Job 31:38

_IF MY LAND CRY AGAINST ME, OR THAT THE FURROWS LIKEWISE THEREOF COMPLAIN;_ Personification. The complaints of the unjustly ousted proprietors are transferred to the lands themselves (Job 31:20; Genesis 4:10; Habakkuk 2:11). If I have unjustly acquired lands (Job 24:2; Isaiah 5:8). FURROWS - the specification of these makes it likely, he implies in this, 'If I paid not the labourer for tillage;' as next verse, 'If I paid him not for gathering in the fruits.' Thus, of the four clauses in...

33-40 Job clears himself from the charge of hypocrisy. We are loth to confess our faults, willing to excuse them, and to lay the blame upon others. But he that thus covers his sins, shall not prosper, Proverbs 28:13. He speaks of his courage in what is good, as an evidence of his sincerity in it. When men get estates unjustly, they are justly deprived of comfort from them; it was sown wheat, but shall come up thistles. What men do not come honestly by, will never do them any good. The words of Job are ended. They end with a bold assertion, that, with respect to accusation against his moral and religious character as the cause for his sufferings, he could appeal to God. But, however confident Job was, we shall see he was mistaken, chap. Job 40:4;...

Verse Job 31:38. _IF MY LAND CRY_] The most careless reader may see that the introduction of this and the two following verses here, disturbs the connection, and that they are most evidently out of their place. Job seems here to refer to that law, Leviticus 25:1, by which the Israelites were obliged to give the _land rest every_ _seventh year_, that the soil might not be too much exhausted by perpetual cultivation, especially in a country which afforded so few advantages to improve the arable ground by manure. He, conscious that he had acted according to this law, states that his _land_ could _not cry out against him_, nor its _furrows complain_. He had not broken the law, nor exhausted the soil....

IF MY LAND CRY AGAINST ME - This is a new specification of an offence, and an imprecation of an appropriate punishment if he had been guilty of it. Many have supposed that these closing verses have been transferred from their appropriate place by an error of transcribers, and that they should have been inserted between Job 31:23 - or in some previous part of the chapter. It is certain that Job 31:35 would make an appropriate and impressive close of the chapter, being a solemn appeal to God in reference to all the specifications, or to the general tenor of his life; but there is no authority from the MSS. to make any change in the present arrangement. All the ancient versions insert the verses in the place which they now occupy, and in this all versions agree, except, according to Ken

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...

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 here, after Job had expressed his desire to have a hearer and judge of his cause, and his charge exhibited in writing, and his confidence of the issue of it, should it be granted, returns to his former subject, to clear himself from any notorious vice he was suspected of or charged with; and as he had gone through what might respect him

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....

LAND CRY... COMPLAIN. Figure of speech _Prosopopoeia._ App-6....

e. He lived openly and would not hesitate to have the Almighty publish his record. (Job 31:29-40) TEXT 31:29-40 29 If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, Or lifted up myself when evil found him 30 (Yea, I have not suffered my mouth to sin By asking his life with a curse); 31 If the men of my tent have not said, Who can find one that hath not been filled with his meat? 32 (The sojourner hath not lodged in the street; But I have opened my doors to the traveller); 33 If like Adam I have covered my transgressions, By hiding mine iniquity in my bosom. 34 Because I feared the great multitude, And the contempt of families terrified me, So that I kept silence, and went not out of the door 35 Oh that I had one to hear me! (Lo, here is my signature, let the Almighty answer me)...