Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 31:9

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

9 12. The grossest sensual sin, adultery.

heart have been deceived ] Or, befooled, infatuated.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

If mine heart have been deceived by a woman – If I have been enticed by her beauty. The word rendered deceived pathah means to open, to expand. It is then applied to that which is open or ingenuous; to that which is unsuspicious – like a youth; and thence is used in the sense of being deceived, or enticed; Deu 11:16; Exo 22:16; Pro 1:10; Pro 16:29. The word woman here probably means a married woman, and stands opposed to virgin in ver. 1. The crime which he here disclaims is adultery, and he says that his heart had never been allured from conjugal fidelity by the charms or the arts of a woman.

Or if I have laid wait at my neighbors door – That is, to watch when he would be absent from home. This was a common practice with those who were guilty of the crime referred to here; compare Pro 7:8-9.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 9. If mine heart have been deceived by a woman] The Septuagint add, , another man’s wife.

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

By a woman, to wit, by a strange woman, or rather by my neighbours wife, as the next words limit it; for of a maid he spoke before, Job 31:1, and this cannot be meant of his own wife. He saith, by a woman, i.e. either by gazing upon her beauty, so as to be enamoured with it, and to lust after her; or by her persuasions or allurements. Or, concerning a woman, i.e. concerning impure conversation with a forbidden woman. The phrase is very emphatical, taking from himself and others the vain excuses wherewith men use to palliate their sins, by pretending that they did not design the wickedness, but were merely drawn in and seduced by the strong enticements and provocations of others; all which Job supposeth, and yet nevertheless owns the great guilt of such practices even in that case, as well knowing that temptation to sin is no justification of it.

Laid wait at my neighbours door; watching for a fit opportunity to defile his wife. Compare Pr 7; Pr 9.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

9-12. Job asserts his innocenceof adultery.

deceivedhath letitself be seduced (Pro 7:8;Gen 39:7-12).

laid waituntil thehusband went out.

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

If mine heart have been deceived by a woman,…. By another man’s wife, by wantonly looking at her beauty, and so lusting after her; and so, not through any blame or fault of hers, or by any artful methods made use of by her, to allure and ensnare; such as were practised by the harlot, Pr 7:1; but by neither was the heart of Job deceived, and drawn into the sin of uncleanness; for he had made a covenant with his eyes, as not to look at a virgin, so much less at another man’s wife, to prevent his lusting after her; and whatever temptations and solicitations he might have been attended with, through the grace of God, as Joseph was, he was enabled to withstand them; though as wise a man, and the wisest of men, had his heart deceived and drawn aside thereby, Ec 7:26;

or [if] I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door: to meet with his wife there, and carry on an intrigue with her; or to take the opportunity of going in when opened, in order to solicit her to his embraces, knowing her husband to be away from home; see Pr 5:8.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

9 If my heart has been befooled about a woman,

And if I lay in wait at my neighbour’s door:

10 Let my wife grind unto another,

And let others bow down over her.

11 For this is an infamous act,

And this is a crime to be brought before judges;

12 Yea, it is a fire that consumeth to the abyss,

And should root out all my increase.

As he has guarded himself against defiling virgin innocence by lascivious glances, so is he also conscious of having made no attempt to trespass upon the marriage relationship of his neighbour ( as in the Decalogue, Exo 20:17): his heart was not persuaded, or he did not allow his heart to be persuaded ( like ), i.e., misled, on account of a woman ( as , in post-bibl. usage, of another’s wife), and he lay not in wait (according to the manner of adulterous lovers described at Job 24:15, which see) at his neighbour’s door. We may here, with Wetzstein, compare the like-minded confession in a poem of Muhdi ibn-Muhammel: Arab. ma nabb klb ‘l – jar mna wla awa , i.e., “The neighbour’s dog never barked ( , Beduin equivalent to in the Syrian towns and villages) on our account (because we have gone by night with an evil design to his tent), and it never howled (being beaten by us, to make it cease its barking lest it should betray us).” In Job 31:10 follows the punishment which he wishes might overtake him in case he had acted thus: “may my wife grind to another,” i.e., may she become his “maid behind the mill,” Exo 11:5, comp. Isa 47:2, who must allow herself to be used for everything; and a common low woman (comp. Plutarch, non posse suav . viv. c. 21, ) are almost one and the same. On the other hand, the Targ. ( coeat cum alio ), lxx (euphemistically , not, as the Syr. Hexapl. shows, ), and Jer. ( scortum sit alterius ), and in like manner Saad., Gecat., understand directly of carnal surrender; and, in fact, according to the traditional opinion, b. Sota 10 a: , i.e., “ everywhere in Scripture is intended of (carnal) trespass.” With reference to Jdg 16:21 and Lam 5:13 (where , like Arab. tahun , signifies the upper mill-stone, or in gen. the mill), this is certainly incorrect; the parallel, as well as Deu 28:30, favours this rendering of the word in the obscene sense of , molere , in this passage, which also is seen under the Arab. synon. of grinding, Arab. dahaka ( trudere ); according to which it would have to be interpreted: let her grind to another, i.e., serve him as it were as a nether mill-stone. The verb , used elsewhere (in Talmud.) of the man, would here be transferred to the woman, like as it is used of the mill itself as that which grinds. This rendering is therefore not refuted by its being and not . Moreover, the word thus understood is not unworthy of the poet, since he designedly makes Job seize the strongest expressions. Among moderns, is thus tropically explained by Ew., Umbr., Hahn, and a few others, but most expositors prefer the proper sense, in connection with which molat certainly, especially with respect to Job 31:9, is also equivalent to fiat pellex . It is hard to decide; nevertheless the preponderance of reasons seems to us to be on the side of the traditional tropical rendering, by the side of which Job 31:10 is not attached in progressive, but in synonymous parallelism: et super ea incurvent se alii , of the man, as in the phrase Arab. krt ‘l – mrat ‘la ‘l – rjl ( curvat se mulier ad virum ) of the acquiescence of the woman; is a poetical Aramaism, Ew. 177, a. The sin of adultery, in case he had committed it, ought to be punished by another taking possession of his own wife, for that ( a neutral masc., Keri in accordance with the fem. of the following predicate, comp. Lev 18:17) is an infamous act, and that ( referring back to , Keri in accordance with the masc. of the following predicate) is a crime for the judges. On this wavering between and vid., Gesenius, Handwrterbuch, 1863, s. v. , S. 225. is the usual Thora-word for the shameless subtle encroachments of sensual desires (vid., Saalschtz, Mosaisches Recht, S. 791f.), and (not ), according to the usual view equivalent to crimen et crimen quidem judicum (however, on the form of connection intentionally avoided here, where the genitival relation might easily give an erroneous sense, vid., Ges. 116, rem.), signifies a crime which falls within the province of the penal code, for which in Job 31:28 it is less harshly : a judicial, i.e., criminal offence. is, moreover, not the plur. of (Kimchi), but of , an arbitrator (root , findere, dirimere ).

The confirmatory clause, Job 31:12, is co-ordinate with the preceding: for it (this criminal, adulterous enterprise) is a fire, a fire consuming him who allows the sparks of sinful desire to rise up within him (Pro 6:27.; Sir. 9:8), which devours even to the bottom of the abyss, not resting before it has dragged him whom it has seized down with it into the deepest depth of ruin, and as it were melted him away, and which ought to root out all my produce (all the fruit of my labour).

(Note: It is something characteristically Semitic to express the notion of destruction by the figure of burning up with fire [ vid. supra, p. 449, note], and it is so much used in the present day as a natural inalienable form of thought, that in curses and imprecations everything, without distinction of the object, is to be burned; e.g., juhrik , may (God) burn up, or juhrak , ought to burn, biladuh , his native country, bedenuh , his body, enuh , his eye, shawaribuh , his moustache (i.e., his honour), nefesuh , his breath, omruh , his life, etc. – Wetzst.)

The function of is questionable. Ew. (217, f) explains it as local: in my whole revenue, i.e., throughout my whole domain. But it can also be Beth objecti, whether it be that the obj. is conceived as the means of the action (vid., on Job 16:4-5, Job 16:10; Job 20:20), or that, “corresponding to the Greek genitive, it does not express an entire full coincidence, but an action about and upon the object” (Ew. 217, S. 557). We take it as Beth obj. in the latter sense, after the analogy of the so-called pleonastic Arab. b (e.g., qaraa bi – suwari , he has practised the act of reading upon the Suras of the Koran); and which ought to undertake the act of outrooting upon my whole produce.

(Note: On this pleonastic Beth obj. ( el – Ba el – mezde ) vid., Samachschari’s Mufassal, ed. Broch, pp. 125, 132 (according to which it serves “to give intensity and speciality”), and Beidhwi’s observation on Sur. ii. 191. The most usual example for it is alqa bi – jedeihi ila et – tahlike , he has plunged his hands, i.e., himself, into ruin. The Ba el – mega z (the metaphorical Beth obj.) is similar; it is used where the verb has not its most natural signification but a metaphorical one, e.g., ashada bidhikrihi , he has strengthened his memory: comp. De Sacy, Chrestomathie Arabe, i. 397.)

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

      9 If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door;   10 Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.   11 For this is a heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.   12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.   13 If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;   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?

      Two more instances we have here of Job’s integrity:–

      I. That he had a very great abhorrence of the sin of adultery. As he did not wrong his own marriage bed by keeping a concubine (he did not so much as think upon a maid, v. 1), so he was careful not to offer any injury to his neighbour’s marriage bed. Let us see here, 1. How clear he was from this sin, v. 9. (1.) He did not so much as covet his neighbour’s wife; for even his heart was not deceived by a woman. The beauty of another man’s wife did not kindle in him any unchaste desires, nor was he ever moved by the allurements of an adulterous woman, such as is described, Prov. vii. 6, c. See the original of all the defilements of the life they come from a deceived heart. Every sin is deceitful, and none more so than the sin of uncleanness. (2.) He never compassed or imagined any unchaste design. He never laid wait at his neighbour’s door, to get an opportunity to debauch his wife in his absence, when the good man was not at home, Prov. vii. 19. See ch. xxiv. 15. 2. What a dread he had of this sin, and what frightful apprehensions he had concerning the malignity of it–that it was a heinous crime (v. 11), one of the greatest vilest sins a man can be guilty of, highly provoking to God, and destructive to the prosperity of the soul. With respect to the mischievousness of it, and the punishment it deserved, he owns that, if he were guilty of that heinous crime, (1.) His family might justly be made infamous in the highest degree (v. 10): Let my wife grind to another. Let her be a slave (so some), a harlot, so others. God often punishes the sins of one with the sin of another, the adultery of the husband with the adultery of the wife, as in David’s case (2 Sam. xii. 11), which does not in the least excuse the treachery of the adulterous wife; but, how unrighteous soever she is, God is righteous. See Hos. iv. 13, Your spouses shall commit adultery. Note, Those who are not just and faithful to their relations must not think it strange if their relations be unjust and unfaithful to them. (2.) He himself might justly be made a public example: For it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges; yea, though those who are guilty of it are themselves judges, as Job was. Note, Adultery is a crime which the civil magistrate ought to take cognizance of and punish: so it was adjudged even in the patriarchal age, before the law of Moses made it capital. It is an evil work, to which the sword of justice ought to be a terror. (3.) It might justly become the ruin of his estate; nay, he knew it would be so (v. 12): It is a fire. Lust is a fire in the soul: those that indulge it are said to burn. It consumes all that is good there (the convictions, the comforts), and lays the conscience waste. It kindles the fire of God’s wrath, which, if not extinguished by the blood of Christ, will burn to the lowest hell. It will consume even to that eternal destruction. It consumes the body, Prov. v. 11. It consumes the substance; it roots out all the increase. Burning lusts bring burning judgments. Perhaps it alludes to the burning of Sodom, which was intended for an example to those who should afterwards, in like manner, live ungodly.

      II. That he had a very great tenderness for his servants and ruled them with a gentle hand. He had a great household and he managed it well. By this he evidenced his sincerity that he had grace to govern his passion as well as his appetite; and he that in these two things has the rule of his own spirit is better than the mighty, Prov. xvi. 32. Here observe, 1. What were Job’s condescensions to his servants (v. 13): He did not despise the cause of his man-servant, no, nor of his maid-servant, when they contended with him. If they contradicted him in any thing, he was willing to hear their reasons. If they had offended him, or were accused to him, he would patiently hear what they had to say for themselves, in their own vindication or excuse. Nay, if they complained of any hardship he put upon them, he did not browbeat them, and bid them hold their tongues, but gave them leave to tell their story, and redressed their grievances as far as it appeared they had right on their side. He was tender of them, not only when they served and pleased him, but even when they contended with him. Herein he was a great example to masters, to give to their servants that which is just and equal; nay, to do the same things to them that they expect from them (Col 4:1; Eph 6:9), and not to rule them with rigour, and carry it with a high hand. Many of Job’s servants were slain in his service (ch. i. 15-17); the rest were unkind and undutiful to him, and despised his cause, though he never despised theirs (Job 19:15; Job 19:16); but he had this comfort that in his prosperity he had behaved well towards them. Note, When relations are either removed from us or embittered to us the testimony of our consciences that we have done our duty to them will be a great support and comfort to us. 2. What were the considerations that moved him to treat his servants thus kindly. He had, herein, an eye to God, both as his Judge and their Maker. (1.) As his Judge. He considered, “If I should be imperious and severe with my servants, what then shall I do when God riseth up?” He considered that he had a Master in heaven, to whom he was accountable, who will rise up and will visit; and we are concerned to consider what we shall do in the day of his visitation (Isa. x. 3), and, considering that we should be undone if God should then be strict and severe with us, we ought to be very mild and gentle towards all with whom we have to do. Consider what would become of us if God should be extreme to mark what we do amiss, should take all advantages against us and insist upon all his just demands from us–if he should visit every offence, and take every forfeiture–if he should always chide, and keep his anger for ever. And let not us be rigorous with our inferiors. Consider what will become of us if we be cruel and unmerciful to our brethren. The cries of the injured will be heard; the sins of the injurious will be punished. Those that showed no mercy shall find none; and what shall we do then? (2.) As his and his servants’ Creator, v. 15. When he was tempted to be harsh with his servants, to deny them their right and turn a deaf ear to their reasonings, this thought came very seasonably into his mind, “Did not he that made me in the womb make him? I am a creature as well as he, and my being is derived and depending as well as his. He partakes of the same nature that I do and is the work of the same hand: Have we not all one Father?” Note, Whatever difference there is among men in their outward condition, in their capacity of mind, or strength of body, or place in the world, he that made the one made the other also, which is a good reason why we should not mock at men’s natural infirmities, nor trample upon those that are in any way our inferiors, but, in every thing, do as we would be done by. It is a rule of justice, Parium par sit ratio–Let equals be equally estimated and treated; and therefore since there is so great a parity among men, they being all made of the same mould, by the same power, for the same end, notwithstanding the disparity of our outward condition, we are bound so far to set ourselves upon the level with those we deal with as to do to them, in all respects, as we would they should do to us.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

b.

Was upright in his domestic relations (Job. 31:9-15)

c.

He was kind and neighborly. (Job. 31:16-23)

TEXT 31:923

9 If my heart hath been enticed onto a woman,

And I have laid wait at my neighbors door;

10 Then let my wife grind onto another,

And let others bow down upon her.

11 For that were a heinous crime;

Yea, it were an iniquity to be punished by the judges:

12 For it is a fire that consumeth unto Destruction,

And would root out all mine increase.

13 If I have despised the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant,

When they contended with me;

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 alone,

And the fatherless hath not eaten thereof

18 (Nay, from my youth he grew up with me as with a father,

And her have I guided from my mothers womb);

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

Or that the needy had no covering;

20 If his loins have not blessed me,

And if he hath not been warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

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

Because I saw my help in the gate:

22 Then let my shoulder fall from the shoulder-blade,

And mine arm be broken from the bone.

23 For calamity from God is a terror to me,

And by reason of his majesty I can do nothing.

COMMENT 31:923

Job. 31:9The sin of adultery is repudiated by Job. The woman is a married woman, as the parallel makes plain, i.e., neighbors door or house. The picture of laying in wait suggests that of an adulteressPro. 7:12; Exo. 20:7; also Job. 31:19; here the thought is of an adulterer who waits for his opportunity, which he might find at duskJob. 24:15.

Job. 31:10The work of a slave is grindingExo. 11:5; Isa. 47:2. Samson was reduced to grinding by the PhilistinesJdg. 16:21. In the second line, Job invokes the principle of the lex talionis. His hypothetical adultery would to all Hebrews be an offense against her husband. In Hebrew law, adultery always involved a married woman. Their double standard meant that the marital status of the man was immaterial (compare with Jesus revolutionary views, His repudiation of the double standard, and His liberation of women).[315] The second line is clearly sexual in connotation, as the verb kr can imply sexual intercourseDeu. 28:30.

[315] This misunderstanding, i.e., thinking that this verse literally means that his wife becomes a slave, is presented in the apocryphal work, The Testament of Job; while Job sat on the dunghill, his wife carried water as a slave.

Job. 31:11The A. V. rendering heinous crime comes from zimmah and is consistently used of lewdness, and indecent sexual conduct.[316] The perversion is so lewd that it deserved to receive judicial condemnation.

[316] M. Pope, JBL, 1966, p. 458.

Job. 31:12This verse echoes Deu. 32:22; Pro. 6:27-29. The sure punishment for adultery is compared with deadly fireEcc. 9:8 b.[317]

[317] G. R. Driver, Yestus Testamentum, 1955, pp. 88ff.

Job. 31:13In this verse the issue turns to the charge of the abuse of power. If he has abused his servants, permitted the weak to suffer injustice, he again calls a curse down upon himself. The rights of slaves were few in the ancient world. Hebrew laws attempted to mitigate their harsh treatmentExo. 21:2-11; Lev. 25:39-55; Deu. 5:14; for manumission of slaves, see Jer. 34:8-11.[318] Job had recognized his slaves as fellow human beingsJob. 31:15who had rights which were not enforceable by law. He was always ready to listen to their complaints. They often helped Job during his tragediesJob. 19:15 ff. These specific social crimes reveal a remarkably advanced moral consciousness for the Near East. Job here maintains that he has not failed in either equity or mercy. Neither virtue was based in law, but in love for his fellow human beings.

[318] On the matter of slavery in the Near East and Israel, see R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, pp. 8090; and I. Mendelsohn, Slavery in the Ancient Near East, 1949, for entire picture.

Job. 31:14Jeremiah says that perfidy in dealing with slaves was a factor in Gods condemnation of the southern kingdom to destruction in Babylonian exileJer. 34:15-22. Job here feels that he is answerable to God for his social behavior. His personal relationship with God had social significance. Salvation always has public signification and never merely private or personal meaning. The verb rise (yaqumarise in vengeance) in line one suggests rising to judgment,[319] i.e., when God visits (verb means to visit Job. 7:18; inspect Job. 5:24; or punish Job. 35:14), Job is conscious that his appeal to God will lead to investigation and consequent vindication or negative judgment. No slave could have made such an appeal legally, but Job can and does.

[319] M. Dahood, Biblica, 1971, p. 346, suggests the root meaning vengeance.

Job. 31:15Job has spoken earlier (Job. 10:8 ff) of Gods merciful care being lavished upon him at his birth. Here he asserts that he has extended this same care upon slaves, who legally had no such rights. We cannot lose sight of the high ethical perspective in this verse. It is remarkable for any age, but in Jobs Sitz im Leben is all the more remarkable. He declares that men are one because of the creator. The same problem haunts man in the last quarter of the 20th century. Cultural stratification can be overcome only in Jobs redeemer, but neither through any proposed classical Liberal Fatherhood of God-Brotherhood of Man thesis, nor neo-Marxian classless society. The evidence from Asia, Europe, Africa, and Latin America is adequate grounds for suspicion toward the myth that politico-economic conditions can humanize, thus unify, mankindMal. 2:10; Pro. 17:5 a; Act. 17:16 ff; Eph. 6:9. Mens efforts to humanize merely proliferate bureaucracy, and then death by bureaucracy.

Job. 31:16Job denies Eliphazs charges under oathJob. 22:7-9. He has not exploited the weak nor attained unjust victories in the community. It seems strange that one has raised the issueWhy are the poor and unfortunate so important? They do not prosper because they are wicked. If they were not wicked, they would not be the powerless poor. The wicked deserve their fate; so why would Eliphaz ever raise such a charge? It is completely irrational, even on his own assumptions.

Job. 31:17Job has invited, or at least permitted, the poor to eat from his own tableIsa. 58:7; Pro. 22:9; and Mat. 25:35. He has fed the destitute; thus, he cared and shared.

Job. 31:18He went far beyond heartless charity; he gave them fatherly compassion. That this expresses a behavior pattern and not a single act of charity is revealed in the Hebrew text, which says he grew up with me from my mothers womb. He has always been a righteous man. These images are, of course, hyperbolicJas. 1:27.

Job. 31:19He even looked around to locate the poor, fatherless, and the widows. Clothing and covering are parallel in Job. 24:7 and Mat. 25:36 ff. His behavior was not a mere tax write-off for social prestige, like many of our great foundations in the western world.

Job. 31:20The poor, whose loins once ached from the night cold, bless him for supplying a fleece covering. Their warmth praises him, as ones bones might praise GodPsa. 35:10.[320] Jobs benevolence is rewarded by praise.

[320] For analysis of this figure, see G. R. Driver, American Journal of Semitic Literature, 193536, pp. 164ff.

Job. 31:21The raised hand (lit. waved or shaken) is symbolic of an overt threatIsa. 11:15; Isa. 19:16; Zec. 2:9. He here denies that he has exploited his power to secure an unjust verdictJob. 29:7. The orphans, widows, and poor had no prospects of justice without the support (Heb. is lit. saw my help) of a person like JobJob. 39:12; Pro. 22:12.

Job. 31:22If what I have just declared is not true, then may my lower arm be broken off from the upper arm.[321] Perhaps this imagery is derived from the violent mourning rites discussed in the Mosaic LawLev. 19:28; Lev. 21:5.

[321] Rendering of A. Herdner, Revue des etudes semitiques, 194243, p. 49.

Job. 31:23God alone, in all His majestic power, restrained Job from exploiting his power over others. He vividly describes his thought about Gods presencelit. For a terror unto me was calamity from God. Terrien simply states the case: It was religion which justified, supported, explained, and made possible his morality (Interpreters Bible, Vol. 4, p. 1121).

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

Second strophe Job affirms that he has practised righteousness in all the relationships of DOMESTIC life; and at the same time protests, first, with contempt and detestation, that he had never been be-fooled by a woman, and thus led away into adultery; and again, that he had never despised the cause of his servant, whose rights were co-equal with his own in the sight of God, Job 31:9-15.

9. Deceived Enticed or befooled. At the root of the Hebrew lies the idea of simplicity. Compare Job 31:27; Pro 7:7; Pro 9:4. He now declares himself guiltless of adultery, as he had before of fornication, (Job 31:1.)

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

(9) If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door; (10) Then let my wife grind unto another, 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, and would root out all mine increase. (13) If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me; (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 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, 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 my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate: (22) Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. (23) For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure. (24) If I have made gold my hope, 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; (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: for I should have denied the God that is above. (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.

I shall not in a work of this nature enter into the investigation of the several particulars of sin Job here enumerates, and of the commission of which he pleads his innocency; for general observations will suit the whole. Job’s friends had been particular in their accusations against him. Eliphaz had charged him with having withheld his bread from the hungry; that his wickedness was great, and that he had taken a pledge from his brother for naught, and stripped the naked of their clothing. Chapter 22:5-7. Job therefore enters into a particular defense of himself from all these charges; and shows here, as in the former instances, that not only a consciousness of the common equality in nature, between himself and his servant, would have induced tenderness, but a consciousness of GOD that was above, his love and reverence for his highness, would have suppressed such evils. And the good man, in a most beautiful and interesting manner, enters into an appeal against these charges, and desires punishment, suited to the enormity of such offences, if he had, in any instance, exercised such cruelty. Reader, how sweet is it to have our nature brought under the trainment of grace, and to behold, under JESUS’S example of meekness and lowliness of heart, the SPIRIT of JESUS ruling our hearts and minds, in the following his blessed steps.

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

Job 31:9 If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or [if] I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door;

Ver. 9. If my heart hath been deceived by a woman ] By a female sinner, as they call such, a strange woman (as the Scripture), whose lips are snares, whose hands are bands, whose words are cords to draw a man in, as an ox to the slaughter, Pro 7:21 , whose face is as a glass, wherein while larks gaze they are taken in a day net ( , Hinc , persuadeo ). Here Job disavoweth and disclaimeth the sin of adultery, purging himself, as it were, by oath, as before he had done of fornication, and of wrong dealing. These sins he reckoneth up, either as they came to mind, or else in such order as men are many times tempted to them. Young people are prone to fornication; Job, when young, had kept himself clear from that iniquity. When men have got some years over their heads, and are entered into the world, as they call it, they usually grow greedy and gripple; they are set upon it, and will be rich, however they come by it. Job was none such either, Job 31:5 ; Job 31:7 . Afterwards, when married, they are sick of a pleurisy; and as the devil, who sets them to work, they long to be sowing another man’s ground, Mat 13:25 . The temptation to fornication is strong, but to adultery stronger, Adulterium quasi ad alterius torum. God doth often punish fornication, unrepented of, with strong and vexing honings and hankerings after strange flesh. But Job either was never troubled in this way; or else, when the temptation came, he was sure to be ever out of the way. The devil’s fire fell upon wet tinder; and if he knocked at Job’s door, there was no one at home to look out at the window and let him in; for he considered the punishment both human, Job 31:11 , and divine, Job 31:12 , due to this great wickedness.

Or if I have laid wait at my neighbour’s door] Either as waiting the opportunity of his absence, as Pro 7:19 , or as insinuating myself into her familiarity, while she was standing in her door. Of the Italian women one giveth this character, That though witty in speech, and modest in outward appearance, yet they are magpies at the door, goats in the garden, devils in the house, angels in the streets, and syrens in the windows. Job’s heart was not deceived by any such; neither sought he to defraud his brother in any such matter, 1Th 4:5-6 . See Trapp on “ Joh 8:4 “

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

Job 31:9-15

Job 31:9-15

“If my heart hath been enticed unto a woman,

And I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door;

Then let my wife grind unto another,

And let others bow down upon her.

For that were an heinous crime;

Yea, it were an iniquity to be punished by the judges:

For it is afire that consumeth unto Destruction,

And would root out all mine increase.

If I have despised the cause of my man-servant or my maid-servant,

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 secret of righteous living is clearly revealed in these remarkable words. Job’s honorable behavior was entirely due to his consciousness of God’s existence, and of the certainty of God’s bringing every human action into judgment. If today men wonder why immorality and vicious crimes are destroying our society, let them read the answer here. Men are no longer fully aware that God sees and knows their deeds, and that eternal punishment shall eventually reward the reprobate. Men may avoid or deceive policemen, judges and human law-enforcement systems; but they shall not be able to avoid or frustrate their eventual judgment by the Creator.

It should also be noted that Job’s evaluation of the sin of adultery stressed the iniquity of it, “As a flagrant offense, not only subject to divine punishment, but also dealt with by magistrates and the criminal law.” Our own beloved country has removed adultery from the list of felonies, and in so doing has invited and encouraged social and national decay. There cannot be any doubt that when the current increasing departure from the wisdom of the ages has run its course in the U.S.A., the ruin and ultimate wreckage of our vaunted culture will be the terminal result.

“Let others bow down upon her” (Job 31:10). “Here the imprecatory sanction is specified, the accused adulterer asking to be repaid in kind (if its true) (see Rth 1:17). To have one’s betrothed ravished by another man is one of the most repugnant of curses (Deu 28:30 ff).”

“Did not he that made me in the womb make him” (Job 31:15). “This passage is as close to expressing the full implication of the doctrine of the universal fatherhood of God and its corollary, the brotherhood of all mankind, as anything in the Old Testament. Malachi wrote, `Have we not all one Father? Did not God create us’? But the context there limits the application to Israel. Paul in his letter to Christian masters of slaves at Ephesus said no more on this score than we have here, namely, that both masters and slaves have a common heavenly Master who shows no partiality (Eph 6:9).” “A fellow-human being, whom God has fashioned with care must be treated with care and respect by God’s other creatures.”

E.M. Zerr:

Job 31:9-10. This is another curse that Job was wishing on himself if he could be found guilty of the sins he had been describing. Grind is from TACHAN which Strong defines, “A primitive root; to grind meal; hence to be a concubine (that being their employment).” This might seem to some as a severe wish, but Job 2:9 shows this woman not to be worthy of a better consideration.

Job 31:11-12. Job justified his severe wishes by the greatness of the crimes he had been describing, if he had been guilty of them.

Job 31:13-14. If Job were unjust with his servant he would expect to receive the judgment of God.

Job 31:15. The meaning of this verse is that Job and his servant had the same origin, therefore he had no right to abuse his servant.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

If mine: Jdg 16:5, 1Ki 11:4, Neh 13:26, Pro 2:16-19, Pro 5:3-23, Pro 6:25, Pro 7:21, Pro 22:14, Ecc 7:26

if I: Job 24:15, Job 24:16, Jer 5:8, Hos 7:4

Reciprocal: Gen 34:2 – saw her Gen 39:9 – how then Exo 20:17 – wife 2Sa 11:4 – sent messengers Psa 50:18 – hast been partaker Pro 6:27 – General Eze 22:11 – committed Hos 4:13 – therefore Mat 5:28 – That Jam 1:14 – when 2Pe 2:14 – eyes

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Job 31:9-10. If my heart have been deceived by a woman Namely, by a strange woman, or rather, by my neighbours wife, as the next words limit the clause; for of a maid he had spoken before. If I have laid wait at my neighbours door Watching for his absence, or some fair opportunity to enter his house and defile his bed. Then let my wife grind unto another Let another take away my wife from me, make her the vilest slave, and use her at his pleasure. Not as if Job desired this, but that if God should give up his wife to such wickedness, he would acknowledge his justice in it.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments