If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;
if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life,
let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.
Parallel Translations
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If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together;
if I have eaten its fruits without money, or have caused its owners to lose their life,
let briers grow instead of wheat, and stinkweed instead of barley.” The words of Job are ended.
-
If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:
Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.
Show all 3 translations
-
If my land cry out against me, and the furrows thereof weep together;
If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the tillers thereof to be disappointed —
Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and noisome weeds instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.
Cross-references (17)
- 1 Kings 21:19 (v39) You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “Have you killed and also taken possession?” ’ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says,…
- James 5:4 (vv38–39) Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you have kept back by fraud, cry out, and the cries of those who reaped have…
- Habakkuk 2:11 (v38) For the stone will cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it.
- Genesis 3:17-18 (v40) To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and ate from the tree, about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall…
- Genesis 4:12 (v39) From now on, when you till the ground, it won’t yield its strength to you. You will be a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth.”
Show all 16 cross-references
- 1 Kings 21:13-16 (v39) The two men, the wicked fellows, came in and sat before him. The wicked fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence…
- Job 20:27 (v38) The heavens will reveal his iniquity. The earth will rise up against him.
- Psalms 65:13 (v38) The pastures are covered with flocks. The valleys also are clothed with grain. They shout for joy! They also sing.
- Psalms 72:20 (v40) This ends the prayers by David, the son of Jesse.
- Proverbs 1:19 (v39) So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain. It takes away the life of its owners.
- Isaiah 7:23 (v40) It will happen in that day that every place where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver shekels, shall be for briers and thorns.
- Isaiah 26:21 (v39) For, behold, Yahweh comes out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her…
- Ezekiel 22:6 (v39) “ ‘ “Behold, the princes of Israel, everyone according to his power, have been in you to shed blood.
- Ezekiel 22:12-13 (v39) In you have they taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken interest and increase, and you have greedily gained of your neighbors by…
- Zephaniah 2:9 (v40) Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a…
- Malachi 1:3 (v40) but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.”
16 distinct cross-references across this passage (17 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (17 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv38–40 As though I had withheld their wages that labored…
As though I had withheld their wages that labored in it.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv38–40 Job 31:38 If my land cry against me, or…
Job 31:38 If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;
Ver. 38. If my land cry against me] As unjustly gotten; where we have an elegant personification not unlike that of the prophet, Hab 2:11-12, where the stone out of the wall cries out against the oppressor, and the tignum e ligno, the beam out of the timber, answereth it by a woeful antiphony. It hath been noted before, that Goropius will have the English to be called Angli, because they were good anglers, and had skill to lay various baits when they fished for other men’s livings. May it be our care to disprove him, and to show ourselves angels rather (as Gregory the Great derived us), and our land to be Regnum Dei, the kingdom of God, as it was anciently counted and called, by the holiness and righteousness exercised among us (Polydore Virgil). These two make up one perfect pair of compasses, which can take the true latitude of an upright heart (such as Job’s was, witness this whole chapter). The first, like the top of Jacob’s ladder, reacheth up to heaven; the second, like the foot of the ladder, resteth on the earth, or rather walketh about in a perfect circle of all such duties as one man oweth to another. Job was famous for both, whatever his friends surmised or suggested to the contrary. He was righteously religious and religiously righteous; exercising the first table of the law in the second, and caring to keep always a conscience void of offence toward God and toward men, Act 24:16.
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Or that the furrows thereof likewise complain] Si plorant porcae. Heb. Weep, sc. As it were, out of a desire after their own right owner, from whom they are detained, as was Naboth’s vineyard.
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 vv38–40 To wit, to God for revenge, as the like…
To wit, to God for revenge, as the like phrase is used, Gen 4:10; Hab 2:11, because I have gotten it from the right owners by fraud or violence, as my friends charge me, and as is implied in the next verse.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On v38 Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead…
Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley,.... This is an imprecation of Job's, in which he wishes that if what he had said was not true, or if he was guilty of the crimes he denied, that when and where he sowed wheat, thorns or thistles might come up instead of it, or tares, as some Jewish writers (d) interpret it; and that when and where he should sow barley, cockle, or darnel, or any "stinking" or "harmful" weed (e), as the word signifies, might spring up in room of it; respect seems to be had to the original curse upon the earth, and by the judgment of God is sometimes the case, that a fruitful land is turned into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell in it, Gen 3:18;
the words of Job are ended; which is either said by himself, at the close of his speech; thus far says Job, and no farther, having said enough in his own defence, and for the confutation of his antagonists, and so closes in a way of triumph: or else this was added by Moses, supposed to have written this book; or by some other hand, as Ezra, upon the revision of it, and other books of the Old Testament, when put in order by him: and these were the last words of Job to his friends, and in vindication of himself; for though there is somewhat more said afterwards by him, and but little, yet to God, and by way of humiliation, acknowledging his sin, and repentance for it with shame and abhorrence; see Job 40:3. Jarchi, and so the Midrash, understand this concluding clause as all imprecation of Job's; that if he had done otherwise than he had declared, he wishes that these might be his last words, and he become dumb, and never open his mouth more; but, as Bar Tzemach observes, the simple sense is, that his words were now completed and finished, just as the prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are said to be, Psa 72:20.
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(d) Bar Tzemach, et alii. (e) "herba foetens", Montanus, Bolducius; "spina foetida", Drusius; "vitium frugum", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "labrusca", Cocceius, Schultens.
Next: Job Chapter 32
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 vv38–39 Cry - Because I have gotten it by fraud…
Cry - Because I have gotten it by fraud or violence.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv38–40 Verse 38. If my land cry] The most careless…
Verse 38. If my land cry] The most careless reader may see that the introduction of this and the two following verses here, disturbs the connection, and that they are most evidently out of their place. Job seems here to refer to that law, Le 25:1-7, by which the Israelites were obliged to give the land rest every seventh year, that the soil might not be too much exhausted by perpetual cultivation, especially in a country which afforded so few advantages to improve the arable ground by manure. He, conscious that he had acted according to this law, states that his land could not cry out against him, nor its furrows complain. He had not broken the law, nor exhausted the soil.
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 v38 Job 31:38-40. If my land cry against me —…
Job 31:38-40. If my land cry against me — To wit, to God, for revenge,
(as the like phrase signifies, Gen 4:10; Hab 2:11,) because I have gotten it from the right owners by fraud or violence, as my friends accuse me. If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money — Either without paying the price required by the right owner of the land, or by defrauding the workmen of the wages of their labours. Or have caused the owners to lose their life — Killing them, that I might have undisturbed possession of it, as Ahab did Naboth. The words of Job are ended — To wit, in answer to his friends: for he speaks but little afterward, and that is to God.
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 vv38–40 If my land cry against me - This is…
If my land cry against me - This is a new specification of an offence, and an imprecation of an appropriate punishment if he had been guilty of it. Many have supposed that these closing verses have been transferred from their appropriate place by an error of transcribers, and that they should have been inserted between Job 31:23-24 - or in some previous part of the chapter. It is certain that Job 31:35-37 would make an appropriate and impressive close of the chapter, being a solemn appeal to God in reference to all the specifications, or to the general tenor of his life; but there is no authority from the MSS. to make any change in the present arrangement. All the ancient versions insert the verses in the place which they now occupy, and in this all versions agree, except, according to Kennicott, the Teutonic version, where they are inserted after Job 31:25. All the MSS. also concur in the present arrangement.
Schultens supposes that there is manifest pertinency and propriety in the present arrangement. The former specification, says he, related mainly to his private life, this to his more public conduct; and the design is to vindicate himself from the charge of injustice and crime in both respects, closing appropriately with the latter. Rosenmuller remarks that in a composition composed in an age and country so remote as this, we are not to look for or demand the observance of the same regularity which is required by the modern canons of criticism. At all events, there is no authority for changing the present arrangement of the text. The meaning of the phrase “if my land cry out against me” is, that in the cultivation of his land he had not been guilty of injustice. He had not employed those to till it who had been compelled to do it, nor had he imposed on them unreasonable burdens, nor had he defrauded them of their wages. The land had not had occasion to cry out against him to God, because fraud or injustice had been done to any in its cultivation; compare Gen 4:10; Hab. ii. 11.
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Or that the furrows likewise thereof complain - Margin, weep. The Hebrew is, “If the furrows weep together,” or “in like manner weep.” This is a beautiful image. The very furrows in the field are personified as weeping on account of injustice which would be done them, and of the burdens which would be laid on them, if they were compelled to contribute to oppression and fraud.
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 vv38–40 Mourn, as if I possessed the land unjustly, or…
Mourn, as if I possessed the land unjustly, or had committed some crime.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv38–40 Personification. The complaints of the unjustly ousted proprietors are…
Personification. The complaints of the unjustly ousted proprietors are transferred to the lands themselves (Job 31:20; Gen 4:10; Hab 2:11). If I have unjustly acquired lands (Job 24:2; Isa 5:8).
furrows--The specification of these makes it likely, he implies in this, "If I paid not the laborer for tillage"; as Job 31:39, "If I paid him not for gathering in the fruits." Thus of the four clauses in Job 31:38-39, the first refers to the same subject as the fourth, the second is connected with the third by introverted parallelism. Compare Jam 5:4, which plainly alludes to this passage: compare "Lord of Sabaoth" with Job 31:26 here.
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 vv38–40 38-39. Some, without good ground, have thought that these…
38-39. Some, without good ground, have thought that these verses are misplaced, and that they should have appeared before in the list of affirmations; according to Eichhorn, after Job_31:25; and Stuhlmann, after Job_31:34. Such criticism, forgetful that nature loves irregularities of landscape, would reduce all to the same dead level. The perfection of this defence is secured by this last solemn asseveration. Seemingly an after-consideration, it looks boldly in the face the most serious of all the charges, the unnamed something which the friends have darkly hinted, — for instance, Bildad, in chap. 8; Zophar in chaps. 11 and 20; and Eliphaz in chap. 22. Comp. Job_13:23.
38. Complain — Weep. The rabbinical proverb embodies a similar figure, “The altar of God weeps over him who separates himself from the wife of his youth.” Comp. Hab_2:11.
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 vv38–40 38. The literal meaning of the figurative expressions in…
38. The literal meaning of the figurative expressions in this verse is given in Job_31:39. The land, unjustly seized, is supposed to cry out to heaven against the cruelty and wrong done its true owner from whom it had been robbed (“without money,” Job_31:39). The land and its rightful owner have a common cause, it feels and weeps over the injury he has suffered.
38–40. Job resumes his protestations, imprecating a curse upon his lands if he have acquired them unjustly, and wishing that they may bring forth weeds instead of grain.
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38. If my land cry out against me,
And the furrows thereof weep together;
39. If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money,
And caused the soul of its owners to expire:
40. Let thistles, &c.
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 v38 (38) Or that the furrows likewise thereof complain.—Rather, Or…
(38) Or that the furrows likewise thereof complain.—Rather, Or if the furrows thereof weep together—a strong impersonation to express the consequence of oppression and wrong-doing. It is to be observed that throughout this defence Job has far more than traversed the indictment of his friends. He has shown that he has not only not broken the moral law, as they insinuated, but, much more, has shown himself exemplary in all the relations of life, so that, according to the narrator of the history, he was not only one that feared God and eschewed evil (Job_1:1), but also was perfect, i.e., of sincere and consistent conduct and upright.
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 vv38–40 Vers. 38-40. It is generally supposed that these verses,…
Vers. 38-40. It is generally supposed that these verses, with the exception of the last clause of ver. 40, are misplaced. As a termination, they form an anti-climax, and greatly weaken the peroration. Their proper place would seem to be between vers. 32 and 33.
If my land cry against me; i.e. if my land disclaim my ownership, as having been acquired by wrong or robbery. If the furrows likewise thereof complain; or, weep, as having been torn from their rightful proprietors, and seized by a stranger. The apodosis is in ver. 40.
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 v40 The words of Job are ended.
Job_31:40
The words of Job are ended.
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Jobs final position
Running like a golden thread through all this vehement and passionate language, we have seen a vein of thought which has given this half-rebellious questioner a claim upon our sympathy, and which even had the book ended here, would have prevented thoughtful men from joining his opponents, and from abandoning the solitary and tortured sufferer to the reproaches of his friends, and to the condemnation of the future readers of this great controversy. His soul, ripened by the hot blast of cruel affliction, is being prepared for a step, a long step forward, in that progressive revelation of God Himself to man, given us in Holy Scripture. He sickens at the sight and sense of wrong, and clinging to the conviction that, in spite of all appearances, God must be just--juster than his friends, or his own creed, or his own experience have declared Him to be--he struggles to be true, at once to himself, to his conscience, and his God. He yearns for a clearer sight of, and a nearer approach to the Divine Being against whom, as seen in the insufficient light given him, he has launched so vehement an indictment, so terrible a flood of fervid and poetic wrath. And while he has no sure and certain hope of a life beyond the grave, such as was revealed to the world in Christ, yet his pathetic moans at the finality of death give place, once to a dim aspiration, and once and again to a more loud assertion of his conviction--bursting forth like a flash of light from his darkest mood--that even if he is to die, die in his misery and desolation, God will yet be his Goel, his Vindicator; that somehow, he knows not how, he shall even after the shock of death have sight of God, and have his wrongs redressed; and therefore that he who has once been so dear to Him, and who has fallen so low in this life, will not be left to be of all men most miserable. And we have noticed how, in his description of his early life, he moves in a serene and lofty atmosphere, puts before us a moral standard of practice and even of thought which a Christian might be thankful to attain and realise And now, he and his friends are alike silent, silent but unconvinced. Neither the one side nor the other have won the adhesion of those against whom they argue. They cannot point to any guilt on Jobs part. He cannot convince them of his innocence. Neither one side nor the other have, we cannot but feel, laid their hands upon the whole truth. Yet each has exhausted his store of arguments, shot his arrows, and emptied his quiver. And deep as is the hold which Job has gained upon our interest and sympathy, yet the light and shade has been so graduated that those sympathies are not entirely confined to one side. (Dean Bradley.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v38 General Information:
General Information:
This concludes Job's description of situations in which he would deserve God's punishment, but he knows they are not true. (See: Hypothetical Situations)
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If my land ever cries out against me, and its furrows weep together
Job speaks of being guilty as if his land were a person who cries out against Job because of the wrong Job has done to the land. AT: "If I have done wrong concerning my land" or "If I have stolen my land from someone" (See: Personification)
to lose their lives
This represents dying. AT: "to die" (See: Metonymy)
weeds instead of barley
The words "let" and "grow" are understood from the previous phrase. AT: "let weeds grow instead of barley" (See: Ellipsis)
translationWords
harvest
life
thorn
wheat
barley
word
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 vv38, 40 31:38 The land was the chief witness to crimes…
31:38 The land was the chief witness to crimes committed upon it (20:27; see Gen 4:10; cp. Jas 5:4).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.