For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
Parallel Translations
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For you have taken pledges from your brother for nothing, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
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For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
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For thou hast taken pledges of thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
Cross-references (10)
Passages linked to Job 22:6 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Exodus 22:26 If you take your neighbor’s garment as collateral, you shall restore it to him before the sun goes down,
- Ezekiel 18:12 has wronged the poor and needy, has taken by robbery, has not restored the pledge, and has lifted up his eyes to the idols, has committed abomination,
- Ezekiel 18:16 hasn’t wronged any, hasn’t taken anything to pledge, hasn’t taken by robbery, but has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment;
- Deuteronomy 24:10-18 When you lend your neighbor any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you lend shall bring the pledge outside to you. If he is a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge. You shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment and bless you. It shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God. You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. In his day you shall give him his wages, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor and sets his heart on it; lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you. The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. You shall not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow’s clothing in pledge; but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there. Therefore I command you to do this thing.
- Job 24:3 They drive away the donkey of the fatherless, and they take the widow’s ox for a pledge.
- Deuteronomy 24:6 No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone as a pledge, for he takes a life in pledge.
- Job 24:9-10 There are those who pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge of the poor, So that they go around naked without clothing. Being hungry, they carry the sheaves.
- Job 31:19-20 if I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or that the needy had no covering; if his heart hasn’t blessed me, if he hasn’t been warmed with my sheep’s fleece;
- Ezekiel 18:7 and has not wronged any, but has restored to the debtor his pledge, has taken nothing by robbery, has given his bread to the hungry, and has covered the naked with a garment;
- Amos 2:8 and they lay themselves down beside every altar on clothes taken in pledge; and in the house of their God they drink the wine of those who have been fined.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (16 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Thou hast been cruel and without charity, and wouldest…
Thou hast been cruel and without charity, and wouldest do nothing for the poor, but for thine own advantage.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Job 22:6 For thou hast taken a pledge from…
Job 22:6 For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing.
Ver. 6. For thou hast taken a pledge, &c.] Bona verba, quaeso, I seek good words, Eliphaz. How well might Job have cried out, as David afterwards did, Psa 35:11, "False witnesses rose up; they laid to my charge things that I knew not." Here he stands accused, 1. Of inhumanity and cruelty; 2. Of irreligion and impiety. But he fully cleareth himself of both, Job 30:1-31; Job 31:1-40 Athanasius in like sort was falsely accused of adultery in the Council of Tyre, A. D. 343; Eustathius, bishop of Antioch, was injuriously deprived for the same cause, about the latter end of Constantine the Great; adultery, heresy, and treason were objected to Archbishop Cranmer; parricide to Mr Philpot; sedition to father Latimer; to which he answereth, As for sedition, for aught that I know, methinks I should not need Christ, if I might so say.
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For nought] Or unconscionably, as one rendereth it; and herein lay the fault. See Deu 24:6; Deu 24:10.
And stripped the naked of their clothing] If naked, how could he strip them, skin them, as the word signifieth? Chrysostom useth this proverb, Nudus nec a centum viris spoliatur, He that is naked cannot be stripped by a hundred men. We also have a proverb, Where nothing can be had the king must lose his right. And again,
He is like to get little
Who robbeth a spital.
In the late German wars, the Crabats, at Altroff, a university, plundered the scholars, and put poor genus and species to their ransom (Life of the King of Sweden). Micah inveigheth against such cannibal princes, as plucked the skin from the flesh, and the flesh from the bones of the poor oppressed, Mic 3:2-3. {See Trapp on "Mic 3:2"}{see Trapp on "Mic 3:3"} That which Eliphaz here chargeth Job with, but without truth, is, that he stripped off the clothing of the naked; that is, that, finding them poor enough, he left them yet poorer, hardly having a rag to hang on their backs, through his extortion.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain For thou hast taken, or, surely thou hast taken.…
For thou hast taken, or, surely thou hast taken. He speaks thus by way of conjecture, or strong presumption. When I consider thy grievous and unusual calamities, I justly conclude thou art guilty of all or some of these following crimes; and do thou search thine own conscience, whether it be not so with thee.
From thy brother, i.e. either of thy neighbour, or of thy kinsman; which are both called by the name of brother. This is added to aggravate the offence.
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For nought, i.e. without sufficient and justifiable cause; which he might do many ways; either by taking what he ought not to take, Deu 24:6; or from whom he ought not, to wit, the poor, to whom he should give Pro 3:27 or when and in such manner as he ought not, of which See Poole "Deu 24:10", See Poole "Deu 24:11"; or by keeping it longer than he should, as when the poor man’s necessity requires it, or when the debt is satisfied, Eze 18:16.
Stripped the naked of their clothing; either by taking their garment for a pledge, against the law, Exo 22:26; or otherwise by robbing them of their rights, all other injuries being synecdochically comprehended under this.
Quest. How could he strip the naked?
Answ. He calls them naked, either,
1. Because they had but very few and mean clothes, such being oft called naked, as Deu 28:48; 1Co 14:11; Jam 2:15. Or,
2. From the effect, because though he did not find them naked, yet he made them so. The like phrases we have Isa 47:2, grind meal, i.e. by grinding corn make it meal; Amo 8:5, falsifying the deceitful balances, i.e. by falsifying making true balances deceitful. And so here, to strip the naked, is by stripping them to make them naked.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Thou hast not given water to the weary to…
Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink,.... To a weary thirsty traveller, to whom in those hot countries cold water was very refreshing, and which in desert places was not to be had in common, or any where; rich men were possessed of their wells and fountains, and were kept for their own use, and it was a kindness and favour to obtain water of them; and yet a cup of cold water is one of the least favours to be given to a poor man, and to deny it him in distress was very inhuman, and was very far from Job's character:
and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry: bread, which strengthens man's heart, and is the staff of life, without which he cannot support; and this is not to be withheld from, but given even to an enemy when hungry; and to deny it to a poor neighbour in such circumstances is very cruel; the charge is, that Job would not give a poor hungry man a morsel of bread to eat; which must be false, being directly contrary to what he strongly asserts, Job 31:17.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Surely - He speaks thus by way of strong…
Surely - He speaks thus by way of strong presumption, when I consider thy unusual calamities, I conclude thou art guilty of all, or some of these crimes. Brother - Of thy neighbour. Nought - Without sufficient and justifiable cause. Stripped - By taking their garment for a pledge, or by robbing them of their rights, all other injuries being comprehended under this.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 6. Thou hast taken a pledge] Thou hast…
Verse 6. Thou hast taken a pledge] Thou hast been vexatious in all thy doings, and hast exacted where nothing was due, so that through thee the poor have been unable to procure their necessary clothing.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Job 22:6. For thou hast taken a pledge —…
Job 22:6. For thou hast taken a pledge — Or, surely thou hast taken. He speaks thus, by way of conjecture, or strong presumption: as if he had said, When I consider thy grievous and unusual calamities, I justly conclude thou art guilty of some, or all, of these following crimes; and do thou search thy own conscience whether it be not so with thee. From thy brother — Of thy neighbour, or of thy kinsman; for naught — Without a sufficient and justifiable cause. And stripped the naked of their clothing — By taking their garments for a pledge, and thereby rendering them naked; or, by robbing them of their rights, all other injuries being comprehended under this.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother…
For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought - The only evidence which Eliphaz seems to have had of this was, that this was a heinous sin, and that as Job seemed to be severely punished, it was to be “inferred” that he must have committed some such sin as this. No way of treating an unfortunate and a suffering man could be more unkind. A “pledge” is that which is given by a debtor to a creditor, for security for the payment of a debt, and would be, of course, that which was regardcd as of value. Garments, which constituted a considerable part of the wealth of the Orientals, would usually be the pledge which would be given. With us, in such cases, watches, jewelry, notes, mortgages, are given as collateral security, or as pledges. The law of Moses required, that when a man took the garment of his neighbor for a pledge, it should be restored by the time the sun went down, Exo 22:26-27. The crime here charged on Job was, that he had exacted a pledge from another where there was no just claim to it; that is, where no debt had been contracted, where a debt; had been paid, or where the security was far beyond the value of the debt. The injustice of such a course would be obvious. It would deprive the man of the use of the property which was pledged, and it gave him to whom it was pledged an opportunity of doing wrong, as he might retain it, or dispose of it, and the real owner see it no more.
And stripped the naked of their clothing - Margin, “clothes of the naked.” That is, of those who were poorly clad, or who were nearly destitute of clothes. The word naked is often used in this sense in the Scriptures; see the notes at Joh 21:7. The meaning here is, that Job had taken away by oppression even the garments of the poor in order to enrich himself.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Pledge. Hebrew, "person." Debtors might be sold, Matthew xviii.…
Pledge. Hebrew, "person." Debtors might be sold, Matthew xviii. 30.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The crimes alleged, on a harsh inference, by Eliphaz…
The crimes alleged, on a harsh inference, by Eliphaz against Job are such as he would think likely to be committed by a rich man. The Mosaic law (Exo 22:26; Deu 24:10) subsequently embodied the feeling that existed among the godly in Job's time against oppression of debtors as to their pledges. Here the case is not quite the same; Job is charged with taking a pledge where he had no just claim to it; and in the second clause, that pledge (the outer garment which served the poor as a covering by day and a bed by night) is represented as taken from one who had not "changes of raiment" (a common constituent of wealth in the East), but was poorly clad--"naked" (Mat 25:36; Jam 2:15); a sin the more heinous in a rich man like Job.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain b. Since it must be that Job has committed…
b. Since it must be that Job has committed sin, it naturally occurs to Eliphaz to charge upon him those sins which the best of the rich men of his day were guilty of committing. His own logical conclusions he coins into proofs positive of Job’s guilt, Job_22:6-11.
6. In his portraiture of the wicked, Zophar had insinuated (Job_20:19) what Eliphaz, to our surprise, now boldly charges against Job. The sins he attributes to Job are those generally ascribed to wicked men of wealth — hard-heartedness, covetousness, and extortion. Eliphaz infers from the punishment the character of crimes Job must have committed. Personal abuse, the last resort of a failing cause, is the first public sign the friends display of their approaching discomfiture. (See Job’s noble reply, Job_29:11-16.) The mantle of charity that we may throw over Eliphaz is, that he had long brooded over his suspicions until they assumed shape and at last substance.
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Pledge… naught — There was a twofold aggravation of his guilt; that he should require a pledge from a brother, and that without cause. Job “is represented as extorting pledges without having lent.” — Michaelis.
The naked of their clothing — Literally, And strippedst off the clothes of the naked. Seneca tells us that one poorly clad and in rags was said to be naked. (Jas_2:15.) Michaelis says, (“Laws of Moses,” 2:303,) “From the analogy of his (Moses’s) law of pledge, it is probable that the necessary pieces of clothing were not permitted to be seized and stripped from off the person of the debtor, as might be done by merciless creditors among the neighbouring nations, for he even commands the creditor (Exo_22:26-27) who had taken in pledge his poor neighbour’s upper garment (which was a large square piece of cloth that was wrapped about the body by day, and served as a coverlet by night) to restore it again before sunset.” Origen remarks that he is a robber who does not clothe the naked. See Freeman’s “Hand-Book,” 261.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 6. Compare the laws, Exo_22:26; Deu_24:10. The “naked” are…
6. Compare the laws, Exo_22:26; Deu_24:10. The “naked” are those poorly clad. See Job’s reply to this, ch. Job_31:19.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (6) Thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother.—These…
(6) Thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother.—These specific charges, false as they were, show the depth to which Eliphaz had sunk.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother…
For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought; i.e. thou hast lent to thy brother on pledge, without reasonable cause, when thou weft rich enough to need no security. (comp. Neh_5:2-11) And stripped the naked of their clothing. When thy brother, on borrowing from thee, pledged his raiment, thou didst retain it, and so didst leave him to shiver all night without covering. (see Exo_22:26, Exo_22:27) We may, perhaps, gather from this that the Mosaic Law on the subject was founded on an anterior custom widely prevalent in South Western Asia.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Eliphaz continues speaking to Job.
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you have demanded guarantee of a loan
This refers to a lender taking something from the borrower to ensure that the borrower pays him back.
you have stripped away clothing from the naked
Eliphaz is accusing Job of taking clothes as security from poor people who borrowed from him.
withheld bread
Here "bread" refers to food in general. AT: "withheld food" (See: Synecdoche)
possessed the earth ... lived in it
Eliphaz is accusing Job of taking land from poor people and not allowing them to live on it. He is emphasizing this point by restating it twice. (See: Parallelism)
possessed the earth
Eliphaz is exaggerating the amount of land that Job owned in order to portray Job as greedy. AT: "possessed a great amount of land" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)
translationWords
brother
bread
might
possess
earth
honor
life
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 22:6 Demanding clothing as security for lent money was…
22:6 Demanding clothing as security for lent money was forbidden by the law and condemned by the prophets (Exod 22:26-27; Deut 24:10-13; Ezek 18:7-8; Amos 2:8). In contrast, Job had provided clothing for the poor (Job 31:19-20).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.