Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 31:6

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

6. A solemn assertion before God the judge that his denial in Job 31:5 is true. The words are parenthetical.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Let me be weighed in an even balance – Margin, him weigh me in balances of justice. That is, let him ascertain exactly my character, and treat me accordingly. If on trial it be found that I am guilty in this respect, I consent to be punished accordingly. Scales or balances are often used as emblematic of justice. Many suppose, however, that this verse is a parenthesis, and that the imprecation in Job 31:8, relates to Job 31:5, as well as to Job 31:7. But most probably the meaning is, that he consented to have his life tried in this respect in the most exact and rigid manner, and was willing to abide the result. A man may express such a consciousness of integrity in his dealings with others, without any improper self-reliance or boasting. It may be a simple fact of which he may be certain, that he has never meant to defraud any man.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 6. Mine integrity.] tummathi, my perfection; the totality of my unblameable life.

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

This is either,

1. An imprecation; or rather,

2. A submission to trial, as the following words show. The sense is, I am so far from being conscious to myself of any hypocrisy or secret wickedness, whereby I have brought these unusual judgments upon myself, as you traduce me, that I desire nothing more than to have my heart and life weighed in just balances, and searched out by the all-seeing God.

That God may know, Heb. and let him know (i.e. let him acknowledge and show that he knoweth and approveth); or let him make known to my friends and others, who censure or condemn me. Or, and he will know, (i.e. upon search he will find out; which is spoken of God after the manner of men)

mine integrity. So this is an appeal to God to be witness of his sincerity, and to vindicate him from the imputation of hypocrisy.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

6. Parenthetical. Translate:”Oh, that God would weigh me . . . then would He know,”&c.

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

Let me be weighed in an even balance,…. Or “in balances of righteousness” z, even in the balance or strict justice, the justice of God; he was so conscious to himself that he had done no injustice to any man in his dealings with them, that, if weight of righteousness, which was to be, and was the rule of his conduct between man and man, was put into one scale, and his actions into another, the balance would be even, there would be nothing wanting, or, however, that would require any severe censure:

that God may know mine integrity; God did knew his integrity, and bore a testimony to it, and to his retaining it, Job 2:3; but his meaning is, that should God strictly inquire into his life and conduct with respect to his dealings with men, as it would appear that he had lived in all good conscience to that day, so he doubted not but he would find his integrity such, that he would own and acknowledge it, approve of it, and commend it, and make it known to his friends and others, whereby he would be cleared of all those calumnies that were cast upon him. Some connect these words with the following, reading them affirmatively, “God knows mine integrity”; he knows that my step has not turned out of the way of truth and righteousness; that my heart has not walked after mine eye, in lustful thoughts and desires; and that there is no spoil, nor rapine, nor violence in my hand, that I should deserve such a punishment as to sow, and another eat: thus Sephorno.

z “in bilancibus justitiae”, Montanus, Mercerus, Drusius, so Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

6. Let me be weighed, etc. Literally, let him weigh me in a balance of righteousness, and God shall know mine integrity.

Balance See note, Job 6:2. According to the Egyptian mythology, when the soul appears before Osiris it is weighed in a balance. A series of questions (amounting to as many as forty-two) are proposed, of the most severe and searching character, which “illustrate the nature of that secret and self-judging law which everywhere, in spite of intellectual aberrations, is still active in the cause of truth and righteousness, among the inmost fibres of the human heart.” HARDWICK. (See his work, “Christ,” etc., 2:301-303; also Bib. Sac., 25:97-103.)

In this picture, taken from Champollion, the good deeds of an entire life, supposed to have been deposited in a vase, are being weighed in the one scale; while an ostrich feather, the emblem of truth or justice, serves as a weight in the other. A report of the issue is in process of reading to Osiris, before whom sits the dog Cerberus, the keeper of the gates of the invisible world. The trial has evidently gone against the dead man, who is being ferried back to earth in the form of a hog under the guidance of a monkey.

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

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

Ver. 6. Let me be weighed in an even balance ] Heb. Let him weigh me; Examine me, saith Tremellius. David, with the like confidence, Search me, O God, saith he, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, any course of sin that is grievous to God or man, wherein I have walked, or my foot hath hasted, Psa 139:23-24 . Job would not rest in his own heart’s applause; neither would he be borne down by his friends’ false charges; but puts himself into God’s hands to be weighed, and then makes no question but his present sufferings will be found heavier than his former miscarriages, in his interdealings with men for matter of gain; and that there is some other cause (though what he knoweth not) for which God doth so grievously afflict him. See David doing the like, Psa 7:4 ; Psa 26:2 .

That God may know mine integrity ] i.e. That he may make known mine innocence and upright heartedness in this particular of commerce with others; that I have not dealt deceitfully. Otherwise, if God should weigh the best that are in a balance, they would be found too light; if he mark iniquities no man living can be justified, Psa 130:3 ; Psa 143:2 . If he turn up the bottom of the bag all our secret thefts will out, and come to reckoning. It is an idle conceit of some ignorant folk, that God will weigh their good deeds against their bad; and they shall well enough set off with him by the one for the other. This they have drawn (as they have not a few other fopperies) from that practice of Popish priests; to persuade people that when men are at point of death, St Michael, the archangel, bringeth a pair of balances, and putteth in one scale their good works, and in the other their sins; and that if those weigh down these, they are saved, as if otherwise, they are damned. But what saith an ancient, Vae hominum vitae etiamsi laudabili, &c., Woe to the best man alive if God should weigh him in a balance of justice; since his sins would be found heavier than the sands of the sea, Job 9:15 ; Job 10:15 .

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

Let me be weighed in an even balance: Heb. Let him weigh me in balances of justice, 1Sa 2:3, Psa 7:8, Psa 7:9, Psa 17:2, Psa 17:3, Psa 26:1, Pro 16:11, Isa 26:7, Dan 5:27, Mic 6:11

know: Jos 22:22, Psa 1:6, Psa 139:23, Mat 7:23, 2Ti 2:19

Reciprocal: Job 10:7 – Thou knowest

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

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

(d) He shows what his uprightness stands in, in as much as he was blameless before men and did not sin against the second table.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes