Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 31:26
If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking [in] brightness;
If I beheld the sun when it shined – Margin, light. The Hebrew word ( ‘or) properly means light, but that it here means the sun is manifest from the connection, since the moon occurs in the parallel member of the sentence. Why the word light is used here rather than sun, can be only a matter of conjecture. It may be because the worship to which Job refers was not primarily and originally that of the sun, the moon, or the stars, but of light as such, and that he mentions this as the essential feature of the idolatry which he had avoided. The worship of light in general soon became in fact the worship of the sun – as that is the principal source of light. There is no doubt that Job here refers to idolatrous worship, and the passage is particularly valuable, as it describes one of the forms of idolatry then existing, and refers to some of the customs then prevalent in such worship.
The word light is used, also, to denote the sun in Job 37:2 l; compare Isa 18:4; Hab 3:4. So, also, Homer speaks of the sun not only as lampron faos heelioio – bright light of the sun, but simply as faos – light. Odyssey r. 335. The worship here referred to is that of the heavenly bodies, and it is known that this existed in the early periods of the world, and was probably one of the first forms of idolatry. It is expressly mentioned by Ezekiel as prevailing in his time, Eze 8:16, And they worshipped the sun toward the east. That it prevailed in the time of Moses, is evident from the caution which he gives in Deu 4:19; compare 2Ki 23:5. It is well known, also, that the worship of the heavenly bodies was common in the East, and particularly in Chaldea – near to which Job is supposed to have lived, and it was a remarkable fact that one who was surrounded with idolaters of this description had been enabled always to keep himself pure.
The principle on which this worship was founded was, probably, that of gratitude. People adored the objects from which they derived important benefits, as well as deprecated the wrath of those which were supposed to exert a malignant influence. But among the objects from which people derived the greatest benefits were the sun and moon, and hence, they were objects of worship. The stars, also, were supposed to exert important influences over people, and hence, they also early became objects of adoration. An additional reason for the worship of the heavenly bodies may have been, that light was a natural and striking symbol of the divinity, and those shining bodies may have been at first honored as representatives of the Deity. The worship of the heavenly bodies was called Sabaism, from the Hebrew word tsaba’ – host, or army – as being the worship of the hosts of heaven.
It is supposed to have had its origin in Persia, and to have spread thence to the West. That the moon was worshipped as a deity, is abundantly proved by the testimony of the ancient writers. Hottinger, Hist. Orient. Lib. 1:c. 8, speaking of the worship of the Zabaists, adduces the testimony of Ali Said Vaheb, saying that the first day of the week was devoted to the sun; the second to the moon; the third to Mars, etc. Maimonides says that the Zabaists worshipped the moon, and that they also said that Adam led mankind to that species of worship. Mor. Nev. P. 3: Clemens Alexandr. says (in Protrepto) kai prosekinesan helion hos indoi kai selenen hos fruges. Curtius says of the people of Lybia (Liv. iv. in Melp.) thuousi de helio kai oelene mounoisi.
Julius Caesar says of the Germans, that they worshipped the moon, Lib. 6: de B. G. p. 158. The Romans had a temple consecrated to the moon, Taci. Ann. Lib. 15: Livy, L. 40: See Geor. Frid. Meinhardi Diss. de Selenolatria, in Ugolins Thesau. Sacr. Tom. 23:p. 831ff. Indeed, we have a proof of the worship of the moon in our own language, in the name given to the second day of the week – Monday, i. e. moon-day, implying that it was formerly regarded as devoted to the worship of the moon. The word beheld in the passage before us must be understood in an idolatrous sense. If I have looked upon the sun as an object of worship. Schultens explains this passage as referring to splendid and exalted characters, who, on account of their brilliance and power, may be compared to the sun at noon-day, and to the moon in its brightness. But the more obvious and common reference is to the sun and moon as objects of worship.
Or the moon walking in brightness – Margin, bright. The word walking, here applied to the moon, may refer either to its course through the heavens, or it may mean, as Dr. Good supposes, advancing to her full; brightly, or splendidly progressive. The Septuagint renders the passage strangely enough. Do we not see the shining sun eclipsed? and the moon changing? For it is not in them.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 26. If I beheld the sun when it shined] In this verse Job clears himself of that idolatrous worship which was the most ancient and most consistent with reason of any species of idolatry; viz., Sabaeism, the worship of the heavenly bodies; particularly the sun and moon, Jupiter and Venus, the two latter being the morning and evening stars, and the most resplendent of all the heavenly bodies, the sun and moon excepted.
“Job,” says Calmet, “points out three things here:
“1. The worship of the sun and moon; much used in his time, and very anciently used in every part of the East; and in all probability that from which idolatry took its rise.
“2. The custom of adoring the sun at its rising, and the moon at her change; a superstition which is mentioned in Eze 8:16, and in every part of profane antiquity.
“3. The custom of kissing the hand; the form of adoration, and token of sovereign respect.”
Adoration, or the religious act of kissing the hand, comes to us from the Latin; ad, to, and os, oris, the mouth. The hand lifted to the mouth, and there saluted by the lips.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
If I beheld; not simply, nor only with admiration; (for it is a glorious work of God, which we ought to contemplate and admire;) but for the end here following, or so as to ascribe to it the honour peculiar to God.
The sun, Heb. the light, to wit, the sun, as appears by the opposition of the
moon following, which is called the light here, and Gen 1:16; Psa 136:7,8, by way of eminency, because it is the great light, and the fountain of light to this visible world. And this is understood either,
1. Of Jobs worldly glory or prosperity, which is oft compared to light in Scripture, as the contrary is to darkness. And so the sense of these and the following words is, If I reflected upon my wealth and glory with pride, and admiration, and satisfaction. But this he had now mentioned in plain and proper terms, Job 31:25, and therefore it is not likely that he should now repeat the same thing in dark and metaphorical expressions. And although this be a great sin before God, yet this is not one of those sins which fall under the cognizance of human judges, as it here follows, Job 31:28. Or rather,
2. Of the sun in the firmament; and so this place speaks of the idolatrous; worship of the host of heaven, and especially of the sun and moon, the most eminent and glorious of that number, which was the most ancient kind of idolatry, and was most frequent in the Eastern countries, in one of which Job lived.
When it shined, i.e. in its full strength and glory; for then it did most affect mens eyes and hearts with admiration at its beauty and benefits, and so move them to adore it. Or, when it began to shine, (the complete verb being used of the beginning of it, as he reigned is oft put for he began to reign,) i.e. at its first rising, which was a special and the chief time for its adoration. Walking in brightness; when it shines most clearly; or when it is at the full, for then especially did the idolaters worship it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
26. If I looked unto the sun (asan object of worship) because he shined; or to the moonbecause she walked, c. Sabaism (from tsaba, “theheavenly hosts”) was the earliest form of false worship. God ishence called in contradistinction, “Lord of Sabaoth.” Thesun, moon, and stars, the brightest objects in nature, and seeneverywhere, were supposed to be visible representatives of theinvisible God. They had no temples, but were worshipped on highplaces and roofs of houses (Eze 8:16Deu 4:19; 2Ki 23:5;2Ki 23:11). The Hebrewhere for “sun” is light. Probably light wasworshipped as the emanation from God, before its embodiments, thesun, c. This worship prevailed in Chaldea wherefore Job’s exemptionfrom the idolatry of his neighbors was the more exemplary. Our”Sun-day,” “Mon-day,” or Moon-day, bear traces ofSabaism.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
If I beheld the sun when it shined,…. Some take this to be a reason why Job did not make gold his hope and confidence, because all sublunary and earthly enjoyments must be uncertain, fading, and perish, since the sun and moon are not without their deficiencies and changes, to which sense the Septuagint version inclines; others, as Nachmanides, that they are a denial that Job ascribed his wealth and substance to the influence of the heavenly bodies; and many interpreters are of opinion that they are a continuation of the same subject as before; Job hereby declaring that neither his eye nor his heart were set upon his outward prosperity, comparable to the light of the sun, and the brightness of the moon; that he did not secretly please himself with it, nor congratulate himself upon it nor applaud his own wisdom and industry; and of late Schultens and others interpret it of flattering great personages, complimenting: them, and courting their favour, which we call worshipping the rising sun; but I rather think it is to be understood, as it more generally is, of worshipping the sun and moon in a literal sense; which was the first kind of idolatry men went into; those very ancient idolaters, the Zabii, worshipped the sun as their greater god, as Maimonides a observes, to whom he says they offered seven bats, seven mice, and seven other creeping things, with some other things also; in later times horses were offered to it, see
2Ki 23:11. So the ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun and moon, calling the one Osiris, and the other Isis b. The word for sun is “light”, and it is so called because it is a luminous body, and the fountain of light to others; it is called the greater light, Ge 1:16; and from this Hebrew word “or”, with the Egyptians, Apollo, who is the sun, is called Horus, as Macrobius c relates; it is said to “shine”, as it always does, even when below our horizon, or in an eclipse, or under a cloud, though not seen by us. Job has here respect to its shining clearly and visibly, and perhaps at noon day, when it is in its full strength; unless regard is had to its bright and shining appearance at its rising, when the Heathens used to pay their homage and adoration to it d: now when Job denies that he beheld it shining, it cannot be understood of the bare sight of it, which he continually had; nor of beholding it with delight and pleasure, which might be very lawfully done, Ec 11:7; nor of considering it as the work of God, being a very glorious and useful creature, in which his glory is displayed, and for which he is to be praised, because of its beneficial influence on the earth; see Ps 8:3; but of his beholding it with admiration, as if it was more than a creature, ascribing deity to it, and worshipping it as God; and the same must be understood of the moon in the next clause:
or the moon walking [in] brightness; as at first rising, or rather when in the full, in the middle of the month, as Aben Ezra; when it walks all night, in its brightness, illuminated by the sun: these two luminaries, the one called the king, the other the queen of heaven, were very early worshipped, if not the first instances of idolatry. Diodorus Siculus e says, that the first men of old, born in Egypt, beholding and admiring the beauty of the world, thought there were two gods in the nature of the universe, and that they were eternal; namely, the sun and moon, the one they called Osiris, and the other Isis; hence the Israelites, having dwelt long in Egypt, were in danger of being drawn into this idolatry, against which they are cautioned, De 4:19; and where was a city called Heliopolis, or the city of the sun, as in the Greek version of Isa 19:18; where was a temple dedicated to the worship of it; and so the Arabians, the neighbours of Job, according to Herodotus f, worshipped the sun and moon; for he says the Persians were taught by them and the Assyrians to sacrifice to the sun and moon; and so did the old Canaanites and the Phoenicians; hence one of their cities is called Bethshemesh, the house or temple of the sun,
Jos 19:22, yea, we are told g, that to this day there are some traces of this ancient idolatry in Arabia, the neighbourhood of Job; as in a large city in Arabia, upon the Euphrates, called Anna, where they worship the sun only; this being common in those parts in Job’s time, he purges himself from it.
a Moreh Nevochim, par. 3. c. 29. p. 424. b Diodor. Sic. l. 1. p. 10. c Saturnal. l. 1. c. 21. d “Illi ad surgentem conversi limina solem”, Virgil. Aeneid. 12. e Bibliothec. l. 1. c. 10. f Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 131. g De la Valle Itinerar. par. 2. c. 9. apud Spanheim. Hist. Job. c. 6. sect. 14. No. 6. p. 108, 109.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(26) If I beheld the sun.It is remarkable that the kind of idolatry repudiated by Job is that only of sun and moon worship. He seems to have been ignorant of the more material and degraded kinds.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
26. The sun the moon Traces of the worship of these bodies are found in the most ancient heathen religions. 2Ki 17:16; 2Ki 21:3; Psalms 19. “The first generation of men in Egypt,” says Diodorus Siculus, (book i, chapter 1,) “contemplating the beauty of the superior world, and admiring with astonishment the frame and order of the universe, supposed that there were two chief gods that were eternal, that is to say, the sun and the moon, the first of which they called Osiris and the other Isis, both names having proper etymologles: for Osiris, in the Greek language, signifies a thing with many eyes, which may be very properly applied to the sun, darting his rays into every corner, and, as it were, with so many eyes viewing and surveying the whole land and sea; with which agrees the poet
The sun from his lofty sphere all sees and hears.
They hold that these gods govern the whole world, cherishing and increasing all things.” See also PLUTARCH’S Treatise Concerning Isis and Osiris, section 52. The Persians (B.C. about 523) conquered Egypt, and replaced, as far as lay in their power, the sculptural representations made by the Egyptians of their divinity Ra, (the sun,) by representations of their own divinity, of which the following figure is an illustration.
The sun in this is distinguished from the sun of the Egyptians by the absence of wings or asps, and more particularly by the want of the human figure or statue of the god, and by its sending forth a number of rays, each ending with a human hand. The ancient Egyptians worshipped the sun under the title of not only Ra or Re, but of Amun Ra, “the hidden” sun. The Papyri furnish extensive and important invocations and hymns to Ra and Amun Ra, illustrations of which may be seen in The Records of the Past, 2:117-136. The Nabataeans (commonly regarded as Arabs) worshipped the sun at “an altar constructed on the top of a house, pouring out libations and burning frankincense upon it every day.” Strabo, xvi, c. 4. section 26. “The astral character of the old Arabian idolatry,” says Rawlinson, “is indubitable.” (See his Herodotus, ii, p. 336.) In Egyptian hieroglyphics the idea of prayer was represented by a man holding up his hands accompanied by a star. The ancient Assyrians subordinated the worship of the sun (Shamas) to that of (Sin) the moon-god. (RAWLINSON’S Anc. Mon., 2:16, 17.) That the rising sun was also worshipped in Syria is affirmed by Tacitus, ( Hist., 3:24.) Such worship spread all over the world, and lasted in England even to the times of Canute, who, according to Dupuis, prescribed the form of worship to be rendered to the sun, etc. Evidences of this idolatry still linger in the names of the first two days of the week, Sun-day, Mon or Moon-day.
Walking in brightness Job dwells upon the dazzling beauty and great glory of these heavenly bodies as though they might be the sources of a subtle power to entice the affections of mortals. The Arabs have a proverb, “Take care of looking at the splendour of the stars.” Most forms of ancient idolatry certainly the worship of the powers of nature drifted into the grossest licentiousness, which may have been the chief reason that, in the days of Job, it was “punished by the judges.”
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Job 31:26 If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking [in] brightness;
Ver. 26. If I beheld the sun when it shined ] viz. To adore it, as the Persians did, and other heathens. The Egyptians had their Heliopolis, or city of the sun; and the Canaanites their Timnath heres, Jdg 2:9 Jos 24:30 , that is, the figure of the sun; so called from the idolatry there committed, in worshipping the sun (though I know there is another reason given). The Persians consecrated a horse to the sun, as the swiftest to the swiftest; and the idolatrous Israelites had their horses of the sun, which Josiah took away. It is not amiss to behold the sun, moon, and stars in their pomp and lustre. It is sweet, saith Solomon, Ecc 11:7 . Comfortable, saith David, Psa 97:11 , and useful in many respects; to mind us of our present beauty and safety, Rev 12:1 Psa 84:11 , and of our future felicity and glory, Mat 13:46 Dan 12:3 ; but above all, of Christ, that Sun of righteousness, Star of Jacob, &c. But this we must do, not to worship them, as they of old did the queen of heaven (and this is thought to be the ancientest idolatry in the world), nor to swear by them, as Mat 5:34 , but to see and worship the Maker of them; which because the blind Ethnics did not, they were damned, Rom 1:19 . Oh, then, what will become of us, who see much more of God by so clear a light in that molten looking glass, Job 37:18 .
Or the moon walking in brightness
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
the sun = the light.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
beheld: Gen 1:16-18, Deu 4:19, Deu 11:16, Deu 17:3, 2Ki 23:5, 2Ki 23:11, Jer 8:2, Eze 8:16
sun: Heb. light
the moon: Psa 8:3, Psa 8:4, Jer 44:17
in brightness: Heb. bright
Reciprocal: Jos 10:12 – Sun 2Ki 21:3 – and worshipped Psa 104:19 – General Psa 136:9 – The moon and stars Son 6:10 – fair Isa 40:26 – Lift Jer 7:18 – queen of heaven Eze 20:24 – their eyes Act 7:42 – the host Rom 1:20 – from the 1Co 15:41 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Job 31:26-27. If I beheld the sun when it shined Namely, in its full strength and glory; when it most affected mens minds and hearts with admiration of its beauty, and of the benefits which it is instrumental in communicating to the world, and thereby moved them to worship it; or the moon walking in brightness When it shined most clearly, or was at the full, at which time especially the idolaters worshipped it. Job, in this passage, evidently speaks of the worship of the host of heaven, and especially of the sun and moon, the most eminent and glorious of that number, which was the most ancient kind of idolatry, and most frequent in the eastern countries. And my heart hath been enticed Or seduced, or deceived, by their plausible and glorious appearances, to believe that there was something of a divinity in them, and so should be induced to worship them, and that secretly, or inwardly, in my thoughts or affections, while I professed outwardly to adhere to God and the true religion. This emphatical expression, enticed, seems to be used here with a design to teach the world this necessary and important truth: that no mistake, or error of mind, would excuse the practice of idolatry. My mouth hath kissed my hand In token of worship, whereof this was a sign.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
31:26 If I beheld the {r} sun when it shined, or the moon walking [in] brightness;
(r) If I was proud of my worldly prosperity and happiness, which is meant by the shining of the sun, and brightness of the moon.