Job 31:10

_IF MINE HEART HAVE BEEN DECEIVED BY A WOMAN, OR IF I HAVE LAID WAIT AT MY NEIGHBOUR'S DOOR;_ Job asserts his innocence of adultery. DECEIVED - hath let itself be seduced (Proverbs 7:8, etc.; Genesis 39:7). LAID WAIT - until the husband went out. Verse 10. GRIND - turn the handmill. Be the most abject slave and concubine (Isaiah 47:2; 2 Samuel 12:11). Verse 11. In the earliest times punished with death (Genesis 38:24). So in later times ...

9-15 All the defilements of the life come from a deceived heart. Lust is a fire in the soul: those that indulge it, are said to burn. It consumes all that is good there, and lays the conscience waste. It kindles the fire of God's wrath, which, if not quenched by the blood of Christ, will consume even to eternal destruction. It consumes the body; it consumes the substance. Burning lusts bring burning judgments. Job had a numerous household, and he managed it well. He considered that he had a Master in heaven; and as we are undone if God should be severe with us, we ought to be mild and gentle towards all with whom we have to do....

Verse Job 31:10. _LET MY WIFE GRIND UNTO ANOTHER_] Let her work at the _handmill_, grinding corn; which was the _severe_ work of the meanest _slave_. In this sense the passage is understood both by the _Syriac_ and _Arabic_. See Exodus 11:5, and Isaiah 47:2; and see at the end of the chapter. Job 31:40. _AND LET OTHERS BOW DOWN UPON HER._] Let her be in such a state as to have no command of her own person; her owner disposing of her person as he pleases. In Asiatic countries slaves were considered so absolutely the property of their owners, that they not only served themselves of them in the way of

THEN LET MY WIFE GRINED UNTO ANOTHER - Let her be subjected to the deepest humiliation and degradation. Probably Job could not have found language which would have more emphatically expressed his sense of the enormity of this crime, or his perfect consciousness of innocence. The last thing which a man would imprecate on himself, would be that which is specified in this verse. The word “grind” (טחן _ṭâchan_) means to crush, to beat small; then to grind, as in a handmill; Judges 16:21; Numbers 11:8. This was usually the work of females and slaves; see the notes at Isaiah 47:2. The meaning here is, “Let my wife be the mill-wench to another; be his abject slave, and b

EXPOSITION The conclusion of Job's long speech (ch. 26-31.) is now reached. He winds it up by a solemn vindication of himself from all the charges of wicked conduct which have been alleged or insinuated against him. perhaps it may be said that he goes further, maintaining generally his moral rectitude in respect of all the principal duties which a man owes either to God (verses 4-6, 24-28, 35-37) or to his fellows (verses 1-3, 7-23, 29-34, 38-40). He protests that he is innocent of impure thoughts (verses 1-4); of false seeming (verses 5-8); of adultery (verses 9-12); of injustice towards dependants (verses 13-15); of hardness towards the poor and needy (verses 16-23); of covetousness (verses 24, 25); of idolatry (verses 26-28); of malevolence (verses 29, 30); of want of hospitality (verses 31, 32); of hiding his transgressions (verses 33, 34); and of injustice as a landlord (verses 38-4...

[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 such as were taken captives and made prisoners by an enemy were put unto, as Samson, Judges 16:21; and it may be observed, that to grind in a mill was also the work of women, Exodus 11:5; as it was in early times; Homer c speaks of it as in times before him; but others take the words in a figurative sense, as if he imprecated that she lie with another man, and be defiled by him, as the Targum, Aben Ezra, and others d; see Isaiah 4

CHAPTER 31 _ 1. My chastity and righteousness (Job 31:1)_ 2. My philanthropy (Job 31:13) 3. My integrity and hospitality (Job 31:24) 4. Let God and man disprove me (Job 31:35) Job 31:1. His final word is the final word in his self-righteous vindication. He gives Eliphaz the lie. He gives a review of his life to prove that he is clean in the sight of God and of man. Even if after this outburst his friends would have an inclination to answer him they could not have done so. He silenced them for good. But what are his declarations after all

JOB 31. THE OATH OF CLEARING. Job's final protestation of his innocence, and appeal to God to judge him. This chapter, says Duhm, is the high-water mark of the OT ethic, higher than the Decalogue or even than the prophets, since they deal with social not private morality. Duhm notes especially the humanity towards the slave based on the fact of a common creation, also that we are not to hate our enemies. (Job does not go so far as to say, Love your enemies; that is Christ's.) JOB 31:1. Job clears himself of secret sensual desires. He remembered that the all-seeing God punishes the evildoer. Job speaks from the standpoint he had occupied before his trials made him doubt the Divine justice. JOB 31:5. He clears himself of falsehood and covetousness....

THEN LET MY WIFE GRIND UNTO ANOTHER— _May my wife be defiled by another._...

b. Was upright in his domestic relations (Job 31:9-15) c. He was kind and neighborly. (Job 31:16-23) TEXT 31:9-23 9 IF MY HEART HATH BEEN ENTICED ONTO A WOMAN, And I have laid wait at my neighbor's door; 10 Then let my wife grind onto another, And let others bow down upon her. 11 For that were a heinous crime; Yea, it were an iniquity to be punished by the judges: 12 For it is a fire that consumeth unto Destruction, And would root out all mine increase. 13 If I have despised the cause of my man-servant or of my maid-servant, When they contended with me; 14 What then shall I do when God riseth up? And when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? 15 Did not he that made me in the womb make him? And did