Job again took up his parable, and said,
“As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter
(for the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils);
surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness, neither will my tongue utter deceit.
Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.
I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go. My heart will not reproach me so long as I live.
“Let my enemy be as the wicked. Let him who rises up against me be as the unrighteous.
For what is the hope of the godless, when he is cut off, when God takes away his life?
Will God hear his cry when trouble comes on him?
Will he delight himself in the Almighty, and call on God at all times?
I will teach you about the hand of God. I will not conceal that which is with the Almighty.
Behold, all of you have seen it yourselves; why then have you become altogether vain?
“This is the portion of a wicked man with God, the heritage of oppressors, which they receive from the Almighty.
If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword. His offspring will not be satisfied with bread.
Those who remain of him will be buried in death. His widows will make no lamentation.
Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare clothing as the clay;
he may prepare it, but the just will put it on, and the innocent will divide the silver.
He builds his house as the moth, as a booth which the watchman makes.
He lies down rich, but he will not do so again. He opens his eyes, and he is not.
Terrors overtake him like waters. A storm steals him away in the night.
The east wind carries him away, and he departs. It sweeps him out of his place.
For it hurls at him, and does not spare, as he flees away from his hand.
Men will clap their hands at him, and will hiss him out of his place.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 19 He hath so sore afflicted me, that men cannot…
He hath so sore afflicted me, that men cannot judge of mine uprightness: for they judge only by outward signs.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–23 Job 27:1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Job 27:1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
Ver. 1. Moreover Job continued his parable, and said] It was Zophar’s turn, and Job waited a while, as it was fitting, to see whether he or any other of them would take up the bucklers again against him; which, when they did not (having heard his high expressions concerning God’s power and providence, and haply having now a better opinion of him than before), he assuageth his grief by defending his innocence and maintaining his opinion, in the five following chapters. Here he is said, after some respite, to recount again his parable; which hath its name in Hebrew from lording it, and bearing sway, because allegories and figurative speeches bear away the bell, as they say, from plainer discourses; are more gladly heard, or read, sooner understood, and better remembered, משׁל Sermo figuratus prineipatum tenet, ac velar dominatur. The word rendered continued is, in the original, added to lift up; importing either that he spake now with courage, as we say, and with a greater emphasis, since having silenced his adversaries; or that he uttered himself in a higher style, and his matter were master sentences, maxims, axioms, speeches of special precellency and predominance; such as might well challenge a throne in the minds of all men.
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 On vv1–23 When he had waited a while to hear what…
When he had waited a while to hear what his friends would reply, and perceived them to be silent. His parable; his grave and weighty, but withal dark and difficult, discourse, such as are oft called parables, as Num 23:7; 24:3-15; Psa 49:4; 88:2; Pro 26:7.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 11 Job's discourse here is called a parable (mashal), the…
Job's discourse here is called a parable (mashal), the title of Solomon's proverbs, because it was grave and weighty, and very instructive, and he spoke as one having authority. It comes from a word that signifies to rule, or have dominion; and some think it intimates that Job now triumphed over his opponents, and spoke as one that had baffled them. We say of an excellent preacher that he knows how dominari in concionibus - to command his hearers. Job did so here. A long strife there had been between Job and his friends; they seemed disposed to have the matter compromised; and therefore, since an oath for confirmation is an end of strife (Heb 6:16), Job here backs all he had said in maintenance of his own integrity with a solemn oath, to silence contradiction, and take the blame entirely upon himself if he prevaricated. Observe,
I. The form of his oath (Job 27:2): As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment. Here, 1. He speaks highly of God, in calling him the living God (which means everliving, the eternal God, that has life in himself) and in appealing to him as the sole and sovereign Judge. We can swear by no greater, and it is an affront to him to swear by any other. 2. Yet he speaks hardly of him, and unbecomingly, in saying that he had taken away his judgment (that is, refused to do him justice in this controversy and to appear in defence of him), and that by continuing his troubles, on which his friends grounded their censures of him, he had taken from him the opportunity he hoped ere now to have of clearing himself. Elihu reproved him for this word (Job 34:5); for God is righteous in all his ways, and takes away no man's judgment. But see how apt we are to despair of favour if it be not shown us immediately, so poor-spirited are we and so soon weary of waiting God's time. He also charges it upon God that he had vexed his soul, had not only not appeared for him, but had appeared against him, and, by laying such grievous afflictions upon him had quite embittered his life to him and all the comforts of it. We, by our impatience, vex our own souls and then complain of God that he has vexed them. Yet see Job's confidence in the goodness both of his cause and of his God, that though God seemed to be angry with him, and to act against him for the present, yet he could cheerfully commit his cause to him.
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II. The matter of his oath, Job 27:3, Job 27:4. 1. That he would not speak wickedness, nor utter deceit - that, in general, he would never allow himself in the way of lying, that, as in this debate he had all along spoken as he thought, so he would never wrong his conscience by speaking otherwise; he would never maintain any doctrine, nor assert any matter of fact, but what he believed to be true; nor would he deny the truth, how much soever it might make against him: and, whereas his friends charged him with being a hypocrite, he was ready to answer, upon oath, to all their interrogatories, if called to do so. On the one hand he would not, for all the world, deny the charge if he knew himself guilty, but would declare the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and take to himself the shame of his hypocrisy. On the other hand, since he was conscious to himself of his integrity, and that he was not such a man as his friends represented him, he would never betray his integrity, nor charge himself with that which he was innocent of. He would not be brought, no, not by the rack of their unjust censures, falsely to accuse himself. If we must not bear false witness against our neighbour, then not against ourselves. 2. That he would adhere to this resolution as long as he lived (Job 27:3): All the while my breath is in me. Our resolutions against sin should be thus constant, resolutions for life. In things doubtful and indifferent, it is not safe to be thus peremptory. We know not what reason we may see to change our mind: God may reveal to us that which we now are not aware of. But in so plain a thing as this we cannot be too positive that we will never speak wickedness. Something of a reason for his resolution is here implied - that our breath will not be always in us. We must shortly breathe our last, and therefore, while our breath is in us, we must never breathe wickedness and deceit, nor allow ourselves to say or do any thing which will make against us when our breath shall depart. The breath in us is called the spirit of God, because he breathed it into us; and this is another reason why we must not speak wickedness. It is God that gives us life and breath, and therefore, while we have breath, we must praise him.
III. The explication of his oath (Job 27:5, Job 27:6): "God forbid that I should justify you in your uncharitable censures of me, by owning myself a hypocrite: no, until I die I will not remove my integrity from me; my righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go." 1. He would always be an honest man, would hold fast his integrity, and not curse God, as Satan, by his wife, urged him to do, Job 2:9. Job here thinks of dying, and of getting ready for death, and therefore resolves never to part with his religion, though he had lost all he had in the world. Note, The best preparative for death is perseverance to death in our integrity. "Until I die," that is, "though I die by this affliction, I will not thereby be put out of conceit with my God and my religion. Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." 2. He would always stand to it that he was an honest man; he would not remove, he would not part with, the conscience, and comfort, and credit of his integrity; he was resolved to defend it to the last. "God knows, and my own heart knows, that I always meant well, and did not allow myself in the omission of any known duty or the commission of any known sin. This is my rejoicing, and no man shall rob me of it; I will never lie against my right." It has often been the lot of upright men to be censured and condemned as hypocrites; but it well becomes them to bear up boldly against such censures, and not to be discouraged by them nor think the worse of themselves for them; as the apostle (Heb 13:18): We have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly.
Hic murus aheneus esto, nil conscire sibi.
Be this thy brazen bulwark of defence,
Still to preserve thy conscious innocence.
Job complained much of the reproaches of his friends; but (says he) my heart shall not reproach me, that is, "I will never give my heart cause to reproach me, but will keep a conscience void of offence; and, while I do so, I will not give my heart leave to reproach me." Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. To resolve that our hearts shall not reproach us when we give them cause to do so is to affront God, whose deputy conscience is, and to wrong ourselves; for it is a good thing, when a man has sinned, to have a heart within him to smite him for it, Sa2 24:10. But to resolve that our hearts shall not reproach us while we still hold fast our integrity is to baffle the designs of the evil spirit (who tempts good Christians to question their adoption, If thou be the Son of God) and to concur with the operations of the good Spirit, who witnesses to their adoption.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–22 Moreover Job continued his parable,.... Having finished his discourse…
Moreover Job continued his parable,.... Having finished his discourse concerning the worlds and ways of God, and the display of his majesty, power, and glory, in them, he pauses awhile, waiting for Zophar, whose turn was next to rise up, and make a reply to him; but neither he, nor any of his friends, reassumed the debate, but kept a profound silence, and chose not to carry on the dispute any further with him; either concluding him to be an obstinate man, not open to conviction, and on whom no impressions could be made, and that it was all lost time and labour to use any argument with him; or else being convicted in their minds that he was in the right, and they in the wrong, though they did not choose to own it; and especially being surprised with what he had last said concerning God and his works, whereby they perceived he had great knowledge of divine things, and could not be the man they had suspected him to be from his afflictions: however, though they are silent, Job was not, "he added to take or lift up his parable" (a), as the words may be rendered; or his oration, as Mr. Broughton, his discourse; which, because it consisted of choice and principal things, which command regard and attention, of wise, grave, serious, and sententious sayings, and some of them such as not easy to be understood, being delivered in similes and figurative expressions, as particularly in the following chapter, it is called his parable; what are called parables being proverbial phrases, dark sayings, allegorical or metaphorical expressions, and the like; and which way of speaking Job is here said to take, "and lift up", which is an eastern phraseology, as appears from Balaam's use of it, Num 23:7; and may signify, that he delivered the following oration with great freedom, boldness, and confidence, and with a high tone and loud voice; to all which he might be induced by observing, through the silence of his friends, that he had got the advantage of them, and had carried his point, and had brought them to conviction or confusion, or however to silence, which gave him heart and spirit to proceed on with his oration, which he added to his former discourse:
and said; as follows.
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(a) "et addidit assumere suam parabolam", Pagninus, Montanus.
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 On vv1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 Job protests his integrity, ver. 1-6. And his dread…
Job protests his integrity, ver. 1-6. And his dread of hypocrisy, ver. 7-10. Shews the miserable end of the wicked, notwithstanding their long prosperity, ver. 11-23.
Parable - His grave and weighty discourse.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 Job strongly asserts his innocence; determines to maintain
CHAPTER XXVII
Job strongly asserts his innocence; determines to maintain
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it, and to avoid every evil way, 1-7.
Shows his abhorrence of the hypocrite by describing his
infamous character, accumulated miseries, and wretched end,
8-23.
NOTES ON CHAP. XXVII
Verse 1. Continued his parable] After having delivered the preceding discourse, Job appears to have paused to see if any of his friends chose to make any reply; but finding them all silent, he resumed his discourse, which is here called משלו meshalo, his parable, his authoritative weighty discourse; from משל mashal, to exercise rule, authority, dominion, or power. - Parkhurst. And it must be granted that in this speech he assumes great boldness, exhibits his own unsullied character, and treats his friends with little ceremony.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 23 Job 27:1-4. Job continued his parable — His grave…
Job 27:1-4. Job continued his parable — His grave and weighty discourse. As God liveth — He confirms the truth of his expressions by an oath, because he found them very backward to believe what he professed. Who hath taken away my judgment — Who, though he knows my integrity, yet does not plead my cause against my friends. All the while my breath is in me — Which is the constant companion and certain sign of life; or my soul or life is in me; and Spirit of God — Or rather, the breath of God; is in my nostrils — I protest, that as long as I have breath in my body, and he shall enable me to speak a word; my lips shall not speak wickedness, &c. — My tongue shall be the faithful interpreter of my heart, and I will never speak otherwise than I think.
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 On vv1–23 Job continued - Margin, as in Hebrew “added to…
Job continued - Margin, as in Hebrew “added to take up.” Probably he had paused for Zophar to reply, but since he said nothing he now resumed his argument.
His parable - A parable properly denotes a comparison of one thing with another, or a fable or allegorical representation from which moral instruction is derived. It was a favorite mode of conveying truth in the East, and indeed is found in all countries; see the notes at Mat 13:3. It is evident, however, that Job did not deliver his sentiments in this manner; and the word rendered “parable” here (משׁל mâshâl) means, as it often does, a sententious discourse or argument. The word is used in the Scriptures to denote a parable, properly so called; then a sententious saying; an apothegm; a proverb; or a poem or song; see the notes at Isa 14:4. It is rendered here by the Vulgate, parabolam; by the Septuagint, προοιμίῳ prooimiō - “Job spake by preface;” Luther, fuhr fort - Job continued; Noyes, discourse; Good, high argument. The meaning is, that Job continued his discourse; but there is in the word a reference to the kind of discourse which he employed, as being sententious and apothegmatical.
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23 Parable: speaking in a figurative poetic style, Numbers xxiii.…
Parable: speaking in a figurative poetic style, Numbers xxiii. 7. Job grants that God generally punishes the wicked, but he maintains that he also chastises the just; and hence admonishes all to revere his judgments and wisdom, and to decline from evil; which truths must always subsist, whatever my be the conduct of Providence. (Calmet) --- Parables do not always imply similies, but sometimes pithy, and profound sentences, spoken by the wisest men.
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).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 III. Job alone: His closing address to the vanquished…
III. Job alone: His closing address to the vanquished friends. Chap. 27—28
a. Renewed asseveration of his innocence, accompanied by a reference to his joy inGod, which had not forsaken him even in the midst of his deepest misery Job_27:1-10
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1 Moreover Job continued his parable, and said:
2 As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment;
and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
3 all the while my breath is in me,
and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;—
4 my lips shall not speak wickedness
nor my tongue utter deceit.
5 God forbid that I should justify you:
till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.
6 My righteousness I hold fast, I will not let it go:
my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
7 Let mine enemy be as the wicked,
and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.
8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained,
when God taketh away his soul?
9 Will God hear his cry
when trouble cometh upon him?
10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty?
will he always call upon God?
b. Statement of his belief that the prosperity of the ungodly cannot endure, but that they must infallibly come to a terrible end. Job_27:11-23
11 I will teach you by the hand of God;
that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal.
12 Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it;
why then are ye thus altogether vain?
13 This is the portion of a wicked man with God,
and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty.
14 If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword;
and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
15 Those that remain of him shall be buried in death;
and his widows shall not weep.
16 Though he heap up silver as the dust,
and prepare raiment as the clay;
17 he may prepare it, but the just shall put it on,
and the innocent shall divide the silver.
18 He buildeth his house as a moth,
and as a booth that the keeper maketh.
19 The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered;
he openeth his eyes, and he is not!
20 Terrors take hold on him as waters,
a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
21 The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth:
and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.
22 For God shall cast upon him, and not spare:
He would fain flee out of his hand.
23 Men shall clap their hands at him,
and hiss him out of his place.
c. Declaration that true Wisdom, which alone can secure real well-being, and a correct solution of the dark enigmas of man’s destiny, is to be found nowhere on earth, but only with God, and by means of a pious submission to God. Chap. 28
1 Surely there is a vein for the silver,
and a place for gold where they fine it.
2 Iron is taken out of the earth.
and brass is molten out of the stone.
3 He setteth an end to darkness,
and searcheth out all perfection:
the stones of darkness, and the shadow of death.
4 The flood breaketh out from the inhabitants;
even the waters forgotten of the foot:
they are dried up, they are gone away from men.
5 As for the earth, out of it cometh bread:
and under it is turned up as it were fire.
6 The stones of it are the place of sapphires:
and it hath dust of gold.
7 There is a path which no fowl knoweth,
and which the vulture’s eye hath not seen.
8 The lion’s whelps have not trodden it
nor the fierce lion passed by it.
9 He putteth forth his hand upon the rock;
10 He cutteth out rivers among the rocks;
and his eye seeth every precious thing.
he overturneth the mountains by the roots.
11 He bindeth the floods from overflowing;
and the thing that is hid bringeth he forth to light.
12 But where shall wisdom be found?
and where is the place of understanding?
13 Man knoweth not the price thereof:
neither is it found in the land of the living.
14 The depth saith, It is not in me;
and the sea saith, It is not with me.
15 It cannot be gotten for gold,
neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof.
16 It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir,
with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.
17 The gold and the crystal cannot equal it:
and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold.
18 No mention shall be made of coral, or of pearls;
for the price of wisdom is above rubies.
19 The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it,
neither shall it be valued with pure gold.
20 Whence then cometh wisdom?
and where if the place of understanding?
21 Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living,
and kept close from the fowls of the air.
22 Destruction and death say,
we have heard the fame thereof with our ears.
23 God understandeth the way thereof,
and He knoweth the place thereof.
24 For He looketh to the ends of the earth,
and seeth under the whole heaven;
25 to make the weight for the winds;
and He weigheth the waters by measure.
26 When He made a decree for the rain,
and a way for the lightning of the thunder;
27 Then did He see it, and declare it;
He prepared it, yea, and searched it out.
28 And unto man He said:
Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;
and to depart from evil is understanding.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. Inasmuch as the opposition of the friends is silenced, before the last of the number attempts a third reply, the victor, after a short pause, takes up his discourse, “in order that, by collecting himself after the passion of the strife, he might express with greater calmness and clearness the convictions which have been formed within him as results of the colloquy thus far, and so to give to the colloquy the internal solution which was wanting” (Dillm.). It is not so much a triumphant self-contemplation, or a pathetic monologue, that he delivers, but a genuine didactic discourse, addressed to the vanquished friends, which, like the discourses of the previous discussion, is cast in the form, characteristic of the Chokmah, of a series of proverbs. It is hence expressly termed in the introductory verse (Job_27:1) a continuation of the “Mashal, i. e. of the proverbial discourse” (in regard to שְׂאֵת מָשָׁל, “to utter, lit. to raise a proverb;” comp. Num_23:7, where the same expression is applied to a prophetic vaticinium of Balaam’s). [“מָשָׁל is speech of a more elevated tone and more figurative character; here, as frequently, the unaffected outgrowth of an elevated solemn mood. The introduction of the ultimatum as מָשָׁל reminds one of “the proverb (el-methel) seals it in the mouth of the Arab, since in common life it is customary to use a pithy saying as the final proof at the conclusion of a speech.” Delitzsch.]—The following are the contents of this proverbial discourse, which is somewhat extended, and which, especially in its last principal division, is exceedingly lofty and poetic: (1) An emphatic asseveration of his own innocence, which he has made repeatedly during the previous colloquy, and which he now puts forth as attested by his continued experience of God’s friendship, and his joy in God (Job_27:2-10); (2) A description—imitating and surpassing the similar descriptions of the friends in chs. 15; 18; 20, etc.—of the fearful divine judgment, which must of necessity overtake the ungodly, and in view of which he indeed has every reason to adhere earnestly and zealously to God’s ways (Job_27:11-23); (3) An exhibition of the nature of true wisdom, which alone can furnish correct solutions of the dark enigmas of this earthly life, and which is here set forth as a blessing absolutely supra-sensual, to be obtained only through God, and the closest union with Him (Job 28.).—These three sections are differently divided, the two former consisting of three short strophes (of three to five verses), the third of three long strophes (two of eleven, and one of six verses).
2. First Section: The asseveration of his innocence: Job_27:2-10.
First Strophe: Job_27:2-4.—As God liveth (lit. “living is God!” a well-known Hebrew, and also Arabic formula of adjuration) [the only place where Job resorts to the oath], who hath taken away from me my right, and the Almighty who hath vexed my soul; lit. “who hath made bitter my soul” (LXX.: ὁ πικρώσας, comp. Col_3:19 : πικραίνεσθαι).
Job_27:3. For still all my breath is in me, and God’s breath is in my nostrils, i. e. I am still possessed of enough freshness and vigor of spirit to know what I say, to be a responsible witness in behalf of my innocence. The older expositors, and among the moderns Schlottmann [Good, Noyes, Conant, Bernard, Carey, Rodwell, Elzas, Renan, Merx, and so E. V.] take the verse not as a parenthetic reason for the adjuration in Job_27:2, but as the antecedent of Job_27:4 : “so long as my breath is yet in me,” etc. But in that case the contents of the oath would have a double introduction, first by כִּי, then by אִם. Moreover the words כָּל־עוֹד נִשְׁמָתִי בִי, as the parallel passages, 2Sa_1:9; Hos_14:3, show, have not in the least the appearance of an adverbial antecedent determination of time.—[The older rendering is certainly to be preferred. (1) It expresses a thought much more suitable for incorporation into an oath. “As God lives—while I live—I will speak only the truth”—is natural. “As God lives—and I take this oath because I am fully competent to stand up to what I am swearing—my lips shall not,” etc.—is decidedly unnatural. (2) The language at once suggests the simple idea of living—“breath (נשׁמתי) yet in me—the breath of Eloah in my nostril.” This is scarcely the language one would use in describing a particular inward condition. (3) כִּי is simply transitional, introducing after the oath a thought preparatory to the principal thought introduced by אִם, a construction which Delitzsch admits to be possible, though what there is perplexing in it, it is difficult to see. (4) כָּל־ is used adverbially as in Psa_39:6; Psa_45:14; Ecc_5:15; here—“wholly as long as” (see Gesenius and Fürst). It thus strengthens the expression in a way that is altogether appropriate to the strong feeling which prompts the oath.—E.]
Job_27:4 gives the contents of the oath, which the following verses unfold still more specifically and comprehensively. In regard to עַוְלָה, lit. “perverseness,” hence “falsehood, untruthfulness,” and its synonym רְמִיָּה, comp. Job_13:7.
Second Strophe: Job_27:5-7.—Far be it from me (lit. “for a profanation be it to me,” comp. Ew. § 329, a) to grant that you are in the right:—wherein is seen in the second member—until I die I will not let my innocence be taken away from me (lit. “I will not let it depart from me”), i. e. I will not cease from asserting it continually.
Job_27:6. In regard to הִרְפָּה in a, meaning “to let something go, to let it fall,” comp. Job_7:19.—My heart reproacheth not one of my days.—חרף, lit. “to pluck, to pick off,” carpere, vellicare. לֵבָב here is unquestionably synonymous substantially with “conscience.” So Luther translated it both here and in Jos_14:7; comp. also 1Sa_24:6 [5]; 2Sa_24:10, where it may also be translated “conscience” (see in general Vilmar, Theolog. Moral. I., p. 66). Most modern commentators rightly take מִן in מִיָּמָי, as partitive—“one of my days;” the temporal rendering of the expression adopted by the ancients, as also by Ewald (= while I live, in omni vita mea, Vulg.) [E. V.], necessitates the harsh and scarcely admissible rendering of יֶחֱרַף as intransitive, or as reflexive (“does not blame itself,” Ewald) [E. V. supplies “me”]. It remains to be said, that this asseveration of innocence (like that in Job_23:10 seq.) is, in some measure, exaggerated, when compared with the mention which Job makes earlier of “the sins of his youth,” Job_13:26.
Job_27:7. Mine enemy must appear as the wicked, and mine adversary as the unrighteous:viz. as the penalty of their falsely suspecting and disputing my innocence. Only this optative rendering of the Jussive יְהִי is suited to the context, not the concessive: “though mine enemy be an evil-doer, I am none” (Hirz.). As to מִתְקֹמֵם, comp. Job_20:27; Psa_59:2. [“The idea conveyed in אֹיֵב is hostility of feeling; in מִתְקֹמֵם, hostility of action, and that initiative. It is, to some extent, expressive of unprovoked assault.” Carey.]
Third Strophe: Job_27:8-10.—For what is the hope of an ungodly man when He cutteth off, when Eloah draweth out his soul?—This question is to be understood from the two former discourses of Job, in which, when confronting death he placed his hope with animated emphasis on God, as his final deliverer and avenger (chs. 17. and 19.). In contrast with such a joyful hope reaching out beyond death, the evil-doer has nothing more to hope for, when once God has cut off his thread of life, and drawn out his soul out of the mortal body enclosing it (יֵשֶׁל Imperf. apoc. Kal. from שָׁלָה, extrahere, cognate with שלל and נשל). The figurative expression: “cutting off the soul,” has always for its basis the same conception of the body as a tent, and of the internal thread of life as the tent-cord, which we came across in Job_4:21. Possibly the expression: “drawing out” has the same explanation, although this seems to have rather for its basis the comparison of the body to a sheath for the soul (Dan_7:15), so that accordingly we have a transition from one figure to another. [E. V. (after the Vulgate, Syr., Targ.), Gesenius in Thes., Fürst, Con., Ber., Merx, Rod., Elz., translate כִּי יִבְצָע “though he hath gained” soil, riches, or “though he despoil.” The meaning “to plunder” or “gain” is certainly more in harmony with the usage of the verb in Kal, and avoids the mixture of metaphor according to the other construction.—E.]
Job_27:9-10. Will God hear his cry? … Can he delight himself in the Almighty?etc. The meaning of these questions is that to him there shall be neither the hearing of his prayers, nor a joyful, trustful and loving fellowship with God (הִתְעַנָּג as in Job_22:26). Job accordingly claims for himself both these things (comp. Job_13:16), and thereby leaves out of the account transient obscurations of his spirit, like that in consequence of which he mourns (Job_19:7) that his prayer is not heard.
3. Second Section: Description of the inevitable overthrow of the wicked: Job_27:11-23. The striking correspondence which this description by Job seems at first sight to exhibit with the well-known descriptions of the friends, especially in the second series of the colloquy, and this notwithstanding the fact that Job himself only just before, in chs. 21 and 24, has maintained the happiness of the wicked to the end of their life, have led some to assume a transposition, or confusion of the text (Kennicott, Stuhlmann, Bernstein, [Bernard, Wemyss, Elzas]; comp. Introd. § 9, 1); others, to suppose that Job is here simply repeating the opinion of his opponents, without purposing to make it his own (Eichhorn, Das Buch Hiob übers., etc., 1824; Böckel, 2d Ed. 1830). But the contradiction to Job’s former utterances is only apparent, for: (1) The opinion that the prosperity of the wicked cannot endure has been repeatedly put forth even by himself, at least in principle (comp. Job_21:16; Job_23:15; Job_24:12; comp. also below Job_31:3 seq.). (2) The erroneous and objectionably one-sided utterances regarding God as a hard-hearted persecutor of innocence, and author of the prosperity of many evil-doers, which he has heretofore frequently put forth, needed to be counteracted by the truths which supplement and rectify these one-sided errors. (3) It was of importance to Job, not so much to instruct the friends in regard to the fact that the impending destruction of the ungodly was certain—for that they had long known this fact is expressly set forth in Job_27:12—as rather to place this phenomenon in the right light, in opposition to the perverted application which they had made of it, and to exhibit its profound connection with the order of the universe as established by the only wise God. This end he accomplishes by subsequently introducing a description of true wisdom and understanding, a treasure deeply hidden, and to be possessed only through the fear of God, and humble submission to Him.—This is the end which Job has in view in the present discourse. It is not necessary (with Brentius and others of the older expositors, also Schlottmann) to find in it a warning purpose, i. e., the purpose to set before the friends the end of those who judge unjustly, and who render unfriendly decisions, with a view of terrifying them—a purpose of which there is nowhere any indication, and for which there would seem to be no particular motive, seeing that the discussion has come to an end, and that any attempt to move the vanquished opponents by warnings would be cruelly and most injuriously at variance with the conciliatory mildness which this last discourse of Job’s elsewhere breathes.
[a. The attempts to relieve the difficulty connected with the passage before us by changing and transposing the text are arbitrary and unsatisfactory, producing abrupt connections, or rather breaks, and a confusion of thought and impression more serious than that which it is sought to remove.
b. Especially does it betray a total want of appreciation of the author’s skill in managing the plot and development of the drama to force in Zophar for a third speech. The logical and rhetorical exhaustion of the friends could not well be more effectively indicated than by the way in which the colloquy on their part tapers and dwindles—first in the short, and so far as ideas are concerned, poverty-stricken speech of Bildad, and finally in the complete dumbness of Zophar, perhaps of all three the most consummate master of words.
c. The theory that Job is here going over the ground of the friends, and repeating their position, is disproved negatively by the absence of anything to indicate such a course, and positively by the straightforward earnestness and deep feeling which pervade the passage, as well as by what he says in the introductory verses 11, 12.
d. Regarded as Job’s own earnest affirmations the following considerations should be borne in mind.
(1) As shown above by Zöckler, isolated statements have already proceeded in harmony with the representation given here. At the same time it cannot be denied that this is much the most extended and emphatic expression by Job of the view here set forth, and that it is in form much more nearly allied to the representations of the friends. But:
(2) It is no part of the poet’s plan to preserve Job’s unalterable consistency. Job’s experiences are most various, and his utterances change with them. They strike each various chord of sorrow, joy, doubt, confidence, despair, hope, fear, yearning, victory. Through all it is true there is an underlying unity and identity of character; but the variations exist, and are full of dramatic interest and importance, and yet more of sacred practical suggestiveness.
(3) These inconsistencies still further prepare the way for a termination and solution of the controversy. As Umbreit has shown, “without the apparent contradiction in Job’s speeches, the interchange of words would have been endless;” or as Delitzsch has stated it: “Had Job’s stand-point been absolutely immovable, the controversy could not possibly have come to a well-adjusted decision, which the poet must have planned, and which he also really brings about, by causing his hero still to retain an imperturbable consciousness of his innocence, but also allowing his irritation to subside, and his extreme harshness to become moderated.”
(4) In the particular passage before us, Job’s utterance is to be explained largely in the light of the victory which he has just achieved. In the hour of triumph a great soul is moderate, calm, just. So here Job shows the greatness of his strength by conceding to the friends the truth in their position, and by stating that truth with a power equal to their own. It is a masterly touch of the poet’s art that shows itself here in this picture of a great soul in the hour of victory.
(5) There is, however, as suggested above by Zöckler, a still more conscious and controlling purpose in the following description. Job describes the certain destruction of the wicked, not mainly in the way of concession to the friends, but rather for his own vindication. The friends had portrayed such descriptions to show how much there are in the evil-doer’s fate to remind of Job’s calamities. Job takes up the theme to show how unlike his fate, with all its tragic lineaments, and the abandoned sinner’s. He still holds fast to his righteousness, is heard by God, delights in God, is on terms of intimacy with God, is competent to instruct in behalf of God;—the wicked man has a very different portion with God! As ever therefore Job is not merely eloquent, but cogent; and when he accepts their conclusions, it is to overwhelm them yet more completely with their own arguments.—E.]
First Strophes: Job_27:11-13. Introduction to the following description.
Job_27:11. I will teach you concerning God’s hand:i. e. concerning His doings, His mode of working. In regard to בְ with verbs of teaching or instructing, comp. Psa_25:8; Psa_25:12; Psa_32:8; Pro_4:11 (Ew. § 217, f).—The mind of the Almighty will I not conceal from you: lit. “what is with the Almighty, that which forms the contents of His thoughts and counsels;” comp. Job_10:13; Job_23:10, etc.
Job_27:12. See now, all ye yourselves [אַתֶּם emphatic] have seen it, have become familiar with it by observation (חָזָה, as in Job_15:17), so that ye do not need to learn the thing itself, but only to acquire a more correct, unprejudiced understanding of it. The second member points to the latter: “and why are ye then vain with vanity?” i. e. so altogether vain, so completely entangled in perverse delusion? (Ew. § 281, a).
Job_27:13 announces the theme treated of in the passage following, in words which purposely convey a reminder of the language used by one of the opponents, Zophar, at the close of his discourse (Job_20:29).
Second Strophe: Job_27:14-18. The judgment, upon the family, possessions, and homestead of the evil-doer.
Job_27:14. If his children multiply (it is) for the sword. לְמוֹ־חֶרֶב sc. יִרְבּוּ. In respect to לְמוֹ, found only in Job, comp. Job_29:21; Job_38:40; Job_40:4 (Ew. § 221, b).
Job_27:15. The remnant of those who are his shall be buried by the pestilence.—שְׂרִידָיו “his escaped ones” (comp. Job_20:21; Job_20:26), are the descendants still remaining to him, after that the sword and famine have already thinned their ranks. This remainder the Pestilence will carry off, that third destroying angel, in addition to the sword and famine, mentioned also in Jer_14:12; Jer_15:2; Jer_18:21; 2Sa_24:13; Lev_26:25 seq. Here, as also in Jer_15:2, this is simply designated “death” (מָוֶת); and by the phrase, “in death (or by death) they are buried,” allusion is made to the quick succession of death and burial, which is customary in such epidemics (comp. Amo_6:9 seq.). This bold and truly poetic thought is destroyed if, with Böttcher, we take במות to mean in momento mortis, or if, with Olshausen [Merx], we arbitrarily insert a לֹא before יִקָבֵרוּ. [Carey explains: “They shall be sepulchred by Death. This is literal, and a bold figure, by which is signified that they should have no other burial than such as Death should give them on the open field, where they had fallen, either by sword or by famine.” This, however, is somewhat too artificial and modern]. And his widows weep not—to wit, in following the coffin, because by reason of the frightful raging of the disease, funeral solemnities are not observed. “His widows” may mean both the principal wives and concubines of the head of the family, and those of his deceased sons and grandsons; these latter even, in a certain sense, belonging to him, the patriarch. Comp. the literal repetition of this member in Psa_78:64, where the twofold possibility mentioned here is not recognized, because the אַלְמְנֹתָיו there refers to the “people,” עַם.
Job_27:16. If he heapeth up for himself silver as the dust, etc.—The same figures used to designate material regarded as worthless on account of its great quantity in Zec_9:3.
Job_27:17. Apodosis to the preceding verse, expressing the same thought as, e. g., Psa_37:29; Psa_37:34; Ecc_2:16.
Job_27:18. He hath built, like a moth, his house, and like a booth, which a watchman puts up (in a vineyard, or an orchard, Isa_1:8). The point of comparison for both members is the laxity, frailty, destructibility of such structures, which are intended to be broken up soon.
Third Strophe: Job_27:19-23. He lieth down rich, and doeth it not again.—So according to the reading וְלֹא יֹאסִף (=יוֹסִיף), which already the LXX. (καὶ οὐ προσθήσει), Itala, and Pesh. followed, which is favored by parallel passages, such as Job_20:9; Job_40:5, and is accordingly preferred by the leading modern commentators, such as Ewald, Hirzel, Delitzsch, Dillmann [Renan, Rodwell, Merx]. The renderings based on the reading וְלֹא יֵאָסֵף are not so good; as, e. g., “and yet nothing is taken away” (Schnurr., Umbreit, Stick. [Elzas, Wemyss: “but he shall take nothing away”];—“and he is not buried” (Ralbag, Rosenmüller, Schlottmann) [Noyes, E. V.: “he shall not be gathered,” and so Con., Lee, Scott, etc. Carey explains the familiar phrase, “to be gathered (to one’s fathers, etc.),” not of being buried in the grave, but of being removed to the place of spirits. The objections to referring the clause to the rich man’s burial, as stated by Delitzsch, are, that the preceding strophe has already referred to his not being buried, and that the relation of the two parts of the verse in this interpretation is unsatisfactory]. The same may be said of the reading וְלֹא יֶאֱסֹף, “and takes not with him” (Jerome, and some MSS.). Openeth his eyes—and is gone! (comp. Job_24:24).—This further description of the sudden end of the wicked relates to the morning, the time of awakening, as the preceding clause refers to the evening hour of going to bed.
Job_27:20. The multitude of terrors (i. e., the sudden terrors of death; comp. Job_18:14; Job_20:25) like the waters (like the torrents of a sudden overflow—comp. Job_20:28; Jer_47:2; Psa_18:5 [4]) overtakes him (תַּשִּׂיג, 3d Perf. sing. fem, referring to the plur. בַּלָּהוֹת; comp. Job_14:19). On b comp. Job_21:18.
Job_27:21. Further descriptive expansion of the figure of a tempest: The east wind lifteth him up.—This wind being elsewhere frequently described as particularly violent and descriptive; comp. Job_1:19; Job_15:2; Job_38:24; Isa_27:8; Eze_27:26. Concerning וְיֵלַךְ, ut pereat, comp. Job_14:20; Job_19:10.
Job_27:22. The subj. of וְיַשְׁלֵךְ can be only God, the secret Author of the whole judgment of wrath here described. Of Him it is said: He hurleth upon him without sparing—to wit, arrows; comp. Job_16:13; and in regard to the objectless =הִשְׁלִיךְ“to shoot,” see Num_35:20. Before His hand must he flee—lit. “must he fleeing flee.”—The Inf. Absol. expresses the strenuousness and yet the futility of his various attempts to flee (Del.: “before His hand he fleeth hither and thither”).
Job_27:23. They clap their hands at him—rejoicing at his calamity and mocking him; comp. Job_34:37; Lam_2:15; Nah_3:19. The plural suffixes in עָלֵימוֹ and כַּפֵּימוֹ are used poetically for the sing., as in Job_20:23; Job_22:2. “The accumulation of the terminations êmo and ômo gives a tone of thunder and a gloomy impress to this conclusion of the description of judgment, as these terminations frequently occur in the book of Psalms, where moral depravity is mourned and divine judgment threatened (e. g., in Psalms 73).” DelThey hiss him out of his place—so that he must leave his dwelling-place (comp. Job_8:18) in the midst of scorn and hissing (comp. Zep_2:15; Jer_49:17). Or “out of his home” (Hirz.), which rendering gives essentially the same meaning.
4. Third Section: first Strophe. Job_28:1-11. The difficulty, indeed the absolute impossibility, of attaining true wisdom by human skill and endeavor, described by means of an illustration taken from mining, which gives man access to all valuable treasures of a material sort, but which can by no means put him in possession of that spiritual good which comes from God. The question—whence the author had acquired so accurate a knowledge of mining as he here displays, seeing that the land of the Israelites was comparatively poor in mineral treasures (comp. Keil, Bibl. Archäol., p. 35 seq., 38)? may be answered, on the basis of Biblical and extra-Biblical sources of information, as follows: (1) The Jews in Palestine could not have been absolutely, strangers to the business of mining, seeing that in Deu_8:9 there is expressly promised to them “a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.” (2) Both Lebanon in the north, and the Idumean mountains in the south-east of Palestine proper, had copper mines, the particular location of these being at Phunon, or Phaino, Num_33:42 seq., in the working of which it is certain that the Jews were occasionally interested; comp. Volney’s Travels; Ritter, Erdkunde XVII. 1063; Gesenius, Thes. p. 1095; v. Rougemont, Bronzezeit, p. 87. (3) The Israelites possessed iron pits, possibly in South Lebanon, where in modern times such may still be found, together with smelting furnaces (Russegger, Reise I. 779, 778 seq.), but certainly in the country east of the Jordan, where, according to the testimony of Josephus, de B. Jud. IV. 8, 2, there was an “iron mountain” ( σιδηροῦν ὸ̓ρος) north of Moabitis, the “Cross Mountain,” El Mi’râd of to-day, between the gorges of the Wadi Zerka and Wadi Arabun, west of Gerash; a mountain district in which in our own century iron mines have been worked here and there (v. Rougemont, l. c.; Wetzstein in Delitzsch, II. 90–91). (4) Jerome testifies to the existence of ancient gold mines in Idumea (Opp. ed. Vail. III. 183). (5) The Israelites might also come occasionally into connection with the copper and iron mines of the Sinai-peninsula, in the development of which the Egyptian Pharaohs were conspicuously energetic (comp. Aristeas v. Haverkamp, p. 114; Lepsius, Briefe, p. 335 seq.; Ritter, Erdkunde XIV. 784 seq; v. Rougemont, l. c.1 (6) What has been said above by no means excludes the possibility that in this description the poet in many particulars took for his basis traditional reports concerning the mines of distant lands, e. g. concerning the gold mines of Upper Egypt and Nubia (Diodorus Job_3:11 seq.), concerning the gold and silver mines of the Phenicians in Spain (1Ma_8:3; Plin. Job_3:4; Diod. 5:35 seq.), concerning the emerald quarries of the Egyptians at Berenice, and other deposits of precious stones, more or less remote. Comp. above Introd. § 7, b; and see a fuller discussion of the subject in Delitzsch 2:86–89; to some extent also the mining experts who have commented on the following verses, such as v. Weltheim (in J. D. Mich., Orient. Bibl. 23,. 7 seq.), and Rud. Nasse (Stud. u. Krit., 1863, p. 105 seq.)
Job_28:1. For there is for the silver a vein [Germ. Fundort, place where it is found], and a place for the gold, which they refine.—The connection between this section and the preceding, which is indicated by the causal כִּי “for,” is this: The phenomenon described in Job_27:11-23, that the wicked—with whom, according to Job_28:2-10 Job is not to be classed—meet with a terrible end without deliverance, is to be explained by the fact that they do not possess true wisdom, which can be acquired only through the fear of God, which cannot, like the treasures of this earth (the only object for which the wicked plan and toil), be dug out, exchanged or bought. The proposition introduced by כִּי accordingly assigns a reason first of all for that which forms the contents of Job_27:11-23 (“the prosperity of the ungodly cannot endure”), but secondarily and indirectly also that which is announced in Job_27:2-10 (Job is an upright man, and one who fears God, whose joy in God does not forsake him even in the midst of the deepest misery). [“The miserable end of the ungodly is confirmed by this, that the wisdom of man, which he has despised, consists in the fear of God; and Job thereby attains at the same time the special aim of his teaching, which is announced at Job_27:11 by אורה אתכם ביד־אל; viz. he has at the same time proved that he who retains the fear of God in the midst of his sufferings, though those sufferings are an insoluble mystery, cannot be a רשׁע. … And if we ponder the fact that Job has depicted the ungodly as a covetous rich man who is snatched away by sudden death from his immense possession of silver and other costly treasures, we see that Job 28. confirms the preceding picture of punitive judgment in the following manner: silver and other precious metals come out of the earth, but wisdom, whose value exceeds all these earthly treasures, is to be found nowhere within the province of the creature; God alone possesses it, and from God alone it comes; and so far as man can and is to attain to it, it consists in the fear of the Lord and the forsaking of evil.” Delitzsch.] The first verses of the chapter indeed down to the 11th, present nothing whatever as yet of that which serves directly to establish those antecedent propositions, they simply prepare the way for the demonstration proper, by describing the achievements of art and labor in the accumulation by men of their treasures, by means of which nevertheless wisdom can not be found. Hence כִּי may appropriately be rendered “for truly” (the “but” in Job_28:12 corresponding to the “truly”). This connection between Job 28, 27 is erroneously exhibited, when any subordinate proposition of Job 27 is regarded as that which is to be established (as e. g., according to Hirzel, the question in Job_28:12 : “why are ye so altogether vain? why do ye adhere to so perverse a delusion?” or according to Schlottmann the purpose to warn against the sin of making unfriendly charges, which he thinks is to be read between the lines in the description Job_28:11-23). These false conceptions of the connection, alike with the total abandonment of all connection, which has led many critics to resort to arbitrary attempts to assign to Job 28. another position (e. g. according to Pareau after Job 26.; according to Stuhlmann after Job 25) or to question altogether its genuineness (Knobel, Bernstein——comp. Introd. § 9, 1)—all these one-sided conceptions rest, for the most part, on the assumption that it is the divine wisdom, which rules the universe, whose unsearchableness is described in our chapter, and not rather wisdom regarded as a human possession, as a moral and intellectual blessing bestowed by God on men, connected with genuine fear of God. Comp. Doctrinal and Ethical Remarks, No. 1. [E. V.’s rendering of כִּי by “surely” overlooks the connection, and was probably prompted by the difficulty attending it].—מוֹצָא, lit. “outlet” (comp. 1Ki_10:28), the place where anything may be found, synonymous with the following מָקוֹם.—The word יָוֹקּוּ is a relative clause: gold, which they refine, or wash out. In regard to זקק, lit. “to filter, to strain,” as a technical term for purifying the precious metals from the stone-alloy which is mixed with them, comp. Mal_3:3; Psa_12:7 [6]; 1Ch_28:18. Comp. the passage relative to the gold mines of Upper Egypt, describing this process of crushing fine the gold-quartz, and of washing it out, this process accordingly of “gold-washing,” as practised by the ancients, in Diodor. Job_3:11 seq., as well as the explanations in Klemm’s Allgem. Kulturgesch. V. 503 seq., and in M. Uhlemann, Egypt.Alterthumskunde, II. 148 seq.
Job_28:2. Iron is brought up out of the ground.—עָפָר here of the interior or deep ground, not of the surface as in Job_39:14; Job_41:25 [33], and stone is smelted into copper.—יָצוּק here not as in Job_41:15 Partic. Pual of יצק, but as in Job_29:6 Imperf. of יצק= צוּק (the 3d pers. sing. masc. expressing the indefinite subj.). [Gesenius not so well makes the verb transitive: “and stone pours out brass.”]
Job_28:3. He has put an end [שָׂם still the indefinite subj., but as the description becomes more individual and concrete, it is better with E. V. to use from this point on the personal pron. “he”] to the darkness, viz. by the miner’s lamp; and in every direction (lit. “to each remotest point, to every extremity, in all directions”) [not as E. V. “all perfection,” which is too general, missing the idiomatic use of the phrase; nor adverbially: “to the utmost,” or “most closely:”—“לתכלית might be used thus adverbially, but לכל־תכלית is to be explained according to לכל־רוח, Eze_5:10, ‘to all the winds.’ ” Delitzsch]—he searcheth the stones of darkness and of death-shade,i. e. the stones under the earth, hidden in deep darkness. הוּא before חֹוקֵר refers back to the indefinite subj. of שָׂם, who is continued through Job_28:4, and again in Job_28:9-11.
Job_28:4. He breaketh [openeth, cutteth through] a shaft away from those who sojourn (above). נחל, elsewhere river, valley [river-bed] (Wadi), is here—as is already made probable by the verb פָרַץ, pointing to a violent breaking through (comp. Job_16:14), and as is made still more apparent by the third member of the verse—a mining passage in the earth, and that moreover a perpendicular shaft rather than a sloping gallery. מֵעִס־גָּר, lit. “away from one tarrying, a dweller,” i. e. removed from the human habitations found above, removing from them ever further and deeper into the bowels of the earth. [Schlottmann understands by גר the miner himself dwelling as a stranger in his loneliness; i. e. his shaft sinks ever further from the hut in which he dwells above. The use of גר is doubtless a little singular, and Schlottmann’s explanation may be accepted so far as it may serve to account for it by the suggestion that those who do live in the vicinity of mines are naturally גָּרִים, sojourners, living there to ply their trade and shifting about as new mines or veins are discovered.—E.]—Who are forgotten of every step, lit. “of a foot” (מִנִּי־רֶגֶל), i. e. of the foot or step of one travelling above on the surface of the earth [=“totally vanished from the remembrance of those who pass by above”], not the foot of the man himself that is spoken of, as though his descent by a rope in the depths of the shaft were here described (V. Leonhardt in Umbr. and Hirzel). [On this use of מִן after נשׁכח, comp. Deu_31:21; Psa_31:13; “forgotten out of the mind, out of the heart”]. Moreover הַנִּשְׁכָּחִים are identical, according to the accents, with the indef. subj. of פָּרַץ (the interchange between sing, and plur. acc. to Ew. § 319, a); hence the meaning is: those who work deep down in the shafts of the mines. They are again referred to in the finite verbs in c, which continue the participial construction: they hang far away from men, and swing.דַּלּוּ from דּלל (related to זלל) deorsum pendere, according to the accents, accompanies מֵאֱנוֹשׁ (meaning the same with מֵעִס־גָּר), not נָעוּ, as Hahn and Schlottm. think. The adventurous swinging of those engaged in digging the ore out of the steep sides of the shafts, hanging down by a rope, is in these few, simple words beautifully and clearly portrayed. It is the situation described by Pliny (H. N. Job_33:4, Job 21 : is qui cædit, funibus pendet, ut procul intuenti species ne ferarum quidem, sed alitum fiat. Pendentes majori ex parte librant et lineas itineri præducunt, etc. [The above rendering, adopted by all modern exegetes, gives a meaning so appropriate to the language and connection, and withal so beautiful, vivid and graphic that it seems Strange that all the ancient and most of the modern versions of Scripture, including E. V., should have so completely darkened the meaning. The source of the difficulty lay doubtless in נחל which being taken in its customary meaning of “river, flood,” threw everything into confusion. Add to this a probable want of familiarity with mining operations on the part of the early translators, and the result will not seem so surprising.—E.]
Job_28:5 states what the miners are doing in the depths.—The earth—out of it cometh forth the bread-corn (לֶחֶם as in Psa_104:14), but under it it is overturned like fire:i. e. as fire incessantly destroys, and turns what is uppermost lowermost. [“Man’s restless search, which rummages everything through, is compared to the unrestrainable ravaging fire.” Del.] Instead of כְּמוֹ Jerome reads בְּמוֹ: “is overturned with fire,” which some moderns prefer (Hirz., Schlott.), who find a reference here to the blasting of the miners. But this is too remote. [“The principal thought is the process of breaking through; the means are not so much regarded; and fire was not the only means.” Dillmann. Some commentators have fancied in this verse a trace of what modern criticism calls “sentimentalism,” as though Job were protesting against ruthlessly ravaging as with fire the interior of that generous earth which on its surface yields bread for the support of man. Job is, however, fixing his attention solely on the agent—man, who not satisfied with what grows out of the earth, digs for treasure into its deepest recesses.—E.]
Job_28:6. The place of the sapphire (מָקוֹם as in Job_28:1 a, the place where it may be found) are its stones, viz. the earth’s, Job_28:5; in the midst of its stones is found the sapphire, which is mentioned here as a specimen of precious stones of the highest value.—And nuggets of gold (or “gold ore,” hardly “gold-dust” as Hirzel thinks) become his, viz. the miner’s (so Schult., Rosenm., Ewald, Dillmann). Or: “nuggets of gold belong to it,” the place (מקום) where the sapphire is found (Hahn, Schlottm., Delitzsch). The reader may take his choice between these two relations of בּוֹ; the brevity of the expression makes it impossible to decide with certainty.
Job_28:7. The path (thither) no bird of prey hath known [and the vulture’s eye hath not gazed upon it]. נָתִיבִ is a prefixed nom. absol. like אֶרֶץ in Job_28:5. It may indeed also be taken as in opposition to מָקוֹם in Job_28:6 (hardly to עַפְרוִת זָהָב, as Ewald thinks), in which case the rendering would be: “the path, which no bird of prey hath known,” etc. (Del.). But that “the place of the sapphire” should be immediately afterwards spoken of as a “path,” looks somewhat doubtful. Concerning שְׁזָפַתּוּ comp. on Job_20:9.—[The rendering of E. V.: “There is a path which no fowl knoweth,” etc., is vague and incorrect in so far as it leads the mind away from the deposits of treasure, which are the principal theme of the passage.—E.]
Job_28:8 carries out yet further the description begun in Job_28:7 of the inaccessibleness of the subterranean passage-ways. The proud beasts of prey (lit. “sons of pride;” so also in Job_41:26 [34]) have not trodden it.—That this finely illustrative phrase [“sons of pride”] refers to the haughty, majestically stepping beasts of prey [“seeking the most secret retreat, and shunning no danger,” Del.], appears clearly enough from the parallel use of שַׁחַל in b (comp. Job_4:10).
Job_28:9. On the flint (the hardest of all stones) he lays his hand (the subject being man, as the overturner of mountains; see b, and respecting the use there of מִשֹּׁרֶשׁ, radicitus, “from the root,” comp. above Job_13:27; Job_19:28. [“שָׁלַח ידָ בְּ something like our “to take in hand,” of an undertaking requiring strong determination and courage, which here consists in blasting, etc. Del.] How the hand is laid on flint and similar hard stones is described by Pliny l. c.: Occursant silices; hos igne et aceto rumpunt, sæpius vero, quoniam id cuniculos fumo et vapore strangulat, cædunt fractariis CL. libras habentibus, etc.
Job_28:10. Through the rocks he cutteth passages.—יְאֹרִים, an Egyptian word, which signifies literally water-canals, must here, like נחל in Job_28:4, signify subterranean passages or pits for mining. And further, according to b, what is intended are galleries, horizontal excavations, in which the ore is dug out, and precious stones discovered. The word can scarcely be used of wet conduits, or canals to carry off the water accumulating in the pits, of which Job does not begin to speak until the following verse (against v. Weltheim, etc.). [The rendering “rivers” (E. V., Con., Car., Rod., etc.) would be still more misleading, because more vague, than “canals,” which is not without plausible arguments in its favor. Add however to Zöckler’s arguments in favor of the rendering “passages, galleries,” the sequence in the second member: And his eye sees every precious thing; which, as Delitzsch says, “is consistently connected with what precedes, since by cutting these cuniculi the courses of the ore (veins), and any precious stones that may also be embedded there, are laid bare.”—E.]
Job_28:11. That they may not drip he stops up passage-ways.—מִבְּכִי, lit. “away from dripping” [weeping], or: “against the dripping,” i. e. against the oozing through of the water in the excavations, to which the shafts and galleries, especially when old, were so easily liable. חִבֵּשׁ, as elsewhere חָבַשׁ, to stop or dam up, to bind up surgically (comp. חֹבֵשׁ, the surgeon, or wound-healer in Isa_3:7; Isa_1:6). נֵחָרוֹת seems in general to mean the same as נחלים above, and יְאֹרִים Job_28:10, to wit, excavations, shafts, pits, galleries. Nevertheless it may also denote “the seams of water” breaking through the walls of these excavations, thus directly denoting that which must be stopped up (Del.).—And so (through all these efforts and skilful contrivances) he brings to the light that which was hidden—a remark in the way of recapitulation, connecting back with the beginning of the description in Job_28:1, and at, the same time forming the transition to what follows. Respecting תַּעֲלֻמָה, comp. Job_11:6; אוֹר, Acc. loci for לָאוֹר.
5. Continuation: Second Strophe: Job_28:12-22. Application of the preceding description to wisdom as a higher good, unattainable by the outward seeking and searching of men. [“Most expositors since Schultens, as e. g. Hirz., Schlott., etc., assume out of hand that the Wisdom treated of here is the divine wisdom, as the principle which maintains the moral and natural order of the universe. But that the divine wisdom is to be found only with God, not with a creature, is something so very self-evident, and the exaltation of the divine wisdom above all human comprehension as a proposition so universally recognized, being also long since maintained and conceded by both the contending parties of our book (chs. 11 and 12), that it is not apparent why Job should here lay such stress upon it.” Dillm.]
Job_28:12. But wisdom—where is it found? And where (lit. “from where?” מֵאֵין as in Job_1:7, and מִן accompanying מָצָא as in Hos_14:9 [8]) is the place of understanding?הַחָכְמָה, with the article, because wisdom is to be set forth as the well-known highest good of man. With the principal term חָכְמָה is connected בִּינָה as an alternate notion, as is often the case in Proverbs, especially chs. 1.–9. The first term denotes wisdom rather on its practical side, as the principle and art of right thinking and doing, or as the religious and moral rectitude taught by God; the second (with which תְּבוּנָה, Pro_8:1, and דַּעַת, Pro_1:2, alternate) pre-eminently on the theoretic side as the correct perception and way of thinking which lies at the basis of that right doing. Comp. the Introd. to the Solomonic Literature of Wisdom, § 2, Note 3 (Vol. X., p. 7 of this series).
Job_28:13. No mortal knows its price.—עֵרֶךְ (from ערך Job_28:17; Job_28:19) means lit. equivalent, price, value for purchase or exchange, the same with מְחִיר elsewhere. The LXX. probably read דַּרְכָּהּ, which reading is preferred by some moderns, e. g., by Dillmann, as agreeing better with Job_28:12.
Job_28:14. With “the land of the living” [Job_28:13] i. e., the earth inhabited by men (comp. Psa_27:13; Isa_38:11, etc.) are connected the two other regions beneath heaven, in which wisdom might possibly be sought: (1) The “Deep” (תְּהוֹם) i. e., the subterranean abyss with its waters, out of which the visible waters on the surface of the earth are supplied (Gen_7:11; Gen_49:25):—(2) The “Sea” (יָם = Ὠκεανός) as the chief reservoir of these visible waters.
Job_28:15. Pure gold is not given for it.—סְגוֹר is the same with זָהָב סְגוֹר, 1Ki_6:20; 1Ki_10:21, not “shut up” [= carefully preserved], but according to the Targ. “purified” gold (aurum colatum, purgatum), hence gold acquired by heating, or smelting; comp. Diodor. l. c.
Job_28:16. In regard to the gold of Ophir (here כֶּתֶם אוֹפִיר, fine gold of Ophir) comp. Job_22:24; respecting the onyx stone (שֹׁחַם, lit. “pale, lean”) comp. the commentators on Gen_2:12.
Job_28:17-19. Further description of the incomparable and unattainable value of wisdom, standing in a similar connection with Job_28:15-16, as Pro_3:15 with Pro_3:14.—Gold and glass are not equal to it.—ערך intrans. with Accus.—æquare aliquid, as in Job_28:19; Psa_89:7. In respect to the high valuation of glass by the ancients (זְכוּכִית, or as some MSS., Ed’s., and D. Kimchi read—זְכוֹכִית) comp. Winer, Realw., Vol. I., 432 [and Eng. Bib. Dictionaries, Art “Glass”]. In respect to תְּמוּרָה in b, “exchange, equivalent,” comp. Job_15:31; Job_20:18.
Job_28:18. Corals and crystal are not to be named, not to be mentioned, i. e., in comparison with it, with wisdom (in regard to the construction of the passive יִזָּכֵר with the accus., comp. Gesen., § 143 [§ 140] 1, a). גָּבִישׁ, (lit. “ice,” like the Arab, gibs) denotes the quartz-crystal, which was regarded by the ancients as a precious stone, and supposed to be a product of the cold; Pliny, H. N. XXXVII. 2, 9.—The רָאמוֹת, the mention of which precedes, seem to be “corals,” an explanation favored by what is conjectured to be the radical signification of this word, “horns of bulls, or of wild oxen” (from רְאֵם—comp. Pliny XIII. 51), as well as by its being placed along with the less costly crystal; comp. also Eze_27:16, where indeed corals from the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean are mentioned as Tyrian articles of commerce. On the contrary פְנִינִים in b must be, according to Pro_3:15; Pro_8:11; Pro_20:15; Pro_31:10, an exchangeable commodity of extraordinary value, which decides in favor of the signification “pearls” assigned (although not unanimously) to this word by tradition, however true it may be that in Lam_4:7 corals seem rather to be intended (or perhaps red pearls artificially prepared, like the Turkish rose-pearls of to-day). Comp. Carey [who agrees in rendering רָאמוֹת by “corals,” and doubtfully suggests “mother-of-pearl” for גָּבִישׁ]. Delitzsch renders the former of the two words by “pearls,” the second by “corals” [so J. D. Michaelis, Rödiger, Gesenius, Fürst; the two latter regarding ראמות and פנינים as equivalent. See also in Smith’s Bib. Dic.,—Art’s., “Rubies,” “Pearls,” “Coral”]. The word מֶשֶׁךְ, “acquisition, possession,” (from משׁך, “to draw to oneself”) only here in the O. T.; related are מֶשֶׁק, Gen_15:2, and מִמְשָׁק, Zep_2:9.
Job_28:19. The topaz from Ethiopia (Cush) is not equal to it.—The rendering topaz (τοπάζιον) for פִּטְדָה is established by the testimony of most of the ancient versions in this passage, as well as in Exo_28:17; Eze_28:13. It is also favored by the statement of Pliny (Job_37:8) that the topaz comes principally from the islands of the Red Sea, as also by the probable identity of the name פטדה with the Sanscrit pita, yellow (comp. Gesen.) [and see the Lexicons, Delitzsch, Carey, etc., on the probable transposition of letters in the Hebrew and Greek forms]. In regard to b, comp. the very similar passage in ver 10a).
Job_28:20 again takes up the principal question propounded in Job_28:12. The וְ in וְהַחָכְמָה is consecutive, and may be rendered by “then” (Ew., § 348, a).
Job_28:21. It is hidden (וְנֶעֶלְמָה, lit., “and moreover, and further it is hidden”) from the eyes of all living, i. e., especially of all living beings on the earth: כָּל־חַי as in Job 12:10; 30:33. Of these “living” b then particularly specifies the sharp-sighted, winged inhabitants of the upper regions of the air; comp. above Job_28:7.
Job_28:22 follows up the mention of that which is highest with that of the lowest: Hell and the abyss [lit. “destruction and death”] say, מָוֶת in connection with אֲבַדּוֹן (see on Job_26:6) means the realm of death, the abyss; comp. Job_38:17; Psa_9:14 [13]; Rev_1:18. For the rest comp. above, Job_28:14; for to say that they [destruction and death] have learned of wisdom only by hearsay is substantially the same with saying, as is said there of the sea and the deep, that they do not possess it. [“The נעלמה מעיני כל חי, Job_28:21, evidently points back to the כל יקר ראתה עינו Job_28:10. In Job_28:11 it is said that man brings the most secret thing to light. In Job_28:22 that Divine wisdom is hidden even from the underworld.” Schlott.].
6. Conclusion: Third Strophe: Job_28:22-28. The final answer to the question, where and how wisdom is to be found: to wit, only with God, I and through the fear of God. [“The last of these three divisions (of the chap.) into which the highest truths are compressed is for emphasis the shortest, in its calmness and abrupt ending the moat solemn, because the thought finds no expression that is altogether adequate, floating in a height that is immeasurable, but opening a boundless field for further reflection.” Ewald.]
Job_28:23. God knows the way to it, and He knows its place.—אֱלֹהִים and הוּא, in emphatic contrast with the creatures mentioned in Job_28:13 seq., and Job_28:21 seq. The suffix in דַּרְכָּהּ is objective (comp. Gen_3:24) “the way to it.”
Job_28:24-25 constitute one proposition which illustrates and explains the Divine possession of wisdom by a reference to God’s agency in creating and governing the world (so correctly Ewald, Arnh., Dillm.) [E. V., Conant, Rodman]. Against connecting Job_28:25 with what follows, more immediately with Job_28:26, and then regarding Job_28:25-26 together as constituting the protasis of Job_28:27 lies the objection that לַעֲשׂוֹת cannot properly be translated either “when He made,” or “in that He made,” as well as the fact that the gerundive Infinitive with לְ cannot be put before its principal verb, together with the absence of a suffix after לַעֲשׂוֹת referring to the subject God [should be לַעֲשׂוֹתוֹ if the verse were antecedent]. Furthermore the Divine “looking to the ends of the earth,” etc., Job_28:24, would need a telic qualification, referring the divine omniscience [God’s looking every where and seeing every thing] to the creation and preservation of the order of nature, in order that it might not be understood as declaring the omniscience of God in abstracto. That He may appoint to the wind its weight, and weigh the water by measure.—The careful “measurement” of wind and water, i. e., their relative apportionment, government, and management (comp. Isa_60:12), is a peculiarly characteristic example of God’s wise administrative economy in creation: “Who sends the wind upon its course,” etc. Instead of the Infinitive the finite verb appears in b, and that in the Perf. form, תִּכֵּן, because the expression of purpose passes over into the expression of sequence, precisely as in Job_5:21 (see on the 5).
Job_28:26 seq. As the wisdom of God furnishes the means and basis of His government of the world, so in the exercise of His creative power was it the absolute norm, and is in consequence thereof the highest law for man’s moral action, positively and negatively considered. When He appointed for the rain a law (when and how often it should fall, where it should cease; comp. Gen_2:5) and for the thunder flash a path (i. e., through the clouds; comp. Job_38:25), then saw He it and declared it—i. e., in thus exercising at the beginning His creative power, He beheld it, contemplated it (we are to read רָאָהּ with Mappiq in ה), as His eternal pattern, according to which He made, ordered, and ruled His creatures, and declared it (וַיְסַפְּרָהּ, lit. “and enumerated it”), i. e., unfolded its contents before men and His other rational creatures throughout the whole creation, which in truth is nothing else than such a “development and historical realization” of the contents of eternal wisdom. The attempt of Schult., Ew., Dillm. to explain ספר as meaning “to number through, to review all over” (after Job_38:37; Psa_139:18) is less natural.—He established it, and also searched it out, i. e., He laid its foundations in the creation (comp. Pro_8:22-23, where both verbs, קנה and נסך, convey the came idea of founding, establishing wisdom as הֵכִין here), brought it to its complete actualization in creation, and then reviewed all its individual parts to see whether they all bore the test of His examination. Comp. what is said in Gen_1:31 : “And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.”—Or again: “He set it up before Himself,” for more attentive contemplation (הֵכִין according as in Job_29:7), and searched it out thoroughly, exploring its thoughts (so Wolff and Dillmann) [the latter of whom says: “He set it up for contemplation, as an artist or an architect puts up before himself the תַּבְנִית”]. It is not necessary, with some MSS. and Eds. to read הֱבִינָהּ, instead of הֱבִינָהּ, as Döderl. and Ew. do.
Job_28:28. And said to man: Behold, the fear of the Lord is wisdom, etc.—He would accordingly not reserve to Himself the wisdom which had served Him as a pattern of creation, but would communicate it to the human race which He had made and put into His world, which He could do only by setting it before them in the form of an original command to fear God and to depart from evil (סוּר מֵרָע, comp. Job_1:2; Pro_3:7; Pro_16:6. Instead of אֲדֹנָי יִרְאַת, very many MSS. and old editions read י׳ יְהוָֹה, which reading seems to have in its favor: (1) That יְהוָֹה, occurring only twice elsewhere in our book, might easily be set aside as being too singular; (2) that אֲרֹנָי in Jehovah’s own mouth does not occur elsewhere in the Old Testament, not even in Amo_6:8; (3) that the parallels of the primitive saying before us in the Proverbs and in the Psalms constantly exhibit יִרְאַת יְהוָֹה (comp. Pro_1:7; Pro_3:7; Pro_9:10; Pro_16:6; Psa_111:10).—On the other side it is true the Masoretic tradition expressly reckons this passage among the one hundred and thirty-four passages of the Old Testament, where אדני is not only to be read, but is actually written instead of יהוה (Buxtorf, Tiberias, p. 245). As regards the thought, it makes no difference whether we read “fear of the Lord” (“the Lord of all,” Del.), or “fear of Jehovah (Jahveh).” [It may, however, be said, that there is an especial appropriateness in the use of אדני here, in view of the fact that God is spoken of in connection with the creation, as the product of wisdom; and not only so, but God in His Lordship, His supremacy, His claim to be feared, i. e. revered and obeyed, whence אדני is used rather than אלוה or אלהים. God is אדני by virtue of the divine חכמה which He has “established” in nature. It is man’s חכמה to recognize the divine, and to fear אדני.—E.]
DOCTRINAL, ETHICAL AND HOMILETICAL
1. According to the connection of the Third Section of this discourse with the two preceding, as explained in the remarks on Job_28:1, it can admit of no doubt that the wisdom described in it is conceived of as essentially a human acquisition, as a blessing bestowed on man by God, consisting in the fear of God and in righteousness of life. This connection lies indeed in this—that in order to prove that which is said in Job_27:12 seq. of the perishable prosperity of worldly-minded sinners, the uselessness of all accumulation of earthly treasures is shown, it being entirely out of their power to secure the possession of true wisdom, and of that enduring prosperity which is connected with it. In addition to this connection with Job 27, the human character of this wisdom, rather than its hypostatic character, or that which belongs to it as a divine attribute, is shown secondly by the way in which the same is represented in Job_27:15-19 as a possession, being compared with other possessions, treasures and costly jewels, and the question submitted how its possession (משׁן, Job_27:18) is to be attained. To which may be added, thirdly, the consideration that it could scarcely be the speaker’s purpose to demonstrate the unsearchableness and unfathomableness, from a sensuous and earthly point of view, of an attribute, or a hypostasis of God, because this fact is self-evident, and because the whole tendency of his discourse was not theoretic and speculative, but practical, aiming at the establishment of right principles to influence human struggle and action.—The view accordingly held by quite a number of modern exegetes since the time of Schultens (especially Hirzel, Schlottmann, Hahn, also W. Wolff’s article—Die Anfänge der Logoslehre im A. T. in the Zeitschrift für Luth. Theol. u. Kirche, 1870, p. 217 seq.), that the object of the description in Job 28 is the wisdom of God as exercised in the universe, as the divine principle sustaining the moral and natural order of the universe, is erroneous, to say nothing of the fact that in that case one might find here, with A. Merx (Das Gedicht von Hiob, etc., p. 42) a “concealed polemic” against the doctrine of Wisdom as set forth in the Solomonic Proverbs.
2. We cannot say indeed of this theory, to wit, that Job 28 discourses of the Sapientia sciagraphica, God’s wisdom in creation and the government of the world—that it is altogether incorrect. In the concluding verses Job evidently lifts himself from his contemplation of wisdom as a human possession to the description of its archetype, the absolute divine wisdom, by means of which God has established alike the physical and the moral order of the universe. The passage in Job_28:23-28 comes into the closest contact with the two well-known descriptions of the Book of Proverbs which are occupied with this eternal world-regulating wisdom—Pro_3:19-26, and Pro_8:22 seq. It resembles them particularly in the fact that a preliminary meditation on the human reflection and emanation of this primordial wisdom, on the practical Chokmah of the God-fearing, righteous man, prepares the way for it, precisely as in those two passages. The “knowledge of the place” of the Creative Wisdom, which Job_28:23 ascribes to God, reminds the reader of Pro_8:30, in like manner as that which is said of its mediating agency in determining the laws of wind, water, rain and thunder (Job_28:24-26) reminds him of Pro_3:19 seq.; Pro_8:27 seq. And what is said of “seeing and declaring,” “establishing,” or “setting up and searching out” the heavenly architectress in Job_28:27, precisely as in Pro_8:22 seq., presents Wisdom as the infinitely many-sided pattern of the κτίσις κόσμου, as the ideal world, or the divine imagination of all things that were to be created, as the complex unity of all the creative ideas or archetypes present to God from eternity. This divine creative primordial wisdom, as described here, and in the two parallel passages in the Solomonic writings (and not less in those passages of the Apocrypha which in some respects are still more full, viz. Sirach, Job 24, and Wisdom, Job 7-9), is without question closely related to the idea of the Logos given in the New Testament. It is very true that the idea of Wisdom, especially in the passage before us, the oldest of all pertaining to the subject, has not yet shaped itself into a form of existence so concretely personal, and a filial relation to God so intimate and so indicative of similarity of nature, as characterize the Johannean Logos. It appears rather simply as an “impersonal model” for God in His creative activity, while the New Testament Logos is the “personal architect” working in accordance with that model, “the demiurg by which God has called the world into existence according to that ideal which was in the divine mind” (Del.). But notwithstanding this its undeveloped character, the Chokmah of our passage is the unmistakable substratum and the immediate precursor of the revealed perception of a personal Word, and of an only-begotten Son of God. And as the older exegesis and theology was already in general correct in referring our passage to the Divine in Christ (the σοφία τοῦ θεοῦ, Mat_11:19; Luk_11:49) the attempts of more recent writers to deny any genetic connection of ideas between it and the New Testament doctrine of the Logos, and in general to regard human wisdom as the only object described, even in Job_28:23-28 (e. g. Bruch, Weisheitslehre, etc., p. 202; V. Hofmann, Schriftbew. I: 95 seq.; Luthardt, Apologetische Vorträge über die Heilswahrheiten des Christenth., 2d Ed. p. 227), have rightly evoked much opposition. Comp. Philippi,. Kirchl. Glaubenslehre II. 192 seq.; Kahnis, Luth. Dogm. I, 316 seq.; III, 209 seq.; Bucher, Des Johannes Lehre vom Logos, 1856; also B. Couve, Les Origines de la Doctrine du Verbe, Toulouse, 1869, p. 36 seq. The latter indeed denies in respect to the present passage (in which, like Hofmann, he is inclined to find merely a poetic personification of human wisdom) that it is related in the way of preparation to the New Testament doctrine of the Logos, but admits this in respect to the parallel passages in Proverbs, and the later passages. Against Merx’s view, which in part is similar, see above No. 1, near the end.
3. Taken in connection with the preparatory train of thought in Job 27 this description of wisdom, or more strictly, of the way to true wisdom, forms one of the most important, artistically elaborated portions of the whole poem. It is a suitable conclusion to the first principal division of the poem, or the entanglement which results from the controversial passage between Job and his friends, taking the form of a Confession of Faith, in which Job, after victoriously repelling all the assaults of his enemies, states his position on all the chief points, about which the controversy had revolved, in a manner full at once of a calm dignity and the consciousness of victory. The one favorite proposition of his opponents,—that his suffering could not be undeserved—he solemnly and unqualifiedly repels by again asseverating his complete innocence (Job_27:2-10). In asserting here that his conscience does not hold up before him one of his former days as worthy of blame or punishment (Job_27:6) he transgresses in a one-sided manner the bounds of that which could be maintained with strict truth concerning himself (comp. Job_26:13), and so causes that foul spot to appear clearly enough on his moral conduct and consciousness, for which he must needs implore forgiveness. On the other hand, the confession which follows of his belief in that other favorite proposition of his opponents—that the wicked are punished in this life (Job_27:11-23)—seems to go too far in an opposite direction; for after what he has said repeatedly heretofore in favor of the teachings of experience touching the temporal prosperity of the ungodly, he could not properly concede the point which he now maintains, and that so completely without qualification. The first half of his discourse accordingly seems liable to the charge of being egregiously one-sided and of departing from strict actual truth in two respects—in declaring that Job’s suffering was wholly, and in every respect unmerited, and in admitting that even in this life there is a divine judgment awaiting the wicked, from which they cannot escape. The second principal division of the discourse prepares the way at least for supplementing and correcting both of these one-sided representations through its elevated eulogy on true wisdom, founded on constant undivided surrender to God, however much there may be still that needs purifying and improving. He dwells with special emphasis on the fact that the eager striving and longing of the wicked reaches not only after earthly treasures and jewels, such as are to be procured out of the depths of the earth only with much toil and effort. He thus intimates that their whole prosperity, being founded on such earthly treasures (comp. Job_27:16), is in itself perishable, unreal, a mere phantom, and emphasizes all the more strongly in contrast with it the incomparable worth of a prosperity consisting in the fear of God and in strict rectitude, in surrendering oneself wholly to that which is divine, in the pursuit of heavenly treasures, in a word in true wisdom, the image and emanation of the eternal divine wisdom of the Creator, a prosperity of so high an order that he would possess it as the foundation, and at the same time as the fruit of his innocence, and that it would not forsake him even now, in the midst of his fearful sufferings and conflicts. There is much in this train of thought that is not brought out with such clearness as might be desirable. Some of it must even be read between the lines as being tacitly taken for granted, particularly that which refers to Job as having formerly possessed and as still possessing this heavenly practical wisdom, and also to its relation to his temporary misery. But although the discourse may lack that close consecutiveness and thorough completeness of plan which modern philosophic poets or thinkers might have impressed upon it, it nevertheless forms a truly suitable conclusion to the preceding controversies, and at the same time a striking transition to the gradual solution of the whole conflict which now follows. As regards its significance in the structure of the poem it may be termed “Job’s Eulogy on Wisdom,” in which he announces his supreme axiom of life, and characteristically gives to his vindication against the friends its harmonious peroration, and its seal. It appears in the structure of the book as “the clasp which unites the half of the δέσις with the half of the λύσις,” and on which the poet has characteristically inscribed the well-known axiom of the Old Testament Chokmah—“The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom” (Delitzsch).
4. For the homiletic treatment of this section it is more important to call attention to the close family relationship existing between this eulogy of Job’s on wisdom and such New Testament passages as Paul’s eulogy on Love (1 Corinthians 13), our Lord’s admonition in the Sermon on the Mount to seek treasures in heaven (Mat_6:19 seq.), the similar exhortations of Paul and James (1 Timothy 6; James 5), than to take pains to exhibit the plan of the section, lacking as it is in complete thoroughness, and to show its subtle, oftentimes completely hidden connections with the previous course of the colloquy. A large number of hearers would scarcely be prepared to follow with profit such elaborate disquisitions concerning the niceties of plan in the discourse, and by reason of the not inconsiderable expenditure of time requisite for such an object, they would be quite, or almost quite untouched by so much beauty and impressive power as the details of the discourse present. A division of the whole into smaller sections, at least into the three, which constitute the natural partition of the discourse, seems here also to be required for homiletic purposes, in order that every part of it may be suitably appreciated and unfolded.
Particular Passages
Job_27:2 sq. V. Gerlach: If by God’s grace a holy man then (under the Old Dispensation) kept his life pure, and observed God’s commandments, albeit in weakness, to which the speeches of Job himself bear witness (this very confession especially), it was of the highest importance that this his life should not be judged falsely, that he should be recognized as God’s visible representative, as a revealer of His law, as a support of God’s servants such as were weaker, not free from blame. Such a prince among God’s saints on earth as Job lived preeminently for God’s people, and he could not, without throwing all into confusion, deny his position, could not through false humility surrender his righteousness, which for very many was the righteousness of God himself; he must on occasion declare boldly that his enemies were also enemies of God. Hence his showing himself on the spot in this confession as a victor after the struggle was not only a comfort to the sorely tried man, but also of importance for the complete establishment of that which he affirmed.
Job_27:10. Brentius: When he says that the hypocrite does not always call upon God, he has reference to the duty of praying without ceasing (1Th_5:17). For where there is faith, prayer is never suspended, although one should be asleep, or should be doing something else. Unbelief indeed never prays, except with the mouth only; but such praying cannot reach through the clouds.
Job_27:13 seq. Osiander: God does not forget the wickedness of the ungodly, but punishes it in His own time most severely, and generally even in this life (Exo_32:34). … The destruction of the ungodly is therefore to be waited for in patience. Although these think that when misfortune befalls them, it comes by chance, it does nevertheless come from God because of their sin (Amo_3:6).
Job_28:1 seq. Zeyss: If men are so ingenious, and so indefatigably industrious in discovering and obtaining earthly treasures, how much more should they toil to secure heavenly treasures, which alone can give true rest to our souls, make us rich and happy (Mat_16:26)!—Brentius: All else in the nature of things, however deeply hidden, can be searched out and valued by human labor and industry; the wisdom of God alone can neither be sought out, nor judged by human endeavor. Although the veins of silver and gold lie hidden in the most secret recesses of the mountains, they are nevertheless discovered by great labor, and riches, which incite to so many evils, are dug out. In like manner iron, however it may be hidden in the most secret depths of the earth, can nevertheless be discovered; but no one anywhere has found the wisdom of God by human endeavor.
Job_28:12 seq. Oecolampadius: Corporeal substances, of whatsoever kind, can be found somewhere. Wisdom is of another order of being: you can ascertain neither its place nor its price. In vain will you journey to the Brahmins, to Athens, to Jerusalem; although you cross the sea, or descend into the abyss, you but change your skies, not your soul. Neither schools, nor courts, nor temples, nor monasteries, nor stars, will make one wiser.
Job_28:23-28. Oecolampadius (on Job_28:27): Not that we should think of God so childishly, as though in His works He had need of deliberation or of an external pattern, but in His nature He has such productiveness that He both wills and produces at one and the same time (Psa_33:9).—Cocceius: Distinguish between the wisdom which is the pattern and the end, and that which is the shadow [image], and the means. The former is with God, is God, and is known only to God; the latter is from God in us, a ray of that Wisdom. In like manner, we are said to be κοινωνοὶ θείας φύσεως (2Pe_1:4), i. e. through having God’s image, being one with Him, and enjoying Him.—Jac. Boehme (according to Hamberger, Lehre J. Böhme’s, p. 55): Wisdom is a divine imagination, in which the ideas of the angels and souls and all things were seen from eternity, not as already actual creatures, but as a man beholds himself in a mirror.—W. Wolff (Die Anfänge der Logoslehre, etc. Zeitschrift f. Luth. Theol. 1870, p. 220): What is wisdom? It is not measuring space with the help of mathematics, it is not contemplating cells through the microscope, it is not even resolving things into their original substance, and determining their relations one to another, but it is having an insight into their nature, having full knowledge of their original condition. Yea, more; absolute wisdom is essentially creative. We can search out indeed God’s thoughts (in His creation), but we cannot gather up any truth into a vital point, out of which anything can proceed or originate; we cannot (to use the language of J. Böhme) “compress it into a centre.” … God alone has that creative wisdom. He must know it, for He has it first and foremost in Himself. It is not discovered and searched out by Him, but it is in His being (Pro_8:25 seq.) It was, and is, in the same eternal form in which God is: uncreated, divinely internal.—V. Gerlach (on Job_28:28): “He who would learn the secrets of the mighty must keep watch diligently at their gates,” says with truth an eastern proverb. Without the living moral followship of the heart with God it is vain to desire to know wisdom, which comes only from Him, and belongs only to Him.
Footnotes:
[1]The name Mafkat, “Land of Copper,” which the Egyptians gave to the Sinaitic peninsula on account of those mines, is of late explained by Brugsch to mean “Land of Turquois,” it being assumed by him that turquois was the principal product of the ancient Egyptian mines in that region. Comp. H. Brugsch, Wanderung nach den Türkisminen der Sinai = Halbinsel, 1868, 2d Ed., p. 66 seq.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–23 (Sa1 20:3).
(Sa1 20:3).
taken away . . . judgment--words unconsciously foreshadowing Jesus Christ (Isa 53:8; Act 8:33). God will not give Job his right, by declaring his innocence.
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vexed--Hebrew, "made bitter" (Rut 1:20).
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 On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 1. Job waits for an answer. The friends are…
1. Job waits for an answer. The friends are silenced. He is now master of the field. The mists that surrounded his opponents had served to magnify them and their cause. Job now stands forth in the clear sunlight of truth, alone and conqueror. He confirms his integrity by the most solemn appeal to God and his conscience. No one, he says, could maintain such hope in the sight of death, such trust in God’s help, such joyous confidence in him, and be conscious of such guilt as they had charged. (Job_27:8-10.) Now that he has driven his friends from their extreme positions, he reviews the ground he has gained, and brings out into stronger relief some principles he himself had advanced, at least in theory, one of which was that the prosperity of the wicked was apparent, and could not endure, (Job_21:16; Job_21:21, etc.,) but which, in the heat of the controversy, had not received their proper attention. (See note on Job_27:13.) His argument throughout had assumed a future adjustment of wrong and sin, (Job_27:8.) But this is not sufficient. The doctrine of future awards lacks substantial basis if there be no retributive government of the wicked in this life.
Parable — Mashal: a discourse conveying important truth in language concise and to a high degree poetical. Balaam took up his parable. Num_23:1. “The introduction of the ultimatum, as mashal, reminds one of ‘the proverb (el-methel,) seals it,’ in the mouth of the Arab, since in common life it is customary to use a pithy saying as the final proof at the conclusion of a speech.” — Delitzsch. The phrase Job “continued to take up his parable,” serves to mark the pause that must have ensued upon the close of his reply to Bildad, while he waited in vain to hear from the discomfited Zophar.
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 On vv2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23 2. my judgment] As above, my right. God has…
2. my judgment] As above, my right. God has taken this away by afflicting Job unjustly. The state of Job’s mind here is altogether the same as before. He still cleaves to God and swears by His name, and still charges Him with iniquity in His treatment of himself.
vexed my soul] lit. embittered, i. e. by his mysterious afflictions; comp. Rth_1:20 (“dealt bitterly”).
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2–6. Job with the solemnity of an oath by God declares that he speaks in sincerity when affirming his innocence. Till he die he will not admit his guilt; his conscience reproaches him for no part of his life.
Job_27:2-4 read,
2. As God liveth who hath taken away my right,
And the Almighty who hath made bitter my soul,
3. (For my life is yet whole in me,
And the breath of God is in my nostrils),
4. My lips do not speak unjustly,
Neither doth my tongue utter deceit.
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 On vv1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 19, 22 (1) Job continued his parable.—The remainder of Job’s speech—now,…
XXVII.
(1) Job continued his parable.—The remainder of Job’s speech—now, for the first time, called his parable—consists of his determination not to renounce his righteousness (Job_27:2-6); his own estimate of the fate of the wicked (Job_27:7-23); his magnificent estimate of the nature of wisdom (Job 28); his comparison of his former life (Job 29) with that of his present experience (Job 30); his final declaration of his innocent and irreproachable conduct (Job 31).
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 On vv1–23 Vers. 1-23. This chapter divides itself into three distinct…
Vers. 1-23. This chapter divides itself into three distinct portions. In the first, which extends to the end of ver. 6, Job is engaged in maintaining, with the utmost possible solemnity (ver. 2), both his actual integrity (ver. 6) and his determination to hold fast his integrity as long as he lives (vers. 4-6). In the second (vers. 7-10) he implicates a curse upon his enemies. In the third (vers. 11-23) he returns to the consideration of God"s treatment of the wicked, and retracts the view which he had maintained controversially in Job_24:2-24, with respect to their prosperity, impunity, and equalization with the righteous in death. The retraction is so complete, the concessions are so large, that some have been induced to question whether they can possibly have been made by Job, and have been led on to suggest that we have here a third speech of Zophar"s, such as "the symmetry of the general form" requires, which by accident or design has been transferred from him to Job. But the improbability of such a transfer, considering how in the Book of Job the speech of each separate interlocutor is introduced, is palpable; the dissimilarity between the speech and the other utterances of Zophar is striking; and (the judgment of two such liberal critics as Ewald and Renan, that the passage is rightly placed, and rightly assigned to Job, should set all doubt at rest, and make an end of controversy (see Mr. Froude"s "Short Studies on Great Subjects," vol. 1 pp. 315, 316; and Canon Cook"s "Introduction to the Book of Job," in the "Speaker"s Commentary," vol. 4. p. 7). Moreover Job continued his parable, and said. The word translated "parable" (lvm) is only used previously in Nu 23, and Nu 24. It is thought to "comprehend all discourses in which the results of discursive thought are concisely or figuratively expressed" (Cook). The introduction of a new term seems to imply that the present discourse occupies a position different from that of all the preceding ones. It is not tentative, controversial, or emotional, but expresses the deliberate judgment of the patriarch on the subjects discussed in it. Note the repetition of the term in Job_29:1.
Vers. 1-10. Job"s first parable: 1. The transgressions of a godly man.
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I A DARING ACCUSATION.
1. Against whom directed? Against Eloah, the All-sufficient One; Shaddai, the All-powerful One, the Self-existent, Living One, whose universal dominion, resistless might, and ineffable majesty Bildad (Job_25:1-3) and Job himself (Job_26:5-14) had eloquently pictured. With exalted conceptions of the transcendent greatness of the invisible Supreme, whose continual presence also he vividly realized, (Job_23:8, Job_23:9, Job_23:15) Job should have feared to speak rashly, much more accusingly, before him. (Deu_28:58 Psa_76:7, 11 Jer_5:22) But clear and accurate notions of Divine truth do not always possess that moral force, even over good men, that they should. Job a little while ago was afraid of God and troubled at his presence; (Job_23:15) now, having lost, perhaps, his former luminous sense of the Divine presence, he hesitates not to bring against him a serious accusation.
2. By whom uttered? Job, a man who had not only been fashioned by the hands of Shaddai, (Job_10:8, Job_10:9) but depended for life every moment on the breath of Eloah in his nostrils (ver. 3), and therefore should have paused ere he called into question the conduct of a Being who could any instant cause him to return to the dust; a feeble man, wasted into a skeleton, shivering on the edge of the tomb, expecting every second to pass into God"s presence in the world of spirits hence one who should have feared to affront the Eternal; a guilty man, i.e. a man who, however conscious of integrity, was yet sinful in God"s sight, and whom accordingly it ill became to question the proceedings of God; and likewise a pardoned man, whom God hath accepted as righteous, in proof thereof sending answers to his prayers (ver. 9), which only added to the rashness of Job in impeaching Eloah as he did.
3. Of what composed? The charge preferred against God was twofold in appearance, vexing Job"s soul, and taking away Job"s judgment, though in reality the two things were connected as cause and effect. What irritated and inflamed the patriarch"s spirit was the thought which he here, indirectly indeed but none the less really on that account, utters, viz. that God, the righteous Judge of all the earth, had denied him justice. Already had he complained that God seemed to treat him as an enemy; (Job_9:28 Job_13:24 Job_14:16, Job_14:17) never until now does he in terms so explicit accuse God of withholding from him justice. For this sin Job was afterwards reproved by Elihu (Job_34:5) and by God. (Job_40:8)
II AN OVERWEENING ASSUMPTION.
1. To declare the truth about himself. There was nothing wrong or extravagantly self-asserting in the declaration that "his lips should not speak wickedness, nor his tongue utter deceit". (ver. 4; cf. 2Co_11:31 Gal_1:20) Not only should good men tell no lies, (Exo_20:16 Lev_19:11 Psa_34:13) though, alas! they sometimes do, (Gen_12:13 Gen_26:7) but they should so hate untruthfulness (Pro_13:5) as to render the utterance of falsehoods impossible. (Isa_63:8 Col_3:9) Job, however, claimed that he would state the exact truth about his own inward integrity, forgetting that "the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked", (Jer_17:9) that God alone is competent to pronounce an accurate verdict on its character, (Jer_17:10 Job_36:4 Psa_7:9 Pro_15:11) and that not even a saint can be trusted to deliver a perfectly unblessed judgment about himself. "If self the wavering balance shake, It"s rarely right adjusted. (Burns.)
2. To reveal the mind of God concerning others. With an air of authority Job avows his ability to give what he had often stormed at his friends for professing to deliver an oracular exposition of the Divine mode of action in dealing with ungodly men (ver. 11). Though "the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him", (Psa_25:14 Pro_3:32) it is not absolutely certain that good men do not sometimes mistake their own cogitations for Heaven"s inspirations. Under any circumstances good men, in setting forth what they believe to be Divine truth, should avoid the appearance and tone of dogmatical assertion. Least of all should they speak dictatorially to those whom they have already charged with the same offence. (Rom_2:21)
III AN OVERBOLD PROTESTATION.
1. With solemn adjuration. That Job should have maintained his integrity against the calumniations of his friends was both legitimate and reasonable. That he should even have exhibited a degree of warmth in repelling their accusations was perhaps excusable. But that he should have deemed it fitting to preface his self-vindication by an oath betrayed a degree of confidence, if not of self-righteousness, which was unbecoming in a humble-hearted and truly pious man. The matter was one that did not require more than calm, quiet, modest affirmation. Yet Job, in at least two different forms, adds an oath for confirmation (vers. 2, 5), as if the vindication of his (i.e. the creature"s) righteousness were, and ought to be, the supreme end of his existence, and not rather the maintenance of the unchallengable righteousness of God. Nevertheless, Job"s conduct in thus asserting with an oath that he faithfully followed God compares favourably with that or Peter, who with curses affirmed that he knew not the Man. (Mar_14:71)
2. With vehement repetition. Not content with one affirmation of his integrity, Job insists upon it with a fourfold asseveration (vers. 5, 6), declaring
(1) that he could not justify his friends, i.e. admit the truth of their contention with regard to himself without profanity;
(2) that he would continue to assert his innocence while he lived;
(3) that his righteousness he would on no account let go; and
(4) that his heart should not reproach him even one of his days. So Paul protested to the Sanhedrin that he had lived in all good conscience before God up till then, (Act_23:1) and, writing to the Corinthians, (2Co_1:12) rejoiced in the testimony of his conscience theft in simplicity and godly sincerity he had had his conversation in the world. The words, "not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God," exhibit the difference between St. Paul"s assertion of his personal integrity and Job"s.
IV A WICKED IMPRECATION.
1. The persons upon whom it is pronounced. Job"s "enemy;" not the ungodly in general, but the men who rose up against him to impeach his integrity (ver. 7). While it is well-nigh certain that a good man will have enemies, (Mat_10:22Jo Mat_15:19) who hate him because they first dislike his principles, (1Pe_3:16 1Pe_4:4) it is a splendid testimony to a good man"s character when he has no enemies except the ungodly. The mere fact, however, that his integrity is challenged by another is no proof that that other is either wicked in himself or hostilely disposed toward him. Though keenly resenting, therefore, the unjust imputations of his friends, it was wrong in Job to denounce them, as they had denounced him, as inherently ungodly.
2. The malediction of which it consists. Nothing is really gained by endeavouring to soften down Job"s language into a prediction. Supposing him to merely signify that the man who spoke against him was a wicked person who would eventually meet the wicked person"s recompense, he asserts it with a degree of confidence which was not warranted by the facts of the case, and which painfully suggests that the wish was father to the thought. The language of Job towards Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar finds an echo in the terrific outburst of David against his adversaries in the imprecatory psalms, (Psa_69:22-28 Psa_109:6-15 Psa_140:8-11) which, in so far as it was directed against individuals, we are not required to regard as entirely free from blame.
V A SELF-EXALTING COMPARISON. In order further to set forth his integrity, Job tacitly contrasts his own case with that of the hypocrite, indirectly exhibiting himself as possessed of:
1. A better hope. However prosperous the wicked man may be in life, however successful in heaping up wealth, when he comes to die he has no hope whatever to sustain him, (cf. Job_8:13 Job_20:5, homiletics) no expectation of acceptance with God; while be, Job, though standing on the verge of the grave, has. Worldly success cannot provide, and will not suffice as a substitute for, hope in death. Accumulated wealth prevents not death"s approach. If God does not cut off a man"s gains before death, he will certainly cut off a wicked man"s soul at death. It is a poor bargain to gain the world which one must soon leave, and lose the soul which one cannot regain throughout eternity. (Mat_16:26)
2. A better privilege. When trouble comes upon the wicked man so severely as to make him cry unto the Lord, the Lord turns a deaf ear to his entreaty. (Pro_1:28) But the good man, i.e. Job, can reckon that his prayer will find an entrance into God"s ear; (Psa_34:17 Psa_1:1-5 Psa_107:13 Psa_145:18, Psa_145:19) the good man"s supplication being breathed forth in penitence, humility, and faith, the outcry of the hypocrite being merely an exclamation of alarm.
3. A better spirit. The imperiled hypocrite may cry to God when the fear of death is on him, or when trouble crushes him; but he has no true delight in fellowship with God. The good man derives his principal felicity from such communion with Heaven, (Isa_58:14 1Jn_1:3) as Eliphaz had already admitted; (Job_22:15) and such a good man Job distinctly claims to be. Delight in God expresses itself in happy meditation on and cheerful obedience to God"s Law; (Psa_119:16, Psa_119:35, Psa_119:47, Psa_119:70) it is an indispensable condition of receiving answers to prayers. (Psa_37:4)
4. A better practice. The devotion of the hypocrite is only exceptional, whereas Job"s was habitual (ver. 10). An occasional prayer is no true mark of piety. The child of God should be instant in prayer, (Rom_12:12) and should pray without ceasing. (Eph_6:18 Php_4:6 1Th_5:17) Christ"s disciples should pray always, and not faint. (Luk_18:1)
Learn:
1. That the most eminent saints are not beyond the danger of falling into grievous sins.
2. That good men, while conscious of their integrity, should guard against self-exaltation on that account.
3. That piety as little as impiety stands in need of oaths to support it.
4. That good men should never renounce their integrity while they live, however they may sometimes forbear from asserting it.
5. That however much a wicked man may gain on earth, he loses all at death.
6. That that hope only is good which extends beyond the grave.
7. That God delights in them who delight in him.
8. That a man"s piety can be pretty accurately gauged by the intensity and frequency of his prayers.
HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON Vers. 1-23. Job a victor in the controversy.
After the last speech of Job the friends appear to be completely overcome and silenced, and the third of them does not venture to renew the attack. The sufferer therefore continues, in a speech of high poetic beauty, to instruct the friends, while once more insisting on his own innocence.
I INNOCENCE MAINTAINED. (Vers. 2-10)
1. Conscious rectitude of resolve. (Vers. 2-4) In the profoundest sense that his thoughts are open to the eye of the all-seeing God, and that he need not fear to have his words overheard, Job speaks. He declares that he has still strength and sanity enough to know what he is saying, and to speak as a responsible witness on this quest on of his innocence. And although it has pleased God, as he thinks, to withhold justice from him, and to distress his soul, the light of duty and of conscience shines as brightly as ever. He will be true in word and deed to the last. Truth is the supreme duty we owe to ourselves, to our fellows, to our God, to eternity. The resolve to be true should be inseparable from the resolve to live; and we should part with life sooner than with truth. And no suffering should be allowed to disturb our genuine convictions about ourselves. The discouragement of others" harsh opinion may well lead us to cast more searching glances into the state of our heart, but ought not to extort confessions of guilt which are exaggerated and unreel. It is only superstition which can suppose such to be acceptable to God. But this is the language of a man who has found, deep below all his doubts, an immovable ground of confidence in God. This makes him bold in the presence of his fellow-men. Happy those whose hearts condemn them not, and who have confidence with God. A false humility is an affectation of being worse than we really are. A genuine humility teaches us to see ourselves as we are; and every recognition of facts as facts, truths as truths, gives confidence.
2. The steadfastness of a good conscience. (Vers. 5-7) Job will never give way to his friends, nor own them in the right. The language of dogged egotism and stupid obstinacy imitates that of conscious right: "I will never give in!" But the one is the mark of folly and weakness, the other is the evidence of vitality and strength. He will not part with the sense of his integrity; it is as the jewel for which he has sold everything, which represents, amidst poverty and suffering and shame, all the property he has in the world. "Conscience is the great magazine and repository of all those pleasures that can afford any solid refreshment to the soul. When this is calm and serene and absolving, then properly a man enjoys all things, and what is more, himself; for that he must do before he can enjoy anything else. But it is only a pious life, led exactly by the rules of a severe religion, that can authorize a man"s conscience to speak comfortably to him; it is this that must word the sentence before the conscience can pronounce it, and then it will do it with majesty and authority; it will not whisper, but proclaim a jubilee to the mind; it will not drop, but pour in oil upon the wounded heart" (South).
3. Inward peace and joy denied to the wicked. (Vers. 8-10) This is a further argument of innocence. How can Job be numbered amongst the wicked? No hypocrite can possibly enjoy this serenity and unshaken hope in God which have been the portion of his soul amidst all calamities, and in the approach of death. (Job 17 and Job 19) When the cords of his life-tent are cut, (comp. Job_4:21) the wick d man has nothing more to hope for. His prayers will receive no answer, and joyous and trustful intimacy with God is denied him. Whatever disturbs innocence, in the same degree makes inroad upon "the comfort of the soul. To be in the dark; to find that the gate of prayer is closed; to carry about a sick, ulcerated mind; to be harassed by the returning paroxysms of diffidence and despair; to be haunted with the dismal apparitions of a reviving guilt the old black sores of past forgotten sins; to have the merciless handwriting against him, presented in new and flowing characters to his apprehension is the case and condition of the sinner. But "why should a man choose to go to heaven through sloughs and ditches, briars and thorns, diffidence and desertion, trembling and misgiving, and by the very borders of hell, with death staring him in the face, when he might pass from comfort to comfort, and have all his way paved with assurance, and made easy and pleasant to him by the inward invaluable satisfaction of a well-grounded peace"? (South).
II INSTRUCTION ON THE FATE OF THE WICKED. (Vers. 11-23)
1. Introduction (Vers. 11-13; comp. Job_20:29 Job_16:20) The theme of discourse is to be the "hand of God his power and his mode of moral government as seen by daily examples in the lives of men; and the "sense" or mind of the Almighty the contents of his thoughts and counsels. (Job_10:13 Job_23:10) And experience is to furnish the evidence and the illustrations (ver. 12). The facts are open to the view of all, but what was wanting in the friends of Job, as in many others, is a correct understanding and appreciation of them. Wisdom to mark the signs of the times, the hints of God"s will, his meanings, his judgments, not only in the course of nations, the great crises of history, but in the smaller sphere of every day, is what we need. Then the theme is announced (ver. 13): "the lot of the wicked man the heritage of the tyrant." Compare the words of Zopbar. (Job_20:29)
2. The instability of the wicked man"s condition (Vers. 14-18) His household and family are first mentioned. The corruption working outward is first felt in the nearest circle and surrounding of his life. The sins of the father are visited upon the children. The sword, or famine, or pestilence makes them a prey. All modern as well as ancient experience confirms this law. The doctrine of "heredity" throws light upon many diseases, many vices, many woes. The children"s teeth are set on edge because the fathers have eaten sour grapes. And this law of eternal retribution would seem intolerably stern and harsh did we not perceive that it is thus God constantly warns the world. The connection of causes and effects, constant, unbroken, alike in the physical, the moral, and the spiritual sphere, is the natural revelation of the will of God. But there are compensations, redeeming agencies at work for the individual. He suffers often as the scapegoat of others" sins externally; he is the victim of a solemn necessity; but in the large realm of inward freedom he may be emancipated, redeemed, and blessed. "His widows weep not" (ver. 15) behind his bier, perhaps because in the fearful raw, gee of the pestilence the funeral rites are suspended. The plural is used to indicate the wives of the heads of other families and relatives of the deceased generally. Then, not only is the wicked cursed in his family, but in his property. A picture of immense wealth and profuse display follows (ver. 16) his silver being heaped up like dust, and fine raiment being as common as dirt. Yet there is no more real substantiality in all this than in the frail cocoon of the moth, or the hut which the watchman puts up in the vineyard or orchard. (Isa_1:8) The striking story is told by Herodotus (6:86) of one Glaucus, the son of Epicydes, who was requested by a man of Miletus to take charge of the half of his fortune. When the sons el the Milesian claimed the money, Olaucus denied all knowledge of it, and consulted the oracle as to the results of perjury, and whether he could safely retain the money. The oracle replied, "Glaucus, son of Epicydes, for the present moment, indeed, it is more profitable to prevail by an oath, and to make the money thy booty. Swear; for death in truth awaits the man who is true to his oath. But, on the other hand, the child of the oath is nameless, and hath neither hands nor feet; yet he swiftly comes on, until he has ruined and destroyed thy whole race, yea, all thy house. With the race of the faithful man it shall fare better hereafter." He restored the money, but was told it was too late; and Leotychides, who related the story to the Athenians, says, "There is now no descendant of Glaucus living, no hearth that owns his name; he has been utterly rooted out, and has passed away from Sparta.
3. Insecurity of life. (Vers. 19-23) "He lies down rich, and doth it not again," according to the best reading. This is a picture of the evening. The next is a picture of the morning. "Opens his eyes, and is gone!" Both depict the suddenness of the wicked man"s end (ver. 19). A multitude of terrors rush in upon him, like the waters of an inundation, (ver. 20; comp. Job_20:28 Psa_18:5 Jer_47:2) and fill his death-bed with horror, (comp. Job_18:14 Job_20:25) and the east wind carries him away (ver. 21) the east wind being often mentioned as one of great violence. (Job_1:19 Job_15:2 Job_38:24 Isa_27:8 Eze_27:26) God slings without sparing the bolts of his wrath against him, and he must flee before his hand (ver. 22). The fearful scene closes amidst the scornful laughter and clapping of hands of those who exult in the tyrant"s doom, (ver. 23; comp. Job_34:37 Lam_2:15 Nah_3:19) and he departs from his place amidst the hisses of execration. The powerful picture of the great moralist, Juvenal, may be compared with this passage ("Sat.," 13:210, sqq.). Alter depicting the sufferings of a guilty conscience, he proceeds, "What, then, if the sinner has achieved his purpose? A respiteless anxiety is his, that ceases not, even at the hours of meals; his jaws are parched as though with fever, and the food he loathes swells between his teeth. All wines the miserable wretch spits out; old Alban wine, of highly prized antiquity, disgusts him. At night, if anxious care has granted him perchance some brief slumber, and his limbs, that have been tossing over the whole bed, at length are at rest, immediately he sees in dreams the temple and altar of the deity he has insulted; and, what weighs upon his soul with especial terror, he sees thee the wronged one! Thy awful form, of more than human bulk, confounds the trembling wretch, and wrings confession from him!" These pictures of the doom of the godless are fitted to teach patience to all the ill-used and the suffering in this world. God forgets nothing; neither the work of faith and labour of love of his children, nor the rank offences of the rebels against his laws. In due time he will both reward and punish, commonly even in this life. (Exo_32:34 Ro 2) Calamity is not a mere accident, as the worldly and the infidel think. It follows sin, according to a fixed connection, by the will of God. J. (Amo_3:6)
HOMILIES BY W.F. ADENEY Vers. 1-4. Moral honesty.
Job now almost loses sight of his vexatious friends as he breaks out into a long discourse. His first thought is to assert his integrity, without flinching before the charges that have been so recklessly flung at him. He will not confess sins of which he is not guilty. It required some courage for him to take this stand, for he was sorely pressed to yield to insincerity.
I THE TEMPTATION TO INSINCERITY. This is many-sided, springing from various sources.
1. The desire to conciliate God. Job is persuaded that it is the Almighty who has vexed his soul. If he will abase himself and confess his utter unworthiness, it would seem that perhaps God would be propitiated.
2. The persuasive urgency o f others. Each of the three friends had set before Job the same picture, and had suggested that the only security, the only hope, lay in abject penitence. It is difficult to hold to our course when it is resisted and reprobated by our friends.
3. The true humility of a good man. Job knew that he was a frail creature, and that he was as nothing before the might and holiness of God. (Jer_7:1-8) Good men are more or less conscious of their own littleness. It seems a mark of modesty to depreciate one"s self. Job must have been deeply pained at the unfairness that drove him to take the opposite course and vindicate his own uprightness. We are all tempted to insincere confession of guilt which we do not feel in order to please God or men, or as a sign of humility.
II THE WEAKNESS OF YIELDING TO THIS TEMPTATION. All the inducements that may be brought to urge a person to insincerity are just temptations to sin. They are attacks upon the conscience. To yield to them is a sign of weakness. The important point is that insincerity is always wrong, even when it is in the direction of self-humiliation. There may be a hypocritical penitence as well as a hypocritical pride. We cannot be too deeply humble; when the thought of our sin dawns upon us we cannot grieve over the guilt and shame of it too intensely. But if we do not feel this profound penitence it is nothing but falsehood and empty pretence to make a confession of it with our lips. For the language of penitence to exceed the feeling of it is not a mark of real humility. Any insincerity is injurious to the conscience and wrong in the sight of God, and the fact that it tends to self-depreciation rather than to self-exaltation does not alter its essential character.
III THE MORAL HONESTY OF RESISTING THE TEMPTATION TO INSINCERITY. We cannot but admire the manliness of Job. It was difficult for him not to be cowed before the array of adverse influences brought to bear upon him. His sickness of body, his mental distress and perplexity, and the unanimous opinion of his friends, might well have deprived him of all courage. Yet he holds up his head and asserts the right. On what is such moral honesty based?
1. Reverence for truth. Truth is imperious and must be respected at any cost.
2. Belief in justice. In the end right must prevail. It cannot be well to renounce it in favour of temporary appearances.
3. Trust in God. Job still clings to his faith, although he believes that all his troubles come from God. Now, no insincerity can please God or deceive him. If we think of our standing in his sight, rather than our position in the eyes of men, we must be true and honest. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 11, 16, 23 Moreover Job continued his parable.
Job_27:1-10
Moreover Job continued his parable.
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Points in Jobs parable
I. A solemn asseveration. As God liveth. The words imply a belief--
1. In the reality of the Divine existence. Whilst some deny this fact, the bulk of the race practically ignore it.
2. In the awfulness of the Divine existence. There is a sublime awfulness in the words, As God liveth.
3. In the severity of the Divine existence. Who hath taken away my judgment, and the Almighty who hath vexed my soul. As nature has winter as well as summer, so God has a severe as well as a benign aspect.
4. In the nearness of the Divine existence. The spirit of God is in my nostrils. His breath is my life.
II. A noble determination. My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me; my righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. What does he determine?
1. Never to swerve from rectitude. Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me; my righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go. Whatever happens to me, I will not play the false, I will not be insincere. No one can rob me of my integrity.
2. Never to vindicate wickedness. Job has so many times alluded to the prosperity of the wicked that he is apprehensive he may be suspected of envying their lot, and wishing to be in their place. Great is the tendency of some men to vindicate wickedness in connection with wealth and worldly power.
III. A weighty reflection. What is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? The writer reflects here upon the wicked men of wealth, and he concludes--
1. That in death they will have no hope.
2. That in trouble they will have no answer to their prayers or delight in God. Conclusion--
(1) The greatest reality outside of us. What is that? God. All else is shadow.
(2) The greatest worth inside of us. What is that? Virtue, or what is here called integrity, righteousness. (Homilist.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 Job now alone in the field. Zophar, who should…
JOB’S REPLY TO THE FRIENDS IN GENERAL
Job now alone in the field. Zophar, who should have followed Bildad, and to whom Job had given opportunity to speak, has apparently nothing to say. Job, therefore, after a pause, resumes his discourse, but in a different tone. Speaks more calmly, and even more solemnly. Declares, even with an appeal to the Almighty, that, notwithstanding all he still suffers at the hand of God, and however God seems to treat him as a guilty person, he is resolved, as a sincere and upright man, to maintain the integrity of his past life, and not, for the sake of bettering his condition, as his friends would persuade him, admit hypocritically the justice of their reasoning and of their charges against him. Declares His utter abhorrence of all ungodliness, oppression, and hypocrisy, and maintains, along with the friends, that however wickedness may appear for a time to prosper, it is certain, sooner or later, to end in misery and ruin.
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Job represented (Job_27:1) as again “taking up his parable,” or “proverb”—a weighty, sententious discourse or saying, such as uttered by sages and prophets (Num_23:7; Num_24:3-15; Psa_49:4; Psa_78:2; Pro_1:16; Pro_26:7). In the New Testament used in the sense of extended similitude. The latter part of the chapter, from Job_27:11 to the end, from its connection and position, one of the most perplexing portions of the book.
I. Job’s resolution to maintain his innocence. Job_27:2.—“As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment (has for some mysterious purpose, dealt with me contrary to the justice of my cause and the uprightness of my character, and who still refrains from declaring my innocence, or affording me an opportunity of pleading my cause before Him), and the Almighty who hath vexed (or ‘embittered’) my soul (with such severe afflictions); all the while my breath is in me, and the Spirit of God is in my nostrils (so long as I have life continued to me; apparent allusion to Gen_2:7), my lips shall not speak wickedness nor my tongue utter deceit (in falsely and contrary to my conscience admitting myself to have been a secret and guilty transgressor). God forbid that I should justify you (in your erroneous reasoning, and your consequent charges against me, by acknowledging myself a wicked man); my heart shall not reproach me, so long as I live” (or, “doth not and shall not reproach me for any of my days,” as having at any time lived in the practice of secret ungodliness, or for now denying the truth concerning myself).
Job now speaks as victor in the controversy. More solemnly than ever declares his purpose to maintain his innocence, notwithstanding his present treatment. Gives his asseveration the form of an oath—“As God liveth.” Here, therefore, the controversy proper between him and his three friends takes end. Lawful in certain circumstances to appeal to God for the truth of what we affirm, and to confirm a holy righteous resolution by a solemn oath. So Luther, at the Diet of Worms: “Here I stand; I can do nothing else; so God help me.” “An oath for confirmation is an end of all strife.”
Job an illustrious example of a man suffering innocently, yet resolutely refusing to utter a single word contrary to his conscience. Thus confirms the testimony given of him by God Himself. Satan thus defeated and shown to be a lying slanderer in asserting that, if only sufficiently afflicted, Job would renounce his religion—would “curse God to his face.” Job thus eminently belonging to “the noble army of martyrs.” Would rather still underlie the false accusations of his friends, and suffer as an apparently wicked man the severities of his present distressing condition, than speak or act contrary to the dictates of his conscience, or deny what he knew to be true. Observe—
1. A truly good man will be driven by no sufferings, threatened or endured, absolutely to renounce his religion. Through the weakness of the flesh, extreme torture may force out a recantation, which by the strength of grace will speedily be withdrawn. Cranmer an example—holding over the flames the hand that signed the recantation, and exclaiming: “That unworthy hand!” “Torture me if you will; but whatever the weakness of my nature may force me in my suffering to confess contrary to the truth of Christ, I will recall as soon as the torture is withdrawn.”—An Early Female Martyr to her Persecutors. The spirit of the martyrs expressed in the language of the three godly youths in Babylon (Dan_3:16-18).
2. The part of true piety to wait God’s own time for declaring our innocence, and to take no hasty measures for clearing our character or avoiding suffering and reproach. “Fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. Commit thy way to the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass; and he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day” (Psa_37:5-8).
3. Lawful in certain circumstances strongly to declare the sincerity of our character and the integrity of our life. So Paul before the Sanhedrim: “Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day” (Act_23:1). Our own uprightness to be maintained on such occasions, as due—
(1) To God.
(2) To our neighbour.
(3) To ourselves. Our own righteousness of life valuable—
(1) As a fruit of Divine grace and the work of God’s Spirit in our hearts.
(2) As the evidence of our reconciliation and sonship to God.
(3) As an example to our fellow-men. Worthless as the ground of our justification before God. A twofold righteousness belonging to the believer—an imputed, and an inherent or personal one. The latter to be maintained for our justification before men; the former for our justification before God; viz., the righteousness of the man Christ Jesus, our Head and Representative, “the Lord our righteousness” (Isa_45:24-25; Jer_23:6; Act_13:39; Rom_3:20-24). Imputed righteousness to be held fast by a steadfast faith; personal righteousness by holy resolution, dependence on Divine grace, and, if need be, a fearless declaration.
4. Believers so to live that their hearts may not condemn them. “If our hearts condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God” (1Jn_3:21).
5. Job in his suffering from false charges, and in the maintenance of his integrity under them, a type of the Messiah (Isa_53:8; Act_8:33; Isa_50:5-9).
II. Declares his abhorrence of ungodliness, and his assurance of being one day justified. Job_27:7.—“Let mine enemy be as the wicked (or ‘mine enemy shall be &c.’), and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.” May be viewed either as in the form of a wish or of a declaration. As the former—strongly expresses his abhorrence of ungodliness. A godless character the worst thing he could wish to his enemy. Thus a form of the assertion of his integrity, without implying any evil wish against his enemies. As the latter—expresses the conviction that the day would come when those who now opposed him would appear to be the guilty party. This conviction ultimately realized, ch. Job_42:7-8. Observe—
1. Abhorrence of ungodliness to be deeply cherished, and on all due occasions to be boldly declared.
2. Sin to be regarded and avoided as the greatest evil, both to ourselves and others.
3. Certain that God’s faithful servants will not always underlie false charges (Isa_66:5; Rev_3:9). A day at hand when “all shall be brought out in their blacks and whites.”—S. Rutherford.
4. A good man to be careful that his enemies are only the ungodly. A faithful follower of Jesus likely, sooner or later, to have the ungodly for his enemies and calumniators. A woe pronounced on the disciples when all men shall speak well of them; a blessing, when men shall revile them, and speak all manner of evil against them, falsely, for their Master’s sake. Christ Himself hated by the world, because He testified of it that its deeds are evil. His followers to imitate His example and partake of His experience (Joh_7:7; Joh_15:18-21; Mat_10:24-25).
III. Gives his reasons for his abhorrence of ungodliness and hypocrisy, as well as a proof that his was not such a character (Job_27:8-10 Four things not found in a hypocrite or godless person, but which Job possessed—
(1) A good hope.
(2) A hearing with God.
(3) A holy joy in God Himself.
(4) A heart always to pray.
1. The hope of the ungodly, however prosperous in this world, doomed to disappointment. Job_27:8.—“For what is the hope of the hypocrite (or godless person), though he have gained (or, ‘when God cuts him off,’ as in ch. Job_6:9; Isa_38:12), when God takes away (or draws forth) his soul?” The hope of the prosperous hypocrite doomed to perish. Riches profit not in the day of wrath. The sinner may live to do evil “a hundred times,” but must, if impenitent, perish in the end. The rich fool in the Gospel cut off in the midst of his prosperity, and in the height of his hope. Dives taken from his sumptuous table, to cry in hell for a drop of water to cool his tongue. The Saviour’s problem for a worldly man,—What shall a man be profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? (Mat_16:26). Solon’s maxim not far from the truth,—Call no man happy till his death. Observe—
(1) Our course of life to be constantly viewed in the light of eternity and a dying bed.
“Thrones will then be toys,
And earth and skies seem dust upon the scales.”
(2) A man is happy according to his character rather than his condition.
(3) The text an emphatic testimony to a future life. But for this, the case of the prosperous wicked might have the best of it. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, then are we of all men most miserable (1Co_15:19).
(4) A prosperous life often suddenly cut short by the stroke of death. Life in God’s hands. The thread cut off at His pleasure.
(5) The soul of the ungodly man forced to quit the body; that of the godly gladly departs from it. The wicked is driven away in his death. Body and soul must part; the question is, how?
(6) That hope only worth having that looks beyond the grave. “He builds too low that builds beneath the skies.”
(7) The gain of the world a poor compensation for the loss of the soul.
(8) Awful condition for a man to be suddenly called into eternity in the midst of his earthly enjoyments, and unprepared.
“How shocking must thy summons be, O death.
To him who is at ease in his possessions!
Who, counting on long years of pleasure here,
Is quite unfurnish’d for that world to come.”
(9) Gold able to procure entrance anywhere but into the kingdom of God.
(10) True wisdom to ask, What is my hope in the event of a sudden death? Reader, what is yours? Only faith in Christ’s blood and righteousness, confirmed by a life of love towards God and men, the only sure foundation of a geea hope. Christ our hope. Such hope the anchor of the soul amid the storms of life and “the swellings of Jordan.”
2. The prayer of the ungodly unheard in the time of trouble. Job_27:9—“Will God hear his cry, when trouble cometh upon him?” Two questions implied—
(1) Will the ungodly pray in time of trouble?
(2) Will God hear him if he does? A heart to pray not always found in time of trouble. The spirit to pray a gift from God. A prayerless life often followed by a prayerless death. Prayer, even if offered, in time of trouble not always heard (Pro_1:24-28; Isa_1:15). Acceptable prayer implies both repentance and faith. Both wanting in the prayer of the ungodly and the hypocrite. An acceptable time when God may be found and prayer heard;—and the contrary. A time when knocking at mercy’s gate will be followed by no opening (Mat_25:11-12). He who will not pray when he might, perhaps cannot pray when he would, or is unheard when he does. To shut the door of our heart in God’s face, is the way to have the door of his heaven shut in ours. Observe—
(1) A time of trouble sure sooner or later to come upon each one.
(2) To pray in the time of trouble the language of nature. So the heathen sailors in the ship with Jonah (Jon_1:5-6). In ordinary circumstances the Athenians prayed to their false deities, but in public distress to “the unknown God”
(3) The ungodly either not able to pray in time of trouble, or not heard if they do.
(4) The mark of a hypocrite to pray only when trouble comes upon him.
3. The ungodly has no delight in God. (Job_27:10)—“Will he delight himself in the Almighty?” The ungodly would have God’s gifts, but not Himself; the godly would rather have God than His gifts. A mark of grace to delight oneself in God. An unholy heart unable to delight in a holy God.
Delight in God
(1) A leading part in true piety. God desires not that we serve Him as a slave, but that we delight in Him as a child.
(2) God Himself the chief good to an intelligent creature. Everything in Him for such a creature to delight in. The source and centre of all good. “Of all Thy gifts Thyself the crown.” All the beauty, loveliness, and sweetness in the creature, in comparison with what is in God, only a drop compared with the ocean. Not to delight in God is either not to know Him or to be under the power of a nature that hates Him. They that know Him not only trust but delight in Him. The greatest misery, as well as sin, of an intelligent creature, not to delight in God. Not to delight in God is either to be ignorant of Him, or to declare that we see nothing in Him to delight in. If God, only as God, is such as to be supremely delighted in by unfallen intelligent creatures, much more is He, as a God in Christ, to be delighted in by fallen ones.
(3) God the delight of heaven. Hence no unregenerate or unholy person able to enter, or find enjoyment there if he could. To delight in God hereafter, we must first learn to delight in Him here.
(4) Delight in the creature only right when we first delight supremely in God. Delight in the creature instead of God, not only idolatry but insult.
(5) A sinner’s greatest delight often his greatest sin. The greater the delight in the creature to the rejection of God, the deeper the idolatry and the fouler the insult.
(6) A man’s character proclaimed by what he delights in. The sow delights in the mire, the crow in carrion, the cock in the dunghill, and the worm in corruption. The delight of the holy, in God; that of the unholy, in the creature. Important question—What do I delight in? God, or the creature?
(7) Delight in God not affected by outward circumstances. Often highest when outward circumstances are lowest.
(8) The mark of a godly man, that, when in deepest affliction, he can delight himself in God. Job’s case. Here apparently appealed to by Him as a proof of the sincerity of his piety.
4. The prayers of the ungodly are only casual and temporary. “Will he always call upon God?”
Persevering Prayer
1. The ungodly man prays in sickness and trouble, but not in health and prosperity. Fitful prayers like smoke driven aside by the wind and never reaching the clouds. Answers to prayer often withheld to prove its faith and sincerity. Some pray only in the sunshine, others only in the storm; the believer prays always.
2. The ungodly man’s prayers not persevered in. Prayer, wanting the wings of faith, soon tires and comes to the ground. Prayer proves its sincerity by its continuance. Fallen nature prays; but only grace prays always. The hypocrite and unbeliever draws in his hand if not immediately filled. Many lose their prayers by not drawing the bow sufficiently for the discharge of the arrow. Successful prayer a bolt shot up into heaven. The believer stands knocking at God’s door, and waiting His own time of opening. Christ taught His disciples always to pray, and not “to faint” (Luk_18:1). Answers only promised to persevering prayer. He who prays successfully finds enjoyment in the exercise which brings him back to it. A man’s religion which is only by fits and starts wants the stamp of divinity. Prayer, without perseverance, not current at the gate of heaven.
Job able to stand both tests. Prayed both in prosperity and adversity, and persevered in his prayers.
IV. Declares his faith in the rectitude of the Divine government
1. Speak as one conscious of greater illumination than his pretentious friends. Job_27:11.—“I will teach you by the hand of God (or, concerning God’s dealings with men; and what is with the almighty (His purposes and procedure in regard to evil doers) I will not conceal.” Observe—Light given in order to be communicated. A good man constituted by God himself a teacher of others. Made a light in the world to hold forth the word of life (Php_2:15-16). Truth not to be concealed from selfish love of ease or slavish fear of consequences.
2. Yet appeals to their own observation, and professes only to communicate facts with which they themselves were already acquainted. Job_27:12.—“Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it.” His friends had already referred to the facts, but failed to make a right application of them. Their error not in respect to the facts, but the use of them; not in asserting that hypocrites and oppressors sooner or later suffer the punishment of their sins, but that Job, who was now suffering apparently at the hand of God, must be one of them. Job asserts the fact, but denies the inference. Maintains that all oppressors and bad men, sooner or later, suffer; but denies—
(1) That therefore all oppressors and bad men suffer in this life.
(2) That all that suffer are oppressors and bad men. Observe—
(1) Hearers themselves to be often appealed to for the truth of what is asserted. Appeals to the hearers’ own observation and experience often the most convincing argument. Hearers frequently do not so much require the knowledge of truths or facts, as the right use and application of them.
(2) The dealings of Divine Providence open to men’s view, and calling for observation and reflection.
3. Hence reproves them for their vain and useless arguments. “Why then are ye thus altogether vain?” (or “babble forth such vanities”?) Their vanity—
(1) In addressing Job as if ignorant of, or absolutely denying, the facts they so much insisted on in regard to the fate of the ungodly.
(2) In erroneously arguing from those facts that Job, who suffered so much, must be a bad man. That Job could maintain the facts as decidedly as themselves, a proof—
(1) That he was not the wicked man they had represented him to be.
(2) That he needed not their instruction on the subject.
(3) That they had only been vainly insisting on things which he himself admitted.
(4) That they had been one-sided in their views and representations. They had, therefore, poured forth their eloquence, whether original or second-hand, only “as one that beateth the air.”
(1) Preachers to see that in their discourses they are aiming at a right object, and employing right arguments in support of it.
(2) Preachers not to dwell on known and admitted truths without shewing the right use and application of them. Not enough to repeat that all who believe and come to Christ will be saved, but to endeavour to shew what it is to believe and come to Him, and how people may do so. Not sufficient to insist that Christ died for sinners, but to show how a man obtains a saving interest in His death.
V. Describes the lot of oppressors and of the prosperous ungodly. Job_27:13.—“This is the portion of wicked men with God, and the heritage of oppressors which they shall receive of the Almighty.” Seems to take up the language of Zophar (ch. Job_20:29). Observe—
(1) Faith and piety look to the end.
(2) Each man’s destiny faithfully meted out by the Almighty according to his character and conduct.
(3). The main question for a man—what shall I receive at the hands of the Almighty? Man kills the body; but the soul still in God’s hands.
The lot of the ungodly described in reference to—
1. Their children. Job_27:14.—“If his children be multiplied (or become great—a mark of propriety), it is for the sword (or they are doomed to the sword—shall fall in the siege or battle as threatened, Hos_9:13), and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.” Misery often entailed on children by their parents’ sin, an acknowledged fact. “The seed of evil doers shall never be renowned”—a standing maxim. Children usually serve themselves heirs of their parents’ sufferings by practising their parents’ sins. Effects of the sins of parents often in this world more visible in the children than in themselves. Proof of a judgment to come and a future life. Effects from parents’ sins, suffered by children in this life, may be overruled by a gracious Providence for their benefit in the next. Contrast the text with what is stated of the children of the godly (Psa_37:25-26). Job’s children neither perished by the sword nor suffered want of bread. Job_27:15.—“Those that remain of him (escaping the sword) shall be buried in death (immediately on their death as in a time of pestilence, or buried by the pestilence as the cause of their death); and his (or their) widows shall not weep” (as in an ordinary case of burial, the want of such funeral lamentation being with Orientals a grievous misfortune—“the burial of an ass,” Jer_22:18-19).
2. Their possessions. Job_27:16.—“Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment (another form of Oriental riches) as the clay; He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.” The answer to the question put to the rich fool: “Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?” (Luk_12:20). The sinner’s wages earned to be put into a bag with holes. Himself often snatched away by death when expecting to enjoy his acquired possessions. In the Providence of God a good man often made to reap the benefit of a bad man’s gains. Insecurity and transitoriness the characteristics of the prosperous sinner’s earthly goods. Job_27:18.—“He buildeth his house as the moth (which is easily shaken out of the garment where it has made its nest, and which often devours its own house), and as a booth (or hut) which the keeper [of a vineyard] maketh” (intended only to last for the season, and to be taken down as soon the fruit is gathered).
3. His person. He is often—
(1) Carried off by a sudden and unexpected death. Job_27:19.—“The rich man shall lie down [at night on his bed of rest], but he shall not be gathered (or, according to another reading, ‘he shall not do so any more,’—he lies down for the last time); he openeth his eyes (or, as quickly as ‘one opens one’s eyes’—in the twinkling of an eye) and he is not” (is no more in this world, having been carried often by a sudden death during the night). Exemplified in the rich fool of the Gospel, and perhaps forming the foundation of the Saviour’s illustration: “This night thy soul shall be required of thee” (Luk_12:20).
(2) Seized with sudden fear of approaching judgment. Job_27:20.—“Terrors take hold on him as waters (suddenly overwhelming him like a mountain-torrent rushing down with widespread ruin); a tempest stealeth him away in the night (some judgment carrying him away like a sudden tornado, never dreaming of such an event). The east wind (the most vehement and destructive in Oriental countries) carrieth him away, and he departeth (no more to be seen), and as a storm hurleth him out of his place (his fancied paradise, where he expected to remain, and long enjoy his accumulated wealth.
(3) Visited with calamity from which he is unable to escape. Job_27:22.—“For God shall cast [His judgments] upon him, and not spare; he would fain flee out of His hand.” Unsparing sin prepares for unsparing judgment. Escape often sought only when too late. “The prudent foresecth the evil and hideth himself; the foolish passeth on and is punished.” “A fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
(4) Made the object of execration and abhorrence to his fellow-man. Job_27:23.—“Men shall clap their hands at him (in abhorrence of his character and joy at his fall), and shall hiss him out of his place” (as an object of execration and a nuisance to society). The most prosperous evil-doer made one day “an abhorrence to all flesh.” Some to leave their graves unto everlasting life; some “to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan_12:2; Isa_66:24). Observe—(i.) Power of faith and a good conscience to enable a man, while deeply suffering both outwardly and inwardly, calmly to contemplate and boldly to declare the consequences of a life of sin. (ii.) A godly man, however tried and afflicted, takes the part of God against evil-doers, however prosperous in this world. (iii.) Terrible consequences, sooner or later, to a life of worldliness and ungodliness. (iv.) The tinsel of worldly prosperity to be one day stripped off from the godless possessor of it. (v.) Awful madness to peril the destinies of eternity for the momentary pleasures of time.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Job's Eighth Speech (concluded)
Job's Eighth Speech (concluded)
1-6. Job protests that he is innocent.
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Job_27:1-6 are an enlargement of what Job had previously said (Job_13:16) of his determination not to admit that he was being punished for his sins, since he felt that he was innocent of any great offence. This much is plain, but the rest of the chapter (Job_27:7-23) is puzzling; inasmuch as the sentiments expressed regarding the fate of the wicked seem opposed to Job's views in the rest of the book when he enlarges on the prosperity of sinners in this life: see e.g. Job 21 and notes. It is therefore commonly considered that Job_27:7-23 are really a misplaced speech of Zophar's corresponding with the final speeches of Eliphaz and Bildad (Job 22, 25), and this view is strongly confirmed by the subject-matter. Job_27:11-12 are Job's (see intro. to Job 22-31).
1. Parable] i.e. discourse: cp. Num_23:7.
2. My judgment] RV 'my right.' God has not yet vindicated Job's uprightness, on which his sufferings throw doubt.
3a. RV 'For my life is yet whole in me.' The v. is a parenthesis, explaining that Job is in full possession of all his faculties, when he makes this deliberate utterance. Spirit of God] cp. Gen_2:7.
4. He will not acknowledge guilt of which he is unconscious.
5. I should justify you] i.e. by admitting their contention that he was suffering for his sins.
6b. RM 'My heart doth not reproach me for any of my days.'
7-23. The fate of the wicked. Here it would seem that Zophar speaks.
7. Hypocrite] RV 'godless.'
8. Though he hath gained] RM 'when God cutteth him off.'
15. Buried in death] rather, 'buried by death.' 'Death' should here be rendered, 'pestilence': cp. Jer_15:2; Jer_18:21. In such a case there would be only maimed funeral rites.
18. As a moth] like the frail chrysalis or cocoon. As a booth] like the temporary shelter of the vineyard watchman.
19-23. The passage refers to the final fall of the wicked. In the Persian sacred books we read that the dead pious man is led by an angel created by his own good life to the 'bridge of the gatherer' leading to heaven, whilst a storm sweeps the wicked man to hell. The same idea seems to occur here. The sinner is not 'gathered,' but blown away into darkness.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v2 Heb. made my soul bitter.
vexed
Heb. made my soul bitter.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 CHAPTER 27 Job’s Closing Words in Self-Vindication
CHAPTER 27 Job’s Closing Words in Self-Vindication
1. My righteousness I hold fast (Job 27:1-6)
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2. The contrast between himself and the wicked (Job 27:7-23)
Job 27:1-6. Zophar, the third friend, no longer speaks. Perhaps Job paused after his remarks in answer to Bildad and waited for Zophar’s criticism. Perhaps that young hot-head hid his inability of advancing another argument under an assumed disgust. Critics have assigned Job 27:7-10 and Job 27:13-23 to Zophar and claim that Job did not speak them at all. But other critics, like Wellhausen, Kuenen and Dillman say that these verses are a later insertion. We do not need to waste our time by examining these claims of the inventive genius of these scholars. There is nothing to them. Job now becomes bolder, knowing that his friends had spent their last arrow against him. He still accuseth God that He has taken away his right and wronged him. And he is determined, more so than ever before, not to give in to the abominable logic of his friends. “My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart does not condemn me as long as I live.” It is the vindication of himself.
Job 27:7-23. And this self-vindication he pursues when he pictures the godless and contrasts them with himself, showing that he cannot be identified with these. How could this description of the godless ever be applied to himself? True, he had suffered like the wicked suffer, but will his end be like theirs? Thus he tries to show them that they had done him an injustice, for he was an upright man, who in spite of his misery held on to God.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 11 Job’s Again Protests his Innocence
Job’s Again Protests his Innocence
v. 1. Moreover, Job continued his parable, his proverbial discourse, and said,
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v. 2. As God liveth, a solemn oath intended to impress his hearers with the importance of his statements, who hath taken away my judgment, who refused to give Job right in this case, who would not declare him innocent, and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul, filling it with bitter anxiety and sorrow,
v. 3. all the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, Job still possessed life and breath, he could still give a valid testimony concerning his innocence:
v. 4. my lips shall not speak wickedness, falseness, lies, nor my tongue utter deceit! Such were the contents of Job’s solemn oath that he would speak the full truth without fear or favor.
v. 5. God forbid that I should justify you, that is, Far be it from me to declare you to be right; till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me, he would not cease to assert his innocence.
v. 6. My righteousness I hold fast and will not let it go, in spite also of the sneering remark of his wife, 2:9; my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live, not blaming him for one deliberate wickedness during his whole life.
v. 7. Let mine enemy be as the wicked and he that riseth up against me, the adversary of Job, as the unrighteous, that being the just reward of Job’s enemies for doubting and disputing his innocence.
v. 8. For what is the hope of the hypocrite, of an ungodly person, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul, when God cuts off, when God draws forth his soul? The evildoer has nothing to hope for any more when God once severs the thread of his life and takes his soul from him.
v. 9. Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him? Cf Psa 66:18. The answer evidently is that the Lord would pay no attention to him, but would let him be submerged in his misery.
v. 10. Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God? There is no possibility of a trusting, joyful, loving fellowship between the ungodly person and God. Even when the heart of the believer is filled with dread and apprehension, his trust in God is unwavering, even though it be necessary for the Spirit to make intercession for him with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4, 6, 8, 11, 13, 15, 18, 20, 22 As surely as God lives
As surely as God lives
This phrase shows that Job is taking an oath. Job compares the certainty that God is alive to the certainty of what he is saying. This is a way of making a solemn promise. AT: "I swear by God"
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has taken away my justice
Justice is spoken of as if it were an object that could be taken away or given. Taking it away represents refusing to treat Job with justice. AT: "has refused to treat me justly" (See: Metaphor)
made my life bitter
Job's "life" being bitter represents Job feeling resentful toward God. AT: "has caused me to become resentful" or "has made me feel angry because of the unfair way he has treated me" (See: Metonymy)
while my life is yet in me
This refers to the duration of the rest of his life. AT: "during the whole time that my life is yet in me" or "as long as my life is yet in me"
while my life is yet in me
The abstract noun "life" can be expressed with the adjective "alive" or the verb "live." AT: "as long as I am still alive" or "while I still live" (See: Abstract Nouns)
the breath from God is in my nostrils
"Breath ... in my nostrils" represents being able to breathe. "Breath from God" represents God making him able to breathe. AT: "God enables me to breathe" (See: Metonymy)
nostrils
"nose"
translationWords
Job
God
life
just
Almighty
breath
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 On vv1, 2, 5, 9 27:1 Job continued speaking, no longer responding to the…
27:1 Job continued speaking, no longer responding to the three friends but returning to the themes of his opening statement (3:1-26).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.