference here to the blasting of the miners. But this is too remote. [The principal thought is the process of breaking through; the means are not so much regarded; and fire was not the only means. Dillmann. Some commentators have fancied in this verse a trace of what modern criticism calls sentimentalism, as though Job were protesting against ruthlessly ravaging as with fire the interior of that generous earth which on its surface yields bread for the support of man. Job is, however, fixing his attention solely on the agentman, who not satisfied with what grows out of the earth, digs for treasure into its deepest recesses.E.]
Job 28:6. The place of the sapphire ( as in Job 28:1 a, the place where it may be found) are its stones, viz. the earths, Job 28:5; in the midst of its stones is found the sapphire, which is mentioned here as a specimen of precious stones of the highest value.And nuggets of gold (or gold ore, hardly gold-dust as Hirzel thinks) become his, viz. the miners (so Schult., Rosenm., Ewald, Dillmann). Or: nuggets of gold belong to it, the place () where the sapphire is found (Hahn, Schlottm., Delitzsch). The reader may take his choice between these two relations of ; the brevity of the expression makes it impossible to decide with certainty.
Job 28:7. The path (thither) no bird of prey hath known [and the vultures eye hath not gazed upon it]. is a prefixed nom. absol. like in Job 28:5. It may indeed also be taken as in opposition to in Job 28:6 (hardly to , as Ewald thinks), in which case the rendering would be: the path, which no bird of prey hath known, etc. (Del.). But that the place of the sapphire should be immediately afterwards spoken of as a path, looks somewhat doubtful. Concerning comp. on Job 20:9.[The rendering of E. V.: There is a path which no fowl knoweth, etc., is vague and incorrect in so far as it leads the mind away from the deposits of treasure, which are the principal theme of the passage.E.]
Job 28:8 carries out yet further the description begun in Job 28:7 of the inaccessibleness of the subterranean passage-ways. The proud beasts of prey (lit. sons of pride; so also in Job 41:26 [34]) have not trodden it.That this finely illustrative phrase [sons of pride] refers to the haughty, majestically stepping beasts of prey [seeking the most secret retreat, and shunning no danger, Del.], appears clearly enough from the parallel use of in b (comp. Job 4:10).
Job 28:9. On the flint (the hardest of all stones) he lays his hand (the subject being man, as the overturner of mountains; see b, and respecting the use there of , radicitus, from the root, comp. above Job 13:27; Job 19:28. [ something like our to take in hand, of an undertaking requiring strong determination and courage, which here consists in blasting, etc. Del.] How the hand is laid on flint and similar hard stones is described by Pliny l. c.: Occursant silices; hos igne et aceto rumpunt, spius vero, quoniam id cuniculos fumo et vapore strangulat, cdunt fractariis CL. libras habentibus, etc.
Job 28:10. Through the rocks he cutteth passages., an Egyptian word, which signifies literally water-canals, must here, like in Job 28:4, signify subterranean passages or pits for mining. And further, according to b, what is intended are galleries, horizontal excavations, in which the ore is dug out, and precious stones discovered. The word can scarcely be used of wet conduits, or canals to carry off the water accumulating in the pits, of which Job does not begin to speak until the following verse (against v. Weltheim, etc.). [The rendering rivers (E. V., Con., Car., Rod., etc.) would be still more misleading, because more vague, than canals, which is not without plausible arguments in its favor. Add however to Zcklers arguments in favor of the rendering passages, galleries, the sequence in the second member: And his eye sees every precious thing; which, as Delitzsch says, is consistently connected with what precedes, since by cutting these cuniculi the courses of the ore (veins), and any precious stones that may also be embedded there, are laid bare.E.]
Job 28:11. That they may not drip he stops up passage-ways., lit. away from dripping [weeping], or: against the dripping, i. e. against the oozing through of the water in the excavations, to which the shafts and galleries, especially when old, were so easily liable. , as elsewhere , to stop or dam up, to bind up surgically (comp. , the surgeon, or wound-healer in Isa 3:7; Isa 1:6). seems in general to mean the same as above, and Job 28:10, to wit, excavations, shafts, pits, galleries. Nevertheless it may also denote the seams of water breaking through the walls of these excavations, thus directly denoting that which must be stopped up (Del.).And so (through all these efforts and skilful contrivances) he brings to the light that which was hiddena remark in the way of recapitulation, connecting back with the beginning of the description in Job 28:1, and at, the same time forming the transition to what follows. Respecting , comp. Job 11:6; , Acc. loci for .
5. Continuation: Second Strophe: Job 28:12-22. Application of the preceding description to wisdom as a higher good, unattainable by the outward seeking and searching of men. [Most expositors since Schultens, as e. g. Hirz., Schlott., etc., assume out of hand that the Wisdom treated of here is the divine wisdom, as the principle which maintains the moral and natural order of the universe. But that the divine wisdom is to be found only with God, not with a creature, is something so very self-evident, and the exaltation of the divine wisdom above all human comprehension as a proposition so universally recognized, being also long since maintained and conceded by both the contending parties of our book (chs. 11 and 12), that it is not apparent why Job should here lay such stress upon it. Dillm.]
Job 28:12. But wisdomwhere is it found? And where (lit. from where? as in Job 1:7, and accompanying as in Hos 14:9 [8]) is the place of understanding?, with the article, because wisdom is to be set forth as the well-known highest good of man. With the principal term is connected as an alternate notion, as is often the case in Proverbs, especially chs. 1.9. The first term denotes wisdom rather on its practical side, as the principle and art of right thinking and doing, or as the religious and moral rectitude taught by God; the second (with which , Pro 8:1, and , Pro 1:2, alternate) pre-eminently on the theoretic side as the correct perception and way of thinking which lies at the basis of that right doing. Comp. the Introd. to the Solomonic Literature of Wisdom, 2, Note 3 (Vol. X., p. 7 of this series).
Job 28:13. No mortal knows its price. (from Job 28:17; Job 28:19) means lit. equivalent, price, value for purchase or exchange, the same with elsewhere. The LXX. probably read , which reading is preferred by some moderns, e. g., by Dillmann, as agreeing better with Job 28:12.
Job 28:14. With the land of the living [Job 28:13] i. e., the earth inhabited by men (comp. Psa 27:13; Isa 38:11, etc.) are connected the two other regions beneath heaven, in which wisdom might possibly be sought: (1) The Deep () i. e., the subterranean abyss with its waters, out of which the visible waters on the surface of the earth are supplied (Gen 7:11; Gen 49:25):(2) The Sea ( = ) as the chief reservoir of these visible waters.
Job 28:15. Pure gold is not given for it. is the same with , 1Ki 6:20; 1Ki 10:21, not shut up [= carefully preserved], but according to the Targ. purified gold (aurum colatum, purgatum), hence gold acquired by heating, or smelting; comp. Diodor. l. c.
Job 28:16. In regard to the gold of Ophir (here , fine gold of Ophir) comp. Job 22:24; respecting the onyx stone (, lit. pale, lean) comp. the commentators on Gen 2:12.
Job 28:17-19. Further description of the incomparable and unattainable value of wisdom, standing in a similar connection with Job 28:15-16, as Pro 3:15 with Pro 3:14.Gold and glass are not equal to it. intrans. with Accus.quare aliquid, as in Job 28:19; Psa 89:7. In respect to the high valuation of glass by the ancients (, or as some MSS., Eds., and D. Kimchi read) comp. Winer, Realw., Vol. I., 432 [and Eng. Bib. Dictionaries, Art Glass]. In respect to in b, exchange, equivalent, comp. Job 15:31; Job 20:18.
Job 28:18. Corals and crystal are not to be named, not to be mentioned, i. e., in comparison with it, with wisdom (in regard to the construction of the passive with the accus., comp. Gesen., 143 [ 140] 1, a). , (lit. ice, like the Arab, gibs) denotes the quartz-crystal, which was regarded by the ancients as a precious stone, and supposed to be a product of the cold; Pliny, H. N. XXXVII. 2, 9.The , the mention of which precedes, seem to be corals, an explanation favored by what is conjectured to be the radical signification of this word, horns of bulls, or of wild oxen (from comp. Pliny XIII. 51), as well as by its being placed along with the less costly crystal; comp. also Eze 27:16, where indeed corals from the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean are mentioned as Tyrian articles of commerce. On the contrary in b must be, according to Pro 3:15; Pro 8:11; Pro 20:15; Pro 31:10, an exchangeable commodity of extraordinary value, which decides in favor of the signification pearls assigned (although not unanimously) to this word by tradition, however true it may be that in Lam 4:7 corals seem rather to be intended (or perhaps red pearls artificially prepared, like the Turkish rose-pearls of to-day). Comp. Carey [who agrees in rendering by corals, and doubtfully suggests mother-of-pearl for ]. Delitzsch renders the former of the two words by pearls, the second by corals [so J. D. Michaelis, Rdiger, Gesenius, Frst; the two latter regarding and as equivalent. See also in Smiths Bib. Dic.,Arts., Rubies, Pearls, Coral]. The word , acquisition, possession, (from , to draw to oneself) only here in the O. T.; related are , Gen 15:2, and , Zep 2:9.
Job 28:19. The topaz from Ethiopia (Cush) is not equal to it.The rendering topaz () for is established by the testimony of most of the ancient versions in this passage, as well as in Exo 28:17; Eze 28:13. It is also favored by the statement of Pliny (Job 37:8) that the topaz comes principally from the islands of the Red Sea, as also by the probable identity of the name with the Sanscrit pita, yellow (comp. Gesen.) [and see the Lexicons, Delitzsch, Carey, etc., on the probable transposition of letters in the Hebrew and Greek forms]. In regard to b, comp. the very similar passage in ver 10a).
Job 28:20 again takes up the principal question propounded in Job 28:12. The in is consecutive, and may be rendered by then (Ew., 348, a).
Job 28:21. It is hidden (, lit., and moreover, and further it is hidden) from the eyes of all living, i. e., especially of all living beings on the earth: as in Job 12:10; 30:33. Of these living b then particularly specifies the sharp-sighted, winged inhabitants of the upper regions of the air; comp. above Job 28:7.
Job 28:22 follows up the mention of that which is highest with that of the lowest: Hell and the abyss [lit. destruction and death] say, in connection with (see on Job 26:6) means the realm of death, the abyss; comp. Job 38:17; Psa 9:14 [13]; Rev 1:18. For the rest comp. above, Job 28:14; for to say that they [destruction and death] have learned of wisdom only by hearsay is substantially the same with saying, as is said there of the sea and the deep, that they do not possess it. [The , Job 28:21, evidently points back to the Job 28:10. In Job 28:11 it is said that man brings the most secret thing to light. In Job 28:22 that Divine wisdom is hidden even from the underworld. Schlott.].
6. Conclusion: Third Strophe: Job 28:22-28. The final answer to the question, where and how wisdom is to be found: to wit, only with God, I and through the fear of God. [The last of these three divisions (of the chap.) into which the highest truths are compressed is for emphasis the shortest, in its calmness and abrupt ending the moat solemn, because the thought finds no expression that is altogether adequate, floating in a height that is immeasurable, but opening a boundless field for further reflection. Ewald.]
Job 28:23. God knows the way to it, and He knows its place. and , in emphatic contrast with the creatures mentioned in Job 28:13 seq., and Job 28:21 seq. The suffix in is objective (comp. Gen 3:24) the way to it.
Job 28:24-25 constitute one proposition which illustrates and explains the Divine possession of wisdom by a reference to Gods agency in creating and governing the world (so correctly Ewald, Arnh., Dillm.) [E. V., Conant, Rodman]. Against connecting Job 28:25 with what follows, more immediately with Job 28:26, and then regarding Job 28:25-26 together as constituting the protasis of Job 28:27 lies the objection that cannot properly be translated either when He made, or in that He made, as well as the fact that the gerundive Infinitive with cannot be put before its principal verb, together with the absence of a suffix after referring to the subject God [should be if the verse were antecedent]. Furthermore the Divine looking to the ends of the earth, etc., Job 28:24, would need a telic qualification, referring the divine omniscience [Gods looking every where and seeing every thing] to the creation and preservation of the order of nature, in order that it might not be understood as declaring the omniscience of God in abstracto. That He may appoint to the wind its weight, and weigh the water by measure.The careful measurement of wind and water, i. e., their relative apportionment, government, and management (comp. Isa 60:12), is a peculiarly characteristic example of Gods wise administrative economy in creation: Who sends the wind upon its course, etc. Instead of the Infinitive the finite verb appears in b, and that in the Perf. form, , because the expression of purpose passes over into the expression of sequence, precisely as in Job 5:21 (see on the 5).
Job 28:26 seq. As the wisdom of God furnishes the means and basis of His government of the world, so in the exercise of His creative power was it the absolute norm, and is in consequence thereof the highest law for mans moral action, positively and negatively considered. When He appointed for the rain a law (when and how often it should fall, where it should cease; comp. Gen 2:5) and for the thunder flash a path (i. e., through the clouds; comp. Job 38:25), then saw He it and declared iti. e., in thus exercising at the beginning His creative power, He beheld it, contemplated it (we are to read with Mappiq in ), as His eternal pattern, according to which He made, ordered, and ruled His creatures, and declared it (, lit. and enumerated it), i. e., unfolded its contents before men and His other rational creatures throughout the whole creation, which in truth is nothing else than such a development and historical realization of the contents of eternal wisdom. The attempt of Schult., Ew., Dillm. to explain as meaning to number through, to review all over (after Job 38:37; Psa 139:18) is less natural.He established it, and also searched it out, i. e., He laid its foundations in the creation (comp. Pro 8:22-23, where both verbs, and , convey the came idea of founding, establishing wisdom as here), brought it to its complete actualization in creation, and then reviewed all its individual parts to see whether they all bore the test of His examination. Comp. what is said in Gen 1:31 : And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.Or again: He set it up before Himself, for more attentive contemplation ( according as in Job 29:7), and searched it out thoroughly, exploring its thoughts (so Wolff and Dillmann) [the latter of whom says: He set it up for contemplation, as an artist or an architect puts up before himself the ]. It is not necessary, with some MSS. and Eds. to read , instead of , as Dderl. and Ew. do.
Job 28:28. And said to man: Behold, the fear of the Lord is wisdom, etc.He would accordingly not reserve to Himself the wisdom which had served Him as a pattern of creation, but would communicate it to the human race which He had made and put into His world, which He could do only by setting it before them in the form of an original command to fear God and to depart from evil ( , comp. Job 1:2; Pro 3:7; Pro 16:6. Instead of , very many MSS. and old editions read , which reading seems to have in its favor: (1) That , occurring only twice elsewhere in our book, might easily be set aside as being too singular; (2) that in Jehovahs own mouth does not occur elsewhere in the Old Testament, not even in Amo 6:8; (3) that the parallels of the primitive saying before us in the Proverbs and in the Psalms constantly exhibit (comp. Pro 1:7; Pro 3:7; Pro 9:10; Pro 16:6; Psa 111:10).On the other side it is true the Masoretic tradition expressly reckons this passage among the one hundred and thirty-four passages of the Old Testament, where is not only to be read, but is actually written instead of (Buxtorf, Tiberias, p. 245). As regards the thought, it makes no difference whether we read fear of the Lord (the Lord of all, Del.), or fear of Jehovah (Jahveh). [It may, however, be said, that there is an especial appropriateness in the use of here, in view of the fact that God is spoken of in connection with the creation, as the product of wisdom; and not only so, but God in His Lordship, His supremacy, His claim to be feared, i. e. revered and obeyed, whence is used rather than or . God is by virtue of the divine which He has established in nature. It is mans to recognize the divine, and to fear .E.]
DOCTRINAL, ETHICAL AND HOMILETICAL
1. According to the connection of the Third Section of this discourse with the two preceding, as explained in the remarks on Job 28:1, it can admit of no doubt that the wisdom described in it is conceived of as essentially a human acquisition, as a blessing bestowed on man by God, consisting in the fear of God and in righteousness of life. This connection lies indeed in thisthat in order to prove that which is said in Job 27:12 seq. of the perishable prosperity of worldly-minded sinners, the uselessness of all accumulation of earthly treasures is shown, it being entirely out of their power to secure the possession of true wisdom, and of that enduring prosperity which is connected with it. In addition to this connection with Job 27, the human character of this wisdom, rather than its hypostatic character, or that which belongs to it as a divine attribute, is shown secondly by the way in which the same is represented in Job 27:15-19 as a possession, being compared with other possessions, treasures and costly jewels, and the question submitted how its possession (, Job 27:18) is to be attained. To which may be added, thirdly, the consideration that it could scarcely be the speakers purpose to demonstrate the unsearchableness and unfathomableness, from a sensuous and earthly point of view, of an attribute, or a hypostasis of God, because this fact is self-evident, and because the whole tendency of his discourse was not theoretic and speculative, but practical, aiming at the establishment of right principles to influence human struggle and action.The view accordingly held by quite a number of modern exegetes since the time of Schultens (especially Hirzel, Schlottmann, Hahn, also W. Wolffs articleDie Anfnge der Logoslehre im A. T. in the Zeitschrift fr Luth. Theol. u. Kirche, 1870, p. 217 seq.), that the object of the description in Job 28 is the wisdom of God as exercised in the universe, as the divine principle sustaining the moral and natural order of the universe, is erroneous, to say nothing of the fact that in that case one might find here, with A. Merx (Das Gedicht von Hiob, etc., p. 42) a concealed polemic against the doctrine of Wisdom as set forth in the Solomonic Proverbs.
2. We cannot say indeed of this theory, to wit, that Job 28 discourses of the Sapientia sciagraphica, Gods wisdom in creation and the government of the worldthat it is altogether incorrect. In the concluding verses Job evidently lifts himself from his contemplation of wisdom as a human possession to the description of its archetype, the absolute divine wisdom, by means of which God has established alike the physical and the moral order of the universe. The passage in Job 28:23-28 comes into the closest contact with the two well-known descriptions of the Book of Proverbs which are occupied with this eternal world-regulating wisdomPro 3:19-26, and Pro 8:22 seq. It resembles them particularly in the fact that a preliminary meditation on the human reflection and emanation of this primordial wisdom, on the practical Chokmah of the God-fearing, righteous man, prepares the way for it, precisely as in those two passages. The knowledge of the place of the Creative Wisdom, which Job 28:23 ascribes to God, reminds the reader of Pro 8:30, in like manner as that which is said of its mediating agency in determining the laws of wind, water, rain and thunder (Job 28:24-26) reminds him of Pro 3:19 seq.; Pro 8:27 seq. And what is said of seeing and declaring, establishing, or setting up and searching out the heavenly architectress in Job 28:27, precisely as in Pro 8:22 seq., presents Wisdom as the infinitely many-sided pattern of the , as the ideal world, or the divine imagination of all things that were to be created, as the complex unity of all the creative ideas or archetypes present to God from eternity. This divine creative primordial wisdom, as described here, and in the two parallel passages in the Solomonic writings (and not less in those passages of the Apocrypha which in some respects are still more full, viz. Sirach, Job 24, and Wisdom, Job 7-9), is without question closely related to the idea of the Logos given in the New Testament. It is very true that the idea of Wisdom, especially in the passage before us, the oldest of all pertaining to the subject, has not yet shaped itself into a form of existence so concretely personal, and a filial relation to God so intimate and so indicative of similarity of nature, as characterize the Johannean Logos. It appears rather simply as an impersonal model for God in His creative activity, while the New Testament Logos is the personal architect working in accordance with that model, the demiurg by which God has called the world into existence according to that ideal which was in the divine mind (Del.). But notwithstanding this its undeveloped character, the Chokmah of our passage is the unmistakable substratum and the immediate precursor of the revealed perception of a personal Word, and of an only-begotten Son of God. And as the older exegesis and theology was already in general correct in referring our passage to the Divine in Christ (the , Mat 11:19; Luk 11:49) the attempts of more recent writers to deny any genetic connection of ideas between it and the New Testament doctrine of the Logos, and in general to regard human wisdom as the only object described, even in Job 28:23-28 (e. g. Bruch, Weisheitslehre, etc., p. 202; V. Hofmann, Schriftbew. I: 95 seq.; Luthardt, Apologetische Vortrge ber die Heilswahrheiten des Christenth., 2d Ed. p. 227), have rightly evoked much opposition. Comp. Philippi,. Kirchl. Glaubenslehre II. 192 seq.; Kahnis, Luth. Dogm. I, 316 seq.; III, 209 seq.; Bucher, Des Johannes Lehre vom Logos, 1856; also B. Couve, Les Origines de la Doctrine du Verbe, Toulouse, 1869, p. 36 seq. The latter indeed denies in respect to the present passage (in which, like Hofmann, he is inclined to find merely a poetic personification of human wisdom) that it is related in the way of preparation to the New Testament doctrine of the Logos, but admits this in respect to the parallel passages in Proverbs, and the later passages. Against Merxs view, which in part is similar, see above No. 1, near the end.
3. Taken in connection with the preparatory train of thought in Job 27 this description of wisdom, or more strictly, of the way to true wisdom, forms one of the most important, artistically elaborated portions of the whole poem. It is a suitable conclusion to the first principal division of the poem, or the entanglement which results from the controversial passage between Job and his friends, taking the form of a Confession of Faith, in which Job, after victoriously repelling all the assaults of his enemies, states his position on all the chief points, about which the controversy had revolved, in a manner full at once of a calm dignity and the consciousness of victory. The one favorite proposition of his opponents,that his suffering could not be undeservedhe solemnly and unqualifiedly repels by again asseverating his complete innocence (Job 27:2-10). In asserting here that his conscience does not hold up before him one of his former days as worthy of blame or punishment (Job 27:6) he transgresses in a one-sided manner the bounds of that which could be maintained with strict truth concerning himself (comp. Job 26:13), and so causes that foul spot to appear clearly enough on his moral conduct and consciousness, for which he must needs implore forgiveness. On the other hand, the confession which follows of his belief in that other favorite proposition of his opponentsthat the wicked are punished in this life (Job 27:11-23)seems to go too far in an opposite direction; for after what he has said repeatedly heretofore in favor of the teachings of experience touching the temporal prosperity of the ungodly, he could not properly concede the point which he now maintains, and that so completely without qualification. The first half of his discourse accordingly seems liable to the charge of being egregiously one-sided and of departing from strict actual truth in two respectsin declaring that Jobs suffering was wholly, and in every respect unmerited, and in admitting that even in this life there is a divine judgment awaiting the wicked, from which they cannot escape. The second principal division of the discourse prepares the way at least for supplementing and correcting both of these one-sided representations through its elevated eulogy on true wisdom, founded on constant undivided surrender to God, however much there may be still that needs purifying and improving. He dwells with special emphasis on the fact that the eager striving and longing of the wicked reaches not only after earthly treasures and jewels, such as are to be procured out of the depths of the earth only with much toil and effort. He thus intimates that their whole prosperity, being founded on such earthly treasures (comp. Job 27:16), is in itself perishable, unreal, a mere phantom, and emphasizes all the more strongly in contrast with it the incomparable worth of a prosperity consisting in the fear of God and in strict rectitude, in surrendering oneself wholly to that which is divine, in the pursuit of heavenly treasures, in a word in true wisdom, the image and emanation of the eternal divine wisdom of the Creator, a prosperity of so high an order that he would possess it as the foundation, and at the same time as the fruit of his innocence, and that it would not forsake him even now, in the midst of his fearful sufferings and conflicts. There is much in this train of thought that is not brought out with such clearness as might be desirable. Some of it must even be read between the lines as being tacitly taken for granted, particularly that which refers to Job as having formerly possessed and as still possessing this heavenly practical wisdom, and also to its relation to his temporary misery. But although the discourse may lack that close consecutiveness and thorough completeness of plan which modern philosophic poets or thinkers might have impressed upon it, it nevertheless forms a truly suitable conclusion to the preceding controversies, and at the same time a striking transition to the gradual solution of the whole conflict which now follows. As regards its significance in the structure of the poem it may be termed Jobs Eulogy on Wisdom, in which he announces his supreme axiom of life, and characteristically gives to his vindication against the friends its harmonious peroration, and its seal. It appears in the structure of the book as the clasp which unites the half of the with the half of the , and on which the poet has characteristically inscribed the well-known axiom of the Old Testament ChokmahThe fear of God is the beginning of wisdom (Delitzsch).
4. For the homiletic treatment of this section it is more important to call attention to the close family relationship existing between this eulogy of Jobs on wisdom and such New Testament passages as Pauls eulogy on Love (1 Corinthians 13), our Lords admonition in the Sermon on the Mount to seek treasures in heaven (Mat 6:19 seq.), the similar exhortations of Paul and James (1 Timothy 6; James 5), than to take pains to exhibit the plan of the section, lacking as it is in complete thoroughness, and to show its subtle, oftentimes completely hidden connections with the previous course of the colloquy. A large number of hearers would scarcely be prepared to follow with profit such elaborate disquisitions concerning the niceties of plan in the discourse, and by reason of the not inconsiderable expenditure of time requisite for such an object, they would be quite, or almost quite untouched by so much beauty and impressive power as the details of the discourse present. A division of the whole into smaller sections, at least into the three, which constitute the natural partition of the discourse, seems here also to be required for homiletic purposes, in order that every part of it may be suitably appreciated and unfolded.
Particular Passages
Job 27:2 sq. V. Gerlach: If by Gods grace a holy man then (under the Old Dispensation) kept his life pure, and observed Gods commandments, albeit in weakness, to which the speeches of Job himself bear witness (this very confession especially), it was of the highest importance that this his life should not be judged falsely, that he should be recognized as Gods visible representative, as a revealer of His law, as a support of Gods servants such as were weaker, not free from blame. Such a prince among Gods saints on earth as Job lived preeminently for Gods people, and he could not, without throwing all into confusion, deny his position, could not through false humility surrender his righteousness, which for very many was the righteousness of God himself; he must on occasion declare boldly that his enemies were also enemies of God. Hence his showing himself on the spot in this confession as a victor after the struggle was not only a comfort to the sorely tried man, but also of importance for the complete establishment of that which he affirmed.
Job 27:10. Brentius: When he says that the hypocrite does not always call upon God, he has reference to the duty of praying without ceasing (1Th 5:17). For where there is faith, prayer is never suspended, although one should be asleep, or should be doing something else. Unbelief indeed never prays, except with the mouth only; but such praying cannot reach through the clouds.
Job 27:13 seq. Osiander: God does not forget the wickedness of the ungodly, but punishes it in His own time most severely, and generally even in this life (Exo 32:34). The destruction of the ungodly is therefore to be waited for in patience. Although these think that when misfortune befalls them, it comes by chance, it does nevertheless come from God because of their sin (Amo 3:6).
Job 28:1 seq. Zeyss: If men are so ingenious, and so indefatigably industrious in discovering and obtaining earthly treasures, how much more should they toil to secure heavenly treasures, which alone can give true rest to our souls, make us rich and happy (Mat 16:26)!Brentius: All else in the nature of things, however deeply hidden, can be searched out and valued by human labor and industry; the wisdom of God alone can neither be sought out, nor judged by human endeavor. Although the veins of silver and gold lie hidden in the most secret recesses of the mountains, they are nevertheless discovered by great labor, and riches, which incite to so many evils, are dug out. In like manner iron, however it may be hidden in the most secret depths of the earth, can nevertheless be discovered; but no one anywhere has found the wisdom of God by human endeavor.
Job 28:12 seq. Oecolampadius: Corporeal substances, of whatsoever kind, can be found somewhere. Wisdom is of another order of being: you can ascertain neither its place nor its price. In vain will you journey to the Brahmins, to Athens, to Jerusalem; although you cross the sea, or descend into the abyss, you but change your skies, not your soul. Neither schools, nor courts, nor temples, nor monasteries, nor stars, will make one wiser.
Job 28:23-28. Oecolampadius (on Job 28:27): Not that we should think of God so childishly, as though in His works He had need of deliberation or of an external pattern, but in His nature He has such productiveness that He both wills and produces at one and the same time (Psa 33:9).Cocceius: Distinguish between the wisdom which is the pattern and the end, and that which is the shadow [image], and the means. The former is with God, is God, and is known only to God; the latter is from God in us, a ray of that Wisdom. In like manner, we are said to be (2Pe 1:4), i. e. through having Gods image, being one with Him, and enjoying Him.Jac. Boehme (according to Hamberger, Lehre J. Bhmes, p. 55): Wisdom is a divine imagination, in which the ideas of the angels and souls and all things were seen from eternity, not as already actual creatures, but as a man beholds himself in a mirror.W. Wolff (Die Anfnge der Logoslehre, etc. Zeitschrift f. Luth. Theol. 1870, p. 220): What is wisdom? It is not measuring space with the help of mathematics, it is not contemplating cells through the microscope, it is not even resolving things into their original substance, and determining their relations one to another, but it is having an insight into their nature, having full knowledge of their original condition. Yea, more; absolute wisdom is essentially creative. We can search out indeed Gods thoughts (in His creation), but we cannot gather up any truth into a vital point, out of which anything can proceed or originate; we cannot (to use the language of J. Bhme) compress it into a centre. God alone has that creative wisdom. He must know it, for He has it first and foremost in Himself. It is not discovered and searched out by Him, but it is in His being (Pro 8:25 seq.) It was, and is, in the same eternal form in which God is: uncreated, divinely internal.V. Gerlach (on Job 28:28): He who would learn the secrets of the mighty must keep watch diligently at their gates, says with truth an eastern proverb. Without the living moral followship of the heart with God it is vain to desire to know wisdom, which comes only from Him, and belongs only to Him.
Footnotes:
[1]The name Mafkat, Land of Copper, which the Egyptians gave to the Sinaitic peninsula on account of those mines, is of late explained by Brugsch to mean Land of Turquois, it being assumed by him that turquois was the principal product of the ancient Egyptian mines in that region. Comp. H. Brugsch, Wanderung nach den Trkisminen der Sinai = Halbinsel, 1868, 2d Ed., p. 66 seq.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
Job’s discourse is continued through this chapter. He still contendeth for his sincerity; points out the difference of the hypocrite from himself; and showeth, that even the blessing’s of the wicked, are by them converted into curses.
Job 27:1
(1) Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Whether the whole of Job’s discourses are to be considered as parables, I do not venture to determine; but it is worthy the Reader’s remark, that his discourse is here, for the first time, called a parable. It is the same word as the Proverbs of Solomon are distinguished by; and those are divine things, in which much of JESUS is found. This verse, therefore, is highly important on this account.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job 27:6
Human nature is a noble and beautiful thing; not a foul nor a base thing…. Have faith that God made you upright, though you have sought out many inventions; so you will strive daily to become more what your Maker meant and means you to be, and daily gives you also the power to be, and you will cling more and more to the nobleness and virtue that is in you, saying, ‘My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go’.
Ruskin in The Grown of Wild Olive.
The great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn peace and self-respect.
Huxley.
Reference. XXVII. 10. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Lessons, p. 135.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Quiet Resting-places
Job 25-27
It is a curious speech with which Bildad winds up the animated colloquy between Job and his three friends. There is a streak of failure across the face of the speech, notwithstanding its dignity. Indeed, the dignity is somewhat against the speech. Bildad is as ignorant of the reality of the case in the peroration as he was in the exordium. If this is all that can be said at the close of such an intellectual and spiritual interview, then some of the parties have grievously misunderstood the case. Taken out of its setting, read as a piece of religious rhetoric, it is good and noble; but regarded in its relations to the particular case throbbing before us with such suffering as man never bore, it seems to be impertinent in its dignity, and to aggravate the wound which the man ought to have attempted to heal. These grand religious commonplaces which Bildad utters are right, they are stately, they are necessary to the completion of the great fabric of theological and spiritual truth; but how to bring them down to the immediate pain, how to extract sympathy from them, how to make all heaven so little that it can come into a broken heart, has not entered into the imagination of this comfortless comforter.
Was there an undertone in his voice, was there anything between the lines in the curious speech with which he concluded the conference?
“How then can man be justified with God? or how can he be clean that is born of a woman?” ( Job 25:4 ).
Is there not more than theology in that inquiry? Perhaps not to the consciousness of the speaker himself. Yet we often say things which we do not put into definite words. There is a region of inference in human association, and fellowship, and education. Was the inquiry equal to saying, We have done with thee; we cannot work this miracle of curing thine obstinacy, O thou woman-born; thou art like all the rest of thy face; thou hast thy mother’s obstinacy in thee a stubbornness that nothing can melt, or straighten, or in any wise be rendered manageable: how can he be clean that is born of a woman? how can a man such as thou art, and, indeed, such as we ourselves are, be set right if once wrong in the head and in the heart? Bildad did not say all that in words; yet we may so preach even a gospel discourse as to lead men to think that we have formed but a low opinion of them, and have no expectations as to their graciousness of reply. We may be evangelical, yet critical. We may ask a question in a tone which conveys the reply. Bildad would hurl the stars at Job, and pluck the fair moon that goddess of the dead in Oriental dreaming and throw it at the suffering patriarch, that they might all wallow in a common depravity and corruption a heap of things unclean! We should be careful how we pluck the stars. Better let them hang where God put them, and shine as much as they can upon a land that is often dark. Our little hands were never meant to gather such flowers and present them even as gifts of fragrance to other people. Let us keep steadfastly within our own limits, and talk such medicable and helpful words as we can out of our own sympathetic hearts, measured and toned and adjusted by a mysterious and subtle sympathy.
Now Job becomes the sole speaker. We have now to enter upon a wonderful parable. He has lost nothing of eloquence by all this controversial talk. He speaks the better now he has shaken his comforters from him, and he will deliver a great parable-sermon, apparently miscellaneous, yet not wholly unconnected. The marvellous thing is that this man has lost everything but his mind. Is there a drearier condition on earth, when viewed in one aspect? Do we not sometimes say, Thank God, he was unconscious; he did not know what he was suffering; the medical attendant says he could not feel the pain; his poor mind, his sensibility, quite gone: that is something to be thankful for. We had a kind meaning in that comment. But here is a man whose mind is twice quickened more a mind than it ever was. He feels a shadow; a spirit cannot pass before him without some sign of masonry, without some signal which the too-quickened mind of Job would instantly understand. All gone: the grave all set in order before him: the remembered prosperity hanging like a great cloud all round about him: not a child to touch him into hopefulness of life; not a kind voice to salute him, saying, Cheer thee! the darkest hour is just before the dawn; the angels are getting ready to come to thee on their wings of light, and presently heaven’s own morning will dawn over thee in infinite whiteness and beauty. Yet his mind was left. How eloquent he was! He could set forth his sorrow in something like equivalent words. He knew every pain that was piercing him. The river of his tears hid nothing from him as to the fountains whence they sprang. Is not misery doubled by our sensitiveness as to its presence? Do we not increase our suffering by knowing just what the loss means? This is one of the mysteries of Providence, that a man should have nothing left but his sense of loss; that a man should find himself in a universe of cloud, crying, without even the friendship of an echo to keep him company. To such depths have some men been driven. Do we not thank God for their experience now and again, because it shows us how in comparison our grief is very little, our complaint is not worth utterance, our condition is blessed as compared with their sorrow-stricken hearts? On the other hand, is it not comforting that the man’s mind should have been left? There is something grand even in this agony. A man who could talk as Job talks in this elaborate parable is not poor; his riches are indeed of another kind and quality, but they are riches still. “Oh, to create within the mind is bliss!” To have that marvellous power of withdrawment from all things merely outward, or that more marvellous power of seeing things merely outward as stairways up to celestial places, is to have wealth that can never be lost, so long as we are true to ourselves and anxious to respond to the responsibilities of life with faithfulness and diligence. Thank God for your senses that are left. This is true even in the deepest spiritual experiences. A sorrowing soul says I feel as if I had committed the unpardonable sin. What is the pastor’s answer to such complaint? An instantaneous and gracious assurance to the contrary, because the very feeling that the sin may have been committed is a proof that no such sin has been done. He who has committed the unpardonable sin knows nothing about it; he is a dead man. Who feels the traveller trampling over his grave? Who says, There is a weight upon me, when he is buried seven feet deep in the earth? The very action of sensitiveness is charged with religious significance. When you are groping for God and cannot find him, know that even groping may be prayer; when you are filled with dissatisfaction with your condition, and when you have to betake yourselves even to despised interjections, as Job has had to do now and again, know that even interjection may be theology of the best kind, poetry, prayer, worship. Woe be unto him who would seek in any wise to diminish the hope of souls that feel their need of God.
In all his tumultuous but noble talk Job now and again opens a great door as if in a rock, and enters into a sanctuary perfect in its security; then he comes out again, and plunges into clouds and wintry winds; then suddenly he enters a refuge once more, and praises God in an asylum of rocks; yet he will not abide there: so in all this parable he is in a great refuge and out of it; he is resting upon a pillow made soft by the hands of God, and then he will perversely wander amongst speculations and conjectures and self-criticisms, and come home with head fallen upon his breast, and tears stopping the hymn of praise. This parable is true. Whether spoken in this particular literary form or not, there is not one untrue line in it It is the parable of the earnest soul in all ages, in all lands. It would fit the experience of men who have never heard of the Bible. It is a great human parable. When the Bible itself becomes special its speciality acquires most of its significance from the fact that the larger part of the Bible is itself commonplace that is to say, adapted not to one community or another, but to man in all his conscious want of strength and light and peace.
Job comes as it were suddenly upon an idea which sustains him.
“Hell is naked before him, and destruction hath no covering. He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds; and the cloud is not rent under them. He holdeth back the face of his throne, and spreadeth his cloud upon it. He hath compassed the waters with bounds, until the day and night come to an end. The pillars of heaven tremble and are astonished at his reproof. He divideth the sea with his power, and by his understanding he smiteth through the proud. By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent” ( Job 26:6-13 ).
Here at all events is a sense of almightiness, sovereignty, something that can be got hold of. We must beware how we credit Job with true astronomical ideas as to the poising of the north over the empty place, and the hanging of the earth upon nothing. Let us call it Hebrew poetry. We must be careful how we seize any one point even that is exact, and make that too much of an argument, because when we come upon points that are not so applicable how can we refuse their being turned as against the biblical contention? There is no need to make this a merely astronomic discovery: but poetry does sometimes outrun science, and get the truth first of all. The expression may have to be dressed a little, modified somewhat, perhaps lowered in temperature; but even poetry is a child of God. The idea that abides is the conception of the almightiness that keeps things in their places. Who can turn the north into the south? Who can take the earth out of the emptiness which it apparently occupies, and set it upon pillars? On what would the pillars stand? How do the stars keep in their courses? Why is it they do not break away? If heaven should come down upon us we should be crushed: what keeps the great, blue, kind heaven up where it is, as if for our use and enjoyment only? Suppose we cannot tell, that does not deprive us of the consciousness that the heaven is so kept, because there stands the obvious and gracious fact. What, then, has the soul to do in relation to these natural supports, these proofs that somehow things are kept in order and are set to music? The conception coming out of this view is a conception of omnipotence. The soul is intended to reason thus: Who keeps these things in their places has power to guide my poor little life; whatever ability it was that constructed the heavens, it is not wanting in skill and energy in the matter of building up my poor life into shapeliness and utility; I will, therefore, worship here if I cannot go further; I will say, O Great Power, be thy name what it may, take me up into thy plan of order and movement; make me part of the obedient universe: art thou deaf? canst thou speak? I know not, but it does me good to cry in the dark and to tell thee, if thou canst hear, that I want to be part of the living economy over which thou dost preside. Disdain no pagan prayer. No prayer, indeed, is pagan in any sense that deserves contempt. Our first prayers have sometimes been our best; blurred with tears, choked or interrupted with penitential sobbing, they have yet told the heart’s tale in a way which could be understood by the listening Love, which we call by the name of God sometimes by the name of Father. Seize then the idea of Omnipotence; it covers all other conceptions; it is the base-line of all argument; it gives us a starting thought. Do not be particular about giving a name to it, or defining it; enter into the consciousness of the reality of such a Power, and begin there to pray at least to stumble in prayer.
Then Job utters a word which will be abiding in its significance and in its comfort
“Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him? but the thunder of his power who can understand?” ( Job 26:14 ).
The man who said that was not left comfortless. Sometimes in our very desolateness we say things so deep and true as to prove that we are not desolate at all, if we were only wise enough to seize the comfort of the very power which sustains us. He who has a great thought has a great treasure. A noble conception is an incorruptible inheritance. Job’s idea is that we hear but a whisper. Lo: this is a feeble whispering: the universe is a subdued voice; even when it thunders it increases the whisper inappreciably as to bulk and force: all that is now possible to me, Job would say, is but the hearing of a whisper; but the whisper means that I shall hear more by-and-by; behind the whispering there is a great thundering, a thunder of power; I could not bear it now; the whisper is a gospel, the whisper is an adaptation to my aural capacity; it is enough, it is music, it is the tone of love, it is what I need in my littleness and weariness, in my initial manhood. How many controversies this would settle if it could only be accepted in its entirety! We know in part, therefore we prophesy in part; we see only very little portions of things, therefore we do not pronounce an opinion upon the whole; we hear a whisper, but it does not follow that we can understand the thunder. There is a Christian agnosticism. Why are men afraid to be Christian agnostics? Why should we hesitate to say with patriarchs and apostles, I cannot tell, I do not know; I am blind, and cannot see in that particular direction; I am waiting? What we hear now is a whisper, but a whisper that is a promise. We must let many mysteries alone. No candle can throw a light upon a landscape. We must know just what we are and where we are, and say we are of yesterday, and know nothing when we come into the presence of many a solemn mystery. Yet how much we do know! enough to live upon; enough to go into the world with as fighting men, that we may dispute with error, and as evangelistic men, that we may reveal the gospel. They have taken from us many words which they must bring back again. When Rationalism is restored amongst the stolen vessels of the Church, Agnosticism also will be brought in as one of the golden goblets that belong to the treasure of the sanctuary. We, too, are agnostics: we do not know, we cannot tell; we cannot turn the silence into speech, but we know enough to enable us to wait. Amid all this difficulty of ignorance we hear a voice saying, What thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter: I have many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now: if it were not so, I would have told you, as if to say, I know how much to tell, and when to tell it. Little children, trust your Lord.
Now Job gathers himself together again, and coming out in an attitude of noble gracious strength, he says
“I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal” ( Job 27:11 ).
Who is it that proposes to teach? Actually the suffering man himself. The suffering man must always become teacher. Who can teach so well? Now he begins to see a new function in life. Hitherto he has been “my lord.” He says, I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame: when I passed by the elders rose up and saluted me, and young men fled from my path: I was a prince amongst men. The talk was indeed haughty, as became a fine sheik, a gentleman of Eastern lands, overloaded with estates; but now, having passed through all this sorrow, he says, “I will teach you.” Not only so, “I will teach you by the hand of God.” Sorrow is always eloquent True suffering is always expository, as well as comforting. Have we not seen that there are many chapters of the Bible which a prosperous man cannot read? He can spell them, parse them, pronounce the individual words correctly, but he cannot read them, round them into music, speak them with the eloquence of the heart, utter them with his soul; because they can only be read by the lame and the blind, and the sorrow-laden and the poor: but oh, how they can read them! Keep away the rhetorician from the twenty-third Psalm; the fourteenth chapter of John; the Lord’s Prayer. For a man who knows nothing but words to read such passages is blasphemy. Sometimes they cannot be read aloud; they can only be read to the heart by the heart itself. So it is with preaching. Here it is that the older man has a great advantage over the young man. Not that the young man should be deprived of an opportunity of speaking in the time of zeal and prophetic hopefulness. Nothing of the kind. The young man has a work to do, but there are some texts which he must let alone for a good many years; they do not yet belong to him; when he reaches his majority then he will have his property, so to say, given to him, and he can use it in harmony with the donor’s will. The young man must be zealous, perhaps efflorescent, certainly enthusiastic, occasionally somewhat eccentric and even wild: but was not Paul himself sometimes a fool in glorying? He would have been a less apostle if he had been a more careful man. He plunged into the great work; he leaped into it, and seemed to say to the sea, O sea, thyself teach me how to swim, that I may come right again to the shore. So we need the young, ardent, fearless, enthusiastic, chivalrous; but at the same time who can teach like the man who has suffered most? He knows all the weight of agony, all the load of grief, all the loneliness of bereavement He tells you how deep was the first grave he dug. Then you begin to think that your grief was not quite so deep as his. He has lost wife, or child, or friend, or property, or health, or hope. He tells how the battle went, how cold the wind was, how tempestuous the storm, how tremendous the foe, how nearly once he was lost, and was saved as by the last and supreme miracle of God. As he talks, you begin to take heart again; from providence you reason to redemption; and thus by help of the suffering teacher the soul revives, and God’s blessing comes upon the life. Young persons should be patient with men who are talking out of the depths of their experience. It is sometimes difficult to sit and hear an older man talk about life’s battles and life’s sorrows, when to the young hearer life is a dream, a holiday, a glad recreation; the ear full of the music of chiming bells, wedding metal clashing out its nuptial music to the willing wind to be carried everywhere, a gospel of festivity and joy. We would not chill you, we would not shorten the feast by one mouthful; but the flowers that bedeck the table are plucked flowers, and when a flower is plucked it dies.
Sorrowing men, broken hearts, souls conscious of loss and desolation, the story of the patriarchs will be lost upon us if we do not apply it to ourselves as a balm, a cordial, a gospel intended for our use and privilege. Risk it all by taking the comfort. But are we worthy of the comfort? Do not attempt too much analysis. There are some things by which analysis is resisted; they say, If you thus take us to pieces you will lose the very thing we meant to convey to you. We have heard of the patience of Job, we have listened to his colloquies with his friends, and seen how they have been puzzled and bewildered; Job has now come into the parabolical period of speech: presently another voice will come across the whole scene a young voice, bell-like in tone, incisive; a young man who will take up another tone of talk altogether, and then the great whirlwind platform will be erected, and from its lofty heights there will come a tempest of questions; then will come the long eventide quiet, solemn, more hopeful than a morning dawn. Meanwhile, at this point, here is the feast of comfort. The suffering man says, We only know a part, we only hear a whisper: the great thunder has not yet broken upon us because we are not prepared for it. Let us stand in this, that God is working out a great plan, and must not be interrupted in the continuance of his labour, in the integrity of his purpose. O mighty, gracious, miracle-working Son of God, help us to wait!
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
(See the Job Book Comments for Introductory content and general conclusions and observations).
VIII
JOB’S RESTATEMENT OF HIS CASE
Job 27-31.
INTRODUCTION: A PBELIMINARY INTERVIEW WITH THE HIGHER CRITICS
1. That all that part of this statement from Job 27:8 to the end of Job 28 is not the words of Job, i.e., when you read to Job 27:7 you should skip to Job 29:1 where Job resumes.
2. That Job 27:8-23 is the missing third speech of Zophar, here misplaced.
3. That Job 28 is a choral interlude by the author of the book.
The reasons for these contentions, they say, are that Job 27:8-23 is wholly at war with Job’s previous and subsequent statements concerning the wicked and that a third speech from Zophar is needed to complete the symmetry of the debate. They further say that Job 28 does not fit into Job’s line of thought nor into the arguments of the three friends, and that interludes by the author recited by the choir are customary in dramas.
The mediating critics say that there is a real difficulty here in applying Job 27:8-23 to Job, but that it may be explained by assuming that in a calm restatement of the case Job is led to see that he had, in the heat of the discussion, gone somewhat too far in his statement concerning the wicked and takes this opportunity of modifying former expressions. Dr. Sampey’s explanation in his syllabus is this: Job 27 and Job 28 are difficult to understand, because Job seems to take issue with his own position concerning the fate of the wicked. Possibly he began to see that, in the heat of argument, he had placed too much stress on the prosperity of the wicked.
Dr. Tanner’s statement is much better. He says:
There seems no ground to question the integrity of the book. The portions refused by some part of Job’s restatement and the whole of Elihu’s discourse are thoroughly homogeneous and essential to the unity of the book.
The author’s reply to these contentions is as follows:
1. That Zophar made no third speech because he had nothing more to say. Even Bildad in his third speech petered out with a repetition of a platitude. In a word) the whole prosecution broke down when Eliphaz in his last speech left the safety of generalities and came down to specifications and proofs of Job’s guilt.
2. There is not a particle of historical proof or probability that a copyist left out the usual heading introducing a speaker and mixed up Zophar’s speech with Job’s.
3. Fairly interpreted, the section (Job 27:8-23 ) harmonizes completely with Job’s previous contentions, neither retracts nor modifies them, and is essential to the completeness of his restatement of the case. He has denied that in this life even and exact justice is meted out to the wicked; he has not denied the ultimate justice of God in dealing with the wicked. The great emphasis in this section, which really extends from Job 27:7 to the end of the chapter, is placed on the outcome of the wicked, “When God taketh away his soul,” as in our Lord’s parable of the rich fool. Then though he prospered in life (Job 27:9 ), “He openeth his eyes and he is not,” like our Lord’s other parable, the rich man who in hell lifted up his eyes, being in torment (Luk 16 ). Then, “he would fain flee out of God’s hand” (Job 27:22 ) and then the lost spirits of men who preceded him “shall clap their hands and hiss” (Job 27:23 ) as the lost souls greeted the King of Babylon on his entrance into Sheol (Isa 14:9-10 ; Isa 14:15-16 ).
Job 28 also is an essential part of Job’s restatement harmonizing perfectly with all his other contentions, namely, that God’s government of the universe is beyond the comprehension of man. It is this very hiding of wisdom that constituted his problem. He is willing enough to fear God and depart from evil, but wants to understand why the undeserved afflictions of the righteous, and the undeserved prosperity of the wicked in time.
The idea of Job 28 being a choral interlude by the author of the book (see Watson in “Expositor’s Bible”) is sheer fancy without a particle of proof and wholly against all probability. While the book is a drama it is not a drama for the stage. The author of the book nowhere allows even his shadow to fall on a single page. In succeeding acts and scenes God, the devil, and man, each speaks for himself, without the artificial mechanism and connections of stage accessories.
Job takes an oath in restating his case which relates to his integrity (Job 27:1-6 ). The items of this oath are (1) the oath itself in due and ancient form, (2) that his lips should speak righteousness, (3) that he would not justify them (the three friends), (4) that he would hold his integrity till death, (5) that he would hold to his righteousness and would maintain a clear conscience as long as he lived. Then follows Job’s imprecation, thus:
Let mine enemy be as the wicked, And let him that riseth up against me be as the unrighteous. For what is the hope of the godless, though he get him gain, When God taketh away his soul? Job 27:7-8 .
Then comes his description of the portion of the wicked after death (Job 27:9-23 ) : God will not hear his cry when trouble comes and I tell you the whole truth just as you ought to know it already. Now this is the portion of the wicked: His children are for the sword, his silver and raiment are for the just and innocent, his house shall not endure, his death shall be as other people and his destiny will be eternally fixed.
In Job 28:1-11 he shows that man’s reason is superior to the instincts of the lower animals, since by skill and labor in mining and refining he can discover, possess, and utilize the hidden ores and precious stones, the way to which no fowl and no beast ever knew.
But there is a limitation placed on man for he can never discover nor purchase the higher wisdom of comprehending God’s plan and order of the universe, and of his complex providence, because this wisdom resides not in any place to which he has access, neither in the earth, sea, sky, nor Sheol, and he neither knows how to price it nor has the means to purchase it (Job 28:12-22 ). God alone has this wisdom (Job 28:23-27 ).
The highest wisdom attainable by man comes by God’s revelation: And unto man he said, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding. Job 28:28 .
All this leaves Job’s case without explanation, but in Job 29-31 we have it, thus:
Job 30 shows what his case was then, as he was derided was watched over by God, when his children were about him, when his prosperity abounded, when he was recognized and honored by all classes of men, when he was helping the needy and when he was sought after for counsel by all men.
Job 30 shows what his case was then, as he was derided by the young whose fathers were beneath the dogs, as he was a byword for the rabble who spat in his face and added insult to injury, as his sufferings became so intense that he could find no rest nor relief for his weary soul and body, as he was a brother to jackals and a companion to ostriches, as his skin was black and his bones burned with heat, as mourning and weeping were the only fitting expressions of his forlorn condition.
Job 31 gives a fine view of his character and conduct. Job’s protests in this chapter are a complete knockout. “He protests that he is innocent of impure thoughts (Job 31:1-4 ) ; of false seeming (Job 31:5-8 ); of adultery (Job 31:9-12 ); of injustice toward dependents (Job 31:13-15 ); of hardness toward the poor and needy (Job 31:16-23 ); of covetousness (Job 31:24-25 ); of idolatry (Job 31:26-28 ); of malevolence (Job 31:29-30 ); of want of hospitality (Job 31:31-32 ); of hiding his transgressions (Job 31:33-34 ); and of injustice as a land-lord (Job 31:38-40 ).” Rawlinson in “Pulpit Commentary.” It will be observed:
1. That this chapter answers in detail every specification of Eliphaz in his last speech (Job 22:5-20 ).
2. That Job correctly recognized both the intelligence and malice and irresistible power of the successive blows dealt against him and was not deceived by the human and natural agencies employed. But failing to see that since man fell this world is accursed and that the devil is its prince, he was shut up to the conviction that the Almighty was his adversary. If Adam in Paradise and before the fall had fallen upon Job’s experience, the argument of Job, applied to such a case, would be conclusive in fixing all the responsibility on God. No human philosophy, leaving out the fall of man and the kingdom of Satan, can explain the ills of life in harmony with divine justice, goodness, and mercy.
Job’s extraordinary experience leads him, step by step, to suggest all the needs of future revelations and thus to reveal the real object of the book. His affliction led him to feel:
1. The need of a revelation of a book which would clearly set forth God’s law and man’s duties.
2. The need of a revelation of man’s state after death.
3. The need of a revelation of man’s resurrection.
4. The need of a revelation of a future and final judgment.
5. The need of a revelation of the Father in an incarnation, visible, palpable, audible, approachable, and human.
6. The need of one to act as a daysman, mediator, umpire, between God and man.
7. The need of one to act as redeemer for man from the power of sin and Satan and as an advocate with God in heaven.
8. The need of a revelation of an interpreter abiding on earth as man’s advocate.
This is the great object of this first book of the Bible) to show the need of all its other books, until the Coming One should become “The Burning Desire of All the Nations.”
That object being granted, the chronological place of this book in the Bible is that it is the first book of the Bible written.
QUESTIONS
1. What Bays the radical wing of the higher critics about this section?
2. What say the mediating critics of this section, and what the explanations by Sampey and Tanner, respectively?
3. What the author’s reply to these contentions?
4. What was Job’s oath in restating his case?
5. What was Job’s imprecation?
6. What his description of the portion of the wicked after death?
7. How does he show that man’s reason is superior to the instincts of the lower animals?
8. What limitation placed on man, and what Job’s philosophy of it?
9. With whom resides wisdom and how is this fact set forth?
10. What the highest wisdom attainable by man?
11. What is implied in all this?
12. What was his case in the past?
13. What was his case then?
14. What his character?
15. What does Jobs extraordinary experience lead him to feel the need of?
16. That object being granted, where is the chronological place of this book in the Bible.
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Job 27:1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Ver. 1. Moreover Job continued his parable, and said ] It was Zophar’s turn, and Job waited a while, as it was fitting, to see whether he or any other of them would take up the bucklers again against him; which, when they did not (having heard his high expressions concerning God’s power and providence, and haply having now a better opinion of him than before), he assuageth his grief by defending his innocence and maintaining his opinion, in the five following chapters. Here he is said, after some respite, to recount again his parable; which hath its name in Hebrew from lording it, and bearing sway, because allegories and figurative speeches bear away the bell, as they say, from plainer discourses; are more gladly heard, or read, sooner understood, and better remembered, Sermo figuratus prineipatum tenet, ac velar dominatur. The word rendered continued is, in the original, added to lift up; importing either that he spake now with courage, as we say, and with a greater emphasis, since having silenced his adversaries; or that he uttered himself in a higher style, and his matter were master sentences, maxims, axioms, speeches of special precellency and predominance; such as might well challenge a throne in the minds of all men.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Job Chapter 27
Well, in the next chapter (27) would have come the time for Zophar; but although Bildad had very little to say, Zophar had nothing. He is fairly out of the debate; and we shall find that Eliphaz does not return. Job has it now all to himself, and accordingly he gives here what might have been an answer to Zophar, but there was no Zophar to answer – he was silenced. They felt now they were fairly out of court. They began with great vigour; full of confidence that their judgment was a sound one; but Job had completely answered all their foolish talk, and there they were silent. It is not that they were yet convinced that they were wrong; but they do what many people do – they shut up, and have not a word to say, and still are of the same opinion. But God would not allow it to rest there. God brought them out of their hiding place, and pronounced upon them; and it was through Job, as we shall find by and bye, that they were saved, either from a terrible judgment or death itself.
“Moreover Job continued his parable and said, As God liveth,who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; all the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.” He still stands to it that all their imagination was false. He said now more solemnly than ever – it was a kind of swearing to it – As God liveth this is true. “God forbid that I should justify you.” Now he turns upon them; he says “You are the culprits, not I”. “Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.” They were, on the contrary, imputing what was very bad to him in most of their speeches. “Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.” That is what he says. ‘It is you that are acting the part of wicked men without knowing it. It is you that are the unrighteous, not I.’ “For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?” It shows that he had a great abhorrence of it – quite as much as or more than they had. “Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?” Here he describes it to the end of the chapter. ‘Do you think I am going to fight against God in that way?’
“Will he delight himself in the Almighty?” That is what Job did. “Will he always call upon God?” He called upon God even in that terrible distress. “I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal. Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are ye thus altogether vain?” ‘You know very well that I have been cleaving to God; you have heard my confession, and why do you impute such a thing as hypocrisy?’ “This is the portion of a wicked man with God and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.” And even if they go on and have their children multiplied, it will only be deeper sorrow in the end. “If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread,” no matter what he may be appropriating (and so to end of verse 19). This is all totally opposed to their reasoning,and Job rather triumphs over them in this way. “Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night. The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth; and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.”
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
Chapter 27
Job continued his answer and he said, As God lives, who has taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who has vexed my soul; All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils; My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, I’ll not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live ( Job 27:1-6 ).
Job has now just had it with these guys. He said, “Look, I don’t care what you say. As long as there is a breath in my mouth I am going to maintain my own integrity. My lips are not going to utter deceit. I’m not going to say I’m a sinner just to please you. God forbid that I should justify your speeches, the things that you are saying. ‘Til I die I will not deny or remove my integrity from me. For my righteousness I hold fast. I’ll not let it go. My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live.”
Now this is Job’s response to his friends. Next week you’ll see Job’s response to God; quite different. Which shows to me an interesting thing. I think that it is a mistake for us to try to bring our friends under conviction. I think that oftentimes we are in the position of trying to make a person feel guilty. “Aren’t you sorry for what you’ve done? That’s horrible!” You know. And what is the response to that? It is the justifying of myself. I don’t want you laying some guilt trip on me, you hypocrite. You’ve done just as bad. You see, and I’m going to justify myself. I’m not going to let others lay guilt trips on me. I don’t like that; I resent that. And here these guys are trying to make Job guilty. “Oh, you know, you’ve done all these horrible things.” He says, “Hey, I’m not going to justify you. I hold fast mine integrity. My righteousness, I maintain it.”
But when God began to speak, it was a different story. Which tells me that rather than trying to make people feel guilty for what they have done, or what they are doing, it would be better that we just ask God to reveal Himself to them. And the conscious affect of God’s revelation is always that of the revelation of myself to me. When I see me in God’s light, then I cry, “Woe is me, for I am a sinful man.” I see, then, my own wickedness. And Job, when God revealed Himself, then Job cried out for forgiveness. Different story.
So we need to take a lesson from this. Rather than building resentment by trying to make people feel guilty for what they have done, best that we just pray and ask God to bring the conviction of His Spirit upon their hearts. “God, reveal Yourself, Your righteousness to them that they might see themselves in Your light.” And that will bring about a dramatic change of attitude. Whereas all of my endeavors will only create resentment and only cause the person to become more solidified in his position, maintaining his innocence, and so forth.
So Job’s friends were totally unsuccessful in all of their arguments.
Let my enemy be as the wicked, and he that rises up against me as the unrighteous. For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he has gained, when God takes away his soul? ( Job 27:7-8 )
Good question. “What is the hope of the wicked man, though he has gained the whole world, when God takes away his own soul?” Jesus said, “What should it profit a man if he gained the whole world and loses his own soul?” ( Mat 16:26 ) Basically, that’s what Job said. Jesus was sort of reiterating what Job had said, just putting it in different terms. What reward is there to the hypocrite if he gains everything, when God takes away his soul? What’s left then?
Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God? I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal. Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are you altogether vain? ( Job 27:9-12 )
You’ve seen these things. You know they’re true. How come you’re so empty?
This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: if the offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep. Though he heap up silver as dust, and prepare raiment as the clay; He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver ( Job 27:13-17 ).
In other words, he’s never going to be able to enjoy it. You may lay up for yourself great wealth, but who’s going to spend it? When you die, whose is it going to be? You’re not going to take it with you. Now Job sees the place of the wicked and the place of the hypocrite. They are more or less accusing Job, “Hey, you know, you’re saying that the hypocrite and the wicked have it great.” Job says, “No, you misunderstand me. You know as well as I know that their day is coming. I’m not saying that that’s the way to live. I know what the end of that kind of a life is. I’m not advocating that lifestyle, because they’re going to get cut off. They’re going to lose it all. They’re going to get wiped out. He may prepare it, but someone else is going to put it on. The innocent will divide the silver.”
He builds his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper makes. The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he opens his eyes, and he is not. Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest steals him away in the night. And the east wind carries him away, and he departs: as a storm hurls him out of his place. For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand. Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place ( Job 27:18-23 ). “
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Remember that Jobs friends had accused him of having committed some great sin; which would account for his great sorrows. The good man is naturally very indignant, and he uses the strongest possible language to cast away front himself with horror the charges which they brought against him in the day of his grief.
Job 27:1-4. Moreover Job continued his parable, and said, As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; all the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my tips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.
He felt that; it would be wicked for him to confess to what he had never done; it would be deceit for him to acknowledge crimes which he had never committed. Therefore he most solemnly asseverates, by the living God, that he never will permit the falsehood to pass his lips. He had not transgressed against God in the way his friends insinuated, and he would not own that he had.
Job 27:5. God forbid that I should you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
We are bound to keep to the truth. No man is permitted, with mock humility, to make himself out to be what he is not. Job was right, so far, in standing up, for the integrity of his character, for he was a man of such uprightness that even the devil could not find fault with him. He was such a holy man that God could say to Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one, that feareth God and escheweth evil? And all that the devil could do was to insinuate that he had a selfish motive for his goodness. Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that; he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face. Job was upright, yet we are never so right but what there is a mixture of wrong with our right. A man may very easily become self-righteous when he is defending his own character; there may be a 1ack of admissions of faults unperceived; there may be a blindness to faults that ought to have been perceived; and something of that imperfection, doubtless, was in the patriarch.
Job 27:6. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
There he went too far, for he had not yet seen God as he afterwards saw him. Before man, there was nothing with which he needed to reproach himself; but how he changed his tone when God drew near to him! Then he said, I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. IF we knew more of God, we should think less of ourselves. If those who consider themselves perfect had any idea of what perfection is, their comeliness would be turned in them to corruption.
Job 27:7-8. Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous. For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his so.
That is a very solemn, searching question; if a man does try to play fast and loose with God, if he be a hypocrite, and if he should gain by his hypocrisy all that he tries to gain, namely, repute among men, what is his hope when God taketh away his soul? Then, his hope is turned to horror, for he has to stand before him who cannot be deceived, but who reads him through and through, and casts him away because he has dared to insult his Maker by attempting to deceive omniscience. Oh, may you and I never play the hypocrites part! There cannot be a more foolish thing; and there cannot be a more wicked thing.
Job 27:9. Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?
That is one of the tests of the hypocrite: Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? Will the hypocrite cry to God at all? Will he not give up even his profession of religion when he loses his prosperity? And if he does cry, will God hear the double-tongued man?
Job 27:10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God?
These questions, while they condemn those who are hypocrites, are comforting to many a sincere heart. Dear friend, do you delight yourself in God? Do you really admire him, love him, and seek to glorify him? Then you are no hypocrite, for no hypocrite ever found delight in religion, and especially no hypocrite ever found delight in God himself. Will he always call upon God? No, there are certain times when he will cease to pray. Pleasure enchants him, and he will not pray; or perhaps he is so discouraged and despairing that he cannot pray. There are times when the hypocrite gives up praying, but the Christian cannot give it up; it is his vital breath, he must pray. No sorrow is so deep as to take him off it; no joy is so fascinating as to seduce him from prayer; but as for the hypocrite, Will he always call upon God? No, you may rest assured that he will not.
Job 27:11. I will teach you by the hand of God:
Or, better, as the margin runs, I will teach you being in the hand of God. Being himself chastened, and experiencing the teaching of God, Job says to his friends, I will teach you.
Job 27:11-14. That which is with the Almighty will I not conceal. Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are ye thus altogether vain? This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
If God does not visit the hypocrite with punishment in his own person, it will certainly fall upon the next generation.
Job 27:15-18. Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep. Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay; he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver. He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh.
He buildeth his house as a moth, which makes its home in the cloth, but the servants brush knocks it all out, and destroys the moths children, too. And as a booth that the keeper maketh. The hypocrites house is no better than that little shanty which the keeper of a vineyard puts up with a few boughs or mats, to sit under it from the heat of the sun. God saved us from being such poor builders as this! May we build a house that is founded on the rock!
Job 27:19. The rich man shalt lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he openeth his eyes, and he is not.
He has grown rich by oppression, he has become great in the land by his hypocrisy; but he speedily goes down to the grave. God looks at him, and he is gone.
Job 27:20. Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
This is a parallel passage to that word of our Lord, But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.
Job 27:21. The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.
These are your great ones, your proud ones, your strong men that fear nothing, and would insure their own lives to a certainty for the next twenty years; see how they go. Shadows are not more evanescent, a poor moth is not more easily crushed.
Job 27:22. For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand.
The man would escape from God if he could. It was Jobs glory, as we read just now, that he was in Gods hand; but the hypocrite would fain flee out of Gods hand, yet that is altogether impossible.
Job 27:23. Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.
Such ignominy shall be poured upon the hypocrite at last that all mankind shall endorse the sentence of God which condemns him; and shame and everlasting contempt shall be his portion. The Lord save all of us from such an awful doom, for Christs sake! Amen.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Job 27:1-7
Job 27
JOB’S FINAL STATEMENT (Job 27-31):
JOB AGAIN SPEAKS OF HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS
Job 27:1-7
“And Job again took up his parable, and said,
As God liveth who hath taken away my right,
And the Almighty who hath vexed my soul
(For my life is yet whole in me,
And the Spirit of God is in my nostrils);
Surely my lips shall not speak unrighteousness,
Neither shall my tongue utter deceit.
Far be it from me that I should justify you:
Till I die, I will not put away mine integrity from me.
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go:
My heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Let mine enemy be as the wicked,
And let him that riseth up against me be as the unrighteous.”
The next five chapters, beginning here, are Job’s summary and restatement of all that he has been saying, As Dr. Hesser noted, “Bildad had just finished (Job 25); it was Zophar’s time to speak. Job waited a moment for him to begin; but when it became clear that all of his friends had been silenced, Job `took up his parable,’ that is, `his weighty discourse.'”
“As God liveth who hath taken away my right, … who hath vexed my soul” (Job 27:2). Such words as these must be understood, not as any peevish criticism of God, but as the acknowledgment that, in the ancient sense, God does all that he allows. Men are not blaming God, when speaking of some terrible calamity, they say, “The Lord has given, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job’s oath that he is speaking the truth is found in the words, “as God liveth”; and his thus swearing by the living God is an eloquent testimony that Job does not attach any moral blame to God for what has happened to him, however impossible he finds it to understand. Heavenor called this, “The most extraordinary form of oath in the Scriptures.” He is swearing by the very God who has permitted all of his misfortunes. We cannot agree with Hesser that, “Job was making a mistake” in these words.
“The Spirit of God is in my nostrils” (Job 27:3). This is a declaration that Job is speaking by the Spirit of God; and this whole paragraph is an emphatic affirmation by Job of his integrity, of his keeping it till death, and that what he says is the truth. Blair agreed with this. “It suggests that he spoke with the authority of God.”
Andersen’s summary of this opening paragraph is that, “Job had already said that his friends’ allegations were nothing but falsehoods (Job 21:34), and he had challenged them to prove him a liar (Job 24:25). Both of these thoughts come together here in this paragraph.”
“All of the challenges of his friends have only served to crystallize and clarify Job’s thoughts; and what he now says exhibits calm assurance and absolute certainty.”
E.M. Zerr:
Job 27:1. Parable is from MASHAL and Strong uses “discourse” as one meaning.
Job 27:2. Judgment means a verdict or decision. Job was not the one who decided on this condition of his. It had been made by the Lord without even notifying him.
Job 27:3-4. Although he did not know why God had suffered him to be smitten, Job had determined not to say the wrong thing about it.
Job 27:5-6. Let us remember that Job believed God to have been the one who suffered all the afflictions to come on him. However, he held out to the last that the friends were wrong in their explanation of ft.
Job 27:7. This was a mild wish that proper punishment would come upon all men who were so wicked as to be the enemies of Job.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
There would seem to have been a pause after Job’s answer to Bildad. The suggestion is that he waited for Zophar, and seeing that Zophar was silent, he took the initiative, and made general reply.
This reply opens with a protestation of innocence (1-6). This was his direct answer to the charge made by Eliphaz. Its terms are to be carefully noted. He swore by God, while yet repeating his complaint, that God had taken away his right and vexed his soul. He refused to move from the position he had occupied throughout. He would not justify his opponents in the debate. He had been righteous, and he reaffirmed it. From this protestation his answer proceeded in terms of anger. In this imprecation, in which he expressed the desire that his enemy might be as the wicked, the deepest conviction of his soul seems to rise, in spite of himself, and it is in direct contradiction of the complaints he had made of the withdrawal of God from interference in the affairs of men. Summoning all the strength of his faith, he declared that he would teach his opponents “concerning the hand of God,” and he now practically took hold of all that they had said about God’s visitation on the wicked, and hurled it back on them as an anathema. He splendidly admitted the truth of their philosophy, but denied its application to himself. He thus left the whole problem full of mystery. All the things they had said were true, but they were not true to him. There must be some other way to account for his suffering. These arguments as here stated are not declared, but they are of plain inference from this angry retort on Job’s foes.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
the Justice of God
Job 27:1-23
Zophar ought now to have taken up the discourse, but, as he is silent, Job proceeds. First he renews his protestations of integrity, Job 27:1-10. He denies the charge of being ungodly, and says that till he dies he will not put away his integrity. He refuses to justify the accusations of his friends, and demands that they who had spoken against him should suffer the punishments which they had suggested as his due, Job 27:7. The falsity of their charges was surely evidenced by the fact that he could still delight in the Almighty and call upon His name, Job 27:10.
Then he speaks of the portion of the wicked, Job 27:11-23. Zophar and the rest could hardly have spoken more strongly. Though Job denied the application to himself, he was willing to admit the general truth of these propositions. Through what marvelous alternations the mind of man passes-now on the crest of the wave and again in the trough; arguing, debating, questioning; now antagonizing a position, and then almost accepting it! But be of good cheer! At eventide it shall be light! I have been within the gates, said one brave explorer, and there is no dark valley.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 27 Jobs Closing Words in Self-Vindication
1. My righteousness I hold fast (Job 27:1-6)
2. The contrast between himself and the wicked (Job 27:7-23)
Job 27:1-6. Zophar, the third friend, no longer speaks. Perhaps Job paused after his remarks in answer to Bildad and waited for Zophars criticism. Perhaps that young hot-head hid his inability of advancing another argument under an assumed disgust. Critics have assigned Job 27:7-10 and Job 27:13-23 to Zophar and claim that Job did not speak them at all. But other critics, like Wellhausen, Kuenen and Dillman say that these verses are a later insertion. We do not need to waste our time by examining these claims of the inventive genius of these scholars. There is nothing to them. Job now becomes bolder, knowing that his friends had spent their last arrow against him. He still accuseth God that He has taken away his right and wronged him. And he is determined, more so than ever before, not to give in to the abominable logic of his friends. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart does not condemn me as long as I live. It is the vindication of himself.
Job 27:7-23. And this self-vindication he pursues when he pictures the godless and contrasts them with himself, showing that he cannot be identified with these. How could this description of the godless ever be applied to himself? True, he had suffered like the wicked suffer, but will his end be like theirs? Thus he tries to show them that they had done him an injustice, for he was an upright man, who in spite of his misery held on to God.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Job: Num 23:7, Num 24:3, Num 24:15, Psa 49:4, Psa 78:2, Pro 26:7
continued: Heb. added to take up
Reciprocal: Job 29:1 – continued Mic 2:4 – shall
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 27:1-4. Job continued his parable His grave and weighty discourse. As God liveth He confirms the truth of his expressions by an oath, because he found them very backward to believe what he professed. Who hath taken away my judgment Who, though he knows my integrity, yet does not plead my cause against my friends. All the while my breath is in me Which is the constant companion and certain sign of life; or my soul or life is in me; and Spirit of God Or rather, the breath of God; is in my nostrils I protest, that as long as I have breath in my body, and he shall enable me to speak a word; my lips shall not speak wickedness, &c. My tongue shall be the faithful interpreter of my heart, and I will never speak otherwise than I think.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 27:1. Parable, equivalent to a wise, learned and conclusive speech.
Job 27:2. Godhath taken away my judgment. The old readings here are preferable. The LXX, Godjudgeth me thus, or so heavily. Chaldaic, He taketh away the rule of my judgment; that is, he does not judge me according to the manner of men: he makes my case special, and out of the common rule.
Job 27:3. The Spirit of God is in my nostrils. Poole thinks that Job alludes here to Gen 2:7. If so, Moses must either have had writings or very explicit traditions for his Genesis, which were known to Abraham and to Job. Be that as it might, he was conscious that the Spirit of God animated his heart, and emboldened him in the effusions of his mind.
Job 27:15. His widows shall not weep. The LXX, No man shall have compassion on their widows: iniquity being visited on posterity.
Job 27:21. The east wind. The LXX, , is a burning wind, the wind of the Lord. Hos 13:15. It withers all vegetation. Eze 17:10; Eze 19:12. Bruce, our accredited traveller, calls it the simoon, or hot wind. In the deserts of Numidia his guide called out, the simoon is coming; the camels, by instinct, thrust their noses into the sand, the people did the same, till the hot sulphurous breeze had passed: yet it left a sensation on Bruces lungs for some months. See on Psa 48:7.
REFLECTIONS.
This second part of Jobs speech devolves on his innocence of all imputed crimes; and therefore he would hold fast his integrity. And what can support a man more than an unshaken confidence in God, when assailed with trouble and afflictions?
But he asks by contrast, What is the hope of the hypocrite? His life developes his heart. If his religion were distinguished by the love of God and man, it would appear; whereas avarice is his character; he heaps up gold as the dust, he builds a stately mansion, and multiplies his children. And what are the issues of his patriarchal grandour. His wealth invites war, his children are slain with the sword, his house is overthrown as the mansion of a moth. In his trouble, the Almighty shuts out his prayer, and laughs at his calamities. It is heaven, not earth, that is the best and surest defence of man.
On the part of the world, which flattered his passions, he has no comfort. The poor divide his raiment, and inherit his lands. He sinks unpitied in despair; and men clap their hands at his fall.Learn then, oh my soul, how weak and humble soever thy piety may be, see that it be sincere. Let it be discovered in excellence of temper, in liberality of sentiment, and in meekness of spirit. Then in the day of trouble, the Lord in due time will lift up thy head.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 27:2-6. Continuation of Jobs reply to Bildad. Job 27:1 must be removed as a gloss. Job swears by God that he (in full possession of his powers, Job 27:3) tells the truth (Job 27:4). God forbid that he should justify the friends (Job 27:5), i.e. declare them in the right; on the contrary he will maintain his innocence (Job 27:6). In Job 27:6 b follow mg.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
HOLDING FAST HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS
(vv.1-7)
In Chapter 26 Job answered Bildad fully. Bildad’s last argument was very brief, and after this Zophar had nothing at all to say. Job has already won the debate, though he fully, admits that he has not found the relief he is seeking. Now he spends five chapters in his self-defence, which will get him nowhere as regards the answer to his distressing condition, for his comparatively righteous life had nothing to do with the answer to his questions.
He knows that God lives, but claims that God had taken away the justice Job felt he deserved. He knew that God is Almighty, but he accused God of making his soul bitter (v.2). He says that as long as he is able to breathe, his lips would not speak wickedness nor his tongue deceit (vv.3-4). Thus he flatly contradicted the accusations of his friends. He would not give them the least encouragement in telling them they, were right in any, measure (v.5). He was determined to cling to his integrity, and insists, “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live” (v.6).
His friends had no proof whatever to the contrary of what Job said, for his actions had been good, but at the end of this book, Job’s attitude is wonderfully changed. The one who had such confidence in his own righteousness, when face to face with God, said, I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (ch.42:5-6). The question of his good conduct was set aside entirely, when he saw, not merely, his past life, but himself in the light of God’s presence. He abhorred himself, rather than defending himself.
Job ends this section by expressing the desire that his enemy, (one who opposed his claim of righteousness) would be like the wicked, not worth considering, and one who rose against him in his claim would be like the unrighteous, a contrast to Job himself (v.7). If this applied to his friends, let them consider it!
THE HOPE OF THE HYPOCRITE
(vv.8-12)
Job’s friends had accused him of hypocrisy, but he asks them as to the hypocrite’s end. Though he gained much in this world, what can he do when God takes away his life? “Will God hear his cry, when trouble comes upon him?” (v.9). In fact, would a hypocrite delight himself in God to such an extent as to call upon God Himself? (v.10). It is not the character of such an evil man to really call on God, yet it was evident to Job’s friends that Job was crying out to God in his affliction.
Job therefore realised that his friends needed teaching as regards the hand of God, so he would teach them (v.11). It was true they needed such teaching, though Job himself needed teaching of a different kind than he perceived his friends needed, for “the hand of God” is a tremendous subject. What Job knew about God’s hand he would not conceal, but there was much indeed he did not know, as we all must realise in our ignorance.
Still, he tells his friends they. had seen God’s hand in operation, and instead of considering soberly what was involved in these actions of God, they, were behaving with complete nonsense! (v.12).
THE CERTAIN DOOM OF THE UNGODLY
(vv.13-18)
Job now proceeds to declare in language similar to that of his friends, the eventual doom of the wicked. But unlike his friends, he showed this in contrast to his own eventual end. They had spoken this way to identify Job as being wicked. But his summary of the wicked and their end actually shows the impossibility of Job’s being identified as one of them. There seems to be similarities in Job’s experience to that of the wicked, as in verse 14, if his children are multiplied, it is for the sword, and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.” Job’s children had all been killed in a sudden catastrophe (ch.1:18-19), but Job is thinking beyond the present, to consider the eventual end of the wicked. His thoughts are surely inconsistent, for he has before so dwelt upon his own present circumstances that he could hardly see farther.
“Those who survive him shall be buried in death, and their widows shall not weep.” Some may have a little longer, but the grave will soon claim them, and their widows would not even weep because they would feel no loss in the death of an evil husband.
He may heap up abundance of riches, like the rich man of Luk 12:16-21, who said in his soul, – Soul, you have many goods laid up for many, years, take your case, cat, drink and be merry. But God said to him, Fool! this night your soul will be required of you, then whose will those things be which you have provided? Thus one may pile up riches, but others, less foolish than he, will reap its benefits. The absolute folly of mankind is certainly evident in all this. We all know that our lives are very short at best. In fact, what is 100 years compared to eternity? If we insure our lives for that long, what do we have when it is over? If one leaves Christ out of his life, he has only torment to look forward to!
TOTAL OBLIVION
(vv.19-23)
Thus the rich unbeliever lies down, then opens his eyes to find himself in torment, where terrors overtake him as a flood, the tempest of God’s judgment takes him away (vv.19-20). This is graphic language, but Job is not so specific as the Lord Jesus was in Luk 16:23, concerning the rich man who died, “and being in Hades, lifted up his eyes.” Thus, after death there is torment for the wicked. “The east wind carries him away” (v.21). The east wind is often spoken of in scripture as signifying God’s judgment (Exo 14:21). That judgment is slow to arise, but when it comes, it “does not spare” (v.22). Men may try to flee desperately from its power, as they do from hurricanes, but to no avail.
“Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place” (v.23). Rather than sorrowing at his disgraceful death, those who have known him will be glad he is gone. It is evident that Job had no fear whatever of his sharing a judgment like this, and his friends ought to have easily recognised that these things would not be true of Job. It would have been wise for them to frankly apologise to Job for their cruel charges against him.
Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible
Job’s denial of his friends’ wisdom ch. 27
Since Job 27:1 begins, "Then Job continued . . .," Job may have paused and waited for Zophar to respond. However, we have no third speech by him in the text. Evidently Job proceeded to elaborate further on Bildad’s "wisdom" but broadened his perspective and addressed all three friends. "You" in Job 27:5; Job 27:11-12 is plural in the Hebrew text.
Job began by affirming his innocence (Job 27:1-6). For the first time he took an oath that his words were true. "As God lives" means that what he was saying was as certain as God’s existence. Job wished that his enemies would suffer the fate of the wicked (Job 27:7-23). In so saying, Job was claiming that he was on the side of the righteous, and all who were against him were wicked. Rowley regarded this section as Zophar’s third speech. [Note: Rowley, p. 175.]
"Imprecatory rhetoric is difficult for Westerners to understand. But in the Semitic world it is still an honorable rhetorical device. The imprecation had a juridical function and was frequently a hyperbolic (cf. Psa 109:6-15; Psalms 139 [sic 137]:7-9) means of dealing with false accusations and oppression. Legally the false accusation and the very crimes committed are called down on the perpetrator’s head. Since his counselors had falsely accused Job of being wicked, they deserved to be punished like the wicked." [Note: Smick, "Job," p. 971.]
Again Job called upon God. His friends never did, as far as the text records.
Some writers have regarded Job 27:13-23 as Zophar’s third speech. [Note: E.g., H. L. Ellison, A Study of Job, p. 88.] Still, this section is consistent with Job’s argument in the immediate context (Job 27:7-10) and previously (Job 24:18-25).
"In the following strophe Job now begins as Zophar (ch. xx. 29) concluded. He gives back to the friends the doctrine they have fully imparted to him. They have held the lot of the evil-doer before him as a mirror, that he may behold himself in it and be astounded; he holds it before them, that they may perceive how not only his bearing under suffering, but also the form of his affliction, is of a totally different kind." [Note: Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job , 2:72.]
Job asserted that the wicked would experience punishment eventually. Though he believed God was not being just with him, he could not escape the conviction that God must deal justly. It was this antinomy that made Job so uncomfortably anxious to obtain a reply from God. He agreed with his companions that God punishes the wicked. This is what normally happens in life (Job 27:13-23). Nonetheless he disagreed that this is always true in every case.
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
XXII.
THE OUTSKIRTS OF HIS WAYS
Job 26:1-14; Job 27:1-23
Job SPEAKS
BEGINNING his reply Job is full of scorn and sarcasm.
“How hast thou helped one without power!
How hast thou saved the strengthless arm!
How hast thou counselled one void of knowledge,
And plentifully declared the thing that is known!”
Well indeed hast thou spoken, O man of singular intelligence. I am very weak, my arm is powerless. What reassurance, what generous help thou hast provided! I, doubtless, know nothing, and thou hast showered illumination on my darkness.-His irony is bitter. Bildad appears almost contemptible. “To whom hast thou uttered words?” Is it thy mission to instruct me? “And whose spirit came forth from thee?” Dost thou claim Divine inspiration? Job is rancorous; and we are scarcely intended by the writer to justify him. Yet it is galling indeed to hear that calm repetition of the most ordinary ideas when the controversy has been carried into the deep waters of thought. Job desired bread and is offered a stone.
But since Bildad has chosen to descant upon the greatness and imperial power of God, the subject shall be continued. He shall be taken into the abyss beneath, where faith recognises the Divine presence, and to the heights above that he may learn how little of the dominion of God lies within the range of a mind like his, or indeed of mortal sense.
First there is a vivid glance at that mysterious underworld where the shades or spirits of the departed survive in a dim vague existence.
“The shades are shaken
Beneath the waters and their inhabitants.
Sheol is naked before Him,
And Abaddon hath no covering.”
Bildad has spoken of the lofty place where God makes peace. But that same God has the sovereignty also of the nether world. Under the bed of the ocean and those subterranean waters that flow beneath the solid ground where, in the impenetrable darkness, poor shadows of their former selves, those who lived once on earth congregate age after age-there the power of the Almighty is revealed. He does not always exert His will in order to create tranquillity. Down in Sheol the refaim are agitated. And nothing is hid from His eye. Abaddon, the devouring abyss, is naked before Him.
Let us distinguish here between the imagery and the underlying thought, the inspired vision of the writer and the form in which Job is made to present it. These notions about Sheol as a dark cavern below earth and ocean to which the spirits of the dead are supposed to descend are the common beliefs of the age. They represent opinion, not reality. But there is a new flash of inspiration in the thought that God reigns over the abode of the dead, that even if men escape punishment here, the judgments of the Almighty may reach them there. This is the writers prophetic insight into fact: and he properly assigns the thought to his hero who, already almost at the point of death, has been straining as it were to see what lies beyond the gloomy gate. The poetry is infused with the spirit of inquiry into Gods government of the present and the future. Set beside other passages both in the Old and New Testaments this is found continuous with higher revelations, even with the testimony of Christ when He says that God is Lord not of the dead but of the living.
From Sheol, the underworld, Job points to the northern heavens ablaze with stars. God, he says, stretches that wonderful dome over empty space-the immovable polar star probably appearing to mark the point of suspension. The earth, again, hangs in space on nothing, even this solid earth on which men live and build their cities. The writer is of course ignorant of what modern science teaches, but he has caught the fact which no modern knowledge can deprive of its marvellous character. Then the gathering in immense volumes of watery vapour, how strange is that, the filmy clouds holding rains that deluge a continent, yet not rent asunder. One who is wonderful in counsel must indeed have ordered this universe; but His throne, the radiant seat of His everlasting dominion, He shutteth in with clouds; it is never seen.
A bound He hath set on the face of the waters,
On the confines of light and darkness.
The pillars of heaven tremble
And are astonished at His rebuke.
He stilleth the sea with His power;
And by His understanding He smites through Rahab;
By His breath the heavens are made bright;
His hand pierceth the fleeing serpent.
Lo, these are the outskirts of His ways,
And what a whisper is that which we hear of Him!
But the thunder of His powers who can apprehend?
At the confines of light and darkness God sets a boundary, the visible horizon, the ocean being supposed to girdle the earth on every side. The pillars of heaven are the mountains, which might be seen in various directions apparently supporting the sky. With awe men looked upon them, with greater awe felt them sometimes shaken by mysterious throbs as if at Gods rebuke. From these the poet passes to the sea, the great storm waves that roll upon the shore. God smites through Rahab, subdues the fierce sea-represented as a raging monster. Here, as in the succeeding verse where the fleeing serpent is spoken of, reference is made to nature myths current in the East. The old ideas of heathen imagination are used simply in a poetical way. Job does not believe in a dragon of the sea, but it suits him to speak of the stormy ocean current under this figure so as to give vividness to his picture of Divine power. God quells the wild waves; His breath as a soft wind clears away the storm clouds and the blue sky is seen again. The hand of God pierces the fleeing serpent, the long track of angry clouds borne swiftly across the face of the heavens.
The closing words of the chapter are a testimony to the Divine greatness, negative in form yet in effect more eloquent than all the rest. It is but the outskirts of the ways of God we see, a whisper of Him we hear. The full thunder falls not on our ears. He who sits on the throne which is forever shrouded in clouds and darkness is the Creator of the visible universe but always separate from it. He reveals Himself in what we see and hear, yet the glory, the majesty remain concealed. The sun is not God, nor the storm, nor the clear shining after rain. The writer is still true to the principle of never making nature equal to God. Even where the religion is in form a nature religion, separateness is fully maintained. The phenomena of the universe are but faint adumbrations of the Divine life. Bildad may come short of the full clearness of belief, but Job has it. The great circle of existence the eye is able to include is but the skirt of that garment by which the Almighty is seen.
The question may be asked, What place has this poetical tribute to the majesty of God in the argument of the book? Viewed simply as an effort to outdo and correct the utterance of Bildad the speech is not fully explained. We ask further what is meant to be in Jobs mind at this particular point in the discussion; whether he is secretly complaining that power and dominion so wide are not manifested in executing justice on earth, or, on the other hand, comforting himself with the thought that judgment will yet return to righteousness and the Most High be proved the All-just? The inquiry has special importance because, looking forward in the book, we find that when the voice of God is heard from the storm it proclaims His matchless power and incomparable wisdom.
At present it must suffice to say that Job is now made to come very near his final discovery that complete reliance upon Eloah is not Simply the fate but the privilege of man. Fully to understand Divine providence is impossible, but it can be seen that One who is supreme in power and infinite in wisdom, responsible always to Himself for the exercise of His power, should have the complete confidence of His creatures. Of this truth Job lays hold; by strenuous thought he has forced his way almost through the tangled forest, and he is a type of man at his best on the natural plane. The world waited for the clear light which solves the difficulties of faith. While once and again a flash came before Christ, He brought the abiding revelation, the dayspring from on high which giveth light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
According to his manner Job turns now from a subject which may be described as speculative to his own position and experience. The earlier part of chapter 27 is an earnest declaration in the strain he has always maintained. As vehemently as ever he renews his claim to integrity, emphasising it with a solemn adjuration.
As God liveth who hath taken away my right,
And the Almighty who hath embittered my soul;
(For still my life is whole in me,
And the breath of the High God in my nostrils),
My lips do not speak iniquity,
Nor does my tongue utter deceit.
Far be it from me to justify you;
Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me.
My righteousness I hold fast, and let it not go;
My heart reproacheth not any of my days.
This is in the old tone of confident self defence. God has taken away his right, denied him the outward signs of innocence, the opportunity of pleading his cause. Yet, as a believer, he swears by the life of God that he is a true man, a righteous man. Whatever betides he will not fall from that conviction and claim. And let no one say that pain has impaired his reason, that now, if never before, he is speaking deliriously. No: his life is whole in him; God-given life is his, and with the consciousness of it he speaks, not ignorant of what is a mans duty, not with a lie in his right hand, but with absolute sincerity. He will not justify his accusers, for that would be to deny righteousness, the very rock which alone is firm beneath his feet. Knowing what is a mans obligation to his fellow men and to God, he will repeat his self defence. He goes back upon his past, he reviews his days. Upon none of them can his conscience fix the accusation of deliberate baseness or rebellion against God.
Having affirmed his sincerity Job proceeds to show what would be the result of deceit and hypocrisy at so solemn a crisis of his life. The underlying idea seems to be that of communion with the Most High, the spiritual fellowship necessary to mans inner life. He could not speak falsely without separating himself from God and therefore from hope. As yet he is not rejected; the consciousness of truth remains with him, and through that he is in touch at least with Eloah. No voice from on high answers him; yet this Divine principle of life remains in his soul. Shall he renounce it?
“Let mine enemy be as the wicked,
And he that riseth against me as the unrighteous.”
If I have aught to do with a wicked man such as I am now to describe, one who would pretend to pure and godly life while he had behaved in impious defiance of righteousness, if I have to do with such a man, let it be as an enemy.
“For what is the hope of the godless whom He cutteth off,
When God taketh his soul?
Will God hear his cry
When trouble cometh upon him?
Will he delight himself in the Almighty
And call upon Eloah at all times?”
The topic is access to God by prayer, that sense of security which depends on the Divine friendship. There comes one moment at least, there may be many, in which earthly possessions are seen to be worthless and the help of the Almighty is alone of any avail. In order to enjoy hope at such a time a man must habitually live with God in sincere obedience. The godless man previously described, the thief, the adulterer whose whole life is a cowardly lie, is cut off from the Almighty. He finds no resource in the Divine friendship. To call upon God always is no privilege of his; he has lost it by neglect and revolt. Job speaks of the case of such a man as in contrast to his own. Although his own prayers remain apparently unanswered he has a reserve of faith and hope. Before God he can still assure himself as the servant of His righteousness, in fellowship with Him who is eternally true. The address closes with these words of retrospection (Job 27:11-12):-
“I would teach you concerning the hand of God,
That which is with Shaddai would I not conceal.
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it;
Why then are ye become altogether vain?”
At this point begins a passage which creates great difficulty. It is ascribed to Job, but is entirely out of harmony with all he has said. May we accept the conjecture that it is the missing third speech of Zophar, erroneously incorporated with the “parable” of Job? Do the contents warrant this departure from the received text?
All along Jobs contention has been that though an evildoer could have no fellowship with God, no joy in God, yet such a man might succeed in his schemes, amass wealth, live in glory, go down to his grave in peace. Yea, he might be laid in a stately tomb and the very clods of the valley might be sweet to him. Job has not affirmed this to be always the history of one who defies the Divine law. But he has said that often it is; and the deep darkness in which he himself lies is not caused so much by his calamity and disease as by the doubt forced upon him whether the Most High does rule in steadfast justice on this earth. How comes it, he has cried again and again, that the wicked prosper and the good are often reduced to poverty and sorrow?
Now does the passage from the twelfth verse onwards correspond with this strain of thought? It describes the fate of the wicked oppressor in strong language-defeat, desolation, terror, rejection by God, rejection by men. His children are multiplied only for the sword. Sons die and widows are left disconsolate. His treasures, his garments shall not be for his delight; the innocent shall enjoy his substance. His sudden death shall be in shame and agony, and men shall clap their hands at him and hiss him out of his place. Clearly, if Job is the speaker, he must be giving up all he has hitherto contended for, admitting that his friends have argued truly, that after all judgment does fall in this world upon arrogant men. The motive of the whole controversy would be lost if Job yielded this point. It is not as if the passage ran, This or that may take place, this or that may befall the evildoer. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar never present more strongly their own view than that view is presented here. Nor can it be said that the writer may be preparing for the confession Job makes after the Almighty has spoken from the storm. When he gives way then, it is only to the extent of withdrawing his doubts of the wisdom and justice of the Divine rule.
The suggestion that Job is here reciting the statements of his friends cannot be entertained. To read “Why are ye altogether vain, saying, This is the portion of the wicked man from God,” is incompatible with the long and detailed account of the oppressors overthrow and punishment. There would be no point or force in mere recapitulation without the slightest irony or caricature. The passage is in grim earnest. On the other hand, to imagine that Job is modifying his former language is, as Dr. A.B. Davidson shows, equally out of the question. With his own sons and daughters lying in their graves, his own riches dispersed, would he be likely to say-“If his children be multiplied it is for the sword”? and
“Though he heap up silver as the dust,
And prepare raiment as the clay;
He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on
And the innocent shall divide the silver”?
Against supposing this to be Zophars third speech the arguments drawn from the brevity of Bildads last utterance and the exhaustion of the subjects of debate have little weight, and there are distinct points of resemblance between the passage under consideration and Zophars former addresses. Assuming it to be his, it is seen to begin precisely where he left off; -only he adopts the distinction Job has pointed out and confines himself now to “oppressors.” His last speech closed with the sentence: “This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God.” He begins here (Job 27:13): “This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors which they receive from the Almighty.” Again, without verbal identity, the expressions “God shall cast the fierceness of His wrath upon him,” {Job 20:23} and “God shall hurl upon him and not spare,” {Job 27:21} show the same style of representation, as also do the following: “Terrors are upon him His goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath,” {Job 20:25; Job 20:28} and “Terrors overtake him like waters”. {Job 27:20} Other similarities may be easily traced; and on the whole it seems by far the best explanation of an otherwise incomprehensible passage to suppose that here Zophar is holding doggedly to opinions which the other two friends have renounced. Job could not have spoken the passage, and there is no reason for considering it to be an interpolation by a later hand.