INTRODUCTION TO JOB 31 In this chapter Job gives an account of himself in private life, of the integrity and uprightness of his life, and his holy walk and conversation, with this view, that it might be thought that the afflictions which were upon him were not on account of a vicious course of life... [ Continue Reading ]
I MADE A COVENANT WITH MINE EYES,.... Not to look upon a woman, and wantonly gaze at her beauty, lest his heart should be drawn thereby to lust after her; for the eyes are inlets to many sins, and particularly to uncleanness, of which there have been instances, both in bad men and good men, Genesis... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WHAT PORTION OF GOD [IS THERE] FROM ABOVE?.... What good portion, as the Targum paraphrases it, can impure persons expect from God? such who indulge themselves, and live in the sin of uncleanness, cannot hope to have any part in God, or a portion of good things from him; he is above, and in the... [ Continue Reading ]
[IS] NOT DESTRUCTION TO THE WICKED?.... It is even to such wicked men, who live in the sin of fornication, and make it their business to ensnare and corrupt virgins; and which is another reason why Job was careful to avoid that sin; wickedness of every sort is the cause of destruction, destruction a... [ Continue Reading ]
DOTH NOT HE SEE MY WAYS, AND COUNT ALL MY STEPS?] That is, God, who is above, and the Almighty that dwells on high; he looks down from heaven, and beholds all the ways and works, the steps and motions, of the children of men; there is no darkness where the workers of iniquity can hide themselves; th... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I HAVE WALKED WITH VANITY,.... Or with vain men, as Bar Tzemach interprets it, keeping company and having fellowship with them in their vain and sinful practices; or in the vanity of his mind, indulging himself in impurity of heart and life; or rather using deceitful methods to cheat and defraud... [ Continue Reading ]
LET ME BE WEIGHED IN AN EVEN BALANCE,.... Or "in balances of righteousness" z, even in the balance or strict justice, the justice of God; he was so conscious to himself that he had done no injustice to any man in his dealings with them, that, if weight of righteousness, which was to be, and was the... [ Continue Reading ]
IF MY STEP HATH TURNED OUT OF THE WAY,.... The way of God, the way of his commandments, the good and right way, the way of truth and righteousness, so far as Job had knowledge of it: for, besides the law and light of nature the Gentiles had in common, good men had some revelation, and notions of the... [ Continue Reading ]
[THEN] LET ME SOW, AND ANOTHER EAT,.... If what he had before said was not true; but he had turned out of the way of righteousness, and walked after the sight of his eyes, and the mammon of unrighteousness cleaved to his hands; then he wishes might sow his fields, and another enjoy the increase of t... [ Continue Reading ]
IF MINE HEART HAVE BEEN DECEIVED BY A WOMAN,.... By another man's wife, by wantonly looking at her beauty, and so lusting after her; and so, not through any blame or fault of hers, or by any artful methods made use of by her, to allure and ensnare; such as were practised by the harlot, Proverbs 7:1;... [ Continue Reading ]
[THEN] LET MY WIFE GRIND UNTO ANOTHER,.... Which some understand literally, of her being put to the worst of drudgery and slavery, to work at a mill, and grind corn for the service of a stranger, and be exposed to the company of the meanest of persons, and to their insults and abuses; as we find suc... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THIS [IS] AN HEINOUS CRIME,.... Adultery; it is contrary to the light of nature, and is condemned by it as a great sin, Genesis 20:9; as well as contrary to the express will and law of God, Exodus 20:14; and, though all sin is a transgression of the law of God, and deserving of death; yet there... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR IT [IS] A FIRE [THAT] CONSUMETH TO DESTRUCTION,.... Referring either to the nature of the sin of uncleanness; it is inflammatory, a burning lust, a fire burning in the breast; see 1 Corinthians 7:9; or to the effect of it, either the rage of jealousy in the injured person, which is exceeding fie... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I DID DESPISE THE CAUSE OF MY MANSERVANT, OR OF MY MAIDSERVANT,.... Whether it was a cause that related to any controversy or quarrel among themselves when it was brought before him, he did not reject it, because of the meanness of the contending parties, and the state of servitude they were in;... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT THEN SHALL I DO WHEN GOD RISETH UP?.... That is, if he had despised and rejected the cause of his servants, or had neglected, or refused to do them justice; he signifies he should be at the utmost loss to know what to do, what excuse to make, or what to say in his own defence, when God should r... [ Continue Reading ]
DID NOT HE THAT MADE ME IN THE WOMB MAKE HIM?.... And her also, both his manservant and maidservant: these were made, by the Lord as Job was, and in a like place and manner as he himself; though parents are the instruments of begetting children, and of bringing them into the world, God is the Maker... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I HAVE WITHHELD THE POOR FROM [THEIR] DESIRE,.... Their reasonable desires, and which it was in his power to grant; as when they desired a piece of bread, being hungry, or clothes to cover them, being naked; but not unreasonable desires, seeking and asking great things for themselves, or unlimite... [ Continue Reading ]
OR HAVE EATEN MY MORSEL MYSELF ALONE,.... Though he had kept no doubt a plentiful table in the time of his prosperity suitable to his circumstances, yet had been no luxurious person, and therefore calls provisions a "morsel"; however, be it what it would, more or less, he did not eat it alone; what... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR FROM MY YOUTH HE WAS BROUGHT UP WITH ME AS [WITH] A FATHER,.... That is, the poor or the fatherless, one or both; as soon as he was at years of discretion, and was capable of observing the distressed circumstances of others, he had a tender and compassionate regard to the poor and fatherless, an... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I HAVE SEEN ANY PERISH FOR WANT OF CLOTHING,.... A man may be in such poor circumstances as to want proper clothing to cover his naked body with, and preserve it from the inclemencies of the weather, and for want of it be ready to perish or die with cold. Job denies he had seen any such; not that... [ Continue Reading ]
IF HIS LOINS HAVE NOT BLESSED ME,.... Which were girded and covered with garments he gave him; which, as often as he put on and girded his loins with, put him in mind of his generous benefactor, and this put him upon sending up an ejaculatory wish to heaven, that all happiness and blessedness might... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I HAVE LIFTED UP MY HAND AGAINST THE FATHERLESS,.... Either in a menacing way, threatening what he would do to them; which, from a man of wealth and authority, a civil magistrate, a judge, is very terrible to the poor and fatherless; or in order to strike him, which would be to smite with the fis... [ Continue Reading ]
[THEN] LET MINE ARM FALL FROM MY SHOULDER BLADE,.... With which the upper part of it is connected; let it be disjointed from it, or rot and drop off from it; a dreadful calamity this, to lose an arm and the use of it, to have it full off immediately, as a judgment from God, and in just retaliation f... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR DESTRUCTION [FROM] GOD [WAS] A TERROR TO ME,.... Though he feared not men, they being at his beck and command, ready to do any thing for him he should order, yet he feared God; and the dread of his resentment, and of destruction from him the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy, had such... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I HAVE MADE GOLD MY HOPE,.... Job here purges himself from idolatry in a figurative sense, as he afterwards does from it, taken in a literal sense; for covetousness is idolatry, and a covetous man is an idolater; he worships his gold and silver, placing his affections on them, and putting his tru... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I REJOICED BECAUSE MY WEALTH [WAS] GREAT,.... As it was, see Job 1:2; yet he did not set his heart upon it, please himself with it, indulge to a carnal joy on account of it, nor suffer it to engross his affections, or alienate them from God his chief joy; not but that a man may lawfully rejoice i... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I BEHELD THE SUN WHEN IT SHINED,.... Some take this to be a reason why Job did not make gold his hope and confidence, because all sublunary and earthly enjoyments must be uncertain, fading, and perish, since the sun and moon are not without their deficiencies and changes, to which sense the Septu... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MINE HEART HATH BEEN SECRETLY ENTICED,.... Drawn away by beholding the magnitude of these bodies, the swiftness of their motion, their glorious appearance, and great usefulness to mankind, to entertain a thought of their being deities; and privately to worship them, in secret acts of devotion, a... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS ALSO [WERE] AN INIQUITY [TO BE PUNISHED BY] THE JUDGE,.... As well as adultery, Job 31:11; by the civil magistrates and judges of the earth, who are God's vicegerents, and therefore it behooves them to take cognizance of such an iniquity, and to punish for it, which affects in so peculiar a man... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I REJOICED AT THE DESTRUCTION OF HIM THAT HATED ME,.... Job, though a good man, had his enemies, as all good men have, and that because of their goodness, and who hated him with an implacable hatred, without a cause, there being a rooted bitter enmity in the seed of the serpent against the godly... [ Continue Reading ]
NEITHER HAVE I SUFFERED MY MOUTH TO SIN,.... Which, as it is the instrument of speech, is often the means of much sin; particularly of cursing men, and expressing much bitterness against enemies; but Job laid an embargo upon it, kept it as with a bridle, restrained it from uttering any evil, or wish... [ Continue Reading ]
IF THE MEN OF MY TABERNACLE,.... Either his friends, that came to visit him, and take a meal with him, and would sometimes tarry awhile with him in his house, being very free and familiar with him; and who were, as it were, at home in his tabernacle; or rather his domestic servants, that were under... [ Continue Reading ]
THE STRANGER DID NOT LODGE IN THE STREET,.... By a stranger is not meant an unconverted man, that is a stranger to God and godliness, to Christ, and the way of salvation by him, to the Spirit of God and spiritual things, nor a good man, who is a stranger and pilgrim on earth; but one that is out of... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I COVERED MY TRANSGRESSIONS AS ADAM,.... Job could not be understood, by this account he had given of the holiness of his life, that he thought himself quite free from sin; he had owned himself to be a sinner in several places before, and disclaimed perfection; and here he acknowledges he was gui... [ Continue Reading ]
DID I FEAR A GREAT MULTITUDE?.... No, they did not deter him from confessing his sin in the most public manner, when sensible or convicted of it, and when such a public acknowledgment was necessary: OR DID THE CONTEMPT OF FAMILIES TERRIFY ME? no, the contempt he might suppose he should be had in by... [ Continue Reading ]
OH, THAT ONE WOULD HEAR ME!.... Or, "who will give me a hearer?" l Oh, that I had one! not a nearer of him as a teacher and instructor of many, as he had been, Job 4:3; or only to hear what he had delivered in this chapter; but to hear his cause, and hear him plead his own cause in a judiciary way;... [ Continue Reading ]
SURELY I WOULD TAKE IT UPON MY SHOULDER,.... The bill of indictment, the charge in writing; this he would take up and carry on his shoulder as a very light thing, having nothing weighty in it, no charge of sin and guilt to bear him down; nothing but what he could easily stand up under, only some tri... [ Continue Reading ]
I WOULD DECLARE TO HIM THE NUMBER OF MY STEPS,.... To his judge, or to him that contended with him, and drew up the bill against him; he would forward it, assist in it, furnish materials for it, give an account of all the transactions of his life that he could remember; this he says not as though he... [ Continue Reading ]
IF MY LAND CRY AGAINST ME,.... Some think that this verse and Job 31:39 stand out of their place, and should rather follow after Job 31:34; and some place them after Job 31:25; and others after Job 31:8; but this is the order of them in all copies and versions, as they stand in our Bibles; and he... [ Continue Reading ]
IF I HAVE EATEN THE FRUITS THEREOF WITHOUT MONEY,.... Or, "the strength thereof without silver" b; see Genesis 4:12, silver being the money chiefly in use in those times. Job's meaning is, that he ate not anything of the fruits and increase of his own land, without having paid for the same, which he... [ Continue Reading ]
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,... [ Continue Reading ]