Job 27:12

_I WILL TEACH YOU BY THE HAND OF GOD: THAT WHICH IS WITH THE ALMIGHTY WILL I NOT CONCEAL._ These words are contrary to Job's previous sentiments (notes, Job 21:22; Job 24:22). They therefore seem to be Job's statement, not so much of his own sentiments, as of what Zophar would have said, had he spoken when his turn came, (end of Job 26:1.) So Job stated the friends' opinion (Job 21:17; Job 24:18). The objection is, Why, if so, does not Job answer Zophar's opinion, as stated by himself? The fact is, it is probable that Job tacitly, by giving, in...

11-23 Job's friends, on the same subject, spoke of the misery of wicked men before death as proportioned to their crimes; Job considered that if it were not so, still the consequences of their death would be dreadful. Job undertook to set this matter in a true light. Death to a godly man, is like a fair gale of wind to convey him to the heavenly country; but, to a wicked man, it is like a storm, that hurries him away to destruction. While he lived, he had the benefit of sparing mercy; but now the day of God's patience is over, and he will pour out upon him his wrath. When God casts down a man, there is no flying from, nor bearing up under his anger. Those who will not now flee to the arms of Divine grace, which are stretched out to receive them, will not be able to flee from the arms of Divine wrath, which will shortly be stretched out to destroy them. And what is a man profited if he ga...

Verse Job 27:12. _YE YOURSELVES HAVE SEEN_ IT] Your own experience and observation have shown you that the righteous are frequently in affliction, and the wicked in affluence. _WHY THEN ARE YE THUS ALTOGETHER VAIN?_] The original is very emphatical: הבל תהבלו _hebel tehbalu_, and well expressed by Mr. _Good_: "Why then should ye thus _babble babblings_!" It our language would allow it, we might say _vanitize vanity_....

BEHOLD, ALL YE YOURSELVES HAVE SEEN IT - You have had an opportunity of tracing the proofs of the wisdom of God in his works. WHY THEN ARE YE THUS ALTOGETHER VAIN - Why is it that you maintain such opinions - that you evince no more knowledge of his government and plans - that you argue so inconclusively about him and his administration! Why, since you have had an opportunity of observing the course of events, do you maintain that suffering is necessarily a proof of guilt, and that God deals with all people, in this life, according to their character? A close observation of the course of events would have taught you otherwise. Job proceeds to state what he supposes to be the exact truth on the subject, and particularly aims, in the following chapter, to show that the ways of God are inscrutable, and that we cannot be expected to comprehend them, and are not competent to pronounce upon t...

EXPOSITION JOB 27:1 This chapter divides itself into three distinct portions. In the first, which extends to the end of Job 27:6, Job is engaged in maintaining, with the utmost possible solemnity (verse 2), both his actual integrity (verse 6) and his determination to hold fast his integrity as long as he lives (verses 4-6). In the second (verses 7-10) he implicates a curse upon his enemies. In the third (verses 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, with respect to their prosperity, impunity, and equalization with the righteous in death. The retractation is so complete, the concessions are so large

BEHOLD, ALL YE YOURSELVES HAVE SEEN [IT],.... As they were men of observation, at least made great pretensions to it, as well as of age and experience, they must have seen and observed somewhat at least of the above things; they must have seen the wicked, as David afterwards did, spreading himself like a green bay tree, and the hypocrites in easy and flourishing circumstances, and good men labouring under great afflictions and pressures, and Job himself was now an instance of that before their eyes: WHY THEN ARE YE THUS ALTOGETHER VAIN? or "become vain in vanity" k; so exceeding vain, so excessively trifling, as to speak and act against the dictates of their own conscience, against their own sense, and what they saw with their own eyes, and advance notions so contrary thereunto; as to affirm that evil men are always punished of God in this life, and good men are succeeded and prospered...

Remember that Job's friends had accused him of having committed some great sin; which would account for his great sorrows. The good man is naturally very indignant, and he uses the strongest possible language to cast away front himself with horror the charges which they brought against him in the day of his grief. Job 27:1. _Moreover Job continued his parable, and said, As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; all the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my tips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit._ He felt that; it would be wicked for him to confess to what he had never done; it would be deceit for him to acknowledge crimes which he had never committed. Therefore he most solemnly asseverates, by the living God, that he never will permit the falsehood to pass his lips. He had no

CHAPTER 27 JOB'S CLOSING WORDS IN SELF-VINDICATION _ 1. My righteousness I hold fast (Job 27:1)_ 2. The contrast between himself and the wicked (Job 27:7) Job 27:1. 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 and Job 27:13 to Zophar and claim that Job did not speak them at all. But other critics, like Wellhausen, Kuenen and Dillman say th

THIRD SPEECH OF ZOPHAR. He once more reiterates, in spite of all Job has said, that the wicked shall perish. He bursts out Let mine enemy be as God's enemy. I can wish him no worse doom. In Job 27:8 translate as _mg._ Job 27:11 is quite in the vein of Zophar, who feels very much in the secrets of God (Job 11:5). The plurals you and ye have probably been substituted for singulars when Zophar's speech had become attributed to Job. (Peake, however, gives Job 27:11 and Job 27:12 to Job, taking them as the opening and closing verses of a suppressed description of the immoral

The disastrous fate of the wicked man at the hand of God. Job 27:7-10 drew a contrast between the internal state of the mind of the speaker and that of the sinner; in these verses the contrast is pursued in a terrible picture of the external history and fate of the sinner at the hand of God. From Job's hand such a picture can have no meaning, unless _either_he now anticipates for himself a happy issue out of his afflictions, and restoration to prosperity, while the calamities that befall the wicked are final; _or_regards his own afflictions, even though they should bring him unto death, as altogether different in their character and marks from those that bring the wicked man to destruction. Either side of the alternative sets Job in complete contradiction to his position in the Chapter s that precede and follow this one. On the former side see on...