Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 40:4
Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
4. behold, I am vile ] The word vile here is not a moral term, it signifies, mean, small. The verse may be read,
Behold I am too mean; what shall I answer thee?
I lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job is abased before Jehovah; he feels his meanness and is silent, comp. ch. Job 21:5, Job 29:9.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Behold, I am vile: what shall I answer thee? – Instead of being able to argue my cause, and to vindicate myself as I had expected, I now see that I am guilty, and I have nothing to say. He had argued boldly with his friends. He had, before them, maintained his innocence of the charges which they brought against him, and had supposed that he would be able to maintain the same argument before God. But when the opportunity was given, he felt that he was a poor, weak man; a guilty and miserable offender. It is a very different thing to maintain our cause before God, from what it is to maintain it before people; and though we may attempt to vindicate our own righteousness when we argue with our fellow-creatures, yet when we come to maintain it before God we shall be dumb. On earth, people vindicate themselves; what will they do when they come to stand before God in the judgment?
I will lay mine hand upon my mouth – An expression of silence. Catlin, in his account of the Mandan Indians, says that this is a common custom with them when anything wonderful occurs. Some of them laid their hands on their mouths and remained in this posture by the hour, as an expression of astonishment at the wonders produced by the brush in the art of painting; compare Job 21:5, note; Job 29:9, note.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 4. Behold, I am vile] I acknowledge my inward defilement. I cannot answer thee.
I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.] I cannot excuse myself, and I must be dumb before thee.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I am vile, what am I, a mean and contemptible creature that should presume to contend with my Maker and Judge? I confess my fault and folly.
What shall I answer thee? I neither desire nor am able to dispute with thee. I will for the future bridle my tongue, and instead of contesting with thee, do here humbly and willingly submit myself to thee.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. I am (too) vile (to reply).It is a very different thing to vindicate ourselves before God, fromwhat it is before men. Job could do the latter, not the former.
lay . . . hand . . . upon . .. mouthI have no plea to offer (Job 21:5;Jdg 18:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Behold, I am vile,…. Or “light” a; which may have respect either to his words and arguments, which he thought had force in them, but now he saw they had none; or to his works and actions, the integrity of his life, and the uprightness of his ways, which he imagined were weighty and of great importance, but now being weighed in the balances of justice were found wanting; or it may refer to his original meanness and distance from God, being dust and ashes, and nothing in comparison of him; and so the Septuagint version is, “I am nothing”; see Isa 40:17; or rather to the original vileness and sinfulness of his nature he had now a sight of, and saw how he had been breaking forth in unbecoming expressions concerning God and his providence: the nature of man is exceeding vile and sinful; his heart desperately wicked; his thoughts, and the imaginations of them, evil, and that continually; his mind and conscience are defiled; his affections inordinate, and his understanding and will sadly depraved; he is vile in soul and body; of all which an enlightened man is convinced, and will acknowledge;
what shall I answer thee? I am not able to answer thee, who am but dust and ashes; what more can I say than to acknowledge my levity, vanity, and vileness? he that talked so big, and in such a blustering manner of answering God, as in Job 13:22; now has nothing to say for himself;
I will lay mine hand upon my mouth; impose silence upon himself, and as it were lay a restraint upon himself from speaking: it looks as if there were some workings in Job’s heart; he thought he could say something, and make some reply, but durst not, for fear of offending yet more and more, and therefore curbed it in; see Ps 39:1.
a “levis sum”, Cocceius, Michaelis; “leviter locutus sum”, V. L.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
4 Behold, I am too mean: what shall I answer Thee?
I lay my hand upon my mouth.
5 Once have I spoken, and will not begin again;
And twice – I will do it no more.
He is small, i.e., not equal to the task imposed, therefore he keeps his mouth firmly closed (comp. Job 21:5; Job 29:9), for whatever he might say would still not be to the point. Once he has dared to criticise God’s doings; a second time ( = , Ges. 120, 5) he ventures it no more, for God’s wondrous wisdom and all-careful love dazzle him, and he gladly bows.
But how? Is not the divine speech altogether different from what one ought to expect? One expects to hear from the mouth of Jehovah something unheard of in the previous course of the drama, and in this expectation we find ourselves disappointed at the outset. For one need only look back and read Job 9:4-10, where Job acknowledges and describes God as a wise and mighty Lord over the natural world, especially as an irresistible Ruler over everything great in it; Job 12:7-10, where he refers to the creatures of the sky and deep as proofs of God’s creative power; Job 12:11-25, where he sketches the grandest picture of God’s terrible doings in nature and among men; Job 26:5-14, where he praises God as the Creator and Lord of all things, and describes what he says concerning Him as only a faint echo of the thunder of His might; Job 28:23, where he ascribes absolute wisdom to Him as the Creator of and Ruler of the world. If one ponders these passages of Job’s speeches, he will not be able to say that the speech of Jehovah, in the exhibition of the creative power and wisdom of God, which is its theme, would make Job conscious of anything which was previously unknown to him; and it is accordingly asked, What, then, is there that is new in the speech of Jehovah by which the great effect is brought about, that Job humbles himself in penitence, and becomes ready for the act of redemption which follows?
It has indeed never occurred to Job to desire to enter into a controversy with God concerning the works of creation; he is far from the delusion of being able to stand such a test; he knows in general, that if God were willing to contend with him, he would not be able to answer God one in a thousand, Job 9:3. And yet God closely questioned him, and thereby Job comes to the perception of his sin – how comes it to pass? Has the plot of the drama perhaps failed in this point? Has the poet made use of means unsuited to the connection of the whole, to bring about the needful effect, viz., the repentance of Job, – because, perhaps, the store of his thoughts was exhausted? But this poet is not so poor, and we shall therefore be obliged to try and understand the disposition of the speech of Jehovah before we censure it.
When one of Job’s last words before the appearing of Jehovah was the word , Job thereby desired God’s decision concerning the testimony of his innocence. This wish is in itself not sinful; yea, it is even a fruit of his hidden faith, when he casts the look of hope away from his affliction and the accusation of the friends, into the future to God as his Vindicator and Redeemer. But that wish becomes sinful when he looks upon his affliction as a de facto accusation on the part of God, because he cannot think of suffering and sin as separable, and because he is conscious of his innocence, looks upon it as a decree of God, his opponent and his enemy, which is irreconcilable with the divine justice. This Job’s condition of conflict and temptation is the prevailing one; his faith is beclouded, and breaks through the night which hangs over him only in single rays. The result of this condition of conflict is the sinful character which that wish assumes: it becomes a challenge to God, since Job directs against God Himself the accusation which the friends have directed against him, and asserts his ability to carry through his good cause even if God would enter with him into a judicial contention; he becomes a and , and raises himself above God, because he thinks he has Him for an enemy who is his best friend. This defiance is, however, not common godlessness; on the contrary, Job is really the innocent servant of God, and his defiant tone is only the result of a false conception which the tempted one indulges respecting the Author of his affliction. So, then, this defiance has not taken full possession of Job’s mind; on the contrary, the faith which lays firm hold on confidence in the God whom he does not comprehend, is in conflict against it; and this conflict tends in the course of the drama, the nearer it comes to the catastrophe, still nearer to the victory, which only awaits a decisive stroke in order to be complete. Therefore Jehovah yields to Job’s longing , in as far as He really answers Job; and even that this takes place, and that, although out of the storm, it nevertheless takes place, not in a way to crush and destroy, but to instruct and convince, and displaying a loving condescension, is an indirect manifestation that Job is not regarded by God as an evil-doer mature for judgment. But that folly and temerity by which the servant of God is become unlike himself must notwithstanding be destroyed; and before Job can realize God as his Witness and Redeemer, in which character his faith in the brighter moments has foreseen Him, his sinful censuring and blaming of God must be blotted out by penitence; and with it at the same time his foolish imagination, by which his faith has been almost overwhelmed, must be destroyed, viz., the imagination that his affliction is a hostile dispensation of God.
And by what means is Job brought to the penitent recognition of his gloomy judgment concerning the divine decree, and of his contending with God? Is it, perhaps, by God’s admitting to him what really is the case: that he does not suffer as a sinner the punishment of his sin, but showing at the same time that the decree of suffering is not an unjust one, because its design is not hostile? No, indeed, for Job is not worthy that his cause should be acknowledged on the part of God before he has come to a penitent recognition of the wrong by which he has sinned against God. God would be encouraging self-righteousness if He should give Job the testimony of his innocence, before the sin of vainglory, into which Job has fallen in the consciousness of his innocence, is changed to humility, by which all uprightness that is acceptable with God is tested. Therefore, contrary to expectation, God begins to speak with Job about totally different matters from His justice or injustice in reference to his affliction. Therein already lies a deep humiliation for Job. But a still deeper one in God’s turning, as it were, to the abecedarium naturae , and putting the censurer of His doings to the blush. That God is the almighty and all-wise Creator and Ruler of the world, that the natural world is exalted above human knowledge and power, and is full of marvellous divine creations and arrangements, full of things mysterious and incomprehensible to ignorant and feeble man, Job knows even before God speaks, and yet he must now hear it, because he does not know it rightly; for the nature with which he is acquainted as the herald of the creative and governing power of God, is also the preacher of humility; and exalted as God the Creator and Ruler of the natural world is above Job’s censure, so is He also as the Author of his affliction. That which is new, therefore, in the speech of Jehovah, is not the proof of God’s exaltation in itself, but the relation to the mystery of his affliction, and to his conduct towards God in this his affliction, in which Job is necessitated to place perceptions not in themselves strange to him. He who cannot answer a single one of those questions taken from the natural kingdom, but, on the contrary, must everywhere admire and adore the power and wisdom of God-he must appear as an insignificant fool, if he applies them to his limited judgment concerning the Author of his affliction.
The fundamental tone of the divine speech is the thought, that the divine working in nature is infinitely exalted above human knowledge and power, and that consequently man must renounce all claim to better knowledge and right of contention in the presence of the divine dispensations. But at the same time, within the range of this general thought, it is also in particular shown how nature reflects the goodness of God as well as His wisdom (He has restrained the destructive power of the waters, He also sendeth rain upon the steppe, though untenanted by man); how that which accomplishes the purposes for which it was in itself designed, serves higher purposes in the moral order of the world (the dawn of day puts an end to the works of darkness, snow and hail serve as instruments of divine judgments); how divine providence extends to all creatures, and always according to their need (He provides the lion its prey, He satisfies the ravens that cry to Him); and how He has distributed His manifold gifts in a way often paradoxical to man, but in truth worthy of admiration (to the steinbock ease in bringing forth and growth without toil, to the wild ass freedom, to the antelope untameable fleetness, to the ostrich freedom from anxiety about its young and swiftness, to the horse heroic and proud lust for the battle, to the hawk the instinct of migration, to the eagle a lofty nest and a piercing sight). Everywhere the wonders of God’s power and wisdom, and in fact of His goodness abounding in power, and His providence abounding in wisdom, infinitely transcend Job’s knowledge and capacity. Job cannot answer one of all these questions, but yet he feels to what end they are put to him. The God who sets bounds to the sea, who refreshes the desert, who feeds the ravens, who cares for the gazelle in the wilderness and the eagle in its eyrie, is the same God who now causes him seemingly thus unjustly to suffer. But if the former is worthy of adoration, the latter will also be so. Therefore Job confesses that he will henceforth keep silence, and solemnly promises that he will now no longer contend with Him. From the marvellous in nature he divines that which is marvellous in his affliction. His humiliation under the mysteries of nature is at the same time humiliation under the mystery of his affliction; and only now, when he penitently reveres the mystery he has hitherto censured, is it time that its inner glory should be unveiled to him. The bud is mature, and can now burst forth, in order to disclose the blended colours of its matured beauty.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
JOB’S ANSWER HIS SELF-HUMILIATION AND CONFESSION, 4, 5.
Job confesses that he is base, and that he has been foolish in his repeated speeches; and, finally, retracting his arrogant challenges of God, covenants with him that he will no longer contend with Deity, 4, 5.
“From the marvellous in nature, Job now divines that which is marvellous in his affliction. His humiliation under the mysteries of nature, is at the same time humiliation under the mystery of affliction; and only now, when he penitently reverses the mystery he has hitherto censured, is it time that its inner glory should be revealed to him. The bud is mature, and can now burst forth in order to disclose the blended colors of its natural beauty.” Delitzsch.
4. Behold, I am vile In the sense of mean, despicable: ; a word Job had in part applied to the wicked “ light ( ) is he on the face of the waters.” (Job 24:18.) Job’s sense of shame is quickened. He feels his folly; but is not yet sufficiently sensible of his spiritual deformity. Hence the necessity that God should speak again. The conciseness of the reply points to trouble within; deep conviction is never wordy. It is thus with the cry “God be merciful to me, the sinner.” Luk 18:13. Hand upon my mouth See Job 21:5; Job 29:9.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 491
TRUE HUMILIATION
Job 40:4. Behold, I am vile!
THESE are the words of a man whom God had pronounced perfect and upright. As a fallen descendant of Adam, he partook of the corruption of our common nature: but as a child of God, he was one of the most eminent of all the human race. It may be thought, indeed, that this confession of his proved him to have been guilty of some enormous crime; but it evinced rather his great advancement in the divine life, and his utter abhorrence of all evil. Doubtless there was just occasion for this acknowledgment, because he had transgressed with his lips in arraigning the conduct of Providence towards him: but, if they were suited to his case, much more are they so to all those who possess not his high attainments.
We shall consider the words as expressing,
I.
A discovery then made
Job had certainly low views of himself upon the whole [Note: Job 9:20; Job 9:30-31.]: yet he had spoken in too unqualified terms in vindication of his own character [Note: Job 10:6-7; Job 16:17.]. Instances of this Elihu had brought to his remembrance [Note: Job 32:2; Job 33:8-12; Job 35:2.]; and God himself testified against him in this respect [Note: Job 38:2; Job 40:2-8.]. Job had repeatedly expressed his wish, that God would admit him, as it were, to a conference; and had expressed his confidence that he could maintain his cause before him [Note: Job 23:1-5; Job 31:35-37.]: but now that God did interpose, he saw how much he had erred, and that all his former confidence was presumption. He now saw,
1.
That his conduct had been sinful
[Being conscious of the integrity of his heart, in relation to the things which his friends had laid to his charge, he had done right in maintaining his innocence before them: but he had erred in maintaining it to the extent he did; he had erred in imagining that he had not merited at Gods hands the calamities inflicted on him; and, above all, in complaining of God as acting unjustly and cruelly towards him. These workings of his heart he now saw to be exceeding sinful, as betraying too high thoughts of himself, and great irreverence towards the God of heaven and earth, in whose sight the very heavens are not clean, and who chargeth his angels with folly. This sin therefore he now bitterly bewailed.]
2.
That his whole heart was sinful
[He did not view his conduct as a mere insulated act; but took occasion, from the fruit which had been produced, to examine the root from which it sprang. He now traced the bitter waters to their fountain-head, and discovered thereby the bitterness of the spring from whence they flowed. This was altogether a new discovery to him: he had no conception how desperately wicked his heart was, and that the evils he had committed would have broke forth with ten thousand times greater violence, if they had not been restrained by the grace of God. The rebellion of which he had been guilty now proved indisputably to him, that he was of himself as prone to sin as any of the human race, and that, if he differed from the vilest of mankind, he had nothing to boast of, since he had not made himself to differ, nor did he possess any thing which he had not received as the free gift of God [Note: 1Co 4:7.]. This is the true way of estimating any individual sin [Note: Psa 51:3; Psa 51:5. Mar 7:21; Mar 7:23.] and in this way alone shall we ever attain a just knowledge of ourselves.]
But we must further view his words as expressing,
II.
An acknowledgment of the truth then discovered
Out of the abundance of his heart his mouth spake. Feeling his sinfulness, it was an ease, rather than a pain, to him to confess it before God and man. Behold here,
1.
The ingenuousness of his confession
[Here were no excuses made, nor any suggestions offered to extenuate his guilt. He might have pleaded the weight of his sufferings, and the falseness of the accusations brought against him: but he saw that nothing can excuse sin; and that, whatever palliatives may be adduced to lessen its enormity in the sight of man, it is most hateful in the sight of God, and ought to abase us in the dust before him. That his sin on this occasion was an exception to his general conduct, did not at all change, in his estimation, the malignity of it: on the contrary, the enormity of it would appear in proportion to the mercies he had before received, and to the profession of piety he had before maintained.
Now thus it is that we also should acknowledge our vileness before God. Doubtless there may be circumstances which may greatly aggravate our transgressions; and these it will be at all times proper to notice: but it is never wise to look on the side that leads to a palliation of sin: self-love is so rooted in our hearts, that we shall always be in danger of forming too favourable a judgment of ourselves: the humiliation of the publican is that which at all times befits us: nor can we ever be in a more becoming state than when, with Job, we repent and abhor ourselves in dust and ashes.]
2.
The dispositions with which it was accompanied
[He submitted to reproof, and acknowledged himself guilty in relation to the very thing that was laid to hit charge. This is a good test of true and genuine repentance. It is easy to acknowledge the sinfulness of our nature; but for a man, after long and strenuously maintaining his integrity, to confess his fault before the very people who have vehemently accused him, is no small attainment: yet did Job confess, that he had repeatedly offended, both in justifying himself, and in condemning God. Moreover, he declared his resolution, with Gods help, to offend no more [Note: ver. 5.]: and by this he manifested beyond a doubt the reality and depth of his repentance. Of what use is that penitence that does not inspire us with a fixed purpose to sin no more? Humiliation without amendment is of no avail: the repentance which is not to be repented of produces such an indignation against sin, as will never leave us under the power of it any more [Note: 2Co 7:10-11.]. May we all bear this in remembrance, and, by the entire change in our conduct, approve ourselves in all things to be clear in this matter [Note: 2Co 7:10-11.]!]
Address
1.
Those who entertain a good opinion of themselves
[How is it possible that you should be right? Are you better than Job, who is represented by the prophet as one of the most perfect characters that ever existed upon earth [Note: Eze 14:14; Eze 14:20.]? or if you were subjected to the same trials, would you endure them with more patience than he, of whom an Apostle speaks with admiration, saying, Ye have heard of the patience of Job? Know, then, that whilst you are indulging a self-righteous, self-complacent spirit, you betray an utter ignorance of your real state and character, and are altogether destitute of true repentance. Moreover, to you the Gospel is of no avail: for, what do you want of a Physician when you are not sick; or what of a Saviour, when you are not lost? O put away from you your Laodicean pride, lest you be rejected by God with indignation and abhorrence [Note: Rev 3:17-18.]. But if, notwithstanding this warning, you are determined to hold fast your confidence, then think whether you will be strong in the day that God shall deal with you, or be able to stand before him as your Accuser and your Judge? Be assured, that if Job could not answer his God in this world, much less will you be able to do it in the world to come.]
2.
Those who are humbled under a sense of their vileness
[We bless God if you have been brought with sincerity of heart to say, Behold, I am vile. If you feel your vileness as you ought, then will all the promises of the Gospel appear to you exactly suited to your state, and Christ be truly precious to your souls. Whom does he invite to come unto him, but the weary and heavy laden? What was the end for which he died upon the cross? Was it not to save sinners, even the chief? Yes, verily; it is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation [Note: 1Ti 1:15.] But whilst we would encourage all to come and wash away their sins in the fountain of his blood, we would caution all against turning the grace of God into licentiousness. Many, in acknowledging the depravity of their nature, make it almost an excuse for their sins. Their acknowledgments may be strong; but they are attended with no tenderness of spirit, no deep contrition, no real self-lothing and self-abhorrence. Brethren, above all things guard against such a state as this. Whilst you are ignorant of your vileness there is hope that your eyes may be opened to see it, and your heart be humbled under a sense of it: but to acknowledge it and yet remain obdurate, is a fearful presage of final impenitence, and everlasting ruin [Note: Rev 16:9; Rev 16:11; Rev 16:21.]. If you would be right, you must stand equally remote from presumption and despondency: your vileness must drive you, not from Christ, but to him; and when you are most confident of your acceptance with him, you must walk softly before him all the days of your life.]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Ver. 4. Behold, I am vile ] Light and little worth; and therefore deserve to be slighted and laid by, as a broken vessel. The humble man vilifies, yea, nullifies, himself before God, as Abraham, Gen 18:27 ; as Agur, Pro 30:3 ; as Paul, Eph 3:8 ; as that martyr who cried out, Gehenna sum Domine, Lord, Thou art heaven, but I am hell, &c. Tantillitas nostra, saith Ignatius of himself and his colleagues. Behold, I am an abject, saith Job here, contemptible and inconsiderable. This was well, but not all; an excellent confession, but not full enough: his meanness he acknowledgeth, and that he was no fit match for God; but not his sinfulness, with desire of pardon and deprecation of punishment; God therefore gives him not over so, but sets upon him a second time, Job 40:6 , and brings him to it, Job 42:1 . There must be some proportion between a man’s sin and his repentance, Ezr 9:1-15 , and this God will bring all his Jobs to ere he leave them.
What shall I answer thee?
I will lay my hand upon my mouth
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
I am vile. This is true wisdom. This is “the end of the Lord” (Jam 5:11), and the “end” of this whole book.
what . . . ? Figure of speech Erotesis. App-6.
lay mine hand, &c. Symbolic of silence and submission.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Behold: Job 42:6, Gen 18:27, Gen 32:10, 2Sa 24:10, 1Ki 19:4, Ezr 9:6, Ezr 9:15, Neh 9:33, Psa 51:4, Psa 51:5, Isa 6:5, Isa 53:6, Isa 64:6, Dan 9:5, Dan 9:7, Luk 5:8, Luk 15:18, Luk 15:19, Luk 18:13, 1Ti 1:15
what: Job 9:31-35, Job 16:21, Job 23:4-7, Job 31:37
I will: Job 21:5, Job 29:9, Jdg 18:19, Psa 39:9, Pro 30:32, Mic 7:16, Hab 2:20, Zec 2:13
Reciprocal: Gen 18:30 – General Gen 44:16 – What shall we say Lev 13:12 – cover all Lev 13:23 – General 1Sa 7:6 – We have sinned 2Sa 6:22 – in mine 1Ki 18:21 – answered Job 1:22 – charged God foolishly Job 13:2 – General Job 13:15 – but I will Job 13:22 – General Job 30:8 – viler Job 31:35 – Oh Psa 106:33 – he spake Isa 43:26 – Put Isa 52:15 – kings Lam 1:11 – see Lam 3:29 – putteth Eze 16:63 – and never Jon 4:9 – I do well to be angry Zep 1:7 – thy Mat 15:27 – Truth Mar 14:31 – he spake Rom 6:21 – whereof 1Co 4:4 – yet Gal 3:11 – that
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
40:4 Behold, I am {r} vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
(r) By which he shows that he repented and desired pardon for his faults.