4<\/strong>. The “companions” of Job referred to in this verse can hardly be the three friends, for Eliphaz (ch. Job 22:2<\/span>) had advanced substantially the same answer to Job as is here given, which even Job himself had touched upon, ch. Job 7:20<\/span>, though with a different purpose. Most probably Job is considered here the centre of a circle of persons who cherished the same irreligious doubts in regard to God’s providence as he did.<\/p>\n I will answer thee – <\/B>Margin, return to thee words. Elihu meant to explain this more fully than it had been done by the friends of Job, and to show where Job was in error.<\/P> And thy companions with thee – <\/B>Eliphaz, in Job 22:2<\/span>, had taken up the same inquiry, and proposed to discuss the subject, but he had gone at once into severe charges against Job, and been drawn into language of harsh crimination, instead of making the matter clear, and Elihu now proposes to state just how it is, and to remove the objections of Job. It may be doubted, however, whether he was much more successful than Eliphaz had been. The doctrine of the future state, as it is revealed by Christianity, was needful to enable these speakers to comprehend and explain this subject.<\/P><\/p>\n Verse 4<\/span>. I will answer thee<\/B><\/I>] I will show thee the evil of a sinful way, and the benefit of righteousness; and supply what thy friends have omitted in their discourses with thee.<\/P> <\/p>\n Thy companions, <\/B>i.e. those who are of thy opinion, or with whom thou dost associate thyself in those speeches and carriages; which seems to be meant not of Jobs three friends, (as many understand it, for their opinions were contrary to Jobs in this point,) but of wicked men<\/I>, with whom Job is said to walk and go in company for this same opinion or assertion, Job 34:8<\/span>,9<\/span>. And these men he here calls Jobs companions, partly because they are very forward to harp upon the same string, and to accuse God and justify themselves upon all occasions; and partly that he might awaken Job to a more serious review of his former assertions, by representing to him whose cause he pleaded, and who were his confederates and colleagues in this opinion. <\/P> <\/p>\n 4. companions<\/B>thoseentertaining like sentiments with thee (Job 34:8<\/span>;Job 34:36<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.<\/strong> Meaning not his three friends, as the Septuagint version expresses it; for they were not on the side of Job, and of the same sentiment with him, but rather on the side of Elihu; especially Eliphaz, who expresses much the same sentiment he does, Job 22:2<\/span>; but all that were of the same mind with Job, whether present or absent, or in whatsoever part of the world; the answer he should return to him would serve for them all, and sufficiently confute such a bad notion of God, let it be embraced by whomsoever.<\/p>\n 2. Mans actions, good or bad, do not help nor hurt God; they do affect men. (Job. 35:4-8<\/span>)<\/p>\n TEXT 35:48<\/p>\n 4 I will answer thee,<\/strong><\/p>\n And thy companions with thee.<\/strong><\/p>\n 5 Look unto the heavens, and see;<\/strong><\/p>\n And behold the skies, which are higher than thou.<\/strong><\/p>\n 6 If thou hast sinned, what effectest thou against him?<\/strong><\/p>\n And if thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?<\/strong><\/p>\n 7 If thou be righteous, what givest thou him?<\/strong><\/p>\n Or what receiveth he of thy hand?<\/strong><\/p>\n 8 Thy wickedness <\/strong>may hurt a man as thou art;<\/strong><\/p>\n And thy righteousness <\/strong>may profit a son <\/strong>of man.<\/strong><\/p>\n COMMENT 35:48<\/p>\n Job. 35:4<\/span><\/strong><\/strong>Elihu here addresses all who have sympathy for Jobs positionJob. 34:2-4<\/span>, Job. 10:15<\/span>. The personal pronoun I is emphatic, which agrees completely with Elihus consistent arrogance.<\/p>\n Job. 35:5<\/span><\/strong><\/strong>His words here must be contrasted with Jobs thoughts on Gods transcendenceJob. 9:8-11<\/span>; Job. 11:7-9<\/span>; Job. 22:12<\/span>. Job has always maintained that God controlled the heavensJob. 9:8<\/span> ff. But here the thought is that God is so far removed from us that He is beyond mans reach. God is neither benefited by our righteousness nor harmed by our sin.<\/p>\n Job. 35:6<\/span><\/strong>Eliphaz had set forth this same argument in Job. 22:2<\/span> ff. But Job had already set forth his position in Job. 7:20<\/span>.<\/p>\n Job. 35:7<\/span><\/strong>Gods self-interest is not the basis of His decisions in distributing His justiceLuk. 17:10<\/span>; Rom. 11:35<\/span>.<\/p>\n Job. 35:8<\/span><\/strong>Eliphaz had said that a mans righteousness only profited himself. Elihu more perceptively exalts Gods greatness at the expense of His grace; His transcendence at the price of His immanencePro. 9:12<\/span>.<\/p>\n (4) And thy companions.<\/strong>Elihu professes to answer Jobs friends as well as himself, but what he says (Job. 35:5<\/span>, &c.) is very much what Eliphaz had said before (Job. 15:14<\/span>, &c., Job. 22:3<\/span>, &c., and Bildad in Job 25<\/span>). It is indeed true that God is too high to be affected by mans righteousness or unrighteousness, but it does not follow therefore that He is indifferent, for then He would not be a righteous judge. (See Note on Job. 34:9<\/span>.)<\/p>\n Job 35:4 I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee.<\/p>\n Ver. 4. I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee<\/strong> ] Thy three friends (who have not so well quit themselves in this controversy, as having answered little or nothing to this unsavoury saying of thine), and to the rest of the bystanders which approve of thine opinion, as people are apt to favour the weaker side, as it is reputed, and to encourage them. Thus it befell Luther, when he began first to reform.<\/p>\n answer thee: Heb. return to thee words <\/p>\n thy: Job 34:8, Pro 13:20 <\/p>\n Reciprocal: Job 32:17 – General Job 33:12 – I will<\/p>\n Job 35:4-8. I will answer thee, and thy companions That is, those who are of thy opinion. Look unto the heavens, &c. Cast up thine eyes to the heavens; look upon the clouds and the sky; and consider that, high as they are, they are not so much above thee, as God is above them. If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? Thy sins do him no hurt, and therefore thy righteousness brings him no benefit, as it follows. What receiveth he of thy hand? He gaineth nothing by it, nor can indeed receive any good from thee, but all thy good comes from him: and therefore thou hast no reason to boast of, nor to upbraid God with, thy piety, which is much to thy advantage, but nothing to his. Thy wickedness may hurt a man as thou art Thy wickedness will prove hurtful to thyself and others of mankind, and thy righteousness will do thee and them great service; but God, being an infinite, independent, and self-sufficient being, is far exalted above all thy good or evil.<\/p>\n 35:4 I will answer thee, and thy {b} companions with thee.<\/p>\n (b) Such as are in the same error.<\/p>\n Elihu’s defense of God’s freedom 35:4-16<\/span><\/p>\n Elihu made two responses to what he inferred was Job’s attitude. First, he claimed that God is under no obligation to react to people’s actions be they good or bad. He is free to respond or not respond as He chooses. God is above the human sphere of life and only reacts to people when He chooses to do so. This is a thought Eliphaz had expressed earlier (Job 22:2-3; Job 22:12). However, Elihu went further by pointing out that people’s actions do affect other people (Job 35:4-8). Therefore, there is an advantage to being holy.<\/p>\n "There is no place in Elihu’s theology for doing God’s will out of love for him. Man affects only his fellow man by being good or bad (Job 35:9). And though God may punish or reward man as Judge, there is no place for him in the role of a Father who can be hurt or pleased by man." [Note: Smick, "Job," p. 1016.] <\/span><\/p>\n Second, Elihu spoke to the fact that God does not always provide relief when the oppressed pray to Him (Job 35:9-16; cf. Job 24:12; Job 36:13). He said often these prayers for help spring from a selfish, proud motive rather than from a sincere desire to learn the reason for one’s sufferings. In this respect humans are like animals; we do not ask for this knowledge. Since God may not answer selfish prayers, it is understandable that He was silent in response to Job’s arrogant, impatient petitions. Elihu counseled Job to wait for God to answer rather than becoming frantic.<\/p>\n "Job would get his just deserts in due time." [Note: Habel, p. 189.] <\/span><\/p>\n "It is always possible to think of a reason for unanswered prayer. The trite explanation, which we hear all too often, is that ’You didn’t have enough faith’, or ’You prayed from the wrong motive’, or ’You must have some hidden, unconfessed sin’. This diagnosis is always applicable. Everyone who prays is aware of the weakness of his faith; everyone with a scrap of self-knowledge knows that his motives are always mixed; everyone who searches his conscience can find no end of fresh sins to be dealt with. If no prayers could be offered and none answered, until all these conditions were satisfied, none would ever be offered and none answered. The Elihus of this world do not care about the cruelty of their perfectionist advice and its unreality. Their theory is saved; that is what matters." [Note: Andersen, p. 257.] <\/span><\/p>\n I will answer thee, and thy companions with thee. 4. The “companions” of Job referred to in this verse can hardly be the three friends, for Eliphaz (ch. Job 22:2) had advanced substantially the same answer to Job as is here given, which even Job himself had touched upon, ch. Job 7:20, though with a … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Job 35:4”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13736\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible <\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"