Job 22:9

_THOU HAST SENT WIDOWS AWAY EMPTY, AND THE ARMS OF THE FATHERLESS HAVE BEEN BROKEN._ Empty - without their wants being relieved (Genesis 31:42). The Mosaic law especially protected the widow and fatherless (Exodus 22:22); the violation of it in their case by the great is a complaint of the prophets (Isaiah 1:17). ARMS - supports, helps on which one leans (Hosea 7:15, "I have strengthened their arms"). Thou hast robbed them their only stay. Job replies in Job 29:11....

5-14 Eliphaz brought heavy charges against Job, without reason for his accusations, except that Job was visited as he supposed God always visited every wicked man. He charges him with oppression, and that he did harm with his wealth and power in the time of his prosperity....

Verse Job 22:9. _THE ARMS OF THE FATHERLESS_] Whatever _strength_ or _power_ or property they had, of that thou hast deprived them. Thou hast been hard-hearted and cruel, and hast enriched thyself with the spoils of the poor and the defenceless....

THOU HAST SENT WIDOWS AWAY EMPTY - That is, without regarding their needs, and without doing anything to mitigate their sorrows. The oppression of the widow and the fatherless is, in the Scriptures, every where regarded as a crime of special magnitude; see the notes at Isaiah 1:17. THE ARMS OF THE FATHERLESS HAVE BEEN BROKEN - Thou hast taken away all that they relied on. Thou hast oppressed them and taken advantage of their weak and defenseless condition to enrich yourself. This charge was evidently gratuitous and unjust. It was the result of an “inference” from the fact that he was thus afflicted, and about as just as inferences, in such cases, usually are. To all this, Job replies in beautiful language in Job 29:11, when describing his f

EXPOSITION JOB 22:1 Eliphaz returns to the attack, but with observations that are at first strangely pointless and irrelevant, _e.g._ on the unprofitableness of man to God (verses l, 2), and on the slight importance of Job's case (verse 3). After this weak prelude, however, there is more vigour in his assault. In verses 4-9 he directly charges Job with a number of specified sins, and in verses 10, 11 declares his sufferings to be the consequence of them. He then proceeds to accuse him of denying God's omniscience (verses 12-14), and, alter some not very successful attempts to retort on him his own words (verses 15-20), finally recurs to his favourite devices (see Job 5:17) of exhorting Job to submission and repentance, and promising him restoration to God's favour and a ret

THOU HAST SENT WIDOWS AWAY EMPTY,.... Either out of their own houses, which he spoiled, and devoured, and stripped, and cleared of all that were in them, as did the Scribes and Pharisees in Christ's time, Matthew 23:14; or out of his own house, when they came to him, as a rich man, for charity; as they came to him wanting relief, they went away so; if without food and clothing, they were bid to depart without giving them anything to feed and clothe them with; or if they came to him as a civil magistrate to have justice done them, and to be delivered out of the hands of their oppressors, they could not obtain any, but were dismissed without it; how contrary is this to Job 29:13; AND THE ARMS OF THE FATHERLESS HAVE BEEN BROKEN; not in a literal sense, as if when refusing to go out

THE THIRD SERIES OF CONTROVERSIES CHAPTER 22 The Third Address of Eliphaz _ 1. Is not thy wickedness great? (Job 22:1)_ 2. In what Job had sinned (Job 22:6) 3. The omniscience of God and the ways of the wicked (Job 22:12) 4. Eliphaz's exhortation and promise (Job 22:21) Job 22:1. The third cycle of addresses begins again with Eliphaz, the wise man from Teman. He tries to maintain his dignity and lofty conception, but he proves too well that Job's accusation of insincerity is well-founded. He starts out with reminding Job of the majesty

JOB 22. THIRD SPEECH OF ELIPHAZ. The only new thing that Eliphaz has to say, is definitely to describe the sin of Job! Yet his mildness makes him end with bright promises. JOB 22:1. Is it not to Job's advantage to be pious? Will God chasten him for anything else but sin? Eliphaz would point out that it is Job s advantage to be pious, but he completes his statement by adding that it is no advantage to God. He means that God is too exalted to take any interest in man, except to reward and punish him. Hence the cause of man's calamities cannot be in God, but only in man (Job 22:6). Job 22:6 ascribes to Job the sins typical of the rich man....

The Third Circle of Speeches In the first round of speeches the three friends exhausted the argument from the general conception of God. In the second they exhausted the argument from the operation of His providence in the world, as observed in the fate of the wicked. To the last Job had replied by a direct contradiction, adducing facts and testimony in proof that the fate of the wicked man in God's providence was in no way so uniformly miserable as the three friends had represented (ch. 21.) There is, manifestly, now left but one weapon in the hands of the three friends, namely, to express openly what they had hinted at formerly in a veiled manner, and charge Job directly with great sins. This charge is made by Eliphaz in the opening speech of the third round of debate (ch. 22.) As in the two preceding circles of debate, Job's mind is too much absorbed in the contemplation of the grea...

2. Specific sins charged against Job, and their consequences (Job 22:6-11) TEXT 22:6-11 6 FOR THOU HAST TAKEN PLEDGES OF THY BROTHER FOR NOUGHT, And stripped the naked of their clothing. 7 Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, And thou hast withholden bread from the hungry. 8 But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; And the honorable man, he dwelt in it. 9 Thou hast sent widows away empty, And the arms of the fatherless have been broken. 10 Therefore snares are round about thee, And sudden fear troubleth thee, 11 Or darkness, so that thou canst not see, And abundance of waters cover thee. COMMENT 22:6-11 JOB 22:6Eliphaz begins analysis of specific sins