Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 31:1

I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

1. The “eye,” the lusts of which are frequently spoken of in scripture, is the great inlet through which that which is without affects the heart and stirs evil desire. Job made a “covenant” or agreement with his eyes, that they should obey his mind, or act always in harmony with his higher self.

why then should I think ] Or, how then should I look? Under his contract with his eyes such sinful looking upon a woman (Mat 5:28) was impossible; comp. Rom 6:2, We that died to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1 12. Job clears himself of cherishing or yielding to sensuous desires. This idea is pursued through a series of instances; (1) simple desire, excited by the eye, Job 31:1-4; (2) actual yielding to such desire in word or deed, Job 31:5-8; (3) the grossest form of sensual sin, Job 31:9-12.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

I made a covenant with mine eyes – The first virtue of his private life to which Job refers is chastity. Such was his sense of the importance of this, and of the danger to which man was exposed, that he had solemnly resolved not to think upon a young female. The phrase here, I made a covenant with mine eyes, is poetical, meaning that he solemnly resolved. A covenant is of a sacred and binding nature; and the strength of his resolution was as great as if he had made a solemn compact. A covenant or compact was usually made by slaying an animal in sacrifice, and the compact was ratified over the animal that was slain, by a kind of imprecation that if the compact was violated the same destruction might fall on the violators which fell on the head of the victim. This idea of cutting up a victim on occasion of making a covenant, is retained in most languages. So the Greek , horkia temnein, temnein spondas, and the Latin icere foedus – to strike a league, in allusion to the striking down, or slaying of an animal on the occasion. And so the Hebrew, as in the place before us, b^eryth karath – to cut a covenant, from cutting down, or cutting in pieces the victim over which the covenant was made; see this explained at length in the notes at Heb 9:16. By the language here, Job means that he had resolved, in the most solemn manner, that he would not allow his eyes or thoughts to endanger him by improperly contemplating a woman.

Why then should I think upon a maid – Upon a virgin – al–b^ethulah; compare Pro 6:25, Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids; see, also, the fearful and solemn declaration of the Saviour in Mat 5:28. There is much emphasis in the expression used here by Job. He does not merely say that he had not thought in that manner, but that the thing was morally impossible that he should have done it. Any charge of that kind, or any suspicion of it, he would repel with indignation. His purpose to lead a pure life, and to keep a pure heart, had been so settled, that it was impossible that he could have offended in that respect. His purpose, also, not to think on this subject, showed the extent of the restriction imposed on himself. It was not merely his intention to lead a chaste life, and to avoid open sin, but it was to maintain a pure heart, and not to suffer the mind to become corrupted by dwelling on impure images, or indulging in unholy desires. This strongly shows Jobs piety and purity of heart, and is a beautiful illustration of patriarchal religion. We may remark here, that if a man wishes to maintain purity of life, he must make just such a covenant as this with himself – one so sacred, so solemn, so firm, that he will not suffer his mind for a moment to harbor an improper thought. The very passage of an impure thought through the mind leaves pollution behind it; and the outbreaking crimes of life are just the result of allowing the imagination to dwell on impure images. As the eye is the great source of danger (compare Mat 5:28; 2Pe 2:14), there should be a solemn purpose that that should be pure, and that any sacrifice should be made rather than allow indulgence to a wanton gaze: compare Mar 9:47. No man was ever too much guarded on this subject; no one ever yet made too solemn a covenant with his eyes, and with his whole soul to be chaste.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Job 31:1-32

I made a covenant with mine eyes.

Guard the senses

Set a strong guard about thy outward senses: these are Satans landing places, especially the eye and the ear. (W. Gurnall.)

Methods of moral life

Let us look at the kind of life Job says he lived, and in doing so let it be remarked that all the critics concur in saying that this chapter contains more jewels of illustration, of figure or metaphor, than probably any other chapter in the whole of the eloquent book. Job is therefore at his intellectual best. Let him tell us the kind of life he lived: whilst he boasts of it we may take warning by it; the very things he is clearest about may perhaps awaken our distrust. Job had tried a mechanical life–I made a covenant with mine eyes (verse 1). The meaning of a mechanical life is a life of regulation, penance, discipline; a life all marked out like a map; a kind of tabulated life, every hour having its duty, every day its peculiar form or expression of piety. Job smote himself; he set before his eyes a table of negations; he was not to do a hundred things. He kept himself well under control; when he burned with fire, he plunged into the snow; when his eyes wandered for a moment, he struck them both, and blinded himself in his pious indignation. He is claiming reward for this. Truly it would seem as if some reward were due. What can a man do more than write down upon plain paper what he will execute, or what he will forbear doing, during every day of the week? His first line tells what he will do, or not do, at the dawn; he will be up with the sun, and then he will perform such a duty, or crucify such and such a passion he will live a kind of military life; he will be a very soldier. Is this the true way of living? Or is there a more excellent way? Can we live from the outside? Can we live by chart, and map, and schedule, and printed regulation? Can the race be trained in its highest faculties and aspects within the shadow of Mount Sinai? Or is the life to be regulated from within? Is it the conduct that is to be refined, or the motive that is to be sanctified and inspired? Is life a washing of the hands, or a cleansing of the heart? The time for the answer is not now, for we are dealing with an historical instance, and the man in immediate question says that he tried a scheduled life. He wrote or printed with his own hand what he would do, and what he would not do, and he kept to it; and though he kept to it, some invisible hand struck him in the face, and lightning never dealt a deadlier blow. Job then says he tried to maintain a good reputation amongst men–If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out (verses 5-8). That was a public challenge. There were witnesses; let them stand forth: there was a public record kept; let it be read aloud. This man asks for no quarter; he simply says, read what I have done let the enemy himself read it, for even the tongue of malice cannot pervert the record of honesty. Will not this bring a sunny providence? Will not this tempt condescending heaven to be kind, and to give public coronation to so faithful a patron? Is there no peerage for a man who has done all this? Nay, is he to be displaced from the commonalty and thrust down, that he may be a brother to dragons and a companion to owls? All this has he done, and yet he says, My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep (Job 30:30-31). This is not what we have thought of Providence. We have said, Who lives best in the public eye will be by the public judgment most honourably and cordially esteemed: the public will take care of its servants; the public will stand up for the man who has done all he could in the interests of the public; slave, man or woman, will spring to the masters rescue, because of remembered kindnesses. Is Job quite sure of this? Certainly, or he would not have used such imprecations as flowed from his eloquent lips:–If I have done thus, and so, then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out: let my wife grind servilely unto another: let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. So then Job himself is speaking earnestly. Yet, he says, though I have done all this, I am cast into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes: though I have done all this, God is cruel unto me, and He does not hear me: I stand up, and He regardeth me not: with His strong hand He opposeth Himself against me: He has lifted me up to the wind, and He has driven me away with contempt: He has not given me time to swallow down my spittle: I, the model man of my day, have been crushed like a venomous beast. Job, therefore, does not modify the case against God. He misses nothing of the argument and withholds nothing of the tragic fact. He makes a long, minute, complete, and urgent statement. And this statement is found in the Bible! Actually found in a Book which is meant to assert eternal providence and justify the ways of God to man! It is something that the Bible could hold within its limits the Book of Job. It is like throwing ones arms around a furnace; it is as if a man should insist upon embracing some ravenous beast, and accounting him as a member of the household. These charges against Providence are not found in a book written in the interests of what is called infidelity or unbelief; this impeachment is part of Gods own book. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER XXXI

Job makes a solemn protestation of his chastity and integrity,

1-12;

of his humanity, 13-16;

of his charity and mercy, 17-23;

of his abhorrence of covetousness and idolatry, 24-32;

and of his readiness to acknowledge his errors, 33, 34;

and wishes for a full investigation of his case, being

confident that this would issue in the full manifestation

of his innocence, 36-40.

NOTES ON CHAP. XXXI

Verse 1. I made a covenant with mine eyes] berith carats leeynai: “I have cut” or divided “the covenant sacrifice with my eyes.” My conscience and my eyes are the contracting parties; God is the Judge; and I am therefore bound not to look upon any thing with a delighted or covetous eye, by which my conscience may be defiled, or my God dishonoured.

Why then should I think upon a maid?] umah ethbonen al bethulah. And why should I set myself to contemplate, or think upon, Bethulah? That Bethulah may here signify an idol, is very likely. Sanchoniatho observes, that Ouranos first introduced Baithulia when he erected animated stones, or rather, as Bochart observes, ANOINTED stones, which became representatives of some deity. I suppose that Job purges himself here from this species of idolatry. Probably the Baithulia were at first emblems only of the tabernacle; beith Eloah, “the house of God;” or of that pillar set up by Jacob, Ge 28:18, which he called beith Elohim, or Bethalim; for idolatry always supposes a pure and holy worship, of which it is the counterfeit. For more on the subject of the Baithulia, See Clarke on Ge 28:19.

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

So far have I been from wallowing in the mire of uncleanness, or any gross wickedness, wherewith you charge me, that I have abstained even from the least occasions and appearances of evil, having made a solemn resolution within myself, and a solemn covenant and promise to God, that I would not wantonly or lustfully fix mine eyes or gaze upon a maid, lest mine eyes should affect my heart, and stir me up to further filthiness. Hereby we plainly see that that command of Christ. Mat 5:29, was no new command peculiar to the gospel, as some would have it, but the very same which the law of God revealed in his word, and written in mens hearts by nature, imposed upon men in the times of the Old Testament. See also 2Pe 2:14; 1Jo 2:16. Should I think upon, i.e. indulge myself in filthy and lustful thoughts? Seeing I was obliged, and accordingly took care, to guard mine eyes, I was upon the same reason obliged to restrain my imagination. Or, why then should I consider, or contemplate, or look curiously, or thoughtfully, or diligently? Since I had made such a covenant, why should I not keep it? A maid; which is emphatically added, to show that that circumstance which provokes the lust of others had no such power over him, and that he restrained himself from the very thoughts and desires of filthiness with such persons, wherewith the generality of men allowed themselves to commit gross fornication, as deeming it to be either none, or but a very little sin. Withal he insinuates with how much more caution he kept himself from uncleanness with any married person.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1-4. He asserts his guardingagainst being allured to sin by his senses.

thinkrather, “casta (lustful) look.” He not merely did not so, but put it out ofthe question by covenanting with his eyes against leading him intotemptation (Pro 6:25; Mat 5:28).

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

I made a covenant with mine eyes,…. Not to look upon a woman, and wantonly gaze at her beauty, lest his heart should be drawn thereby to lust after her; for the eyes are inlets to many sins, and particularly to uncleanness, of which there have been instances, both in bad men and good men, Ge 34:2; so the poet t represents the eye as the way through which the beauty of a woman passes swifter than an arrow into the hearts of men, and makes impressions there; see 2Pe 2:14; hence Zaleucus ordered adulterers to be punished, by plucking out the eyes of the adulterer u; wherefore Job, to prevent this, entered into a solemn engagement with himself, laid himself under a strong obligation, as if he had bound himself by a covenant, made a resolution in the strength of divine grace, not to employ his eyes in looking on objects that might ensnare his heart, and lead him to the commission of sin; he made use of all ways and means, and took every precaution to guard against it; and particularly this, to shut or turn his eyes from beholding what might be alluring and enticing to him: it is said x of Democritus, that he put out his eyes because he could not look upon a woman without lusting after her:

why then should I think upon a maid; of corrupting and defiling her, since he had made a covenant with his eyes, and this would be a breach of that covenant: and therefore, besides the sin of lusting after her, or of corrupting her, he would be a covenant breaker, and so his sin would be an aggravated one: or he made a covenant with his eyes, to prevent any impure thoughts, desires, and inclinations in him; for the eye affects the heart, and stirs up lust in it, and excites unclean thoughts and unchaste desires: this shows that the thought of sin is sin; that fornication was reckoned a sin before the law of Moses; and that Job better understood the spirituality of the law than the Pharisees did in the time of Christ, and had the same notion of lust in the heart being fornication and adultery as he had; and that good men are not without temptation to sin, both from within and from without; and therefore should carefully shun all appearances of evil, and whatsoever leads unto it, and take every necessary precaution to guard against it.

t Musaeus de Heron. & Leand. v. 92, &c. u Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 13. c. 24. x Tertullian. Apolog. c. 46.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

1 I have made a covenant with mine eyes,

And how should I fix my gaze upon a maiden!

2 What then would be the dispensation of Eloah from above,

And the inheritance of the Almighty from the heights –

3 Doth not calamity overtake the wicked,

And misfortune the workers of evil?

4 Doth He not see my ways

And count all my steps?

After Job has described and bewailed the harsh contrast between the former days and the present, he gives us a picture of his moral life and endeavour, in connection with the character of which the explanation of his present affliction as a divinely decreed punishment becomes impossible, and the sudden overthrow of his prosperity into this abyss of suffering becomes to him, for the same reason, the most painful mystery. Job is not an Israelite, he is without the pale of the positive, Sinaitic revelation; his religion is the old patriarchal religion, which even in the present day is called dn Ibrahm (the religion of Abraham), or dn el – bedu (the religion of the steppe) as the religion of those Arabs who are not Moslem, or at least influenced by the penetrating Islamism, and is called by Mejansh el – hanfje (vid., supra, p. 362, note) as the patriarchally orthodox religion.

(Note: Also in the Merg district east of Damascus, which is peopled by an ancient unmixed race, because the fever which prevails there kills strangers, remnants of the dn Ibrahm have been preserved despite the penetrating Islamism. There the mulaqqin (Souffleur), who says the creed into the grave as a farewell to the buried one, adds the following words: “The muslim is my brother, the muslima my sister, Abraham is my father ( ab ), his religion ( dnuh ) is mine, and his confession ( medhebuh ) mine.” It is indisputable that the words muslim (one who is submissive to God) and islm (submission to God) have originally belonged to the dn Ibrahm . It is also remarkable that the Moslem salutation selam occurs only as a sign in war among the wandering tribes, and that the guest parts from his host with the words: daima besat el – Chall la maqtu wala memnu , i.e., mayest thou always have Abraham’s table, and plenty of provisions and guests. – Wetzst.)

As little as this religion, even in the present day, is acquainted with the specific Mohammedan commandments, so little knew Job of the specifically Israelitish. On the contrary, his confession, which he lays down in this third monologue, coincides remarkably with the ten commandments of piety ( el – felah ) peculiar to the dn Ibrahm , although it differs in this respect, that it does not give the prominence to submission to the dispensations of God, that teslm which, as the whole of this didactic poem teaches by its issue, is the duty of the perfectly pious; also bravery in defence of holy property and rights is wanting, which among the wandering tribes is accounted as an essential part of the hebbet er – rh (inspiration of the Divine Being), i.e., active piety, and to which it is similarly related, as to the binding notion of “honour” which was coined by the western chivalry of the middle ages.

Job begins with the duty of chastity. Consistently with the prologue, which the drama itself nowhere belies, he is living in monogamy, as at the present day the orthodox Arabs, averse to Islamism, are not addicted to Moslem polygamy. With the confession of having maintained this marriage (although, to infer from the prologue, it was not an over-happy, deeply sympathetic one) sacred, and restrained himself not only from every adulterous act, but also from adulterous desires, his confessions begin. Here, in the middle of the Old Testament, without the pale of the Old Testament , we meet just that moral strictness and depth with which the Preacher on the mount, Mat 5:27., opposes the spirit to the letter of the seventh commandment. It is , not , designedly; or is the usual phrase where two equals are concerned; on the contrary, where two the superior – Jehovah, or a king, or conqueror – binds himself to another under prescribed conditions, or the covenant is made not so much by a mutual advance as by the one taking the initiative. In this latter case, the secondary notions of a promise given (e.g., Isa 55:3), or even, as here, of a law prescribed, are combined with : “as lord of my senses I prescribed this law for my eyes” (Ew.). The eyes, says a Talmudic proverb, are the procuresses of sin ( ); “to close his eyes, that they may not feast on evil,” is, in Isa 33:15, a clearly defined line in the picture of him on whom the everlasting burnings can have no hold. The exclamation, Job 31:1, is spoken with self-conscious indignation: Why should I… (comp. Joseph’s exclamation, Gen 39:9); Schultens correctly: est indignatio repellens vehementissime et negans tale quicquam committi par esse ; the transition of the , Arab. ma , to the expression of negation, which is complete in Arabic, is here in its incipient state, Ew. 325, b. is intended to express a fixed and inspection (comp. , 1Ki 3:21) gaze upon an object, combined with a lascivious imagination (comp. Sir. 9:5, , and 9:8, ), a which issues in , Mat 5:28. Adulterium reale , and in fact two-sided, is first spoken of in the third strophe, here it is adulterium mentale and one-sided; the object named is not any maiden whatever, but any , because virginity is ever to be revered, a most sacred thing, the holy purity of which Job acknowledges himself to have guarded against profanation from any lascivious gaze by keeping a strict watch over his eyes. The Waw of is, as in Job 31:14, copulative: and if I had done it, what punishment might I have looked for?

The question, Job 31:2, is proposed in order that it may be answered in Job 31:3 again in the form of a question: in consideration of the just punishment which the injurer of female innocence meets, Job disavows every unchaste look. On and used of allotted, adjudged punishment, comp. Job 20:29; Job 27:13; on , which alternates with (burden of suffering, misfortune), comp. Oba 1:12, where in its stead occurs, as Arab. nukr , properly id quod patienti paradoxum, insuetum, intolerabile videtur, omne ingratum (Reiske). Conscious of the just punishment of the unchaste, and, as he adds in Job 31:4, of the omniscience of the heavenly Judge, Job has made dominion over sin, even in its first beginnings and motions, his principle.

The , which gives prominence to the subject, means Him who punishes the unchaste. By Him who observes his walk on every side, and counts ( , plene , according to Ew. 138, a, on account of the pause, but vid., the similar form of writing, Job 39:2; Job 18:15) all his steps, Job has been kept back from sin, and to Him Job can appeal as a witness.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Job’s Vindication of Himself.

B. C. 1520.

      1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?   2 For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?   3 Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?   4 Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?   5 If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;   6 Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.   7 If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;   8 Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

      The lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world, are the two fatal rocks on which multitudes split; against these Job protests he was always careful to stand upon his guard.

      I. Against the lusts of the flesh. He not only kept himself clear from adultery, from defiling his neighbour’s wives (v. 9), but from all lewdness with any women whatsoever. He kept no concubine, no mistress, but was inviolably faithful to the marriage bed, though his wife was none of the wisest, best, or kindest. From the beginning it was so, that a man should have but one wife and cleave to her only; and Job kept closely to that institution and abhorred the thought of transgressing it; for, though his greatness might tempt him to it, his goodness kept him from it. Job was now in pain and sickness of body, and under that affliction it is in a particular manner comfortable if our consciences can witness for us that we have been careful to preserve our bodies in chastity and to possess those vessels in sanctification and honour, pure from the lusts of uncleanness. Now observe here,

      1. What the resolutions were which, in this matter, he kept to (v. 1): I made a covenant with my eyes, that is, “I watched against the occasions of the sin; why then should I think upon a maid?” that is, “by that means, through the grace of God, I kept myself from the very first step towards it.” So far was he from wanton dalliances, or any act of lasciviousness, that, (1.) He would not so much as admit a wanton look. He made a covenant with his eyes, made this bargain with them, that he would allow them the pleasure of beholding the light of the sun and the glory of God shining in the visible creation, provided they would never fasten upon any object that might occasion any impure imaginations, much less any impure desires, in his mind; and under this penalty, that, if they did, they must smart for it in penitential tears. Note, Those that would keep their hearts pure must guard their eyes, which are both the outlets and inlets of uncleanness. Hence we read of wanton eyes (Isa. iii. 16) and eyes full of adultery, 2 Pet. ii. 14. The first sin began in the eye, Gen. iii. 6. What we must not meddle with we must not lust after; and what we must not lust after we must not look at; not the forbidden wealth (Prov. xxiii. 5), not the forbidden wine (Prov. xxiii. 31), not the forbidden woman, Matt. v. 28. (2.) He would not so much as allow a wanton thought: “Why then should I think upon a maid with any unchaste fancy or desire towards her?” Shame and sense of honour might restrain him from soliciting the chastity of a beautiful virgin, but only grace and the fear of God would restrain him from so much as thinking of it. Those are not chaste that are not so in spirit as well as body, 1 Cor. vii. 34. See how Christ’s exposition of the seventh commandment agrees with the ancient sense of it, and how much better Job understood it than the Pharisees, though they sat in Moses’s chair.

      2. What the reasons were which, in this matter, he was governed by. It was not for fear of reproach among men, though that is to be considered (Prov. vi. 33), but for fear of the wrath and curse of God. He knew very well, (1.) That uncleanness is a sin that forfeits all good, and shuts us out from the hope of it (v. 2): What portion of God is there from above? What blessing can such impure sinners expect from the pure and holy God, or what token of his favour? What inheritance of the Almighty can they look for from on high? There is no portion, no inheritance, no true happiness, for a soul, but what is in God, in the Almighty, and what comes from above, from on high. Those that wallow in uncleanness render themselves utterly unfit for communion with God, either in grace here or in glory hereafter, and become allied to unclean spirits, which are for ever separated from him; and then what portion, what inheritance, can they have with God? No unclean thing shall enter into the New Jerusalem, that holy city. (2.) It is a sin that incurs divine vengeance, v. 3. It will certainly be the sinner’s ruin if it be not repented of in time. Is not destruction, a swift and sure destruction, to those wicked people, and a strange punishment to the workers of this iniquity? Fools make a mock at this sin, make a jest of it; it is with them a peccadillo, a trick of youth. But they deceive themselves with vain words, for because of these things, how light soever they make of them, the wrath of God, the unsupportable wrath of the eternal God, comes upon the children of disobedience, Eph. v. 6. There are some sinners whom God sometimes out of the common road of Providence to meet with; such are these. The destruction of Sodom is a strange punishment. Is there not alienation (so some read it) to the workers of iniquity? This is the sinfulness of the sin that it alienates the mind from God (Eph 4:18; Eph 4:19), and this is the punishment of the sinners that they shall be eternally set at a distance from him, Rev. xxii. 15. (3.) It cannot be hidden from the all-seeing God. A wanton thought cannot be so close, nor a wanton look so quick, as to escape his cognizance, much less any act of uncleanness so secretly done as to be out of his sight. If Job was at any time tempted to this sin, he restrained himself from it, and all approaches to it, with this pertinent thought (v. 4), Doth not he see my ways; as Joseph did (Gen. xxxix. 9), How can I do it, and sin against God? Two things Job had an eye to:– [1.] God’s omniscience. It is a great truth that God’s eyes are upon all the ways of men (Pro 5:20; Pro 5:21); but Job here mentions it with application to himself and his own actions: Doth not he see my ways? O God! thou hast searched me and known me. God sees what rule we walk by, what company w walk with, what end we walk towards, and therefore what ways we walk in. [2.] His observance. “He not only sees, but takes notice; he counts all my steps, all my false steps in the way of duty, all my by-steps into the way of sin.” He not only sees our ways in general, but takes cognizance of our particular steps in these ways, every action, every motion. He keeps account of all, because he will call us to account, will bring every work into judgment. God takes a more exact notice of us than we do of ourselves; for who ever counted his own steps? yet God counts them. Let us therefore walk circumspectly.

      II. He stood upon his guard against the love of the world, and carefully avoided all sinful indirect means of getting wealth. He dreaded all forbidden profit as much as all forbidden pleasure. Let us see,

      1. What his protestation is. In general, he had been honest and just in all his dealings, and never, to his knowledge, did any body any wrong. (1.) He never walked with vanity (v. 5), that is, he never durst tell a lie to get a good bargain. It was never his way to banter, or equivocate, or make many words in his dealings. Some men’s constant walk is a constant cheat. They either make what they have more than it is, that they may be trusted, or less than it is, that nothing may be expected from them. But Job was a different man. His wealth was not acquired by vanity, though now diminished, Prov. xiii. 11. (2.) He never hasted to deceit. Those that deceive must be quick and sharp, but Job’s quickness and sharpness were never turned that way. He never made haste to be rich by deceit, but always acted cautiously, lest, through inconsideration, he should do an unjust thing. Note, What we have in the world may be either used with comfort or lost with comfort if it was honestly obtained. (3.) His steps never turned out of the way, the way of justice and fair dealing; from that he never deviated, v. 7. He not only took care not to walk in a constant course and way of deceit, but he did not so much as take one step out of the way of honesty. In every particular action and affair we must closely tie ourselves up to the rules of righteousness. (4.) His heart did not walk after his eyes, that is, he did not covet what he saw that was another’s, nor wish it his own. Covetousness is called the lust of the eye, 1 John ii. 16. Achan saw, and then took, the accursed thing. That heart must needs wander that walks after the eyes; for then it looks no further than the things that are seen, whereas it ought to be in heaven whither the eyes cannot reach: it should follow the dictates of religion and right reason: if it follow the eye, it will be misled to that for which God will bring men into judgment, Eccl. xi. 9. (5.) That no blot had cleaved to his hands, that is, he was not chargeable with getting any thing dishonestly, or keeping that which was another’s, whenever it appeared to be so. Injustice is a blot, a blot to the estate, a blot to the owner; it spoils the beauty of both, and therefore is to be dreaded. Those that deal much in the world may perhaps have a blot come upon their hands, but they must wash it off again by repentance and restitution, and not let it cleave to their hands. See Isa. xxxiii. 15.

      2. How he ratifies his protestation. So confident is he of his own honesty that, (1.) He is willing to have his goods searched (v. 6): Let me be weighed in an even balance, that is, “Let what I have got be enquired into and it will be found to weigh well”–a sign that it was not obtained by vanity, for then Tekel would have been written on it–weighed in the balance and found too light. An honest man is so far from dreading a trial that he desires it rather, being well assured that God knows his integrity and will approve it, and that the trial of it will be to his praise and honour. (2.) He is willing to forfeit the whole cargo if there be found any prohibited or contraband goods, any thing but what he came honestly by (v. 8): “Let me sow, and let another eat,” which was already agreed to be the doom of oppressors (ch. v. 5), “and let my offspring, all the trees that I have planted, be rooted out.” This intimates that he believed the sin did deserve this punishment, that usually it is thus punished, but that though now his estate was ruined (and at such a time, if ever, his conscience would have brought his sin to his mind), yet he knew himself innocent and would venture all the poor remains of his estate upon the issue of the trial.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

JOB – CHAPTER 31

JOB’S FINAL ANSWER TO HIS THRONE ACCUSERS

Verses 1-40:

In this chapter Job contends that he deserved a better lot than he was receiving from these extended afflictions. While in chapter 29 he related his uprightness in administration as an emir, Sheik, or magistrate in public life, in this he defends his character in private life. He explains how he has guarded against being enticed by the allures to sin.

Verse 1 asserts that he made or cut a covenant with his eyes to avoid looking lustfully upon or carnally desiring a maid. In his soul he made a covenant (sacrifice covenant) with God to refrain from even looking lustfully upon a young woman, Pro 6:25; Mat 5:28; 1Jn 2:16.

Verse 2 asks what portion he might have expected from God on high, what blessing? If he had lived a lust-filled life? What inheritance might he have expected from God if he had lived wickedly? That he had yielded to flesh-lust wickedness, however, he protested, Job 20:29; Job 27:13. This is the answer to his question. He would have received Divine judgment.

Verse 3 is a rhetoric reply to v. 2. Destruction is due to the wicked one of lust, is it not? Exo 20:14; Exo 20:17. And severe, strange, or extraneous punishment is justly due to the workers of lawless deeds, is it not? Ecc 12:12; Gal 6:7-8.

Verse 4 inquires, the Lord sees all my ways and observes all my steps, does he not? And had the Lord beheld him in lustful living then his affliction might justifiably be attributed to such sin, a thing he vowed was not true to him; Knowing God observes all, he certified he would have expected affliction had he committed lustful deeds; This he acknowledged, but denied any such guilt, Pro 5:21; Pro 15:3; Jer 32:9.

Verses 5, 6 express Job’s desire to be relieved of suffering unless he is guilty of vanity or a deceit walk. He appeals to God that he may be weighed in the balances of justice, that God may know his integrity. His contention is that he has not lived a life of hypocrisy and falsehood as charged by his feigned friends, advisers, and accusers from afar, Psa 12:2.

Verses 7, 8 Job calls for judgment to fall upon his head if his heart has coveted what his eyes have beheld and his steps have turned from righteousness, or any blot of sin has cleaved to his hands, such as Achan did, Jos 7:21; Ecc 11:9. He asks that if he is guilty of sin of this nature, let him sow but let another live to reap it, and let his offspring, even family name be rooted or blotted out, Lev 26:16; Deu 28:30; Deu 28:38. See also Job 23:11; Jer 5:5; Num 15:39; Mat 5:29; Sin works through: 1) The eye 2) the heart, 3) the hand or body, Psa 24:4.

Verses 9, 10 Job asks that if he has been deceived in heart by a woman, laid wait at this neighbor’s door till her husband was away for purpose of adultery, then let his wife be caused to grind unto another man; Lev 26:16; Amo 9:14; Psa 128:2; Pro 7:8; Gen 39:7-12. Let another bow down upon or subject her to himself as a concubine or a wife. It is an imprecatory appeal for the Lord to vindicate his innocence, 2Sa 12:11; Jer 8:10.

Verses 11,12 add that such adultery is an heinous crime against ones fellowman, not just against his own conscience. He vowed that it was a lawless deed, to be punished by the judges, even before the law of Moses was given, Gen 38:24; Lev 25:10; Deu 22:22; Deu 22:28.

Verse 12 affirms that such a sin as adultery consumed to destruction and would root out all his increase, Pro 6:27-35; Pro 7:6-23; Pro 7:26-27. No crime more provokes God to send destruction as a consuming fire; none so destroys the soul as this sin.

Verses 13, 14 relate Job’s denial that he had oppressed or harshly mistreated or failed to supply the needs of either his maidservants or his man servants when they contended with him. What then should he do when God would arise in anger, or what should he be able to say? But he contends he had not done hurt to his servants but cared for them in a humane way, Psa 44:1; Job 24:12-16; Job 24:25.

Verse 15 rhetorically affirms that the same God who made him in the womb also made his servants (after His likeness) did He not? The answer is, He did, and to persecute the poor downtrodden, the afflicted, is to persecute God whose image they bear, Job 34:19; Pro 14:31; Pro 22:2; Mal 3:10; Eze 18:4; Act 17:26; Eph 6:9.

Verses 16, 17 call imprecatory judgment upon Job (he calls for it) if he has held back food and clothes and shelter desired by his servants or had failed to meet the needs of the pleading eyes of the widow, Job 19:20. Or he adds also if he has eaten his morsel alone, to himself, and has not shared with the orphans about him; Arab rulers of hospitality required that the stranger be served first, and of the best, a thing Job vowed that he had done, Jas 1:27.

Verses 18, 19 is a continued affirmation that Job had cared for the orphans; they were brought up by and with him as if he were their father, and he had guided the widow by advice and protection, as a father, from his youth, Job 29:16; When he had seen any about to perish for want of food or clothing he had come to their relief, Job 29:13.

Verses 20, 21 is a further imprecatory call of Job for Divine judgment to fall upon him if he had not helped the needy. He states that these had been cared for, warmed by the fleece of his sheep, and the poor had in turn blessed him, thanked or praised him for covering their loins from nakedness, Deu 24:13. He calls further judgment upon his own head if he had ever lifted up his hand hurtfully to judge the poor or widows when they had been brought before him in tribunal at the gate, Job 22:9.

Verses 22, 23 continue a call to let his arm fall from his shoulder blade (be pulled from the socket) and his arm be broken from the bone above the elbow if he were not honest in his testimony, referring to Eliphaz’s charge, Job 22:9. For he feared the terror of God if he did wrong against the poor, the servants, the orphans, and the widows. By reason of the Lord’s majestic highness, he declared that guilt of wrong charged to him he had avoided from his youth, Isa 13:6; Joe 1:15.

Verses 24, 25 assert Job’s freedom from greed for or trust in money, as also one is forwarned today, 1Ti 6:17. Job here turns to his duty toward God as previously he spoke of performing his duty to himself and his neighbor. Transfer of affections, by covetousness, from the Creator to the created creatures is idolatry, abhorred by the Lord, Exo 24:4; Col 3:5.

Verses 26 disavows Job’s devotion to or worship of either the sun or the moon, or the stars, as the Sabaen idolators did from roofs of buildings and high places, a form of idolatry, Eze 8:16; Deu 4:19; Deuteronomy 2 Kg 23:5, 11; Jer 8:2.

Verse 27 recounts also his denial that he had ever permitted his heart to be enticed toward idolatry; He had not joined the heathen in worshipping idols, or casting adoration upon them by kissing his hand and throwing the kiss toward any object of idolatry, a practice of that day, 1Kg 19:18; Hos 13:2.

Verse 28 affirms that even at this pre-law time or era true people of God had strong feelings against idolatry. They felt strongly that idolatry deserved judicial punishment. For in worshipping idols one denies the true, living God who is above; To worship any idol is treason against the Supreme King, Deu 13:9; Deu 17:2-7; Eze 8:14-18; See also Jos 24:23; Jos 24:27; Isa 42:8; Tit 1:16; 1Jn 2:23.

Verses 29, 30 add that Job had not rejoiced at the destruction of judgment ruin of any who hated him, had no spirit of revenge in him, nor had he maliciously elated within himself over any triumph he had experienced over his enemies, as forewarned Pro 17:5; Pro 24:17; Psa 7:4.

Verse 30 asserts that neither had he permitted his mouth to sin by wishing a curse to the soul of any who had done him wrong; The gospel spirit was the end of the law, that was given after Job, concerning this matter, Lev 19:18; Deu 23:6; Mat 5:43-44; Rom 12:14.

Verses 31, 32 assert that even when Job’s household wanted to devour his enemies, or let them starve in their times of near starvation, Job did not have that attitude of revenge. He showed compassion and pity, like David toward Abishai; and even as our Lord, Luk 9:55-56.

Verse 32 relates that Job showed oriental hospitality by refusing to let strangers, wayfarers, and travelers lodge in the streets by night, but took them into the comfort of his own home, Gen 19:2; Heb 13:2; 2Sa 12:4.

Verse 33 relates that Job vowed that he had not tried to hide his sins from God or man, as Adam did. Adam is representative of man’s tendency to conceal his sins from both God and his fellowman, Pro 28:13. In doing such one can not prosper.

Verses 34 asks if Job feared or was ill at ease in a multitude, or if he was terrified by families about him who knew him well? Did he keep silent, avoid the public at any time, staying inside his own doors or residence lest he should be exposed for some personal guilt? He did not, is the idea. He had a good conscience, was innocent of sins of which he had been accused by his feigned friends from afar, who knew the least about him, 2Sa 12:12. As an upright man Job patriotically appeared in public assemblies, without fear or shame.

Verse 35 is a lament or outcry from Job that one (God) would hear or heed him, Job 33:6. His desire was that the Almighty God in whom he trusted, would respond to his cry for relief of his afflictions, Job 13:22; Job 19:23. He further expresses a desire that his adversary (even the Lord) had written a book, a bill of clear indictments against him. He desired to know just why this affliction continually lay so heavy upon him, as if to justify the insinuating indictments made against him as a deceived, liar, and hypocrite by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.

Verses 36, 37 recount Job’s vow that if such a book or bill of indictment were written against him, so that he could read and review them, he would take it upon his shoulder, as a public honor and bind it to him as a crown of distinction, not as a mark of guilt or shame, Isa 9:6; Isa 62:3.

Verse 37 assures that he would declare, in the light of that book, all his ways, with a good conscience and dignity before God and men, Job 42:5-6; Heb 10:22.

Verse 38 pledges that if the land of proprietors of the land cried out against him, that he had stolen the land or the furrows, those who plowed the land, complained that he had done wickedly in not paying them for labors done, or fruit gathered then he would be wicked, concede guilt and wrong. But such could not be proved against him, see? Gen 4:10; Hab 2:12; Isa 5:8; Jas 5:4.

Verse 39 adds that if he had eaten the fruit of the land, of any land, without money, paying those who labored to furnish him the fruit, or if he had caused anyone to lose his life as a landowner or tenant, had harassed any so that he gave the land over to him, he conceded guilt and his affliction could be attributed to such. Yet, such was not the cause of his afflictions, Job 2:6-10; Jdg 16:16.

Verse 40 prays imprecatory judgment upon Job if he were guilty of such sins. He asked that if the charges against him were true, thereafter thistles or brambles should grow on all his land instead of wheat, and cocle or noxious weeds instead of barley, Gen 3:18; Then he concluded, “the words of Job are ended,” meaning he would have nothing further to say to Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, or regarding their charges against him, cp. Paul’s defence, Acts 22, 23, 24, 25, before the Jewish multitude, Felix and Festus, and before King Agrippa, Act 26:1-32; Deu 28:16-17.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

JOBS SELF-VINDICATION.HIS SOLILOQUY CONTINUED

Concludes his speeches by a solemn, particular, and extended declaration of the purity and uprightness of his life. Especial reference to his private, as before to his public, conduct. Intended to silence his accusers and justify his complaints. Affords a picture of an outwardly and blameless character. A specimen, presented in beautiful language, of a pure morality accompanied with, and based upon, an ardent piety and genuine religion. Job asserts

I. His chastity. Job. 31:1.I made a covenant with (or laid a solemn charge upon) mine eyes: why (or how) then should I look (or that I would not look) upon a maid [to lust after her, as Mat. 5:28]. Speaks especially as a married man, and with reference to the sin of adultery. Already beginning to prevail in that early period, particularly with the rich and powerful. Hence Abrahams apprehension and temptation (Gen. 12:11-15); and Isaacs, (Gen. 26:7-10). Observe

1. The text the language of holy resolution. The soul to act as lord of the body. The body with its members, organs, and senses, to be kept in subjection (1Co. 9:27). The avenues to temptation to be guarded. The eye the inlet of lust. Occasions and temptations to sin to be guarded against as well as sin itself. The neglect of Jobs resolution the occasion of Davids fall and broken bones (2Sa. 11:2-4; Psa. 51:8). The Saviours ruleIf thine eye offend theeprove a constant or frequent occasion of sin by awaking lustpluck it outremove the occasion of sin at whatever cost (Mat. 5:28). Eves looking on the forbidden fruit the occasion of her own fall and the ruin of millions of her offspring. Lots wife looking back on Sodom the cause of her petrifaction into a pillar of salt. Dinahs idle curiosity in visiting a heathen city to see its women, the loss of her own chastity. Achans looking on the golden wedge and Babylonish garments the loss of his life (Jos. 7:21). Samsons sleep on Delilahs lap the loss of his locks (Jdg. 16:19). Look not on the wine when it is red (Pro. 23:31). Davids (or Daniels?) prayer: Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity (Psa. 119:37). Christian and Faithful in Vanity Fair refused even to look upon its wares. The contrast of the text in 2Pe. 2:14, Having eyes full of adultery.

2. Jobs reasons for his resolution.

(1) His preference for a better portion. Job. 31:2.For what portion of God is there [in such a case] from above? and what inheritance from the Almighty on high? Job taught to distinguish between present pleasure and future bliss, and between the mere gratification of lust and the enjoyment of true happiness. No gratification of the senses to be compared to the enjoyment of Gods favour. A man must either forego the pleasures of sin or the joys of heaven. Nothing unclean admitted within the New Jerusalem. The gratification of sinful passion incompatible with the enjoyment of Gods presence. Observe(i.) In order to the resisting of temptation and avoiding of sin, important to have respect to the recompense of reward (Heb. 11:26). Thus Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin, which are but for a season (Heb. 11:25). Having this respect, Mary chose the good part, and turned her back on the world; not having it, the rich young man chose the world, and turned his back upon Christ. (ii.) Necessary to choose between the enjoyment of sin and the enjoyment of God, and between a portion in this world and one in the next. The whole tenour of a mans life here, and the whole eternity of his experience hereaft er, determined by the choice he makes between the two. (iii.) God not only the Bestower of a believers portion, but the portion itself (Psa. 16:5). Such portion to be desired in preference to all earthly and sensuous enjoyment, asFirst: More excellent in itself, and more becoming mans better nature as a moral and intellectual being. Second: More satisfying to such a being, and to one made capable, as man is, of enjoying his Makers friendship. Third: More enduring, the one terminating at the farthest with death, the other extending throughout eternity. Fourth: Attended with no remorse. Fifth: Followed by no penalty.

(2) His dread of the consequences of sin. Job. 31:3Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment (a terrible calamity or alienationviz., from God and all good) to the workers of iniquity? Reference to the terrors of the Lord important in persuading ourselves, as well as others, to the avoidance of sin (2Co. 5:11). Christs argument, What shall a man be profited, if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Better to enter into life with one eye or one foot, than having two eyes or two feet to be cast into hell. Better lose everything than lose heaven. Every loss light compared with the loss of the soul. Observe(i.) Destruction certain to the wicked and impenitent. The wicked turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God (Psa. 9:17). (ii) No earthly calamity equal to that which must one day overtake the unqodly. The destruction of the Old World by water, and that of Sodom and Gomorrha by fire, only a foreshadowing of the destruction of the impenitent at the final judgment. Inconceivable terrors involved in the sentence: Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. (Mat. 25:41). Everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power (2Th. 1:9). Such destruction the righteous penalty of wilful transgression of the Divine law, rebellion against the Divine government, and refusal of the Divine mercy. Natural that whatsoever a man soweth that he should also reap. Destruction and misery the flower and fruit of sin. Sin is misery in the seed; misery is only sin in the bloom.

(3) The recollections of Gods constant inspection. (Job. 31:4)Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps? (or actions,every separate act or passage in my course on earth) Omniscience a necessary attribute of godhead. An open eye the Egyptian hieroglyphic for deity. Thou God seest me, the guardian of Jobs life. Not easy to sin under the gaze of the broad eye of the Almighty. Few so hardy as to break the Queens commands with the Queen herself looking on. The practice of sin the result of forgetfulness of God. The language of the heart if not of the lips of the ungodly,No eye shall see me (ch. Job. 24:15). To walk before God the easy and natural way to be perfect and upright (Gen. 17:1).

II. His honesty, uprightness, and freedom from covetousness (Job. 31:5-8). If I have walked with vanity (lived in the practice of falsehood and hypocrisy), or if my food hath hasted to deceit (to the commission of a fraud); let me be weighed (Heb., let himor any oneweigh me) in an even balance (Heb. in the balances of righteousness,) that God may know my integrity (should there be any doubt in the matter, which however is impossible). If my step hath turned out of the way (the straight way, or way of truth and uprightness, the only way that men should walk in), and mine heart walked after mine eyes(gone out in covetous desire after the possession of what I have seen, as Ahabs heart went after Naboths vineyard,the eye being the inlet of covetousness as well as of lust), and if any blot (or stain of wrong doing, unjust gain, or bribe for the perversion of justice) hath cleaved to my hands (in the transaction of any business with my fellow-men, or in the discharge of my duty as a magistrate and a judge); then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring (or my produce) be rooted out. The language

1. Of conscious innocence and integrity. Job able unhesitatingly to appeal to his neighbours and to God Himself in the declaration of his honesty and uprightness both in private and public life. So Samuel at Gilgal (1Sa. 12:3; and Paul at Miletus (Act. 20:18-20; Act. 20:33-35). Jobs character as here given by himself only that already given him by God.

2. Of, in some degree at least, self-ignorance and pride. Job apparently still too confident in his own righteousness. Though upright in his external dealings, and blameless in the eyes of men, yet, weighed in the balances of righteousness, even Job found wanting (Rom. 3:9-10; Rom. 3:19; Rom. 3:23). Much self-knowledge yet to be gained by him. Job yet to take the place of the publicanGod be merciful to me a sinner (chap. Job. 40:4; Job. 42:5-6).

3. Of sincerity. A mark of uprightness, when we are not only willing but wishful, if we have done wrong, to suffer for it. Davids case (Psa. 7:3-5. Pauls Act. 25:11).

Jobs imprecation suggests that, in the providence of God, punishment in this world is often according to the nature of the sin. Cruelty and wrong done to others often punished by the same being experienced by ourselves. Injustice in our gains punished by a blight on our substance. Same principle acknowledged in the next sin specified.

III. His freedom from adulterous desires and practices. Job. 31:9-12.If mine heart hath been deceived by (or enticed towards) a woman (especially one marriedtemptation from a maid spoken of already, Job. 31:1); or if I have laid wait at my neighbours door (watching the opportunity of his absence); then let my wife (my own wife) grind (become an abject slave; Exo. 11:5; Isa. 47:2; and concubine) to another, and let others bow down upon her.

Adultery apparently prevalent in the time of Job and the writer of the book (chap. Job. 24:15). Job declares his freedom from the sin as an exceptional thing among the great men of his time and country. A sin to which his riches and power afforded, as in Davids case, a strong temptation. Not uncommon in patriarchal times for the great to take another mans wife, though at the expense of her husbands life. Hence Abrahams and Isaacs fear for their wives chastity and their own livesthe one in Egypt, and both in Gerar (Gen. 12:12; Gen. 20:2; Gen. 26:7). One of the ten commandments in the Decalogue expressly directed against this sin. Its commission punished with death (Lev. 20:10; Deu. 22:22). The sin apparently prevalent in the time of David and Solomon (Psa. 50:18; Pro. 6:24-29; Pro. 7:5-9; and of the later prophets, Jer. 5:8; Jer. 9:2; Eze. 18:6). Common among the Jews in the time of the Saviour (Joh. 8:3-9). The Pharisees and Rabbis themselves said to have been notoriously guilty of it (Rom. 2:22). The destruction of Jerusalem and the Great Captivity under the Romans ascribed by the Talmud to its prevalence for forty years previous to that event.

Jobs reasons for abstaining from this sin. Job. 31:11.

1. The heinousness of the crime itself: For this is an heinous crime. Sin to be avoided on account of its heinousness and malignity, apart from its consequences (Jer. 44:4). Adultery the most heinous form of covetousness and theft. The most aggravated wrong that can be done to another. Inflicts the deepest wound and in the tenderest part. Robs him of honour and home. Covers his family with shame. Defilement of a mans wife worse to endure than her death. Adultery a species of murder. The ruin of the injured mans peace, and often leading to bloodshed and death.

2. Its consequences. These were

(1) Civil and judicial. It is an iniquity to be punished by the judgesprobably authoritative umpires or arbitrators in the case of any serious charge between man and man, with power to inflict appropriate penaltyusually the elders of the people (Deu. 21:2; Jos. 20:4). Adultery a capital crime, not only among the Jews but other nations of antiquity. The magistrate appointed by God to be a terror to evil doers (Rom. 13:1-4). Some sins only cognizable by God; others punishable by man. A special heinousness in a crime punishable by the civil magistrate.

(2) Natural and providential. For it is a fire that consumeth unto destruction, and would root out all mine increase. Sin in general, and sins like adultery in particular, a fire taken into the bosom (Pro. 6:27). Its tendency to destroy comfort, health, reputation, family, estate; and ultimately the soul itself in endless perdition. One single act brought constant trouble into Davids house and lasting sorrow into his heart. Sin destructive in its own nature; and some sins naturally more destructive than others. Many, if not all, sins carry with them their own punishment.

The imprecation in the text strongly declarative of Jobs innocence. The evil imprecated, the very last a man would wish to himself. The penalty invoked in accordance with the nature of the offence. By what a man sins by that is he punished.Jewish Proverb. Davids adultery with Bathsheba is punished with incest between his son and daughter, and the defilement of his concubines by his own son. His murder of Uriah is punished by the murder of his incestuous son by the hand of his own brother (2Sa. 13:16).

IV. His justice and humanity to his servants or slaves. Job. 31:13.If I did despise the cause (or rights) of my manservant, or of my maidservant (my bondman or my bondwoman, my male or female slave), when they contended (had any controversy) with me. In the East, masters viewed as having absolute right over their servants or slaves. These considered a portion of the masters property. Were not permitted to appear in a court of justice against him. Might therefore be the object of any oppression without human redress. Jobs conduct towards his slaves the opposite of that of an oppressor. Probably exceptional, and just such as became a professed servant of the true God. His slaves treated by him, in the case of any complaint, as having rights equal with his own.

The grounds of this treatment of his slaves or servants:

1. The consideration that for his conduct towards them he was amenable to God. Job. 31:14.What then should I do when God riseth up? (to examine into my conduct, or to execute judgment on me as a transgressor, or finally, to plead the cause of the oppressed slave), and when he visiteth (for the examination of conduct or the punishment of offences) what should I answer him (for such conduct, so as to escape His anger)? Observe

(1) The fear of God an effectual restraint on Job and all good men. Josephs case: How shall I do this great wickedness, and sin against God? The principle of Nehemiahs upright and disinterested conduct (Neh. 5:15).

(2) A day coming in which God makes inquisition into the conduct both of masters and servants, rulers and ruled. The highest as well as the lowest amenable to His tribunal.

(3) God viewed by the natural conscience as a righteous and impartial judge.

(4) Justice even in respect to the most outcast, a duly written on the conscience of mankind.

(5) Men helpless against Gods determination to punish the transgressor. The most powerful tyrant feebler than the puniest insect before Him.

2. As having the same Creator, and mode of creation. Job. 31:15.Did not he that made me in the womb make him? Master and servant the similar work of the same Creator, and therefore both equally valued and cared for by Him, and to be treated on equal terms by each other.

3. As having the same nature. Did not one fashion us in the womb (or, did not He fashion us in one and the same wombone by similarity, not numerically). Both formed in the same manner and possessed of the same human nature. A womans womb the origin of both (Mal. 2:10). The fundamental equality of mankind thus strongly asserted. The sentiment confirmed by the ApostleGod hath made of one blood all nations of men, &c. (Act. 17:26). The Negro and the Papuan with the same essential features of humanity as the European. The slave possessed of the same faculties and powers, both moral and intellectual, as his master. The points in which men naturally differ from each other small and few compared with those in which all are alike. Men in a proper sense brethren, of whatever nation or class in society. The language of Job strikes at the root of slavery as justified by inferiority of race. Equality between master and servant, in the eyes of God, the teaching of the New Testament. Slavery not expressly forbidden, but principles inculcated which necessarily lead to its overthrow as Christianity advances. The views expressed by Job, in respect to man, of an advanced character for that period of the world. Only even now becoming universally acknowledged and acted upon by the Christian Church. Sentiments and practice of an opposite kind till very lately prevalent in a large portion of the Christian world. Even Christians justified the poets satire

Man finds his fellow guilty of a skin
Not coloured like his own; and having power
To enforce the wrong, for such a worthy cause
Dooms and devotes him as his lawful prey.

V. His benevolence and kindness to the poor. Job. 31:16-17.If I have withheld the poor from their desire (their due wages, or rather the perquisites for which they looked as something belonging to them), or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail [by long withholding from her the expected help or redress]; or have eaten my morsel (or bread) alone, and the fatherless have not eaten thereof. Claims of the poor constantly recognized in the law of Moses. Perquisites appointed for them in the harvest and in the vintage (Lev. 19:9; Lev. 23:22); in every seventh year (Exo. 23:11); and in every third years tithes (Deu. 14:28-29). Kindness and readiness to help the poor strictly enjoined (Deu. 15:7-11). Their wages to be promptly paid them (Lev. 19:13). ObserveHelp as well as justice to the poor to be not only rendered, but rendered promptly. He gives twice who gives at once.Latin Proverb. Jobs conduct the opposite of that of the unjust judge in the parable (Luk. 18:2, &c).Provision made by the Mosaic law for the widow in common with the poor in general. Their perquisites the same (Deu. 19:21). Her raiment not to be taken to pledge (Deu. 24:17). Herself not to be harrassed or afflicted (Exo. 22:22). A curse pronounced on those who should wrong her or pervert her judgment (Deu. 27:19). Job, probably long before the law was given, careful to afford the poor and the widow their just rights, and to fulfil their reasonable expectations. The law from Sinai a Divine sanction to duties already performed by many without it, through the law written on the conscience, and the principle of grace infused by the Holy Spirit.Kindness to and care of the fatherless also strictly enjoined by the Divine law. These objects of sympathy and compassion usually joined with the poor and the widow. Jobs table open to the poor and needy. Common in the East to admit poor persons and strangers to their table or to send them portions from it. Hospitality a cardinal virtue among the Arabs. To he cultivated as a Christian grace (Rom. 12:13; Heb. 13:2). Enjoined as a Christian duty (Luk. 14:13). Ready to distribute, a New Testament precept (1Ti. 6:18). The section suggestive of the duty of

Kindness to the poor

Reasons and motives for its exercise

1. The desire to relieve suffering and extend happiness.

2. The claim the poor have upon us as fellow-creatures and partakers of our common humanity. A Divine principle that where there is lack on the part of any member of the great family, it should be supplied out of the abundance of others (2Co. 8:13-15). All living creatures, according to their nature, claim our help in suffering circumstances. Still more those of our own flesh. Kindness and benevolence to the poor and destitute allied to justice. Love a debt we owe to all our brethren. Kindness to the poor only one form of that love (Rom. 13:8-10).

3. The principle that we should do to others as we would that they should do to us in similar circumstances (Luk. 6:31).

4. The will and authority of our common Maker and Parent.

5. The example of the heavenly Father (Luk. 6:35-36).

6. The special example of Christ, who for our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might become rich (2Co. 8:9). His life a going about doing good.

7. The manner in which God has identified the cause of the poor with His own, and in which Christ has done that of His disciples (Pro. 19:17; Mat. 25:40; Mat. 25:45).

8. Active kindness to the poor a fruit of the Spirit, and an instinct of the new nature created in a believer after the image of God, (Gal. 5:22; Col. 3:10-12).

Lower and less worthy considerations

1. The pleasure in the exercise of the benevolent affections, in relieving the sufferings and contributing to the happiness of others. The luxury of doing good.
2. The remembrance of our own liability to poverty and suffering, and our possible need of the help and sympathy of others.

3. The reward in an approving conscience and the blessing of those who were ready to perish (chap. Job. 29:13.)

The exercise of kindness and benevolence marred by the introduction of selfish elements.
Kindness to the poor and needy to be

1. Free and spontaneous.
2. Disinterested and pure from selfish motives.
3. Sincere and undissembled.
4. Prompt and seasonable.
5. Unwearied and persevering.
6. Self-denying as far as is necessary.
7. Impartial and general.
8. Up to our ability and opportunity.

9. Judicious and discriminating. Help given to the poor, without judgment and discretion, may be more injurious than beneficial. Our charity, like Gods, to be directed by wisdom and prudence (Eph. 1:8). Relief not only to be given, but given to the proper objects and in the proper form.

10. Hearty and cheerful. Kind deeds to be accompanied with kind words and kind looks (Rom. 12:8). The manner of the deed often as important as the deed itself.

Jobs reason for his assertion, with stronger affirmation of it. Job. 31:18.For from my youth, he (the fatherless) was brought up with me as with a father, and I have guided (helped or comforted) her (the widow) from my mothers womb (a strong hyperbole, meaning, from my earliest years). To assert more strongly his benevolence, he assigns a reason for it, and adds something in regard to its exercise. With him the practice was nothing new. Benevolence was his natural disposition. Speaks of it as something born with him. Kindness to the widow and fatherless had been practised by him from his earliest years. Had grown with him into a habit or second nature. Much of this habit probably due to the character, and care of his parents. Neither the name of his father nor mother mentioned; but their eulogy unintentionally written in these words. His home a pious one, and his up-bringing according to godliness. Care early bestowed by his parents on his moral training. Observe, in respect to

Early moral training

1. Some born with dispositions naturally more benevolent than others. Such a disposition a favour from the Author of our being. Responsibility connected with its cultivation and exercise. Natural disposition to benevolence not necessarily followed by the wise, persevering, and self-denying practice of it. In Jobs case, the disposition fostered by his parents, and improved by himself through the constant exercise of kindness to the poor and needy. All probably born with more or less of such a disposition to begin with. A fragment of the Divine image imparted in creation. The least of it capable of increase through cultivation and practice. Its introduction in early life possible, and to be expected under the Christian economy and the dispensation of the Spirit. The natural disposition of children often an inheritance from their parents.

2. Children capable of being trained to the exercise of the benevolent affections. To be trained to minister and to show kindness to the poor and suffering, one of the most important parts of a childs education. Such education more especially devolving upon the parents, and particularly the mother. Under the parents careful and constant attention, habits of good-doing capable of being formed in early life.

3. Early habits of benevolence, among the principal means of forming the character in after years. A child trained to such habits may become, in a greater or less degree, a Howard or an Elizabeth Fry. A Nero only the development of a child allowed to take pleasure in torturing a bird, or sticking a pin through a fly. The child the father to the man.

Job resumes the declaration of his humanity and benevolence, and asserts it in respect to clothing as well as feeding the poor. Job. 31:19-20.If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering (by night or by day); if his loins have not blessed me (in gratitude for my clothing them), and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep (or lambs, woven into cloth to serve him for a garment by day and a coverlet by night). Clothing the poor a needful form of benevolence in Arabia as well as in Britain. The cold of winter at times severe, all the more sensible after the extreme heat of summer. The nights often as cold as the days are hot. Clothing especially manufactured from the wool of sheep; a coarser kind from the hair of the camels. The earliest kind of clothing the skins of animals (Gen. 3:21). The next step a garment made of the wool woven into cloth. Sheep chiefly valuable in the East on this account. The wool not only a beneficent provision for the animal itself, but for man who was to be its keeper. One of the sons of Adam, and the first martyr, a keeper of sheep (Gen. 4:2).

Clothing the poor repeatedly mentioned in Scripture as one of the duties of charity. One of the forms of loving service rehearsed by Christ from the judgment-seat, as having been performed by the righteous on Himself in the person of His followers. (Mat. 25:36). The duty enjoined by the Baptist as a proof of true repentanceHe that hath two coats let him give to him that hath none. The name of Dorcas now a household word, from her kindness in clothing the poor. Perhaps as many perish for want of clothing as for want of bread. To be feared that garments lie in the chest, or hang in the wardrobe, which ought to clothe the loins of the poor. The boards of my floor can well want carpets while so many of the poor around me want clothes to their backs (Fenelon).

Declares, further, his humanity negatively. Had never used intimidation or violence in regard to the fatherless, nor used his influence in court to their disadvantage. Job. 31:21.If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless (either to threaten or oppress him,to smite with the fist of wickedness, Isa. 58:4), when I saw my help (or advantage, or those who were ready to support me) in the gate (or court of justice, where a controversy was pending between us). Observe:

1. Humanity exercised as well in what we refrain from doing as in what we do.
2. A strong temptation to the rich and powerful to take advantage of their position in a dispute with the poor. Cases of complaint against injury usually decided in the east by the opinion of the judge or Kadi, or by the voice of the majority of elders. A man of power and influence easily able to carry a case in his favour against the weak and defenceless. Such cases of complaint probably not infrequent where one man possessed such numerous flocks and herds, and carried on so extensive a husbandry. The greatest man in the land of Uz might easily have used his power and influence in such a oase, but had ever refrained from doing so.

3. As much principle often required to abstain from taking advantage of our position and influence in a dispute with others, as to bestow a positive benefit. Jezebels wickedness displayed in her counting upon her power with the elders and nobles in the court to obtain the vineyard of Naboth (1Ki. 21:7-13).

Closes the declaration of his humanity to the poor with an imprecation in case of guilt. Job. 31:22.Then let mine arm (the upper arm, from the elbow upwards) fall from the shoulder blade, and mine arm (the fore-arm, between the wrist and the elbow) be broken from the bone (or upper arm to which it is attached). Reference to the whole of the preceding declaration in regard to his humanity to the poor, but more especially to the last-mentioned particularIf I have lifted, &c. The punishment imprecated always corresponding with the offence supposed to have been committed. On the same principle, Cranmer held his right hand over the burning pile to be first consumed, as the member which had signed the recantation made against his conscience and against the truth. The penalty conceived justly to fall especially on the member or organ which was more especially concerned in the offence, Men convicted of theft among the Copts not unfrequently found with their hands cut off.

Adds a reason for his declared conduct, Job. 31:23.For destruction from God was a terror unto me, and by reason of his highness, I could not endure (either to commit the sin or meet His wrath). Similar sentiment expressed in Job. 31:3; Job. 31:14. The reason given with reference to all the particulars of his conduct just mentioned, but more especially to the last. Observe

The fear of God a good mans preservative against sin. Seen in the case of Joseph and Nehemiah as well as of Job. The consideration of Gods displeasure against the sinner and the punishment threatened against the sin, one motive for resisting temptation and practising good, though not the highest. Rather the last source of defence against temptation when others fail. Better to abstain from sin and practice good, from hatred to sin itself and from love to God and good-doing, than from fear of His wrath. In Gospel exhortations to resist temptation and to do good, appeals rather made to the believers gratitude for mercies received, to his position and privileges in Christ, and to the example of his Divine Master and Father, than to his fears of punishment and the Divine anger. Fear a right and important motive, but rather for the servant than the child. Ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry: Abba, Father (Rom. 8:15). Yet a loving and right-minded child will fear to offend a father, even more than a servant fears to offend a master. Love a more powerful principle than fear; yet fear may be called in to help when love is not sufficiently strong in itself.

V. Declares his freedom from idolatry both in its spiritual and external form, both secret and open, in heart and in life (Job. 31:24-28). Specifies the two leading forms of idolatryMammonism and Sabismthe trust in and love of riches, and the worship of idols in the ordinary sense of the word; here that of the sun and moon. The one the idolatry of the heart, the other that of the outward act. Job clears himself from both.

1. From Mammonism, or the trust in and love of riches. Job. 31:24-25.If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, thou art my confidence; if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much. (Notethe language of idolatry,Mine hand had gotten, instead ofthe Lord had giventhe language of a servant of God). Job abjures as forms of

Heart-idolatry

1. Trust in riches. Riches naturally and easily trusted in by an unrenewed heart. Money a defence (Ecc. 7:12). Answereth all things (Ecc. 10:19). Trust apt to be placed in riches for happiness in general. More particularly

(1) For acquisition of the means of life and sources of enjoyment.
(2) For defence against suffering and the assaults of others.
(3) For power and position in the world. Trust in money a common form of idolatry. Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, &c. Trust in Himself required by God from His intelligent creatures. That trust transferred to any other person or thing, in Gods sight idolatry. Trust in riches contrasted in the Scriptures with trust in God (Psa. 52:7; 1Ti. 6:17). The former characteristic of the ungodly; the latter, of the righteous. Believers cautioned not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God (1Ti. 6:17). Trust in riches incompatible with entrance into the kingdom of God (Mar. 10:24). The rich man not to glory in his riches, but in the Lord (Jer. 9:23-24; 1Co. 1:31). God and not riches to be trusted in for our daily bread. Hence the petition: Give us this day, &c. Mans life not in the abundance of the things he possesses. Liveth not by bread alone, but by every word of God (Mat. 4:4). Riches not given to be trusted in, but to be employed by us as stewards, in the service of the Master and for the benefit of others as well as ourselves, in obedience to His will and in dependence on His blessing.

To trust in riches instead of God not only wicked but foolish, as

(1) Riches are uncertain, and may soon and suddenly cease to be ours.
(2) They are unable to render us either safe or happy even while we possess them.
(3) They fail to meet the most important exigences of our nature as moral and responsible creatures.
(4) They are unable to accompany us into another world.

The possession of riches to be distinguished from trust in them. Money well employed, a blessing; when allowed to usurp the place of God as our trust and confidence, a curse. The young man in the Gospel an example of trust in riches, notwithstanding a great appearance of piety and morality. Unable to give them up to follow Christ, because looking to them to make him happy rather than to God. A test as to whether we are trusting in richesAm I ready cheerfully to give them up at Gods will and for Gods service? And, What proportion of my substance do I give for the extension of His kingdom, and the promotion of His cause in the world?

2. Love of riches. Job neither trusted in his wealth nor rejoiced in it. Riches a good, but not the chief good. If riches increase, the heart not therefore to be set upon them (Psa. 62:10). Observe

(1) Not money, but the love of it, the root of all evil (1Ti. 6:10). A lawful, as well as an unlawful, rejoicing in our possessions (Deu. 12:7; Ecc. 2:7; Ecc. 4:16). Lawfully rejoiced in, when viewed not as what our own hand has gotten, but as what God has given; and not as given for our own exclusive enjoyment, but also for the benefit of others and the Masters service. Riches loved and idolized(i.) When their acquisition and enjoyment afford us more pleasure and delight than the possession and enjoyment of God. (ii.) When we are more concerned about the acquisition and increase of them than about the enjoyment of Gods favour and the advancement of His cause. (iii.) When we find it difficult to give up any considerable portion of them at Gods will and for the promotion of His glory in the world.

(2) The love of money incompatible with the love of God (Mat. 6:24; 1Jn. 2:15). Hence covetousness, or the love of riches, idolatry (Col. 3:5; Eph. 5:5). Supreme love to God as the All-good, required of His intelligent creatures, as truly as as undivided trust in Him as the Almighty.

(3) Love of riches distinct from a proper appreciation of them. Riches as merely possessed by us, a blessing; a curse, when they possess us. As a mere possession, they are worthless; as a means of doing good and glorifying God, invaluable.

Jobs wealth not taken from him either for his trust in it or his fondness of it, any more than for his unlawful acquisition of it, or any evil use which he made of it.

Job taught by the Holy Spirit as well as by the light of nature, to view heart-idolatry, or the worship of riches, as heiuous in Gods sight as outward idolatry, or the worship of sun and moon. The view confirmed in the New Testament (Eph. 5:5).

2. Job equally abjures the second form of idolatry, the worship of fictitious divinities, or of idols in the ordinary sense of the word,here, that of the heavenly bodies, especially the sun and moon. Job. 31:26-27.If I beheld the sun (Heb. light,a poetic name for the sun, which from its luminous atmosphere has been constituted a fountain of light to the earth and other planets), when it shined [in its glorious effulgence], or the moon walking in brightness (advancing like an orb of burnished silver in her course through the heavens); and my heart (the seat of the affections, and required in worship) hath been secretly [while I have outwardly been a worshipper of the only true God, and because afraid of the consequences of open idolatry,] enticed [by their appearance of majesty, glory, and beauty, and by the false views already beginning to be entertained regarding their divinity], or my mouth hath kissed my hand [in token of my adoration of these luminaries (1Ki. 19:5; Hos. 13:2)]; (Heb., My hand hath kissed my mouththe heart leading in the sin, and the hand following; inward affections being manifested by outward actions). The idolatry here indicated known as Sabism, from the Hebrew word Saba, a host, denoting the worship of the host of heaven, or the heavenly bodies (Deu. 17:3; 2Ch. 33:3). Originally the worship of light or fire, and afterwards connected with that of the sun, moon, and stars, as its great reservoirs and sources as well as symbols. The heavenly bodies, especially the sun and moon, among the earliest objects of idolatrous worship. This form of idolatry especially prevalent in Chalda, where probably it had its origin. Babylon called the mother of harlots. The worship of the sun and moon an early form of Arabian idolatry. The moon the great divinity of the ancient Arabians. Still an object of great veneration with Mahommedans. Hence the symbol of the Crescent. The Caaba at Mecca originally a temple dedicated to the moon. Abrahams relatives and neighbours in Chalda addicted to this form of idolatry. His place of residenceUr of the Chaldees, probably so called from Ur, fire; or from Or, light. At Mugheir, believed by some to be its modern representative, the ruins have been discovered of a temple dedicated to the moon, and resembling that of the sun at Babylon.

These luminaries worshipped originally as representatives of deity, then as deities themselves. Viewed as the great prolific powers in the universe, and the bestowers of all earthly blessings.
The worship of the sun and moon ultimately that of almost the whole known world. Prevalent among our own ancestors. The names of the first and second days of the week, monuments of its existence among the Anglo-Saxons. Temples of Apollo or the sun, and of Diana or the moon, formerly stood in London, the one on the site of Westminster Abbey, the other on that of St. Pauls Cathedral.

The object of Jehovah in making Israel his elect nation to preserve them from the practice of this idolatry, and thus to have witnesses for Himself and His truth in the world (Deu. 4:19). The practice of it in Israels degeneracy the cause of their captivity in Babylon (Eze. 8:16; 2Ki. 23:5; 2Ki. 23:11). Observe

(1) Fallen humanity prone to put the creature in the place of the Creator. Early lost the true idea and knowledge of God through departure from and alienation to Him. Did not like to retain God in their knowledge (Rom. 1:28). Hence objects remarkable either for majesty, beauty or utility, worshipped in His stead. The source and essence of idolatry (Rom. 1:25).

(2) Difficult for fallen human nature to use the creature without abusing it. Objects of nature to be viewed, not with idolatrous fondness or admiration of the creature, but with admiration, love, and praise to the Creator. Nature to lead up to natures God, not away from Him. Indication of idolatry in man, when

The landscape has his praise, but not its Author.

(3) A mark of advanced enlightenment, that Job mentions with the same breath, trust in and love of riches, with the worship of the heavenly bodies, as equally idolatrous and offensive in the sight of God.

(4) In Jobs time the knowledge and worship of the true God greatly on the decrease; yet His faithful worshippers still to be found. Left not himself without witness (Act. 14:17).

Jobs reason for abstaining from idolatry either in its spiritual or external forms. Job. 31:28.This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge (or, a judicial iniquity; idolatry still in Jobs days considered a punishable crime; afterwards, by the law of Moses, to be punished with death, Deu. 17:2-7); for I should have denied (lied to or against) the God that is above (in place, power, dignity, and excellence). Observe

1. The heinousness of a sin to be a principal reason for its avoidance.

2. That heinousness to be especially seen in its relation to God.

3. Trust in and love of riches, as well as the external worship of a created object or image, a denial of the true God. All idolatry a denial of God.

(1) In the boundless excellence of His being.
(2) In the spirituality of His nature.
(3) In His infinity and omnipresence.
(4) In His moral as well as natural perfections.
(5) In His sufficiency for our happiness and safety.
(6) In His sole right to the trust, love, and worship of His intelligent creatures.
4. God not only denied by our words, but by our works.

5. Alt trust in and worship of the creature, a lie against God. A lie in the right hand of every idol-worshipper, whether of man, money, or of the sun and moon (Isa. 44:20).

VI. Denies all vindictiveness in reference to enemies. Job. 31:29-30.If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself (in exultation or insult) when evil found him; neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul (or, by asking for his life, i.e., the removal of it in an imprecation). Observe

1. Even a good man not without enemies. Hatred from the world promised by Christ to His disciples (Mat. 10:22). A blessing pronounced on those who, for His sake, experience it (Luk. 6:22). A woe on those of whom all men speak well (Luk. 6:26). Hatred from the world a consequence of not being of it (Joh. 15:19). Christ Himself the great object of the worlds hatred (Joh. 15:18). The ground of that hatred his testimony against its works (Joh. 7:7). Those spared the worlds hatred who partake of its character (Joh. 7:7). They that forsake the law, praise the wicked; but such as keep the law, contend with him (Pro. 28:4). Hence the enmity of the wicked against the good. This enmity experienced by Job.

2. A good man known by his conduct towards his enemies. The mark of an un-regenerate heart to cherish ill-will against an enemy or to take pleasure in his misfortune. Hatred of a foe the prompting of fallen nature and the spirit of heathenism. Revenge is sweet,the language of the Great Murderer. To rejoice in the fall of an enemy, the sin of the Edomites in relation to Israel and the cause of their punishment (Oba. 1:12-13). The sin forbidden in Pro. 24:17. The contrary disposition enjoined both in the Old and New Testanments (Pro. 25:21; Rom. 12:20). Christs command to his followers, not only not to rejoice in the evil that overtakes an enemy, but to pray for and promote his welfare (Mat. 5:44). Noble minds rejoice in the opportunity of befriending a foe. Instances recorded even of the heathen returning kindness for insult. Pericles having been followed to his door by one who had been railing against him, offered him his servant to light him home. Augustus invited to supper the poet Catullus after he had been railing against him. Nothing more common among men than vindictiveness, and nothing more contemptible. Our best revenge on an enemy is to forgive him and treat him kindly. To wish evil to him who hates us makes us as bad, or worse, than himself. The New Testament rule in such cases.Overcome evil with good (Rom. 12:21). In accordance with His own precept, Christ prayed for his murderers (Luk. 23:34). Commissioned His heralds of mercy to begin with those who had clamoured for His blood (Luk. 24:47). His spirit and conduct imitated by His followers. The first Christian martyr died with a prayer on his lips for those who were stoning him to death (Act. 7:60). Jobs religion afterwards embodied in the Gospel. Though living in the patriarchal age, Job exemplified the spirit of Christianity. The new commandment only a new edition of the old. An advance however in the moral teaching of the New Testament as compared with that of the Old. Job instructed not to hate an enemy; the Christian taught to love him. Christianity teaches not only not to wish a curse to an enemy, but to pray for a blessing to him.

3. The teaching of Gods Spirit and the character of Gods children always essentially the same. That teaching and character a transcript of His own nature. Gods example that of forgiveness and kindness to enemies. The carnal mind enmity to God. Mankind enemies to God in their mind by wicked works (Rom. 8:7; Col. 1:21).

4. Special guard to be placed upon the mouth. A sinful thought or feeling not to be allowed utterance. To be suppressed instead of being expressed. An aggravation of sin in the heart to give it expression with the lips. Bodily organs not to be employed as the instruments of sin.

VII. Job declares his humanity as a householder (Job. 31:31-32).

1. In his kindness to his domestics and inmates. Job. 31:31If the men of my tabernacle (those residing under his roof, whether as domestics, retainers, or other inmates.) said not, Oh, that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied (or, Who is there that was was not satisfied with his flesh?i.e., with his hospitality, 1Sa. 25:11; or, according to some ancient versions, If they said, Who will give us of his flesh, that we may be satisfied, as complaining of not having sufficient food, or longing for the better supplies on his own table). Job able to appeal to his own domestics and the inmates of his dwelling for evidence of his humanity, more especially of his bounty to them and his liberality to others. No niggard in his own house. Treated his servants not only with justice, but kindness. Gave them not only food, but of the best kind, and plenty of it. Made them sharers of the best that was on his own table. Had no feast but they partook of it. Observe

(1) A good man will be kind and liberal to his domestics (Col. 4:1).

(2) Well when, as masters, we can appeal to our servants for our character, and when they can bear an honest testimony in our favour. Servants and inmates of our house, likely to be the best judges of our character and conduct.

(3) Good to make our house a home for others as well as ourselves. A Christian duty to bring the poor that are cast out to our house (Isa. 58:7). I was a stranger and ye took me in (Mat. 25:35). Jobs house never without the objects of his charity. The widow and the fatherless, the stranger and the destitute, frequent guests at his table. NoteCustomary for wealthy Arabs to slaughter sheep or camels for the supply of their household. Broad dishes the glory of an Arab chief, as necessary for the entertainment of his guests.

2. In his hospitality to travellers. Job. 31:32The stranger did not lodge in the street (for want of a house to receive him, it being difficult to obtain accommodation in Oriental towns and villages then, as it is still, except with the sheikh or a Christian); but I opened my doors to the traveller (or, as margin, to the way, as if to invite and welcome the traveller passing by). Pleasing picture of Oriental manners, corresponding with those of patriarchal times (Gen. 18:1-4; Gen. 19:1, &c). Job an example of the New Testament preceptUse hospitality without grudging (1Pe. 4:9). Given to hospitality, more than merely showing it (Rom. 12:13). Be not forgetful to entertain strangers,not merely your relatives or acquaintances (Heb. 13:2).

VIII. Clears himself from secret and concealed transgressions. Job. 31:33-34.If I covered my transgressions as Adam (in allusion to Gen. 3:8; or, like men, as Hos. 6:7as men are wont to do after the example of their first father), by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom (from impenitence or hypocrisy, or both): Did I fear a great multitude (or, because I feared, &c.; or as an imprecationThen let me fear, &c.), or did the contempt of families (or tribes) terrify me (so as to conceal my sin or neglect my duty to the stranger; or, because the contempt, &c., terrified me; or, let the contempt, &c., terrify or crush me), that I kept silence [instead of acknowledging my transgression, or opening my mouth in behalf of the oppressed stranger,like Lot, Gen. 19:6-8, or the old man of Gibeah, Jdg. 19:22-24], and went not out of the door? (for fear of detection, or to avoid the danger and self-denial connected with my duty to the stranger; or, as continuing the imprecation, let me be silent, &c.). Observe

1. The best not free from transgressions, both against God and men. Job a perfect man, yet acknowledges transgressions. Not a just man on earth that doeth good and sinneth not Ecc. 7:20).

2. Natural to men to conceal their transgressions. Adams conduct imitated by all his children (Gen. 3:8).

3. Men with much outward morality and religion may still be guilty of secret sins. The case with the Scribes and Pharisees in the days of the Saviour. Job more than suspected of it by his friends. Hence his concern now to clear himself of such hypocrisy.
4. The fear of man often more powerful in leading men to conceal their guilt, than the fear of God in leading them to confess it. The ungodly more afraid of mans shame than of Gods wrath.

5. Just that secret crimes should be followed by popular contempt and ignominy as their penalty. A day coming when secret transgressors, who have successfully covered their crimes in this life, will awake to shame and everlasting contempt in the next (Dan. 12:3).

6. A good man has no need either to fear the populace or shun the public eye. A good conscience a mans best armour. Be just and fear not.

7. A good man more afraid of Gods displeasure than of mans contempt. The sin of men, that they are more afraid of man and the multitude than of their Maker. Who art thou, that thou shouldst be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the Son of man that shall be made as grass, and forgettest the Lord thy Maker? (Isa. 51:12-13). Fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul (Mat. 10:23).

8. The part of an honest and sincere heart, to confess transgressions both before God, and, when necessary, before man. A Christians first duty, to confess his transgressions to God; his next, to confess them to man if he has injured or offended him. Confess your faults one to another, a New Testament precept (Jas. 5:16). Confession to God necessary to forgiveness from God (Pro. 28:13; 1Jn. 1:8-9; Psa. 32:3-5). Frank confession a mark of true repentance. Examples: Zaccheus (Luk. 19:8); the penitent thief (Luk. 23:41); the converts of Ephesus (Act. 19:18-19).

9. A good man not deterred from duty, either by the fear of numbers or the contempt of neighbours. Example: Lot in Sodom (Genesis 19). Miltons famous picture of the Seraph Abdiel

Faithful found

Among the faithless, faithful only he;
Among innumerable false, unmovd,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified.
His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;
Nor number, nor example, with him wrought
To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Though single.

VIII. Jobs final desire and challenge. Job. 31:35-37.O that one would hear me! (or O that I had one to hear me!an impartial judge or umpire in the controversy between the Almighty and himself, so that his case might be fairly tried and decided upon). Behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me (or, here is my mark or signature, i.e., to the declaration he made of his innocencelet the Almighty answer me, and prove me guilty if He can); and that my adversary had written a book (or, and let mine adversary write a book or bill of indictment against me, as in courts of law; or, and [O that I had] the book [or indictment which] mine adversary has written against me!) Surely I would take it upon my shoulder (as a thing of which I was not ashamed, but which I was willing that every one should see and know), and bind it as a crown to me (as a thing in which I rather gloried as my honour and ornament, being persuaded that all the charges contained in it would be found to be groundless). I would declare unto him (viz., the umpire or judge) the number of my steps (all the various passages of my life); as a prince(with the boldness and confidence of an innocent man assured of coming off victorious, instead of the faltering step and downcast look of a culprit) would I go near unto him (instead of avoiding him like Adam in the garden, as conscious of guilt).

This lofty passage is, perhaps, the strongest declaration of his innocence that Job had yet made, probably intended as the finale of his pleadings, and the climax of his protestations. The three following verses, with the exception of the last clause, probably standing originally somewhere before the present passage; or, what is less likely, as a still farther vindication of his character.

The passage stands as a proof of his conscious integrity. Expresses his continued desire to have a fair and impartial hearing of his case, with the conviction that he would be declared free from the sins which were either openly or by implication charged upon him, and from any such transgressions as to merit his present sufferings. The adversary with whom he wishes to contest the matter, mainly God himself who seemed to treat him as a guilty person. His three friends also his adversaries, but only as taking up the view of his character which God himself seemed to take from the way in which He was now dealing with him. God seemed to have charges against him of which he was entirely unconscious. His friends declared that such charges must exist. Job denied there there was any ground for them. Hence his great desire that the matter may be fairly examined into and decided.
This desire of Job, now soon about to be granted, and that in his favour. Not however to be done till he has been taught some necessary and important lessons. Though having the truth on his side in the controversy, his spirit and language not always what they ought to have been. His error in declaring his innocence in too decided a manner, and in carrying his declaration almost, if not altogether, to the point of self-confident glorying and self-righteous pride. At times not only bitter in his spirit and language towards his three friends, but petulant and irreverent towards God. The present winding up of his speeches sounded like a declaration that he was righteous, whatever God might be in the matter; in other words, that he was more righteous than God. Too much overlooked the fact

(1) That he, in common with all mankind, was guilty before God, and had given sufficient occasion to be visited with stripes even more severe than those from which he was now suffering;
(2) That God is infinitely holy, just, and good, and would do nothing with any of His creatures but what was perfectly right;
(3) That God might have wise objects in view in dealing with him as He did, which, though now hidden from him, He in His own time would showas, for example, his own purification, God employing his sufferings as the goldsmith does the furnace for purifying the gold;
(4) That God, as Creator, has the right to do with His creatures as He pleases without doing anything either unjust or unkind, and that it is the creatures part to be passive and submissive in His handJobs actual conduct at the beginning of his trials.

The steps between this last speech of Jobs and the declaration of his integrity on the part of the Almighty, occupied in correcting these errors, and in bringing him to a juster view of himself, and to a better state of mind in regard to God. Observe:

1. No flesh allowed to glory in Gods presence(1Co. 1:29). One of the great objects of the Bible to teach men this truth. The proper place for fallen man before God, even at his best, is the dust. Tendency to pride in the best. Imperfection stamped on all human excellence. Like Moses, Job speaks unadvisedly with his lips. Utters what is rash before God, which he afterwards repents in dust and ashes. Not yet the perfect man who offendeth not in word (Jas. 3:2).

2. Only one way of going near to God as our judge with boldness and confidence. Not that of Job, as in ourselves righteous and innocent; but as sinners, accepting of and trustiug in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ as the only ground of our acceptance before God (Heb. 10:22.) Surely shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness. In him shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory (Isa. 45:24-25).

IX. Job finally clears himself of injustice in his business transactions with his fellow-men. (Job. 31:38-40).If my land (probably the land which, like Isaac, he rented and cultivated for his own use) cry against me (as dishonestly acquired or oppressively cultivated,like Abels innocent blood shed by his brothers hand (Gen. 4:10), or that the furrows likewise thereof complain (Hebrew, weep together, as in sympathy with one another, and with the owners whom I have wronged by occupying their land without paying duly for its use, or with the labourers whom I have oppressed by employing them without a fair remuneration for their work;a beautiful and bold personification to increase the effect): if I have eaten the fruits thereof without money (in payment either to the proprietor for the occupancy of his land, or to the labourer for his work in cultivating it), or have caused the owners thereof to lose their lives (either directly by violent means in order to obtain their property, or indirectly by withholding the just payment for its occupancy): let thistles (or thorns) grow instead of wheat, and cockle (or noxious weeds) instead of barley. Observe

1. One of the most testing points in reference to a mans character, how he curries on his business and conducts his transactions with his fellow-men. Constant temptation to over-reach and take advantage. Tendency in fallen human nature both to withhold from others their just due, and to exact more than our own. The business principles of the world often the reverse of those of the Bible. That of Buy cheap and sell dear, liable to be carried out to the extent of fraud and extortion. Christianity and sound morality teach us to give every man a fair price for his labour or his goods, and to ask no more than a fair price for our own. The maxim, Business is business, sinful if understood as meaning that business is exempted from the same rules of morality as are applied to other branches of conduct. Defectiveness in commercial morality one of the sins of the day In the race for riches, men tempted, even in a Christian land, to commit the sins which Job here solemnly abjuresreceiving labour, goods, or money, without giving a just equivalent. The temptation not always resisted to sell articles that are something different from what they are represented to be. The severe reproof of the Almighty, directed in the Bible against those who oppress the hireling of their wages (Mal. 3:5; Jas. 5:4). A woe pronounced on him who buildeth his house by unrighteousness and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbours service without wages, and giveth him not for his work, (Jer. 22:13).

2. Even professedly religious men tempted to follow the world in untruthful and unfair modes of conducting basiness. The practice of overreaching and extortion apparently prevalent in Jobs time and country. Extortion on the part of rulers, proprietors, and dealers in the East, notorious. The practice of a Turk or Arab in demanding an exorbitant price for his goods, as common as that of the governor or employer in giving the merest pittance for the labourers work. Extortion and excess among the prevailing sins of the Pharisees in the days of the Saviour (Mat. 23:25). Job careful to resist the temptation to a common sin. Renounced filthy gain. No canker in his gold and silver. No rust on his money to witness against him either here or hereafter, and to eat his flesh as it were fire (Jas. 5:3). Had neither sought to buy cheaper nor sell dearer than justice and humanity demanded.

3. Dishonesty found on the side of buyers as well as of sellers.

(1). In not paying duly for goods delivered;

(2). In depreciating and cheapening down an article, in order to get a bargain, or to obtain it at a price below its value. It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer; but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth (Pro. 20:14).

4. The mark of a true servant of God, to be faithful in that which is least.

5. The part of a follower of Christ, to commend his Masters religion by exhibiting a, sterling morality in his daily life. What soever things are true, honest, just, lovely, and of good report, &c. (Php. 4:8).

6. Murder committed in more ways than one. Indirect as well as direct murder. The life-blood of the poor may be drained by oppressive work and inadequate remuneration. Hearts broken by fraud and oppression in civil, as well as by inhumanity and cruelty in domestic life.

7. Wrong done to another often recompensed by loss incurred by ourselves. A curse imprecated by Job on his land as the righteous penalty of wrong, if done by him either in acquiring or cultivating it. Another example of the maxim: As the sin, so the punishment. Job probably reminded of the curse pronounced on the ground, first for Adams sin and then for Cains (Gen. 3:17-18; Gen. 4:11-12). Suggests another evidence that Job was well acquainted with Genesis.

The words of Job are ended. Probably followed the final protestation of his innocence in Job. 31:37. Jobs words spoken partly by the flesh and partly by the spirit. Were partly those of an enlightened and sanctified believer, and partly those of a yet unhumbled sinner. Were at last partly commended and partly reproved by the Almighty. Have been recorded for our instruction and comfort, but not all of them for our imitation. Began with justifying and speaking well of God; ended by speaking well of himself. Contain some of the most elevated sentiments and glorious truths ever conceived by human mind or uttered by human lips. Viewed in connection with his extraordinary sufferings, and the circumstances in which they were uttered, they exhibit a marvel of Divine grace, in enabling the sufferer to possess his soul in patience, and to glorify God in the fires. Afford the picture of a man as perfect as fallen nature admitted of in the ages previous to the advent of Christ and the dispensation of the Spirit. ObserveWords ended in their utterance not ended in their effect. By these words of Job, he being dead yet speaketh. The effect of words, for good or evil, often experienced for generations and centuries after they have been spoken or written.

Nothing is lost: the drop of dew,

That trembles on the leaf or flower,

Is but exhaled to fall anew,

In summers thunder shower;

Perchance to shine within the bow,

That fronts the sun at fall of day;

Perchance to sparkle in the flow

Of fountains far away.

So with our words; or harsh or kind,

Utterd, they are not all forgot;

But leave some trace upon the mind,

Pass on, yet perish not.

J. Critchley Prince.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

3.

Solemn declaration that neither in him nor in his conduct was there justification for the change, and he is ready to face God (Job. 31:1-40)

a. He was not lustful. (Job. 31:1-8)

TEXT 31:18

1 I made a covenant with mine eyes;

How then should I look upon a virgin?

2 For what is the portion from God above,

And the heritage from the Almighty on high?

3 Is it not calamity to the unrighteous,

And disaster to the workers of iniquity?

4 Doth not he see my ways,

And number all my steps?

5 If I have walked with falsehood,

And my foot hath hasted to deceit

6 (Let me be weighed in an even balance,

That God may know mine integrity);

7 If my step hath turned out of the way,

And my heart walked after mine eyes,
And if any spot hath cleaved to my hands:

8 Then let me sow, and let another eat;

Yea, let the produce of my field be rooted out.

COMMENT 31:18

Job. 31:1In the ancient Israelite legal procedure the oath of innocence repudiating an accusation was of crucial importance. Where clear evidence was lacking, it was taken as proof of the innocence of the accused. Thus, the swearing of such an oath was a solemn religious celebration, which placed the verdict in Gods hands.[307] Job here swears his innocence, then challenges the creator of the universe to give His verdict, i.e., acknowledge that he is innocent.[308] He rests his case on a series of oaths of clearance. Belief in the power of the oath made it the ultimate criterion of probabilityExo. 22:9-10 and 1Ki. 8:31-32. Some have compared Jobs negative repudiation of evil to the negative confession in the Egyptian Book of the Dead where a long list of sins not committed are enumerated.[309] The exact list of Jobs disclaimers is difficult to determine because of textual uncertainties. But the oath is no mere formal matter. Job examines both his interior motives and exterior behavior to enumerate what sins or crimes he has been tempted to commit. Only God will impel this oriental aristocrat to virtuous action and self-restraint. His moral standards are perhaps the highest to be found in the Old Testament. He shows sensitive respect for the dignity of his fellow men, even slaves. He also refutes Eliphazs accusation (chapter 22)Job. 31:16-20.[310]

[307] For examination of Psalms 139 as an oath denying worship of other gods, see E. Wurthwein, Vetus Testamentum, 1957, pp. 165182; R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, 1 vol, E. T., 1961, McGraw-Hill, Hall and Justice, pp. 143163, esp. pp. 155ff; W. Zimmerli, Das Gesetz in Alten Testament, Theologische Literaturzeitung, 1960, pp. 481498; D. Daube, Studies in Biblical Law (Cambridge, 1947); A. Alt, Die Ursprunge des Israelitischen/Gesretz (Leipzig, 1934, Munich, 1953), pp. 278332; G. E. Mendenhall, Law and Covenant in Israel and the Ancient Near East (Pittsburgh, reprinted from Biblical Archaeologist, 1954), pp. 2646, 4976; see my bibliography on Seminar Syllabus: Philosophy of Law.

[308] See S. Blank, The Curse, Blasphemy, the Spell, and the Oath, Hebrew Union College Annual, 1950, pp. 7395; also his An Effective Literary Device in Job XXXI, Journal Semitic Studies, 1951, pp. 105107; and F. Horst, Der Eid im altenteatament, Evangelische Theologie, 1957, pp. 366384.

[309] See J. Murtagh, The Book of Job and the Book of the Dead, Irish Theological Quarterly, 1968, pp. 166173.

[310] See E. Asswald, Hiob 31 in Rahmen der alttestamentiche Ethik, Theologische Yersuche. 1970, pp. 926.

In line one Job declares that he has put a ban (lit. cut a covenant) on his eyes. The preposition for (le, not the usual withim or et) designates a condition imposed by a superior on an inferior party in a covenant or treaty1Sa. 11:2; 2Sa. 5:3; 2Ki. 11:4. Job is master of his eyes. If the particle -man is taken as negative rather than as interrogative how, as in A. V., then the line reads that I would not look upon a virgin. Emending the text is completely unnecessary here. Job here is discussing sinning by desire, and below the act of adultery. Job is here setting forth his controlled modesty, though as an Eastern prince he could do, with no impropriety or social repercussion, what he has made a covenant not to do. This is religious motive for morals of the highest orderMat. 5:28; Mat. 18:8. Isaiah contains a beautiful description of a righteous man, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, stops his ears against hearing of bloodshed, shuts his eyes against looking at evilIsa. 33:5, e.g. Josephs example in Genesis 38.

Job. 31:2In the previous verse, Job is clearly thinking of his behavior in the days of his piety, prosperity, and prestige. Job has consistently maintained that piety[311] ought to be rewarded by the blessings of prosperity, and his entire argument is that in practice this is not the case. God has not rewarded his righteousness; rather He has punished him for it.

[311] In view of our own 20th century crisis in piety and Eastern meditation techniques, eg., T. M., being rushed into the spiritual vacuum, see Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God (Revell, 1958); the works of both Ritschel and Warfield on Perfectionism; Donald G. Bloesch, The Crisis of Piety (Eerdmans, 1968); F. E. Stoeffler, The Rise of Evangelical Pietism (Brill, Leiden, 1971 ed.); also his German Pietism During the 18th Century (Brill: Leiden, 1973); John Bunyans classic The Pilgrims Progress, many eds.; Augustines Confessions (Oxford, 1958); S. Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart (Harper, 1956).

Job. 31:3Job thought that he could depend on the above principle in his own life. Workers of iniquity is a common expression for the wicked in the Psalms. Disastrous calamities would be appropriate for the wicked, but not for a righteous man like he is.

Job. 31:4God was his friend. He used to graciously watch over his lifeJob. 14:16. But now God is silent in the presence of his suffering. Do his purity and piety count for nothing? God is viewed here as morally, inwardly, and outwardly available to Job. God sees his thoughts and actions and counts the steps in his entire existence.

Job. 31:5He begins his series of oaths rejecting evil with a general repudiation of any sort of unrighteous conduct. Here falsehood is personified and presented as a companion. Perhaps Dahood is correct in suggesting that the preposition im, here parallel with -al, has directional significance meaning walking and hastening toward falsehood and deceit. He also suggests an emendation which makes the offense specific. He renders, If I went to an idol, or my foot hastened to a fraud.[312]

[312] M. Dahood, Ugaritic Hebrew Philology (Rome, 194S), p. 32.

Job. 31:6The Old Testament condemns false balances consistentlyLev. 19:36; Eze. 45:10; Amo. 8:5; Pro. 11:1; Pro. 20:23. For the weighing of a man in the balance for evaluating his character, see Dan. 5:27 and Mat. 7:2. God has previously borne witness to his integrity in Job. 2:3, where the same word as here appears. Job is not a moral fraud; if he were weighed, Gods judgment would be positive, as before.[313]

[313] See suggestion by M. Dahood, Vetus Testamentum, Supplement, 1967, p. 47, regarding full weight instead of my innocence, but the sense would remain the same regardless.

Job. 31:7Have I departed from the path of righteousness? His covenant with his eyes in verse one is here extended to a broader sphere. He has not coveted what is anothers. Sin is often metaphorically pictured as staining ones handsJob. 11:14; Job. 16:17; and Isa. 1:15. Clean hands are symbolic of ones righteousnessJob. 22:30 and Psa. 24:4.

Job. 31:8If he has sinned in thought or deed, Job here invokes a curse upon himselfJob. 5:5; Job. 27:17; Lev. 26:16; Mic. 6:15; Isa. 45:22. Though it is possible that seesaim in line two refers to produce of the field, as in A. V., in all probability it means Jobs human progeny. As Pope affirms, human beings can be uprooted as well as plants[314]Psa. 52:5; Job. 31:12 b. His entire lineage is being removed from the earth, his children are dead, and he is dying.

[314] M. Pope, JBL, 1961, p. 196.

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

XXXI.

(1) I made a covenant with mine eyes.Job makes one grand profession of innocence, rehearsing his manner of life from the first; and here he does not content himself with traversing the accusations of his friends, but professes his innocence also of sins less manifest to the observance of others, and affecting the secret conduct and the heartnamely, sensual transgression and idolatry. His object, therefore, is to show his friends that he has really been more upright than their standard demanded or than they supposed him to be, till his affliction made them suspect him; and this uprightness was the consequence of rigid and inflexible adherence to principle, for he made a covenant with his eyes, as the avenues of sinful desires. (Comp. Mat. 5:28.)

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

Third division JOB’S ASSEVERATION OF HIS INNOCENCE, UNDER THE MOST SOLEMN APPEALS TO GOD, chapter 31. First strophe, Job 31:1-8.

a. A preliminary declaration that he had prescribed terms to the most treacherous of the senses, and planted a guard over his entire being, and that, too, impelled by the highest considerations of regard for God, Job 31:1-4.

1. With mine eyes The eyes, says a Talmudic proverb, are “the procuresses of evil.” So intimately is this most delicate and precious of the senses related to the soul, that Pliny said of the mind. “it certainly dwells in the eyes.” Here the eye is singled out as a representative sense, as if he who had the mastery of this were lord of all. Job has “made a covenant” to ( ) or for his eyes prescribed limitations with all the form and solemnity of a covenant, which, through the divine strength of grace, he has determined they shall not transgress.

Why then should I think How then should I look, or gaze, look wistfully upon, . Thus translated, there is a striking resemblance in this question to the saying of Christ, (Mat 5:28.) At a time when polygamy or some other form of concubinage almost universally prevailed, Job stands conspicuously forth as a high-toned moralist, who looked upon chastity of the heart as no less important than chastity of the life.

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

Job 31:1-40 Job Describes His Life of Righteousness – Job was perfect and upright (Job 1:1). This chapter shows Job’s faith and works according to Jas 2:22. Job’s works, listed this chapter, perfected his faith and Job became perfect and upright (Mat 5:48, Jas 2:22).

Mat 5:48, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

Jas 2:22, “Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?”

In this passage of Job, we see the Sermon on the Mount as lived by Job (Matthew 5-7). Note:

Job 31:1, “I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?”

Mat 5:27-28, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

Job 31:4, “Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?”

Job 23:10, “But he knoweth the way that I take : when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”

Job 31:5, “If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;”

Job is honest.

Job 31:16, “If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;”

Jas 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Job 31:19, “If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;”

Jas 2:14-19

1Jn 3:17-18, “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”

Job 31:24, “If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;”

1Ti 6:17, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;”

Job 31:27, “And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:”

Exo 20:1-3, “And God spake all these words, saying, I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”

Job 31:29, “If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:”

Mat 5:43-48

Job 31:32, “The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.”

Heb 13:2, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

Job 31:33, “If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:”

Pro 28:13, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

Job 31:1  I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

Job 31:1 Comments – Job made a quality decision in his heart before he encountered temptation that he would not gaze and stare upon a woman. A man cannot stop himself from seeing things and people. But a person can make a decision not to focus his attention upon it. A person can turn his eyes away from temptation and focus his thoughts upon something else. This is the decision that Job made. Note that Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount that gazing upon a woman will turn our hearts towards adulterous thoughts (Mat 5:27-28). This is what Job was avoiding.

Mat 5:27-28, “Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”

It is through the sense gate of the eyes that our minds receive information. What ever we focus our eyes upon, our mind gives it attention and processes what is seen. Thus, the first step in sin would be to focus our eyes upon something immoral. The second step in sin is to think about what is being seen. Job made the decision to stop this process at its inception.

Job 31:2  For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

Job 31:3  Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

Job 31:2-3 Comments Sowing and Reaping – Sowing and reaping come upon the wicked. What does God reward a wicked man with? In Job 31:3, God gives disaster to the wicked.

Job 31:4  Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

Job 31:4 Comments – In Job 31:4, Job has not done any wicked worthy of this disaster. So why his distress? Job asks if God even considers his way. Of course God does.

Job 31:5  If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;

Job 31:6  Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.

Job 31:6 Comments – Job asks God to weigh his life on God’s scales.

Job 31:5-6 Comments Job’s Integrity – Job was not false and decently, but honest.

Job 31:13  If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;

Job 31:13 Comments – Job treated his servants justly.

Job 31:14  What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

Job 31:14 Comments – Even Job fears God’s coming Day of Judgment, known also by Enoch (Jud 1:14-16).

Jud 1:14-16, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.”

Job 31:15  Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?

Job 31:16  If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

Job 31:16 Comments – Job helped the poor and the widow (Jas 1:27).

Jas 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Job 31:17  Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

Job 31:17 Comments – Job helped the orphans (Jas 1:27).

Jas 1:27, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”

Job 31:18  (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb;)

Job 31:19  If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

Job 31:19 Comments – Job helped those in need (Jas 2:14-19, 1Jn 3:17-18).

Jas 2:14, “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?”

1Jn 3:17-18, “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”

Job 31:23  For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.

Job 31:23 Scripture References – Note:

Job 3:25, “For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.”

Job 31:24  If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

Job 31:25  If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;

Job 31:24-25 Comments – Job did not put his trust in riches (1Ti 6:17).

1Ti 6:17, “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy;”

Job 31:26  If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

Job 31:27  And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:

Job 31:28  This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

Job 31:26-28 Comments – Job worshipped only God. In Exo 20:1-6, we are commanded to worship only God. The Bible says that idolatry is also called courteousness.

Job 31:29  If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

Job 31:30  Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.

Job 31:29-30 Comments – Job loved his enemies (Mat 5:43-48).

Mat 5:44, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;”

Job 31:31  If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

Job 31:32  The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.

Job 31:31-32 Comments – Job helped the stranger (Heb 13:2).

Heb 13:2, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”

Job 31:33  If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

Job 31:33 “as Adam” – Comments – Some English versions translate this phrase, “as men do.”

Job 31:34  Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

Job 31:33-34 Comments – Job implies that he has confessed the sins of his youth (Job 13:26) and forsaken them (Gen 3:9-10, Pro 28:13).

Job 13:26, “For thou writest bitter things against me, and makest me to possess the iniquities of my youth .”

Gen 3:9-10, “And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

Pro 28:13, “He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.”

Job 31:35-37 Comments – Job boldly desires the Almighty to answer this life Job has lived.

Job 31:39-40 Comments – Job had not overburdened the land nor stolen land and its fruit unjustly.

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 Recounts his Blameless Conduct

v. 1. I made a covenant with mine eyes, prescribing to his organs of vision their conduct; why, then, should I think upon a maid, casting lustful, adulterous looks upon a person of the opposite sex?

v. 2. For what portion of God is there from above? What dispensation would come from Him, namely, in the form of punishment for such a sinful thought? And what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? What would His portion have been in punishing him for such a transgression, God surely would not let such sins go without just retribution.

v. 3. Is not destruction to the wicked and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? Misfortune and calamity are the consequence of sins against the Sixth Commandment.

v. 4. Doth not He see my ways and count all my steps? It was the consciousness of God’s omniscience and righteousness which caused Job to avoid even lustful glances and sinful desires.

v. 5. If I have walked with vanity, making falsehood and duplicity his companions, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit, eager to make use of its cheating appearance,

v. 6. let me be weighed in an even balance, in a balance of justice, Cf Dan 5:25, that God may know mine integrity, for a careful weighing of the evidence against him would establish the truth of his utterances.

v. 7. If my step hath turned out of the way, namely, from the right way as prescribed by God, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, yielding to the lust which often takes hold of the eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands, any spot of unchaste, immoral actions,

v. 8. then let me sow and let another eat, enjoying the fruit of his hard labors; yea, let my offspring be rooted out, the products of the soil as planted by him be destroyed. Cf Lev 26:16; Amo 9:14; Psa 128:2. Thus Job protested that he had always avoided all sinful lust.

v. 9. If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, enticed into adulterous relations with another man’s wife, or if I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door, Cf Pro 7:7-8,

v. 10. then let my wife grind unto another, in the position of the lowest secondary wife, who had to attend to the grinding of the household flour on the hand-mill, and let others bow down upon her, in lustful, forbidden intercourse.

v. 11. For this is an heinous crime, his yielding to adultery would be an infamous act; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges, worthy of the severest punishment. Cf Mat 5:21.

v. 12. For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, such an adulterous passion on Job’s part would merit for him the devouring punishment of the abyss of hell, and would root out all mine increase, destroying all the fruit of his labor, all his prosperity, Job thus rejecting also this possible accusation against his life. He next touches upon his conduct toward his house-slaves.

v. 13. If I did despise the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant, treating them as though they had no rights, when they contended with me, ruthlessly trampling on that which they had a right to expect,

v. 14. what, then, shall I do when God riseth up, if He arose in judgment upon such behavior? And when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him? If Job had been guilty as here outlined, then, indeed, would the Lord have had the right to lay the heaviest judgments upon him.

v. 15. Did not He that made me in the womb make him? And did not One, that is, one and the same God, fashion us in the womb? God is the Creator of the slave as well as of the master, and there is for that reason no respect of persons with Him, Eph 6:9. From the case of his servants Job now turns to that of all the poor and neglected everywhere.

v. 16. If I have withheld the poor from their desire, refusing them what they needed to sustain their lives, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail, since they became weak and lost their power to see on account of their unfulfilled yearning for help,

v. 17. or have eaten my morsel myself alone and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof, if selfishness had caused him to withhold food or assistance from the needy;

v. 18. (for, or, nay, rather, from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, such consideration the orphan received from him, and I have guided her, namely, the widow, from my mother’s womb, the strong expression being intended to show that Job’s humane and friendly treatment of widows and orphans had been his practice from his earliest youth;)

v. 19. if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, some poor, forsaken soul without so much as a garment to cover his nakedness, or any poor without covering, in the condition of the greatest extremity;

v. 20. if his loins, covered by the bounty of Job, have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep, namely, in the form of substantial, warm clothing;

v. 21. if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, shaking his fist at the orphan in a violent and threatening manner, when I saw my help in the gate, believing that he could readily bribe the judges who might try a case of such violence:

v. 22. then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, being severed from the joint which held it, and mine arm be broken from the bone, literally, “the pipe,” from the hollow, pipelike bones to which it was attached.

v. 23. For destruction from God was a terror to me, Job’s fear of God’s vengeance had always kept him from wicked acts of this kind, and by reason of His highness I could not endure, being powerless before the majesty of God, a fact which made it morally impossible for him to become guilty of merciless conduct.

v. 24. If I have made gold my hope, putting his trust in it, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

v. 25. if I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much, had accumulated large amounts, great riches, all this being equal to his making money his god;

v. 26. if I beheld the sun when it shined, his light being worshiped by the Chaldeans as an emanation from God, or the moon walking in brightness, wandering her course in solemn majesty,

v. 27. and my heart hath been secretly enticed, namely, away from the true God to the foolishness of idolatry, or my mouth hath kissed my hand, literally, “so that I touched my hand to my mouth,” in throwing to the sun and the moon, as heathen divinities, a kiss, as a sign of adoration:

v. 28. this also, as a form of gross idolatry, were an iniquity to be punished by the judge; for I should have denied the God that is above, acting falsely, becoming guilty of denial.

v. 29. If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, in vindictive hate and malice, or lifted up myself when evil found him, in joyful excitement over any misfortune which might strike him, for the love of enemies was required even in the Old Testament;

v. 30. neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul, his palate, as an instrument of speech, he did not wish for the death of his enemy, he had not been guilty of such vindictive hatred.

v. 31. If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh, that we had of his flesh! We cannot be satisfied, literally, “If the people of my tent,” that is, his household associates and servants, “had not been obliged to say, Where could one be found, who had not been satisfied with his flesh?” Job had freely distributed of the flesh of his slaughtered cattle to such as were in need, as his servants would readily testify.

v. 32. The stranger did not lodge in the street, for want of hospitality on Job’s part, but I opened my doors to the traveler, so that everyone who passed by was made welcome, according to Oriental custom.

v. 33. If I covered my transgressions as Adam, covering his wickedness after the manner of men, after the ways of the world in general, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom, trying to conceal it from men and God:

v. 34. did I fear a great multitude, because he feared the contempt of the multitude, the nobler families, from the intercourse with which he might have been excluded, or did the contempt of families terrify me that I kept silence and went not out of the door, lest his iniquity become evident to all? Thus Job protested that he practiced what was right and good in all his relations toward God and men and abstained from that which was wrong in God’s sight.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

EXPOSITION

The conclusion of Job’s long speech (ch. 26-31.) is now reached. He winds it up by a solemn vindication of himself from all the charges of wicked conduct which have been alleged or insinuated against him. perhaps it may be said that he goes further, maintaining generally his moral rectitude in respect of all the principal duties which a man owes either to God (verses 4-6, 24-28, 35-37) or to his fellows (verses 1-3, 7-23, 29-34, 38-40). He protests that he is innocent of impure thoughts (verses 1-4); of false seeming (verses 5-8); of adultery (verses 9-12); of injustice towards dependants (verses 13-15); of hardness towards the poor and needy (verses 16-23); of covetousness (verses 24, 25); of idolatry (verses 26-28); of malevolence (verses 29, 30); of want of hospitality (verses 31, 32); of hiding his transgressions (verses 33, 34); and of injustice as a landlord (verses 38-40). In conclusion, he once more makes a solemn appeal to God to pronounce judgment on his case (verse 35), promising to give a complete account of every act in his life (verse 37), and calmly to await his sentence. An accidental dislocation of the last three verses disturbs the order hero assumed to be the proper one. This will be further considered in the comment.

Job 31:1

I made a covenant with mine eyes; rather, for mine eyes. The covenant must have been with himself. Job means that be came to a fixed resolution, by which he thenceforth guided his conduct, not even to “look upon a woman to lust after her” (Mat 5:28). We must suppose this resolution come to in his early youth, when the passions are strongest, and when so many men go astray. How then should I look upon a maid! Having made such a resolution, how could I possibly break it by “looking upon a maid”? Job assumes that he could not be so weak as to break a solemn resolution.

Job 31:2

For what portion of God is there from above? The meaning seems to be, “For what portion in God would there be to me from above, if I were so to act?” i.e. if I were secretly to nurse and indulge my lusts. Impurity, perhaps, more than any other sin, cuts off from God, who is “of purer eyes than to behold iniquity” (Hab 1:13). And what inheritance of the Almighty from on high! What should I inherit, i.e. what should I receive, from on high, if I were so sinful? The next verse gives the answer,

Job 31:3

Is not destruction to the wicked? The inheritance of the wicked is “destruction”ruin both of soul and body. This is what I should have to expect if I yielded myself to the bondage of lust and concupiscence. And a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? The rare word neker (), translated here by “strange punishment,” seems to mean “alienation from God”being turned from God’s friend into his enemy (comp. Buxtorf, ‘Lexicon Hebraicum et Chaldaicum,’ who explains by “alienatio;” and the comment of Schultens on Job 31:3, “Necer, a Deo alienatio“).

Job 31:4

Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps? (see above, Job 7:18-20; and below, Job 34:21. Comp. also Psa 139:3; Pro 5:21; Pro 15:3, etc.).

Job 31:5

If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit. “If I have been a living lie, i.e. if, under a fair show of piety and righteousness of life, I have, as you my friends suppose, been all along a deceiver and a hypocrite, cloaking my secret sins under a mere pretence of well-doing, then the sooner I am exposed the better. Let me be weighed,” etc. The painful suggestion of hypocrisy has been made by Job’s friends repeatedly during the colloquy (Job 4:7-9; Job 8:6, Job 8:12; Job 11:4-6, ’11-14; Job 15:30-35; Job 18:5-21; Job 20:5-29, etc.), and has deeply afflicted the patriarch. It is a charge so easily made, and so impossible to refute. All that the righteous man, thus falsely accused, can do is to appeal to God: “Thou, God, knowest. Thou, God, wilt one day show forth the truth.”

Job 31:6

Let me be weighed in an even balance; literally, let him (i.e. God) weigh me in the balances of justice. The use of this imagery by the Egyptians has been already noted (see the comment on Job 6:2). It is an essential part of every Egyptian representation of the final judgment of souls by Osiris. Each man’s merits are formally weighed in a balance, which is carefully depicted, and he is judged accordingly. Job asks that this may be done in his case, either immediately or at any rate ultimately. He would have the act performed, that God may know his integrity; or rather, may recognize it. (So Professor Leo.) Job has no doubt that a thorough investigation of his case will lead to a, acknowledgment and proclamation of his innocence.

Job 31:7

If my step hath turned out of the way. If; i.e; I have at any time knowingly and voluntarily departed from the way of thy commandments, as made known to me either by godly men or by thy law written in my heart, then let the consequences follow that are mentioned in the next verse. Or if mine heart hath walked after mine eyes, and if consequently any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; i.e. if I have been guilty of any plain act of sin. It is to be remembered that Job has the testimony of God himself to the fact that he was “a perfect and an upright man, one that feared God, and eschewed evil (Job 2:3).

Job 31:8

Then let me sow, and let another eat (comp. Job 5:5; Le 26:16; Deu 28:33, Deu 28:51, etc.). The expression is proverbial. Yea, lot my offspring be rooted out; rather, my produce, or the produce of my field (see the Revised Version).

Job 31:9

If mine heart have been deceived by a woman; rather, enticed, or allured unto a woman. If, that is, I have suffered myself at any time to be enticed by the wiles of a “strange woman” (Pro 5:3; Pro 6:24, etc.), and have so far yielded as to go after her; and if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s doorwatching for an opportunity to enter unseen, while the goodman is away (Pro 7:19) Job is not speaking of what he has done, but of what men may suspect him of having done.

Job 31:10

Then let my wife grind unto another; i.e. “let the wife of my bosom be brought so low as to be compelled to do the servile work of grinding the corn in the household of another woman.” The condition of the female slaves who ground the corn was regarded as the lowest point in domestic slavery (see Exo 11:5; Isa 47:2). And let others bow down upon her. Let them, i.e; claim the master’s right, and reduce her to the extremest degradation There would be a just nemesis in this punishment of an adulterer (see 2Sa 12:11).

Job 31:11

For this is an heinous crime. The crime of adultery subverts the family relation, on which it has pleased God to erect the entire fabric of human society. Hence, in the Jewish Law, adultery was made a capital offence (Le Job 20:10; Deu 22:22), both in the woman and in the man. Among other nations the adulteress was commonly punished with death, but the adulterer escaped scot-free. In modern communities adultery is mostly regarded, not as a crime, but as a civil wrong, on account of which an action lies against the adulterer. It is an iniquity to be punished by the judges; literally, it is an iniquity of judges; i.e. one of which judges take cognizance.

Job 31:12

For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction; i.e. it is a thing which brings down the wrath of God upon a man, so that “a fire is kindled in his anger, which shall burn unto the lowest hell” (Deu 32:22). Compare the sentence on David for his great transgression (2Sa 12:9-12). And would root out all mine increase; i.e. “would destroy all my estate;” either by leading me to waste my substance upon my companion in sin, or by bringing down God’s judgments upon me to my temporal ruin.

Job 31:13

If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant. Job now disclaims a fourth sinthe oppression of his dependants. Eliphaz had taxed him generally with harshness and cruelty in his relations towards those weaker than himself (Job 22:5-9), but had not specially pointed to this kind of oppressiveness. As, however, this was the commonest form of the vice, Job deems it right to disclaim it, before addressing himself to the several charges brought by Eliphaz. He has not ill used his slaves, either male or female. He has not “despised their cause,” but given it full consideration and attention; he has heard them when they contended with him; he has allowed them to “contend;” he has been a just, and not a hard master. The slavery of which he speaks is evidently of a kind under which the slave had certain rights, as was the ease also under the Mosaic Law (Exo 21:2-11).

Job 31:14, Job 31:15

What then shall I do when God riseth up? Job regards God as the Avenger and Champion of all the oppressed. If he had been harsh and cruel to his dependants, he would have provoked God’s anger, and God would assuredly “rise up” one day to punish. What, then, could he (Job) do? What but submit in silence? When he visiteth, what shall I answer him? There could be no valid defence. The slave was still a man, a brotherGod’s creature, equally with his master. Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? God “hath made of one Mood all nations of men,” and all individual me, “to dwell on the face of the earth” (Act 17:26). All have rightsin a certain sense, equal rights. All are entitled to just treatment, to kind treatment, to merciful treatment. Job is before his age in recognizing the substantial equality of the slave with the freeman, which otherwise was scarcely taught by any until the promulgation of the gospel (see 1Ti 6:2; Phm 1:16).

Job 31:16

If I have withheld the poor from their desire. As Eliphaz had maintained (Job 22:6, Job 22:7), and as Job had already denied (Job 29:12, Job 29:16). The duty of relieving the poor, solemnly enjoined upon the people of Israel in the Law (Deu 15:7-11), was generally admitted by the civilized nations of antiquity. In Egypt it was especially insisted on. “The Egyptian’s duties to mankind,” says Dr. Birch, “were comprised in giving bread to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, clothes to the naked, oil to the wounded, and burial to the dead”. Or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail. “Thou hast sent widows away empty,” was one of the accusations of Eliphaz (Job 22:9). “I caused the widow’s heart,” replied Job, “to sing for joy” (Job 29:13). The widow’s weakness has always been felt to give her a special claim on man’s benevolence (see Exo 22:22; Deu 14:29; Deu 16:11, Deu 16:14; Deu 24:19; Deu 26:12, Deu 26:13; Psa 146:9; Pro 15:25; Isa 1:17; Jer 7:6; Mal 3:5; 1Ti 5:16; Jas 1:27).

Job 31:17

Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof. With the widow, the fatherless is usually conjoined, as an equal object of compassion (see Exo 22:22; Deu 10:18; Psa 68:5; Isa 1:17; Jer 22:3; Eze 22:7; Zec 7:10, etc.). Eliphaz had specially charged Job with oppression of the fatherless (Job 22:9), and his charge had been denied by Job (Job 29:12). He now claims to have always shared his bread with orphans, and made them partakers or his abundance.

Job 31:18

For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb; i.e. I have always, so long as I can remember, protected the orphan and done my best to help the widow. It has been my habit from my earliest years so to act. The language is exaggerated; but it had, no doubt, a basis of fact to rest upon. Job was brought up in these principles.

Job 31:19

If I have seen any perish for want of clothing (scrap. Job 22:6, where Eliphaz taxes Job with so acting; and, on the duty of clothing the naked, see Isa 58:7; Eze 18:7, Eze 18:16; Mat 25:36). Or any poor without covering. A pleonastic parallelism.

Job 31:20

If his loins have not blessed me (see above, Job 29:11, Job 29:13), and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep. Clothed, i.e; with a garment spun from wool yielded by my own sheep. A great sheikh like Job would keep in store many such garments, ready to be given to such as were naked or poorly clad, when they came under his observation (Isa 58:7).

Job 31:21

If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless; i.e. if I have in any way oppressed him. When I saw my help in the gate; i.e.. when I had the power to do sowhen I saw my friends and hangers-on mustered in force at the gate where causes were being tried. The wrong and robbery which the poor suffer in the East have always been camel, to a large extent, by failure of justice in the courts, where might, and not right, carries the day.

Job 31:22

Then let mine arm (rather, my shoulder) fall from my shoulder-blade. Job was, perhaps, led to make this rather strange imprecation by the fact that, in the disease from which he was suffering, portions of bone sometimes detach themselves and come away. And mine arm be broken from the bone. My forearm, i.e, detach itself from the bone of the upper arm, and come away from it.

Job 31:23

For destruction from God was a terror to me. I could not, i.e; have acted in the way charged against me by Eliphaz, since I was always God-fearing, and should have been deterred, if by nothing else, at any rate by dread of the Divine vengeance. And by reason of his highness I could not endure. God’s majesty and excellency are such that I could not have had the face to resist them. If! had begun such a course of life as Eliphaz laid to my charge (Job 22:5-9), I could not have persisted in it.

Job 31:24

If I have made gold my hope. This is a sin with which the patriarch had not been directly charged. But it had been more or less insinuated (see Job 15:28; Job 20:10, Job 20:15, Job 20:19; Job 22:24, etc.). He may also, perhaps, have felt some inclination to it. Or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence.

Job 31:25

If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much. Job feels that it is wrong even to care greatly for wealth. He seems almost to anticipate the saying of St. Paul, that “covetousness is idolatry” (Col 3:5); and hence he passes on without pause from this sort of creature-worship to others common in his day (verses 26, 27). which he likewise disclaims.

Job 31:26

If I beheld the sun when it shined; literally, the light; i.e. the great light, which God made to rule the day (Gen 1:16). Sun-worship, the least ignoble form of idolatry, was widely spread in the East, and in Egypt, from a very early date. According to the views of some, the religion el’ t e Egyptians was little else than a complicated sun-worship from its earliest inception to its very latest phase. “The religious notions of the Egyptians,” says Dr. Birch, “were chiefly connected with the worship of the sun, with whom at a later period all the principal deities were connected. As Hag, or Harmachis, he represented the youthful or rising sun; as Ra, the midday; and as Turn. the setting sun. According to Egyptian notions, that god floated in a boat through the sky or celestial ether, and descended to the dark regions of night, or Hades. Many deities attended on his passage or were connected with his worship, and the gods Amen and Khepr, who represented the invisible and self-produced god, were identified with the sun”. Even those who do not go these lengths admit that the solar worship was, at any rate, a very main element in the cult of Egypt. In the Babylonian and Assyrian religion the position of the sun-god was leas prominent, but still, as San, or Shamas, he held an important place, and was the main object of religious veneration to a largo body of worshippers. In the Vedic system the sun figured as Mitra, and in the Zoroastrian as Mithra, in both holding a high position. Among the Arabians the sun, worshipped as Orotal, is said to have been anciently the only god, though he was accompanied by a female principle named Alilat (Herod; 3.8). Or the moon walking in brightness. The worship of the moon has. in most countries where it has prevailed, been quite secondary and subordinate to that of the sun. In Egypt. while nine gods are more or less identified with the solar luminary, two only, Khons and Thoth, can be said to represent the moon. In the Vedic and Zoroastrian systems the moon, called Soma, or Hems, almost dropped out of the popular religion, at any rate as a moon-god. In the Arabiun, Alilat, a goddess, probably represented the moon, as did Ashtoreth, a goddess, in the Pheonician. In Assyria, however, and in Babylonia, moon-worship held a higher position, Sin, the moon-god, taking precedence over Shamas, the sun-god, and being a very much more important personage. Thus both moon-worship and sun-worship were prevalent among all, or almost all, Job’s neighbours.

Job 31:27

And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand. The sin of the heart is placed first, as the fens et origo mali, the spiritual root of the matter. On this naturally follows the outward act which, in the case of idolatry, was commonly the act exactly expressed by the word “adore”the movement of the hand to the mouth in token of reverence and honour.

Job 31:28

This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge (see the comment on Job 31:11, adfin.). It is rightly concluded from this expression that, in the country and age of Job, the sort of idolatry which is here mentioned was practised by some, and also that it was legally punishable. For I should have denied the God that is above. The worship of any other god besides the supreme God is, practically, atheism, since “no man can serve two masters.” Moreover, to set up two independent gods is to destroy the idea of God, which implies supremacy over every other being.

Job 31:29

If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me. “If at any time I was malevolent, if I wished evil to others, and rejoiced when evil came upon them, being (as the Greeks expressed it) if I so acted even in the case of my enemythen,” etc. The apodosis is wanting, but may be supplied by any suitable imprecation (see Job 31:8, Job 31:10, Job 31:22, Job 31:40). Or lifted up myselfi.e. was puffed up and exaltedwhen evil found him. In the old world men generally regarded themselves as fully entitled to exult at the downfall of an enemy, and to triumph over him with words of contumely and scorn (camp. Jdg 5:19-31; Psa 18:37-42; Isa 10:8-14, etc.). There appears to be but one other passage in the Old Testament, besides the present, in which the contrary disposition is shown. This is Pro 17:5, where the writer declares that “he who is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.”

Job 31:30

Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. Much less, Job means, have I gone beyond the thought to the word, and imprecated a curse upon him with my mouth, as the manner of most ,hen is towards their enemies (see 2Sa 16:5; 1Sa 17:43; Neh 13:25; Psa 109:28; Jer 15:10, etc).

Job 31:31

If the men of my tent said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied. A very obscure passage, but probably to be connected with the following verse, in which Job boasts of his hospitality. Translate, If the men of my tent did not say, Who can find a man that has not been satisfied with his meat? The apodosis is wanting, as in verse 28.

Job 31:32

The stranger did not lodge in the street; i.e. “I did not suffer any stranger who came under my notice to lodge in the street, but, like Abraham (Gen 18:2-8), went out to him, and invited him in, to partake of my hospitality.” This is still the practice of Arab sheikhs in Syria, Palestine, and the adjacent countries. But I opened my doors to the traveller; literally, to the way; i.e. “my house gave on the street, and I kept my house door open.” Compare the Mishna, “Let thy house be open to the street” (‘Pirke Aboth,’ 5).

Job 31:33

If I covered my transgressions as Adam; or, after the manner of men It does not seem to me likely that Job had such a knowledge of Adam’s conduct in the garden of Eden as would have made an allusion to it in this place natural or probable. The religious traditions of the Chaldees, which note the war in heaven, the Deluge, the building of the Tower of Babel, and the confusion of tongues, contain no mention of Adam or of Paradise. Nor. so far as I am aware, is there, among other ancient legends, any near parallel to the story of the Fall as related in Gen 4:1-26. Much less does the subordinate detail of Adam hiding himself make its appearance in any of them. The marginal rendering, “after the manner of men,” is therefore, I think, to be preferred. By hiding mine iniquity in my bosom. This is not particularly apposite to the case of Adam, who “hid himself from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden“ (Gen 4:8).

Job 31:34

Did I fear a great multitude! rather, because I feared the great multitude‘ or the great assembly; i.e. the gathering of the people in the gate on occasions of public business. It’ Job had been conscious of any great and heinous sins‘ he would not have led the open and public life which, previously to his calamities, he had always led (Job 29:7-10, Job 29:21-25); he would have been afraid to make his appearance at public meetings, lest his sins should have become known, and should draw upon him scorn and contempt, instead of the respect and acclamations to which he was accustomed. Or did the contempt of families terrify me? rather, and the contempt of families terrified me. The contempt of the assembled tribes and families, which might have been poured out upon him at such meetings, would have been quite sufficient to prevent his attending them. If by any accident he had found himself at one, and had seen that he was looked upon with disfavour, he must have kept silence in order to avoid observation. Prudence would have counselled that more complete abstention which is implied in the phrase, and went not out of the door; i.e. “stayed at home in mine own house.”

Job 31:35

Oh that one would hear me! i.e. Oh that I had an opportunity of plea, ling my cause before a just judge l of having charges openly brought against me, and having “one” to hear my reply to them! Job does not regard his “comforters” as such persons. They are prejudiced; they have even made themselves his accusers. Behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me; rather, behold‘ here is my signature I let the Almighty answer me. This passage is parenthetic. Job would prefer to be judged by God, if it were possible, and therefore throws out the wish. Here is his plea in ch. 29-31.; and here is his attestation by word of mouth, which is equivalent to his signature. And that mine adversary had written a book; or, had penned an indictment against me. Job would have matters brought to an issue. In default of a Divine trial and sentence, which he cannot expect, it would suffice tot him that his arraigner should formally draw out his list of charges, and present him with a copy, and so give him an opportunity of making answer to it. If this were done, then (he says)

Job 31:36

Surely I would take it upon my shoulderthe place of honour (see Isa 9:6; Isa 22:22)and bind it as a crown to me; i.e. adorn my head with it, as with a diadem.

Job 31:37

I would declare unto him the number of my steps; i.e. I would conceal nothing. I would willingly divulge every act of my life. I would make full and complete answer to the indictment in every particular. As a prince would I go near unto him. There should be no timidity or cringing on my part. I would face my accuser boldly, and bear myself as a prince in his presence.

Job 31:38-40

It is generally supposed that these verses, with the exception of the last clause of Job 31:40, are misplaced. As a termination, they form an anti-climax, and greatly weaken the peroration. Their proper place would seem to be between Job 31:32 and Job 31:33.

Job 31:38

If my land cry against me; i.e. if my land disclaim my ownership, as having been acquired by wrong or robbery. If the furrows likewise thereof complain; or, weep, as having been torn from their rightful proprietors, and seized by a stranger. The apodosis is in Job 31:40.

Job 31:39

If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money; i.e. without acquiring a title to them by purchase. Or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life. Either by actual violence or by depriving them of the means of support (see the comment on Job 29:13). Job had been accused of robbery and oppression both by Zophar (Job 20:12-19) and Eliphaz (Job 22:5-9). He had not, however, been accused of actual murder.

Job 31:40

Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockles instead of barley. Then let me be appropriately punished by finding the land, whereof I have wrongfully become possessed, produce nothing but thistles (or thorns) and noxious weeds, such as cockles (Authorized Version) or hemlock (Professor Lee). The words of Job are ended. This may be regarded either as Job’s own conclusion of his long speech, or as a remark of the author’s. On the whole, the former view is to be preferred.

HOMILETICS

Job 31:1-40

Job’s second parable: 4. A solemn protestation of innocence.

I. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF CHASTITY. (Verses 1-4.)

1. The wickedness he eschewed. Not alone the crime of seduction, or the actual defilement of virginal innocence, but even the indulgence of so much as a lascivious desire in connection with an unmarried female, was an ungodliness which Job regarded with abhorrence and indignation. Job’s morality on this point, as also upon some others, is a remarkable anticipation of the sermon on the mount, which forbids the unchaste look, the unclean imagination, the impure desire, as well as the lewd and incontinent act (Mat 5:28). Job’s interpretation of the Law of God is like St. Paul’s (Rom 7:14)the precepts of the Decalogue covered the entire realm of the inner no less than of the outer life.

2. The rule he observed. That he might the better guard against the uprise within his heart of any prurient desire or lustful imagination, Job “made a covenant with his eyes,” as their lord and master prescribed for them a law that they should not” fixedly gaze upon a maiden.” Considering bow much of evil enters by the eye (e.g. the cases of Eve, Gen 3:6; of the wife of Lot, Gen 19:26; of Achan, Jos 7:21), the wisdom of Job’s resolution cannot be questioned. In particular the eye has often proved itself “the inlet of lust” (Robinson), of according to a Talmudic proverb, “the procuress of sin;” as, for instance, it did with Judah (Gen 38:5), Samson (Jdg 16:1), David (2Sa 11:1-5), Amnon (2Sa 13:1-20). Few things are more dangerous to an unprincipled, or indeed a principled, mind, than the too ardent contemplation of female beauty, which, besides being a deceitful vanity in itself (Pro 31:30), is prone to inflame the heart with unlawful passions. Hence the propriety of the royal preacher’s counsel (Pro 6:25), the Hebrew psalmist’s prayer (Psa 119:37), and the Divine Saviour’s warning (Mat 18:9).

3. The motives he possessed. In thus habitually exercising self-restraint, gob was actuated by two considerations.

(1) Fear of the Divine power. “It was no fear of man, no dread of temporal consequences, no respect for public order and well-being, no pure and stately self-respect even, which made and kept him pure” (Cox). It was the calm, clear, deliberate conviction that such wickedness could hot escape the just and righteously allotted punishment of Eloah, and that sooner or later, if he should enter on such a course of impiety, he would find himself overwhelmed by some strange, startling, intolerable calamity; nay, that he should deserve to be so overwhelmed (verses 2, 3). Job was manifestly no milk-and-water moralist, like some of the nineteenth century, who regard fornication and seduction as indiscretions, and uncleanness generally as an infirmity rather than a sin. Instead of being leniently judged and softly scolded, if not lovingly caressed, as, alas] is too frequently his portion and inheritance from modern society, the violator of virgin innocence, in Job’s estimation, was a monster of iniquity, who deserved to be castigated by some horrible and degrading punishment, and who, he believed, would ultimately get his deservings. Nor was Job too spiritual, on the other hand, to admit that this formed one of the arguments which drove him to strict watchfulness over his heart and eyes. He was afraid of t he just judgment of Almighty God upon them that committed such appalling wickedness; and accordingly he acted on the principle of resisting its first beginnings. So St. Paul, knowing the terror of the Lord, persuaded men (2Co 5:11); and Christ counselled his apostles to fear him who could destroy both soul and body in hell (Luk 12:5). If not the highest motive for leading a chaste and virtuous life, it is still a sound and good one, and the only one by which many are capable of being impressed.

(2) Respect for the Divine omniscience. Job knew that, though it might be possible to elude the utmost vigilance of man, he could not evade him who beheld all his ways, and counted all his steps (verse 4). The Divine omniscience is not dependent on, but co-ordinate with, the Divine omnipresence. God’s minute and universal knowledge of mundane affairs, and in particular of all that enters into the complicated texture of a human life, frequently denied by the ungodly (Job 22:13), and sometimes forgotten by the pious (Isa 40:27), is emphatically asserted in Scripture (1Ki 8:39; Psa 11:4; Psa 139:1 4), and nowhere more so than in this book (Job 21:22; Job 23:10; Job 24:1, Job 24:23; Job 28:24; Job 34:21, Job 34:22, Job 34:25). Rightly viewed, it operates as a powerful deterrent from sin, not only by proving the certainty of detection, and therefore the impossibility of escaping punishment, but also by filling the mind with a constant sense of the Divine presence, forgetfulness of which is perhaps one of the most frequent causes of sin.

II. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF JUSTICE. (Verses 5-8.)

1. An explicit declaration. Hypothetical in form, Job’s language amounts to a vehement assertion that his life was as unimpeachable with regard to equity as with regard to chastity. With falsehood in every shape and guise he had lived at open war. With deceit and imposition in either word or deed he had had no dealings whatever. From the straight path of integrity he had never turned aside. Never once under the dominion of secret avarice had he suffered his heart to be beguiled into hankering alter his neighbour’s property, as Ahab coveted the vineyard of Naboth (1Ki 21:2). Not so much as a speck of defilement cleaved to his palm after any transaction in which he had been engaged. No living man could accuse him of underhand dealings or extortionate practices. So Samuel called his countrymen (1Sa 12:3), and St. Paul challenged the elders of Miletus (Act 20:33-35), to attest his personal integrity. So are Christ’s people exhorted to renounce the hidden things of dishonesty (2Co 4:2), to provide things honest in the sight of all men (2Co 8:21), and to carefully maintain a good conscience, in all things willing to live honestly (Heb 13:18).

2. A solemn invocation. So confident does Job feel that he has not swerved a hair’s breadth from the law of equity, that he does not hesitate to appeal to God, challenging Eloab, as few men besides would have done (Psa 130:3), to weigh him in an even balance, literally, in the scales of righteousness, when his integrity, or moral perfection, would become apparent. If Job meant this absolutely, it was presumption and self-righteousness; but the probability is he understood, by preferring such a claim, no more than God himself did when he declared Job to be perfect and upright; though the vehemence with which he asserted and protested his blamelessness insensibly obscured his vision of the truth which he at other times acknowledged, that in God’s sight no flesh living could be justified.

3. A dreadful imprecation. Not content with calmly submitting the question of his innocence to the severe and impartial arbitrament of Heaven, he invokes upon himself a curse of extreme severity. If by legal chicanery or violent extortion he has robbed another of his land, the commonest and most valuable sort of property, then he desires that he himself may be made the victim of a like oppression, that he may sow and another reap, and that his “things which spring up,” not his descendants or children, as elsewhere the word is employed (Job 5:25; Job 21:8; Job 27:14), but, as the parallelism demands, the produce of his ground, his harvest, may be rooted up. God’s punishments are often similar in kind to the offences they follow. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (Gal 6:7).

III. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF MARRIAGE. (Verses 9-12.) Different from the opening section, which treated of seduction, the present stanza alludes to the sin of adultery. In the former instance it is an unmarried virgin, in the latter it is a wedded wife, that is sinned against. The adulterous enterprise, which Job for himself disavows, is described in detail.

1. By its origin. It takes its rise in a bewitched or befooled heart. “Out of the heart proceed adulteries” (Mat 15:19). Therefore “keep the heart with all diligence” (Pro 4:23). This beguilement of the heart may be deliberately effected by the adulterous woman displaying her charms so as to fascinate her lover’s eye (Pro 7:10-21); or, as in the case of David, it may result from lascivious admiration of the married woman’s beauty.

2. By its practice. The adulterous lover, waiting for the twilight, disguiseth his face, and lieth in wait at his neighbour’s door, obviously a common crime in Job’s time (Job 24:15), as it afterwards was in David’s and Solomon’s (Psa 50:18; Pro 6:24-29; Pro 7:5-9), Jeremiah’s (Jer 5:8) and Ezekiel’s (Eze 18:6), Christ’s (Joh 8:3-9) and the apostles’ (1Co 6:9; 2Pe 2:10).

3. By its criminality. Job stigmatizes it as an act of infamy, and an iniquity to be brought before the judges (verse 11), meaning that, besides being a violation of the moral law (Exo 20:17), it is likewise an offence falling within the penal code of the land. Punished by death under Moses (Le Job 20:10; Deu 22:22), in patriarchal times it was visited by burning (Gen 38:24). Probably this was the penalty attached to it in the land of Uz (verse 12). Most heathen nations of antiquity pronounced it a capital offence.

4. By its demerit. The sinner who defiled his neighbour’s wife deserved to have the same sorrow meted out to himselfa thought euphemistically expressed in verse 10 (vide Exposition). So David’s sin against Uriah’s wile was punished by Absalom’s wickedness in lying with his father’s concubines (2Sa 16:22).

5. By its results. In addition to civil penalties and providential retributions, its ultimate issue is widespread sorrow, if not fatal ruin. Like a consuming fire, if persevered in, it has nothing but physical, moral, and eternal destruction for the perpetrator (Pro 6:32; Pro 7:23, Pro 7:26, Pro 7:27; 1Co 6:18; Heb 13:4; Rev 21:8). Even a solitary act is like the taking of a hot coal into one’s bosom (Pro 6:27-29). Not only does it demoralize the nature of him who commits it, but it spreads sorrow and desolation through the heart of her against whom it is committed. It breaks the peace of otherwise happy families. It awakens the demon of jealousy, even when it is not discovered. Detected or concealed, it is a secret fountain of death.

IV. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF MASTER AND SERVANT. (Verses 13-15.)

1. The case supposed. Job instances a state of matters that might readily have occurred in his household, viz. the existence of some ground of complaint against him, the master, on the part of his manservant or maidservant, i.e. his bondman or bondwoman. Such contendings and disputings between master and servant, which are not unusual in modern free society, were much more likely to arise in ancient times when servants were simply slaves.

2. The course pursued. In the event of any such charge or complaint being preferred against him, Job protests that he neither crushed it out by the strong hand of oppression nor tossed it aside with contemptuous indifference, but gave it the most kindly attention and the most patient, careful, and impartial examination. If his accusers proceeded to impeach him at a bar of justice, he did not deny them the right of public redress, as other masters might have done and as the Israelitish master was entitled by the Law to do. But counting them as persons, not as goods and chattels, he accorded to them equal rights in this matter with himself. Slavery in Job’s house, as also in Abraham’s, was a widely different thing from that practised in modern times.

3. The reasons allied.

(1) He was answerable to God for the treatment he accorded to his servants. He should tremble when God arose to judgment, arid be speechless when God came round as an Inspector, to examine into the controversy pending between him and his servants, unless he acted on the principles of strictest equity. That God will one day hold such a court of inquiry, in which masters and servants, rulers and ruled, will be judged, is announced in Scripture (Psa 96:13; Ecc 11:9; Act 17:31; 2Co 5:10). Hence masters are responsible for their treatment of servants (Col 4:1); and this thought should deter them, as it did Job, from inflicting upon those who serve, or are dependent upon them, either injustice or severity (Eph 6:9).

(2) His servants were possessed of the same human nature with himself. They had been fashioned by the same Divine power as himself. Both alike were God’s handiwork (Job 34:19; Psa 33:15), God’s creatures (Isa 45:12), God’s offspring (Mal 2:10; Act 17:29). Both had been produced by the same human agency. Both had been curiously and secretly elaborated in a woman’s womb (Psa 139:13). Both had been made of one blood (Act 17:26). Hence both belonged to a common brotherhood. Physically, intellectually, morally, the slave is the fellow of his master, having on the ground of a common humanity equal rights with that master in the light of God and before men. The language of Job is a powerful condemnation of the modern kind of slavery.

V. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF KINDNESS. (Verses 16-220.

1. The objects of Job‘s compassionate regard. The poor and the needy, the hungry and the naked, the fatherless and the widow. The care of such persons is a dictate of nature, which, however, is frequently powerless to enforce obedience to its own precepts. Among heathen nations generally the helpless and the destitute have been neglected and left to perish, if not openly oppressed and destroyed. Religion, however, both natural and revealed, prescribes kindness to the poor and needy as one of its essential virtues. The Mosaic code provided special legislation for the poor (Le Job 19:10, Job 19:13; Job 23:1-17 :22; Exo 23:11; Deu 15:7-11; Deu 14:28, Deu 14:29), for the widow (Exo 22:22; Deu 24:17; Deu 27:19), for the orphan (Exo 22:22; Deu 10:18; Deu 14:29). In the Hebrew Church these were the objects of God’s peculiar care (Psa 68:5; Psa 146:9; Jer 49:11; Mal 3:5). In the Christian Church they are regarded as Christ’s brethren (Mat 25:40). The care of them a special duty of the pious (Jas 1:27).

2. Job‘s habitual behaviour towards the poor and needy. Previously described (Job 29:11-17), it is here again set forth both negatively and positively.

(1) Negatively, by reciting the special acts of unkindness towards the poor which he was careful W avoid, such as

(a) withholding the poor from their desire (verse 16), it might be from the wages for which they had toiled or the aims which they had craved;

(b) causing the eyes of the widow to fail, by denying her assistance or refusing her redress against her powerful oppressor (Job 24:3);

(c) eating his morsel alone, “in misery and grudging seclusion,” lest the fatherless should see it and require to be invited to partake (verse 17);

(d) looking on with heartless unconcern while the naked shivered in their rags, and perished for want of clothes (verse 19);

(e) shaking the hand, i.e. using a threatening gesture towards the orphan who sued him in a court of justice, the moment he recognized the judges to be his friends (verse 21).

(2) Positively, by sketching the manner of life towards them which from his youth up he had pursued (verse 18), and which in large measure had become a second nature to him; according to which Job had been a father to the orphan and a son to the widow (verse 18), training up the one with paternal solicitude and comforting the other with filial devotion, while the bunny never failed to find a meal at his hospitable board (verse 17), or the naked to exchange their rags for the warmest fleeces of his sheep (verse 20), his own heart finding its truest joy and amplest reward in the happiness he conferred on others.

3. The Spirit that inspired Job in his charitable deeds. He was afraid of the Divine retribution, and he stood in awe of the Divine majesty. It was the fear, not of man, but of God, that deterred him; the apprehension, not of unpleasant consequences in time, if he acted otherwise, but of the all-devouring wrath of the Almighty in the future.

4. The proof that Job offered of his veracity in what he said. He invoked upon himself a curse if he had sinned in any of the ways above named, but more particularly if he had lifted up his hand against the orphan; he desired that his shoulder might fall from its shoulder-blade, and that his arm might be broken from its bone (verse 22).

VI. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF WORSHIP. (Verses 24-28.)

1. The twofold idolatry from which Job had abstained.

(1) Mammonism, or the worship of money. Formerly possessed of great wealth (Job 1:3; cf. Job 22:24), Job had carefully avoided those particular sins which great wealth is prone to foster.

(a) He had not allowed his confidence for time or for eternity to rest in the abundance of his gold. Probably money, in consequence of the seeming almightiness which belongs to it (Ecc 7:2; Ecc 10:19), is the most formidable rival God encounters in his demands upon the human heart (Mat 6:24), which almost universally betrays a disposition to trust in uncertain riches rather than in the living God (1Ti 6:17). But Job had never permitted his gold to usurp the throne el his affections, had never even esteemed it as the chief good, and certainly had not accorded it the homage due to the Supreme. The all-absorbing devotion of a human soul to the pursuit or possession of wealth is idolatry (Eph 5:5; Col 3:5), is incompatible with true piety (Mar 10:24; 1Jn 2:15), and should be carefully eschewed by all followers of Christ.

(b) He had not exultingly rejoiced in the greatness of his wealth. A person might stop short of actually reposing his heart’s trust in his money, and yet be guilty of excessive delight therein. But not even of the common sin of setting too high an estimate upon his gold and silver, of looking on with inward gratification at the growing pile of his material goods, was Job guilty. Having the Almighty as his gold and his silver of strength (Job 22:25), i.e. esteeming the Divine favour and fellowship as greater riches than any earthly treasures, it was impossible that the mere increase of material possessions could fill him with extravagant rejoicing. The most effectual way to prevent the soul from delighting in a creature is to teach it to delight in the Creator.

(c) He had not even arrogantly taken credit to himself for achieving his immense fortune. No doubt his personal industry and sagacity had contributed to the grand result (Pro 10:4; Pro 13:4), but he piously refrained from saying. “My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth” (Deu 8:17), probably remembering, as the Israelites were counselled to do (Deu 8:18), that it was the Divine blessing alone which enabled him to become rich (Pro 10:22).

(2) Sabaeism, or the worship of the heavenly bodies. “The eldest and also comparatively the purest form of heathenism” (Delitzsch), the adoration of the stars, prevailed amongst the Chaldeans in the time of Abraham, Uruk, one of the early monumental kings of Babylonia, having found, it at Ura temple of the moon, at Larsa a temple of the sun, and at Erech a temple of Venus, called Bitanna, or the house of heaven. It was practised by the ancient Arabians, who “adored the sun and the moon as Divine,” ancient testimonies being witness. It was diffused throughout Syria in the time of Moses, so that the Israelites, prior to their occupation of Canaan, were specially warned against it (Deu 4:19). Nevertheless, under the monarchy, Israel frequently relapsed into this abomination (2Ki 23:5, 2Ki 23:11). In later Babylonia it was rampant (Eze 8:16), as again the monuments attest, Nebuchadnezzar having erected in the centre el Babylon “a great temple of Ninharissi (wife of the sun),” “to the moon-god a large house of alabaster as his temple,” and “to the sun a house of cement and brick”. The customary method of paying homage to these stellar deities was by kissing the hand to them (1Ki 19:18; Heb 13:2), which, it may be noticed, is the literal import of the English verb” to, adore.” The early and widespread diffusion of this particular form of idolatry affords a striking testimony to man’s need of a God outside of himself. Perhaps also, in the absence of revelation, it is not surprising that the human heart, impressed with the brilliance of the sun, the great light, shining in meridian splendour, and the exceeding beauty of the moon, the solemn and majestic night-wanderer, should ascribe to them supernatural Power and dignity. Yet man’s position at the crown and summit of creation renders all devotion offered to the creatures not only sinful, but absurd. From such impiety Job declared that he had kept himself free.

2. The twofold argument by which Job had been deterred. Had Job been addicted to either of the above specified forms of idolatry, he would have been guilty

(1) of a punishable crime. Probably Job means that in his day sun-worship was an offence against the statute law of the land (vide on verse 11), as under the Mosaic code in Israel it could be expiated only by death (Deu 17:2-7); but possibly the phrase, “an iniquity for judges.” may only signify a transgression deserving to be punished, in which case it will hold good of both forms of idolatry. Job shrank from making a god to himself out of either the gold and silver which he possessed, or the celestial luminaries which he beheld, because of the penal consequences to which he knew such a misdeed would lead. And also because he felt that he would be guilty

(2) of a detestable hypocrisy in professing to worship God while secretly he was adoring the sun and kissing hands to the moon. A noble testimony to Job’s spirituality of mind and sincerity of heart! He could easily have offered homage to the host of heaven without exposing himself to observation by his fellows; or if, wanting courage to risk detection, he had refrained from outward gestures of devotion, he might have inwardly with his heart acknowledged their supremacy. But Job understood that God could read the heart as well as interpret the outward act, and that only that was acceptable worship which was inwardly sincere as well as outwardly correct. Here, again, the doctrine of the sermon on the mount (Mat 6:6) and of the New Testament generally (Joh 4:23, Joh 4:24) has been marvellously anticipated.

VII. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF LOVE. (Verses 29, 30.) Job declares his manner of life in dealing with his enemies.

1. Their treatment of him. They hated him. Their enmity was in all likelihood excited and fostered by his piety. Good men seldom pass through the world without meeting adversaries and opponents. David did not (Psa 38:19, Psa 38:20). St. Paul did not (1Co 16:9). Even Christ did not (Joh 15:18). Neither can Christ’s followers expect to live without molestation (Joh 15:20). They that will live godly shall suffer persecution (2Ti 3:12).

2. His treatment of them. Not only did he not rejoice in their destruction when evil fortune overtook them (verse 29), but he was conscious of never having wished that such evil fortune should overtake them (verse 30). To exult in the downfall of an enemy, if natural to the sinful heart, is yet heathenish, fiendish, diabolic (Mic 7:8); it was sorely punished in the case of Edom when she rejoiced over Judah (Oba 1:12, Oba 1:13); it is explicitly condemned in the Old Testament (Pro 24:17, Pro 24:18); and is directly antagonistic to the spirit of the Mosaic Law (Exo 23:4; Le Exo 19:18), and much more to that of Christ’s gospel (Mat 19:19; Rom 13:9; Gal 5:14; Jas 3:8), which enjoins not only a negative abstinence from wishing harm to one’s enemies, the virtue which Job claimed (verse 30), but the positive bestowment on them of acts of kindness (Mat 5:44; Rom 12:20), which also we may be sure Job practised. Job’s doctrine is here again a striking approximation towards the teaching of Christ, and Job’s conduct a lofty exhibition of the spirit of Christianity, which will only shine out with brighter lustre if the reading (verse 31) be adopted which supposes Job was urged by the men of his tabernacle to avenge himself upon his adversary.

VIII. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF HOSPITALITY. (Verses 31, 32.) This also Job maintained he had observed:

1. With conspicuous publicity. So open-handed had been his beneficence that with triumphant confidence he appealed to the members of his vast household to give witness in his behalf. They could testify, he was certain, that they had never seen a poor man depart unsatisfied from his mansion gate, but rather that they had every day beheld the contrary. So Job allowed his light to shine before men.

2. With unrestricted liberality. So lavish had been his hospitality that his domestics could fairly askWhere was the man whom their master had not sumptuously entertained? His table had stood open for all comersfor friends and relatives, as a matter of course, but also for strangers and travellers of every sort and degree. So did Abraham and Lot invite travellers and strangers to their tents (Gen 18:1-4; Gen 19:1); so are Christians exhorted to be gives to hospitality (Rom 12:13; Heb 13:2).

3. With unstinted generosity. Not simply had he practised hospitality, but he had done so with no niggard band. The stranger he had welcomed to a lodging in his house. To the hungry traveller by the way he had extended, not a crust of bread merely, but a full meal, yea, a rich feast. So are Christians commanded to use hospitality without grudging (1Pe 4:9).

IX. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF SINCERITY. (Verses 33-37.) The Language may be understood as conveying:

1. An important admission. Job’s use of the phrase, “my transgressions,” is by some (Canon Cook) regarded as tantamount to an acknowledgment that, notwithstanding his blameless character and life, he was not free from sina statement which was certainly correct in itself, since “there is not a just man on earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not” (Ecc 7:20), and hopeful as an indication of the mind of Job, inasmuch as it proved he was not depending on his virtues for salvation, as well as comforting for those who should afterwards peruse the story of his life, and who but for this recognition of the fact of sin might be prone to think that Job’s morality was beyond their reach. Still, it is open to grave question whether Job really intended to make this admission, or whether he did not rather design to convey an opposite idea, viz. that, as he had perpetrated no open crime, so neither was he hiding any secret wickedness. In either case his words contain:

2. An emphatic protestation. He was not attempting, and never had attempted, to play the hypocrite by either denying his guiltiness in general, or concealing his wicked acts in particular. In all he had said to them about the manner of his life, as in all the approaches he had ever made to God, he had acted with transparent sincerity. There was no secret stain upon his soul which he had not confessed to God; there was no undivulged crime which he feared to make known to man. Pre-eminently Job claimed to be one in whose spirit there was no guile (Psa 32:2). Job’s accents contain a ring of defiance, which seems to ask whether he was likely to be afraid of either the hootings of the mob or the contempt of the aristocratic families of the land, that he required to skulk within doors, and keep silent about anything that he had ever done. Doubtless Job was universally recognized as a man of courage; and, because it was so, he could appeal to that in proof of his sincerity. But beyond this his utterance, if really intended, exhibits:

3. An instructive comparison. The contrast which Job institutes between himself and Adam, if the translation of the Authorized Version be followed, is a valuable authentication of the biblical tradition of the Fall. It proves that the writer of the Book of Job, to whatever age he belonged, accepted the story in Genesis concerning Adam as historically correct. By putting the name Adam into the mouth of one who flourished in pre-Mosaic times, it also demonstrates that, in the judgment of the author at least, the contents of the Hebrew narrative were credited beyond the bounds of Palestine at a time when the First Book of Moses was probably not yet composed. And now, having strenuously asserted that he was guilty of no concealment, he adds, in authentication of his truthfulness:

4. A personal subscription. “Behold my signature!” he exclaims, alluding to the practice in ancient courts of law of submitting a defence in writing, attested by the signature or mark of the accused party, and meaning that, so far as he was concerned, so confident did he feel in his own integrity, and so well prepared was he to reply to any indictment that might be brought against him, that he was willing to see the case go to trial without delay. Nay, having tendered his defences, he closes with a shout of triumph, throwing out as his ultimatum:

5. A sublime proclamation, in which he challenges his unseen adversary, God (Job 9:15; Job 16:9), to draw up an indictment against him (Carey, Cox), or, according to another interpretation (Delitzsch), in which he draws attention to the already prepared indictment of his opponents, viz. the three friends. In either case he offers, if only God will allow the matter to go to trial, not to shrink from the ordeal of examination, but binding the indictment (God’s or what of the friends) on his shoulder as a badge of distinction, “winding it around his head like a magnificent crown of diadems, (Delitzsch), to approach God with all the princely majesty of one who is conscious of innocence, and to lay bare before his searching gaze, with the most assured confidence of ultimate vindication, every step in his by-past career.

X. WITH RESPECT TO THE LAW OF PROPERTY, (Verses 38-40.)

1. The crime which Job disowns. The fraudulent appropriation of land, by either withholding the stipulated rent or murdering the legal proprietor, was apparently not unknown in the days of the patriarch, as, alas I in our time it is both known and practised. But of any such iniquity Job’s hands were clear. For every rood of soil he cultivated be had honestly paid the market price; and, of course, he had never dreamt of killing his landlord to get his farm, as Jezebel despatched Naboth to secure his vineyard.

2. The curse which Job invokes. Had Job been guilty of any such wickedness, not only would his fields have cried out against him, and the furrows which he ploughed have wept over his ungodliness, but he would have richly deserved that Heaven’s blight should descend upon his acres; and such a blight he prays to descend upon his broad domain if he has been guilty of any such wickedness as that which he has just disowned. “May thistles spring up instead of wheat, and darnel instead of barley!”

Learn:

1. That the Law of God, i.e. the moral Law, or the law of holiness, has been the same from the beginning of the world until now.

2. That the spirituality of the Law el God is only concealed from them who make no attempt to keep it.

3. That the Law of God takes cognizance of man in every department of his being and every sphere of his life.

4. That the Law of God is as certain and severe in its penalties as it is stern and imperative in its requirements.

5. That the Law of God is the one absolute and invariable rule of life for men under the Christian as well as under the Mosaic or patriarchal dispensation, for the pardoned believer no less than for the unconverted sinner.

6. That the true gauge of a soul’s piety is the earnestness with which it endeavours to keep the Law of God in all its precepts.

7. That the loftiest incentive to such a keeping of the Law of God is a reverential regard for the Lawmaker, especially as he is seen in Christ.

8. That no mere man is able to keep the Law of God perfectly, even Job’s performances being not altogether unmixed with sin.

9. That the most dangerous thing a man can do with his transgressions of the Law of God is to cover them.

10. That that man is grossly deceived who imagines God could not indict him for violations of his Law, because he (the man) cannot indict himself.

11. That those who are advancing in holiness, or sincere keeping of the Law of God, should guard against being either too proud of, or too reliant on, their own attainments.

12. That the loftiest morality attainable on earth will not enable man to dispense with the services of a Daysman or Mediator.

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON

Job 31:1-40

Solemn assurances of innocence.

Job can discover no connection between his present sufferings and those well-founded hopes of his former life to which he has been referring; but there remains the assumption of his guilt as an explanation. In his intense longing for redemption he is led, in conclusion, to affirm in the most solemn and sacred manner his innocence, invoking the sorest punishments upon himself if his words are untrue. Thus, in effect, he makes a final appeal to God as his Judge. In this solemn assurance of innocence, he begins with that which is the root and source of sinevil lust; he then touches on the sins proceeding from it, and explains the rule of life and the disposition of heart which rendered him incapable of the commission of such sins.

I. LUST RESISTED: THE HEART GIVEN TO VIRTUE. (Verses 1-4.)

1. He had governed the eye and restrained its lust. He had guarded that noble organ, which may be either the avenue of purest pleasures or the tempter to most shameful vice. He had prescribed to the eye its conduct and its law. The eye seems almost as much the receptacle and scat of our passions, appetites, and inclinations as the mind itself; at least it is the outward portal to introduce them to the mind within, or rather the common thoroughfare to let our affections pass in and out. Love, anger, pride, avarice, all visibly move in those little orbs (Addison). It is not enough to watch over the heart, the inner citadel of the man, but all its avenuesthe eye, the ear, the hand, the footmust be guarded against the approach of sin.

2. He had referred himself in this to the judgment and the all-seeing eye of God (compare Joseph, Gen 39:9; and Psa 139:2, sqq.). The thought of men’s knowledge is often a more powerful deterrent from actual crime; it is the thought of God which alone can sanctify and keep in safety the heart. Job rises above the mere commandments of the Law. Law forbids the desire of others’ goods (Exo 20:17; Deu 5:21)a negative virtue; Christ carries us directly to God, and bids us be pure in heart that we may behold him. To live consciously in the eye of God is to have a pure and right direction for our own.

II. FIRST PROTESTATION: EVIL DESIRES HAVE NOT BEEN YIELDED TO. (Verses 5-8.) He did not “go about with falsehood,” nor did his foot hasten to deceit. May God, he says, pausing, weigh him in a just balance, and, instead of being found wanting like Belshazzar (Dan 5:27), may his integrity be known and proved! Among the Greeks, Themis, or Dike, held the scales symbolical of judgment; the Arabs speak of judgment as the “balance of works.” Every man’s work, every man’s character, shall finally be tried, proved, made known; and many that are last shall be first, and the first last. His steps had not turned out of the right way, the way marked out and appointed by God; no stain of ill-gotten wealth had cleaved to his hands (Psa 101:5; Deu 13:17). Another imprecation, ratifying his assurances of innocence: “Then let me sow, and let another eat”let another enjoy the fruit of his ill-spent, dishonest toil (comp. Job 27:16, Job 27:17; Le 26:16; Deu 28:33; Amo 5:11); and let his shootsthe plants of the earth which he has setbe rooted out!

III. His PURE AND RIGHT CONDUCT IN DOMESTIC LIFE. (Verses 9-15.)

1. His chastity. (Verses 9-12.) He had not been befooled into any gross sin against the marriage-tie. He expresses the utmost detestation of such sin. “It would be a crime, and a sin before the judges.” It would be as a devouring fire, resting not in its course until it had brought the criminal to the pit of hell, and all his property had been rooted out (comp. Pro 6:27, et sqq.; Pro 7:26, Pro 7:27; Jas 3:6).

2. His conduct towards his domestic slaves. He had not abused the rights of his menservants or maidservants. His relation to them was patriarchal, like that of Abraham to Eliezer of Damascus (Gen 15:2; Gen 24:2, et seq.). He felt that he and they, masters and slaves, were of one blood, the children of one Father, offspring of one Creator; how could he, were he guilty of sin against them, face the dread tribunal of God? “Have we not all one Father? Hath not one God created us?” (Mal 2:10). Refer to St. Paul’s exhortation to masters (Eph 6:9). The relations of masters and servants, employers and employed, have undergone vast changes since those ancient days. We all live under the equal protection of the laws of the land, and the general spirit of the law is to protect the weaker against the stronger, the poor against the encroachment of the rich. But in Christianity this relation receives a new meaning and sanctity by being brought under the great central relation in which we stand to Christ. And we have a beautiful example of the Christian treatment of the servant in St. Paul’s Epistle to Philemon. To set our servants good examples, and to care for their moral and spiritual welfare, is the duty of a Christian master or mistress.

IV. HIS JUST AND COMPASSIONATE CONDUCT IN SOCIAL LIFE. (Phm 1:16-23; comp. Job 29:12-17.) He did not refuse his interiors their wishes when it was in his power to gratify them; did not withhold what he had the ability to give, nor shut up his compassions towards his poor brother; did not leave the widow to languish in longing expectation of help. He had not eaten alone in solitary greed a rich repast, like Dives; he had shared his bread with the orphan. All his life long he had been a father to the fatherless, a support to the widow, thus seeking to follow and imitate the all-compassionate God; to reproduce his heavenly pity in a gentle life on earth Psa 68:5) He had clothed the neglected and the poor, and earned their thanks and blessing. In his capacity as ruler and judge he had not lifted up his hand with the purpose of violence; he had not perverted his great influence in the gate, or place of justice, to do them wrong. Forced to self-defence, he sets the seal of a most solemn imprecation upon his testimony concerning the past. And, further, he again sets forth the deep religious ground on which all his conduct to his neighbours was built. It was the fear of God, which is the beginning of all piety, the root of all morality, the great deterrent from sin. It was, therefore, morally impossible for him to have committed the sins laid to his charge (Psa 68:28).. Here from the ancient patriarchal world shines out upon us a picture of those social virtues which are essentially the same in every age and every land. These are the primal duties which gleam aloft like stars, or adorn the earth like flowers. Our duties to our inferiors in wealth and status are an essential part of Christian piety. We are to do good when we can hope for nothing again. The poor cannot recompense us, but we shall be recompensed at the resurrection of the just (Luk 14:14; Mat 25:36). Much converse with the weak and the lowly produces simplicity of heart, and chastens our feverish ambition to shine among our equals or superiors.

“Far other aims our hearts will learn to prize,
More bent to raise the wretched than to rise.”

Compare the whole picture of the village pastor in Goldsmith’s ‘ Deserted Village.’ The contemplation of these pictures, in the poet’s description or in actual life, sweetens the heart, calms our thoughts; above all, we are thus led to dwell with still more delight on the sacred picture of him who went about doing good, the Divine Type of all compassion and condescension.

V. JOB‘S INWARD LIFE: THE FINER CONSCIENTIOUSNESS. (Psa 68:24 -40.) He proceeds to mention several sins of a more depraved and base character, defending himself against the charge of complicity with them.

1. The lust of gold. (Psa 68:24, Psa 68:25.) He had not put his trust in riches. The deadliness of the sin of covetousness has been among the lessons of all moralists, sacred and profane. The “accursed hunger for gold,” the “root of all evil;” “Thy money perish with thee;” “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee;” “Take heed, and beware of covetousness;” are sayings that occur to us all. This is really the most fruitful source of all the darker crimes and sins, because there is no passion so unsocial, so anti-social. Men lose their souls to save their pelf. “Covetousness is the alpha and omega of the devil’s alphabet; the first vice in corrupt nature which moves, and the last which dies.” It is an “immoderate desire and pursuit of even the lawful helps and supports of nature.” “Holding fast all it can get in one hand, and reaching at all it can desire with the other.” “It has enriched its thousands, and damned its ten thousands.”

2. Idolatry and blind worship of power. (Psa 68:26, et seq.) As he had kept his heart with all diligence in presence of the temptations of gold, so he had watched against the inducements of false religion. In presence of the glorious objects of nature, the worship of which so extensively prevailed in the East, and at one period probably over the whole world, he had refrained from throwing towards them the kiss which was the gesture of reverence. For his heart had been touched with true reverence for its alone worthy Object, the God who is a Spirit; and to have declined to these beggarly elements would have been a crime against conscience, a practical infidelity, a denial of the God above. If we have ever been taught and trained in a spiritual faith, we cannot lapse into mere formalisma confusion of the external symbol with the living realitywithout a denial of our spiritual conscience, a turning of the light within us into darkness. To bow before the mere power and beauty revealed in nature, ignoring God as the Author both of nature and of the moral law: or to make worship a mere sensuous enjoyment rather than a spiritual exercise; are subtle temptations of our time analogous to those of Job. Our view of Nature is only religious when we seek through her sensuous medium for the supersensuous, the moral, the Divine (compare Mozley’s noble sermon on “Nature”).

3. Hatred of enemies. (Verse 29, et seq.) He had lived in the light of a most lofty morality. The general principle of ancient morality was, “Love thy neighbour and hate thine enemy,” among both Jews and Gentiles. “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” was the maxim of the savage justice of the early times. Even the great Aristotle says, in his ‘Ethics,’ “They who are not enraged when they ought to be, seem to be weak creatures; to endure insults and neglect one’s friends is the part of a slave” (‘Eth. Nic.,’ 4.5). “The first duty of justice,” says Cicero, “is to injure no one, unless provoked by a wrong“ (‘Off.,’ 1.7). Let us contrast with this the gentle morality of Heaven. The Law of Moses ordained that if a man should meet his enemy’s ass or his ox going astray, he should surely bring it back to him again (Exo 23:4). Men were not to avenge, nor bear any grudge against others, but to love their neighbours as themselves (Le Job 19:18). Especially do we find this doctrine preached in the Book of Proverbs, “Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the Lord, and he will save thee” (Le Pro 20:22); “Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thy heart be glad when he stumbleth” (Le Pro 24:17); “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink” (Le Pro 25:21). Job had not defiled his mouth with curses imprecating death upon his foes. Nor had his morality been negative merely, which is all that many seem able to conceive of one’s duties to one’s neighbours. He had been hospitable and generous (verses 31, 32). The “people of his tent,” the inmates of his dwelling, had never to complain of scant fare, of short commons, at his table. He did not leave the stranger to pass the night in the street, but opened his doors to the wanderer.

“No surly porter stood in guilty state,
To spurn imploring famine from the gate .
His house was known to all the vagrant train
He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain.”

Compare the stories of Abraham’s hospitality at Mature. Lot’s at Sodom, of the old man at Giheah (Gen 18:1-33. [Heb 13:2]; Jdg 19:15, et seq.). Among peoples who led an unsettled, wandering life, hospitality necessarily became one of the foremost of duties to one’s neighbour; and there are many Arab popular anecdotes of Divine punishment of the inhospitable. Wetstein says that while exploring the lake Ram, the fountain of the Jordan, the Bedouins asked him if he had not heard of the origin of the lake; and related that many centuries ago a flourishing village once stood there. One evening a poor traveller came while the men were sitting together in the open place of the village, and begged for a supper and lodging. They refused; and when he said he was starving, an old woman reached out to him a clod of earth, and drove him from the village. The man went to the village of Nimra hard by, where he was taken in. The next morning a lake was found where the neighbouring village had stood. The conditions of modern life are different. The place of hospitality in the scale of social duties is changed. But for all who have enough and to spare of this world’s goods, there remains open a wide field of Christian beneficence and of refined culture in the practice of a sincere and discriminating hospitality. The model lesson on this subject is in Luk 14:1-35. It is a deep lesson that no man is poorer for all the expense of love. It is the habit of needless hoarding that empties the heart. When the affections are centred on the granary, or the counting-house, or the bank, or the fields, the man’s wealth is imaginary, not real. Real wealth lies in the power of self-sufficiency for our outward condition, and of having something over for others. “Use hospitality without grudging;” “God loveth a cheerful giver.” “The world teaches me that it is madness to leave what I may carry with me; Christianity teaches me that what I charitably give while I live I may carry with me after death; experience teaches me that what I leave behind I lose. I will carry with me by giving away that treasure which the worldling loses by keeping; and thus, while his corpse shall carry nothing but a winding-sheet to his grave, I shall be richer underground than I was above it” (Bishop Hall).

4. Hypocrisy and concealment of sins. (Luk 14:33 -40.) The way of man (or of “Adam”) is to hide guilt, and bear a hypocritical front. The motive of such concealment is suggested in Luk 14:34the fear of the great multitude, or of the nobler families who were one’s equals and associates. So may a guilty conscience lay a weight upon the tongue; as in Plutarch’s story of Demosthenes, who, having taken a bribe, refused to speak in the assembly, appearing there with his throat muffled up, and complaining of a quinsy; whereupon one cried out,” He is not suffering from a throat-quinsy but from a money-quinsy.” “Garments once rent are liable to be torn on every nail and every brier, and glasses once cracked are soon broken; such is a good man’s name, once tainted with just reproach. Next to the approbation of God, and the testimony of my own conscience, I will seek for a good reputation among men; not by concealing faults lest they should be known to my shame, but by avoiding all sins that I may not deserve it. It is difficult to do good, unless we be reputed good” (Bishop Hall).

5. Renewed protestations. Would that he had one to hear this his assurance of innocence! He is thinking of God, and he desires his judicial interference in his favour. “Behold, there is my handwriting; let the Almighty answer me.” As if he should say, “Here is the original of my justification, with my signature attached. This is my documentary defence; let the Almighty try it, and let his judgment be given” On the other hand, would that he had the accusation, the statement as it were of the prosecution against him (Luk 14:35). He here thinks of God as his Accuser, and longs to know what he has against him! Had he this document, he would bearit like a mark of honour upon his shoulder (for the idea, comp. Isa 9:4; Isa 22:22), or like a diadem for his head. Such is the triumphant consciousness of innocence. He would declare to God the number of his stepswould conceal nothing, but confess all to him. He would approach him like a prince, with stately step and unabashed port, as becomes one whose conscience is clear (verse 37). Lastly, by some additional light of memory now flashing on his mind at the close of his protestation, he gives a special example of his freedom from the guilt of blood. His had been no life containing deeds like that of Ahab to Naboth (1Ki 21:1). No such fearful crime was the cause of his sufferings. “If my land cries against me “for revenge, because of some crime against a former possessor”and its furrows weep; if I have wasted its power, its fruit and produce, without payment, and blasted the life of its possessor,” by violence, “instead of wheat let thorns spring forth, and instead of barley stinking weeds.” That consciousness of God’s omniscience, which strikes terror into the secret sinner, is a comfort to the heart of the sincere child of God. The daybreak frightens the robber, but cheers the honest traveller. Thou that art sincere, God sees that sincerity in thee which others cannot discern; yea, he often sees more sincerity in thy heart than thou caner discern thyself, This may uphold the drooping spirits of a disconsolate soul when the black mouths of men, steeled with ignorance and prejudice, shall be opened in hard speeches against him. How severely, though blindly, do they judge of men’s hearts! But here the sincere soul may comfort itself when on the one hand it can reflect upon its own integrity, and on the other upon God’s infinite infallible knowledge, and say, “Indeed, men charge me with this and this, as false-hearted and a hypocrite, but my God knows otherwise” As Daniel, by trusting in God, was secure from the mouths of the lions, so thou, by having faith in and drawing comfort from God’s omniscience, mayest defy the more cruel mouths of thy persecutors. When a man is accused of treason to his prince, and knows that his prince is fully assured of his innocence, he will laugh all such accusations to scorn. It is thus with God and a sincere heart. In the midst of all slanders he will own thee for innocent, as he did Job, when his friends, with much specious piety, charged him with hypocrisy. Wherefore commit thy way to the all-seeing Godto that God who is acquainted with all thy ways; who sees thy goings out and thy comings in, and continually goes in and out before thee, and will one day testify and set his seal to thine integrity. Comfort thyself in the consideration of his omniscience, from whence it is that God judgeth not as man judgeth, but judgeth righteous judgment; and hold fast thy integrity that lies secret in the heart, whose praise is of God, and not of man (South).J.

HOMILIES BY R. GREEN

Job 31:1-40

The consciousness of integrity.

The Divine solution of the riddle of human life is being wrought out in this poem, although at times it seems as though the entanglement became more and more confused. The case, as put in these three chapters, is the condensation of all as far as it has gone. It still awaits the solution. Job was in riches, dignity, and honour; he is now cast down to ignominy and suffering. Yet he is righteousthis, at least, is his own conviction; and in this chapter he makes his appeal to the facts of his history and invites scrutiny, and judgment if he be found guilty. This is the progress of the writing up to the present moment. His companions are baffled. They know of no other explanation of such suffering than deep and hidden sin. It will yet be proved that the godly suffer”he whom thou lovest is sick”although the world will long wait for a verbal explanation; and even now does the cry never ascend to heaven, “Wherefore dealest thou thus with me?” Job’s appeal to the uprightness of his life and to his perfect integrity relates to the whole of his conduct, and to the various conditions in which he has been placed. The outward Divine testimony, he is “a perfect and an uptight man,” has its echo in Job’s breast. Hence he makes his appeal

I. TO HIS CHASTITY. He makes his appeal in the sight of the all-searching Oneto him who seeth “my ways” and counteth “all my steps.”

II. TO HIS TRUTHFULNESS AND JUSTNESS.

III. TO HIS PURITY OF CONDUCT.

IV. TO HIS FIDELITY.

V. TO HIS EVEN–HANDED JUSTICE.

VI. TO HIS UNFLINCHING RECTITUDE.

VII. TO HIS CHARITY AND COMPASSION.

VIII. TO HIS FREEDOM FROM UNDUE CONFIDENCE IN HIS WEALTH.

IX. TO HIS FREEDOM FROM IDOLATRY.

X. TO HIS FREEDOM FROM HATRED AND HARSH TREATMENT, EVEN OF HIS ENEMIES

XI. TO HIS KINDNESS AND HOSPITALITY.

XII. TO HIS EXEMPTION FROM COVERT OR OPEN SIN. He hid no iniquity in his bosom, and therefore feared not the presence of men. Hypocrisy was not his failing. He makes his final appeal to his honesty and uprightness of dealing even by a reference to his fidelity to the very fields which he owned. Well might such a man long for a true judgmentfor an open ear into which he could pour his complaint. Well may such a man commit himself to Jehovah’s judgment, knowing “the Almighty will answer for me.” Thus does Job vindicate his integrity and make his appeal to the highest tribunal.R.G.

HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY

Job 31:4

God’s watchfulness.

I. ITS CONCENTRATION ON CONDUCT. God sees Job’s ways. He is not confined to the observation of external deeds, for he reads the hearts of men and he judges by the course of the inner life. Still, it is by a man’s actions, including the internal actions, that God judges a man. What is of most concern to our great Master is how we exercise our will, what way we choose to walk in, how we shape our daily conduct. He cares little for our opinions and emotions, except in so far as these guide and influence our behaviour. If, then, God values conduct chiefly, conduct should be of primary importance with us. Whatever other things we may be anxious about, our first anxiety should be to see that our ways are right.

II. ITS ABSOLUTE THOROUGHNESS. Job speaks of God as counting all his steps. Therefore God takes note of every one of them. No false step can escape his notice. The little slip is not unseen by God. He sees us stumble when we do not fall, and observes how we stray for a brief time, even though we afterwards return to the right path. This truth has an encouraging side to it. God knows how many steps we have taken; therefore if the way is long and weary he has not forgotten us, and he can Rive us rest and strength. He knows how many steps we have yet to take; therefore he will give us a sufficient supply of grace, whether the road be long or short, and he will not expect more of us than the length or brevity of life permits.

III. ITS PROMPTING MOTIVE. God does not watch as a spy, like Satan when he was eager to detect some weakness in Job in order to inform against him (Job 1:7-10); nor with any design of ruining, like Satan who now goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour (1Pe 5:8); nor with cold curiosity, amusing himself with the frailties of his children; nor with merely judicial insight, seeking for truth and dealing fairly, but with no sympathy or interest in his creatures. God watches with the most profound interestwith the interest of love. His watchfulness is like that of the mother who bends over the cradle, carefully noting every changing symptom in her ailing child.

IV. ITS ULTIMATE RESULTS. God does not watch for nothing. He is more than an inspector; he acts according to what he sees, and his watching is followed by his doing.

1. Sin cannot go unpunished. There is no eluding the eye of the great Watcher of men. The foolish notion that secrecy may find a door of escape is only a delusion when we have to deal with one who knows everything, to whom all secrets are open.

2. Need cannot suffer from neglect. The poor and suffering are forgotten among men, and miserable people drop out of sight after they have fallen into adversity, for great cities hide multitudes of unknown and solitary sufferers. Yet God counts every painful step in the path of disappointment, and as he knows all he will assuredly give the needful help. Because he saw the condition of men he provided for their recovery by redemption through the gift of his Son,W.F.A.

Job 31:6

An even balance.

Job only desires to be weighed in an even balance. He feels that his friends have judged him in anything but a fair manner, and he now craves for the true justice of God.

I. THE JUSTICE OF AN EVEN BALANCE IS GREATLY TO BE DESIRED. People have taken a very narrow view of justice, so narrow a view as to be practically false and most fallacious. Justice has been regarded as the power that punishes sin, and while, of course, this is true, this is not a description of the true nature and ultimate character of it, but only a statement of one of its special functionsa function which would not exist if sin had not entered the world. Yet justice would have an ample field if there were no wickedness. It is not like the executioner, whose occupation would be gone with the cessation of lawlessness. Justice is righteousness. It is the principle that insists on seeing right done. Every lover of the good must desire to see such a principle flourish. Between man and man justice is fairness. When we say God deals justly we imply that he deals fairly. This may not mean equality. For to load a mule with the same burden we would put on an elephant’s back is not fair dealing st all. Equity is not equality. But it is a suitable and proportionate dealing with each individual

II. THE JUSTICE OF AN EVEN BALANCE IS RARE AMONG MEN. Job did not see it, and therefore he greatly longed for it. Many things falsify the scales of justice.

1. Prejudice. Truth should be on one side of the scalesas in the Egyptian legend of weighing the souls of the dead. But prejudice either pares the weight of truth and so lessens its value, or adds its own weight.

2. Self-interest. Justice should be impartial; but men are not. A pure detachment of mind is very difficult to acquire. Instead of considering merit, people take account of what pleases them or what may be. profitable to them.

3. Ignorance. When there is the utmost genuineness of desire to weigh justly, we may make a mistake simply because we do not put all the facts into the scale.

III. THE JUSTICE OF AN EVEn BALANCE IS FOUND WITH GOD.

1. Pure equity. He allows no prejudice to warp his judgment, no self interest to pervert his verdict. God is perfectly just in his own character. Therefore he can judge men justly. Being righteous himself, he is never prompted to act otherwise than righteously.

2. Knowledge. God makes none of the unintentional mistakes that are so common with men. The whole tangled mass of events is unravelled by his perfectly penetrating gaze. When we despair of having a case truly seen by our fellow-men, we can lift up our eyes to the great Judge of all the earth and be assured that he knows all Surely, then, it is most necessary to stand right with the justice of God, that this may vindicate and not condemn us. But only the God-given righteousness in Christ can make this possible to us. W.F.A.

Job 31:11

A heinous crime.

Job justly regards adultery as a heinous crime which is deserving of punishment;

I. THE GREAT EVIL OF THIS CRIME. It contains within it a combination of various dreadful kinds of wickedness.

1. Unfaithfulness. Husband and wife have vowed to be true to one another. Adultery is a breach of marriage vows. Even if purity were not originally binding, the voluntary assumption of the yoke of matrimony would have made it so. The sin of unfaithfulness to the marriage tie is one of breaking a most solemn promise.

2. Cruelty. This is not a sin that can be committed wholly on one’s own account. A grievous and irreparable wrong is done to another. For the sake of selfish pleasure, a home, which might have been a centre of love and joy, is torn to pieces by outraged jealousy and made miserable with the total wreck of the hopes of youth.

3. Impurity. Some have thought that, as happiness does not always accompany marriage, “free love” would be more desirable. It is forgotten that the very term is a misnomer. No true love can exist without constancy and fidelity. When those virtues are removed, what is called love is at best a passing fancy; at worst it is a foul passion. The soul of the adulterer is stained and corrupted.

4. Godlessness. This great sin darkens the vision of God. It involves a violation of a Divine institution, and is thus unfaithfulness to God as well as to a human companion. The soul of the adulterer is lost to the life of holiness and the true service of God.

II. THE JUST TREATMENT OF THIS CRIME.

1. Not by the abolition of marriage. This is but the refuge of despair. It is said in some quarters that marriage is a failure. But wherever it is a failure some of its necessary ingredients have been neglected. If there is no true love, if sympathy is wanting, if mutual forbearance is not practised, the close union of husband and wife must lead to perpetual quarrelling. But what we want is to raise the standard of marriage. The abolition of lifelong marriage is virtually the abolition of that most sacred Christian institutionthe family. It must open the floodgates of vice by allowing suggestions, of licence that are now,. at least, to some extent, kept in check by the social conscience that respects the marriage tie.

2. By the most effectual form of reprobation. Job considered it to be an iniquity to be punished by the judges. This was the old Jewish method, and the Puritans of New England attempted to revive it. But great difficulties stand in the way of criminal prosecutions for adultery. Moreover, it is not the function of the state to punish vice, but to prevent direct or indirect injuries. Now, though adultery is an injury, the course for a legal treatment of it as such is not clear. But this does not mean that the vice should go unchecked. It deserves the severest social stigma. It lies under the wrath of God. It should be prevented as far as possible by a wise and pure bringing up of the young and the inculcation of principles of social purity.W.F.A.

Job 31:24

The hope of gold.

Job here reminds us of the Egyptian ‘Book of the Dead,’ in which the soul, summoned before its judges, recites a long list of sins, and declares itself innocent of them all. In this chapter the patriarch runs over many kinds of wickedness, and invokes just punishment if he has been guilty of any of them. His self-vindication has been forced from him by the repeated false accusations of his friends. We know that Job was not without the consciousness of sin; but he was not guilty of the crimes and of the great deeds of wickedness which had boon charged against him. Among other evil things, he honestly repudiates resting his hope and confidence in gold.

I. THE FASCINATION OF THE HOPE OF GOLD. This hope has a wide influence over men. It is not by any means confined to the owners of wealth. The poor make too much of’ the hope of gold which they covet, while the rich overvalue that which is within their grasp. The passion for gold goes mad at the diggings; but it is found in sober walks of business life. Let us consider its sources.

1. Wide purchasing power. Gold is not sought for its glitter. The old miser who dived his hand into his bags of coins with wild glee is extinct. The modern gold-worshipper is too wise to hoard his money uselessly. But whether the money is spent or not it is held as a potential good. It buys all visible commodities. People come to think that whatever they want can be had for gold.

2. Materialism. The habit of engrossing one’s self with earthly things appears to enlarge the value of gold by blotting out of view everything that is above the earth. The heavens are lost sight of, and the universe shrinks into the circle of the objects that can be procured for money.

II. THE FATALITY OF THE HOPE OF GOLD. The fascination is fatal; it lures ruin.

1. It lowers the soul. The worshipper is always being assimilated to his idol. He who adores gold comes to have a heart that is as hard and earthly as the metal he is enslaved to. Thus all the finer spiritual qualities are crushed and quenched, and a sordid appetite for money dominates the inner man.

2. It encourages selfishness. The hope is for one’s sell We see this in the frightfully prevalent vice of gambling. The infatuated gambler is intoxicated with an excitement the root of which is pure greed, heartless selfishness. His gains are not productions, adding to the wealth of the world, but simply and solely what can be got out of other people’s possessions. His whole profit is made by the loss of other people. Gambling is the most antisocial vice.

3. It leads to crime. Gold is thought more of than truth or duty, or the rights of one’s neighbour.

4. It is dishonouring to God. God is the true Hope of his children. When men turn from him to gold they turn to an idol, and are unfaithful to their Lord.

5. It ends in disappointment. Gold cannot buy the best thingspeace of mind, purity, love, heaven. Midas is a failure in the end. We must learn to see the limits of the utility of money, and look beyond them for our true hope and confidence in what is better than goldthe unsearchable fiches of Christ.W.F.A.

Job 31:33, Job 31:34

The shame of public exposure.

Job asks whether he has hidden his sin, and shrunk from public exposure for fear of the multitude? On the contrary, he has been frank and fearless, daring to face the world because he is true and honest.

I. THE GUILTY MAN IS AFRAID OF PUBLIC EXPOSURE. This is a common feeling. It is “after the manner of men.” It was seen in Adam hiding in the garden. Shame follows sin. Guilt creates cowardice. He who held his head aloft in his innocence dares not look on his fellows when he has committed a crime. Every eye seems to follow him with suspicion. His imagination transforms the most unconcerned passerby into a detective. Fear magnifies the importance of trifles, till the smallest events seem to be links in a chain that is dragging the miserable criminal down to ruin. He feels himself caught in a net, and he knows not which way to turn for release.

II. THERE IS NO MORAL WORTH IN THE FEAR OF PUBLIC EXPOSURE. The sinner is not conscious of inward unworthiness, or at least this is not his strongest feeling. All he dreads is public exposure. He is not repentant of his sin; he is only ashamed of its disgrace. Moreover, though he is so fearful of discovery by man, he has no thought that God’s eye is on him, and no concern that God disapproves of him. His one thought is of his fellow-men, the opinion of the world. This fear is altogether low and selfish. It does not spring from conscience; it only concerns itself with the consequences of wickedness, not with the wickedness itself. It has no regard for the outraged law; it only thinks of the threatening punishment. That punishment may come in visible penalties. The criminal may have to go to prison or the gallows, or when the mob seizes its victim it may “lynch” him. The terror of a miserable creature who is hiding from the expected vengeance of the people must be an awful agony. Nevertheless, there is nothing to touch the higher nature in this. Possibly, however, the fear is only of a social stigma. The man who had been in a position of honour finds himself an object of universal contempt. The disgrace is unbearable. He bides his head for very shame. He is miserably selfish in his degradation.

III. IT IS A HAPPY THING TO HAVE NO OCCASION FOR THE SHAME OF PUBLIC EXPOSURE. Some men are so sunken in wickedness that they are beneath shame, so familiar with disgrace that they do not feel it. No doubt it would be a step upward for such men to awake to a consciousness of their abject condition. But for those who are not lost to all sense of public decency, it certainly is well to be able to stand out boldly before the world and not dread investigation. Yet even when this can be done there may be misunderstandings that lead to false accusations, or there may be worldly sins that our fellow-men do not condemn. Therefore he who remembers that he has to give account of himself to God will not be satisfied with winning the approval of his fellows, nor cast down to despair if he loses it, so long as he has the smile of his supreme Master. When a man’s conscience is clear towards Heaven, he need fear no public exposure. He may meet with social contempt, like the martyrs. But though this may be painful to him, he can be calm and patient, knowing that in the end God will vindicate the right.W.F.A.

Job 31:35

The indictment.

Job desires something like a legal indictment. His experience suggests confusion, uncertainty, irregularity. He sets “his mark,” and now he wants his Adversarywho, to Job’s thought, can be none other than his Judge, Godto draw up an indictment that he may know once for all what charges are brought against him.

I. MAN CANNOT UNDERSTAND GOD‘S DEALINGS WITH HIM. This thought repeatedly recurs in the Book of Job; it is one of the great lessons of the poem. We can now see that Job was almost as much misjudging God as the three friends were misjudging Job. But at the time it was not possible for the patriarch to comprehend the Divine purpose in his sufferings. Had he known all, much of the gracious design of his trial would have been frustrated. The very obscurity was a necessary condition for the testing of faith. While we are enduring trial we can rarely see the issue of it. Our view is almost limited to the immediate present. Moreover, there are future consequences of God’s present treatment of us which we could not truly comprehend if they were visible to us. The child is not capable of valuing his education and appreciating the good results of it. The patient is not able to understand the medical or surgical treatment he is made to undergo. While we walk by faith, we must learn to expect dispensations of providence that are quite beyond our comprehension.

II. IT IS NATURAL TO DESIRE AN EXPLANATION OF GOD‘S TREATMENT OF MAN.

1. That doubts may be removed. It is difficult not to distrust God when he seems to be dealing hardly with us. If only he would roll back the clouds we should be at rest.

2. For our own guidance. Is God accusing us of sin? Are we to take his chastisements as punishments? Then what are the sins in us that he most disapproves of?

III. GOD DOES NOT PUNISH WITHOUT ALLOWING US TO SEE THE GROUNDS OF HIS ACTION. Job craved an indictment. He wanted to see the charges against him in black and white,

1. When we are guilty conscience will reveal the fact. It would be monstrous to condemn and punish the criminal without even letting him know of the offence with which he is charged. We dare not ascribe such injustice to God. He has implanted within us an accusing voice that echoes his accusations. If we seek for light and the guidance of conscience, we must be able to see how we have sinned and come under the wrath of God.

2. When no consciousness of guilt is to be found‘ the suffering cannot be for the punishment of sin. We are all conscious of sin, but sin may be forgiven; we may not be falling away from God, but cleaving to himthough with weakness and sin in our hearts, still with faithful adhesion. Then God will not punish. If, therefore, the blow falls, it is for some other than a penal reason. Consequently, we need not search about anxiously for some unseen and unsuspected wickedness. Job made a mistake in asking for an indictment. There was none, simply because there was not any ground for one. Over-scrupulous consciences suspect the wrath of Heaven when the gracious purging of the fruitful branch is really a sign of the husbandman’s appreciation of it.W.F.A..

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

CHAP. XXXI.

Job makes a solemn protestation of his integrity, and concludes with a prayer that his defence might be heard and recorded.

Before Christ 1645.

Job 31:1. Why then should I think upon a maid? This has been generally understood to mean the great care and circumspection which Job had used to avoid all temptations and occasions of sin; and he subjoins in the following verses the high and reasonable motives which had urged him, and should urge every man, to such a circumspection: Job 31:2. For what is the portion which God distributeth from above, and the inheritance of the Almighty from the place of his exaltation? Is it not destruction to the wicked, and a rejection of the workers of iniquity? ver.4. Doth he not see my ways, and numbereth he not all my steps? Which passage is a further proof that his prospects were to another life; for this very thing, had he meant it of a temporal destruction, was what his antagonists had repeated over and over to him, and had urged it as an argument of his guilt, that he was thus miserably destroyed. When Job, therefore, says the same thing, namely, that a sure destruction attends the wicked, it is their portion, an inheritance from God; it is plain that he must understand it in another sense than his antagonists did; namely, of their final retribution in a future state. See Peters, and the note on Job 31:13; Job 31:24. Mr. Heath, however, is of opinion, that the word rendered a maid is improperly translated. The passage throughout, says he, has no relation to adultery or fornication, but to idolatry. This the following verses evidently demonstrate: bethulah, therefore is certainly an idol; and what that idol was we are informed by Eusebius, who, from Sanchoniathan’s history, tells us, that Ouranos was the first introducer of Baitulia, when he erected animated stones. Bochart supposes that the original word, rendered animated stones, signifies rather anointed stones. The custom, indeed, of anointing pillars was very ancient. So Jacob set up a pillar and had anointed it, and the stone itself was called by him, beth elohim. These pillars were afterwards turned to idolatrous uses; and it is one of the commands to the children of Israel to break them in pieces on their entrance into the land of Canaan. Exo 34:13. Photius says, that he saw many of them in Mount Libanus. At first, these idols were only rude stones or pillars; afterwards they were made in human and brutal forms. For more concerning these betulia, see Boch. Geogr. Sacr. lib. 2: cap. 2.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

SECOND CHIEF DIVISION OF THE POEM

DISENTANGLEMENT OF THE MYSTERY THROUGH THE DISCOURSES OF JOB, ELIHU AND JEHOVAH

Job 29:1 to Job 42:6

First Stage of the Disentanglement

Job 29-31

Jobs Soliloquy, setting forth the truth that his suffering was not due to his moral conduct, that it must have therefore a deeper cause. [The negative side of the solution of the problem.]

1. Yearning retrospect at the fair prosperity of his former life

Job 29

a. Describing the outward appearance of this former prosperity

Job 29:1-10

1Moreover, Job continued his parable, and said:

2O that I were as in months past,

as in the days when God preserved me;

3when His candle shined upon my head,

and when by His light I walked through darkness;

4as I was in the days of my youth.

when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle;

5when the Almighty was yet with me,

when my children were about me;

6when I washed my steps with butter,

and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;

7when I went out to the gate through the city,

when I prepared my seat in the street!

8The young men saw me, and hid themselves;

and the aged arose, and stood up.

9The princes refrained talking,

and laid their hand on their mouth.

10The nobles held their peace,

and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.

b. Pointing out the inward cause of this prosperityhis benevolence and integrity

Job 29:11-17

11When the ear heard me, then it blessed me;

and when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:

12because I delivered the poor that cried;

and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

13The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me:

and I caused the widows heart to sing for joy.

14I put on righteousness, and it clothed me:

my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

15I was eyes to the blind,

and feet was I to the lame.

16I was a father to the poor;

and the cause which I knew not I searched out.

17And I brake the jaws of the wicked,

and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.

c. Describing that feature of his former prosperity which he now most painfully misses, viz., the universal honor shown to him, and his far-reaching influence: Job 29:18-25

18Then I said, I shall die in my nest,

and I shall multiply my days as the sand.

19My root was spread out by the waters,

and the dew lay all night upon my branch.

20My glory was fresh in me,

and my bow was renewed in my hand.

21Unto me men gave ear, and waited,

and kept silence at my counsel.

22After my words they spake not again;

and my speech dropped upon them.

23And they waited for me as for the rain;

and they opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.

24If I laughed on them, they believed it not;

and the light of my countenance they cast not down.

25I chose out their way, and sat chief,

and dwelt as a king in the army,
as one that comforteth the mourners.
2. Sorrowful description of his present sad estate

Job 30

a. The ignominy and contempt he receives from men: Job 30:1-15

1But now they that are younger than I have me in derision,

whose fathers I would have disdained
to have set with the dogs of my flock.

2Yea, whereto might the strength of their hands profit me,

in whom old age was perished?

3For want and famine they were solitary;

fleeing into the wilderness
in former time desolate and waste.

4Who cut up mallows by the bushes,

and juniper roots for their meat.

5They were driven forth from among men,

(they cried after them as after a thief);

6To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys,

in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.

7Among the bushes they brayed;

under the nettles they were gathered together.

8They were children of fools, yea, children of base men;

they were viler than the earth.

9And now am I their song,

yea, I am their byword.

10They abhor me, they flee far from me,

and spare not to spit in my face.

11Because He hath loosed my cord, and afflicted me,

they have also let loose the bridle before me.

12Upon my right hand rise the youth;

they push away my feet,
and they raise up against me the ways of their destruction.

13They mar my path,

they set forward my calamity,
they have no helper.

14They came upon me as a wide breaking in of waters;

in the desolation they rolled themselves upon me.

15Terrors are turned upon me:

they pursue my soul as the wind:
and my welfare passeth away as a cloud.

b. The unspeakable misery which everywhere oppresses him: Job 30:16-23

16And now my soul is poured out upon me;

the days of affliction have taken hold upon me.

17My bones are pierced in me in the night season;

and my sinews take no rest.

18By the great force of my disease is my garment changed:

it bindeth me about as the collar of my coat.

19He hath cast me into the mire,

and I am become like dust and ashes.

20I cry unto Thee, and Thou dost not hear me:

I stand up, and Thou regardest me not.

21Thou art become cruel to me;

with Thy strong hand Thou opposest Thyself against me.

22Thou liftest me up to the wind;

Thou causest me to ride upon it,
and dissolvest my substance.

23For I know that Thou wilt bring me to death,

and to the house appointed for all living.

c. The disappointment of all his hopes: Job 30:24-31

24Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave,

though they cry in his destruction.

25Did not I weep for him that was in trouble?

was not my soul grieved for the poor?

26When I looked for good, then evil came unto me;

and when I waited for light, there came darkness.

27My bowels boiled, and rested not:

the days of affliction prevented me.

28I went mourning without the sun:

I stood up, and I cried in the congregation.

29I am a brother to dragons,

and a companion to owls.

30My skin is black upon me,

and my bones are burned with heat.

31My harp also is turned to mourning,

and my organ into the voice of them that weep.
3. Solemn asseveration of his innocence in respect to all open and secret sins

Job 31

a. He has abandoned himself to no wicked lust: Job 31:1-8

1I made a covenant with mine eyes;

why then should I think upon a maid?

2For what portion of God is there from above?

and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

3Is not destruction to the wicked?

and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

4Doth not He see my ways,

and count all my steps?

5If I have walked with vanity,

or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;

6let me be weighed in an even balance,

that God may know mine integrity.

7If my step hath turned out of the way,

and mine heart walked after mine eyes,
and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;

8then let me sow, and let another eat;

yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

b. He has acted uprightly in all his domestic life: Job 31:9-13

9If mine heart have been deceived by a woman,

or if I have laid wait at my neighbors door;

10then let my wife grind unto another,

and let others bow down upon her.

11For this is a heinous crime;

yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

12For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction,

and would root out all mine increase.

13If I did despise the cause of my man-servant, or of my maid-servant,

when they contended with me;

14what then shall I do when God riseth up?

and when He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?

15Did not He that made me in the womb make him?

and did not One fashion us in the womb?

c. He has constantly practised neighborly kindness and Justice in civil life: Job 31:16-23

16If I have withheld the poor from their desire,

or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

17or have eaten my morsel myself alone,

and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof:

18(for from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father,

and I have guided her from my mothers womb;)

19if I have seen any perish for want of clothing,

or any poor without covering;

20if his loins have not blessed me,

and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

21if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless,

when I saw my help in the gate;

22then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade,

and mine arm be broken from the bone!

23For destruction from God was a terror to me,

and by reason of His highness I could not endure.

d. He has not violated his more secret obligations to God and his neighbor: Job 31:24-32

24If I have made gold my hope,

or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

25if I rejoiced because my wealth was great,

and because mine hand had gotten much;

26if I beheld the sun when it shined,

or the moon walking in brightness;

27and my heart hath been secretly enticed,

or my mouth hath kissed my hand:

28this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge;

for I should have denied the God that is above.

29If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me,

or lifted up myself when evil found him:

30(neither have I suffered my mouth to sin

by wishing a curse to his soul:)

31if the men of my tabernacle said not,

O that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

32The stranger did not lodge in the street:

but I opened my doors to the traveller.

e. He has been guilty furthermore of no hypocrisy, or mere semblance of holiness, of no secret violence, or avaricious oppression of his neighbor: Job 31:33-40

33If I covered my transgressions as Adam,

by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

34did I fear a great multitude,

or did the contempt of families terrify me,
that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

35O that one would hear me!

behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me,
and that mine adversary had written a book.

36Surely I would take it upon my shoulder,

and bind it as a crown to me.

37I would declare unto Him the number of my steps;

as a prince would I go near unto Him.

38If my land cry against me,

or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

39If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money,

or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life;

40Let thistles grow instead of wheat,

and cockle instead of barley.

The words of Job are ended.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Although introduced by the same formula as the discourse immediately preceding (comp. Job 29:1 with Job 27:1), this last long series of Jobs utterances exhibits decidedly a , a form and method esssentially new in comparison with the former controversial and argumentative discourses of the colloquy. They are not once addressed to the friends, who since Job 25. have been entirely silenced, and have not been provoked to further reply even by the elaborate instructions, which he imparts to them in Job 27-28. Instead of this they frequently appeal to God, and present, especially in the last section, a long series of solemn asseverations or adjurations uttered before God. They thus appear, in contrast with the interlocutory character of the discourses hitherto, as a genuine soliloquy by Job, which both by its contents and by its conspicuous length, forms a suitable transition to the following discourses, or groups of discourses by Elihu and Jehovah, which are in like manner of considerable length. The three principal sections are a yearning retrospect to the happy past (Job 29), a description of the sorrowful present (Job 30), and solemn asseverations of innocence in presence of the divine judge, or God of the Future (Job 31). These divisions are very obvious, and justify the divisions into chapters founded on them as corresponding strictly to that intended by the poet himself. Neither can there be much doubt in regard to the more special sub-division of these chief divisions. The first and the second contain respectively three long sub-divisions or strophes, of 89 verses each (once only, Job 30:1 seq. of 15 verses, which long strophe indeed may also be divided into two shorter ones of 8 and 7 verses. In the third part there appear quite distinctly five groups of thought of 78 (once of 9) verses each.

2. First Division: The prosperity of the past: Job 29. [It is very thoughtfully planned by the poet that Job, by this description of his former prosperity, unintentionally refutes the accusations of his friends, inasmuch as it furnishes a picture of his former life very different from that which they had ventured to assume. We have here the picture of a rich and highly distinguished chief of a tribe [or patriarch], who was happy only in spreading abroad happiness and blessing. Schlottmann].

First Strophe: Job 29:2-10 : The outward appearance of this former prosperity.

Job 29:2. Oh that it were to me [Oh that I were] as in months of yore! lit. who gives (makes) me like the months of the past, who puts me back in the happy condition of that time (so Rosenm., Welte, Vaih, etc.). Or, with the dative rendering of the suffix in (as in Isa 27:4; Jer 9:1), who gives to me like the months of the past, i. e. who makes me to live over such! (so usually). On the construction in b (the constr. state before the relative clause), comp. Gesenius, 116, [ 114], 3. [Green, 255, 2].

Job 29:3. When it (viz.) His lamp shone above my head., Inf. Kal of with the vowel a weakened to i (Ewald, 255, a) [Green, 139, 2], not Inf. Hiph. as Bttcher would render it, when after the Targ. he translates: when He caused His lamp to shine. This Hiphil rendering could only be justified if (with Ewald in his comm.) we should read (). [Probably alluding to the custom of suspending lamps in rooms or tents over the head. The language of this ver. is of course figurative, and implies prosperity and the divine favor. Carey]. On the anticipation of the subject by the suffix, comp. Ew., 309, c. Delitzsch quite too artificially refers the suffix in to God, and takes as a self-corrective, explanatory permutative: when He, His lamp shone, etc.

Job 29:4. As I was in the days of my harvest., as, according as, resumes the simple in and , Job 29:2. The days of the harvest are, as Job 29:5 b shows, a figurative expression for ripe manhood [the days of my prime Carey], the tas virilis suis fructibus fta et exuberans (Schultens): comp. Ovid Metam. XV. 200. [The rendering of E. V. in the days of my youth (after Symmach. and the Vulg.) is less correct, as is shown by the reference above to Job 29:5 b, the time referred to being that when he had his children about him, as well as by the word itself, which means the time when the ripe fruit is gathered]. When Eloahs friendship was over my tent;i. e. dispensed protection and blessing above my habitation. here meaning familiarity, confidential intercourse, (as in Job 19:19; Psa 25:14; Psa 55:15 [14]; Pro 3:22), not the celestial council of God, as in Job 15:8 (against Hirzel). [ either by ellipsis for or having the force of an active [verbal] noun, His being familiar. Dillm.Careys explanation, though pushing the literal rendering a little too far, is striking: lit. in the seat or cushion of God being at my tent; i. e., when God was on such terms of familiar intercourse with me that he had, as it were, his accustomed seat at my tent].

Job 29:5. On children as a most highly valued blessing, placed here next to God Himself, comp. Psa 127:3 seq.; Psa 128:3. Concerning ): in this sense (not in that of servants,) see above Job 1:19; Job 24:5.

Job 29:6. When my steps were bathed in cream (comp. Job 20:17, where however we have the full form ), and the rock beside me poured out streams of oil; that which elsewhere was barren poured out costly blessings, and that close by his side, so that he was not compelled to go far; comp. Deu 32:13.

Job 29:7-10. The honor and dignity which he then enjoyed. When I went forth to the gate up to the city. is equivalent to , towards the gate (comp. Job 28:11; Gen 27:3), not: out at the gate (as below, Job 31:34), for Jobs residence was in the country, not in the city with . For this same reason he speaks here of his going up , up to the city; for the city adjoining to him, was on an eminence, as was usually the case with ancient cities. [Comp. Abrahams relations to Hebron, as indicated in Genesis 23.]. In respect to the use of the space directly inside the gates of these cities as a place for assemblies of the people, comp. above, Job 5:4; also Job 31:4; Pro 1:21; Pro 8:3, and often. When I prepared my seat in the market. the open space at the gate, as in Neh 8:1; Neh 8:3; Neh 8:16, etc. On the construction (the change from the Infin. to the finite verb), comp. Job 29:3; Job 28:25.

Job 29:8. Then the young men saw me, and hid themselves;i. e. as soon as they came in sight of me, from reverential awe. And the gray-headed rose up, remained standinguntil I myself had sat. [A most elegant description, and exhibits most correctly the great reverence and respect which was paid, even by the old and decrepit, to the holy man in passing along the streets, or when he sat in public. They not only rose, which in men so old and infirm was a great mark of distinction, but they stood, they continued to do it, though the attempt was so difficult. Lowth]. On the construction, comp. Ewald, 285, b.

Job 29:9. Princes restrained themselves from speaking ( , as in Job 4:2; Job 12:15), and laid the hand on their mouth, imposed on themselves reverential silence; comp. Job 21:5. [What is meant is not that those who were in the act of speaking stopped at Jobs entrance, but that when he wished to speak, even princes, i. e. rulers of great bodies of men, or those occupying the highest offices, refrained from speech. Dillmann].

Job 29:10. The voice of nobles hid itself, lit. hid themselves, for the verb is put in agreement with the plur. dependent on as the principal term, as in the similar cases in Job 15:20; Job 21:21; Job 22:12. [Comp. Green, 277]. lit. those who are visible (from ) i. e. conspicuous, noble [nobiles]. On b comp. passages like Psa 137:6; Eze 3:26.

Continuation. Second Strophe: Job 29:11-17. Jobs active benevolence and strict integrity as the inward cause of his former prosperity.

Job 29:11. For if an ear heardit called me happylit. for an ear heard, and then called me happy; and similarly in the second member. The object of the hearing, as afterwards of the seeing, is neither Jobs speeches in the assembly of the people [if this ver. were a continuation of the description of the proceedings in the assembly, it would not be introduced by Dillm.], nor his prosperity (Hahn, Delitzsch), but as Job 29:12 seq. shows, his whole public and private activity. [For the reason mentioned by Dillmann is better translated for than when (E. V.)]. In regard to to pronounce happy, comp. Pro 31:28; Son 6:9. In regard to , to bear favorable testimony to any one, comp. Luk 4:22; Act 15:8.

Job 29:12. For I delivered the poor, that cried, and the orphan, who had no helper ( a circumstantial clause, comp. Ew., 331). [The clause is either a third new object (so E. V.)], or a close definition of what precedes: the orphan and (in this state of orphanhood) helpless one. The latter is more probable both here and in the Salomonic primary passage Psa 72:12; in the other case might be expected. Delitz.]. The Imperfects describing that which is wont to be, as also in Job 29:13; Job 29:16. As to the sentiment, comp. Psa 72:12.

Job 29:13. The blessing of the lost (lit. of one lost, perishing; as in Job 31:19; Pro 31:6) came upon me;i. e., as b shows, the grateful wish that he might be blessed from such miserable ones as had been rescued by him, hardly the actual blessing which God bestowed on him in answer to the prayer of such (comp. Hernias, Past. Simil. 2).

Job 29:14. I had clothed myself with righteousness, and it with me;i. e., in proportion as I exerted myself to exercise righteousness () toward my neighbor, the same [righteousness] took form, filled me inwardly in truth [it put me on as a garment, i. e., it made me so its own, that my whole appearance was the representation of itself, as in Jdg 6:34, and twice in the Chron., of the Spirit of Jehovah it is said that He puts on any one, induit, when He makes any one the organ of His own manifestation, Delitzsch. Righteousness was as a robe to me, and I was as a robe to it. I put it on, and it put me on; it identified itself with me. Words.] Not: and it clothed me, as Rosenmller, Arnh., Umbr. [E. V., Schlottm., Carey, Renan, Rod., Elz., etc.], arbitrarily render the second , thereby producing only a flat tautology. [Ewald also: it adorned me.The other rendering is adopted, or approved by Gesen., Frst, Delitzsch, Dillmann, Wordsworth, Noyes in his Notes]. The figure of being clothed with a moral quality or way of living to represent one as equipped, or adorned therewith, (comp. Isa 11:5; Isa 51:9; Isa 59:17; Psa 132:9), is continued in the second member, where Jobs strict righteousness and spotless integrity (this is what means; comp. Mic 3:8) are represented as a mantle and a tiara (turban); comp. Isa 61:10.

Job 29:15. Comp. Num 10:31. To be anybodys eye, ear, foot (here feet), etc., is of course to supply these organs by the loving ministration of help, and to make it possible as it were to dispense with them.

Job 29:16. On a comp. Isa 9:5; Isa 22:21. and seem to form a paronomasia here.And the cause of the unknown [the strangers, the friendless] I searched out, i. e., in order to help them as their advocate, provided they were in the right. , attributive clause, as in Job 18:21; Isa 41:3; Isa 55:5, and often. [E. V., the cause which I knew not is admissible, and gives essentially the same sense; but the other rendering is to be preferred, as furnishing a better parallel to the blind, lame, poor, preceding.The man whom nobody knew, or cared for, Job would willingly take for his client.E.].

Job 29:17. I broke the teeth of the wicked (the cohortative, , as in Job 1:15; Job 19:20), and out of his teeth I plucked the prey.For the description of hardhearted oppressors and tyrants (or unrighteous judges, of whom we are to think particularly here), under the figure of ravaging wild beasts, from which the prey is rescued, comp. Psa 3:8 [Psa 3:7]; Psa 58:7 [Psa 58:6], etc.

4. Conclusion: Third Strophe: Job 29:18-25. The honor and the influence which Job once enjoyed, and the loss of which he mourns with especial sorrow.

Job 29:18. And so then I thought [said]: With my neat [together with my nest, as implying a wish that he and his nest might perish together, would be unnatural, and diametrically opposed to the character of an Arab, who in the presence of death cherishes the twofold wish that he may continue to live in his children, and that he may die in the midst of his family, Delitzsch] (or also: in my nest) shall I die;i. e., without having left or lost my home, together with my family, and property (comp. Psa 84:4 [3]), hence in an advanced, happy old age.And like the phenix have many days: lit., make many, multiply my days. The language also would admit of our rendering sand, understanding the expression to refer to the multiplication of days like grains of sand; comp. as the sand of the sea in 1Ki 5:9 [1Ki 4:29 applying to Solomons wisdom] and often; also Ovid, Metam. XIV. 136 seq.: quot haberet corpora pulvis, tot mihi natales contingere vana rogavi. But against this interpretation, which is adopted by the Targ., Pesh., Saad., Luther, Umbreit, Gesenius, Stickel, Vaih., Hahn, [E. V., Con., Noy., Ber., Carey, Words., Renan, Rodwell, Merx], and in favor of understanding of the phenix, that long-lived bird of the well-known oriental legend (so most moderns since Rosenmller) may be urged: (1) The oldest exegetical tradition in the Talmud, in the Midrashim, among the Masoretes and Rabbis (especially Kimchi); (2) the versionsmanifestly proceeding out of a misconception of this phenix traditionof the LXX.: ; of the Itala: sicut arbor palm, and of the Vulg.: sicut palma; (3) and finally even the etymology of the word (or , as the Rabbis of Nahardearead, according to Kimchi) which it would seem must be derived (with Bochart) from torquere, volvere, and be explained circulation, periodic return, and even in its Egyptian form Koli (Copt.; alloe) is to be traced back to this Shemitic radical signification (among the ancient Egyptians indeed the chief name of the phenix was bni, hierogl. bano, benno, which at the same time signifies palm). The phraseto live as long as the phenix is found also among other people of antiquity besides the Egyptians, e. g., among the Greeks ( , Lucian, Hermot., p. 53); and the whole legend concerning the phenix living for five hundred years, then burning itself together with its nest, and again living glorified, is in general as ancient as it is widely spread, especially in the East. Therefore it can neither seem strange, nor in any way objectionable, if a poetical book of the Holy Scripture should make reference to this myth (comp. the allusions to astronomical and other myths in Job 3:9; 26:28). Touching the proposition that the Egyptian nationality of the poet, or the Egyptian origin of his ideas does not follow from this passage, see above, Introd., 7, b (where may also be found the most important literary sources of information respecting the legend of the phenix).

Job 29:19-20 continue the expression, begun in Job 29:18, of that which Job thought and hoped for. [According to E. V., Job 29:19 resumes the description of Jobs former condition: My root was spread out, etc. But these two verses are so different from the passage preceding, (Job 29:11-25), in which Job speaks of his deeds of beneficence, and from the passage following (Job 29:21-25) in which he describes his influence in the public assembly, and so much in harmony with Job 29:18, in which he speaks of his prospects, as they seemed to his hopes, that the connection adopted by Zckler, and most recent expositors, is decidedly to be preferred.E.].

Job 29:19. My root will be open towards the water:i. e., my life will flourish, like a tree plentifully watered (comp. Job 14:7 seq.; Job 18:16), and the dew will lie all night in my branches (comp. the same passages; also Gen 27:39; Pro 19:12; Psa 133:3, etc.)

Job 29:20. Mine honor will remain (ever) fresh with me ( = , consideration, dignity, honor with God and mennot soul as Hahn explains [to which is not appropriate as predicate, Del.], and my bow is renewed in my handthe bow as a symbol of robust manliness, and strength for action, comp. 1Sa 2:4; Psa 46:10 [Psa 46:9]; Psa 76:4 [Psa 76:3]; Jer 49:35; Jer 51:56, etc., to make progress, to sprout forth (Job 14:7); here to renew oneself, to grow young again. It is not necessary to supply, e.g., , as Hirzel and Schlottmann do, on the basis of Isa 40:31.

Job 29:21. seq., exhibit in connection with the joyful hopes of Job, just described, which flowed forth directly out of the fulness of his prosperity, and in particular of the honor which he enjoyed, a full description of this honor, the narrative style of the discourse by , Job 29:18, being resumed. Job 29:21-23 have for their subject others than Job himself, the members of his tribe, not specially those who took part in the assemblies described in Job 29:7-10; for which reason it is unnecessary to assume a transposition, of the passage after Job 29:10.

Job 29:21. They hearkened to me, and waited (, pausal form, with Dagh. euphonic for , comp. Gesen. 20, 2 c), and listened silently to my counsel (lit. and were silent for or at my counsel).

Job 29:22. After my words they spoke not againlit. they did not repeat (, non iterabant). On b comp. Deu 32:2; Son 4:11; Pro 5:3.

Job 29:23. Further expansion of the figure last used of the refreshing [rain-like] dropping of his discourse. They opened their mouth wide as for the latter rain.The , or latter rain in March or April, is, on account of the approaching harvest, which it helps to ripen, longed for with particular urgency in Palestine and the adjacent countries; comp. Deu 11:14; Jer 3:3; Jer 5:24; Joe 2:23; Hos 6:3, etc. On = , to gape, pant, comp. Psa 119:131.

Job 29:24. I laughed upon them when they despairedlit. when they did not have confidence (, absol. as in Isa 7:9; comp. Psa 116:10; and a circumstantial clause without this lacking , however, being supplied in many MSS. and Eds.). The meaning can be only: even when they were despondent, I knew how to cheer them up by my friendly smiles. This is the only meaning with which the second member agrees which cannot harmonize with the usual explanation: I smiled at them, they believed it not (LXX., Vulg., Saad., Luther [E. V., Noy., Rod., Ren., Merx], and most moderns). [The reverence in which I was held was so great, that if I laid aside my gravity, and was familiar with them, they could scarcely believe that they were so highly honored; my very smiles were received with awe Noyes]. And the light of my countenance (i. e., my cheerful visage, comp. Pro 16:15) they could not darken; lit. they could not cause to fall, cast down, comp. Gen 4:5-6 Jer 3:12.[However despondent their position appeared, the cheerfulness of my countenance they could not cause to pass away. Del.]

Job 29:25. I would gladly take the way to them (comp. Job 28:23); i. e., I took pleasure in sitting in the midst of them, and in taking part in affairs. This is the only meaning that is favored by what follows;the rendering of Hahn and Delitzsch: I chose out for them the way they should go [I made the way plain which they should take in order to get out of their hopeless and miserable state. Del This is the meaning also suggested by E. V.] is opposed by the consideration that , to choose, never means to prescribe, determine, enjoin. In the passage which follows, sitting as chief () is immediately defined more in the concrete by the clause, , like a king in the midst of the army; but then the I altogether too military aspect of this figure (comp. Job 15:24; Job 19:12) is again softened by making the business of the king surrounded by his armies to be not leading them to battle, but comforting the mourners. Whether in this expression there is intended a thrust at the friends on account of their unskilful way of comforting (as Ewald and Dillmann think), may very much be doubted.

Second Division: The wretchedness of the present. Chap. 30. First Strophe (or Double Strophe). Job 30:1-15. The ignominy and contempt which he receives from men, put in glaring contrast with the high honor just described. The contrast is heightened all the more by the fact that the men now introduced as insulting and mocking him are of the very lowest and most contemptible sort; being the same class of men whose restless, vagabond life has already been described in Job 24:4-8, only more briefly than here.

Job 30:1. And now they laugh at me who are younger than I in daysthe good-for-nothing rabble of children belonging to that abandoned class. What a humiliation for him before whom the aged stood up! [The first line of the verse which is marked off by Mercha-Mahpach is intentionally so disproportionately long to form a deep and long-breathed beginning to the lamentation which is now begun. Del.] They whose fathers I would have disdained to set with the dogs of my flock ( , to make like, to put on a level with, not to set over, , prficere, as Schultens, Rosemn., Schlottm. explain). From this strong expression of contempt it does not follow that Job was now indulging in haughty or tyrannical inhuman thoughts [the considerate sympathy expressed by Job in Job 24:4-8 regarding this same class of men should be borne in mind in judging of Jobs spirit here also; yet it cannot be denied that the pride of the grand dignified old Emir does flash through the words.E.], but only that that rabble was immeasureably destitute, and moreover morally abandoned, thievish, false, improvident, and generally useless.

Job 30:2. Even the strength of their handswhat should it be to me?i. e. and even (LXX. ) as regards themselves, those youngsters, of what use could the strength of their hands be to me? Why this was of no use to him is explained in b:for them full ripeness is lost, i. e., enervated, miserable creatures that they are, they do not once reach ripe manly vigor ( as in Job 5:26). [Hence not old age, as in E. V., which is both less correct and less expressive.] Why they do not, the verses immediately following show.

Job 30:3. Through want and hunger (they are) starved; lit. they are a hard stiff rock , as in Job 15:34); they, who gnaw the dry steppe;i. e., gnaw away ( as in Job 30:17) what grows there; comp. Job 24:5; which have long been a wild and a wilderness.According to the parallel passages Job 38:27; and Zep 1:15 unquestionably signifies waste and devastation, or wild and wilderness (comp. , Gen 1:2; , Nah 2:11; and similar examples of assonance). The preceding however is difficult. Elsewhere it is an adverb of time: the past night, last evening [and so, yesterday], but here evidently a substantive, and in the constr. state. It is explained to mean either: the yesterday of wasteness and desolation, i. e., that which has long been wasteness, etc. (Hirzel, Ewald) [Schlott., Renan, to whom may be added Good, Lee, Carey, Elzas, who connect with the participle, translating who yesterday were gnawers, etc.], or: the night, the darkness of the wilderness (Targ., Rabbis, Gesen., Del.) [Noyes, Words., Barnes, Bernard, Rodwell, the last two taking ,and as three independent nouns,gloom, waste, desolation]. Of these constructions the former is to be preferred, since darkness appears nowhere else (not even in Jer 2:6; Jer 2:31) as a characteristic predicate of the wilderness, and since especially the gnawing of the darkness of the wilderness produces a thought singularly harsh. Dillmanns explanation: already yesterday a pure wilderness (where therefore there is nothing to be found to-day), is linguistically harsh; and Olshausens emendation arbitrary. [E. V. following the LXX. Targ., and most of the old expositors, translates fleeing, a rendering which besides being far less vivid and forcible, is less suitable, the desert being evipently their proper habitation. in the sense of gnawing reminds of , Job 24:5. It will be seen also that E. V. follows the adverbial construction of but the wilderness in former time desolate and waste suggests no very definite or consistent meaning. If a verbial, the force of must be to enhance the misery and hopelessness of their condition. They lived in what was not only now, but what had long been a deserta fact which made the prospect of getting their support from it all the more cheerless.E.].

Job 30:4. They who pluck the salt-wort by the bushesin the place therefore where such small plants could first live, despite the scorching heat of the desert sun; in the shadow, that is, of larger bushes, especially of that perennial, branchy bush which is found in the Syrian desert under the name sh, of which Wetzstein treats in Delitzsch. is the orach, salt-wort (also sea-purslain, atriplex halimus L. comp. LXX.: ), a plant which in its younger and more tender leaves furnishes some nourishment, although of a miserable sort; comp. Athenus, Deipnos. IV., 161, where it is said of poor Pythagoreans: .And broom-roots are their bread.That the root of the broom (genista monosperma) is edible, is indeed asserted only here; still we need not doubt it, nor read e. g., , in order to warm themselves (Gesenius), as though here as in Psa 120:4, or the use of the broom as fuel was spoken of, Comp. Michaelis. Neue orient. Bibl. V, 45, and Wetzstein in Del. [II., 143.And see Smiths Bib. Dic., Juniper, Mallows].

Job 30:5. Out of the midst (of men) they are hunted, e medio pelluntur. , lit. that which is within, i. e., here the circle of human social life, human society.They cry after them as (after) a thief. , as though they were a thief; comp. , Job 29:23.

Job 30:6. In the most horrid gorges they must dwelllit. in the horror of the gorges (in horridissima vallium regione; comp. Job 41:22; Ewald, 313, c) it is for them to dwell; comp. Gesen., 132 ( 129], Rem. 1.In holes of the earth and of the rocks. Hence they were genuine troglodytes; see below after Job 30:8. Concerning , earth, ground, see on Job 28:2.

Job 30:7. Among the bushes they cry out. above in Job 6:5 of the cry of the wild ass, here of the wild tones of the savage inhabitants of the steppes seeking food,not their sermo barbarus; Pineda, Schlottmann [who refers to Herodotus comparison of the language of the Ethiopian troglodytes to the screech of the night-owl. According to Delitzsch the word refers to their cries of lamentation and discontent over their desperate condition. There can be but little doubt that the word is intended to remind us of the comparison of these people to wild asses in Job 24:5, and so far the rendering of E. V. bray, is not amiss]. Under nettles (brambles) they herd together; lit. they must mix together, gather themselves. Most of the modern expositors render the Pual as a strict Passive, with the meaning, they are poured [or stretched] out, which would be equivalent tothey lie down [or are prostrate]; comp. Amo 6:4; Amo 6:7. But both the use of in such passages as 1Sa 26:19; Isa 14:1, and the testimony of the most ancient Versions (Vulg., Targ., and indeed the LXX. also: ) favor rather the meaning of herding, or associating together. [But neither the fut. nor the Pual (instead of which one would expect the Niph., or Hithpa.) is favorable to the latter interpretation: wherefore we decide in favor of the former, and find sufficient support for a Heb.-Arabic in the signification effundere from a comparison of Job 14:19 and the present passage. Del.].

Job 30:8. Sons of fools, yea, sons of base men,both expressions in opposition to the subject of the preceding verse. is used as a collective, and means the ungodly, as in Psa 14:1., equivalent to ignobiles, infames, a construction similar to that in Job 26:2 [lit. sons of no-name]; comp. 286, g.They are -whipped out of the land; lit. indeed an attributive clausewho are whipped, etc.; hence exiles, those who are driven forth out of their own home. [The rendering of E. V., they were viler than the earth was doubtless suggested by the use of the adjective in the sense of afflicted, dejected]. In view of the palpable identity of those pictured in these verses with those described in Job 24:4-8, it is natural to assume the existence of a particular class of men in the country inhabited by Job as having furnished the historical occasion and theme of both descriptions. Since now in both passages a troglodyte way of living (dwelling in clefts of the rock and in obscure places, comp. above Job 24:4; Job 24:8) and the condition of having been driven out of their former habitations (comp. Job 24:4) are mentioned as prominent characteristics of these wretched ones, it be comes particularly probable that the people intended are the Choreans, or Chorites (Luther: Horites) [E. V.: Horims] who dwelt in holes, the aborigines of the mountain region of Seir, who were in part subjugated by the Edomites, in part exterminated, in part expelled (comp. Gen 36:5; Deu 2:12; Deu 2:22). Even if Jobs home is to be looked for at some distance from Edomitis, e. g. in Hauran (comp. on. Job 1:1) a considerable number of such Chorites (, i. e. dweller in holes, or caves) might have been living in his neighborhood; for driven out by the Edomites they would have fled more particularly into the neighboring regions of Seir-Edom, and here indeed again they would have betaken themselves to the mountains with their caves, gorges, where they would have lived the same wretched life as their ancestors, who had been left behind in Edom. It is less likely that a cave-dwelling people in Hauran, different from these remnant of the Horites, are intended, e. g. the Itureans, who were notorious for their poverty, and waylaying mode of life (Del. and Wetzst.).

Job 30:9. In the second half of the Long Strophe, which also begins with Job turns his attention away from the wretches whom he has been elaborately describing back to himself. And now I am become their song of derision, I am become to them for a byword., elsewhere a stringed instrument, means here a song of derision, (comp. Lam 3:14; Psa 69:13 [12], , malicious, defamatory speech, referring to the subject of the same (LXX.: ).

Job 30:10. Abhorring me, they remove far from me (to wit, from very abhorrence), yea, they have not spared my face with spitting;i. e. when at any time they come near me, it is never without testifying their deepest contempt by spitting in my face (Mat 26:67; Mat 27:30). An unsuitable softening of the meaning is attempted by those expositors, who find expressed here merely a spitting in his presence (Hirzel, Umbreit, Schlottmann); this meaning would require rather than . Comp. also above Job 17:6, where Job calls himself a for the people.

Job 30:11 seq. show why Job had been in such a way given over to be mocked at by the most wretched, because namely God and the divine powers which cause calamity had delivered him, over to the same. For these are the principal subject in Job 30:11-14, not those miserable outcasts of human society just spoken of (as Rosenm., Umbreit, Hirzel, Stickel, Schlottm., Del. [Noy Car., Rod. and appy. E. V.] explain). The correct view is given by LXX. and Vulg., and among the moderns by Ewald, Arnh., Hahn, Dillm., etc.For He hath loosed my cord. So according to the Kri , on the basis of which we may also explain: For He hath loosed, slackened my string, which would be an antithetic reference to Job 29:20 b, even as by the translation cord there would be a retrospective reference to Job 4:21; Job 27:8. If following the Kthibh we read , the explanation would be: He has loosed His cord, or rein, with which he held the powers of adversity chained, with which however the following clause: and bowed me would not agree remarkably well [not a conclusive objection, for might very appropriately and forcibly describe the way in which his nameless persecutor, God doubtless, would overpower, trample him down, by letting loose His horde of calamities upon Job. Comp. Psa 78:8 [7]. Conant not very differently: because he has let loose his rein and humbled me; i. e. with unchecked violence has humbled me. Ewald, less naturally: He hath opened (i. e. taken off the covering of) His string (his bow). Elizabeth Smith better: He hath let go His bow-string, and afflicted me. in the sense of letting loose a bow, or bow-string however, is not used elsewhere, and would hardly be a suitable description of the effect of shooting with the bow.E.]. And the rein have they let loose before me;i.e., have let go before me (persecuting me). The subject of this, as of the following verses, is indisputably Gods hosts let loose against Job, the same which in the similar former description in Job 19:12 were designated his (comp. also Job 16:9; Job 16:12-14). The fearful, violent, and even irresistible character of their attacks on Job, especially as described in Job 30:13-14, is not suited to the miserable class described in Job 30:1-8. They are either angels of calamity, or at least diseases and other evils, or, generally speaking, the personified agencies of the Divine wrath, that Job has nere in mind.

Job 30:12. On the right there rises up a brood, or troop. , or according to another reading , lit. a sprouting, a luxuriant flourishing plant. [E. V., after the Targ. Rabbis, the youth, which is both etymologically and exegetically to be rejected.E.] This calamitous brood (of diseases, etc.) rises on the right, in the sense that they appear against Job as his accusers (comp. Job 16:8); for the accusers before a tribunal took their place at the right of the accused; comp. Zec 3:1; Psa 109:6.They push away my feet, i. e., they drive me ever further and further into straits, they would leave me no place to stand on. (Ewalds emendation they let loose then-feet, set them quickly in motionis unnecessary)And cast up against me their destructive ways, in that they heap up their siege-walls against me, the object of their blockade and hostile assaults. , as in Job 19:12, a passage which agrees almost verbally with the one before us, and so confirms our interpretation of the latter as referring to the Divine persecutions as an army beleaguering him. [Not only is this view favored by such a use of the same language as has been used elsewhere (Job 19) of the Divine persecutions, but also by the language itself. It is scarcely conceivable that Job should dignify the spiteful gibes and jeers of that rabble of young outcasts by comparing them to the solemn accusations of a judicial prosecution, or the regular siege of an army.E.]

Job 30:13. They tear down my path;i. e., by heaping up their ways of destruction they destroy my own heretofore undisturbed way of life.They help to my destruction (comp. Zec 1:15)they to whom there is no helper:i. e., who need no other help for their work of destruction, who can accomplish it alone. So correctly Stickel, Hahn, while most modern expositors find in c the idea of helplessness, or that of being despised or forsaken by all the world, to be expressed. Ewald however [so Con.] explains: there is no helper against them (appealing to Psa 68:21); and Dillmann doubts whether there can be a satisfactory explanation of the text, which he holds to be corrupt.

Job 30:14. As through a wide breach ( an elliptical comparison, like Job 30:5) they draw nigh [come on]; under the crash they roll onwards, i, e., of course to storm completely the fortress; comp. Job 16:14. The crash, , is that of the falling ruins of the walls [breached by the assault] not that, e. g., of a roaring torrent, as Hitzig explains (Zeitschr. der D.M. G., IX. 741), who at the same time attempts to give to the unheard of signification, forest stream. [Targ. also; like the force of the far-extending waves of the sea, after which probably E. V., as a wide breaking-in of waters. But the fig. is evidently that of an inrushing army.E.]

Job 30:15. Terrors are turned against me;i. e., sudden death-terrors; comp. Job 18:11; Job 18:14; Job 27:20; they pursue like the storm, (like an all-devastating hurricane) my dignity () [not soul, E. V., probably after the analogy of frequently in Psalms] that, viz., which was described in Job 29:20 seq. The 3d sing. fem. referring to the plur. as in Job 14:19; Job 27:20, and often.And (in consequence of all that) like a cloud my prosperity is gone;i. e., it has vanished as quickly and completelyleaving no traceas a cloud vanishes on the face of heaven. Comp. Job 7:9; Isa 44:22. [Paronomasia between and : my prosperity like a vapor has vanished].

6. Continuation. Second Strophe: The unspeakable misery of the sufferer: Job 30:10-23.And now (the third , comp. Job 30:1; Job 30:8) my soul is poured out within me, dissolving in anguish and complaint, flowing forth in tears [since the outward man is, as it were, dissolved in the gently flowing tears (Isa 15:3) his soul flows away as it were in itself, for the outward incident is but the manifestations and results of an inward action. Del.] On , with me, in me, comp. Job 10:1; Psa 42:5 [E. V., too literallyupon me].Days of suffering hold me fast, i. e., in their power, they will not depart from me with their evil effects [ with its verb, and the rest of its derivatives is the proper word for suffering, and especially the passion of the Servant of Jehovah. Del.]

Job 30:17. The night pierces my bones.[The night has been personified already, Job 3:2; and in general, as Herder once said, Job is the brother of Ossian for personifications: Night, (the restless night, Job 7:3 seq., in which every malady, or at least the painful feeling of it increases) pierces his bones from him. Del.] Or a translation which is equally possible, by night my bones are pierced [E. V., etc.], inasmuch as can be Niph. as well as Piel. , lit. away from me, i. e., so that they are detached from me.And my gnawers sleep not;i. e., either my gnawing pains, or my worms, the maggots in my ulcers; comp. . Job 7:5 [and which in the extra biblical tradition of Jobs disease are such a standing feature, that the pilgrims to Jobs monastery even now-a-days take away with them thence these supposed petrified worms of Job. Del.] In any case is to be explained after Job 30:3. The signification veins (Blumenth), or nerves, sinews (LXX., , Parchon, Kimchi) [E. V.] is without support.

Job 30:18. By omnipotence my garment is distorted;i. e., by Gods fearful power I am so emaciated that my garment hangs about me loose and flapping, no longer looking like an article of clothing (comp. Job 19:20). This is the only interpretation (Ewald, Delitzsch, Dillm., Kamphausen, [E. V., Con., Words., Ren.] etc.), that agrees with the contents of the second member, not that of the LXX., who read instead of , and understood God to be the subject: ; nor that of Hirzel: by omnipotence my garment is exchanged, i. e., for a sack; nor that of Schult. and Schlott.: it (i. e., the suffering, the pain) is changed into [become] my garment, etc. [with the idea of disguise, disfigurement].It girds me round like the collar of my [closely-fitting] coat;i. e., my garment, which nowhere fits me at all, clings to my body as closely and tightly as a shirt-collar fastens around the neck. [, cingit me, is not merely the falling together of the outer garment, which was formerly filled out by the members of the body, but its appearance when the sick man wraps himself in it; then it girds him, fits close to him like his shirt-collar. Del.] The LXX. already translate correctly: (Vulg. quasi capitium tunic) [E. V.].To render as, or in proportion to yields no rational sense (comp. also Exo 28:32).

Job 30:19. He (God) hath cast me into the mire (a sign of the deepest humiliation, comp. Job 16:15) so that I am become like dust and ashes (in consequence of the earth-like, dirty appearance of my skin, comp. Job 7:5, a theme to which he recurs again at the close of the chapter, Job 30:30)

Job 30:20-23. A plaintive appeal to God, entreating help, but entreating it without a hope of being heard by God.I stand there (praying) and Thou lookest fixedly at me, viz., without hearing me. This is the only interpretation of the second member which agrees well with the first, not that of Ewald: if I remain standing, then Thou turnest Thy attention to me, in order to oppose. [Ewald preferring the reading ]. It is absolutely impossible with the Vulg., Saad., Gesen., Umbreit, Welte, [E. V., Ber.] to carry over the of the first member to I stand up, and Thou regardest me not. [The effect of cannot be repeated in the second member, after a change of subject, and in a clause which is dependent on the action of that subject. Con.]

Job 30:21. Thou changest Thyself to a cruel being towards me.svus, comp. Job 41:2 [10], also the softened in the derivative passage, Isa 63:10.On in b, [with the strength of Thy hand Thou makest war upon me], comp. Job 16:9.

Job 30:22, Raising me upon a stormy wind (as on a chariot, comp. 2Ki 2:11) [not exactly to the wind (E. V., Con., Words., etc.), as though Job were made the sport of the wind, ludibrium ventis, but flung upon it, and whirled by it down from the heights of his prosperity.E.]. Thou causest me to be borne away (comp. Job 27:21), and makest me to dissolve in the crash of the storm.The last word is to be read after the Kthibh, with Ewald, Olsh., Del., etc., , and to be regarded as an alternate form of , or (comp. Job 36:29), and hence as being essentially synonymous with , Pro 1:27, tempest, and as to its construction an accus. of motion, like in the following verse. [Ges., Umbr., Noyes, Carey, read , Thou terrifiest me, a verb unknown in Heb., and even in Chaldee used only in Ithpeal. See Delitzsch.] The Kri (of which the LXX. have made ) would give a meaning less in harmony with a: Thou causest well-being to dissolve for me [E. V.: Thou dissolvest my substance. But the other rendering is a far more suitable close to the whole description, which is fearfully magnificent, besides being entitled to the ordinary preference for the Kthibh].

Job 30:23. I know that Thou wilt bring me to death (or bring me back in the sense of , Job 1:21) [death being represented as essentially one with the dust of death, or even with non-existence, Delitzsch, who, however, denies that always and inexorably includes an again], into the house of assembly for all living.The latter expression, which is to be understood in the sense of Job 3:17 seq., is in apposition to , and this is used here as a synonym of , as in Job 28:22.

Conclusion: Third Strophe: Job 30:24-31 : The diappointment of all his hopes.

Job 30:24. But still doth not one stretch out the hand in falling? here an adversative particle, as in Job 16:7; , however, interrogative for , comp. Job 2:10 b. The view that is compounded of and , ruin, fall, destruction (comp. Mic 1:6, also the more frequent plur., , ruins), is favored by the parallel expression in the second member. finally, in the sense of stretching out the hands in supplication, prayer, is at least indirectly supported by Exo 17:11 seq., and similar passages (such as Exo 9:29; 1Ki 8:38; Isa 1:15; Isa 65:2, etc.).Or in his overthrow (will one not lift up) a cry on that account?The interrogative = extends its influence still over the second member. The suffix in refers back to the indefinite subject in , and belongs therefore to the same one overtaken by the fall, and threatened with destruction ( as in Job 12:5). Respecting on that account, therefore, see Ewald, 217, d; and on = , a cry, comp. Job 36:19 a.It is possible that instead of the harsh expression we should read something like (according to Dillmanns conjecture). On the whole the explanation here propounded of this verse, which was variously misunderstood by the ancient versions and expositors, gives the only meaning suited to the context, for which reason the leading modern commentators (Ewald, Hirzel, Delitzsch, Dillmann, and on the whole Hahn, etc.) adhere to it. [Delitzsch thus explains the connection: He knows that he is being hurried forth to meet death; he knows it, and has also already made himself so familiar with this thought, that the sooner he sees an end put to this his sorrowful life, the betternevertheless does one not stretch out ones hand when one is falling? or in his downfall raise a cry for help? As Dillmann remarks, this meaning is striking in itself (besides being simple and natural), and is in admirable harmony with the context. The E. V., after some of the Rabbis, takes in the sense of grave, although the meaning of its rendering is obscure. It would seem to be that God will not stretch out His hand, in the way of deliverance, to the grave, although when He begins to destroy, men cry out for mercy. Wordsworth translates: But only will He (God) not stretch out His hand (to help, see Pro 31:20; Hab 3:10) upon me, who am like a desolation or a ruin? And will not crying therefore (reach Him) in His destruction of me?Others (Ges., Con., Noyes, Carey, take (from ) to mean prayer: Yea, there is no prayer, when He stretches out the hand; nor when He destroys can they cry for help, which is not so well suited to the connection, and is against the parallelism which makes it probable that before is a preposition as before .E.]

Job 30:25. Or did I not weep for him that was in trouble? lit. for the hard of day, for him that is afflicted by a day (a day of calamity). On b comp. Job 19:12; Job 19:15 seq. The . . , to be troubled, grieved, is not different in sense from , Isa 19:10.

Job 30:26. For I hoped for good, and there came evil, etc.For the thought comp. Isa 59:9; Jer 14:19. Respecting (Imperf. cons. Piel), comp. Ewald, 232, h; the strengthening in the final vowel as in Job 1:15.

Job 30:27. In regard to the boiling ( as in Job 41:23 [31]) of the bowels, comp. Lam 1:20; Lam 2:11; Isa 16:11; Jer 31:20, etc. [My bowels boiled, E. V., does not quite express the Pual , are made to boil, the result of an external cause.] On , to encounter any one, to fall upon him [E. V. prevent obsolete], comp. Psa 18:6 [6].

Job 30:28. I go along blackened, without the heat of the sun, i. e. not by the heat of the sun, not as one that is burnt by the heat of the sun. Since (comp. Son 6:10; Isa 30:26) denotes the sun as regards its heat, (instead of which the Pesh. and Vulg. read ) is not to be explained without the sun-light=in inconsolable darkness (so Hahn, Delitzsch, Kamp.) [and probably E. V.: I went mourning without the sun]; which is all the less probable in that can scarcely denote anything else than the dirty appearance of a mourner, covered with dust and ashes (comp. Job 7:5), such a blackening of the skin accordingly as would present an obvious contrast with that produced by the heat of the sun. On comp. Job 24:10.I stand up in the assembly, complaining aloud, giving free expression to my pain on account of my sufferings. here indeed not of the popular assembly in the gatesfor the time was long since passed, when he, the leper, might take his place there (comp. Job 29:7 seq.)but the assembly of mourners, who surrounded him in, or near his house, and who, we are to understand, were by no means limited to the three friends. The opinion of Hirzel and Dillmann, that means publice, is without support; , Pro 26:26 argues against this signification, rather than for it, for there in fact the language does refer to an assembly of the people, not to any other gathering.

Job 30:29. I am become a brother to jackals [Vulg., E. V.: dragons], a companion of ostriches [E. V. here as elsewhere incorrectly owls], i. e. in respect to the loud, mournful howling of these animals of the desert (see Mic 1:8). The reference is not so well taken to their solitariness, although this also may be taken into the account; for the life of a leper, shut off from all intercourse with the public, and put out of the city, must at all times be comparatively deserted, notwithstanding all the groups of sympathizing visitors, who might occasionally gather about him. [See note in Delitzsch 2:171; also Smiths Bib. Diet. Dragon, Ostrich.]

Job 30:30. My skin, being black, peels off from me: lit. is become black from me. as in Job 30:17; the blackness of the skin (produced by the heat of the disease) as in Job 30:19 [where, however, it is referred rather to the dirt adhering to it]; comp. Job 7:5.Respecting from , to glow, to be hot, comp. Eze 24:11; Isa 24:6.

Job 30:31 forms a comprehensive close to the whole preceding description: And so my harp (comp. Job 21:12) was turned to mourning, and my pipe (comp. the same passage) to tones of lamentation; lit. to the voice of the weeping. Jobs former cheerfulness and joyousness (comp. Job 29:24) appears here under the striking emblem of the tones of musical instruments sounding forth clearly and joyously, but now become mute. Similar descriptions in Psa 30:12 [11]; Lam 5:15; Amo 8:10, etc. [Thus the second part of the monologue closes. It is Jobs last sorrowful lament before the catastrophe. What a delicate touch of the poet is it that he makes this lament, Job 30:31, die away so melodiously. One hears the prolonged vibration of its elegiac strains. The festive and joyous music is hushed; the only tones are tones of sadness and lament, mesto flebile. Delitzsch].

Third Division: Jobs asseveration of his innocence in presence of the God of the future: Job 31.

First Strophe: Job 31:1-8. The avoidance of all sinful lust, which he had constantly practiced.A covenant have I made with mine eyes, and how should I fix my gaze on a maiden?i. e., with adulterous intent (comp. , Mat 5:28; comp. Sir 9:6). The whole verse affirms that Job had not once violated the marriage covenant in which he lived (and which, Job 2:9comp. Job 19:17shows to have been monogamous) by adulterous inclinations, to say nothing of unchaste actions. In respect to the significance of this utterance of a godly man in the patriarchal age, in connection with the history of morals and civilization, comp. below Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks. The words ( instead of or ) are literally rendered: to prescribe, to dictate a covenant to the eyes. Job appears accordingly as the superior, prescribing to his organ of vision its conduct, dictating to it all the conditions of the agreement. It is unnecessary, and even erroneous, to translate the verbs as pluperfects (I had made a covenant how should I have looked upon, etc.so e.g., Umbreit, Hahn, Vaih.), for Job would by no means describe these principles of chastity, which he observed, as something belonging merely to the earlier past.

Job 31:2-4 continue the reflections, beginning with Job 31:1 b, which had restrained him from unchaste lusts, and this in the form of three questions, of which the first (Job 31:2) is answered by the second and third (Job 31:3-4).And (thus did I think) what would be the dispensation of Eloah from above? is the portion assigned by God, the dispensation of His just retribution; comp. Job 20:29; Job 27:13, where also may be found the parallel , inheritance. On , from above, comp. Job 16:19; Job 25:2; and in particular such New Testament passages as Rom 1:18 ( ), Jam 1:17 (), etc.

Job 31:3 seq. The answer to that question itself given in the form of a question. On comp. above on Job 30:12; on , Job 18:21; on calamity, Oba 1:12.

Job 31:4. Doth not He (, referring back to , Job 31:2) [and emphatic: Hedoth He not see, etc.] see my ways, and doth He not count all my steps?Comp. Psa 139:2 seq. It was accordingly the thought of God as the omniscient heavenly Judge, which influenced Job to avoid most rigidly even such sinful desires and thoughts as were merely internal!

Job 31:5-8. The first in the series of the many adjurations, beginning with , in which Job continues the assertion of his innocence to the close of the discourse.If I have walked [had intercourse] with falsehood ( here as a synonym of the following , not simply vanity [E. V.] but falsehood, a false nature, lying) and my foot hath hastened to deceit. from a verb , not found elsewhere; and signifying not to be silent, but to hasten (like ) is an alternate form of the more common (comp. , 1Sa 15:19, from a root , synonymous with ).

Job 31:6. Parenthetic demand upon God, that He should be willing to prove the truth of Jobs utterances (not the consequent of the hypothetic antecedent in the preceding verse, as Delitzsch [E. V.], would make it).Let Him (God) weigh me in a just balance; or in the balance of justice, the same emblem of the decisive Divine judgment to which the inscription in the case of Belshazzar refers (Dan 5:25), and which appears in the proverbial language of the Arabs as the balance of works; in like manner among the Greeks as an attribute, of Themis, or Dike, etc.

Job 31:7. Continuation of the asseveratory antecedent in Job 31:5, introduced by an Imperf. of the Pastexpressing the continuousness of the actions describedinterchanging with the Perf. (as again below in Job 31:13; Job 31:16-20, etc.)If my steps turned aside from the way, i. e., from the right way, prescribed by God (comp. Job 23:11), which is forsaken when, as the thought is expressed in b, one walks after his own eyes, i. e., allows himself to be swayed by the lusts of the eye (comp. Jer 18:12;. 1Jn 2:16).And a spot cleaved to my hands, to wit, a spot of immoral actions, especially such as are avaricious. Comp. Psa 7:4 [3] seq.; Deu 13:17, etc. instead of the usual form (comp. Job 11:15), found also Dan 1:4.

Job 31:8. Consequent: then shall I sow and another eat;i. e., the fruits of my labor shall be enjoyed by another, instead of myself (because I have stained it by the fraudulent, appropriation of the property of others); the same thought as above in oh. Job 27:16 seq.; comp. Lev 26:16; Deu 28:33; Amo 5:11, etc.And may my products be rooted out! used here not of children, offspring [E. V.] (as in Job 5:25; Job 21:8; Job 27:14), but according to a of the growth of the soil as planted by the owner, which so far as it shall not fall into the hands of others shall be destroyed (comp. Isa 34:1; Isa 42:5).

9. Continuation. Second Strophe: Job 31:9-15. The righteousness which he had exercised in all the affairs of his domestic life.If my heart has been befooled on account of [or enticed towards] a woman;i. e., a married woman,for the sins of which Job here acquits his conscience are those of the more flagrant sort, like Davids transgression with Bathsheba, cot simple acts of unchastity, such as were described above in Job 31:1.As to b, comp. Job 24:15, and particularly Pro 7:7 seq.

Job 31:10. Consequent: Then let my wife grind for another;i. e., not simply grind with the hand-mill for him as his slave (Exo 11:5; Isa 47:2; Mat 24:41), but according to the testimony of the Ancient Versions (LXX., Vulg., Targ.) and the Jewish expositorsit refers to sexual intercourse in concubinagethis obscene sense being still more distinctly expressed in b., Aram. plur. as in Job 4:2; Job 24:22.

Job 31:11-12. Energetic expression of detestation for the sin of adultery just mentioned.For such a thing () [this] would be an infamous act, and that () a sin [crime to be brought] before the judges.So according to the Kthibh, which with points back to that which is mentioned in Job 31:9, but with points back to , transgression, deed of infamy [the usual Thora-word for the shameless, subtle encroachments of sensual desires, Del.], while the Kri unnecessarily reads in both instances would be, so written (with in the absol. state) = crimen, et crimen quidem judicum (comp. Gesen., 116 [ 114]. Rem.). Still the conjecture is natural that, we are to read either, as in Job 31:28 cr. judiciale, or, , cr. judicum. The meaning of the expression is furthermore similar to , Mat 5:21 seq.

Job 31:12. For it would be a fire which would devour even to the abyss, i. e., which would not rest before it had brought me, consumed by a wicked adulterous passion, to merited punishment in the abyss of hell; comp. Pro 6:27 seq.; Psa 7:26 seq.; Sir 9:8; Jam 3:6, and in respect to see above Job 26:6; Job 28:22,and which would root out all my increase, i. e., burn out the roots beneath it. The before may be expressed by the translation: and which should undertake the act of outrooting upon my whole produce, (Delitzsch) [Beth objecti, corresponding to the Greek genitive expressing not an entire full coincidence, hut an action about and upon the object. See Ewald, 217].

Job 31:13 seq. A new adjuration touching the humane friendliness of Jobs conduct toward his house-slaves. If I despised the right of my servant, of my maidif those who were often treated as absolutely without any rights, certainly not on the basis of the Mosaic law (comp. Exo 21:1 seq., 20 seq.). Job, the patriarchal saint, appears accordingly in this respect also as a fore-runner of the theocratic spirit; comp. Abrahams relations to Eliezer, Gen 15:2; Gen 24:2 seq.

Job 31:14. What should I do when God arose?etc. Umbreit, Stickel, Vaih., Welte, Delitzsch [E. V. Con., Carey, Noy., Words., Merx], correctly construe this verse as the apodosis of the preceding, here exceptionally introduced by , not as a parenthetic clause, which would then have no consequent after it (Ewald, Hirzel, Dillmann), [Schlottmann, Renan, Rod., Elz.]. In respect to the rising up of God, to wit, for judgment, comp. Job 19:25; on to inquire into, comp. Psa 17:3; on , to reply, Job 13:22.

Job 31:15. In the womb did not my Maker make him (also), and did not One (, one and the same God) fashion us in the belly?, syncopated Pilel-form, with suffix of the 1st pers. plur., for (Ewald, 81, a; comp. 250, a). For the thought comp. on the one side, Job 10:8-12; on the other side the use made of the identity of creation and community of origin on the part of masters and servants as a motive for the humane treatment of the latter by the former in Eph 6:9 (also Mal 2:10). [The position of gives some emphasis to the thought that the womb is the common source of our earthly life, or as Delitzsch expresses it, that God has fashioned us in the womb in an equally animal way, a thought which smites down all pride.E.].

Continuation. Third Strophe; Job 31:16-23 : His righteous and merciful conduct toward his neighbors, or in the sphere of civil life (comp. above Job 29:12-17). After the first hypothetic antecedent, in Job 31:16, follows immediately the parenthesis, in Job 31:18, then three new antecedent passages, beginning with (or ), until finally, in Job 31:22, the common consequent of these four antecedents is stated. If I refused to the poor their desire [or, if I held back the poor from their desire] ( construed otherwise than in Job 22:7; comp. Ecc 2:10; Num 24:11); and caused the widows eyes to failfrom looking out with yearning for help; comp. Job 11:20; Job 17:5; and in particular on comp. Lev 26:16; 1Sa 2:33.

Job 31:18. Parenthesis, repudiating the thought that he could have treated widows or orphans so cruelly as he had just describedintroduced by in the significationnay, rather comp. Psa 130:4; Mic 6:4, and often). Nay indeed from my youth he grew up to me as to a father, viz., the orphan; the position of the subjects in respect to those of Job 31:16 and Job 31:17 is chiastic [inverted]. The suffix in has the force of a dative (Ewald, 315, b), and is an elliptical comparison for . The conjecture of Olshausen, who would read he honored [magnified] me, is unnecessary. And from the womb I was her guide.Occasioned by the parallel expression in a, the meaning of which it is intended to intensify, the phrase , from my mothers womb, i. e. from my birth, presents itself as a strong hyperbole, designed to show that Jobs humane and friendly treatment of widows and orphans began with his earliest youth; he had drank it in so to speak with his mothers milk. [So far back as he can remember, he was wont to behave like a father to the orphan, and like a child to the widow. Del.].

Job 31:19. If I saw the forsaken one [or: one perishing] without clothing, etc. as in Job 29:13; , as in Job 24:7. The second member forms a second object to , lit. and (saw) the not-being of the poor with covering.

Job 31:20. In respect to the blessing pronounced by the grateful poor (the blessing described as proceeding from his warmed hips and loins, which in a truly poetic manner are named instead of himself) comp. Job 29:13.

Job 31:21. If I shook my hand over the orphan (with intent of doing violence, comp. Isa 11:15; Isa 19:16) [as a preparation for a crushing stroke], because I saw my help in the gate (i. e. before the tribunal, comp. Job 29:7)a reference to the bribery which he had practiced upon the judges, or to any other abuse of his great influence for the perversion of justice.

Job 31:22. Consequent, corresponding immediately to Job 31:21, but having a wider reference to all the antecedents from Job 31:16 on, even though the sins described in the former ones of the number were not specially committed by the hand, or arm. Then let my shoulder fall from its shoulder-blade. signifies shoulder, or upper arm, even as in b designates the arm. is the nape, which supports the upper arm, or shoulder (together with the shoulder-blades); a pipe, but used to denote the shoulder-joint to which the arm is attached; less probably the hollow bone of the arm itself (against Delitzsch). Concerning the raphatum in the suffixes and , comp. Ewald, 21, f; 247, d.

Job 31:23. Assigning the reason for what precedes, sustaining the same relation to Job 31:22, as Job 31:11 seq. to Job 31:10. For the destruction of God (comp. Job 31:3) is a terror for me ( meaning in mine eyes, comp. Ecc 9:13), and before His majesty ( compar.; as in Job 13:11) I am powerlessI can do nothing, I possess no power of resistance. Job emphasizes thus strongly his fear and entire impotence before God, in order to show that it would be morally impossible for him to be guilty of such practices, as those last described. The hypothetic rendering of the verse: for terror might [or ought to] come upon me, the destruction of God (Del., Kamph.) is impossible.

11. Continuation. Fourth Strophe: Job 31:24-32. Jobs conscientiousness in the discharge of his more secret obligations to God and his neighbor. Within this strophe, Job 31:24-28 constitute first of all one adjuration by itself, consisting of three antecedents with , to which Job 31:28 is related as a common consequent. (According to the assumption of Ewald, Dillmann, Hahn, etc., that Job 31:28 is only a parenthesis, and that a consequent does not follow within the present strophe, the discourse would be too clumsy). Job here expresses his detestation of two new species of sins: avarice (Job 31:24-25), and the idolatry of the Sabian astrology, which are here closely united together as the worship of the glittering metal, and that of the glittering stars; comp. Col 3:6.

Job 31:24. If I set up gold for my confidence, etc. On gold and fine gold comp. Job 28:16; on and , Job 8:14. Respecting the masc. used as a neuter in Job 31:25 b, of that which is great, considerable in number or amount, comp. Ew., 172, b.

Job 31:26. If I saw the sunlight (, the light simply, or the light of this world, Joh 11:9; used also of the sun in Job 37:21; Hab 3:4; comp. the Greek , Odyss. III. 355, and often), how it shines ( as in Job 22:12), and the moon walking in splendor. a prefixed accus. of nearer specification to hence used as an adverb, splendide (Ewald, 279, a). [ is the moon as a wanderer (from = ) i.e., night-wanderer, noctivaga. The two words describe with exceeding beauty the solemn majestic wandering of the moon. Del.]

Job 31:28. And my heart was secretly beguiled, so that I threw to them (to these stars, having reference to the heathen divinities represented by them; hence the , Deu 4:19) a kiss by the hand (lit. so that I touchedwith a kissmy hand to my mouth; respecting this sign of adoratio, or , comp. 1Ki 19:18; Hos 13:2; also Plin. H. N. XXVIII., 2, Job 5 : Inter adorandum dexteram ad osculum referimus et totum corpus circumagimus; and Lucian , who represents the worshippers of the rising sun in Western Asia and Greece as performing their devotion by kissing the hand ( ). In the case of Job it was the worship of the stars as practiced by the Aramans and Arabians (the Himjarites in particular among the latter worshipping the sun and moon [Urotal and Alilat] as their chief divinities) which might from time to time present itself to him in the form of a temptation to apostatize from one invisible God; comp. L. Krehl, Die Religion der vorislamitischen Araber, 1863; L. Diestel, Der monotheismus des ltesten Heidenthums, Jahrbcher fr deutsche Theologie, 1860, p. 709 seq. Against Ewalds assumption that there is here an allusion to the Parsee worship of the sun, and that for that reason our book could not have been written before the 7th Cent. B. C, it may be said, that the kissing of the hand does not appear in the Zoroastrian ritual of prayer, and also that the sun and moon are represented in the Avesta as genii created by Ahuramazda, and consequently not as being themselves gods to be worshipped. Equally arbitrary with this derivation of the passage from the Zend religion by Ewald, is Dillmanns assertion, that it was only from the time of King Ahaz, and still more under Manasseh, that the adoration of the host of heaven began properly to exercise a seductive influence on the people of Israel, and that it was only from that point on that it could be regarded as a sign of particular religious purity that one had never, not even in secret, yielded to this temptation. As though our poet did not know perfectly well what traits he ought to introduce into the picture of his hero, who is consistently represented as belonging to the patriarchal age! Comp. against this unnecessary assumption of an anachronism, of which the poet had been guilty, in the history of civilization or religion, the Introduction, 6, II., f.

Job 31:28. Consequent, (see above): This also were a crime to be punished; lit. a judicial crime, one belonging to the judge; comp. on Job 31:11; and respecting the thought, Exo 17:2 seq.Because I should have denied the God above (Job 31:2); lit. I should have denied [acted falsely] in respect to the God above; means here the same with elsewhere (Job 8:18; Isa 59:13).

Job 31:29-30. A new asseveration with an oath repudiating the suspicion that he had exhibited toward his enemies any hate or malice. For this hypothetic antecedent, as well as for all those which follow, beginning with down to Job 31:38, the special consequent is wanting; not until Job 31:38 seq. does this series of antapodota [antecedents or protases] reach its end. The consequent in Job 31:40, however, is, in respect of its contents, suited only to the antecedent passage immediately preceding, in Job 31:38-39, and not also to the verses preceding those.

Job 31:30; Job 31:32; Job 31:35-37 are accordingly mere parentheses.If I rejoiced over [or in] the destruction ( as in Job 30:24) of him that hated me.That the love of our enemies was already required as a duty under the Old Dispensation is shown by Exo 23:4; Lev 19:18 (the latter passage not without a characteristic limitation), but still more particularly by the Chokmah-literature, e. g.Pro 20:22; Pro 24:17 seq.; Pro 25:21 seq.

Job 31:31. Yet I did not ( with an adversative meaning for the copula) allow my palate (which is introduced here as the instrument of speech, as in Job 6:30 [where, however, it is rather the instrument of tasting, and so is used for the faculty of moral discrimination]) to sin, by a curse to ask for his life;i. e. by cursing to wish for his death.

Job 31:31 seq. He has also continually shown himself generous and hospitable towards his neighbor.If the people of my tent (i. e. my household associates, my domestics) were not obliged to say: where would there be one who has not been satisfied with his flesh? lit. who gives one not satisfied with his flesh? as in Job 14:4; , Partic. Niph. in the accus. depending on (comp. also Job 31:35, and above Job 29:2). here means the same with , 1Sa 25:11, the flesh of his slaughtered cattle. The figurative expression: to eat any bodys flesh in the sense of backbiting, calumniating (Job 19:22) is not to be found here.

Job 31:32. The stranger did not pass the night without; I opened my doors to the traveller. might of itself signifytowards the street (Stickel, Delitzsch). But since this qualification would be superfluous, is rather to be taken as = or . As to the thought, comp. the accounts of the hospitality of Abraham at Mamre, of Lot at Sodom, of the old man at Gibeah (Gen 18:19; comp. Heb 13:2; Jdg 19:15 seq.); also the many popular anecdotes among the Arabs of divine punishments inflicted on the inhospitable (to open a guest-chamber is in Arabic the same as to establish ones own household), and the eulogies of the hospitality of the departed in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. Comp. Wetzstein in Delitzsch [2:193], Brugsch, Die egypt. Grberwelt, 1868, p. 32 seq.; L. Stern, Das egypt. Todtengericht, in Ausland, 1870, p. 1081 seq.

12. Conclusion: Fifth Strophe: Job 31:33-40Job is not consciously guilty even of the hypocritical concealment of his sins, nor of secret misdeedsa final series of asseverations, which is not only related to the preceding enumeration (as though the same were incomplete, and might be supposed to have been silent in regard to some of Jobs transgressions), but which simply links itself to all the preceding assertions of his innocence, and concludes the same.

Job 31:33. If I covered after the manner of men my wickedness;, after the way of the world, as people generally do; comp. Psa 82:7 and Hos 6:7; for even in the latter passage this explanation is more natural than that which implies a reference to Gen 3:8 : as Adam (Targum, Schult., Rosenm., Hitzig, Umbr., v. Hofm., Del.) [E. V., Good, Lee, Con., Schlott., Words., Carey, etc.; and comp. Pusey on Hos 6:7. Conant observes of the rendering ut homo that there is little force in this. On the contrary there is pertinency and point in the reference to a striking and well-known example of this offense, as a notable illustration of its guilt. Such a reference to primeval history in a book that belongs to the literature of the Chokmah is, as Delitzsch remarks, not at all surprising. And certainly the extra-Israelitish cast of the book is no objection to the recognition of so widely prevalent a tradition as that of the Fall in the monotheistic East.]Hiding (, Ew. 280, d) in my bosom my iniquity. is a poetic equivalent of , found only here (but much more common in Aram.).

Job 31:34, closely connected with the preceding verse, declares the motive which might hare influenced Job to hide his sins, viz. the fear of men.Because I feared the great multitude. here as fem., comp. Ew. 174, b; here (otherwise than in Job 13:25) intransitive to be afraid, with accus. of the thing feared. On b and c comp. Job 24:16. The tribes [] whose contempt he fears ( as in Job 12:5; Job 12:21) are the nobler families, his own peers in rank, to be excluded from social intercourse with whom because of infamous crimes would cause him apprehension. With his holding his peace, and not going forth at his door (in c)signs betraying an evil conscience, Brentius strikingly compares the example of Demosthenes, who (according to Plutarch, Demosth, 25) on one occasion made a sore throat a pretext for not speaking, whereas in truth he had been bribed, and who was put to the blush by an exclamation from one of the people: He is not suffering from a sore throat, but from a sore purse ( ). [E. V. renders the verse interrogatively: did I fear? etc.; i. e. if I covered my transgression, etc., was it because I feared the multitude? The objection to this rendering, however, is that it is less in harmony with the adjuratory tone of the context. Not a few commentators render this verse as the imprecation corresponding to Job 31:22 : Then let me dread the great assembly, etc. So Schultens, Con., Noyes, Wemyss, Carey, Good, Lee, Barnes, Elzas.(Patrick makes 34c the apodosis: Then let me hold my peace, and go not forth, etc.). It seems more natural however to regard the dread of the great assembly, and the contempt of the great families of the land, as causes of the cowardly hypocrisy of Job 31:33, rather than as its consequences.Moreover, what the discourse loses as regards completeness of structure, it gains in impressiveness and energy by the frequent parentheses and breaks, which characterize this final strophe according to the view taken in the comm., and adopted by Ewald, Dillmann, Delitzsch, Schlottm., Rodwell, Wordsworth, Renan.E.]

Job 31:35-37. The longest of the parentheses which interrupt the asseverations of our chapter, a shorter parenthesis being again incorporated even with this (Job 31:35 b).O that I had one who would hear me! to wit, in this assertion of my innocence. In this exclamation, as also in the following Job has God in view, for whose judicial interposition in his behalf he accordingly longs here again (as previously, Job 13:16. seq.)Behold my signature (lit. my sign)let the Almighty answer me.The meaning of this exclamation which finds its way into this tumult of feeling can only be this: There is the document of my defense, with my signature! Here I present my written vindicationlet the Almighty examine it (comp. Job 31:6), and deliver His sentence! means lit. my mark, my signature [not my desire, (E. V., after Targ. and Vulg.), as though it were connected with ]; comp. the commentators on Eze 9:4.The cross-form of this sign ( = ), which has there a typical significance, would have no significance in this passage. Rather is it the case that Tav here, in accordance with a conventional, proverbial way of speaking (as tiwa among the Arabs signifies any branded sign, whether or not it be precisely in the form of a cross), has acquired by synedoche the meaninga written document with signature attached, a writing subscribed, and for that reason legally valid; and that Job means by this writing all that he has hitherto said in his own justification, the sum total of his foregoing asseverations of innocence, that it is therefore an apologetic document, a judicial vindication, to which he refers by this little word this appears from the contrast with the accusation or indictment of his opponent, which is immediately mentioned in c. The supposition that Job was ignorant of writing, and for that reason was compelled to put a simple for his signature can be inferred from the passage only by an inappropriate perversion of the proverbial and figurative meaning of the language. Moreover Job 19:23 seq. can be made to lend only an apparent support to this supposition.And (that I had) the writing which mine adversary has written!Grammatically this third member is connected with the first as a second accus. to ; but according to its logical import, it is conditioned by the second member; or, which is the same thing, b is simply a grammatical parenthesis, but at the same time it serves to advance the thought. The writing of the adversary can only be the written charge, in which Jobs adversary, i. e., God (not the three friends, as Delitzsch explains, against the context) has laid down and fixed upon against him. This charge of Gods he wishes to see over against his written defense, for which he is at once ready, or rather which he has already actually prepared. Most earnestly does he yearn to know what God, whom he must otherwise hold for a persecutor of innocence, really has against him. It is only from this interpretation of the words (adopted by Ew., Hirz., Heiligst., Vaih., Dillm.) [Schlott., Noy., Car., Con., Rodw., Bar., Lee, all agreeing as to sense, but with slight variations as to construction] that any available sense is obtained,not from taking the third member as dependent on in the second, in which case must denote either the witness of God to Jobs innocence written in his consciousness (Hahn, and similarly Arnh., Stickel), or the charge preferred against Job by Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar (Del.) neither of which explanations is suitable, for the following verses show that Job is here speaking of something which he does not yet have, but only wishes for.In respect to the use of writing, which is here again presupposed in judicial proceedings, comp. on Job 13:26.

Job 31:36-37 declare what Job would do with that charge of his divine adversary, for which he here longs; he would wear it as a trophy, or as a distinguishing badge of honor on his shoulders (comp. Isa 9:5; Isa 22:22), and bind it around as an ornament for his head, lit., as crowns, i. e., as a crown consisting of diadems rising each out of the other (comp. Rev 19:12);comp. on the one side Job 29:14; Isa 61:10; on the other side Col 2:14 (the handwriting which was blotted out by Christ through His being lifted up on the cross).And further: The number of my steps would I declare to Him;i. e., before Him, the Divine Adversary (who however is at the same time conceived of as Judge, as in Job 16:21) would I conceal none of my actions, but rather would I courageously confess all to Him ( as in Psa 38:19; respecting the construction with a double accus., comp. above Job 26:4).Like a prince would I draw near to Him;i. e., draw nigh to Him with a firm stately step ( intens. of Kal, comp. Eze 36:8), as becomes a prince, not an accused person conscious of guilt; hence with a princely free and proud consciousness, not with that of a poor sinner.

Job 31:38-40 follow up the general assertion, that his conscience was not burdened with secret sins, with a more particular example of his freedom from covert blood-guiltiness. He knows himself to be innocent in particular of the wickedness of removing boundaries by violence, and of the heaven-crying guilt of secret murder, such as he might possibly have committed (after Ahabs example, 1Ki 21:1 seq.; comp. above Job 24:2; Isa 5:8) in order to acquire a piece of land belonging to a weaker neighbor. That Job should close this series of asseverations of innocence with the mention of so heinous a crime will appear strange only so long as we do not realize just how his opponents thus far had judged in respect to the nature and occasion of his suffering in consequence of their narrow-minded, external theory of retribution. Their judgment indisputably wasand Eliphaz had once, at least, expressed it very openly and decidedly (see Job 22:6-9):Because Job has to endure such extraordinary suffering, it must be that he is burdened with some grievous sin, some old secret bloody deed of murder, rapine, etc.! It is into this way of thinking of theirs that Job enters when he concludes his answer with the mention of just such a case, one which might seem sufficiently probable according to a human estimate of the circumstances, and so intentionally reserves to the end the solemn repudiation of that suspicion, which might very easily cleave to him, and which, if well-founded, must have affected him most destructively. The whole discoursewhich indeed in its last division (Job 31) is essentially a self-vindication of the harshly and grievously accused suffererthus acquires an emphatic ending, which by the significant assonances that occur in the closing imprecation, Job 31:40, reaches a very high degree of impressiveness, and produces a thrilling effect on those who heard and read it. This rhetorical artistic design in the close of the discourse is ignored, whether (with Hirzel and Heiligst.) we assume that it was the poets purpose, that Jobs discourse, which with Job 31:38 seq., had taken a new start in further continuation of the series of asseverations touching his innocence, should seem to be interrupted by the sudden appearance of Jehovah (Job 38.), which takes place with striking effect (comp. Introd., 10, No. 1, and ad. 1); or assume a transposition of Job 31:38-40 out of their original connection, as was done by the Capuchin Bolducius (1637), who would remove the three verses back so as to follow Job 31:8; by Kennicott and Eichhorn, who would place them after Job 31:25; by Stuhlmann, who assigned their position before Job 31:35, and latterly by Delitzsch, who leaves undetermined the place, where they originally belonged.

Job 31:38. If my field cries out concerning me (for vengeance, on account of the wicked treatment of its owner; comp. Job 16:18; Hab 2:11), and all together its furrows weep (a striking poetic representation of the figure of crying out against one).

Job 31:39. If I have eaten its strength (i. e. its fruit, its products, comp. Gen 4:12) without payment, and have blown out the soul of its owner, i. e. by any kind of violence, by direct or indirect murder, have caused him to expire; comp. Job 11:20; and the proverbial saying: to snuff out the candle of ones life.

Job 31:40. Consequent, and emphatic close: Briars must (then) spring up (for me) instead of wheat, and stinking weeds instead of barley (the strong word only here, odious weeds, darnel). As to meaning, Job 31:8 is similar; but the present formula of imprecation is incomparably harsher and stronger than that former one, as is shown by the doubled assonance, first the alliteration and , and then the rhyme and .The short clause: the words of Job are ended, which the Masoretes have inappropriately drawn into the network of the poetic accentuation, could scarcely have proceeded from the poet himself (as Carey and Hahn think, of whom the former is inclined even to regard them as Jobs own final dixi), but stand on the same plane of critical value, and even of antiquity with the inscription at the end of the second book of Psalms (Ps. 72:64), or with the closing words of Jer 51:64. The LXX. have changed the words to , in order to bring them into connection with the historical introductory verses in prose which follow (Job 32.). But according to their Hebrew construction they do not seem to incline at all to such a connection. Jerome already recognized their character as an annotation of later origin; they found their way into his translation only by subsequent interpolation.All Heb. MSS. indeed, as well as the ancient oriental versions (Targ., Pesh., etc.), exhibit the addition, which must be accordingly of very high antiquity.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. Measured by the Old Testament standard, the height of the moral consciousness which Job occupies in this splendid final monologue deserves our wonder, and is even incomparable. He says much, and says it boldly, in behalf of the purity of his heart and life. He affirms this with such ardor and fulness of expression, that at times he seems to forget himself, and to contradict his former confessions touching his participation in the universal depravity of the race, as found in ch.Job 13:26; Job 14:4 (see e. g. ch Job 29:14; Job 31:5-7; Job 31:35 seq.). He even relapses at one time into that tone of presumptuous accusation of God as the merciless persecutor of innocence, and seems to find the only divine motive for his grievous lot to be a supposed pleasure by God in the infliction of torture, a one-sided exercise of His activity as a God of power, without any co-operation from His righteousness and love (Job 30, especially Job 30:11 seq., Job 30:18; Job 30:20 seq.). But if in this there is to be recognized a remainder of the unsubdued presumption of the natural man in him, and a lack of proper depth, sharpness and clearness in his consciousness of sin, such as is possible only under the New Dispensation, he occupies a high place notwithstanding in the roll of Old Testament saints. He appears still, and that even in the protestation of innocence which he makes in his own behalf in this his last discourse, as a genuine prince in the midst of the heroes of faith and spiritual worthies of the time before Christ, as one who, when he suffered, had the right to be regarded as an innocent sufferer, and to meet with indignation every suspicion which implied that he was making expiation for secret sins, as the wicked must do.

2. This moral exaltation of Job is seen already in the way in which in Job 29. he describes his former prosperity. Among all the good things of the past which he longs to have back, he gives the pre-eminence to the fellowship and blessing of God, the fountain of all other good (Job 29:2 seq.). In describing the distinguished estimation in which he was then held among men, it is not the external honor as such which he makes most prominent, but the beneficent influence, which, by virtue of that distinction he was able to exert, the works of love, of righteousness and of mercy, in which he was then able to seek and to find his happiness, as the father and guide of many (Job 29:12-17). In the midst of his bitterest complaints on account of the greatness of his losses and the depth of his misery, there come groanings that he can no more do as he was wont to doweep with the distressed, and mourn with the needy, in order to bring them comfort, counsel and help (Job 30:25). And what a noble horror of the sins of falsehood, of lying and deception, of adulterous unchastity, of cruelty towards servants and all those needing help in any way, sounds forth through the asseverations of his innocence in the 31st chapter! With what penetrative truth and beauty does he grasp the two forms of idolatry, the worship of gold on the part of the avaricious, and the worship of the stars by the superstitious heathen, as two waysonly in appearance far removed from each other, but in truth most closely united togetherof denying the one true and living God (Job 30:24-28)! How decidedly he maintains the necessity of showing love even to ones enemies, to say nothing of ones fellow-men in general, known or unknown, neighbors or foreigners (Job 30:29 seq.)! With what indignation does he repel the suspicion of secret, hypocritically concealed sins and deeds of violence, again solemnly appealing in the same connection to God to be a witness to the purity of his conscience and to be a judge of the innocence of his heart (Job 30:33 seq.)! The man who could thus bear witness to his innocence could be a virtuous man of no ordinary sort. He was far from being one of the common class of righteous men known in ancient times. Such an one, far from being subject to the curse of wicked slander and calumny, could not be reckoned among ordinary sinners, or as a crafty hypocrite.

3. That, however, which exalts Job higher than all this is that which is said by him in the beginning of Job 31. (Job 31:1 seq.; comp. Job 31:7) in respect to his avoidance on principle even of all sins of thought, and impure lusts of the heart. A covenant have I made for my eyes, and how should I fix my gaze on a maiden? He who shows such earnestness as this in obeying the law of chastity, in avoiding all sinful lust, in extirpating even the slightest germs of sin in the play of thought, and in the look of the eyeshe strives after a holiness which is in fact better and more complete than the law of the Old Dispensation, with its prohibitions of coveting that which belongs to another (Exo 20:17; Deu 5:21), could teach. He shows himself to be on the way which leads directly to that pure as well as complete righteousness and godlikeness, which has for its final aim purity of heart as the foundation and condition of one day beholding God, and which, in its activity towards men, takes the form of that perfect love which seeks nothing but good and blessing even for enemies, and devotes itself wholly and unreservedly to the kingdom of Godon the way, in short, to that holiness and purity of heart which Christ teaches and prescribes in the Sermon on the Mount. The fact that Job gives utterance to such high and clear conceptions of rectitude, virtue and holiness, is of especial interest for the reason that not one of the fundamental principles recognized by him is referred expressly to the Sinaitic law; but, on the contrary, the extra-Israelitish pre-Mosaic patriarchal character of his religious and ethical consciousness and activity is preserved throughout, and with conscious consistency by the poet in the description before us (comp. above on Job 31:24-27). In the strict accuracy with which this representation mirrors the characteristic features of the inner, as well as of the outer life of the patriarchal age, and in the fidelity with which the East cherishes and preserves the traditions of the primeval world in general, these utterances of a man who survived in the recollections of posterity as a moral pattern of the tas patriar-charum, acquire indirectly even an apologetic importance which is not insignificant, in so far as it proves the impossibility of conceiving historically of the moral civilization of the patriarchs otherwise than as resting on the foundation of positive revelation. Comp. Delitzsch [II. 172 seq.]: Job is not an Israelite, he is without the pale of the positive, Sinaitic revelation; his religion is the old patriarchal religion, which even in the present day is called din Ibrahim (the religion of Abraham, or din el–bedu (the religion of the steppe) as the religion of those Arabs who are not Moslem, or at least influenced by the penetrating Islamism, and is called by Mejnsh el hanfje, as the patriarchally orthodox religion. As little as this religion, even in the present day, is acquainted with the specific Mohammedan commandments, so little knew Job of the specifically Israelitish. On the contrary, his confession, which he lays down in this third monologue, coincides remarkably with the ten commandments of piety (el–felh) peculiar to the dn Ibrahm, although it differs in this respect, that it does not give the prominence to submission to the dispensations of God, that teslm which, as the whole of this didactic poem teaches by its issue, is the study of the perfectly pious; also bravery in defense of holy property and rights is wanting, which among the wandering tribes is accounted as an essential part of the hebbet er–rh (inspiration of the Divine Being) i.e. active piety, and to which it is similarly related, as to the binding notion of honor which was coined by the western chivalry of the middle ages. Job begins with the duty of chastity. Consistently with the prologue, which the drama itself nowhere belies, he is living in monogamy, as at the present day the orthodox Arabs, averse to Islamism, are not addicted to Moslem polygamy. With the confession of having maintained this marriage (although, to infer from the prologue, it was not an over-happy, deeply sympathetic one) sacred, and restrained himself not only from every adulterous act, but also from adulterous desires, his confessions begin. Here, in the middle of the Old Testament, without the pale of the Old Testament , we meet just that moral strictness and depth, with which the Preacher on the Mount (Mat 5:27 seq.) opposes the spirit to the letter of the seventh commandment. As Biblical parallels to the strict observance of the law of monogamic chastity in the patriarchal age, as the passage before us affirms it of Job, may be mentioned Isaac and Joseph, as also Moses and Aaron.

4. The fact that Job towards the end of his monologue (not quite at the end of itsee above on Job 31:38 seq.) repeats his previously uttered wish for a judicial interposition of God in his behalf is significant in so far as in this demand the triumph of his consciousness of innocence, by virtue of which he knows that he is secured against all dangers of defeat, expresses itself most strongly and clearly; and in this same connection the practical goal of his apologetic testimony hitherto is evident in his pressing on to the conclusion of the entire action. This conclusion of the action does not indeed follow immediately, inasmuch as a human teacher of wisdom next makes his appearance as the harbinger of Jehovahs appearance,preparing the way for it. This however takes place exactly in the way, and with the result which Job himself has wished and hoped forthe trial to which God finally condescends at Jobs repeated request, being such as yields for its result not a clean victory for Job, but rather a thorough humiliation of the pride and presumption, hitherto unknown to himself. But even this incongruity between Jobs desire and the way in which God grants it, corresponds perfectly to the poets plan, and is a most brilliant evidence of the purity and loftiness of his religious and moral way of thinking, in which a conscience so wonderfully delicate and enlightened as that which Job had disclosed in these his closing discourses nevertheless appears as in need of repentance, and unable to secure from God a verdict of unconditional justification. In like manner as Christ declared to that young man who boasted that he had kept all the commandments of the law from his youth up, that one thing was lacking, even to give up all his earthly possessions, and to secure an imperishable treasure in heaven (Mar 10:17, and the parallel passages), our poet first introduces Elihu, as a representative of the highest that human wisdom can teach and accomplish apart from a divine revelation, and then the revealing voice of God Himself, crying out to his hero a humiliatingOne thing thou lackest! This one thing which Job yet lacked in order to be acknowledged by God as His well-beloved servant, and to be received again into His favor, is to humble himself beneath Gods mighty hand, willingly to accept all His dispensations as wise, gracious, and just, to be thoroughly delivered from that sinful self-exaltation, in which he had dared to find fault with God, and to be enraged against His alleged severity. This was the last thing belonging to him which he must give up, the last remnant of earthly impure dross, from which the gold of his heart must be set free, in order that he might become partaker of the divine grace of justification. In order really and completely to comprehend the divine wisdom, which in Job 28. he had so strikingly described as a precious treasure in heaven transcending all earthly jewels, in order actually to travel the hidden way to her, with that accurate knowledge of it which he had there portrayed, this one thing was still lacking to him:the humble acknowledgment that even in his case God had acted altogether justly, altogether lovingly, altogether as a Father. To the possession of this one precious pearl he was led forward by Elihu and Jehovah through the two remaining stages in the solution of the problem.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

In unfolding the rich contents of the three preceding chapters according to their connection with the entire structure of the poem, and in assigning to these contents their true position in the inner progress of the action, it will be well to bestow special attention on the parallel just now indicated (Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks, No. 4) between Job and the rich young man. Job, earnestly and honestly striving after the kingdom of God, after an eternal fellowship of the life with God, with this in view receiving and enumerating all the moral treasures of his spirit and of his life, who notwithstanding his wealth in such treasures is discovered to be not yet just before God;or, more briefly: Job, the Old Testament seeker after happiness, contemplating himself in the mirror of the law (Job, the prototype of that rich man, to whose perfection one thing was yet lacking);such might be the statement of the theme of a comprehensive meditation on the material before us, according to its relations to that which precedes, and to that which follows. The length of the discourse indeed would necessitate a division into several parts, of which any one could not very well exceed the limits of one of the three chapters. The practical expositor will find the richest yield of fruitful hortatory motives in the two bright pictures which constitute the opening and the close of the long soliloquy (Job 29, 31), whereas the gloomy night-piece which they enclose (Job 30) seems in this respect relatively poor, and when compared with the similar descriptive lamentations in Jobs previous discourses, exhibits scarcely anything that is essentially new.

Particular Passages

Job 29:2 seq. Cocceius: Job indeed in this place seems not so much to desire his former happiness, as to contrast the pleasure of a good conscience and of a friendship with God formed in youth, with his present fearful sufferings He wishes for his former condition, adorned as it was with tokens of divine favor, not for the sake of those tokens, to wit, plenteousness and sweetness of life, but for the sake of that of which they were the seal He distinguishes between his own chief good, and the things connected with it. He brings forward his riches as a testimony of the past, not as a necessity of the present. For he knew that even a beggar can delight in God.V. Gerlach: That which constitutes the kernel of the description here again is the constant nearness of God, the consciousness of His approbation, the certainty of His guidance; this is accompanied by the happy recollection that he had employed the honor which God had granted to him, the riches which He had bestowed on him, only to bless others: in short his position was that of a princely, royal representative of God on earth.

Job 29:18 seq. Cramer: On earth there is nothing that endures; if it goes well with any one, let him suspect that it may go ill with him (Sir. 2:26).V. Gerlach: In Jobs allusion to the ancient legend of the phnix, there lies a certain irony: I had hoped in respect to the permanence of my happiness that which was most incredible, most impossible, etc.

Job 30:1 seq. Brentius: From all these things (enumerated in the preceding chapter), Jobs authority is eulogized, that we may learn with what honor God sometimes distinguishes the pious. But in this chapter we are taught with what a cross He afflicts them that they may be tried; for it behooves the godly to be proved on the right hand and on the left, as Paul says 2Co 6:7 (comp. Php 4:12). But this is written for our instruction, that we may learn that nothing in the whole world, however excellent, endures, but that all things go to ruin; for both the heavens and the earth will perish, how much more carnal glory, authority and happiness (Isaiah 40).Idem (on Job 30:12): Temptation is two-fold, on the right hand, and on the left. We are tempted on the right when fleshly joys, health, riches, majesty, glory abounda temptation which, as it is most agreeable to the flesh, so also is it most dangerous. We are tempted on the left by crosses, afflictions and evils of whatever sort, more safely, however, and with less danger, for we are more readily taught by the cross than destroyed by it.Zeyss: To be the objects of extreme contempt and ridicule from the world is to pious believers a great tribulation, and inflicts deep wounds on their hearts, but even in this they must become like Christ their head (Heb 12:3)!Idem (on Job 30:15): When God afflicts His children in the body, or by some other grievous outward calamity, this is seldom unaccompanied by inward trials, anguish, fear and terror; it. is with them, as with the Apostlewithout fightings, within fears (2Co 7:5).

Job 31:1 seq. Oecolampadius: He sets before our eyes one who is absolutely righteous in every particular; for a man will not escape the wrath of God, if he is merciful to the wretched, while at the same time he pollutes himself with various lusts and crimes. He accordingly indulges in holy boasting that he had been blameless in the law, that he had kept his members from abominable sins, and devoted himself to the service of righteousness, keeping his eyes from lusting after a woman, his tongue from guile and falsehood, his hands and feet from cruelty, violence, revenge and rapacity. For he who puts such a watch upon his senses, he will easily be perfected in all things.Starke: Forasmuch as it is through the eyes, for the most part, that whatsoever excites the lust finds its way into the heart, Job naturally begins with his watchfulness over this sense; from which it may be seen that he understood the divine law far better than the Pharisees in the time of Christ (Mat 5:27 seq.).

Job 31:16 seq. Starke: He who does good to the poor will not remain unblessed (Psa 41:2 [1] seq.). Clothing the naked is a deed of mercy (Isa 58:7 seq.) which Christ will hereafter praise on the last day (Mat 25:36).

Job 31:24 seq. Oecolampadius: See what a chain of virtues he links together, and what innocence he preserves through all things! It is not those only who acquire riches by plunder and lawlessness who incur Gods wrath, but those even who trust in riches honestly acquired, and who prefer them to God, so that they become their idol and their mammon. The pious and grateful man would say: I have received from God; but they whose God is gold, have no God.Starke: It was a proof of great constancy on the part of Job to serve the true God faithfully in the midst of idolaters, and to be most solicitous to show the more subtle idolatry of avarice as well as the more gross idolatry of sun and stars.

Job 31:35 seq. Osiander: Even godly people have flesh and blood, and often say things of which they must afterwards repent, and which they themselves cannot praise.Wohlfarth: I will, I can render an account before the Lordthus speaks Job in the consciousness that he has never committed a gross sinnay, has even shunned most carefully the minor and more secret offenses. Was he, however, quite so sure of this? Was he in truth so absolutely blameless before God, to whom we must confess: Lord, when I have done all things, I am still an unprofitable servant! Who can mark the number of his transgressions? etc. There belongs in truth more to this than a man generally believes when he calls God as a witness.

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The subject of Job’s defense is still prosecuted. He enters, somewhat more largely, into the particular justification of himself from that sin which he seemed so much hurt at having been charged with, hypocrisy, and closes the subject with this defense.

Job 31:1

(1) I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

This chapter deserves our attention the more, because, though Job takes no pride in what he here saith, in the justification of himself, yet in those secret sins, which are known only to the LORD, on numberless occasions of evil, the Patriarch pleads not guilty; and which therefore serves to confirm the divine testimony which the LORD gave concerning his servant, in the opening of the book itself, that there was none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feared GOD, and eschewed evil. Chap. 2:3. There is a great beauty in Job’s expression in this verse, of having made a covenant with his eyes, to preserve, under grace, the chastity of the mind and body. By the eye, the lust of the flesh is frequently excited: and our adored Redeemer hath set it down as uncleanness and adultery already committed, if a man so looks on a woman as to lust after her. Mat 5:28 . There may be many causes, in the difficulty of attainment, or the shame and punishment which might attend the gratification of unlawful passions, which restrain the actual commission of the sin; but nothing but the grace of GOD can preserve the chastity of the mind from so much as wishing it, or thinking upon it. Joseph’s views of this subject was similar to Job’s, that wickedness is against GOD. Gen 39:9 . Reader, though I have made this long note upon this verse, yet it is so very important, that I venture to make it a little longer, and to observe, that since from the corruption of our poor fallen nature, evil thoughts, and the whole train of the imaginations of the heart arise, how infinitely precious ought it to be to us, to eye the grace of JESUS as our preservative against this, and every evil; and, conscious of the uncleanness within, to keep the heart with all diligence, and to beg of GOD to keep it for us, since out of it are the issues of life. Pro 4:23 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Job 31:1

‘Chastity,’ said Bishop Camus of Belley, ‘is timid and sensitive, trembling at every shadow, quick at every sound, fearing every peril. It takes alarm at a glance as a very Job, who had made a covenant with his eyes; the slightest word disconcerts it; it is suspicious of sweet scents; good food seems a snare, mirth a levity, society treacherous, light reading a danger. It moves along all eyes and ears, like one covered with jewels who crosses a forest, and starts at every step, fancying he hears robbers.’

Chastity is the flowering of man; and what are called Genius, Heroism, Holiness, and the like, are but various fruits which succeed it.

Thoreau, Walden (‘ Higher Laws’).

Reference. XXXI. 14. G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 130.

Job 31:15

The races to whom we owe the Bible were cruel in war; they were revengeful; their veins were filled with blood, hot with lust; they knew no art, nor grace, nor dialectic, such as Greece knew, but one service they at least have rendered to the world. They have preserved in their prophets and poets this eternal verity He that made me in the womb made him and have proclaimed with Divine fury a Divine wrath upon all who may be seduced into forgetfulness of it.

Mark Rutherford in The Deliverance.

When Job had spoken of his duty to the lowly, he had given the sanction for it in the thought: Did not One fashion us? Jesus gives a higher sanction: Does not one Father love you all? In the presence of the Father the children are to lose their separateness. Royce, Religious Aspect of Philosophy, p. 42.

Job 31:16-17

Eugenius prescribes to himself many particular days of fasting and abstinence, in order to increase his private bank of charity, and sets aside what would be the current expenses of those times for the use of the poor. He often goes afoot when his business calls him, and at the end of his walk has given a shilling, which in his ordinary methods of expense would have gone for coach hire, to the first necessitous person that has fallen in his way. I have known him, when he has been going to a play or an opera, divert the money which was designed for that purpose upon an object of Charity whom he has met in the street.

Addison, Spectator (No. 177).

Job 31:19

‘It was one of Job’s boasts that “he had seen none perish for want of clothing”; and that he had often “made the heart of the widow to rejoice”. And doubtless Dr. Sanderson,’ says Izaak Walton, ‘might have made the same religious boast of this and very many like occasions. But, since he did not, I rejoice that I have this just occasion to do it for him.’

Job 31:24

If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free; if our wealth command us, we are poor indeed.

Burke, First Letter on a Regicide Peace.

Job 31:26-27

‘The scholar of the sixteenth century,’ says Ruskin in the third volume of The Stones of Venice, ‘if he saw the lightning shining from the east to the west, thought forthwith of Jupiter, not of the Son of Man; if he saw the moon walking in brightness, he thought of Diana, not of the throne which was to be established for ever as a faithful witness in heaven; and though his heart was but secretly enticed, yet thus he denied the God that is above.’

‘Were I obliged to have a religion,’ said Napoleon, ‘I would worship the sun the source of all life the real God of the earth.’

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Job 31

1. I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? [Some think that Job’s wife was now dead.]

2. For what portion of God is there [would be] from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

3. Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

4. Doth not he [emphatic, meaning God] see my ways, and count all my steps?

5. If I have walked with vanity [inward falsehood], or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;

6. Let me be weighed in an even balance [in a balance of righteousness], that God may know [will know] mine integrity.

7. If my step hath turned out of the way [the narrow way of righteousness], and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands,

8. Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

9. If mine heart have been deceived [befooled] by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door;

10. Then let my wife grind unto another [perform all menial offices like a slave], and let others bow down upon her.

11. For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

12. For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction [the same thought in Deu 32:22 , Deu 32:25 ], and would root out all mine increase.

13. If I did despise [an answer to chap. Deu 22:5 ] the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me [so slaves had rights, which honest men recognised];

14. What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

15. Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?

16. If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

17. Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

18. (For from my youth he [the fatherless] was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb;)

19. If I have seen any perish for want of clothing [any wanderer without clothing], or any poor without covering;

20. If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

21. If I have lifted up [waved] my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate [in the court of justice]:

22. Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone [the charnel-bone].

23. For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure [I was unable to act thus].

24. If I have made gold my hope [referring to the admonition of Eliphaz, chap. Deu 22:23-24 ], or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

25. If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much;

26. If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness [Job seems to have known only one kind of idolatry];

27. And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:

28. This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge [probably, my judge, meaning God]: for I should have denied the God that is above [star-worship was a legal offence].

29. If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

30. Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.

31. If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

32. The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller [the wayfarer. Compare Gen 19:2-3 ; Jdg 19:20-21 ].

33. If I covered my transgressions as Adam [as man], by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

34. Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

35. Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.

36. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.

37. I would declare [I would readily give an account of all my actions, and meet him with alacrity and perfect confidence] unto him the number of my steps; as a prince [conscious of inward and inalienable dignity] would I go near unto him.

38. If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain [a strong impersonation to express the consequences of oppression and wrong-doing];

39. If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

40. Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.

Job’s Retrospect and Protest

Job is now winding up his wonderful parable, and is about to retire from the fray of words. It will be curious to notice how the great sufferer closes his review. Will it be as dark at the end as it was at the beginning? Can mere controversy ever illuminate the providence of God, or must God himself always dissolve the cloud which hides his love? Looking over the whole ground which we have traversed, it cannot be said that the case has been imperfectly stated: eloquence was never sublimer, frankness was never more explicit, consciousness of integrity was never more stoutly maintained. What then, can man do with any divine riddle; or how can he settle the tumult and uproar of human life? Verily man can do nothing, and this is the lesson he is meant to learn. He will not learn it by mere exhortation; he must fight his way to it. Every man must, as it were though that is a hard word to use eat of the forbidden tree for himself, and die in his own person. To have begun with the exhortation, “Man can know nothing as it really is, and must wait for all divine solutions,” would have been to mistake human nature, and to waste patience and time. Men will not believe. Experience goes for next to nothing with most of us. We always think that we ourselves could do better. We see a thousand men fall, and yet we criticise them and say, If we had made the attempt certainly we should not have fallen. So we go boldly to the front, and fall down dead just as they did, and all the generations come on after us dying, always dying. History is thus lost upon us, as we have had occasion many times to remark. We learn nothing by what happened in our neighbour’s house. We have seen what has come of ill-assorted marriage or partnership, or adventurous speculation; yet we have gone and repeated the very thing, with our minds full of knowledge, and our hearts warned with ghostly advice. What, then, will the end of the review be? Simply silent despair or silent waiting.

Let us look at the kind of life Job says he lived, and in doing so let it be remarked that all the critics concur in saying that this chapter contains more jewels of illustration, of figure or metaphor, than probably any other chapter in the whole of the eloquent book. Job is, therefore, at his intellectual best. Let him tell us the kind of life he lived: whilst he boasts of it we may take warning by it; the very things he is clearest about may perhaps awaken our distrust.

Job had tried a mechanical life:

“I made a covenant with mine eyes” ( Job 31:1 ).

The meaning of “a mechanical life” is, a life of regulation, penance, dicipline; a life all marked out like a map; a kind of tabulated life, every hour having its duty, every day its peculiar form or expression of piety. Job smote himself; he set before his eyes a table of negations; he was not to do a hundred things. He kept himself well under control: when he burned with fire, he plunged into the snow; when his eyes wandered for a moment, he struck them both, and blinded himself in his pious indignation. He is claiming reward for this. Truly it would seem as if some reward were due. What can a man do more than write down upon plain paper what he will execute, or what he will forbear doing, during every day of the week? His first line tells what he will do, or not do, at the dawn; he will be up with the sun, and then he will perform such a duty, or crucify such and such a passion: he will live a kind of military life; he will be a very soldier. Is this the true way of living? or is there a more excellent way? Can we live from the outside? Can we live by chart, and map, and schedule, and printed regulation? Can the race be trained in its highest faculties and aspects within the shadow of mount Sinai? Or is the life to be regulated from within? Is it the conduct that is to be refined, or the motive that is to be sanctified and inspired? Is life a washing of the hands, or a cleansing of the heart? The time for the answer is not now, for we are dealing with an historical instance, and the man in immediate question says that he tried a scheduled life. He wrote or printed with his own hand what he would do, and what he would not do, and he kept to it; and though he kept to it, some invisible hand struck him in the face, and lightning never dealt a deadlier blow.

Job then says he tried to maintain a good reputation amongst men,

“If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity. If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out” ( Job 31:5-8 ).

That was a public challenge. There were witnesses; let them stand forth: there was a public record kept; let it be read aloud. This man asks for no quarter; he simply says, Read what I have done; let the enemy himself read it, for even the tongue of malice cannot pervert the record of honesty. Will not this bring a sunny providence? Will not this tempt condescending heaven to be kind and to give public coronation to so faithful a patron? Is there no peerage for a man who has done all this? Nay, is he to be displaced from the commonalty and thrust down that he may be a brother to dragons and a companion to owls? All this has he done, and yet he says “My skin is black upon me, and my bones are burned with heat. My harp also is turned to mourning, and my organ into the voice of them that weep.” This is not what we have thought of Providence. We have said, Who lives best in the public eye will be by the public judgment most honourably and cordially esteemed: the public will take care of its servants; the public will stand up for the man who has done all he could in its interests; slave, man or woman, will spring to the master’s rescue because of remembered kindnesses. Is Job quite sure of this? Certainly, or he would not have used such imprecations as flowed from his eloquent lips: If I have done thus, and so, then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out: let my wife grind servilely unto another: let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone So then Job himself is speaking earnestly. Yet, he says, though I have done all this, I am cast into the mire, and I am become like dust and ashes: though I have done all this, God is cruel unto me, and he does not hear me: I stand up, and he regardeth me not: with his strong hand he opposeth himself against me: he has lifted me up to the wind, and he has driven me away with contempt: he has not given me time to swallow down my spittle: I, the model man of my day, have been crushed like a venomous beast. Job, therefore, does not modify the case against God. He misses nothing of the argument and withholds nothing of the tragic fact. He makes a long, minute, complete, and urgent statement. And this statement is found in the Bible! Actually found in a book which is meant to assert eternal providence and justify the ways of God to man! It is something that the Bible could hold within its limits the book of Job. It is like throwing one’s arms around a furnace; it is as if a man should insist upon embracing some ravenous beast and accounting him as a member of the household. These charges against Providence are not found in a book written in the interests of what is called infidelity or unbelief; this impeachment is part of God’s own book.

But do not interrupt Job; let him tell us more of the tale of his life. And next we shall find him claiming to have lived a deeply beneficent life. The proof is in Jdg 19:13-22 :

“If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me; what then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; (for from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb;) if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; if his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate: then let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.”

So Job had not lived a luxurious life at the expense of the public comfort. Job kept a large table; his feast overflowed the bounds of his house, and took in a large outside space, and there the stranger, the fatherless, and the helpless were welcome. Judged by the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, this testimony would be a passport to heaven. Compare the passage now before us with the passage in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, which shows the ground on which heaven is apportioned, and you would say, Job must go in first; no man could compete with him; rivalry is out of the question here; Job did everything with a princely hand; there was not a mean thought in all his intellectual range; how to do good and to do it to the most undeserving seems to have been his supreme thought: stand back, and let Job go up to heaven first. Yet Job says there was nothing for him but shame and sorrow: he was abhorred; his cord was loosed; he was afflicted; upon his right hand youth rose up, and pushed away his feet, and his path was marred. This overturns all our conceptions of a beneficent Providence. What spoils this ointment? Who can name the dead fly that is in it? Was it self-consciousness? Had Job after all kept a record of what he had been doing? Did he put down in the twilight of evening all the good things he had done during the day? Was he self-congratulatory as well as self-condemnatory? Did he in effect write every day at the foot of the page in his diary, Behold, how good a man I am: when these words are read after my death all the world will be amazed at my munificence and philanthropy? Was this an investment? Was this a plume worn only upon ornamental occasions? Did Job say, I will have my horse ready, and if any challenge be made as to my reputation you will find me at the front, well-mounted, white-plumed, going right out at the head of the procession, challenging the loudest, meanest, most malignant critic to tell his tale, and I will devour him as he proceeds in his vicious accusation? The people in the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew were surprised to hear how good they had been. Not a word did they say about themselves. They were told they had been beneficent, and they said, We have no recollection of it. Is it possible for men to be laying up good works, hardly knowing that they are doing so? Is there after all a papal doctrine of supererogation written in every heart? Is there a temptation which says, If you do double good today you may take fine holidays with the devil tomorrow? We are fearfully and wonderfully made. Do we ever go to the bank of our beneficence and draw upon it, that with its sacred wealth we may feast at the devil’s table? We can but put these questions to ourselves, thrust them into ourselves like two-edged swords. Do we buy ourselves off for the week by going to church on Sunday? Do we make bargains with Fate? Do we whisper to that great Force whatever it be, God or Fate, Jehovah, Jove, or Lord and say, Take this, and allow me a little more liberty? No man may answer these questions, because no man can reply to them without cutting himself to pieces. Yet it is well to put them searchingly to the heart, to strike the heart dumb: well to take the hymn sometimes from our lip, to strike it speechless, that the mouth may learn to utter condemnation as well as praise. Still, there is the mystery. Do not try to lessen it, to modify it, to evade it. It stands before us as a fact, that men have prayed, and have been smitten down at the altar; men have done good, and have been left with an empty hand; saints have been tried by fire. All this must be cleared up, and no doubt all this will be elucidated; in the meantime we lose nothing by looking at the mystery in all its proportions, in all its darkness yea, in all its apparent cruelty. Who are the sick today? Do we find any real Christians amongst the poor? Are there honest souls that hardly know where to get the next mouthful of bread? Are there lives, that appear to be lived for others, by way of example, they having to endure all the excruciating pain, and to be lifted up, whilst others look, and wonder, and learn?

Then Job says he was not only living a mechanical life and a beneficent life, and trying to maintain a good reputation amongst men, but he was constant in his religious fidelity.

“If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge” ( Job 31:26-28 ).

Job knew of only one kind of idolatry. He seems not to have been learned in the idolatrous corruptions of the time. It was a beautiful idolatry. What act could be so nearly religious as to fall down before the sun, and hail that majesty of light with hymn, and psalm, and praise, sometimes so intense as to be mute? If any man may be forgiven idolatry, surely he will be forgiven who saw in the sun a kind of deity. Or, Job said, If I have kissed my hand to the moon fair moon, leaf of purity, banner of heaven, most lovely of all the night-shining ones if I have done this, I am willing to be punished: but I have never played the Babylonian idolater, I have never followed sun or moon, I have been constant in my aspirations after the living God; and yet the men who have beheld the sun, and nightly kissed their hands to the moon, are rich and fat and strong, and I am a heap of corruption. Surely God has not been careful to maintain his supremacy by patronage of those who have believed in him! He has not supported his throne by always crowning those who acknowledged it and received their laws from it; that is to say, judging between given points of time, they in some cases seem to have been the despised and rejected of men. Yet let us repeat, for there is something of the nature of an argument in the admission all this is found in the Book of God! What a clearing-up there will be! When the sun does come he will shine in his strength. Meanwhile, the night is sevenfold in darkness; no candle of men’s lighting can have any effect upon this gloom: surely some new sun must be created to dissolve this night and restore the dawn. But believing as we do in God, we have confidence in the end. “Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.” But who can tell how the light will come? Will a sun be sent, or will God come himself? Are there occasions in history in which preacher, minister, priest, officer, annotator, must all stand back, whilst God takes the case into his own hands, and speaks audibly to those who have been long waiting for the revelation of his law?

Job, however, reserves the severest point to the last; he calls God “his adversary.” We never thought that he could have done that. He began by saying, “The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord “; but now he calls God his foe, his enemy, and he says, “My desire is that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.” How often is this text misapplied! How often is it made almost to point a jest? What does the suffering patriarch want? He wants the case written down that he might have it examined in some court of justice. He is dealing with anonymous charges. He says in effect, Would that God would state in plain terms what he has against me, for I do not know what he can have against his servant: I have never wandered from him, I have never worshipped sun, or moon; I have been kind to the poor, gracious to the friendless, my house has been an open house to every traveller who cared to come that way and take its bread; I have attended to my morals, I have been scrupulous about my conduct; I have written a law for my eyes, my hands, my feet: oh that mine adversary, accuser, judge, punisher, would write a book, would put down upon a scroll in plain letters that I could read what it is that has come between him and me! Yes, there we all sometimes stand. We cannot tell what it is that we have done. We go over our prayers and say, They were at least well meant if not well expressed. We review our Church relations, and say, We have been faithful to our bonds and obligations and promises; we have loved the house of God, and longed for the opening of its gates: and now, behold what a black procession comes into the house loss, pain, poverty, affliction many-coloured and many-shaped, and death: were the charge written in black ink upon white paper we could see it, and measure it, and answer it; but it is the air that accuses us, it is the darkening heaven that fills us with dismay; it is an anonymous contempt under which our soul withers. So we will not diminish the mystery one whit; we will read it as an infidel might read it in all the letters which are before us by way of historical statement We will not speak it as if it were some light thing, frivolous in its suggestions and easily borne as to its penalties. We will read it as an unbeliever might read it: we will read it with a vicious accent; we will exhaust our ingenuity of emphasis, in order to make out this mystery in all its bulk and blackness. Better it be so. The answer is not in diminishing the mystery, but in bringing to bear upon it such light as will banish it, drive it away like a shadow that seems to be afraid.

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 The radical wing of the higher critics say,

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 31:1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

Ver. 1. I made a covenant with mine eyes ] This chapter, since it is one of the largest in all the book, so it is elegant, various, and very full of matter; for it shows us, as in a mirror, both what we should do and what we should not do. Good Melancthon, about the beginning of the Reformation, mournfully complained, Quos fugiamus habemus; quos sequamur non intelligimus, We have whom to flee from (meaning the Papists), but whom to follow, we yet understand not (by reason of the many divisions among Protestants). But here we may be at a better certainty; by treading in Job’s footsteps, and striving to express him to the world; who against all the cavils and calumnies of his foe friends, makes it out here, that he is no hypocrite or flagitious person as they falsely charged him, but a man fearing God and eschewing evil, Job 1:1 . Let therefore as many as would be perfect be thus minded and thus mannered; propounding to themselves the highest pitch and the best patterns; resolving to resemble them as much as may be. Here we have Job’s holy care to flee fornication as a deadly evil; by avoiding the occasion, by taking bonds of his senses, and by doing all be could to be out of the way when the temptation came. Austin thanks God that the temptation and his heart met not. Job would prevent that mischief by laying laws upon his eyes, those windows of wickedness and loop holes of lust, the very door and bait of all evil concupiscence, Mat 5:29 1Jn 2:16 , that flesh pleaslng lust, that nest egg of the devil (as one wittily calleth it), that eldest child of old Adam’s strength, bearing name of the mother, which is called in general, lust, or concupiscence. Now that Job might not lust, he would not look on a forbidden object; for he knew that wanton glances cause contemplative wickedness; such as will soon break out into foul practices; as ill humours in the body do into sores and blotches, , Ut vidi, ut perii! – oculi sunt in amore duces.

Why then should I think upon a maid? ] Contemplarer in virginem, Lustfully consider her beauty, till my heart be hot as an oven with lawless lusts, and my body wollows in the mire of that abominable filth. For unbridled lust, like the wild fig, will soon mount over the wall; and those base, vain, wanton, capering thoughts will break out, if not timely suppressed; if we handle them not roughly at the door (as Elisha said), their master’s feet will not be far behind them. Quell them therefore and crush them in the egg; it is not safe being at Satan’s meal, though our spoon be never so long; remember, that of looking comes thinking; and of thinking, worse. Look upon the woeful chain of David’s lust, and remember how many have died of the wound in the eye. The basilisk slayeth with his sight. Circe In Greek and Latin mythology the name of an enchantress who dwelt in the island of Aea, and transformed all who drank of her cup into swine; often used allusively. will enchant all that behold her. Irregular glancing, or inordinate gazing, is that which metamorphoseth a man into a beast, and makes him a prey to his own brutish affections. Hence David prayeth, “Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity,” Psa 119:37 . Job here steppeth one degree further, from a prayer to a vow; yea, from a vow to an imprecation, Job 31:7 . That his eyes should be eyes of adamant, that will turn only to one point; that he would not look but where he might lawfully like. Saints have a single eye (and contrariwise the wicked, Hos 3:1 ), like that Persian lady, who being at the marriage of Cyrus, and afterwards asked how she liked the bridegroom? How? said she, I know not; I saw no one but my husband. Charles V used to clap to his casement; and the young Lord Harrington to pull his hat over his eyes when fair ladies passed along.

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

Job Chapter 31

Well, there is a third chapter (31) to which we now come, very distinct from either of these, and this is his final appeal to God. This is all said not so much to his friends as to God; but he still was harping upon the past in the first of these chapters; then upon the present misery; now he appeals solemnly to God, and in the presence of them all.

“I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?” None whatever for a corrupt man, to take advantage of another. “Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? Doth not he see my ways” – he was a thoroughly pious believing man – “and count all my steps? If I had walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.” He had a perfectly good conscience, but that is not enough. There is the great principle of self-judgment; there is the grand principle also of entire submission to God and vindicating Him – that He is right and wise in all, not only in what He does, but in what He allows. It is all for good. It may be very bad on the part of others, as it was on the part of Job’s friends, but God had a good purpose for Job in it all.

“If my step hath turned out of thy way,” etc. (vers. 1-12). It is clear that Job was a most blameless man in his conduct, and even in the state of his heart. “If I did despise the cause of my manservant, or of my maidservant” – he now goes to other duties – “when they contended with me, what then shall I do when God riseth up? and, when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?” etc. (vers. 13-23). “If I have made gold my hope” – now he turns to a third kind of snare – “or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; If I rejoiced because my wealth was great” – and how many do – “and because mine hand had gotten much,” etc., it was not inherited merely; but it was acquired by his own industry and God’s particular blessing upon him.

Now he looks at another thing quite different – “If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness,” i.e. in the way of any adoration; in bowing down to the son or moon, which was the earliest form of idolatry. We do not hear of Baals or Ashtoreths or any of the disreputable vanities and wickedness of heathen objects of worship; but here was a work of God of the highest nature, but no leaning to it in any way – “and my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand” – even the slightest form of acknowledging the creature! – “this also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.” There we have very sound doctrine. “If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him” – a very common snare for people. They have a little pleasure when their adversaries come to grief, or are troubled. “Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh, that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied. The stranger did not lodge in the street; but I opened my doors to the traveller. If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom: did I fear a great multitude” – you observe he was perfectly acquainted with the very interesting and profitable story of Adam’s fall. There we have just what anyone now, looking back with the light of Christ even, sees. There was the great sin of Adam. Instead of humbling himself to God, and going to meet God to tell Him how he had disgraced himself, Adam hid himself away; and the clothing that he put upon him showed that he was no longer innocent.

“Oh, that one would hear me!” Now here is Job’s final appeal. “Behold my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me” – Job wanted to hear His voice about it – “and that mine adversary had written a book, Surely I would take it” – if anyone that wished him ill laid charges “I would take it,” he says, “upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me” – because he was confident that it was false. “I would declare unto him,” i.e. unto the Almighty; it would seem possibly “the adversary” – “the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.” I think it is “to the Lord.” “If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain; If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life! Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.”

Well, it was very magnificent; as it had been a justification of himself. But it was a great mistake as to the secret of God’s dealings with Job, and accordingly a new interlocutor appears. We have not heard of him. It is a remarkable indication of primitive habits and feelings. He was a young man. And this absence of any notice taken of him is just in the spirit of olden manners. And he shows that he perfectly enters into it himself, and in no way complains of it. Elihu, however, was a man put forward by God, to bring to naught the pride of age and experience, observation and tradition. Because there you have what belonged to each of those friends. They were old men, and they were proud of their place. And Eliphaz, as we know, was a man that strongly stood upon the judgment and feeling of public opinion – of pious men, no doubt, but, after all, it was only men’s. And one of the wonderful ways of God is this: that no tradition can ever meet present circumstances. The same facts even may occur; but they are in a different light, and the circumstances modify them enormously, and all that has to be taken into account.

Who, then, is sufficient for these things? Our sufficiency is of God. There is the need of dependence upon God. You cannot pile up wisdom in that way for divine things. It is all very fair in science, or knowledge, or art, or literature, or anything of that kind; but it is nothing in the things of God. Zophar seems to be more confident in himself than in anybody. And Bildad was one between the two. He was a man of keen observation and good power of expression. But, however that might be, all had failed, and now Elihu comes forward.

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

I. Note the “I” of self-justification; and see note on Job 29:2.

why . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

Shall we turn in our Bibles to the book of Job, chapter 31.

Job has pretty well talked down all of his friends. Bildad has had his last word and Job is still responding, and has been responding, actually, just generally now to his friends. This last discourse of Job is his longest discourse, and he goes on and on with it. And we have been studying the final response of Job to his friends. His next responses will be to God. But Job is talking about his own righteousness, his own goodness, that which he has done. He said,

I made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? Is not destruction to the wicked? and strange punishment to the doers of iniquity? Doth he not see my ways, and count all my steps? If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot has hasted to deceit; Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know my integrity. If my step hath turned out of the way, and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to my hands; Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out. If my heart hath been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door; Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her. For this is a heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges. It’s a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all mine increase ( Job 31:1-12 ).

So these are things that Job’s friends have been hinting that he was guilty of, but he is denying his guilt. “I made a covenant before God. I’m not going to look on another woman. I’m not going to be interested in other women.” It is interesting that Jesus said, “If a man looks upon a woman to desire after her, he has committed adultery already in his heart” ( Mat 5:28 ). Job made a covenant, “I’m not going to look on other women. I’m going to be satisfied with my wife. Now if I have been guilty of adultery, then the punishment of my wife committing adultery with someone else would be a punishment that I deserved. But I’m innocent of these things. Let God weigh me in balances. Let it be fair. Let what I have received be fair from God. I’m receiving more than I deserve for I haven’t been guilty of these things.”

Job, speaking of the lust, said, “It’s a fire that consumes to destruction. It would destroy all my increase.” The Bible speaks about a man, who through foolish woman, is brought down to a crust of bread ( Pro 6:25-26 ). What destruction unbridled lust can bring. It can destroy great men. It can bring them down. And so Job speaks of it, of a fire that destroys, the burning lust.

If I did despise the cause of my manservant or maidservant, when they contended with me; What shall I do when God rises up? for he visiteth, and what shall I answer him? Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? ( Job 31:13-15 )

Now Job is speaking here of the fact that he had not really lorded over his servants, that he had looked upon them as equals. “We were both, all of us, created in the womb.”

It’s really a tragedy when men begin to think themselves superior to others. Rather than realizing that all of us have been created by God and in God’s eyes there is no ranking, there is no superiorities. That, of course, goes for male/female, it goes for bond or free. We are all one in Christ Jesus. And yet, it seems that man is always trying to exalt or elevate himself above others. Trying to put himself in the position of higher. “I want others to bow to me. I want others to do obeisance and the whole thing.” And that’s tragic that men develop these rankings in which they seek then to promote and give honor and flattery and all to each other.

Job said that he dealt honestly with his servants when they argued with him. He looked upon them honestly, because he said, “After all, we were all, we all came out of the womb. I’m no better than they are. I recognize that.” And he also recognized that God takes up the cause of the poor. Now it’s interesting throughout the scripture it does speak about God hearing the cry of the poor, “When their cry cometh unto Me.” And God talks about taking vengeance upon those that would oppress the poor. That when their cries came to Him because of their oppression, He would hear and He would bring vengeance upon those that would oppress the poor.

If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; If I have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as a father, and I have guided her from my mother’s womb;) If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate: Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone ( Job 31:16-22 ).

“If I’m guilty of these things of not helping the poor, if I’ve allowed people to go naked, if I’ve allowed people to go hungry while I was living in luxury, then let my arms fall off.” Job is bringing curses upon himself. “If I’m guilty of these things, then let these horrible things happen to me.”

It is interesting then in those cultures, in that particular culture, and in the eastern culture, hospitality is such an important part of the culture of those people and of those days. It was extremely important that you be hospitable, that you be benevolent, that you help those that are in need. Especially if a person was traveling. You notice how Abraham entertained the people that were traveling, “Come on in, let me fix something for you, and all.” As the angels (he didn’t know they were angels at the time), but as they were traveling by, “Come on it. It’s too late; spend the night here. Let my wife fix you something to eat, and all” ( Gen 18:3-5 ). Hospitality was an important thing. It should be an important thing in the church. Paul tells us that when we chose those who are to be overseers of in the body of Christ, that we should pick out men who are hospitable, those who have shown themselves to be hospitable.

Our Southern California culture seems to be very isolated. I have been in other parts of the United States where people seem to be more hospitable than they are here. Down in the south, people far more open, hospitable. “Oh, come on over for dinner,” you know. And there is a lot of hospitality, southern hospitality. We’re in Southern California, but we just don’t see it here. But I believe that it is pleasing to the Lord that we really show hospitality. If there is someone who is visiting, someone who is a stranger, that we open up our doors to them, that we invite them over for dinner or that we show them hospitality. The Bible says, “Be careful to entertain strangers, you don’t know but what you might one day be entertaining an angel unaware.” ( Heb 13:2 )

Now my father used to take these scriptures very literally. Also he was an usher in the church as I was growing up and he read in James how that we do wrong when we have respect of people’s persons. If one comes into church and he’s all dressed up, wearing diamonds and all, you say, “Oh,” you know, “come on in, sit in this nice chair.” And yet if someone comes in rags, you say, “Go sit in the corner” ( Jas 2:3 ). So when people would come to church in rags, hobos, he would usher them right down to the front row, with all style. And my dad was a very gallant gentleman, and a lot of flair and a lot of style, you know, and he’d usher them right down to the front row, and sit them right in the prime places, and then invite them home for lunch. We had the most interesting guests. They had the smell of the antiseptic from the mission so many times. We’ve had all kinds of… oh, I could tell you stories that you’d hardly believe of some of the people that we’ve had at our house.

We had one fellow that Dad invited home for dinner and he stayed for a couple of weeks with us. And he was a very interesting fellow. If Mom would say, “Wind up the vacuum cord,” I would wind up the vacuum cord, and when I was through, he said, “That took you twenty-seven seconds. Now you should be able to do that in fifteen seconds. Now wind it up again. And do it this time in fifteen seconds.” Always timing everything, everything had to be split-second timing. And you did it until you could do it in fifteen seconds. We later found out that this guy was a bank robber. And he was the mastermind behind many of the bank robberies and some of the most exotic prison breaks in the United States. And that’s why he was always interested in timing. Timed everything, got everything down to split second, and all. And he always, it was part of his thinking processes. When he started telling his stories, oh, was that interesting. We’d sit there just transfixed as he’d tell us about some of the heists and all that he was involved in and escape from some of the major prisons in the United States.

Actually, the way we met him was very fascinating. My father went up to the Ventura County Jail and spoke there at the jail every Sunday. And he would just, you know, one day he was talking to these prisoners and he said, “Fellows,” he said, “God answers prayer. Now Jesus said if you ask anything in His Name, the Father would do it. Now look, just get down and ask God for something you need. Put God to the test. Either His Word is true or it isn’t.” Well this guy, Jimmy Reynolds, was sitting in the back bunk; he didn’t even come out to the area where the guys were meeting. He was just sitting back there listening. He was tough, and he didn’t want to come out in the open cell with the rest of the guys and show that he was at all interested, but he was just sitting back there. And after my dad left, he turned to the guy across on the next bunk from him, and he said, “Did you hear what the guy said?” He said, “Man, I’ve sprung a lot of jails, but this would be a new one.” He says, “Hey, man, let’s you and me get down on our knees and we’re going to ask God to get us out of here by next Sunday. And if God gets us out of here by next Sunday, we’ll go down to that man’s church.” My father was also the Sunday school superintendent at the church and so we always got to church a half hour early. And this Sunday morning as we drove up to the church there was this fellow pacing back and forth in front of the church, and when he spotted my dad, he came up and opened the door for my mother and all, and he said, “Good morning, Mrs. Smith, Mr. Smith. Nice to see you today.” And he said, “I’m Jimmy.” And Dad said, “Well, it’s nice to meet you. Will you come in and go to church with us and then come on home to dinner?” And that’s how we met him.

Now after he left, my dad went to the sheriff and he said, “You know, we’ve had an interesting houseguest for the last couple of weeks.” He said, “He’s told us some very fascinating stories.” He said, “The thing I want to know, though, is how did he get out of jail?” And the sheriff told my dad, he said, “Mr. Smith,” he said, “that was a mistake.” He said, “We weren’t supposed to release that man.” He said, “We picked him up on a vagrancy charge in Oxnard. We were holding him here, but,” he said, “on our cards, when we have a prisoner and there’s a hold on them because of their being wanted in other places,” he said, “we always type up at the top of the card a red HOLD.” He said, “We had a new trustee typing cards. And so he thought that it didn’t look neat to have that HOLD up in the right hand corner so he typed it down in the bottom of the card. And so,” he said, “that Sunday morning as they were going through the cards, they came across Jimmy Reynolds and found that we had held him as long as we legally could without filing charges. And we really didn’t have any charges to file, but we were holding him because of his prison escapes from Oklahoma State Prison and several federal penitentiaries and,” he said, “we were supposed to be holding him to extradite him back there. But,” he said, “in going through the cards that morning, they just came to his card, saw that his time was up as far as what we could legally hold him, and they didn’t pull the card all the way out. And so that Sunday morning they call, ‘Jimmy Reynolds,’ he said, ‘yep.’ They said, ‘You’re free.’ He says, ‘I’m what?’ And they said, ‘You’re free.'” And he said, “Mr. Smith,” he said, “I’ve broken a lot of jails in the country, but,” he said, “this is the first time I’ve ever had one like this!” You know.

Hospitality. Now that wasn’t an angel unaware in that particular case. Some of the things that happened when I was a kid… Oh, my. I could tell you some interesting stories about George the tramp, but that’ll have to wait ’til another time. Ah, but my dad was quite a guy.

He said,

I’ve not allowed my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to another man’s soul ( Job 31:30 ).

Verse Job 31:30 :

If the men of my tent said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied. The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the travelers. If I covered my transgression as Adam ( Job 31:31-33 ),

Interesting he refers to Adam, isn’t it? Evidently the stories of Adam were widely circulated even by the time of Job, even though the book of Job perhaps precedes in writing the book of Genesis. That is, that it was written before. Yet he is aware of Adam’s attempt to cover his sin by sewing the fig leaves.

by hiding my iniquity in my bosom: Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door? So surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown unto me ( Job 31:33-34 , Job 31:36 ).

He said,

I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince I would go near unto him. If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain; If I have eaten the fruit thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life: Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and the cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended ( Job 31:37-40 ).

“I’ve had it. That’s it. I’m innocent.” And the final declaration of his innocence before his friends.

“

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Job 31:1-4

Introduction

Job 31

JOB’S GREAT OATH OF INNOCENCE

This is the third part of the trilogy.

“This priceless testament is a fitting consummation of `the words of Job’ (Job 31:40).” “The picture that Job here presents of himself is extraordinarily like that of a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, as revealed by Christ in the Sermon on the Mount. He goes beyond act to thought, and beneath conduct to the heart.”

This affirmation by Job regarding his innocence mentions the sins of which his `friends’ had accused him, but it also includes a denial of things which they had not mentioned. “Without any system whatever, sins against God, and sins against one’s neighbor follow each other in the list.” This is especially important, because it removes any reason for allowing the various rearrangements of the text which certain scholars have presumed to make. Like many other Biblical books, Job does not always follow the classical rules for writing. We shall receive and interpret the text as it stands.

Job 31:1-4

JOB AFFIRMS HIS INNOCENCE REGARDING THE LUST OF THE EYE

“I made a covenant with mine eyes;

How then should I look upon a virgin?

For what is the portion from God above,

And the heritage from the Almighty on high?

Is it not calamity to the unrighteous,

And disaster to the workers of iniquity?

Doth not he see my ways,

And number all my steps?”

“How then should I look upon a virgin” (Job 31:1). Even as Christ taught in the Sermon on the Mount, Job here traced adultery to the lust of the eye which precedes it. As Hesser noted, “Impure thinking is the sin which Job disclaimed in these first four verses.” Pope mentions that, “Critics who retain the reading here transfer the verse to the section that treats on the relations to women after Job 31:12.” This is exactly the kind of meddling with the sacred text which this writer finds so offensive. Pope even “emended” the word “virgin” here, making it read “folly” instead. “This list is not arranged according to conventional standards of logical development, degrees, or seriousness, or climactic order. Our standards in such things are not the same as those which in a different culture guided Job.”

Job, in these verses, mentions the convictions that had guided him throughout his life, those convictions being exactly the same doctrine of sin and suffering that had been maintained by Job’s friends during the dialogues, indicating that, “Those ideas had been unquestioned by himself until his own personal experience had demonstrated their falsehood.”

The sins which Job here solemnly swears that he had not committed reveal a very high ethical standard of morality and excellence. “Here we have the high-water mark of the Old Testament ethic.” Job’s ideas, as revealed in this chapter, are not very far from the glorious ideals proclaimed by the Christ himself.

E.M. Zerr:

Job 31:1. Job did not confine his remarks to general statements of denial. The three friends had made many accusations against him that were false. He denied all of them and besides that, he specified a number of prevalent evils in conduct and protested his innocence. Covenant with his eyes is figurative, of course, and means he promised himself not to look with longing upon a virgin.

Job 31:2-3. What portion means that he would not receive any consideration from God were he to be guilty of the wrongs referred to in the preceding verse.

Job 31:4. God knew all about Job’s ways and would chastise him if he were even to long after that which is sinful.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

This whole chapter is taken up with Job’s solemn oath of innocence. It is ills official answer to the line of argument adopted by his three friends. In the process of his declaration he called on God to vindicate him. In the next place he asserted his innocence in his relation to his fellow men. As to his servants, recognizing their equality with him in the sight of God, he had not despised their cause when they had contention with him. Toward the poor he had acted the part not only of justice, but of benevolence. He had not eaten his morsel alone. He was perfectly willing to admit that his uprightness had been born of his fear of God, but it remained a fact.

Finally, he protested his uprightness in his relation with God. There had been no idolatry. His wealth had never been his confidence, neither had he been seduced into the worship of nature, even at its highest-the shining of the sun and the brightness of the moon. Moreover, he had no evil disposition to cause him to rejoice over the sufferings of others, and in this there would seem to be a satirical reference to his friends. Finally, in this connection he denied hypocrisy.

In the midst of this proclamation of integrity he broke off and finally cried, Oh that I had one to hear me!

In parenthesis he declared that he subscribed his signature or mark to his oath, and asked that God should answer him.

The final words, “The words of Job are ended,” are generally attributed to the author of the book, or some subsequent editor, or copyist. I cannot see why they do not constitute Job’s own last sentence. He had nothing more to say. The mystery was unsolved, and he relapsed into silence, and announced his decision so to do.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

the Clean Life

Job 31:1-40

Job had specially guarded against impurity, for its heritage is one of calamity and disaster. He is sure that even if he were weighed by God Himself there would be no iniquity discovered in him. He even goes so far as to invoke the most awful results if he has sinned against the seventh commandment. It is well for us if we are able with similar sincerity to appeal to the verdict of God and of our own heart. Let us ask the Holy Spirit to beget in us purity and separateness from sin, that we may walk with unsullied garments.

Job also protests the even-handedness of his dealings with his servants, alleging the principle which underlies the whole Christian teaching on the point, that we all have been made by the same Creator. He insists on his benevolence to the widow and the fatherless. He is careful to show that he had not failed in doing all the good that was within his reach. Alas, how few of us can say as much! How many such occasions cross our path every day, which we heedlessly let pass!

With this appeal Job goes into the presence of God, and asks for a reply. In the strong gospel light we are too deeply convicted of sin to dare to do this, and must rely upon the merits of Christ. In these alone can we approach the uncreated light.

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 31

1. My chastity and righteousness (Job 31:1-12)

2. My philanthropy (Job 31:13-23)

3. My integrity and hospitality (Job 31:24-34)

4. Let God and man disprove me (Job 31:35-40)

Job 31:1-12. His final word is the final word in his self-righteous vindication. He gives Eliphaz the lie. He gives a review of his life to prove that he is clean in the sight of God and of man. Even if after this outburst his friends would have an inclination to answer him they could not have done so. He silenced them for good. But what are his declarations after all? Nothing else but the filthy rags of his own righteousness, the vain boastings of a good, moral man, such as we hear on all sides. He shows that in his character he was morally pure. The gross sins of the flesh he had avoided. He had even abstained from a look which might stir his passion. He knew that God watched him and therefore the sin of adultery was shunned by him; he did not sin against a neighbours wife. If he had ever done that, then let the sanctity of his home and his own wife be violated. Then he enumerates his great philanthropy. He had respect of the widow; he shared his bread with orphans; those who were naked he had clothed.

Job 31:24-34. He was not a worshipper of gold, a covetous man, nor had he worshipped like others about him, the sun and the moon, or what sun-worshippers did, kissing the hand and wafting it towards the sun. He was a hospitable, a kind hearted man; nor did he cover his transgressions as Adam did, nor did he hide his iniquity in his bosom. His was a walk in integrity.

Job 31:35-40. Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer. I sign my name to all I have said; I swear to it. Let mine enemy also bring forth his accusations and sign them also. He challengeth God and man. And even to the land he appeals that all his transactions were just. Jobs words are ended. One feels like saying, Thank God!

His final word may be condensed in one sentence: I am clean. The next time he speaks and opens his lips, he says, Behold I am vile. How he came to this the rest of the book will teach us.

IV. THE TESTIMONY OF ELIHU

If the book of Job were now ended the last word would be Jobs. Furthermore the enigma of suffering would remain unexplained and Gods character would stand impeached. Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar ceased answering Job because he was righteous in his own eyes. But suddenly another appears on the scene. Nothing is said how he came to be there; yet he must have listened to the controversy, for he sizeth up the whole situation and boils down the whole matter in a few terse statements. Critics and most expositors have spoken rather slightingly of Elihu. We heard some years ago a prominent Bible teacher speak of him as a young theologian who has just been ordained and who thinks he has a lot of knowledge. Others call him a conceited young philosopher and that his babbling should be treated with silent contempt. Such statements only prove that the men who make them have not gone deep into the meaning of this book and that they lack in spiritual discernment. Just such a one, sent by God, is needed to exercise a mediatorial function and to prepare the way for the Lord Himself to come upon the scene. It is generally pointed out that God rebukes him in the words of Job 38:2. But God speaks to Job who applies it to himself. The vindication of Elihu from such criticism of man is found in the last chapter.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

a covenant: Gen 6:2, 2Sa 11:2-4, Psa 119:37, Pro 4:25, Pro 23:31-33, Mat 5:28, Mat 5:29, 1Jo 2:16

think: Pro 6:25, Jam 1:14, Jam 1:15

Reciprocal: Gen 3:6 – to the eyes Gen 34:2 – saw her Gen 39:7 – cast Exo 20:17 – wife Jos 7:21 – I saw Jdg 14:1 – Timnath Job 1:1 – perfect Job 4:6 – the uprightness Job 16:17 – Not for Job 32:1 – righteous Psa 101:3 – set Ecc 2:10 – whatsoever Eze 23:16 – as soon as she saw them with her eyes Mar 9:47 – thine 2Co 1:12 – our rejoicing 1Th 2:10 – how

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 31:1. I made a covenant with mine eyes, &c. So far have I been from any gross wickedness, that I have abstained from the least occasions and appearances of evil. It was possible Jobs friends might make quite another use than he intended of the relation which he had made of his miserable condition in the foregoing chapter. And, therefore, lest it should confirm them in their old error, and they should take what he had said to be an argument of his guilt, he gives, in this chapter, a large and particular account of his integrity, which, in general, he had so often asserted; laying his very soul, and the most secret inclinations of it, open before them; together with the actions of his whole life in his private capacity, (for of his public he had spoken before, chap. 29.,) both in respect of his neighbours of all sorts, and in respect of God, to whom he again most solemnly appeals, in the conclusion of this discourse, for the truth of what he here asserts. Why then should I think upon a maid? This is generally understood to mean the great care and circumspection which Job had used to avoid all temptations and occasions of sin; and he subjoins, in the following verses, the very high and reasonable motives which had urged him, and should urge every man, to such a circumspection; namely, to avoid destruction, the sure consequence of it. Which is a further proof that his prospects were to another life; for, had he spoken of a temporal destruction, it would have been the very thing which his antagonists had repeated over and over to him, and had urged as an argument of his guilt that he was thus miserably destroyed. When Job, therefore, says the same thing, namely, that a sure destruction attends the wicked; it is their portion, an inheritance from God; it is plain he must understand it in another sense than his antagonists did; namely, of their final retribution in a future state. See Peters, and the note on Job 31:13; Job 31:23.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Job 31:1. A maid. The LXX, followed by the Chaldaic, read virgin; but our English version has the most ancient support. Job was pure and spotless in conversation with women. He abhorred seduction, and all its associate crimes. Genesis 34.

Job 31:28. I should have denied the God that is above. Job here describes the manner in which the ancient Sabian idolaters worshipped the sun, moon, and stars, by kissing the hand; and his abhorrence of it shows that he was himself educated in the faith of Abraham. A French traveller in Louisiana describes the manner in which the Indians on certain mornings go to the top of a hill to see the rising sun, and blow towards him a full quiff of tobacco. The names of the planets are confirmations of this idolatry; and if ascribing the omnipresence of the Deity to an idol be the very essence of idolatry, let that idol be what it may; what a condition must the poor papists be in, who everywhere pray to the Virgin Mary, as though she was more merciful than her Son!

Job 31:30. Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin. Hebrews I have not permitted my palace [or household] to sin, in wishing his death with a curse.

Job 31:33. As Adam; a name in Hebrew common for man. It is the moderns only who translate it as the name of our first father. The LXX read, If when I offended inadvertently, I had concealed my sin. Jerome reads, concealed it after the manner of men. The readings in ancient versions make no reference to Adam. He hid himself, not his sin. The wide variations of the versions, mark obscurity in the original, through the latter part of this chapter.

REFLECTIONS.

Job, still continuing his defence against the sharp and pointed words of his friends, avers that his life, which in the patriarchal age was one of great licence, had been clothed with the glory of chastity; that he stood clear of seduction, and of the great sin of waiting at his neighbours door.

Job regards the punishment of those crimes as only capable of partial remission, even where repentance may follow. If those sins be mine, let me sow, and let another reap. Yea, let me die, and let my widow grind as a servant at the mill, and let another bow down to her; for adultery is a heinous crime.

The chaste and holy patriarch rises next, above all the lower clouds of darkness and obloquy: his charities were wider than the wants of indigence. He had not eaten his morsel alone; the hungry had been fed by his bounty, the naked had been clothed with the wool of his flocks, and the stranger lodged in his bourne.

He had not, like the blind and griping sons of earth, made gold his hope; nor joined the sabian idolatry, in raising his hand to the hosts of heaven.

Inspired of God with a noble mind, he had never rejoiced when his neighbour fell into poverty and ruin; that would to him be unhallowed joy; he would rather rejoice in all the fruits of grace which adorned his character, as the husbandman rejoices over his laughing field. Such was the triumph, and such the joy of holy Job. Oh believer, may this also be thy happy lot in the time of affliction.

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

Job 31. The Oath of Clearing.Jobs final protestation of his innocence, and appeal to God to judge him. This chapter, says Duhm, is the high-water mark of the OT ethic, higher than the Decalogue or even than the prophets, since they deal with social not private morality. Duhm notes especially the humanity towards the slave based on the fact of a common creation, also that we are not to hate our enemies. (Job does not go so far as to say, Love your enemies; that is Christs.)

Job 31:1-4. Job clears himself of secret sensual desires. He remembered that the all-seeing God punishes the evildoer. Job speaks from the standpoint he had occupied before his trials made him doubt the Divine justice.

Job 31:5-8. He clears himself of falsehood and covetousness.

Job 31:9-12 of adultery. If he has been guilty of this let his wife become anothers slave and concubine (Job 31:10). The slave-woman at the mill was the lowest female slave (Exo 11:5).

Job 31:13-23. Job clears himself of the abuse of power, or the selfish indifference of wealth.

Job 31:21 means that Job knew that with his great influence he could always win his cause in the courts.

Job 31:24-34. Job clears himself of trust in his wealth, of idolatrous tendencies, of hating his enemy, of inhospitableness, of other secret sin.

Job 31:27 b is literally, and my hand hath kissed my mouth. This strange form is chosen because the hand is the main instrument in the act; first it touches the lips to receive the kiss, then wafts the kiss to the object of worship. The kiss of homage was given to images by the worshipper, and of course thrown to such deities as the distant heavenly bodies (Peake). Of Job 31:29 Duhm says that if ch. 31 is the crown of the ethical development of the OT, then this verse is the jewel in the crown. In Job 31:33 probably instead of text like Adam we should translate as mg. after the manner of men.

Job 31:35-37. Oh that one would hear him! Let God give him his indictment, he would proudly confront Him and declare his innocence.

In Job 31:35 signature is the mark which Job in imagination appends to his declaration of innocence.

Job 31:35 c is incomplete, but the sense is rightly given by RV. The adversary is God. The language in this verse reflects a judicial procedure where the charge and the defence were laid before the court in writing.

Job 31:38-40. Job clears himself of having violently dispossessed others of their land (as Ahab did Naboth). The cry of the land (Job 31:38) is to be understood as the cry of the blood of the dispossessed owners. There is no doubt that these verses are out of place; where during the earlier part of the chapter we should insert them is not clear. Unfortunately, however, their presence where they are spoils the magnificent close of Job 31:37.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

Though Job’s misery was complete, he returns in this chapter to the defence of his whole life, which was comparatively more virtuous than that of any other man. God had said this to Satan long before (Job 1:8), so that there is no reason to doubt what Job says of himself, though he did not realise that the very fact of his declaring his own goodness was really sinful pride.

JOB’S CLAIM OF MORAL UPRIGHTNESS

(vv.1-12)

He says he had made a covenant with his eyes (v.1). That is, he had purposed he would not be seduced by what his eyes observed. He would evidently look away from anything that might be tempting. For he recognised that God above knew every thought of his heart, for the Almighty was high above Job (v.2). Destruction was not properly for Job therefore, but for the workers of iniquity (v.3). Job was conscious of the fact that God observed his ways and the details of every step (v.4).

He insists, if he is suspected of walking in falsehood or practising deceit, let him be weighed in honest scales (vv.5-6), for God would thus be persuaded of Job’s integrity. So confident was Job, that he could declare that if he had stepped out of the way or his heart had followed his eyes, if his hands were soiled, then let another eat what Job sowed, in fact, let harvest be totally rooted up (vv.7-8).

Again, he insists that if his heart had been enticed by a woman or if he had taken the initiative in going to his neighbour’s house with motives of evil, then let his wife leave him and choose another. “For,” he says, “That would be wickedness; deserving of judgment. For that would be a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase” (vv.11-12). He was firmly decided as to the wickedness of such things, though his thoughts were contrary to large numbers of careless people today.

KINDNESS AT HOME AND ABROAD

(vv.13-23)

Had Job despised the cause of any of his servants, whether male or female? (v.13). If this were true, he asks, what should he do when God raised the question with him? For God made these servants just as He had made Job. This fact had been considered by Job long before, we are sure, so that he was not guilty of oppressing the creatures of God (vv.14-15).

In verses 16-21 he speaks of sins of omission also. If he had not helped the poor or had ignored the plight of the widow, but had kept all he had for himself, so that the fatherless were left hungry; if he had seen anyone perish for lack of clothing or any poor man without covering; if the heart of the poor had not blessed Job, not being warmed by the fleece of his sheep; if Job had not championed the cause of the fatherless in the gate, the place of judgment; then he says, “let my arm fall from my shoulder, let my arm be torn from the socket” (v.22). In contrast to this, notice his words in parenthesis (v.18), “But from my youth I reared him (the fatherless) as a father, and from my mother’s womb I guided the widow.”

He ends this section by showing that the fear of God was a vital matter with him (v.23). It was a terror to him to even think of the reality of God’s destructive power against evil, so greatly so that he would not dare to offend One whose magnificence filled him with awe to the point of his saying, “I cannot endure.”

REFUSAL OF EVERY FORM OF IDOLATRY

(vv.24-28)

Was Job showing kindness to the poor in order to gain some material benefit for himself? He thoroughly repudiates this thought in these verses. Though his wealth was great, yet he had not made gold his idol (vv.24-25). He did realise the danger when riches increased, of setting his heart on them, for covetousness is idolatry (Col 3:5). If he had any such motives, only God knew these fully, and Job was willing to be examined by God and be judged according to truth.

In contemplating the sun and the moon, had Job been enticed to worship them, as many others are enticed? (vv.26-27). Both of these are amazing objects, but Job looked higher than them and had not even secretly given them honour. He recognised that anything that usurps God’s place in the heart is an idol, and if he had been guilty of even secretly allowing this in his thoughts, then this would be iniquity deserving of judgment (v.28), for it would amount to denying the God who is infinitely high above all.

Though Job was no doubt speaking truth, yet there was no reason that he should thus advertise what his character had been. Why did he not stop to consider that God knew his actions, his words and his motives perfectly, and he could wait on God to bring to light the truth concerning His servant?

FRIENDLY AND HOSPITABLE

(vv.29-32)

Job speaks now of his attitude toward mankind generally. It was evidently a concern to him that he should not rejoice when trouble came to one who hated him, nor take advantage of such an occasion to profit by the misfortune of such a person (v.29). In fact, he had not even allowed his mouth to sin by asking for a curse on that person’s soul (v.30). Actually, this is only normal for one who has faith in the Lord Jesus (Rom 12:20), so that it was no reason for Job to boast. Unbelievers of course acted contrary to this, but we can only expect this from those who do not know the Lord.

Job’s close neighbours (“men of my tent”) could bear witness that no one was exempt from being provided with food from Job (v.31); and no traveller had to stay in the streets when in Job’s vicinity: he was not forgetful to entertain strangers (v.32).

NO HYPOCRISY WITH ITS FEAR OF MAN

(vv.33-34)

He was willing to be tested too as to whether he had covered his transgression, as Adam did when using fig leaves, as though this could deceive the Lord (v.33). One might cover his sin because he fears the criticism of the people and the contempt of families, but Job was confident he had no reason for such fear, no reason to hide at home from the eyes of critics (v.34). His life had been open and aboveboard.

A CHALLENGE TO BE HEARD

(vv.35-40)

In considering all these things that he felt were to his credit, it is little wonder that Job again bursts into the urgent plea that someone in authority would hear him (v.35), and realises his only hope along this line is in “the Almighty.” Why did He not answer Job’s desperate cries? If God was taking the place of a prosecutor (which was certainly not so), why had He not written a book dealing with the whole case? Here in early years was the expressed desire for a book written by God! Now we know such a Book is written, not from the viewpoint of a prosecutor, but from that of God being for us, a Book that shows His understanding of everything about us, and has for its object both the glory of God and the greatest good for mankind.

Job says he would carry such a book on his shoulder and bind it to him like a crown (v.36). No doubt he was thinking that a book written by God would be a commendation of Job’s character and conduct, but such a view was far from the truth. Such a book of God does commend faithful conduct, but it just as plainly condemns the pride of man, not exalting man at all, but glorifying God. But that same Book declares the greatness of the grace of God in saying the souls of sinful men who turn in true repentance to God and accept the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. How worthwhile indeed that we should carry the Word of God on our shoulders, and have it as a crown to adorn our heads!

In verse 37 Job says, “I would declare to Him the number of my steps; like a prince would I approach Him.” But God did not need Job to declare the number of his steps to Him: He knew them far better than Job did. Nor did Job, when he actually met God, approach Him “like a prince.’ Rather, he took his rightful place in saying, to God, “Behold, I am vile” (ch.40:4). In other words, he approached God “as a sinner;” then God later gave him the place of a prince.

A FINAL APPEAL AS TO HIS LAND

(vv.38-40)

Job has appealed to man and to God, and it seems as though his last appeal is an afterthought, for his land does not seem as important as what he has before spoken of, but he says that even his land, if it had reason to cry out against Job for misusing it, or if he had eaten its fruit without considering its proper needs, would be justified in producing thistles instead of wheat, weeds instead of barley. Of course Job would not say this unless he was confident that he had properly cared for his land. However, this last long discourse of Job was intended to convince his friends that he was not guilty of any of their charges against him, and had reason to be honoured for his many virtues. His friends have no answer.

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible

31:1 I made a covenant with mine {a} eyes; why then should I think upon {b} a maid?

(a) I kept my eyes from all wanton looks.

(b) Would not God then have punished me?

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

Job’s continuing innocence ch. 31

As was common in ancient Near Eastern judicial cases, Job concluded his summary defense with an oath of innocence. He did so in the form of a negative confession complete with self-imprecations. [Note: Parsons, p. 141. Cf. Michael Brennan Dick, "The Legal Metaphor in Job 31," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 41 (1979):42, 47.] He concluded with a challenge to God to present His charges in writing (Job 31:35-37). Job’s idea was that if God remained silent this would be a vindication of his innocence. However, if he had been guilty, God would have to intervene and impose the punishment Job had designated. [Note: Norman C. Habel, The Book of Job, p. 164.] Note the frequent repetition of the phrase, "If I have . . ." and its equivalents.

"Chapter 31 as to its literary format is a negative testament by which Job will close the matter of whether he is being punished for his sins. After such a statement, in the jurisprudence of the ancient Near East, the burden of proof fell on the court. That is why Job 31:40 says, ’The words of Job are ended.’ Each disavowal had to be accompanied by an oath that called for the same punishment the offense deserved on the basis of the principle of lex talionis (Job 31:5-10). Because the charges against Job were wide and varied, he must give a similarly wide disavowal. He had already done this in a general way (cf. Job 23:10-12), but now he specifies and calls for condemnation and punishment from both God and man (Job 31:8; Job 31:11-12; Job 31:14; Job 31:22-23) if he is guilty of any of these sins." [Note: Smick, "Architectonics, Structured . . .," p. 94. Cf. Hartley, p. 406.]

Job claimed purity from ethical defilement in two ways. He referred to the binding covenant he had made with his eyes (Job 31:1). Then he used the oath form "if" such and such be true "then" (sometimes not stated) let thus and so happen (Job 31:5-10; Job 31:13; Job 31:16; Job 31:19-20 [twice], 21-22, 24, 25, 26, 38, 39-40).

"The making of a covenant with his eyes is not merely a promise not to lust after a girl. The sin he has in mind is far more fundamental, or it would not have commanded this position in the poem. Job is emphatically denying an insidious and widespread form of idolatry: devotion to the betula, ’the maiden,’ the goddess of fertility. This Venus of the Semitic world was variously known as the Maiden Anat in Ugaritic, Ashtoreth in preexilic Israel, and Ishtar in Babylonian sources, wherein she is described as ’laden with vitality, charm and voluptuousness.’ She is probably the ’Queen of Heaven’ mentioned in Jer 7:18; Jer 44:16-19." [Note: Smick, "Architectonics, Structured . . .," p. 96.]

Most of the 14 sins that Job mentioned in this chapter were not heinous crimes but relatively minor deviations from the ethical ideal. They were covert rather than overt iniquities. Thus Job claimed innocence on the highest level of morality (cf. Mat 5:27-28). Note also that he continued to assume that God punishes the wicked (Job 31:2-3).

"As a consequence of his suffering, Job viewed man’s relationship to God as being based on God’s sovereign caprice; therefore man could hope for happiness only by adhering to an ethical rightness superior to God’s whereby he could demand vindication (Job 31; cf. Job 35:2 b)." [Note: Parsons, p. 144.]

Job 31:10 has in view Job’s wife grinding corn with a hard millstone, the work of a slave, and being overpowered by men sexually.

"His hypothetical adultery would in Hebrew eyes be an offence against her husband, and so another’s adultery with his wife would be a similar offence against him. In Hebrew law adultery always involved a married woman. The marital state of the man was immaterial." [Note: Rowley, p. 200.]

Fundamentally, adultery involves a married man or a married woman (cf. Lev 20:10), but in Israel, as well as in Roman society, infidelity by the husband was not commonly viewed as constituting adultery. [Note: See Unger’s Bible Dictionary, 1957 ed., s.v. "Adultery."] Job’s words about adultery (Job 31:9-12) are classic and reveal righteous abhorrence of that sin. Likewise, his statements regarding the importance of treating slaves as human beings (Job 31:13-15) reveal Job’s fear of God and love for his fellowman. He respected human life highly (Job 31:16-23). Job further claimed that he was not an idolater (Job 31:24-28), selfish (Job 31:29-32), or hypocritical (Job 31:33-34).

"Here then is either a very clean conscience or a very calloused one." [Note: Andersen, p. 244.]

Job’s cry for a hearer of his claims (Job 31:35) probably implied God rather than the mediator he had requested earlier (Job 16:19; Job 19:25; cf. Job 30:20).

"An examination of biblical and extra-biblical legal documents establishes Job 31:35 as a dependent’s official appeal before a third party for a civil hearing at which the judge would compel the plaintiff to formalize his accusations and to present any supporting evidence. As we shall see, this request was ordinarily made only after all attempts at informal arbitration had been exhausted and was often accompanied by a sworn statement of innocence. In Job 31 the oath of innocence has been expanded to embrace the entire chapter." [Note: Dick, p. 38.]

His "adversary" in this verse was also God (cf. Job 13:24; Job 16:9; Job 19:11). We should probably understand "owners" (Job 31:39) as "workers."

Having ended his final summation in defense of his innocence, Job rested his case and waited for God’s verdict. This is another climax in the book. Job had claimed innocence in his personal life (Job 31:1-12), toward his neighbor (Job 31:13-20), and toward God (Job 31:24-34; cf. Job 1:11). Job’s friends believed that God always punishes sin, therefore Job was a sinner. Job believed that God was punishing him when he was innocent, therefore God was unfair.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

XXIV.

AS A PRINCE BEFORE THE KING

Job 29:1-25; Job 30:1-31; Job 31:1-40

Job SPEAKS

FROM the pain and desolation to which he has become inured as a pitiable second state of existence, Job looks back to the years of prosperity and health which in long succession he once enjoyed. This parable or review of the past ends his contention. Honour and blessedness are apparently denied him forever. With what has been he compares his present misery and proceeds to a bold and noble vindication of his character alike from secret and from flagrant sins.

In the whole circle of Jobs lamentations this chant is perhaps the most affecting. The language is very beautiful, in the finest style of the poet, and the minor cadences of the music are such as many of us can sympathise with. When the years of youth go by and strength wanes, the Eden we once dwelt in seems passing fair. Of those beyond middle life there are few who do not set their early memories in sharp contrast to the ways they now travel, looking back to a happy valley and long bright summers that are left behind. And even in opening manhood and womanhood the troubles of life often fall, as we may think, prematurely, coming between the mind and the remembered joy of burdenless existence.

How changed are they!-how changed am I!

The early spring of life is gone, Gone is each youthful vanity, –

But what with years, oh what is won?

I know not-but while standing now

Where opened first the heart of youth,

I recollect how high would glow

Its thoughts of Glory, Faith, and Truth-

“How full it was of good and great,

How true to heaven, how warm to men.

Alas! I scarce forbear to hate

The colder breast I bring again.”

First in the years past Job sees by the light of memory the blessedness he had when the Almighty was felt to be his preserver and his strength. Though now God appears to have become an enemy he will not deny that once he had a very different experience. Then nature was friendly, no harm came to him; he was not afraid of the pestilence that walketh in darkness nor the destruction that wasteth at noon day, for the Almighty was his refuge and fortress. To refuse this tribute of gratitude is far from the mind of Job, and the expression of it is a sign that now at length he is come to a better mind. He seems on the way fully to recover his trust.

The elements of his former happiness are recounted in detail. God watched over him with constant care, the lamp of Divine love shone on high and lighted up the darkness, so that even in the night he could travel by a way he knew not and feel secure. Days of strength and pleasure were those when the secret of God, the sense of intimate fellowship with God, was on his tent, when his children were about him, that beautiful band of sons and daughters who were his pride. Then his steps were bathed in abundance, butter provided by innumerable kine, rivers of oil which seemed to flow from the rock, where terrace above terrace the olives grew luxuriantly and yielded their fruit without fail.

Chiefly Job remembers with gratitude to God the esteem in which he was held by all about him. Nature was friendly and not less friendly were men. When he went into the city and took his seat in the “broad place” within the gate, he was acknowledged chief of the council and court of judgment. The young men withdrew and stood aside, yea the elders, already seated in the place of assembly, stood up to receive him as their superior in position and wisdom. Discussion was suspended that he might hear and decide. And the reasons for this respect are given. In the society thus with idyllic touches represented, two qualities were highly esteemed-regard for the poor and wisdom in counsel. Then, as now, the problem of poverty caused great concern to the elders of cities. Though the population of an Arabian town could not be great, there were many widows and fatherless children, families reduced to beggary by disease or the failure of their poor means of livelihood, blind and lame persons utterly dependent on charity, besides wandering strangers and the vagrants of the desert. By his princely munificence to these Job had earned the gratitude of the whole region. Need was met poverty relieved, justice done in every case. He recounts what he did, not in boastfulness, but as one who rejoiced in the ability God had given him to aid suffering fellow creatures. Those were indeed royal times for the generous-hearted man. Full of public spirit, his ear and hand always open, giving freely out of his abundance, he commended himself to the affectionate regard of the whole valley. The ready way of almsgiving was that alone by which relief was provided for the destitute, and Job was never appealed to in vain.

“The ear that heard me blessed me,

The eye that saw bare witness to me,

Because I delivered the poor that cried,

And the fatherless who had no helper.

The blessing of him that was ready to die came upon me,

And I caused the widows heart to sing with joy.”

So far Job rejoices in the recollection of what he had been able to do for the distressed and needy in those days when the lamp of God shone over him. He proceeds to speak of his service as magistrate or judge.

“I put on righteousness and it indued itself with me,

My justice was as a robe and a diadem;

I was eyes to the blind

And feet was I to the lame.”

With righteousness in his heart so that all he said and did revealed it and wearing judgment as a turban, he sat and administered justice among the people. Those who had lost their sight and were unable to find the men that had wronged them came to him and he was as eyes to them, following up every clue to the crime that had been committed. The lame who could not pursue their enemies appealed to him and he took up their cause. The poor, suffering under oppression, found him a protector, father. Yea, “the cause of him that I knew not I searched out.” On behalf of total strangers as well as of neighbours he set in motion the machinery of justice.

“And I brake the jaws of the wicked

And plucked the spoil from his teeth.”

None were so formidable, so daring and lion-like, but he faced them, brought them to judgment, and compelled them to give up what they had taken by fraud and violence.

In those days, Job confesses, he had the dream that as he was prosperous, powerful, helpful to others by the grace of God, so he would continue. Why should any trouble fall on one who used power conscientiously for his neighbours? Would not Eloah sustain the man who was as a god to others?

“Then I said, I shall die in my nest,

And I shall multiply my days as the Phoenix;

My root shall spread out by the waters,

And the dew shall be all night on my branch:

My glory shall be fresh in me,

And my bow shall be renewed in my hand.”

A fine touch of the dream life which ran on from year to year, bright and blessed as if it would flow forever. Death and disaster were far away. He would renew his life like the Phoenix, attain to the age of the antediluvian fathers, and have his glory or life strong in him for uncounted years. So illusion flattered him, the very image he uses pointing to the futility of the hope.

The closing strophe of the chapter proceeds with even stronger touch and more abundant colour to represent his dignity. Men listened to him and waited. Like a refreshing rain upon thirsty ground-and how thirsty the desert could be!-his counsel fell on their ears. He smiled upon them when they had no confidence, laughed away their trouble, the light of his countenance never dimmed by their apprehensions. Even when all about him were in dismay his hearty hopeful outlook was unclouded. Trusting God, he knew his own strength and gave freely of it.

“I chose out their way, and sat as a chief,

And dwelt as a king in the crowd,

As one that comforteth the mourners.”

Looked up to with this great esteem, acknowledged leader in virtue of his overflowing goodness and cheerfulness, he seemed to make sunshine for the whole community. Such was the past. All that had been is gone, apparently forever.

How inexpressibly strange that power so splendid, mental, physical, and moral strength used in the service of less favoured men should be destroyed by Eloah! It is like blotting out the sun from heaven and leaving a world in darkness. And most strange of all is the way in which low men assist the ruin that has been wrought.

The thirtieth chapter begins with this. Job is derided by the miserable and base whose fathers he would have disdained to set with the dogs of his flock. He paints these people, gaunt with hunger and vice, herding in the wilderness where alone they are suffered to exist, plucking mallows or salt wort among the bushes and digging up the roots of broom for food. Men hunted them into the desert, crying after them as thieves, and they dwelt in the clefts of the wadies, in caves and amongst rocks. Like wild asses they brayed in the scrub and flung themselves down among the nettles. Children they were of fools, base-born, men who had dishonoured their humanity and been whipped out of the land. Such are they whose song and by word Job is now become. These, even these abhor him and spit in his face. He makes the contrast deep and dreadful as to his own experience and the moral confusion that has followed Eloahs strange work. For good there is evil, for light and order there is darkness. Does God desire this, ordain it?

One is inclined to ask whether the abounding compassion and humaneness of the Book of Job fail at this point. These wretched creatures who make their lair like wild beasts among the nettles, outcasts, branded as thieves, a wandering base-born race, are still men. Their fathers may have fallen into the vices of abject poverty. But why should Job say that he would have disdained to set them with the dogs of his flock? In a previous speech (chapter 24) he described victims of oppression who had no covering in the cold and were drenched with the rain of the mountains, clinging to the rock for shelter; and of them he spoke gently, sympathetically. But here he seems to go beyond compassion.

Perhaps one might say the tone he takes now is pardonable, or almost pardonable, because these wretched beings, whom he may have treated kindly once, have seized the occasion of his misery and disease to insult him to his face. While the words appear hard, the uselessness of the pariah may be the mare point. Yet a little of the pride of birth clings to Job. In this respect he is not perfect; here his prosperous life needs a check. The Almighty must speak to him out of the tempest that he may feel himself and find “the blessedness of being little.”

These outcasts throw off all restraint and behave with disgraceful rudeness in his presence.

Upon my right hand rise the low brood,

They push away my feet,

And cast up against me their ways of destruction;

They mar my path,

And force on my calamity-

They who have no helper.

They come in as through a wide breach,

In the desolation they roll themselves upon me.

The various images, of a besieging army, of those who wantonly break up paths made with difficulty, of a breach in the embankment of a river, are to show that Job is now accounted one of the meanest, whom any man may treat with in dignity. He was once the idol of the populace; “now none so poor to do him reverence.” And this persecution by base men is only a sign of deeper abasement. As a horde of terrors sent by God he feels the reproaches and sorrows of his state.

“Terrors are turned upon me;

They chase away mine honour as the wind.

And my welfare passeth as a cloud.

And now my soul is poured out in me

The days of affliction have taken hold upon me.”

Thought shifts naturally to the awful disease which has caused his body to swell and to become black as with dust and ashes. And this leads him to his final vehement complaint against Eloah. How can He so abase and destroy His servant?

I cry unto Thee and Thou dost not hear me;

I stand up, and Thou lookest at me.

Thou art turned to be cruel unto me:

With the might of Thine hand Thou persecutest me.

Thou liftest me up to the wind,

Thou causest me to ride on it;

And Thou dissolvest me in the storm.

For I know that Thou wilt bring me to death,

And to the house appointed for all living.

Yet in overthrow doth not one stretch out his hand?

In destruction, doth he not because of this utter a cry?

Standing up in his wretchedness he is fully visible to the Divine eye, still no prayer moves Eloah the terrible from His purpose. It seems to be finally appointed that in dishonour Job shall die. Yet, destined to this fate, his hope a mockery, shall he not stretch out his hand, cry aloud as life falls to the grave in ruin? How differently is God treating him from the way in which he treated those who were in trouble! He is asking in vain that pity which he himself had often shown. Why should this be? How can it be, and Eloah remain the Just and Living One? Pained without and within, unable to refrain from crying out when people gather about him, a brother to jackals whose howlings are heard all night, a companion to the grieving ostrich, his bones burned by raging fever, his harp turned to wailing and his lute into the voice of them that weep, he can scarce believe himself the same man that once walked in honour and gladness in the sight of earth and heaven.

Thus the full measure of complaint is again poured out, unchecked by thought that dignity of life comes more with suffering patiently endured than with pleasure. Job does not know that out of trouble like his a man may rise more human, more noble, his harp furnished with new strings of deeper feeling, a finer light of sympathy shining in his soul. Consistently, throughout, the author keeps this thought in the background, showing hopeless sorrow, affliction, unrelieved by any sense of spiritual gain, pressing with heaviest and most weary weight upon a good mans life. The only help Job has is the consciousness of virtue, and that does not check his complaint. The antinomies of life, the past as compared with the present, Divine favour exchanged for cruel persecution, well doing followed by most grievous pain and dishonour, are to stand at the last full in view. Then He who has justice in His keeping shall appear. God Himself shall declare and claim His supremacy and His design.

This purpose of the author achieved, the last passage of Jobs address-chapter 31-rings bold and clear like the chant of a victor, not serene indeed in the presence of death, for this is not the Hebrew temper and cannot be ascribed by the writer to his hero, yet with firm ground beneath his feet, a clear conscience of truth lighting up his soul. The language is that of an innocent man before his accusers and his judge, yea of a prince in presence of the King. Out of the darkness into which he has been cast by false arguments and accusations, out of the trouble into which his own doubt has brought him, Job seems to rise with a new sense of moral strength and even of restored physical power. No more in reckless challenge of heaven and earth to do their worst, but with a fine strain of earnest desire to be clear with men and God, he takes up and denies one by one every possible charge of secret and open sin. Is the language he uses more emphatic than any man has a right to employ? If he speaks the truth, why should his words be thought too bold? The Almighty Judge desires no man falsely to accuse himself, will have no man leave an unfounded suspicion resting upon his character. It is not evangelical meekness to plead guilty to sins never committed. Job feels it part of his integrity to maintain his integrity; and here he vindicates himself not in general terms but in detail, with a decision which cannot be mistaken. Afterwards, when the Almighty has spoken, he acknowledges the ignorance and error which have entered into his judgment, making the confession we must all make even after years of faith.

I.

From the taint of lustful and base desire he first clears himself. He has been pure in life, innocent even of wandering looks which might have drawn him into uncleanness. He has made a covenant with his eyes and kept it. Sin of this kind, he knew, always brings retribution, and no indulgence of his ever caused sorrow and dishonour. Regarding the particular form of evil in question he asks:-

“For what is the portion from God above,

And the heritage of the Almighty from on high?

Is it not calamity to the unrighteous

And disaster to them that work iniquity?”

Grouped along with this “lust of the flesh” is the “lust of the eyes,” covetous desire. The itching palm to which money clings, false dealing for the sake of gain, crafty intrigues for the acquisition of a plot of ground or some animal-such things were far from him. He claims to be weighed in a strict balance, and pledges himself that as to this he will not be found wanting. So thoroughly is he occupied with this defence that he speaks as if still able to sow a crop and look for the harvest. He would expect to have the produce snatched from his hand if the vanity of greed and getting had led him astray. Returning then to the more offensive suspicion that he had laid wait treacherously at his neighbours door, he uses the most vigorous words to show at once his detestation of such offence and the result he believes it always to have. It is an enormity, a nefarious thing to be punished by the judges. More than that, it is a fire that consumes to Abaddon, wasting a mans strength and substance so that they are swallowed as by the devouring abyss. As to this, Jobs reading of life is perfectly sound. Wherever society exists at all, custom and justice are made to bear as heavily as possible on those who invade the foundation of society and the rights of other men. Yet the keenness with which immorality of the particular kind is watched fans the flame of lust. Nature appears to be engaged against itself; it may be charged with the offence, it certainly joins in bringing the punishment.

II.

Another possible imputation was that as a master or employer he had been harsh to his underlings. Common enough it was for those in power to treat their dependants with cruelty. Servants were often slaves; their rights as men and women were denied. Regarding this, the words put into the mouth of Job are finely humane, even prophetic:-

“If I despised the cause of my man-servant or maid

When they contended with me

What then shall I do when God riseth up?

And when He visiteth what shall I answer Him?

Did not He that made me in the womb make him?

And did not One fashion us in the womb?”

The rights of those who toiled for him were sacred, not as created by any human law which for so many hours service might compel so much stipulated hire, but as conferred by God. Jobs servants were men and women with an indefeasible claim to just and considerate treatment. It was accidental, so to speak, that Job was rich and they poor, that he was master and they under him. Their bodies were fashioned like his, their minds had the same capacity of thought, of emotion, of pleasure and pain. At this point there is no hardness of tone or pride of birth and place. These are well doing people to whom as head of the clan Job stands in place of a father.

And his principle, to treat them as their inheritance of the same life from the same Creator gave them a right to be dealt with, is prophetic, setting forth the duties of all who have power to those who toil for them. Men are often used like beasts of burden. No tyranny on earth is so hateful as many employers, driving on their huge concerns at the utmost speed, dare to exercise through representatives or underlings. The simple patriarchal life which brought employer and employed into direct personal relations knew little of the antagonism of class interests and the bitterness of feeling which often menaces revolution. None of this will cease till simplicity be resumed and the customs which keep men in touch with each other, even though they fail to acknowledge themselves members of the one family of God. When the servant who has done his best is, after years of exhausting labour, dismissed without a hearing by some subordinate set there to consider what are called the “interests” of the employer-is the latter free from blame? The question of Job, “What then shall I do when God riseth up, and when He visiteth what shall I answer Him?” strikes a note of equity and brotherliness many so-called Christians seem never to have heard.

III.

To the poor, the widow, the fatherless, the perishing, Job next refers. Beyond the circle of his own servants there were needy persons whom he had been charged with neglecting and even oppressing. He has already made ample defence under this head. If he has lifted his hand against the fatherless, having good reason to presume that the judges would be on his side-then may his shoulder fall from the shoulder blade and his arm from the collar bone. Calamity from God was a terror to Job, and recognising the glorious authority which enforces the law of brotherly help he could not have lived in proud enjoyment and selfish contempt.

IV.

Next he repudiates the idolatry of wealth and the sin of adoring the creature instead of the Creator. Rich as he was, he can affirm that he never thought too much of his wealth, nor secretly vaunted himself in what he had gathered. His fields brought forth plentifully, but he never said to his soul, Thou hast much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. He was but a steward, holding all at the will of God. Not as if abundance of possessions could give him any real worth, but with constant gratitude to his Divine Friend, he used the world as not abusing it.

And for his religion: true to those spiritual ideas which raised him far above superstition and idolatry, even when the rising sun seemed to claim homage as a fit emblem of the unseen Creator, or when the full moon shining in a clear sky seemed a very goddess of purity and peace, he had never, as others were wont to do, carried his hand to his lips. He had seen the worship of Baal and Ishtar, and there might have come to him, as to whole nations, the impulses of wonder, of delight, of religious reverence. But he can fearlessly say that he never yielded to the temptation to adore anything in heaven or earth. It would have been to deny Eloah the Supreme. Dr. Davidson reminds us here of a legend embodied in the Koran for the purpose of impressing the lesson that worship should be paid to the Lord of all creatures, “whose shall be the kingdom on the day whereon the trumpet shall be sounded.” The Almighty says: “Thus did we show unto Abraham the kingdom of heaven and earth, that he might become of those who firmly believe. And when the night overshadowed him he saw a star, and he said, This is my Lord; but when it set he said, I like not those that set. And when he saw the moon rising he said, This is my Lord; but when he saw it set he said, Verily, if my Lord direct me not, I shall become one of the people who go astray. And when he saw the rising sun he said, This is my Lord; this is the greatest; but when it set he said, O my people, verily I am clear of that which ye associate with God; I direct my face unto Him who hath created the heavens and the earth.” Thus from very early times to that of Mohammed monotheism was in conflict with the form of idolatry that naturally allured the inhabitants of Arabia. Job confesses the attraction, denies the sin. He speaks as if the laws of his people were strongly against sun worship, whatever might be done elsewhere.

V.

He proceeds to declare that he has never rejoiced over a fallen enemy nor sought the life of any one with a curse. He distinguishes himself very sharply from those who in the common Oriental way dealt curses without great provocation, and those even who kept them for deadly enemies. So far was this rancorous spirit from him that friends and enemies alike were welcome to his hospitality and help. Job 31:31 means that his servants could boast of being unable to find a single stranger who had not sat at his table. Their business was to furnish it every day with guests. Nor will Job allow that after the manner of men he skilfully covered transgressions. “If, guilty of some base thing, I concealed it, as men often do, because I was afraid of losing caste, afraid lest the great families would despise me” Such a thought or fear never presented itself to him. He could not thus have lived a double life. All had been above board, in the clear light of day, ruled by one law. In connection with this it is that he comes with princely appeal to the King.

“Oh that I had one to hear me!-

Behold my signature-let the Almighty answer me.

And oh that I had my Opponents charge!

Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, I would bind it unto me as a crown.

I would declare unto Him the number of my steps,

As a prince would I go near unto Him.”

The words are to be defended only on the ground that the Eloah to whom a challenge is here addressed is God misunderstood, God charged falsely with making unfounded accusations against His servant and punishing him as a criminal. The Almighty has not been doing so. The vicious reasoning of the friends, the mistaken creed of the age make it appear as if He had. Men say to Job, You suffer because God has found evil in you. He is requiting you according to your iniquity. They maintain that for no other reason could calamities have come upon him. So God is made to appear as the mans adversary; and Job is forced to the demonstration that he has been unjustly condemned. “Behold my signature,” he says: I state my innocence; I set to my mark; I stand by my claim: I can do nothing else. Let the Almighty prove me at fault. God, you say, has a book in which His charges against me are written out. I wish I had that book! I would fasten it upon my shoulder as a badge of honour; yea, I would wear it as a crown. I would show Eloah all I have done, every step I have taken through life by day and night. I would evade nothing. In the assurance of integrity I would go to the King; as a prince I would stand in His presence. There face to face with Him whom I know to be just and righteous I would justify myself as His servant, faithful in His house.

Is it audacity, impiety? The writer of the book does not mean it to be so understood. There is not the slightest hint that he gives up his hero. Every claim made is true. Yet there is ignorance of God, and that ignorance puts Job in fault so far. He does not know Gods action though he knows his own. He ought to reason from the misunderstanding of himself and see that he may fail to understand Eloah. When he begins to see this he will believe that his sufferings have complete justification in the purpose of the Most High.

The ignorance of Job represents the ignorance of the old world. Notwithstanding the tenor of his prologue the writer is without a theory of human affliction applicable to every case, or even to the experience of Job. He can only say and repeat, God is supremely wise and righteous, and for the glory of His wisdom and righteousness He ordains all that befalls men. The problem is not solved till we see Christ, the Captain of our salvation, made perfect by suffering, and know that our earthly affliction “which is for the moment worketh for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory.”

The last verses of the chapter may seem out of place. Job speaks as a landowner who has not encroached on the fields of others but honestly acquired his estate, and as a farmer who has tilled it well. This seems a trifling matter compared with others that have been considered. Yet, as a kind of afterthought, completing the review of his life, the detail is natural.

“If my land cry out against me,

And the furrows thereof weep together,

If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money,

Or have caused the owners to lose their life:

Let thistles grow instead of wheat

And cockle instead of barley.

The words of Job are ended.”

A farmer of the right kind would have great shame if poor crops or wet furrows cried against him, or if he could otherwise be accused of treating the land ill. The touch is realistic and forcible.

Still it is plain at the close that the character of Job is idealised. Much may he received as matter of veritable history; but on the whole the life is too fine, pure, saintly for even an extraordinary man. The picture is clearly typical. And it is so for the best reason. An actual life would not have set the problem fully in view. The writers aim is to rouse thought by throwing the contradictions of human experience so vividly upon a prepared canvas that all may see. Why do the righteous suffer? What does the Almighty mean? The urgent questions of the race are made as insistent as art and passion, ideal truth and sincerity, can make them. Job lying in the grime of misery, yet claiming his innocence as a prince before the Eternal King, demands on behalf of humanity the vindication of providence, the meaning of the world scheme.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary