Job 27:4

_MY LIPS SHALL NOT SPEAK WICKEDNESS, NOR MY TONGUE UTTER DECEIT._ (Job 6:28; Job 6:30.) The "deceit" would be, if he were to admit guilt, against the witness of his conscience....

1-6 Job's friends now suffered him to speak, and he proceeded in a grave and useful manner. Job had confidence in the goodness both of his cause and of his God; and cheerfully committed his cause to him. But Job had not due reverence when he spake of God as taking away his judgment, and vexing his soul. To resolve that our hearts shall not reproach us, while we hold fast our integrity, baffles the designs of the evil spirit....

Verse Job 27:4. _MY LIPS SHALL NOT SPEAK WICKEDNESS_] As I have hitherto lived in all good conscience before God, as he knoweth, so will I continue to live....

MY LIPS SHALL NOT SPEAK WICKEDNESS - This solemn profession made on oath might have done something to allay the suspicions of his friends in regard to him, and to show that they had been mistaken in his character. It is a solemn assurance that he did not mean to vindicate the cause of wickedness, or to say one word in its favor; and that as long as he lived he would never be found advocating it. NOR MY TONGUE UTTER DECEIT - I will never make any use of sophistry; I will not attempt to make “the worse appear the better reason;” I will not be the advocate of error. This had always been the aim of Job, and he now says that no circumstance should ever induce him to pursue a different course as long as he lived. Probably he means, also, as the following verse seems to imply, that no consideration should ever induce him to countenance error or to palliate wrong. He would not be deterred from e...

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

MY LIPS SHALL NOT SPEAK WICKEDNESS,.... This is the thing he swears to, this the matter of his oath, not only that he would not speak a wicked word not anything corrupt, unsavoury, unchaste, profane, and idle nor speak evil of his neighbours and friends or of any man; but that he would not speak wickedly of himself, as he must do, if he owned himself to be a wicked man and an hypocrite as his friends charged him, and they would have had him confessed; but he swears he would not utter such wickedness as long as he had any breath in him: NOR MY TONGUE UTTER DECEIT; which respects the same thing; not merely any fallacy or lie, or what might impose upon and deceive another, which yet he was careful of; but such deceit and falsehood as would be a belying himself, which would be the case should he say that he was devoid of integrity and sincerity....

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

Continuation of Job's reply to Bildad. Job 27:1 must be removed as a gloss. Job swears by God that he (in full possession of his powers, Job 27:3) tells the truth (Job 27:4). God forbid that he should justify the friends (Job 27:5), _i.e._ declare them in the right; on the contrary he will maintain his innocence (Job 27:6). In Job 27:6 b follow _mg._...

WICKEDNESS. Hebrew. _'aval_. App-44....