Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 35:8

Thy wickedness [may hurt] a man as thou [art]; and thy righteousness [may profit] the son of man.

8. The verse reads literally: thy wickedness is to (touches, affects) a man as thou art, and thy righteousness is to one of mankind, i. e. thyself who art a man; for it cannot touch God who is exalted above such influence.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Thy wickedness may hurt a Man as thou art – That is, it may injure him, but not God. He is too far exalted above man, and too independent of man in his sources of happiness, to be affected by what he can do. The object of the whole passage Job 35:6-8 is, to show that God is independent of people, and is not governed in his dealings with them on the principles which regulate their conduct with each other. One man may be greatly benefited by the conduct of another, and may feel under obligation to reward him for it; or he maybe greatly injured in his person, property, or reputation, by another, and will endeavor to avenge himself. But nothing of this kind can happen to God. If he rewards, therefore, it must be of his grace and mercy, not because he is laid under obligation; if he inflicts chastisement, it must be because people deserve it, and not because God has been injured. In this reasoning Elihu undoubtedly refers to Job, whom he regards as having urged a claim to a different kind of treatment, because he supposed that he deserved it. The general principle of Elihu is clearly correct, that God is entirely independent of human beings; that neither our good nor evil conduct can effect his happiness, and that consequently his dealings with us are those of impartial justice.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 8. Thy wickedness may hurt] It is better to translate this literally:

To a man like thyself is thy wickedness:

And to the son of man, thy righteousness:

That is: –

Thou mayest injure thyself and others by thy wickedness,

And thou mayest benefit both by thy righteousness;

But God thou canst neither hurt nor profit.

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

If God were such a one as thou art, he might have benefit or hurt by thine actions; but being an infinite, independent, and self-sufficient Being, he is far exalted above all thy good or evil.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

5-8. Elihu like Eliphaz (Job 22:2;Job 22:3; Job 22:12)shows that God is too exalted in nature to be susceptible of benefitor hurt from the righteousness or sin of men respectively; it isthemselves that they benefit by righteousness, or hurt by sin.

behold the clouds, which arehigher than thouspoken with irony. Not only are they higherthan thou, but thou canst not even reach them clearly with the eye.Yet these are not as high as God’s seat. God is therefore too exaltedto be dependent on man. Therefore He has no inducement to injusticein His dealings with man. When He afflicts, it must be from adifferent motive; namely, the good of the sufferer.

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

Thy wickedness [may hurt] a man as thou [art],…. But not God: a man may hurt himself by his wickedness; his body, by bringing various diseases upon it, through debauchery and intemperance; his family and estate, by wasting it; his soul, for every sin is a wrong and injury to a man’s soul, and exposes it to ruin and destruction: and sin does even a good man harm, since it breaks in upon his peace, and hinders his communion with God; and the wickedness of men may harm others like themselves, frail, mortal, sinful creatures, and easily led aside by ill examples; as well as there are many sins which do injury to the persons, families, and estates of others, as murder, adultery, theft, c. and since sin is harmful to others, God resents it, and punishes for it, though, strictly speaking, it cannot harm him in the sense before given

and thy righteousness [may profit] the son of man; may profit a man himself ([See comments on Job 35:3]), and others, but neither for justification before God; but godliness is profitable to a man’s self, both for this life and that to come, and good works are profitable to other men; for what reasons they are to be performed and maintained, see 1Ti 4:8. Some are of real and direct profit to men, as acts of beneficence to them, and all as being examples to them; but then no works of righteousness can be profitable to God, they adding nothing to him; which is what Elihu undertook to answer to.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

8. Thy wickedness son of man The original reads more tersely, For a man like thyself is thy wickedness; and for a son of man thy righteousness. Man, and not God, loses or gains according as man is wicked or righteous. The comment of Clement, in one of his homilies, is befitting: “Him they profit nothing, but they save themselves: him they injure not, but they are destroyed.”

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

Job 35:8 Thy wickedness [may hurt] a man as thou [art]; and thy righteousness [may profit] the son of man.

Ver. 8. Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art ] Wicked men are many ways mischievous to others; and have much to answer for their other men’s sins. How many are undone by their murders, adulteries, robberies, false testimonies, blasphemies, and other rotten speeches, to the corrupting of good manners! &c. What hurt is done daily by the devil’s factors, to men’s souls, bodies, names, estates! Besides that they betray the land wherein they live into the hands of divine justice, while they do wickedly with both hands earnestly, Mic 7:3 ; that I speak not of the manifold miseries they pull upon themselves.

And thy righteousness may profit the son of man ] Thyself and others; for the just liveth by his own faith; he maketh a living of it, and a good one too. And as for his charity, it is the mother of all manner of good works, whereof others have the benefit. Papists, and some as silly, have shrunk up charity to a hand’s breadth, to giving of alms. But besides that, a good man draweth out, not only his sheaf, but his soul to the hungry. He also warneth the unruly, comforteth the feeble-minded, supporteth the weak, and tradeth all his talents for the good of others, 1Th 5:14 . He is a common blessing to all that are about him. As Plutarch said of the neighbouring villages of Rome, in Numa’s time, That sucking in the air of that city, they breathed , righteousness; so may it be said of the city of God, and her citizens.

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

may hurt: Jos 7:1-5, Jos 22:20, Ecc 9:18, Jon 1:12

may profit: Job 42:8, Gen 12:2, Gen 18:24-33, Gen 19:29, Psa 106:23, Psa 106:30, Eze 22:30, Act 27:24, Heb 11:7

Reciprocal: Deu 6:24 – for our good Psa 16:2 – my goodness Tit 3:8 – good

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge