THE HISTORICAL BOOKS - Lakeside Ministrieslakesideministries.com/1stCovenant/1st_Cov_Unedited/Job... · Web viewOr is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless? 4 "Is it because

THIS MATERIAL HAS NOT BEEN EDITED FORSCRIPTURAL ACCURACY, SPELLING, OR GRAMMAR

THE HAGIOGRAPHAJOB

LESSON FOUR

ELIPHAZ THE TEMANITE’S THIRD ADDRESS22:1-30 ELIPHAZ. THIRD ADDRESS

A B-1 22:1-4 Argument. (General.) Concerning God.C D 22:5-9 Accusation. (Particular.)

E 22:10, 11 Punishment. (Particular.)B-2 22:12 Argument. (General.) Concerning God.

C D 22:13, 14 Accusation. (Particular.)E 22:15-20 Punishment. (Particular.)

B-3 22:21-30 Argument. (Particular.) Concerning God and Job.

Job 22:1-3022:1 Eliphaz Accuses Job of Wickedness Then Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said: 2 "Can a man be profitable to God, though he who is wise may be profitable to himself? 3 Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that you are righteous? Or is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless? 4 "Is it because of your fear of Him that He corrects you, and enters into judgment with you? 5 Is not your wickedness great, and your iniquity without end? 6 For you have taken pledges from your brother for no reason, and stripped the naked of their clothing. 7 You have not given the weary water to drink, and you have withheld bread from the hungry. 8 But the mighty man possessed the land, and the honorable man dwelt in it. 9 You have sent widows away empty, and the strength of the fatherless was crushed. 10 Therefore snares are all around you and sudden fear troubles you, 11 or darkness so that you cannot see; and an abundance of water covers you. 12 "Is not God in the height of heaven? And see the highest stars, how lofty they are! 13 And you say, 'What does God know?Can He judge through the deep darkness? 14 Thick clouds cover Him, so that He cannot see, and He walks above the circle of heaven.' 15 Will you keep to the old way which wicked men have trod, 16 who were cut down before their time, whose foundations were swept away by a flood? 17 They said to God, 'Depart from us! What can the Almighty do to them?' 18 Yet He filled their houses with good things; but the counsel of the wicked is far from me. 19 "The righteous see it and are glad, and the innocent laugh at them: 20 'Surely our adversaries are cut down, and the fire consumes their remnant.' 21 "Now acquaint yourself with Him, and be at peace; thereby good will come to you. 22 Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, and lay up His words in your heart. 23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up;You will remove iniquity far from your tents. 24 Then you will lay your gold in the dust, and the gold of Ophir among the stones of the brooks. 25 Yes, the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver; 26 for then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God. 27 You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you, and you will pay your vows. 28 You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; so light will shine on your ways. 29 When they cast you down, and you say, 'Exaltation will come!' Then He will save the humble person. 30 He will even deliver one who is not innocent; yes, he will be delivered by the purity of your hands." NKJV

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LESSON FOUR JOB

22:1-30: Eliphaz’s third and final speech. 2-4: Eliphaz refers here to Job’s begging in 10:2; 13:23 that God tell him just where he has gone wrong so as to deserve the loss of children, wealth, and health, and insists that God is unbiased. 5-7, 9: Eliphaz here provides the kind of bill of particulars that Job had requested in 10:2; 13:23. These follow naturally from his immediately preceding comments: If God is unbiased and punishes only the wicked, and Job is being punished, then he must be very wicked. In hi final speech, Eliphaz has moved far from his initial position in 4:3-6. Jewish Study Bible

Job 22:2Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?[Can a man be profitable unto God?] God does not afflict thee because thou hast deprived him of any Excellency. A man may be profitable to a man, but no man can profit his Maker. He has no interest in thy conduct; he does not punish thee because thou hast offended and deprived him of some good. Thy iniquities are against justice, and justice requires thy punishment.Job 22:3[Is it any pleasure to the Almighty] Infinite in his perfections, he can neither gain nor lose by the wickedness or righteousness of men.Job 22:4[For fear of thee?] Is it because he is afraid that thou wilt do him some injury, that he has stripped thee of thy power and wealth?Job 22:5[Is not thy wickedness great?] Thy sins are not only many, but they are great; and of thy continuance in them there is no end.Job 22:6[Thou hast taken a pledge?] Thou hast been vexatious in all thy doings, and hast exacted where nothing was due, so that through thee the poor have been unable to procure their necessary clothing.Job 22:7[Thou hast not given water] It was esteemed a great virtue in the East to furnish thirsty travelers with water, especially in the deserts, where scarcely a stream was to be found, and where wells were very rare.

Adam Clarke8: The lands…occupy it, better, “The man of violence owns the earth, and the man who is an object of favoritism is enthroned therein.” The ancient Dead Sea Scroll Aramaic translation of Job recovered from Qumran Cave 11 anticipated modern scholarship in understanding this verse as Eliphaz’s quoting Job’s viewpoint as expressed in 9:24; 15:19. (One of the many problems of interpreting Job is that, like other wisdom texts, it quotes sayings in order to refute them, but there is no equivalent of quotation marks in ancient Hebrew.) Some scholars suggest that originally 22:8 was after 22:14. 10: Eliphaz here repeats what he stated in 4:7-9 and what Bildad stated in 8:4 concerning the death of Job’s children: “They had it coming to them.” Jewish Study Bible

Job 22:8[But as for the mighty man, he had the earth] 'Iysh (OT 376) zªrowa` (OT 2220), the man of arm. Finger, hand, and arm, are all emblems of strength and power. The man of arm is not only the strong man, but the man of power and influence, the man of rapine and plunder.

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[The honorable man] Literally the man whose face is accepted, the respectable man, the man of wealth. Thou wert an enemy to the poor and needy, but thou didst favour and flatter the rich and great.

Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOBJob 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 defenseless.Job 22:10[Therefore snares] As thou hast dealt with others, so has God, in his retributive providence, dealt with thee. As thou hast spoiled, so art thou spoiled. Thou art taken in a net from which thou canst not escape. There is an allusion here to the hunting of the elephant: he is driven into an enclosure in the woods, passing from strait to strait, till brought into a narrow point, from which he cannot escape, and then his consternation is great, and his roaring terrible. God hath hunted thee down, as men hunt down those wild and dangerous beasts. See the note at <Job 18> Adam Clarke

11-14: Holding that Eliphaz is serious in his allegations in 22:5-9, some modern interpreters inspired by Rashi and Ibn Ezra, see in 22:11-14 an explanation of Job’s disregard of the poor and the weak: “You thought, God is above the stars and therefore cannot judge men.” Since in the end Job’s friends are made to apologize to Job for blaming him for his own suffering, and since in v. 13a Eliphaz explicitly says, “You say…,” it is possible to see in vv. 12, 13b-14, and 8 a speech that Eliphaz puts into Job’s mouth so that he can rebut it in vv. 15-30. Of course, Job has said no such thing. This is another indication that there is no true dialogue here, and Job’s accusations that his “friends” are not listening to him are true.

Jewish Study BibleJob 22:11[Or darkness, that thou canst not see] The sense of this passage, in the connection that the particle or gives it with the preceding verse, is not easy to be ascertained. To me it seems very probable that a letter has been lost from the first word; and that 'ow (OT 176), which we translate OR, was originally 'owr (OT 216), LIGHT. The copy used by the Septuagint had certainly this reading; and therefore they translate the verse thus: Thy LIGHT is changed into darkness; that is, Thy prosperity is turned into adversity.

“Or darkness, so you cannot see; a flood of waters covers you.” Job 22:11 Tanakh Hebrew Text

Note: Is it not interesting that a theologian can take a simple Hebrew word like ‘Ow and change its meaning to Owr and then make a complete study on his interpretation of that word. Paul the Learner

Job 22:12[Is not God in the height of heaven?] It appears, from this and the following verses, that Eliphaz was attributing infidel and blasphemous speeches or sentiments to Job. As if he had said: "Thou allows that there is a God, but thou sayest that he is infinitely exalted above the heavens and the stars, and that there is so much dense ether and thick cloud between his throne and the earth, that he can neither see it nor its inhabitants." These were sentiments which Job never held, and never uttered; but if a man be dressed in a bear's skin, he may be hunted and worried by his own dogs. Job's friends attribute falsities to him, and then dilate upon them, and draw inferences from them injurious to his character. Polemic writers, both in theology and politics, often act in this way.

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Job 22:14[He walketh in the circuit of heaven] He confines himself to those infinitely exalted regions and cares nothing for the inhabitants of the earth.Walketh = walketh habitually.Circuit = vault. The Hebrew word here is hug. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB15-30: Eliphaz repeats what he stated in 5:17-27; 15:17-35; what Bildad stated in 8:13-22; 18:5-21; and what Zophar stated in 11:13-20; 20:4-29: that in the long run justice will prevail, and that Job, if he is indeed essentially innocent, will be vindicated and prosper if he will desist from whatever misdemeanors he has committed. 15-18: Here Eliphaz addresses Job, echoing Job’s allegations in 21:14-16. As elsewhere, the truth may be learned from observation of how the world works. Jewish Study Bible

Job 22:15[Hast thou marked the old way?] This is supposed to be another accusation; as if he had said, "Thou follow the same way that the wicked of old have walked in." Here is an evident allusion to the FLOOD, as is particularly noted in the next verse.Job 22:16[Whose foundation was overthrown with a flood] The unrighteous in the days of Noah, who appear to have had an abundance of all temporal good, <Job 22:18>, and who surpassed the deeds of all the former wicked, said in effect to God, Depart from us. And when Noah preached unto them the terrors of the Lord, and the necessity of repentance, they rejected his preaching with, what can the Almighty do for us? Let him do his worst; we care not for him, <Job 22:17>For laamow (OT 8705), to THEM, the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic have evidently read laanuw (OT 8705), to US. This reading quotes their own saying; the former reading narrates it in the third person. The meaning, however, is the same.Job 22:18[But the counsel of the wicked is far from me.] Sarcastically quoting Job's words, <Job 21:14, 16>. Job, having in the preceding chapter described the wicked who said unto the Almighty, "Depart from us," etc., adds, But the counsel of the wicked is far from me. Eliphaz here, having described the impious, among which he evidently ranks Job, makes use of the same expression, as if he had said, "Thank God, I have no connection with you nor your companions; nor is my mind contaminated by your creed."Job 22:19[The righteous see it, and are glad] They see God's judgments on the incorrigibly wicked, and know that the Judge of all the earth does right; hence, they rejoice in all the dispensations of his providence.Job 22:20[Whereas our substance is not cut down] We, who fear the Lord, still continue in health and peace, whereas they who have departed from him are destroyed even to their very remnant.Mr. Good thinks that qiymaanuw (OT 7009), which we translate our substance is the same as the Arabic word for "our people" or "our tribe"; and hence, he translates the clause thus: "For our tribe is not cut off; while even the remnant of these a conflagration consumed." The reference here is supposed to be to the destruction of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah. A judgment by a flood took off the world of the ungodly in the days of Noah. Their remnant, those who lived in the same ungodly way, was taken off by a judgment of fire, in the days of Lot. Eliphaz introduces these two examples in order to terrify Job into a compliance with the exhortation which immediately follows.Job 22:21

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[Acquaint now thyself with him] Perhaps the verb hacken (OT 5532) should be translated here, treasure up, or lay up. Lay up or procure an interest now with him, and be at peace. Get the divine favour, and then thou wilt be at peace with God, and have happiness in thy own soul. Adam Clarke

“Be close to Him and wholehearted; Good things will come to you thereby.” Tanakh Text

LESSON FOUR JOB[Thereby good shall come unto thee.] Baahem (OT 8700), "in them," shall good come unto thee. That is, in getting an interest in the divine favour, and in having thy soul brought into a state of peace with him; thereby, in them, that is, these two things, good will come unto thee. First, thou wilt have an interest in his favour from which thou mayest expect all blessings; and, secondly, from his peace in thy conscience thou wilt feel unutterable happiness. Get these blessings now, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth. Reader, hast thou these blessings?Acquaint. = This is the false theology of Eliphaz.Good = Blessing.Unto =Upon. Most codices, with Aram, Sept, Syr., and Vulg., read “thy gain shall be blessing”.Job 22:22[Receive; I pray thee the law from his mouth] Some, who wish to place Job before the law given by Moses, say that this means the Noahic precepts; others, that the law of nature is intended! Stuff and vanity! The allusion is plainly to the law given by God to the children of Israel, called here by way of emphasis, towraah (OT 8451), the LAW, which contained 'amaaraayw (OT 561), his WORDS, the words or sayings of God himself; consequently, it is not the Noahic precepts, nor the law of nature, neither of which were ever written or registered as the words of God's mouth.

“Accept instruction from His mouth; lay up His words in your heart.” Job 22:22 Tanakh Text. We see that it is not speaking of The Law of Moses, or the Noahic precepts or the Law of Nature but of receiving instructions from the mouth of God. See how things can be misapplied so easily. Paul the Learner

Job 22:23[Thou shalt be built up] God [Shaddai] will restore thee to thy wonted state of prosperity; and thou shalt again have a household, not only of servants, but of children also. So much may be implied in the words, Thou shalt be BUILT UP. Job 22:24[Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust] If you regard treasure as dirt, Ophir-gold as stones of the Wadi, and Shaddai is your treasure and precious silver for you, when you seek the favor of Shaddai, and lift up your face to God, you will pray to Him, and He will listen to you, and you will pay your vows.” Job 22:24-27 Tanakh Text

Note: I thought that I would give you the Hebrew Text [Tanakh] instead of a lot of different interpretations of man. Paul the LearnerTry this why.“Then thou shalt lay up treasure as the dust, and [gold] of Ophir as the pebble-stones.”A New Metrical Version

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Job 22:25[Thou shalt have plenty of silver.] Here again the versions and critics vary. The critics may disagree; but the doctrine of Eliphaz is sufficiently plain: "To those whom God loves best he gives the most earthly good. The rich and the great are his high favorites: the poor and the distressed he holds for his enemies."In the above verses there seems to be a reference to the mode of obtaining the precious metals:1. Gold in dust,2. Gold in streams from the hills and mountains,3. Silver in mines, "silver of giddiness;" of mines so deep as to make one giddy by looking into them.

LESSON FOUR JOBJob 22:26[For then shalt thou have thy delight] Thou shalt know, from thy temporal prosperity that God favors thee; and for his bounty thou shalt be grateful. How different is this doctrine from that of Paul and John! "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus." "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father!" "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God." "We glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience, and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." "We love him because he first loved us." Tribulation itself was often a mark of God's favour.Job 22:27[Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him] Ta`ªtiyr (OT 6279), thou shalt open or unbosom thyself. And when the heart prays, God hears and the person, being blessed, vows fidelity, prays on, is supported, and enabled to pay his vows.Job 22:28[Thou shalt also decree a thing] Whatsoever thou purpose’s in his strength, thou shalt be enabled to accomplish.Job 22:29[When men are cast down] There is a great difficulty in this verse; the sense, however, is tolerably evident, and the following is nearly a literal version: When they shall humble themselves, thou shalt say, be exalted, or, there is exaltation: for the down-cast of eye he will save. The same sentiment as that of our Lord "He that exalteth himself shall be abased; but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

Adam Clarke“When others sink low, you will say it is pride; for He saves the humble. He will deliver the guilty; He will be delivered through the cleanness of your hands.” Job 22:29-30 Tanakh Text

Job 22:30 [He shall deliver the island of the innocent] The word 'iy (OT 336), which we translate island, is most probably the Arabic particle for "whosoever, whatsoever, any, whosoever he may be", as ai rajuli, "whatsoever man he may be." And it is most probable that both words are Arabic words for "any innocent, chaste, pure, or holy person"; for the word has the same meaning both in Hebrew and Arabic. The text may therefore be translated; He shall deliver every innocent person: He, the innocent person, shall be delivered by the pureness of thy hands, i. e., as thou love justice, so thou wilt do justice. Thus ends Eliphaz the Temanite, who began with a tissue of the bitterest charges, continued with the most cruel insinuations, and ended with common-place exhortations to repentance, and promises of secular blessings in consequence: and from his whole speech scarcely can one new or important maxim

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be derived. Blessed be God for Moses and the prophets! For Jesus, the evangelists; and the apostles! Their trumpet gives no uncertain sound: but by that of Job's friends who can prepare himself for the battle?

Adam Clarke

Remember in the studying of the scripture text you will find many different interpretations from paraphrases such as the Septuagint, Targums, Dead Sea Scrolls and many other works. Even among our theologians and the Jewish sages you will find different opinions for as the scripture clearly states, “we see in part and know in part when that which is perfect comes that which in part will be done away.”

Paul the Learner

LESSON FOUR JOB

JOB’S REPLY TO ELIPHAZ’S THIRD ADDRESS

23:1-24:25 JOB’S REPLY TO ELIPHAZ’S THIRD ADDRESSA B 23:1-10 God’s inscrutability.

C 23:11, 12 Job’s integrity.B 23:13-24:1 God’s inscrutability.

C 24:2-25 Man’s iniquity.

23:1-10 (B, above). GOD’S INSCRUTABILITY.A B 23:1-5 Job’s wish for trial.

C 23:6, 7 His confidence of the issue.B 23:8, 9 Job’s search for trial.

C 23:10 His confidence of the issue.

Job 23:1-1723:1 Job Proclaims God's Righteous Judgments Then Job answered and said: 2 "Even today my complaint is bitter; my hand is listless because of my groaning. 3 Oh that I knew where I might find Him that I might come to His seat! 4 I would present my case before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments. 5 I would know the words which He would answer me, and understand what He would say to me. 6 Would He contend with me in His great power? No! But He would take note of me. 7 There the upright could reason with Him, and I would be delivered forever from my Judge. 8 "Look, I go forward, but He is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive Him; 9 When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him. 10 But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. 11 My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside. 12 I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. 13 "But He is unique, and who can make Him change? And whatever His soul desires, that He does. 14 For He performs what is appointed for me, and many such things are with Him. 15 Therefore I am terrified at His presence; when I consider this, I am afraid of Him. 16 For God made my heart weak, and the Almighty terrifies me; 17 because I was not cut off from the presence of darkness, and He did not hide deep darkness from my face. NKJV

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23:1-24:25: Job’s reply to Eliphaz’s third speech. In this speech Job does not even address Eliphaz. He complains about God (23:2-17); he accuses God of not intervening to prevent injustice (24:1-12); and he provides numerous examples of the material success of the unjust, and he wishes that God would punish the wicked. He concludes his speech emphatically with 24:25: “Surely no one can confute.”

23:2-10: The theme is again forensic. Job is insisting that God is hiding. This picks up on a major theological theme of the Bible, especially in Psalms, that God sometimes hides His face from individuals, allowing them to be punished unjustly (e.g. Job 13:24; Psalms 13:2). Jewish Study Bible

Job 23:2Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

LESSON FOUR JOB[Even to-day is my complaint bitter] Job goes on to maintain his own innocence, and shows that he has derived neither conviction nor consolation from the discourses of his friends. He grants that his complaint is bitter; but states that, loud as it may be, the affliction which he endures is heavier than his complaints are loud.Mr. Good translates: "And still is my complaint rebellion?" Do ye construe my lamentations over my unparalleled sufferings as rebellion against God? This, in fact, they had done from the beginning: and the original will justify the version of Mr. Good, for mªriy (OT 4805), which we translate "bitter", may be derived from maarah (OT 4784), "he rebelled."Job 23:3[O that I knew where I might find him!] This and the following verse may be read thus: "Who will give me the knowledge of God that I may find him out? I would come to his establishment; (the place or way in which he has promised to communicate himself ;) I would exhibit, in detail, my judgment (the cause I wish to be tried) before his face, and my mouth would I fill with convincing or decisive arguments;" arguments drawn from his common method of saving sinners, which I should prove applied fully to my case. Hence, the confidence with which he speaks, <Job 23:6>Job 23:5[I would know the words which he would answer me] He would speak nothing but what was true, decree nothing that was not righteous, nor utter anything that I could not comprehend.Job 23:6[Will he plead against me?] He would not exhibit his majesty and his sovereign authority to strike me dumb, or so overawe me that I could not speak in my own vindication.[No; but he would put strength in me.] On the contrary, he would treat me with tenderness, he would rectify my mistakes, he would show me what was in my favour, and would temper the rigid demands of justice by the mild interpretations of equity, and where law could not clear me, mercy would conduct all to the most favorable issue.Job 23:7[There the righteous might dispute with him] Nowkaach (OT 3198), might argue or plead. To dispute with God sounds very harsh.[So should I be delivered for ever] Mr. Good translates: "And triumphantly should I escape from my condemnation." “There the upright would be cleared by Him, and I would escape forever from my judge.” Tanakh TextJob 23:8

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[Behold, I go forward] These two verses paint in vivid colors the distress and anxiety of a soul in search of the favour of God. NO means are left untried, no place unexplored, in order to find the object of his research. This is a true description of the conduct of a genuine penitent.Job 23:9 [On the left hand, where he doth work] In these two verses Job mentions the four cardinal points of the heavens: the EAST by the word qedem (OT 6924), which signifies before, the WEST, by ‘aachowr (OT 268), which signifies after, or the back part; the NORTH, by sªmo'wl (OT 8040), which signifies the left; and the SOUTH, by yaamiyn (OT 3225), which signifies the right. Such is the situation of the world to a man who faces the east; see <Gen. 13:9, 11>, and <28:14>. And from this it appears that the Hebrews, Idumeans, and Arabs had the same ideas of these points of the heavens. It is worthy of remark that Job says, He hides himself on the right hand, (the south,) that I cannot see him: for in fact, the southern point of heaven is not visible in Idumea, where Job was. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

Hence, it comes that when he spake before, <Job 9:9>, of the constellations of the Antarctic pole, he terms them the hidden chambers of the south; i. e., those compartments of the celestial concave that never appeared above the horizon in that place. Mr. Good translates these verses as follows:

Behold! I go forward, and he is not there;And backward, but I cannot perceive him.On the left hand I feel for him, but trace him not:He enshrouded the right hand, and I cannot see him.

Job 23:10[But he knoweth the way that I take] He approves of my conduct; my ways please him. He tries me: but like gold, I shall lose nothing in the fire, I shall come forth more pure and luminous. If that which is reputed to be gold is exposed to the action of a strong fire, if it be genuine, it will lose nothing of its quality, or of its weight. If it went into the fire gold, it will come out gold; the strongest fire will neither alter nor destroy it. So Job: he went into this furnace of affliction an innocent, righteous man; he came out the same. His character lost nothing of its value, nothing of its luster.Job 23:11 [My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept] I have carefully marked his providential dealings; and in his way-- his pure and undefiled religion-- have I walked. I have not only been generally but particularly religious: I have attended carefully to the weightier matters of the law, and have not forgotten its slightest injunctions.Job 23:12[The commandment of his lips] The written law that proceeded from his own mouth.[I have esteemed the words of his mouth] Mr. Good has given a better version of the original: In my bosom have I stored up the words of his mouth. The Asiatics carry everything precious or valuable in their bosom, their handkerchiefs, jewels, purses, etc. Job, therefore, intimates that the words of God's mouth were to him a most precious treasure.

“I have not deviated from what His lips commanded; I have treasured His words more than my daily bread.” Job 23:12 Tanakh Text

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Job 23:13[But he is in one mind] The original is wªhuw' (OT 1931) bª'echaad (OT 259), and is literally, But he is in one: properly rendered by the Vulgate, But he is alone. And not badly rendered by Coverdale. -- "It is he himself alone." He has no partner, his designs are his own, they are formed in his infinite wisdom, and none can turn his determinations aside. It is vain, therefore, for man to contend with his Maker. He designs my happiness, and you cannot prevent its accomplishment.Job 23:14[For he performed the thing that is appointed for me] For he hath appointed me my lot; and like these there are multitudes with him. He diversifies human affairs: scarcely any two men do not have the same lot; nor has the same person the same portion at all times. He has multitudes of resources, expedients, means, etc., which he employs in governing human affairs.

“For He will bring my term to an end, but He has many more such at His disposal.” Job 23:14 Tanakh

LESSON FOUR JOBJob 23:15[Therefore am I troubled] I do not as yet see an end to my afflictions: he has not exhausted his means of trial, therefore, when I consider this, I am afraid of him.Job 23:16[For God maketh my heart soft] Prostrates my strength, deprives me of courage, so that I sink beneath my burden, and I am troubled at the thought of the Almighty, the self-sufficient and eternal Being.Job 23:17[Because I was not cut off] "O, why can I not draw darkness over my face? Why may not thick darkness cover my face?"-- Mr. Good. This verse should be read in connection with the preceding, and then we shall have the following sense. <Job 23:16>: "the Lord hath beaten down my strength, and my soul has been terrified by his fear." <Job 23:17>: "for it is not this deep night in which I am enveloped, nor the evils which I suffer, that have overwhelmed me, I sink only through the fear which the presence of his Majesty inspires. This is my greatest affliction; sufferings, diseases, yea, death itself, are nothing in comparison of the terror which my soul feels in the presence of his tremendous holiness and justice."

NOTHING can humble pious mind so much as Scriptural apprehensions of the majesty of God. It is easy to contemplate his goodness, loving-kindness, and mercy; in all these we have an interest, and from them we expect the greatest good: but to consider his holiness and justice, the infinite righteousness of his nature under the conviction that we have sinned, and broken the laws prescribed by his sovereign Majesty, and to feel ourselves brought as into the presence of his judgment-seat, -- who can bear the thought? If cherubim and seraphim veil their faces before his throne, and the holiest soul exclaims:

I loathe myself when God I seeAnd into nothing fall;

What must a sinner feel, whose conscience is not yet purged from dead works, and who feels the wrath of God abiding on him? And how without such a mediator and sacrifice as Jesus Christ is, can any human spirit come into the presence of its Judge? Those who can approach him without terror know little of his justice and nothing of their sin. When we approach him in prayer, or in any ordinance, should we not feel more reverence than we generally do? Adam Clarke

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24:2-25 MAN’S INIQUITY.D 24:2-17 Crimes of lawless men. E 24:18-20 What the issue ought to be.D 24:21, 22 Crimes of lawless men. E 25:23-25 What the issue commonly is.

JOB SPEAKS ONJob 24:1-2524:1 Job Complains of Violence on the Earth "Since times are not hidden from the Almighty, Why do those who know Him see not His days? 2 "Some remove landmarks; they seize flocks violently and feed on them; 3 they drive away the donkey of the fatherless; They take the widow's ox as a pledge. 4 They push the needy off the road; all the poor of the land are forced to hide. 5 Indeed, like wild donkeys in the desert, they go out to their work, searching for food. The wilderness yields food for them and for their children. 6 They gather their fodder in the field and glean in the vineyard of the wicked.

LESSON FOUR JOB7 They spend the night naked, without clothing, and have no covering in the cold. 8 They are wet with the showers of the mountains, and huddle around the rock for want of shelter. 9 "Some snatch the fatherless from the breast, and take a pledge from the poor. 10 They cause the poor to go naked, without clothing;And they take away the sheaves from the hungry. 11 They press out oil within their walls, and tread winepresses, yet suffer thirst. 12 The dying groan in the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out; Yet God does not charge them with wrong. 13 "There are those who rebel against the light; they do not know its ways nor abide in its paths. 14 The murderer rises with the light; He kills the poor and needy; and in the night he is like a thief. 15 The eye of the adulterer waits for the twilight, Saying, 'No eye will see me'; and he disguises his face. 16 In the dark they break into houses which they marked for themselves in the daytime; they do not know the light. 17 For the morning is the same to them as the shadow of death;If someone recognizes them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death. 18 "They should be swift on the face of the waters, their portion should be cursed in the earth, So that no one would turn into the way of their vineyards. 19 As drought and heat consume the snow waters, so the grave consumes those who have sinned. 20 The womb should forget him, the worm should feed sweetly on him; He should be remembered no more, and wickedness should be broken like a tree. 21 For he preys on the barren who do not bear, And does no good for the widow. 22 "But God draws the mighty away with His power; He rises up, but no man is sure of life. 23 He gives them security, and they rely on it; yet His eyes are on their ways. 24 They are exalted for a little while, and then they are gone. They are brought low; they are taken out of the way like all others; they dry out like the heads of grain. 25 "Now if it is not so, who will prove me a liar, and make my speech worth nothing?" NKJV

24:2-12: All of the sins mentioned by Job are general in nature, and express universal moral expectations of all people, not just Israelites. Similar expectations are found in ancient Near Eastern wisdom literature, and in passages such as Amos 1:3-2:3, which contain oracles of condemnation against nations other than Israel. 2: People remove boundary stones, i.e. they expropriate other people’s real estate; see (Deuteronomy 19:14; 27:17; Proverbs 23:10). 9b: And seize the child of the poor as a pledge: For children enslaved because they were collateral on their parents’ debts, see 2 Kings 4:1.

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Jewish Study Bible 24:2 SOMEThe lawless men, whose various crimes are detailed in the following verses,24:2 LANDMARKSDeut 19:1414 "You shall not remove your neighbor's landmark, which the men of old have set, in your inheritance which you will inherit in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.(NKJ)Job 24:2[Some remove the landmarks] Stones or posts were originally set up to ascertain the bounds of particular estates: and this was necessary in open countries, before hedges and fences were formed. Wicked and covetous men often removed the landmarks or termini, and set them in on their neighbors' ground, that, by contracting their boundaries, they might enlarge their own. The Law of Moses denounces curses on those who remove their neighbors' landmarks. See <Deut. 19:14; 27:17>, and the note on the former place, where the subject is considered at large.[They violently take away flocks, and feed thereof.] Mr. Good translates yirªùw (OT 7462), they destroy, deriving the word, from ra`), to rend, to destroy.The Septuagint had read roèh (OT 7462), a shepherd; and therefore has translated it: "violently carrying off both the flock and the shepherd." Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOBJob 24:4[They turn the needy out of the way] They will not permit them to go by the accustomed paths; they oblige them to take circuitous routes. When the Marquis of H. was made ranger of Richmond Park, he thought it his duty to shut up a pathway which had existed for a long time, and those who presumed, after this shutting up, to break the fence, and take that path as formerly, were prosecuted. A cobbler near the place entered an action against the marquis: the cause was tried, the marquis lost, and the path ordered to be opened, on the ground that it had, time out of mind, been a public undisputed path. When one asked the cobbler, "How he could have the boldness to go to law with the Marquis of H.?" he answered, "Because I did not like to leave the world worse than I found it." All tolerated oppression and voluntary forfeiture of ancient rights, are injurious to society at large, and they who wink at them leave the world worse than they found it.Job 24:5[Rising betimes for a prey] The general sense here seems plain enough. There are some who live a lawless roaming life: make a predatory life their employment, for this purpose, frequent the wilderness, where they seize on and appropriate whatsoever they find, and by this method they and their families are supported.Mr. Good says: "The sense has never yet been understood by any commentator," and hence, he proposes a different division of the words, placing àraabaah (OT 6160), the desert or wilderness, in the first hemistich, thus:

"Rising early for the pillage of the wilderness;The bread of themselves and of their children."

“Like the wild asses of the wilderness, they go about their tasks, seeking food; the wilderness provides each with food for his lads; they harvest fodder in the field, and glean the late grapes in the vineyards of the wicked. They pass the night naked for lack of clothing; they have no covering against the cold.”

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Job 24:5-7 Tanakh Text

Others think that the words are spoken solely of the poor under the hand of oppression, who are driven away from their homes and obliged to seek such support as the wilderness can afford. Such was originally the state of the Bedouins and of the wandering Arab hordes in general: the oppression of the tyrannous governors obliged them to seek refuge in the deserts, where they still live in a roaming predatory life.Job 24:6[They reap every one his corn in the field] This is perfectly characteristic. These wandering hordes often make sudden irruptions, and carry off the harvest of grain, olives, vines etc., and plunge with it into the wilderness where none can follow them. The Chaldee gives the same sense: "They reap in a field that is not their own, and cut off the vineyard of the wicked."Job 24:7[They cause the naked to lodge without clothing] Or rather, they spend the night naked, without clothing; and without a covering from the cold: another characteristic of the wandering Arabs. They are ill-fed, ill-clothed, and often miserably off, even for tents. They can have little household stuff: as they are plunderers, they are often obliged to fly for their lives, and cannot encumber themselves with what is not absolutely needful.

LESSON FOUR JOB

Job 24:8[They are wet with the showers of the mountains] Mr. Good thinks that torrents, not showers, is the proper translation of the original zerem (OT 2230); but I think showers of the mountain strictly proper. I have seen many of these in mountainous countries, where the tails of water-spouts have been intercepted and broken, and the outpouring of them would be incredible to those who have never witnessed similar phenomena. The rain fell in torrents and produced torrents on the land, carrying away earth and stones and everything before them, scooping out great gullies in the sides of the mountains. Mountain torrents are not produced but by such extraordinary outpourings of rain, formed either by water-spouts, or by vast masses of clouds intercepted and broken to pieces by the mountain tops.[And embrace the rock for want of a shelter.] In such cases as that related above, the firm rock is the only shelter which can be found, or safely trusted.Job 24:9[They pluck the fatherless from the breast] They forcibly take young children in order that they may bring them up in a state of slavery. This verse is the commencement of a new paragraph, and points out the arbitrary dealings of oppressors, under despotic governors.[Take a pledge of the poor.] Oppressive landlords who let out their grounds at an exorbitant rent, which the poor laborers, though using the utmost diligence, are unable at all times to pay, and then the unfeeling wretch sells them up, as the phrase here is, or takes their cow, their horse, their cart, or their bed, in pledge, that the money shall be paid in such a time. This is one of the crying sins of some countries of Europe.Job 24:10[They cause him to go naked] These cruel, hard-hearted oppressors seize the cloth made for the family wear, or the wool and flax out of which such clothes should be made.

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[And they take away the sheaf] Seize the grain as soon as it is reaped, that they may pay themselves the exorbitant rent at which they have leased out their land: and thus the sheaf-- the thrives and ricks, by which they should have been supported, are taken away from the hungry.Job 24:11[Make oil within their walls] Thus stripped of all that on which they depended for clothing and food, they are obliged to become vassals to their lord, labour in the fields on scanty fare, or tread their wine-presses, from the produce of which they are not permitted to quench their thirst.Job 24:12[Men groan from out of the city] This is a new paragraph. After having shown the oppressions carried on in the country, he takes a view of those carried on in the town. Here the miseries are too numerous to be detailed. The poor in such places are often in the most wretched state; they are not only badly fed, and miserably clothed, but also most unwholesomely lodged. These were groaning under various evils; and the soul of the wounded, wounded in spirit, and afflicted in body, cried out to God and man for help! It would have required no subtle investigation to have traced all these miseries to the doors, the hands, the lips, and the hearts, of ruthless landlords; or to oppressive systems of public expenditure in the support of ruinous wars, and the stagnation of trade and destruction of commerce occasioned by them: to which must be added the enormous taxation to meet this expenditure.[Yet God layeth not folly to them.] He does not impute their calamities to their own folly. Or according to the Vulgate, "And God will not leave (these disorders) unpunished." But the Hebrew may be translated; and God doth not attend to their prayers. Job's object was to show, in opposition to the mistaken doctrine of his friends, that God did not hastily punish every evil work, nor reward every good one. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOBThat vice often went long unpunished, and virtue unrewarded; and that we must not judge of a man's state either by his prosperity or adversity. Therefore, there might be cases in which the innocent oppressed poor were crying to God for a redress of their grievances, and were not immediately heard; and in which their oppressors were faring sumptuously every day, without any apparent mark of the divine displeasure. These sentiments occur frequently.Job 24:13[They are of those that rebel against the light] Speaking of wicked men. They rebel against the light of God in their consciences, and his light in his word. They are tyrants in grain, and care neither for God nor the poor. They know not the ways thereof-- they will not learn their duty to God or man. Nor abide in the paths thereof-- if brought at any time to a better mind, they speedily relapse; and are steady only in cruelty and mischief. This is the character of the oppressors of suffering humanity, and of sinners audacious and hardened. They hate good; they regard not its operation; they go out of the way of righteousness and refuse to return.Job 24:14[The murderer rising with the light] Perhaps the words should be read as Mr. Good has done:

With the daylight ariseth the murderer;Poor and needy, he sheddeth blood.

This description is suitable to a highwayman, one who robs in daylight, and who has been impelled by poverty and distress to use this most unlawful and perilous mode to get bread; and for fear of being discovered or taken, commits murder, and thus adds crime to crime.[In the night is as a thief.] Having been a highwayman in the daytime, he turns footpad or housebreaker by night; and thus goes on from sin to sin.

Adam Clarke

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15-25: Here as in 21:7-34 Job complains that the wicked prosper and that the success of the unjust demonstrates that justice does not prevail in the world, but he goes beyond what he stated before by showing that injustice is compounded by the fact that the success of the wicked is achieved at the expense of orphans (verses 3, 9), widows (verse 3), and the poor (verses 5-8, 14). Such undeserved suffering of those on the lowest rungs of the socioeconomic ladder proves that justice does not prevail in the world. Using the third person, he condemns all unjust individuals, preparing the way for the stronger (first-person) self-imprecation in Chapter 31.

15: The eyes of the adulterer watch for twilight, / Thinking, “No one will glimpse me then.” / He masks his face. Tosefta Sotah 3:5 comments as follows: “She did it [i.e. committed adultery] in secret [Hebrew “beseter”] as it is stated in Scripture, ‘The eyes of the adulterer watch for twilight, Thinking…,’ and she does not know that He who is enthroned in the Secret Place [a form of “beseter” inspired by this verse] of the world has set [His] face against her (cf. Jeremiah 44:11; Ezekiel 15:7) in accord with what is stated in Scripture (Job 24:15), ‘He puts [away] the face mask,’ which teaches that God removes what is hidden into the open, as it is said in Scripture (Proverbs 26:26), ‘His hatred may be concealed [by dissimulation, but his evil will be exposed to public view.].’ “NJPS TEXT [Tanakh] concurs with Tosefta in understanding Hebrew “seter” as mask. Where NJPS interprets literally “he puts [on] face mask,” Tosefta gives the verb “yasim,” “put,” the unlikely meaning of “put off, remove.” Moreover, while NJPS construes adulterer in the first half of the verse as the subject of the verb “puts” and correctly understands the verse as one more item in a catalogue of injustices that populate the world, Tosefta seeks here, (see 21:7-34) to defuse Scripture’s vivid portrayal of human injustice and to read into the biblical text God’s dispensing of justice. Jewish Study Bible

LESSON FOUR JOB

Job 24:15[The eye also of the adulterer] This is another sin particularly of the city. The adulterer has made his assignation; he has marked the house of her into whose good graces he has insinuated himself, called digging through the house, he waits impatiently for the dusk, and then goes forth, having muffled or disguised his face, and spends a criminal night with the faithless wife of another man. The morning dawns: but it is to him as the shadow of death, lest he should be detected before he can reach his own home. And if one know him-- if he happen to be recognized in coming out of the forbidden house; the terrors of death seize upon him, being afraid that the thing shall be brought to light, or that he shall be called to account, a sanguinary account, by the injured husband.This seems to be the general sense of the very natural picture which Job draws in the <Job 24:15-17>Job 24:16[In the dark they dig through houses] Thieves in Bengal very frequently dig through the mud wall and under the clay floors of houses, and, entering unperceived, plunder them while the inhabitants are asleep.Job 24:18[He is swift as the waters] Literally, light is he on the face of the waters: and cursed shall be their portion on the earth, which Mr. Good translates:

Miserable is this man on the waters:Deeply miserable the lot of those on dry land.

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[He beholdeth not the way of the vineyards.] These no longer flourish or bring forth fruit. The labour of the vintage fails.Job 24:19[Drought and heat consume the snow-waters] The public cisterns or large tanks which had been filled with water by the melting of the snow on the mountains, and which water was stored for the irrigation of their lands, had been entirely exhausted by the intensity of the heat, and the long continuance of drought.[So doth the grave those which have sinned.] For this whole paragraph we have only two words in the original; viz., Shª’owl (OT 7585) chaaTaa'uw (OT 2398), "the pit, they have sinned," which Mr. Good translates: -- "They fall to their lowest depth."Job 24:20[The womb shall forget him] The mother that bares him shall have no affection for him, nor be afflicted at his death. But the word rechem (OT 7358) signifies compassion, mercy. Mercy shall be unmindful of him. How dreadful such a state! When mercy itself forgets the sinner, his perdition slumbered not.[The worm shell feed sweetly on him] The Chaldee has, "The cruel, who have neglected to commiserate the poor, shall be sweet to the worms." He shall be brought into a state of the greatest degradation, and shall be no more remembered.[And wickedness shall be broken as a tree.] He shall be as a rotten or decayed tree, easily broken to pieces. If it were clear that àwlaah (OT 5766), here rendered wickedness, has the same sense as àleh, a leaf, sucker, or shoot, then we might translate according to the ingenious version of Mr. Good, namely, But the shoot shall be broken off as a tree; which might, in this case, be supposed to refer to illicit commerce, the fruit of the womb becoming abortive.Job 24:21[He evil entreated the barren] I believe the original word w-`-h should be translated he feedeth; and so the Vulgate understood the word: He has been kind to the barren woman; but he has done no good to the widow. He has shown no mercy to large families; he has been an enemy to the procreation of children. Though he may, for particular reasons, have provided for a barren woman; yet the widow he has not comforted, she being old or infirm, or such as might not suit his purpose. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

Job 24:22[He draweth also the mighty] Calmet gives the following version of the original: "He draws with him guards for his defense; he raises himself up, and does not feel assured of his life." In the midst even of his guards he is afraid; and dares not put confidence in any person. This is an admirable delineation of the inquietudes and terrors of a tyrant.Job 24:23[Though it is given him to be in safety] The Vulgate gives this verse a singular turn: "God gave him space for repentance, but he has abused it through pride." This is by no means conformable to the original. I think the words should be translated thus: "He gives them (i. e., the guards) to him for security, and he leans upon them; yet his eyes are upon their ways." Though he have taken the guards, mentioned in the preceding verse, for his personal defense, and for this purpose he uses them; yet he is full of diffidence, and he is continually watching them lest they should be plotting his destruction. The true picture of an Eastern tyrant. Without are fighting’s, within are fears.*

“Yet [God] gives him the security on which he relies, and keeps watch over his affairs.” Job 24:23 Tanakh Text

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Job 24:24[They are exalted for a little while] Such tyrants are exalted for a time, for God putteth down one and rises up another; but he turns his hand against them, and they are gone. They are removed by his justice as all of the same character have been and shall be; time and judgment shall mow them down as the grass, and crop them off as the ears of ripe corn. They may flourish for a time, and continue their oppressions; but they shall at last come to an untimely end. Few tyrants ever visit the eternal world, but by a violent death. All Eastern history is full of this great fact.Job 24:25 [And if it be not so now] Job has proved by examples that the righteous are often oppressed; that the wicked often triumph over the just; that the impious are always wretched even in the midst of their greatest prosperity; and he defies his friends to show one flaw in his argument, or an error in his illustration of it; and that existing facts are further proofs of what he has advanced.In the preceding chapters we find Job's friends having continual recourse to this assertion, which it is the grand object of all their discourses to prove, (viz., the righteous are so distinguished in the approbation of God, that they live always in prosperity, and die in peace).On the other hand, Job contends that the dispensations of Providence are by no means thus equal in this life; that experience shows that the righteous are often in adversity, and the wicked in power and prosperity.Job's friends had also endeavored to prove that if a reported good man fell into adversity, it was a proof that his character had been mistaken, that he was an internal sinner and hypocrite; and that God, by these manifest proofs of his disapprobation, unmasked him. Hence, they charged Job with hypocrisy and secret sins, because he was now suffering adversity; and that his sins must be of the most heinous nature, because his afflictions were uncommonly great. This Job repels by appeals to numerous facts where there was nothing equivocal in the character, where the bad was demonstrably bad and yet in prosperity; and the good demonstrably good and yet in adversity. It is strange that none of these could hit on a middle way: namely, the wicked may be in prosperity, but he is ever miserable in his soul: the righteous may be in adversity, but he is ever happy in his God. In these respects, God's ways are always equal. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

25:1-6 BILDAD THE SHUHITE’S THIRD ADDRESS

25:1-6 BILDAD’S THIRD ADDRESSA B-1 25:1-3 God. His omnipotence.

B-2 25:4-6 Man. His impotence.

Job 25:1-625:1 Bildad: How Can Man Be Righteous?Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said: 2 "Dominion and fear belong to Him; He makes peace in His high places. 3 Is there any number to His armies? Upon whom does His light not rise? 4 How then can man be righteous before God? Or how can he be pure who is born of a woman? 5 if even the moon does not shine and the stars are not pure in His sight, 6 how much less man, who is a maggot, and a son of man, who is a worm?" NKJV

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25:1-6: Continuation of Job’s speech. Although ascribed to Bildad, these verses should be assigned to Job. 2b: He imposes peace in His heights: This half verse is found as the first clause of the final line of long versions of kadish, and is also recited silently at the end of the “Shemoneh ‘Esrei” (Eighteen Benedictions). The reference here is to God controlling His heavenly council (see Chapters 1-2). 4: Born of woman, for this expression, which is unique to the book of Job, see 14:1; 15:14. Jewish Study Bible

Job 25:1Then answered Bildad the Shuhite, and said,[Bildad the Shuhite] This is the last attack on Job; the others felt themselves foiled, though they had not humility enough to acknowledge it, but would not again return to the attack. Bildad has little to say, and that little is very little to the point. He makes a few assertions, particularly in reference to what Job had said in the commencement of the preceding chapter, of his desire to appear before God, and have his case tried by him, as he had the utmost confidence that his innocence should be fully proved. For this Bildad reprehends Job with arguments which had been brought forth often in this controversy, and as repeatedly confuted, <Job 4:18>, and <15:14-16>Job 25:2[Dominion and fear are with him] God is an absolute sovereign; his fear is on all the hosts of heaven; and by his sovereignty he establishes and preserves order in the heavens, and among all the inhabitants of the eternal world: how canst thou, therefore, dare to appeal to him, or desire to appear before him?Job 25:3[Is there any number of his armies?] He has troops innumerable, he can serve himself of all his creatures; everything may be a means of help or destruction, according to his divine will. When he purposes to save, none can destroy; and when he is determined to destroy, none can save. It is vain to trust in his creatures against himself.[Upon whom doth not his light arise?] That is, his providence rules over all; he is universal Lord; he causes his sun to arise on the evil and the good, and sends his rain on the just and unjust.Job 25:4 [How then can man be justified?] Or, uwmah (OT 4100), with what, shall a man be justified with God? Though this is no conclusion from Bildad's premises, yet the question is of the highest importance to man. Neither Bildad nor any of his fellows could answer it; the doctrine of redemption through the blood of the cross was then known only through types and shadows. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOBWe, who live in the Gospel dispensation, can readily answer the question, with what shall miserable man, be justified with God? -- Answer. By bringing forward, by faith to the throne of the divine justice, the sacrificial offering of the Lord Jesus Christ; and confiding absolutely in it, as being a full, sufficient, and complete atonement and sacrifice for his sins, and for the salvation of a lost world.How, or with what, shall he be clean that is born of a woman?-- Answer: By receiving that grace or heavenly influence communicated by the power and energy of the eternal Spirit applying to the heart the efficacy of that blood which cleanses from all unrighteousness. This and this only, is the way in which a sinner, when truly penitent, can be justified before God: and in which a believer, convinced of indwelling sin, can be sanctified and cleansed from all unrighteousness. This is the only means of justification and sanctification, without which there can be no glorification. And these two great works, which constitute the whole of salvation, have been procured for a lost world by the incarnation, passion,

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death, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, who was delivered for our offences, and rose again for our justification, to whom be glory and dominion now and for evermore, Amen! Job 25:5Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.[Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not] It is continually changing its appearance. It never appears twice in its whole revolution with the same face: it is ever waxing or waning, and its face is variegated with opaque spots. Its changeableness can never be compared with the unchangeable nature of God.[Yea, the stars are not pure in his sight.] Whatever their excellence may be as stars, it is nothing in comparison with him from whom they have derived their being and splendour. See the notes on <Job 4:18>, and <15:14-16>. The Targum reads: "Behold, the moon is as yet spotted in her eastern part; the sun shines not; and the stars are not pure in his sight."Some think that by stars are meant those angels who kept not their first estate: this may be so, but I cannot see it in the text. It may, however, mean the heavenly host, as it is supposed to do, <Job 28:7>, but I still must hesitate on the propriety of such applications.It is probable this speech of Bildad was delivered in the night-season, when clouds interrupted the bright shining of the moon. <Job 25:3> seems to refer immediately to the stars, which to the naked eye are innumerable. The sun is not mentioned, because of his absence.This speech of Bildad is both confused and inconclusive. His reasoning is absurd, and he draws false conclusions from his premises. In the third verse, he says, "Is there any number of his armies? And upon whom does not his light arise?" But how absurd is the conclusion which he draws from his questions: -- "How then can a man be justified with God, or he is clean who is born of a woman?"This has no relation to the premises, still to us the question is not difficult, and has already been answered in the notes: "A man can be justified with God," through the blood of Christ; and "he can be clean who is born of a woman," through the sanctification of the Spirit.Job 25:6[How much less man, that is a worm?] Or as the Targum. -- "How much more man, who in his life is a reptile; and the son of man, who in his death is a worm." Almost all the versions read, "Truly man is corruption, and the son of man a worm.” Thus ended Bildad the Shuhite, who endeavored to speak on a subject which he did not understand; and, having gotten on bad ground, was soon confounded in his own mind, spoke incoherently, argued inconclusively, and came abruptly and suddenly to an end. Thus, his three friends are confounded, Job was left to pursue his own way; they trouble him no more; and he proceeds in triumph to the end of the 31st chapter. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

26:1-27:10 JOB’S REPLY TO BILDAD’S THIRD ADDRESSA B 26:1-4 Appeal to his friend.

C 26:6-14 God’s ways; His power incomparable.B 27:1-5 Appeal to his friends.

C 27:6-10 Job’s ways: his righteousness unblamable.Job 26:1-1426:1 Job: Man's Frailty and God's Majesty

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But Job answered and said: 2 "How have you helped him who is without power? How have you saved the arm that has no strength? 3 How have you counseled one who has no wisdom? And how have you declared sound advice too many? 4 To who have you uttered words? And whose spirit came from you? 5 "The dead tremble, those under the waters and those inhabiting them. 6 Sheol is naked before Him, and Destruction has no covering. 7 He stretches out the north over empty space; He hangs the earth on nothing. 8 He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet the clouds are not broken under it. 9 He covers the face of His throne, and spreads His cloud over it. 10 He drew a circular horizon on the face of the waters, at the boundary of light and darkness. 11 The pillars of heaven tremble, and are astonished at His rebuke. 12 He stirs up the sea with His power, and by His understanding He breaks up the storm. 13 By His Spirit He adorned the heavens; His hand pierced the fleeing serpent. 14 Indeed these are the mere edges of His ways, and how small a whisper we hear of Him! But the thunder of His power who can understand?" NKJV

26:1-14: Bildad’s reply. Here Bildad, to whom we have restored verses 2-4 (because, as we noted, Job always addresses the friends in the plural and they always address him in the singular.), repeats with slight variations the rhetorical questions addressed to Job by Eliphaz in 4:3-4. There, as here, the import of these questions is the friend’s inability to understand why Job cannot apply his wisdom to his own case. Were he able to do so, he would not upset his visitors by his expressions of a death wish for himself and his conclusion that his won unjust suffering proves that injustice ultimately prevails in the conduct of the cosmos.

2: You would help without having the strength, better, “Did you help persons without strength?” cf. the assertions in 4:3b-4: “You have strengthened failing hands. / Your words have kept him who stumbled from falling; / You have braced knees that gave way.” Cf. also Job’s own recollection of better days gone by when he was literally “eyes to the blind, feet to the lame…father to the needy…one who consoles mourners” (29:12-25). 3: Without having the wisdom, better, “Did you offer advice to persons lacking wisdom and give counsel to the multitude?” See comments on verse 2 above; cf. 29:21-22.

Jewish Study Bible26:2 HOWHere are three Greek words that explain how.

1. Exouthenismos; or Contempt (2 Sam. 6:20). An expression of feeling by way of contempt.2. Erotesis; or, Interrogating (Gen. 13:9, Ps. 35:10). The asking of questions, not for

information, or for an answer. Such questions may be asked (1) in positive affirmation. (2) in negative affirmation, (3) in affirmative negation, (4) in demonstration, (5) in wonder and admiration, (6) in rapture, (7) in wishes, (8) in refusals and denials, (9) in doubts, (10) in admonition, (11) in expostulation, (12) in prohibition or dissuasion, (13) in pity and commiseration, (14) in disparagement, (15) in reproaches, (16) in lamentation, (17) in indignation, (18) in absurdities and impossibilities, (19) double questions.

LESSON FOUR JOB SECTION TWO3. Eironeia; or, Irony. The expression of thought in a form that naturally conveys it’s opposite.

Job 26:2How hast thou helped him that is without power? How saves thou the arm that hath no strength?[How hast thou helped him?] This seems a species of irony. How wonderfully hast thou counseled the unskillful and strengthened the weak! Alas for you! Ye could not give what ye did not possess! In this way the Chaldee understood these verses: "Why hast thou pretended to give succor, when thou art

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without strength? And save, while thy arm is weak? Why hast thou given counsel, when thou art without understanding? And supposes that thou hast shown the very essence of wisdom?" Adam Clarke

4. To who have you addressed words? In light of the clear parallels between 26:2-3 and both 4:3-4 and 29:12-25, it should be obvious that in 26:4 Bildad attempts to remind Job of what Job himself declares about his former success as both a listening ear and a person who says the right thing at the right time in the right place in 29:21-25. Whose breath issued from you? In light of the questions posed to Job in verses 2-4a and the affirmative answers later provided to those questions by Job in 29:12-25, verse 4b must refer to the renewed lease on life that Job, by means of his listening ear and empathetic discourse, provided others. Here as in 4:3-4 the friends scold Job for not doctoring himself as he had doctored others.

5-14: Like Elihu in 37:2-24 and like the Lord in Chapter 38 and anticipated by Job himself in 9:4-13, so also Bildad here argues that the majesty of God’s power should preclude Job from challenging God to account for Job’s allegedly underserved suffering. As the friends have argued before, the implication of God’s great power is His fair justice. 5: The shades, Hebrew “refa’im,” refer to the dead who abide in Sheol. The same word is found also in Isaiah 14:9; 26:14, 19; Psalms 88:11; Proverbs 2:18; 9:18; 21:16; and the same term refers to the dead in their repose on two Phoenician sarcophagi from Sidon, belonging to 6th Century BCE Tabnit and 5th Century BCE Eshmunazor II, respectively, and on a 1st Century CE Neo-Punic inscription. Jewish Study Bible

Job 26:4[Whose spirit came from thee?] Mr. Good renders the verse thus: From whom hast thou pillaged speeches! And whose spirit hath issued forth from thee? The retort is peculiarly severe; and refers immediately to the proverbial sayings which in several of the preceding answers have been adduced against the irritated sufferer, for which see <Job 8:11-19; 15:20-35>, some of which he has already complained of as in <Job 12:3>, and following. I concur most fully therefore with Dr. Stock in regarding the remainder of this chapter as a sample, ironically exhibited by Job, of the harangues on the power and greatness of God which he supposes his friends to have taken out of the mouths of other men, to deck their speeches with borrowed luster. Only, in descanting on the same subject, he shows how much he himself can go beyond them in eloquence and sublimity.Job intimates that, whatever spirit they had, it was not the Spirit of God, because in their answers falsehood was found.Job 26:5 [Dead things are formed from under the waters] This verse, as it stands in our version, seems to convey no meaning; and the Hebrew is obscure; haa rªpaa’iym (OT 7496), "the Rephaim," certainly means not dead things; nor can there be any propriety in saying that dead things, or things without life, are formed under the waters, for such things are formed everywhere in the earth, and under the earth, as well as under the waters.“The shades tremble beneath the waters and their denizens. Sheol is naked before Him; Abaddon has no cover.” Job 26:5, 6 Tanakh Texts.

LESSON FOUR JOBMr. Good thinks the shades of the heroes of former times, the gigantic specters, the mighty or enormous dead, are meant.Job 26:6

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[Hell is naked before him] Sheol, the place of the dead, or of separate spirits, is always in his view. And there is no covering to Abaddon-- the place of the destroyer, where destruction reigns, and where those dwell who are eternally separated from God. The ancients thought that hell or Tartarus was a vast space in the center, or at the very bottom of the earth. HELL The place of eternal punishment for the unrighteous. The NKJV and KJV use this word to translate Sheol and Hades, the Old and New Testament words, respectively, for the abode of the dead.Hell as a place of punishment translates Gehenna, the Greek form of the Hebrew word that means "the vale of Hinnom"-- a valley just south of Jerusalem. In this valley the Canaanites worshiped Baal and the fire-god Molech by sacrificing their children in a fire that burned continuously. Even Ahaz and Manasseh, kings of Judah, were guilty of this terrible, idolatrous practice <2 Chr. 28:3; 33:6>.The prophet Jeremiah predicted that God would visit such destruction upon Jerusalem that this valley would be known as the "Valley of Slaughter" <Jer. 7:31-34; 19:2, 6>. In his religious reforms, King Josiah put an end to this worship. He defiled the valley in order to make it unfit even for pagan worship <2 Kings 23:10>.In the time of Jesus the Valley of Hinnom was used as the garbage dump of Jerusalem. Into it were thrown all the filth and garbage of the city, including the dead bodies of animals and executed criminals. To consume all this, fires burned constantly. Maggots worked in the filth. When the wind blew from that direction over the city, its awfulness was quite evident. At night wild dogs howled and gnashed their teeth as they fought over the garbage. (From Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

Jesus used this awful scene as a symbol of hell. In effect he said, "Do you want to know what hell is like? Look at the valley of Gehenna." So hell may be described as God's "cosmic garbage dump." All that is unfit for heaven will be thrown into hell.

The word Gehenna occurs 12 times in the New Testament. Each time it is translated as "hell." With the exception of <James 3:6>, it is used only by Jesus <Matt. 5:22, 29-30; 10:28; 23:15, 33; Mark 9:43, 45, 47; Luke 12:5>. In <Matthew 5:22; 18:9>; and <Mark 9:47>, it is used with "fire" as "hell fire." So the word hell (Gehenna) as a place of punishment is used in the New Testament by Him who is the essence of infinite love. In <Mark 9:46> and <48>, hell is described as a place where "their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." Repeatedly Jesus spoke of outer darkness and a furnace of fire, where there will be wailing, weeping, and gnashing of teeth <Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30; Luke 13:28>. Obviously this picture is drawn from the valley of Gehenna.

The Book of Revelation describes hell as "a lake of fire burning with brimstone" <Rev. 19:20; 20:10, 14-15; 21:8>. Into hell will be thrown the beast and the false prophet <Rev. 19:20>. At the end of the age the devil himself will be thrown into it, along with death and Hades and all whose names are not in the Book of Life. "And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever" <Rev. 20:10b>.Because of the symbolic nature of the language, some people question whether hell consists of actual fire. Such reasoning should bring no comfort to the lost. The reality is greater than the symbol. The Bible exhausts human language in describing heaven and hell. The former is more glorious, and the latter more terrible, than language can express. (From Nelson's Illustrated Bible Dictionary)

LESSON FOUR JOB

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7: Stretched out Zaphon, cf. 9:8, “spread out the heavens” and the parallels cited there. 9: He shuts off the view of His throne, / Spreading His cloud over it, cf. Psalms 97:2: “Dense clouds are around Him…His throne.” 10: He drew a boundary on the surface of the waters: Here, as in Genesis 1:1-3; Psalms 104:6-9; Proverbs 8:27, creation is described as God’s making order out of an already existing chaos, which consisted of a watery abyss. At the extreme where light and darkness meet: According to Genesis 1:2-3 the first act of creation was God’s commanding the light into existence alongside the preexisting darkness. Isaiah 45:7, on the other hand, asserts that the Lord is the creator of both light and darkness. The NJPS translation of 26:10 “He drew a boundary on the surface of the waters, at the extreme where light and darkness meets.” Tanakh Text follows Ibn Ezra and suggests that the boundary between earth and preexisting water was made at the point where preexisting light and preexisting darkness met.

Jewish Study BibleJob 26:7[He stretches out the north over the empty place] ‘Al (OT 5921) tohuw (OT 8414), to the hollow waste. The same word as is used, <Gen. 1:2>, the earth was without form, tohuw (OT 8414). The north must here mean the north pole, or northern hemisphere; and perhaps what is here stated may refer to the opinion that the earth was a vast extended plain, and the heavens poised upon it, resting on this plain all round the horizon. Of the south the inhabitants of Idumea knew nothing; nor could they have any notion of inhabitants in that hemisphere.[Hanged the earth upon nothing.] The Chaldee says: "He lays the earth upon the waters, nothing sustaining it."Job 26:8[He bindeth up the waters] Drives the aqueous particles together, which were raised by evaporation, so that, being condensed, they form clouds which float in the atmosphere, till, meeting with strong currents of wind, or by the agency of the electric fluid, they are further condensed; and then, becoming too heavy to be sustained in the air, fall down in the form of rain, when, in this poetic language, the cloud is rent under them.Job 26:9[He holdeth back the face of his throne] Though all these are most elegant effects of an omniscient and almighty power, yet the great Agent is not personally discoverable; he dwelleth in light unapproachable, and in mercy hides himself from the view of his creatures. The words, however, may refer to those obscurations of the face of heaven, and the hiding of the body of the sun, when the atmosphere is laden with dense vapors, and the rain begins to be poured down on the earth.Job 26:10[He hath compassed the waters with bounds] Perhaps this refers merely to the circle of the horizon, the line that terminates light and commences darkness, called here "until the completion of light with darkness." Or, which we translate blue, it may mean that somber sky-blue appearance of the horizon at the time of twilight, i. e., between light and darkness; the line where the one is terminating and the other commencing. Or, He so circumscribes the waters, retaining them in their own place, that they shall not be able to overflow the earth until day and night, that is, time itself, come to an end.Job 26:11[The pillars of heaven tremble] This is probably a poetical description either of thunder, or of an earthquake:

"He shakes creation with his nod;Earth, sea, and heaven, confess him God."

LESSON FOUR JOB

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But there may be an allusion to the high mountains, which were anciently esteemed by the common people as the pillars on which the heavens rested; and when these were shaken with earthquakes, it might be said the pillars of heaven tremble. Mount Atlas was supposed to be one of those pillars, and this gave rise to the fable of Atlas being a man who bore the heavens on his shoulders. The Greek and Roman poets frequently use this image. Adam Clarke

12: Rahab, the personified sea. Here, as in 9:13, the creation of the cosmos is pictured as the victory of God over the sea. This epithet is found in Job only at 9:13 and here; it appears also in (Isaiah 30:7; 51:9; Psalms 87:4; 89:11). 13: Elusive Serpent, Hebrew “nahash bariah,” translating “bariah” as an Aramaic form of Hebrew “boreah,” “fleeing.” The same word is translated “bar” (i.e. a straight rod or support) in Exodus 26:26-29 and elsewhere. The Baal Epic from late Bronze Age Ugarit says, “You will destroy Lotan [= Hebrew Leviathan] the straight [b-r-h] serpent / the twisted serpent with seven heads;” and Isaiah 27:1, a parallel, reads, “Leviathan the ‘bariah’ serpent / Leviathan the twisting serpent.” Consequently, it may be preferable to translate “bariah” both here and in Isaiah 27:1 as “straight.”

Jewish Study BibleJob 26:12[He divideth the sea with his power] Here is a manifest allusion to the passage of the Red Sea by the Israelites, and the overthrow of Pharaoh and his host, according to the opinion of the most eminent critics.[He smiteth through the proud.] Raahab (OT 7293), the very name by which Egypt is called <Isa. 51:9>, and elsewhere. Calmet remarks: "This appears to refer only to the passage of the Red Sea, and the destruction of Pharaoh. Were we not prepossessed with the opinion that Job died before Moses, every person at the first view of the subject must consider it in this light." I am not thus prepossessed. Let Job live when he might, I am satisfied the Book of Job was written long after the death of Moses, and not earlier than the days of Solomon, if not later. The further I go in the work, the more this conviction is deepened; and the opposite sentiment appears to be perfectly gratuitous.Job 26:13[By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens] See the observations below.Job 26:14 [Lo, these are parts of his ways] Qªtsowt (OT 7098), the ends or extremities, the outlines, an indistinct sketch, of his eternal power and Godhead.[How little a portion is heard?] Sheemets (OT 8102), a mere whisper; admirably opposed, as Mr. Good has well observed, to raàm (OT 7482), the thunder mentioned in the next clause. As the thunder is to a whisper, so are the tremendous and infinitely varied works of God to the faint outlines exhibited in the above discourse. Every reader will relish the dignity, propriety, and sense of these expressions. They force themselves on the observation of even the most heedless.By his Spirit he hath garnished the heavens. -- Numerous are the opinions relative to the true meaning of this verse. Some think it refers to the clearing of the sky after a storm such as appears to be described <Job 26:11-12>; and suppose his Spirit means the wind, which he directs to sweep and cleanse the face of the sky, by which the splendour of the day or the luster of the night is restored: and by the crooked, flying, or aerial serpent, as it is variously rendered, the ecliptic is supposed to be meant, as the sun's apparent course in it appears to be serpentine, in his approach to and recession from each of the tropics. This tortuous line may be seen on any terrestrial globe. Many will object to this notion as too refined for the time of Job; but this I could easily admit, as astronomy had a very early existence among the Arabians, if not its origin. But with me the chief objection lies against the obscurity of the allusion, if it be one; for it must require no small ingenuity, and almost the spirit of divination, to find out the sun's

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oblique path in the zodiac in the words His hand hath formed the crooked serpent.Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

JOB CONTINUES HIS PARABLEJob 27:1-2327:1 Job Maintains His Integrity Moreover Job continued his discourse, and said: 2 "As God lives, who has taken away my justice, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, 3 As long as my breath is in me, and the breath of God in my nostrils, 4 My lips will not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. 5 Far be it from me that I should say you are right; till I die I will not put away my integrity from me. 6 My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go; my heart shall not reproach me as long as I live. 7 "May my enemy be like the wicked,And he who rises up against me like the unrighteous. 8 For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he may gain much, if God takes away his life? 9 Will God hear his cry when trouble comes upon him? 10 Will he delight himself in the Almighty? Will he always call on God? 11 "I will teach you about the hand of God; what is with the Almighty I will not conceal. 12 Surely all of you have seen it; why then do you behave with complete nonsense? 13 "This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, received from the Almighty: 14 if his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. 15 Those who survive him shall be buried in death, and their widows shall not weep, 16 though he heaps up silver like dust, and piles up clothing like clay — 17 He may pile it up, but the just will wear it, and the innocent will divide the silver. 18 He builds his house like a moth, like a booth which a watchman makes. 19 The rich man will lie down, but not be gathered up; He opens his eyes, and he is no more. 20 Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest steals him away in the night. 21 The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place. 22 It hurls against him and does not spare; He flees desperately from its power. 23 Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place. NKJV

27:1-28:28: The continuation of Job’s speech. Conventional modern biblical scholarship treats Chapter 27 as a collection of leftover verses from which to reconstruct the speech of Zophar and Job’s reply to that speech, and Chapter 28 as possibly a separate composition that was erroneously included in an early copy of Job. For reasons as follows we disagree:

1. If this is a separate block of material, we must assume either that the absence of Zophar’s third speech is intentional or that the speech was lost and no remnants of it are to be found in the extant book.

2. By a process of dislocation such a speech disappeared while 27:1-29:1 found its way into the book in between the end of the second cycle at 26:14 and Job’s soliloquy found in 29:2-31:40.

3. A similar process of dislocation has taken place in Chapter 25 where verse 1 attributes verses 2-6 to Bildad while the ideas expressed can only be the words of Job (see 4:12-21).

4. Finally, 26:5-14 should be seen as Bildad’s speech, which expresses ideas characteristic of Job’s friends and uncharacteristic of Job.

When interpreting the book as a complete work it is possible to see in these chapters Job’s long reply to the suggestion on the part of his wife (2:9) and friends in the Book of Job the Patient that Job blaspheme God (Integrity in 27:5 is the same word, “tam,” translated “blameless” in 1:1 and 2:3). In so doing, of

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course, Job would have enabled the Adversary rather than God to win the wager described in 1:6-12; 2:2-8. Jewish Study Bible

LESSON FOUR JOB

27:1-23: Job’s speech continues. 2-6: Notwithstanding his loss of property, children, and health, and the friends’ urging him to blaspheme God, he is swearing an oath by God not to blaspheme God. 2: By God, i.e. “I swear.” Having been urged by his wife to blaspheme God, Job refuses to do so (2:9-10). 4: My lips will speak no wrong, the content of the oath referred to in verse 2. Consequently, each clause begins with “im,” which means “no, nor” in the context of an oath. Here we see the dramatization of what the narrator asserted in 2:10: “Job said nothing sinful.” Jewish Study Bible

Job 27:1[Continued his parable] After having delivered the preceding discourse, Job appears to have paused to see if any of his friends chose to make any reply; but finding them all silent, he resumed his discourse, which is here called mªshaalow (OT 4912), his parable, his authoritative weighty discourse, from maashal (OT 4910), to exercise rule, authority, dominion, or power.-- Parkhurst. And it must be granted that in this speech he assumes great boldness, exhibits his own unsullied character, and treats his friends with little ceremony.Job 27:2[Who hath taken away my judgment?] Who has turned aside my cause, and has not permitted it to come to a hearing, where I might have justice done to me, but has abandoned me to the harsh and uncharitable judgment of my enemies? There appears to be a great want of reverence in these words of Job; he speaks with a degree of irritation, if not bitterness, which cannot be justified. No man should speak thus of his Maker.Job 27:3[All the while my breath is in me] Since Job appears to allude to the creation of Adam, whom God made out of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so that he became a living soul, the whole of Job's assertion may be no more than a periphrasis for As long as I live and have my understanding. Indeed nishmaatiy (OT 5397) may be rendered my mind or understanding, and ruwach (OT 7307) 'Elowah (OT 433), the breath of God, the principle of animal life, the same that he breathed into Adam; for it is there said, <Gen. 2:7>, He breathed into his nostrils, the breath of lives, or that principle from which animal and spiritual life proceeds; in consequence of which he became, an intelligent or rational animal.Job 27:4[My lips shall not speak wickedness] Since I have hitherto lived in all good conscience before God, as he knoweth, so will I continue to live. Adam Clarke

5: To say you are right: The plural you here may be addressed to Job’s three friends, who, in a now lost version of the narrative framework, joined with Job’s wife in urging him to curse God. 6: I shall be free of reproach, literally “my heart will not blaspheme.” Contrary to Rava in (Talmud b. Bava Batra 16a), and going beyond what the narrator states in 2:10, and also beyond what Job himself imputed to his

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children in 1:5, Job declares unequivocally that he has blasphemed God neither aloud nor in his thoughts.

Jewish Study BibleJob 27:5[God forbid] Chaaliylaah (OT 2486) liy (OT 8705), far be it from me, that I should justify you-- that I should now, by any kind of acknowledgment of wickedness or hypocrisy justify your harsh judgment. You say that God afflicts me for my crimes; I say, and God knows it is truth, that I have not sinned so as to draw down any such judgment upon me. Your judgment, therefore, is pronounced at your own risk.

Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

Job 27:6[My righteousness I hold fast] I stand firmly on this ground; I have endeavored to live an upright life, and my afflictions are not the consequence of my sins.[My heart shall not reproach me] I shall take care so to live that I shall have a conscience void of offence before God and man. "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God;" <1 John 3:21>. This seems to be Job's meaning.

Adam Clarke

7-23: Job expresses the conviction that it is not wise to blaspheme God because, in the end, virtuous people are rewarded, and wicked people are punished. In this Job the Patient agrees with what in the Book of Job the Impatient Eliphaz states in 4:7-11, Zophar in 8:3-22, and Bildad in 11:13-20. 15: Their widows will not weep because they will not be sad. One of the common beliefs reflected in the books of Job and Koheleth (Ecclesiastes) is that virtuous people deserve elaborate funerals and the wicked ought to be punished by not being mourned (Ecclesiastes 8:10-14; 9:1-6); see 21:30-33. Jewish Study Bible

Job 27:7[Let mine enemy be as the wicked] Let my accuser be proved a lying and perjured man, because he has laid to my charge things which he cannot prove, and which are utterly false.Job 27:8 [What is the hope of the hypocrite?] The word chaaneep (OT 2611), which we translate, most improperly, hypocrite, means a wicked fellow, a defiled, polluted wretch, a rascal, a knave, a man who sticks at nothing in order to gain his ends. In this verse it means a dishonest man, a rogue, who by overreaching, cheating, etc., has amassed a fortune.[When God taketh away his soul?] Could he have had any well-grounded hope of eternal blessedness when he was acquiring earthly property by guilt and deceit? And of what avail will this property be when his soul is summoned before the judgment-seat? A righteous man yields up his soul to God; the wicked does not, because he is afraid of God, of death, and of eternity. God therefore takes the soul away-- forces it out of the body.I believe our version gives as true a sense as any; and the words appear to have been in the eye of our Lord, when he said, "For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" <Matt 16:26> Adam Clarke 27:11-28:28 ZOPHAR’S THIRD ADDRESSB 27:11-23 Unwisdom C 28:1-6 What man knows.

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D 28:7, 8 What man does not know. C 28:9-11 What man can do. D 28:12-19 What man can not do.B 28:20-28 Wisdom.

Job 27:11[I will teach you by the hand of God] Relying on divine assistance, and not speaking out of my own head, or quoting what others have said I will teach you what the mind of the Almighty is, and I will conceal nothing. Job felt that the good hand of his God was upon him, and that therefore he should make no mistake in his doctrines. In this way the Chaldee understood the words, bªyad (OT 3027) 'Eel (OT 410), by the hand of God, which it translates binbuath Elaha, by the prophecy of God.

LESSON FOUR JOBThose who reject the literal meaning, which conveys a very good sense, may adopt the translation of Mr. Good, which has much to recommend it: "I will teach you concerning the dealings of God."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 emphatically and well expressed by Mr. Good: "Why then should ye thus babble babblings," If our language would allow it, we might say vanitize vanity.

“I will teach you what is in God’s power, and what is with Shaddai I will not conceal. All of you have seen it, so why talk nonsense? This is the evil man’s portion from God, the lat that the ruthless receive from Shaddai: should he have many sons – they are marked for the sword; his descendants will never have their fill of bread; those who survive him will be buried in a plague, and their widows will not weep;” Job 27:11-15 Tanakh Hebrew Text

Job 27:13[This is the portion of a wicked man] Job now commences his promised teaching, and what follows is a description of the lot or portion of the wicked man and of tyrants. And this remuneration shall they have with God in general, though the hand of man be not laid upon them. Though he does not at all times show his displeasure against the wicked, by reducing them to a state of poverty and affliction, yet he often does it so that men may see it; and at other times he seems to pass them by, reserving their judgment for another world, that men may not forget that there is a day of judgment and perdition for ungodly men, and a future recompense for the righteous.Job 27:14[If his children be multiplied] Since numerous families were supposed to be a proof of the benediction of the Almighty, Job shows that this is not always the case; for the offspring of the wicked shall be partly cut off by violent deaths, and partly reduced to great poverty.Job 27:15[Those that remain of him] Sªriydaayw (OT 8300) his remains, whether meaning himself personally, or his family.[Shall be buried in death] Shall come to utter and remediless destruction. Death shall have his full conquest over them and the grave its complete victory. These are no common dead. All the sting, all the wound, and all the poison of sin, remains: and so evident are God's judgments in his and their removal,

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that even widows shall not weep for them; the public shall not bewail them; for when the wicked perish there is shouting.The expression is very similar to that in <Luke 16:22>, as found in several versions and MSS.: The rich man died, and was buried in hell; and, lifting up his eyes, being in torment, he saw, etc. LUKE 16:22AND IT CAME TO PASS, THAT THE BEGGAR DIED, AND WAS CARRIED BY THE ANGELS INTO ABRAHAM'S BOSOM: THE RICH MAN ALSO DIED, AND WAS BURIED;[THE RICH MAN ALSO DIED, AND WAS BURIED] THERE IS NO MENTION OF THIS LATTER CIRCUMSTANCE IN THE CASE OF LAZARUS; HE WAS BURIED, NO DOUBT-- NECESSITY REQUIRED THIS: BUT HE HAD THE BURIAL OF A PAUPER, WHILE THE POMP AND PRIDE OF THE OTHER FOLLOWED HIM TO THE TOMB. BUT WHAT A DIFFERENCE IN THESE BURIALS, IF WE TAKE IN THE READING OF MY OLD MANUSCRIPT BIBLE, WHICH IS SUPPORTED BY SEVERAL VERSIONS: "FORSOOTH THE RICHE MAN IS DEED: AND IS BURIED IN HELLE." AND THIS IS ALSO THE READING OF THE ANGLO-SAXON, AND WAS IN HELL BURIED.

ADAM CLARKE

LESSON FOUR JOBJob 27:16[Though he heap up silver] Though he amasses riches in the greatest abundance, he shall not enjoy them. Unsanctified wealth is a curse to its possessor. Money, of all earthly possessions, is the most dangerous, as it is the readiest agent to do good or evil. He that perverts it is doubly cursed, because it affords him the most immediate means of sinful gratification; and he can sin more in an hour through this, than he can in a day or week by any other kind of property. On the other hand, they who use it aright have it in their power to do the most prompt and immediate good. Almost every kind of want may be speedily relieved by it. Hence, he who uses it as he ought is doubly blessed; while he who abuses it is doubly cursed.Job 27:17[The just shall put it on] Money is God's property. "The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord; "and though it may be abused for a time by unrighteous hands, God, in the course of his providence, brings it back to its proper use; and often the righteous possess the inheritance of the wicked.Job 27:18[He buildeth his house as a moth] With great skill, great pains, and great industry; but the structure, however skillful, shall be dissolved; and the materials, however costly, shall be brought to corruption. To its owner it shall be only a temporary habitation, like that which the moth makes in its larva or caterpillar state, during its change from a chrysalis to a winged insect.[As a booth that the keeper maketh.] A shed which the watchman or keeper of a vineyard erects to cover him from the scorching sun, while watching the ripening grapes, that they may be preserved from depredation. Travellers in the East have observed that such booths or sheds are made of the lightest and most worthless materials; and after the harvest or vintage is in, they are quite neglected, and by the winter rains, etc., are soon dissolved and destroyed.Job 27:19 [The rich man shall lie down] In the grave.[But he shall not be gathered] Neither has a respectable burial among men, nor be gathered with the righteous in the kingdom of God. It may be that Job alludes here to an opinion relative to the state of certain persons after death prevalent in all nations in ancient times, namely, that those whose funeral rites had not been duly performed, wander about as ghosts, and find no rest.[He openeth his eyes] In the morning of the resurrection.

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[And he is not.] He is utterly lost and undone forever. This seems to be the plain sense of the passage; and so all the versions appear to have understood it;

“He may lay it up, but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will share the silver. The house he built is like a bird’s nest, like the booth a watchman makes He lies down, a rich man, with [his wealth] intact; when he opens his eyes it is gone. Terror overtakes him like a flood; a storm wind makes off with him by night. The east wind carries him far away, and he is gone; it sweeps him from his place.” Job 27:17-21 Tanakh Text

Job 27:20[Terrors take hold on him as waters] They come upon him as an irresistible flood; and he is overwhelmed as by a tempest in the night, when darkness partly hides his danger, and deprives him of discerning the way to escape.Job 27:21[The east wind carried him away] Such as is called by Mr. Good a levanter, the euroclydon, the eastern storm of <Acts 27:14> Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOBJob 27:22[God shall cast upon him] Or, rather the storm mentioned above shall incessantly pelt him, and give him no respite; nor can he by any means escape from its fury.Job 27:23[Men shall clap their hands at him] These two verses refer to the storm, which is to sweep away the ungodly, therefore the word God, in <Job 27:22>, and men in this verse, should be omitted. <Job 27:22>: "for it shall fall upon him, and not spare: flying from its power he shall continue to fly. <Job 27:23>. It shall clap its hands against him, and hiss, wªyishroq (OT 8319), shriek, him out of his place." Here the storm is personified, and the wicked actor is hissed and driven by it from off the stage. It seems it was an ancient method to clap the hands against and hiss a man from any public office, who had acted improperly in it. Adam Clarke

Job 28:1-2828:1 Job's Discourse on Wisdom "Surely there is a mine for silver, and a place where gold is refined. 2 Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from ore. 3 Man puts an end to darkness, and searches every recess for ore in the darkness and the shadow of death. 4 He breaks open a shaft away from people; in places forgotten by feet They hang far away from men; they swing to and fro. 5 As for the earth, from it comes bread, but underneath it is turned up as by fire; 6 its stones are the source of sapphires, and it contains gold dust. 7 That path no bird knows, nor has the falcon's eye seen it. 8 The proud lions have not trodden it, nor has the fierce lion passed over it. 9 He puts his hand on the flint; He overturns the mountains at the roots. 10 He cuts out channels in the rocks, and his eye sees every precious thing. 11 He dams up the streams from trickling; what is hidden he brings forth to light. 12 "But where can wisdom be found? And where is the place of understanding? 13 Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living. 14 The deep says, 'It is not in me'; And the sea says, 'It is not with me.' 15 It cannot be purchased for gold, nor can silver be weighed for its price. 16 It cannot be valued in the gold of Ophir, in precious onyx or sapphire. 17 Neither gold nor crystal can equal it, nor can it be exchanged for jewelry of fine gold. 18 No

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mention shall be made of coral or quartz, for the price of wisdom is above rubies. 19 The topaz of Ethiopia cannot equal it, nor can it be valued in pure gold. 20 "From where then does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? 21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living, and concealed from the birds of the air. 22 Destruction and Death say, 'We have heard a report about it with our ears.' 23 God understands its way,And He knows its place. 24 For He looks to the ends of the earth, and sees under the whole heavens, 25 to establish a weight for the wind, and apportion the waters by measure. 26 When He made a law for the rain,And a path for the thunderbolt, 27 Then He saw wisdom and declared it; He prepared it, indeed, He searched it out. 28 And to man He said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, And to depart from evil is understanding.'" NKJV

28:1-28: Hymn of Wisdom or more of Job the Patient. According to many modern scholars, Chapter 28 is a hymn in praise of wisdom. In fact, this chapter does not praise wisdom. Wisdom is claimed by both Job and his friends as their possession. It is attributed to both King Solomon on the one hand and the Kedemites and Egyptians on the other (1 Kings 5:10), and it is claimed by both Nebuchadnezzar’s learned advisers and Daniel in Daniel Chapter 2. The point of Chapter 28 is not that wisdom is to be praised but that wisdom is very difficult to acquire. Here, as in Psalms 111:10 and Proverbs 1:7; 9:10, are praises of the twin virtues of fearing the Lord and shunning evil, virtues that merit the Lord’s bestowing upon Joseph, Solomon, Job, and Daniel knowledge which enables them to surpass what all the other “wise people” in the world attempt to achieve on the basis of their education and life experience.

LESSON FOUR JOB

As in parts of Proverbs, fear of the Lord is presented as superior to this elusive wisdom. 1-11: An extended image of the inaccessibility of ores and gems sets the scene for the question posed in verse 12. Gold, the most precious metal, must be extracted at great effort from the earth, where it is hidden away. Verses 4-5 are an especially vivid description of the opening of a mine. The world under the ground is very different from the world above ground. Jewish Study Bible

28:1 SURELYThis is the continuation of Zophar’s last address. Not Job’s words. Compare Job 35:16; 38:2. They are opposed to his own words, and confirm those of his friends. See his second address, 20:1-29.Job 28:1Surely there is a vein for the silver, and a place for gold where they fine it.[Surely there is a vein for the silver] This chapter is the oldest and finest piece of natural history in the world, and gives us very important information on several curious subjects, and could we ascertain the precise meaning of all the original words, we might, most probably, find out allusions to several useful arts which we are apt to think are of modern, or comparatively modern, invention.The word mowtsaa' (OT 4161), which we here translate vein, signifies literally, a going out; i. e., a mine, or place dug in the earth, whence the silver ore is extracted. And this ore lies generally in veins or loads, running in certain directions.[A place for gold where they fine it.] This should rather be translated, A place for gold which they refine. Gold ore has also its peculiar mine, and requires to be refined from earthy impurities.Job 28:2

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[Iron is taken out of the earth] This most useful metal is hidden under the earth, and men have found out the method of separating it from its ore.[Brass is molten out of the stone.] As brass is a factitious metal, copper must be the meaning of the Hebrew word nªchuwshaah (OT 5154): literally, the stone is poured out for brass. If we retain the common translation, perhaps the process of making brass may be that to which Job refers, for this metal is formed from copper melted with the stone calamine; and thus the stone is poured out to make brass.Job 28:3[He setteth an end to darkness] Since it is likely Job still refers to mining, the words above may be understood as pointing out the persevering industry of man in penetrating into the bowels of the earth, in order to seek for metals and precious stones. Even the stones that lay hidden in the bowels of the earth he has digged for and brought to light, and has penetrated in directions in which the solar light could not be transmitted; so that he appears to have gone to the regions of the shadow of death. Mr. Good translates: "Man delved into the region of darkness; and examines, to the uttermost limit, the stones of darkness and death-shade." Tanakh “He sets bounds for darkness; to every limit man probes, to rocks in deepest darkness.”Job 28:4 [The flood breaketh out from the inhabitant] This passage is very difficult. Some think it refers to mining; others to navigation. If it refer to the former, it may be intended to point out the waters that spring up when the miners have sunk down to a considerable depth, so that the mine is drowned, and they are obliged to give it up. Previously to the invention of the steam-engine this was generally the case: hence, ancient mines may be reopened and worked to great advantage, because we have the means now to take off the water which the ancient workers had not. When, therefore floods break out in those shafts, they are abandoned; and thus they are. Tanakh “They open up a shaft far from where men live, [in places] forgotten by wayfarers, destitute of men, far removed.” Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

Job 28:4 [Forgotten of the foot] No man treads there anymore. The waters increase daluw (OT 1809), they are elevated, they rise up to a level with the spring, or till they meet with some fissure by which they can escape; and then, they are moved or carried away from men; the stream is lost in the bowels of the earth.Job 28:5[The earth, out of it cometh bread] Or the earth, from itself, by its own vegetative power, it sends out bread, or the grain of which bread is made.[And under it is turned up as it were fire.] It seems as if this referred to some combustible fossil, similar to our stone coal, which was dug up out of the earth in some places of Arabia. The Chaldee gives a translation, conformable to a very ancient opinion, which supposed the center of the earth to be a vast fire, and the place called hell. "The earth from which food proceeds, and under which is Gehenna, whose cold snow is converted into the likeness of fire; and the garden of Eden, which is the place whose stones are sapphires," etc. The Vulgate has, "The land from which bread has been produced has been destroyed by fire." If this be the meaning of the original, there is probably an allusion to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, and <Job 28:7-8> may be supposed to refer to that catastrophe there being no place left tangible or visible where those cities once stood: neither fowl nor beast could discern a path there, the whole land being covered with the lake Asphaltites. Tanakh “Earth, out of which food grows, is changed below as if into fire.”Job 28:6

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[The stones of it are the place of sapphires] In the language of mineralogists, the gangue, matrix, or bed in which the sapphire is found. For a description of this stone, see the note at <Job 28:16>[Dust of gold] Or rather, gold dust.Job 28:7[There is a path which no fowl knoweth] The instinct of birds is most surprising. They traverse vast forests, etc., in search of food, at a great distance from the place which they have chosen for their general residence and return in all weathers never missing their track: they also find their own nest without ever mistaking another of the same kind for it. Birds of passage, also, after tarrying in a foreign clime for six or seven months, return to their original abode over kingdoms and oceans without missing their way, or deviating in the least from the proper direction; not having a single object of sight to direct their peregrinations. In such cases even the keen scent of the vulture, and the quick, piercing sight of the eagle, would be of no use. It is possible that Job may here refer to undiscovered mines and minerals; that notwithstanding man had already discovered much, yet much remained undiscovered, especially in the internal structure and contents of the earth. Since his time innumerable discoveries have been made, and yet how little do we know! Our various conflicting and contradictory theories of the earth are full proofs of our ignorance, and strong evidences of our folly. The present dogmatical systems of geology itself are almost the ne plus ultra of brain-sick visionaries, and system-mad mortals. They talk as confidently of the structure of the globe, and the manner and time in which all was formed, as if they had examined every part from the center to the circumference; though not a soul of man has ever penetrated two miles in perpendicular depth into the bowels of the earth.And with this scanty, defective knowledge, they pretend to build systems of the universe, and blaspheme the revelation of God! Poor souls! All these things are to them a path which no fowl knoweth, which the vulture's eye hath not seen, on which the lion's whelps have not trodden, and by which the fierce lion hath not passed. The wisdom necessary to such investigations is out of their reach, and they have not simplicity of heart to seek it where it may be found. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

Job 28:9[He putteth forth his hand upon the rock] Still there appears to be a reference to mining. Man puts his hand upon the rock; he breaks that to pieces, in order to extract the metals which it contains.[He overturned the mountains] He excavates, undermines, or digs them away, when in search of the metals contained in them: this is not only poetically, but literally, the case in many instances.Job 28:10[He cutteth out rivers among the rocks] He cuts canals, edits, etc., in the rocks, and drives levels under ground, in order to discover loads or veins of ore. These are often continued a great way under ground; and may be poetically compared to rivers, channels, or canals.[His eye seeth every precious thing.] He sinks those shafts, and drives those levels, in order to discover where the precious minerals lie, of which he is in pursuit.Job 28:11[He bindeth the floods] Prevents the risings of springs from drowning the mines and conducts rivers and streams from their wonted course, in order to bring forth to light what was hidden under their beds. The binding or restraining the water, which, at different depths, annoys the miner, is both difficult and expensive: in some cases it may be drawn off by pipes or canals into neighboring water courses; in others, it is conducted to one receptacle or reservoir, and thence drawn off. In Europe it is generally done by

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means of steam-engines. What method the ancients had in mining countries, we cannot tell; but they dug deep in order to find out the riches of the earth. PLINY says, nervously, "We descend into the bowels of the earth, and seek for wealth even in the abodes of departed spirits."-- The manes or ghosts of the dead, or spirits presiding over the dead, were supposed to have their habitation in the center of the earth, or in the deepest pits and caves. OVID, speaking of the degeneracy of men in the ironJob 28:11 By binding the floods from overflowing, some have supposed that there is an allusion to the flux and reflux of the sea. In its flowing it is so bound, has its bounds assigned by the Most High that it does not drown the adjacent country; and in its ebbing the parts which are ordinarily covered with the water are brought to view. Tanakh “He dams up the sources of the streams so that hidden things may be brought to light.”

Adam Clarke12-19: Wisdom is more precious than gold and precious gems. Where can it be found? 19: Nubia (Hebrew “Kush”) or Ethiopia. 20-28: Unlike gold or precious gems, wisdom cannot be found in the physical world, even in far-off, exotic places. Even Death does not know where it resides. Only God, who created the world and knows the source of all things, knows where wisdom is. He gives it to those who fear the Lord and shun evil. Fear of the Lord is the way for attaining wisdom; and fearing God and shunning evil are the attributes of Job.

Jewish Study Bible

Job 28:12 [But where shall wisdom is found?] It is most evident that the terms wisdom and understanding are used here in a widely different sense from all those arts and sciences which have their relation to man in his animal and social state, and from all that reason and intellect by which man is distinguished from all other animals. Now as these terms chaakªmaah (OT 2451), wisdom, and biynaah (OT 998), understanding or discernment, are often applied in the sacred writings in their common acceptations, we must have recourse to what Job says of them, to know their meaning in this place. In <Job 28:28>, he says, the fear of the Lord is WISDOM, and to depart from evil is UNDERSTANDING. We know that the fear of the Lord is often taken for the whole of that religious reverence and holy obedience which God prescribes to man in his word, and which man owes to his Maker. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOBHence, the Septuagint render chaakªmaah (OT 2451), wisdom, by theosebia, divine worship; and as to a departure from evil, that is necessarily implied in a religious life, but it is here properly distinguished, that no man might suppose that a right faith, and a proper performance of the rites of religious worship, is the whole of religion. No. They must not only worship God in the letter, but also in the spirit, they must not only have the form but also the power of godliness: and this will lead them to worship God in spirit and truth, to walk in his testimonies, and abstain from every appearance of evil; hence, they will be truly happy: so that wisdom is another word for happiness. Now these are things which man by study and searching could never find out; they are not of an earthly origin. The spirit of a man, human understanding, may know the things of a man-- those which concern him in his animal and social state: but the Spirit of God alone knows the things of God; and therefore WISDOM-- all true religion-- must come by divine revelation, which is the mode of its attainment. Wisdom finds out the thing, and understanding uses and applies the means; and then the great end is obtained. Adam Clarke

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1 Cor 12:7-87 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, NKJV

Job 28:13[Man knoweth not the price thereof] It is of infinite value; and is the only science which concerns both worlds. Without it, the wisest man is but a beast; with it, the simplest man is next to an angel.[Neither is it found in the land of the living.] The world by wisdom, its wisdom, never knew God. True religion came by divine revelation: that alone gives the true notion of God, his attributes, ways, designs, judgments, providences, etc., whence man came what is his duty, his nature, and his end. Literature, science, arts, etc., etc., can only avail man for the present life; nor can they contribute to his true happiness, unless tempered and directed by genuine religion.Job 28:14[The depth saith, it is not in me] Men may dig into the bowels of the earth, and there find gold, silver, and precious stones; but these will not give them true happiness.[The sea saith, it is not with me.] Men may explore foreign countries, and by navigation connect as it were the most distant parts of the earth, and multiply the comforts and luxuries of life; but every voyage and every enjoyment proclaim, True happiness is not here.Job 28:15[It cannot be gotten for gold] Genuine religion and true happiness are not to be acquired by earthly property. Solomon made gold and silver as plentiful as the stones in Jerusalem, and had all the delights of the sons of men, and yet he was not happy; yea, he had wisdom, was the wisest of men, but he had not the wisdom of which Job speaks here, and therefore, to him, all was vanity and vexation of spirit. If Solomon, as some suppose, was the author of this book, the sentiments expressed here are such as we might expect from this deeply experienced and wise man.Job 28:16 [The gold of Ophir] Gold is five times mentioned in this and <Job 28:17, 19>, and four of the times in different words. I shall consider them all at once.1. CªGOWR (OT 5458), from caagar (OT 5462), to shut up. Gold in the mine or shut up in the ore, native gold washed by the streams out of the mountains, etc.; unworked gold. Job 28:15

LESSON FOUR JOB2. KETEM (OT 3800), from kaatham (OT 3799), to sign or stamp: gold made current by being coined or stamped with its weight or value what we would call standard or sterling gold. Found in <Job 28:16>3. ZAAHAAB (OT 2091), from zaahab (OT 2091), to be clear, bright, or resplendent: the untarnishing metal; the only metal that always keeps its luster. But probably here it means gold chased, or that in which precious stones are set; burnished gold. Found in <Job 3:15>4. PAAZ (OT 6337), from paaz (OT 6338), pure refined to consolidate, joined here with kªliy (OT 3627), vessels, ornaments, instruments, etc.: hammered or worked gold; gold in the finest forms, and most elegant utensils. This metal is at once the brightest, most solid, and most precious, of all the metals yet discovered, of which we have no less than forty in our catalogues. Job 28:175. Betser (OT 1220) gold as dug out. Job 22:24

Job 28:16

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When the meaning of the Hebrew word is collated with the description given by Pliny, it must be evident that a spotted opaque stone is meant, and consequently not what is now known by the name sapphire. I conjecture, therefore, that lapis lazuli, which is of a blue color, with golden-like spots, formed by pyrites of iron, must be intended. The lapis lazuli is that from which the beautiful and unfading color called ultramarine is obtained.

Tanakh “The finest gold of Ophir cannot be weighed against it, or precious onyx, or sapphire. Gold or glass cannot match its value, or vessels of find gold be exchanged for it; a pouch of wisdom is better than rubies. Topaz from Nubia cannot match its value; pure gold cannot be weighed against it.” Job 28:16-19

Job 28:19[The topaz of Ethiopia] The country called Cush, which we call Ethiopia, is supposed to be that which extends from the eastern coast of the Red Sea, and stretches toward Lower Egypt. Diodorus Siculus says that the topaz was found in great abundance, as his description intimates, in an island in the Red Sea called Ophiodes, or the isle of serpents. (Hist. lib. iii. p. 121). His account is curious, but I greatly doubt its correctness; it seems too much in the form of a legend: yet the reader may consult the place.Job 28:20[Whence then cometh wisdom?] Nearly the same words as in <Job 28:12>, where see the note.Job 28:22[Destruction and death say, we have heard the fame thereof] Àbadown (OT 11) waamaawet (OT 4194), the destroyer, and his offspring death. This is the very name that is given to the Devil in Greek letters Abaddon (NT 3), <Rev. 9:11>, and is rendered by the Greek word Apolluon (NT 623), Apollyon, a word exactly of the same meaning. No wonder death and the Devil are brought in here as saying they had heard the fame of wisdom, seeing <Job 28:28> defines it to be the fear of the Lord, and a departure from evil; things point blank contrary to the interests of Satan, and the extension of the empire of death.Job 28:23[God understandeth the way thereof] It can only be taught by a revelation from himself. Instead of heebiyn (OT 995), understandeth, six MSS. have hechin, disposed or established. This reading is also supported by the Septuagint; "God hath well established her way:" Job 28:24[For he taketh to the ends of the earth] His knowledge is unlimited, and his power infinite.

Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

Job 28:25 [To make the weight for the winds] God has given an atmosphere to the earth, which, possessing a certain degree of gravity perfectly suited to the necessities of all animals, plants, vegetables, and fluids, is the cause in his hand of preserving animal and vegetative life through the creation; for by it the blood circulates in the veins of animals, and the juices in the tubes of vegetables. Without this pressure of the atmosphere, there could be no respiration; and the elasticity of the particles of air included in animal, and vegetable bodies, without this superincumbent pressure, would rupture the vessels in which they are contained and destroy both kinds of life. So exactly is this weight of the winds or atmospheric air proportioned to the necessities of the globe, that we find it in the mean neither too light to prevent the

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undue expansion of animal and vegetable tubes, nor too heavy to compress them so as to prevent due circulation. Job 28:25 [And he weigheth the waters by measure.] He has exactly proportioned the aqueous surface of the earth to the terrene parts, so that there shall be an adequate surface to produce, by evaporation, moisture sufficient to be treasured up in the atmosphere for the irrigation of the earth, so that it may produce grass for cattle, and corn for the service of man. It has been found, by a pretty exact calculation, that the aqueous surface of the globe is to the terrene parts as three to one; or, that three-fourths of the surface of the globe is water, and about one-fourth earth. And other experiments on evaporation, or the quantity of vapors which arise from a given space in a given time, show that it requires such a proportion of aqueous surface to afford moisture sufficient for the other proportion of dry land. Thus God has given the waters by measure, as he has given the due proportion of weight to the winds.Job 28:26 [When he made a decree for the rain] When he determined how that should be generated; namely, by the heat of the sun evaporation is produced: the particles of vapor being lighter than the air on the surface, ascend into the atmosphere, till they come to a region where the air is of their own density; there they are formed into thin clouds, and become suspended. When, by the sudden passages of lightning, or by winds strongly agitating these clouds, the particles are driven together and condensed, so as to be weightier than the air in which they float, then they fall down in the form of rain; the drops being greater or less according to the force or momentum, or suddenness, of the agitation by which they are driven together, as well as to the degree of rarity in the lower regions of the atmosphere through which they fall.[A way for the lightning of the thunder] Wªderek (OT 1870) lachaziyz (OT 2385) qolowt (OT 6963). Qowl (OT 6963) signifies voice of any kind; and qowlowt is the plural, and is taken for the frequent claps or rattling of thunder. Chaz signifies to notch, in dentate, or serrate, as in the edges of the leaves of trees; chaziyz (OT 2385) must refer to the zigzag form which lightning assumes in passing from one cloud into another. We are informed that "this is a frequent occurrence in hot countries." Undoubtedly it is; for it is frequent in cold countries also. I have seen this phenomenon in England in the most distinct manner for hours together, with a few seconds of interval between each flash. Nothing can better express this appearance than the original word. Tanakh “When He made a rule for the rain and a course for the thunderstorms,” Job 28:26Job 28:27[Then did he see it, and declare it] When he had finished all his creative operations, and tried and proved his work, investigated and found it to be very good; then he gave the needful revelation to man, for,Job 28:28 [Unto man he said], unto man, he said: This probably refers to the revelation of his will which God gave to Adam after his fall. He had before sought for wisdom in a forbidden way. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOBWhen he and Eve saw that the tree was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, they took and did eat, <Gen. 3:6>. Thus they lost all the wisdom that they had, by not setting the fear of the Lord before their eyes, and became foolish, wicked, and miserable. Hear, then, what God prescribes as a proper remedy for this dire disease: The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; it is thy only wisdom now to set God always before thy eyes, that thou mayest not again transgress.[Depart from evil is understanding.] Depart from the evil within thee, and the evil without thee; for thy own evil, and the evil that is now, through thee, brought into the world, will conspire together to sink thee into ruin and destruction. Therefore, let it be thy constant employment to shun and avoid that evil which

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is everywhere diffused through the whole moral world by thy offence, and labour to be reconciled to him by the righteousness and true holiness, that thou mayest escape the bitter pains of an eternal death. See the note at <Job 28:12>

ADAM CLARKE’S CONCLUSION:Job 28:28 From what has been observed on <Job 28:25-26>, and from the doctrine of the atmosphere in general, I can safely draw the following conclusions:

1. From the gravity and elasticity of the air, we learn that it closely invests the earth, and all bodies upon it, and binds them down with a force equal to 2160 pounds on every square foot. Hence, it may properly be termed the belt or girdle of the globe.

2. It prevents the arterial system of animals and plants from being too much distended by the impetus of the circulating juices, or by the elastic power of the air so plenteously contained in the blood, and in the different vessels both of plants and animals.

3. By its gravity it prevents the blood and juices from oozing through the pores of the vessels in which they are contained; which, were it not for this circumstance, would infallibly take place. Persons who ascend high mountains, through want of a sufficiency of pressure in the atmosphere, become relaxed and spit blood. Animals, under an exhausted receiver, swell, vomit, and discharge their fasces.

4. It promotes the mixture of contiguous fluids; for when the air is extracted from certain mixtures, a separation takes place, by which their properties, when in combination, are essentially changed.

5. To this principle we owe winds in general, so essential to navigation, and so necessary to the purification of the atmosphere. The air is put into motion by any alteration of its equilibrium.

6. Vegetation depends entirely on the gravity and elasticity of the air. Various experiments amply prove that plants in vacuum never grow.

7. Without air there could be no evaporation from the sea and rivers; and, consequently, no rain; nor could the clouds be suspended, so necessary to accumulate and preserve, and afterward to distil, these vapors, in the form of dew, rain, snow, and hail, upon the earth.

8. Without air, all the charms of vocal and instrumental sounds would become extinct; and even language itself would cease.

9. Without it heat could not be evolved, nor could fire exist; hence, a universal rigor would invest the whole compass of created nature.

10. Without air, animal life could never have had a being; hence, God created the firmament or atmosphere before any animal was produced. And without its continual influence animal life cannot be preserved, for it would require only a few moments of a total privation of the benefits of the atmosphere to destroy every living creature under the whole heaven.

11. It has been found, by repeated experiments, that a column or rod of quicksilver, about twenty-nine inches and a half high, and one inch in diameter, weighs about fifteen pounds; and such a column is suspended in an exhausted tube by the weight of the atmosphere.

LESSON FOUR JOBHence, it necessarily follows, that a column of air, one square inch in diameter, and as high as the atmosphere, weighs about fifteen pounds at a medium. Thus it is evident that the atmosphere presses with the weight of fifteen pounds on every square inch; and, as a square foot contains one hundred and forty-four square inches, every such foot must sustain a weight of incumbent atmospheric air equal to two thousand one hundred and sixty pounds, as has been before stated. And from this it will follow, that a middle-sized man, whose surface is about fifteen square feet, constantly sustains a load of air equal to

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thirty-two thousand four hundred pounds! But this is so completely counterbalanced by the air pressing equally in all directions, and by the elasticity of the air included in the various cavities of the body, that no person in a pure and healthy state of the atmosphere feels any inconvenience from it; so accurately has God fitted the weight to the winds.

It has been suggested that my computation of 15 square feet for the surface of a middle-sized man, is too much; I will, therefore, take it at 14 square feet. From this computation which is within the measure, it is evident that every such person sustains a weight of air equal, at a medium, to about 30,240 lbs. troy, or 24,882 1/2 lbs. avoirdupois, which makes 1,777 stone, 4 lbs. equal to eleven TONS, two HUNDRED and eighteen pounds and a half.

12. Though it may appear more curious than useful, yet from the simple fact which I have completely demonstrated myself by experiment that the atmosphere presses with the weight of fifteen pounds on every square inch we can tell the quantum of pressure on the whole globe, and weigh the whole atmosphere to a pound!

The polar and equatorial circumference of the earth is well known. Without, therefore, entering too much into detail, I may state that the surface of the terraqueous globe is known to contain about five thousand, five hundred, and seventy-five BILLIONS of square FEET; hence, allowing fifteen pounds to each square inch, and two thousand one hundred and sixty pounds to each square foot, the whole surface must sustain a pressure from the atmosphere equal to twelve TRILLIONS and forty-two thousand billions of POUNDS! Or six thousand and twenty-one BlLLIONS of TONS! And this weight is the weight of the whole atmosphere from its contact with every part of the earth's surface to its utmost highest extent!

Experiments also prove that the air presses equally in all directions, whether upwards, downwards, or laterally; hence, the earth is not incommoded with this enormous weight, because its zenith and nadir, north and south pressure, being perfectly equal, counterbalance each other! This is also the case with respect to the human body, and to all bodies on the earth's surface.

To make the foregoing calculations more satisfactory, it may be necessary to add the following observations:

A bulk of atmospheric air, equal to one quart, when taken near the level of the sea, at a temperature of 50ø Fahrenheit, weighs about 16 grains, and the same bulk of rain water taken at the same temperature, weighs about 14,621 grains: hence, rain water is about 914 times specifically heavier than air.

I have already shown that the pressure of the atmosphere is equal to about 15 lbs. troy on every square inch; and that this pressure is the same in all directions; and thence shown that on this datum the whole weight of the atmosphere may be computed. I shall re-state this from a computation of the earth's surface in square miles, which is recommended to me as peculiarly accurate. A square mile contains 27,878,400 square feet. The earth's surface, in round numbers, is 200,000,000, or two hundred millions, of square miles. Now, as from the preceding data it appears that there is a pressure of 19,440 lbs. troy on every square yard, the pressure or weight of the whole atmosphere, circumfused round the whole surface of the earth, amounts to 12,043,468,800,000,000,000, or, twelve TRILLIONS, forty-three thousand four hundred and sixty-eight BILLIONS, eight hundred thousand TRILLIONS of pounds.

LESSON FOUR JOB

Though we cannot tell to what height the atmosphere extends, the air growing more and more rare as we ascend in it, yet we can ascertain as above, the quantum of weight in the whole of this atmosphere, which the terraqueous globe sustains equally diffused over its surface, as well as over the surfaces of all bodies existing on it. At first view, however, it is difficult for minds not exercised in matters of

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philosophy to conceive how such an immense pressure can be borne by animal beings. Though this has been already explained, let the reader further consider that, as fishes are surrounded by water, and live and move in it, which is a much denser medium than our atmosphere, so all human beings and all other animals are surrounded by air, and live and move in it. A fish taken out of the water will die in a very short time: a human being, or any other animal, taken out of the air, or put in a place whence the air is extracted, will die in a much shorter time. Water gravitates toward the center of the earth, and so does air. Hence, as a fish is pressed on every side by that fluid, so are all animals on the earth's surface by atmospheric air. And the pressure in both cases, on a given surface, is as has been stated above; the air contained in the vessels and cells of animal bodies being a sufficient counterpoise to the air without.

Having said thus much on the pressure of the atmosphere, as intimated by Job, the reader will permit me to make the following general reflections on the subject, of which he may make what use he may judge best.

It is generally supposed that former times were full of barbaric ignorance; and that the system of philosophy which is at present in repute, and is established by experiments, is quite a modern discovery. But nothing can be more false than this; as the Bible plainly discovers to an attentive reader that the doctrine of static’s, the circulation of the blood, the rotundity of the earth, the motions of the celestial bodies, the process of generation, etc. were all known long before Pythagoras, Archimedes, Copernicus, or Newton were born.

It is very reasonable to suppose that God implanted the first principles of every science in the mind of his first creature, that Adam taught them to his posterity, and that tradition continued them for many generations with their proper improvements. But many of them were lost in consequence of wars, captivities, etc. Latter ages have re-discovered many of them, principally by the direct or indirect aid of the Holy Scriptures, and others of them continue hidden, notwithstanding the accurate and persevering researches of the moderns. Adam Clarke

“He said to man, “See! Fear of the Lord is wisdom; to shun evil is understanding.” Job 28:28 Tanakh

28:28 THAT IS WISDOMThis was a libel on Job, for Job had this “fear” or reverence; yet he was suffering. That was the very point in question, and leads up to the answer. This was Zophar’s philosophy. The fear of the Lord is not true wisdom; it is only “the beginning of wisdom” (Ps. 111:10; Prov. 1:7; 9:10). True wisdom is to take the place of the sinner before God, and Job takes this place (42:5, 6). This is “the end of the Lord” (James 5:11), and it is “the end” of this book. This wisdom “justifies God” (Ps. 51:3, 4, 6; Matt. 11:19; Luke 7:35). True wisdom is “given”, and we have to be “made” to know it (Prov. 30:24; 2 Tim. 3:15, Job 38:36). Compare Job 33:27, 28; 34:31; 35:11; 39:17. Zophar’s was human wisdom founded on human merit. To depart from evil is what every prudent man would do from good policy.

29:1-31:40 JOB’S SELF-JUSTIFICATIONA B-1 29 Saddened retrospect of past prosperity.

B-2 30 Sorrowful description of present misery.B-3 31 Solemn asseveration of innocence.

LESSON FOUR JOB

29:1-25 (B-1, above). SADDENED RETROSPECT OF PAST PROSPERITY

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B-1 A B 29:1-6 Job’s prosperity. (What he was.)C 29:7-11 His honour. (What he had.)

D 29:29:12 Redress of wrong.E 29:13 Beneficence.

F 29:14- Righteousness. (What Job did)F 29:-14 Justice.

E 29:15, 16 Beneficence.D 29:17 Redress of wrong.

B 29:18-20 Job’s prosperity. (What he thought.)C 29:21-25 His honour. (What he had.)

This is Job’s last address, corresponding with his first. Note the frequency of ‘I” (self-occupation). In ch. 29, the “I” (of prosperity); in ch. 30, the “I” (of adversity); in ch. 31, the “I” (of self-righteousness)

Job 29:1-2529:1 Job's Summary Defense Job further continued his discourse, and said: 2 "Oh, that I was as in months past, as in the days when God watched over me; 3 When His lamp shone upon my head, and when by His light I walked through darkness; 4 Just as I was in the days of my prime, when the friendly counsel of God was over my tent; 5 When the Almighty was yet with me, when my children were around me; 6 When my steps were bathed with cream, and the rock poured out rivers of oil for me! 7 "When I went out to the gate by the city, when I took my seat in the open square, 8 The young men saw me and hid, and the aged arose and stood; 9 The princes refrained from talking, and put their hand on their mouth; 10 The voice of nobles was hushed, and their tongue stuck to the roof of their mouth. 11 When the ear heard, then it blessed me, and when the eye saw, then it approved me; 12 because I delivered the poor who cried out, the fatherless and the one who had no helper. 13 The blessing of a perishing man came upon me, and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. 14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. 15 I was eyes to the blind, and I was feet to the lame. 16 I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the case that I did not know. 17 I broke the fangs of the wicked, and plucked the victim from his teeth. 18 "Then I said, 'I shall die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand. 19 My root is spread out to the waters, and the dew lies all night on my branch. 20 My glory is fresh within me, and my bow is renewed in my hand.' 21 "Men listened to me and waited, and kept silence for my counsel. 22 After my words they did not speak again,And my speech settled on them as dew. 23 They waited for me as for the rain, and they opened their mouth wide as for the spring rain. 24 If I mocked at them, they did not believe it, and the light of my countenance they did not cast down. 25 I chose the way for them, and sat as chief; so I dwelt as a king in the army, as one who comforts mourners. NKJV

29:1-31:40: Job soliloquy. These chapters form a logical progression: Job recalls the good old days (Chapter 29), laments his current physical and social afflictions (Chapter 30), and offers a powerful self-imprecation, insisting on his innocence (Chapter 31). Towards the end of his soliloquy, he returns to the forensic imagery (31:35-37) that typifies many of his arguments earlier in the book. Jewish Study Bible

LESSON FOUR JOB SECTION THREE

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29:2-4: O that I were…when I was in my prime: Job prefers the memory of his former state to his present situation. In earlier times, when God blessed him and made him successful, he was an honored member of society, respected and heeded by all, who helped those in need. 3: Lamp…light, (cf. Psalms 119:105; 139:12). 7: Gates…square, the centers of legal transactions and business activity. Those who sat here were the decision-makers of society. Jewish Study Bible

Job 29:2Oh that I were as in months past, as in the days when God preserved me;[O that I were as in months past] Job seems here to make an apology for his complaints, by taking a view of his former prosperity, which was very great, but was now entirely at an end. He shows that it was not removed because of any bad use he had made of it; and describes how he behaved himself before God and man, and how much, for justice, benevolence, and mercy, he was esteemed and honored by the wise and good.[Preserved me] Kept, guarded, and watched over me.Job 29:3[When his candle shined upon my head] Alluding most probably to the custom of illuminating festival or assembly rooms by lamps pendant from the ceiling. These shone literally on the heads of the guests.[By his light I walked through darkness] His light-- prosperity and peace-- continued to illuminate my way. If adversity came, I had always the light of God to direct me. Almost all the nations of the world have represented their great men as having a nimbus or divine glory about their heads, which not only signified the honour they had, but was also an emblem of the inspiration of the Almighty.Job 29:4 [The days of my youth] The original word rather means in the days of my winter, chaarªpiy (OT 2779), from chaaraph (OT 2778), "to strip or make bare." Mr. Harmer supposes the rainy season is intended, when the fields, etc. parched up by long drought, are revived by the plentiful showers. Mr. Good thinks the word as found in the Arabic, which means top or summit, and which he translates perfection, is that which should be preferred. Others think the autumnal state is meant, when he was loaded with prosperity, as the trees are with ripe fruit. Tanakh “When God’s company graced my tent, when Shaddai was still with me,” Job 29:4[The secret of God was upon my tabernacle] Bªcowd (OT 5475) 'Elowah (OT 433), "the secret assembly of God," meaning probably the same thing that is spoken of in the beginning of this book, the sons of God, the devout people, presenting themselves before God. It is not unlikely that such a secret Assembly of God Job had in his own house; where he tells us, in the next verse, "The Almighty was with him, and his children were about him."Mr. Good translates differently: When God fortified my tent over me; supposing that the Hebrew cowd (OT 5475) is the Arabic sud, "a barrier or fortification." Either will make a good sense.Job 29:6[Washed my steps with butter] See the note at <Job 20:17> Tanakh “When my feet were bathed in cream, and rocks poured out streams of oil for me.” Job 29:6Job 29:7[When I went out to the gate] Courts of justice were held at the gates or entrances of the cities of the East; and Job, being an emir, was supreme magistrate: and here he speaks of his going to the gate to administer justice. Tanakh “When I passed through the city gates to take my seat in the square. Young men saw me and hid, Elders rose and stood; Nobles held back their words; they clapped their hands to their mouths. The voices of princes were hushed; their tongues stuck to their palates. The ear that heard me acclaimed me; the eye that saw, commended me.” Job 29:7-11

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LESSON FOUR JOB[I prepared my seat in the street] I administered judgment openly, in the most public manner, and none could say that I, in any case, perverted justice. Mr. Good translates: -- "As I went forth the city rejoiced at me, as I took my seat abroad."Job 29:8[The young men saw me, and hid themselves] From all classes of persons I had the most marked respect. The YOUNG, through modesty and bashfulness, shrunk back, and were afraid to meet the eye of their prince; and the AGED rose from their seats when I entered the place of judgment. These were the elders of the people, who also sat with the judge, and assisted in all legal cases.Job 29:9[The princes refrained talking] They never ventured an opinion in opposition to mine, so fully were they persuaded of the justice and integrity of my decision.Job 29:10[The nobles held their peace] PRINCES, sariym (OT 8269), and NOBLES, nªgiydiym (OT 5057), must have been two different classes of the great men of Idumea. Sar (OT 8269), PRINCE, director, or ruler, was probably the head of a township or what we would call a magistrate of a particular district. Nagiyd (heb 5057), a NOBLE, or one of those who had the privilege of standing before, or in the presence of, the chief ruler. The participle naagad (OT 5046) is frequently used to signify before, in the presence of, publicly, openly. And on this account, it is most likely that the noun means one of those nobles or counselors who were always admitted to the royal presence. Mr. Good thinks that renowned speakers or eminent orators are meant: and others have embraced the same opinion. Job here intimates that his judgment was so sound, his decisions so accredited, and his reasoning power so great, that every person paid him the utmost deference.Job 29:11[When the ear heard me] This and the six following verses present us with a fine exhibition of a man full of benevolence and charity, acting up to the highest dictates of those principles, and rendering the miserable of all descriptions happy, by the constant exercise of his unconfined philanthropy.Job 29:12[Because I delivered the poor that cried] This appears to be intended as a refutation of the charges produced by Eliphaz, <Job 22:5-10>, to confute which Job appeals to facts, and to public testimony.Job 29:15[I was eyes to the blind, and feet were I to the lame.] Alluding probably to the difficulty of traveling in the Arabian deserts. I was eyes to the blind-- those who did not know the way, I furnished with guides. I was feet to the lame-- those who were worn out, and incapable of walking, I set forward on my camels, etc.Job 29:16[The cause which I knew not I searched out.] When anything difficult occurred, I did not give it a slight consideration; I examined it to the bottom, whatever pain, time, and trouble it cost me, that I might not pronounce a hasty judgment.Job 29:17[I break the jaws of the wicked] A metaphor taken from hunting. A beast of prey had entered into the fold, and carried off a sheep. "The huntsman comes, assails the wicked beast, breaks his jaws, and delivers the spoil out of his teeth. See the case <1 Sam. 17:34-37>Job 29:18

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[I shall die in my nest] Since I endeavored to live soberly and temperately, fearing God, and departing from evil, endeavoring to promote the welfare of all around me, it was natural for me to conclude that I should live long, be very prosperous, and see my posterity multiply as the sands on the seashore.

LESSON FOUR JOBJob 29:19[My root was spread out by the waters] A metaphor taken from a healthy tree growing beside a rivulet where there is plenty of water; which in consequence flourishes in all seasons, its leaf does not wither, nor its fruit fall off. See <Psa. 1:3; Jer. 17:8> Adam Clarke

20: A reference to physical or sexual vigor. 25: Like one who consoles mourners: High social status is afforded the person who succeeds in consoling mourners in their bereavement. Given the failure of Job’s friends to condole with him properly, Job’s words are all the more poignant. Jewish Study Bible

Job 29:20[My glory was fresh in me] My vegetative power was great; my glory-- my splendid blossom, large and mellow fruit, was always in season, and in every season.[My bow was renewed] I was never without means to accomplish all my wishes. I had prosperity everywhere.Job 29:21[Unto me men gave ear] The same idea as in <Job 29:9-11>Job 29:22[My speech dropped upon them.] It descended as refreshing dew; they were encouraged, comforted, and strengthened by it.Job 29:23[They waited for me as for the rain] The idea continued. They longed as much to hear me speak, to receive my counsel and my decisions, as the thirsty land does for refreshing waters.[They opened their mouth wide] A metaphor taken from ground chapped with long drought.[The latter rain.] The rain that falls a little before harvest, in order to fill and perfect the grain. The former rain is that which falls about seed-time, or in spring, in order to impregnate and swell the seed, and moisten the earth to produce its nourishment.Job 29:24[I laughed on them, they believed it not] Similar to that expression in the Gospel, <Luke 24:41>: And while they believed not for joy, and wondered, he said--. Our version is sufficiently perspicuous, and gives the true sense of the original; only it should be read in the indicative and not in the subjunctive mood: I laughed on them-- they believed it not. We have a similar phrase: The news was too good to be true.[The light of my countenance] This evidence of my benevolence and regard. A smile is, metaphorically, the light of the countenance.[They cast not down.] They gave me no occasion to change my sentiments or feelings toward them. I could still smile upon them, and they were then worthy of my approbation. Their change he refers to in the beginning of the next chapter. Tanakh “When I smiled at them, they would not believe it; they never expected a sign of my favor. I lived like a king among his troops, like one who consoles mourners.” Job 29:24, 25Job 29:25

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[I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army] I cannot see, with some learned men, that our version of the original is wrong. I have not seen it mended, and I am sure I cannot improve it. The whole verse seems to me to point out Job in his civil, military, and domestic life. As supreme magistrate he chose out their way, adjusted their differences, and sat chief presiding in their entire civil assemblies. As captain general he dwelt as a king in the midst of his troops, preserving order and discipline, and seeing that his fellow soldiers were provided with requisites for their warfare, and the necessaries of life. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

Since a man he did not think himself superior to the meanest offices in domestic life, to relieve or support his fellow creatures, he went about comforting the mourners-- visiting the sick and afflicted, and ministering to their wants, and seeing that the wounded were properly attended. Noble Job! Look at him, ye nobles of the earth, ye lieutenants of counties, ye generals of armies, and ye lords of provinces. Look at JOB! Imitate his active benevolence, and be healthy and happy. Be as guardian angels in your particular districts, blessing all by your example and your bounty. Send your hunting horses to the plough, your game cocks to the dunghill; and at last live like men and Christians.

Adam Clarke

30:1-31 (B-2, above). SORROWFUL DESCRIPTION OF PRESENT MISERY

B-2 A 30:1-14 From others. (Vv 1-8, their character. Vv 9-14, their conduct.)B 30:15-18. In himself. (vv. 15, 16, mental. Vv. 17, 18, bodily.)

A 30:19-24. From God. (vv. 19, 20, silence. Vv. 21-24, action.)B 30:25-31. In himself.

Remember the “I” of adversity in chapter 30.

Job 30:1-3130:1 Job's Wealth Now Poverty "But now they mock at me, men younger than I, whose fathers I disdained to put with the dogs of my flock. 2 Indeed, what profit is the strength of their hands to me?Their vigor has perished. 3 They are gaunt from want and famine, fleeing late to the wilderness, desolate and waste, 4 who pluck mallow by the bushes, and broom tree roots for their food. 5 They were driven out from among men, they shouted at them as at a thief. 6 They had to live in the clefts of the valleys, in caves of the earth and the rocks. 7 Among the bushes they brayed, under the nettles they nestled. 8 They were sons of fools, Yes, sons of vile men; they were scourged from the land. 9 "And now I am their taunting song; Yes, I am their byword. 10 They abhor me, they keep far from me; they do not hesitate to spit in my face. 11 Because He has loosed my bowstring and afflicted me, they have cast off restraint before me. 12 At my right hand the rabble arises; they push away my feet, and they raise against me their ways of destruction. 13 They break up my path, they promote my calamity; they have no helper. 14 They come as broad breakers; under the ruinous storm they roll along. 15 Terrors are turned upon me; they pursue my honor as the wind, and my prosperity has passed like a cloud. 16 "And now my soul is poured out because of my plight; the days of affliction take hold of me. 17 My bones are pierced in me at night, and my gnawing pains take no rest. 18 By great force my garment is disfigured; it binds me about as the collar of my coat. 19 He has cast me into the mire, and I have become like dust and ashes. 20 "I cry out to You, but You do not answer me; I stand up, and You regard me. 21 But You have become cruel to me; with the strength of Your hand You oppose me. 22 You lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride on it;

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You spoil my success. 23 For I know that You will bring me to death, And to the house appointed for all living. 24 "Surely He would not stretch out His hand against a heap of ruins, if they cry out when He destroys it. 25 Have I not wept for him who was in trouble? Has not my soul grieved for the poor? 26 But when I looked for good, evil came to me; and when I waited for light, then came darkness. 27 My heart is in turmoil and cannot rest; Days of affliction confront me. 28 I go about mourning, but not in the sun;I stand up in the assembly and cry out for help. 29 I am a brother of jackals, and a companion of ostriches. 30 My skin grows black and falls from me; my bones burn with fever. 31 My harp is turned to mourning,And my flute to the voice of those who weep. NKJV

LESSON FOUR JOB

30:1: But now those younger than I deride me: Those with less wisdom than Job now think they are wiser and no longer respect him. Job feels like an outcast; he has lost his position in society because of his suffering. 2-8: The elderly and the infirm are banished so as not to be seen. 10-14: Young people taunt and even physically abuse the elderly and the infirm. Jewish Study Bible

Job 30:1But now they that are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to have set with the dogs of my flock.[But now they that are younger than I have me in derision] Compare this with <Job 29:8>; where he speaks of the respect he had from the youth while in the days of his prosperity. Now he is no longer affluent, and they are no longer respectful.[Dogs of my flock.] Persons who were not deemed sufficiently respectable to be trusted with the care of those dogs which were the guardians of my flocks. Not confidential enough to be made shepherds, ass-keepers, or camel-drivers; or even to have the care of the dogs by which the flocks were guarded. This saying is what we call an expression of sovereign contempt.Job 30:2 [The strength of their hands profit me] He is speaking here of the fathers of these young men. What was the strength of their hands to me? Their old age also has perished. The sense of which I believe to be this: I have never esteemed their strength even in their most vigorous youth, or their conduct, or their counsel even in old age. They were never good for anything, either young or old. Since their youth was without profit, so their old age was without honour. Mr. Good contends that the words are Arabic, and should be translated according to the meaning in that language, and the first clause of <Job 30:3> joined to the latter clause of the second, without which no good meaning can be elicited so as to keep properly close to the letter. I shall give the Hebrew text, Mr. Good's Arabic and its translation:The Tanakh text is this: “Of what use to me is the strength of their hands? All their vigor is gone.” The Arabic version is translated this way: "With whom crabbed looks are perpetual, from hunger and flinty famine."This translation is very little distant from the import of the present Hebrew text, if it may be called Hebrew, when the principal words are pure Arabic, and the others constructively so.Try this way. “What profit would their strength have been to me when they had lost their ripened manhood’s powers?” Adam Clarke

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Job 30:3[Fleeing into the wilderness] Seeking something to sustain life even in the barren desert. This shows the extreme of want, when the desert is supposed to be the only place where anything to sustain life can possibly be found.Job 30:4 [Who cut up mallows by the bushes?] Maluwach (OT 4408), which we translate mallows, comes from maalach (OT 4414), salt; some herb or shrub of a salt nature. [And juniper roots for their meat.] This is variously translated juniper, broom, furze, gorse, or whin. It is supposed to derive its name from the toughness of its twigs, as raatham (OT 7573) signifies to bind; and this answers well enough to the broom. "The broom serves for bands," says PLINY, But how can it be said that the roots of this shrub were eaten? I do not find any evidence from Asiatic writers that the roots of the juniper tree were an article of food; and some have supposed, because of this want of evidence, that the word lachmam (OT 3898), for their bread, should be understood thus, to bake their bread.

LESSON FOUR JOBBecause it is well known that the wood of the juniper gives an intense heat, and the coals of it endure a long time; and therefore we find coals of juniper, used <Psa. 120:4> to express severe and enduring punishment. But that the roots of the juniper [broom] were used for food in the northern countries, among the Goths, we have a positive testimony from Olaus Magnus, himself a Goth, and archbishop of Upsal. Speaking of the great number of different trees in their woods, he says:

"There is a great plenty of beech trees in all the northern parts, the virtue whereof this is: that, being cut between the bark and the wood, they send forth a juice that is good for drink. The fruit of them in famine serves for bread, and their bark for clothing. Likewise also the berries of the juniper, yea, even the roots of this tree are eaten for bread, as holy Job testifies, though it is difficult to come at them by reason of their prickles: in these prickles, or thorns, live coals will last a whole year. If the inhabitants do not quench them, when winds arise they set the woods on fire, and destroy all the circumjacent fields." In this account both the properties of the juniper tree, referred to by Job and David, and are mentioned by the Gothic prelate. They use its berries and roots for food, and its wood for fire.

Job 30:5[They were driven forth] They were persons whom no one would employ; they were driven away from the city, and if any of them appeared, the hue and cry was immediately raised up against them. The last clause Mr. Good translates, "They slunk away from them like a thief," instead of "They cried after them," etc.Job 30:6[To dwell in the cliffs of the valleys] They were obliged to take shelter in the most dangerous, out-of-the-way, and unfrequented places. This is the meaning. Tanakh “They live in the gullies of wades, in holes in the ground, and in rocks,”Job 30:7[Among the bushes they brayed] They cried out among the bushes, seeking for food, as the wild ass when he is in want of provender. [Under the nettles] Chaaruwl (OT 2738), the briers or brambles, under the brushwood in the thickest parts of the Underwood; they huddled together like wild beasts.Job 30:8

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[Children of fools] Children of nabal; children without a name; persons of no consideration, and descendants of such. Tanakh “Scoundrels, nobodies, stricken from the earth.”[Viler than the earth.] Rather, driven out of the land; persons not fit for civil society.Job 30:9[Now am I their song] I am the subject of their mirth, and serve as a proverb or by-word. They use me with every species of indignity. Job 30:10[They abhor me] What a state must civil society be in when such indignities were permitted to be offered to the aged and afflicted! Tanakh “They abhor me; they keep their distance from me; they do not withhold spittle from my face.”Job 30:11[Because he hath loosed my cord] Instead of yitriy (OT 3499), my cord, which is the keri or marginal reading, yitrow (OT 3499), his cord, is the reading of the text in many copies; and this reading directs us to a metaphor taken from an archer, who, observing his butt, sets his arrow on the string, draws it to a proper degree of tension, levels, and then loosing his hold, the arrow flies at the mark.

LESSON FOUR JOBHe hath let loose his arrow against me; it has hit me; and I am wounded. Tanakh “Because God [Lit. “He”] has disarmed [Lit. “Loosened by {bow} string.”] And humbled me, they have thrown off restraint in my presence.”[They have also let loose the bridle] When they perceived that God had afflicted me, they then threw off all restraints; like headstrong horses, swallowed the bit, got the reins on their own neck, and ran off at full speed.Job 30:12[Upon my right hand rise the youth] The word pirchach (OT 6526), which we translate youth, signifies properly buds, or the buttons of trees. Mr. Good has younglings. Younkers would be better, were it not too colloquial.[They push away my feet] They trip up my heels, or they in effect trample me under their feet. They rush upon and overwhelm me. They are violently incensed against me. They roll themselves upon me, as waves of the sea which wash the sand from under the feet, and then swamp the man to the bottom; see <Job 30:14>Job 30:13[They mar my path] They destroy the way-marks, so that there is no safety in traveling through the deserts, the guide-posts and way-marks being gone.These may be an allusion here to a besieged city: the besiegers strive by every means and way to distress the besieged; stopping up the fountains, breaking up the road, raising up towers to project arrows and stones into the city, called here raising up against it the ways of destruction, <Job 30:12>; preventing all succor and support.[They have no helper.] "There is not an adviser among them."-- Mr. Good. There is none to give them better instruction.Tanakh “Mere striplings assail me at my right hand: they put me to flight; they build their roads for my ruin. They tear up my path; they promote my fall, although it does them no good.” Job 30:12, 13Job 30:14[They came upon me as a wide breaking in] They storm me on every side.

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[In the desolation they rolled themselves] When they had made the breach, they rolled in upon me as an irresistible torrent. There still appears to be an allusion to a besieged city: the sap, the breach, the storm, the flight, the pursuit, and the slaughter. See the following verse.Job 30:15[Terrors are turned upon me] Defense is no longer useful, they have beat down my walls.[They pursue my soul as the wind] I seek safety in flight, my strong holds being no longer tenable; but they pursue me so swiftly, that it is impossible for me to escape. They follow me like a whirlwind; and as fast as that drives away the clouds before it, so is my prosperity destroyed. The word nªdibaatiy (OT 5082), which we translate my soul, signifies properly my nobility, my excellence: they Endeavour to destroy both my reputation and my property.Job 30:18[Is my garment changed?] There seem to be here plain allusions to the effect of his cruel disease; the whole body being enveloped with a kind of elephantine hide, formed by innumerable incrustations from the ulcerated surface.[It bindeth me about] There is now a new kind of covering to my body, formed by the effects of this disease; and it is not a garment which I can cast off, it is as closely attached to me as the collar of my coat. Or, my disease seizes me as a strong armed man; it has throttled me, and cast me in the mud. This is probably an allusion to two persons struggling: the stronger seizes the other by the throat, brings him down, and treads him in the dirt. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOBNote: You will notice that Adam Clarke went from verse 15 to verse 18. Let’s see what it says in the Hebrew, “So now my life runs out; days of misery have taken hold of me. By night my bones feel gnawed; my sinews never rest. With great effort I change clothing; the neck of my tunic fits my waist.” Tanakh Text Job 30:16-18. Remember you can leave some of the scriptures out and take only a portion of what you need in one verse and then make a new thought that is not according to the context of the scriptures.

Paul the LearnerJob 30:20[I cry unto thee] I am persecuted by man, afflicted with sore disease, and apparently forsaken of God.[I stand up] Or, as some translate, "I persevere, and thou lookest upon me." Thou seest my desolate, afflicted state; but thine eye doth not affect thy heart. Thou leave me unsupported to struggle with my adversities.Job 30:21[Thou art become cruel to me] Thou appear to treat me with cruelty. I cry for mercy, trust in thy goodness, and am still permitted to remain under my afflictions.[Thou oppose thyself] Instead of helping, thou oppose me; thou appear as my enemy.Job 30:22[Thou lift me up to the wind] Thou hast so completely stripped me of all my substance, that I am like chaff lifted up by the wind; or as a straw, the sport of every breeze; and at last carried totally away, being dissipated into particles by the continued agitation.Job 30:23 [Thou wilt bring me to death] This must be the issue of my present affliction: to God alone it is possible that I should survive it.[To the house appointed for all living.] Or to the house, mowèed (OT 4150), the rendezvous, the place of general assembly of human beings: the great devourer in whose jaws all that have lived, now live, and shall live, must necessarily meet. Job 30:24

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[He will not stretch out his hand to the grave] After all that has been said relative to the just translation and true meaning of this verse, is it not evident that it is in the mouth of Job a consolatory reflection? As if he said, though I suffer here, I shall not suffer hereafter. Though he adds stroke to stroke, so as to destroy my life, yet his displeasure shall not proceed beyond the grave.[Though they cry in his destruction.] Mr. Good translates: Surely there, in its ruin, is freedom. In the sepulcher there is freedom from calamity, and rest for the weary.Job 30:25[Did not I weep for him that was in trouble?] Mr. Good translates much nearer the sense of the original. "Should I not then weep for the ruthless day?" May I not lament that my sufferings are only to terminate with my life? Or, Did I not mourn for those who suffered by times of calamity?[Was not my soul grieved for the poor?] Did I not relieve the distressed according to my power; and did I not sympathize with the sufferer?Job 30:27[My bowels boiled] This alludes to the strong commotion in the bowels which every humane person feels at the sight of one in misery.Job 30:28[I went mourning without the sun] Chamaah (OT 2535), which we here translate the sun, comes from a root of the same letters, which signifies to hide, protect, etc., and may be translated, I went mourning without a protector or guardian; or, the word may be derived from chaamam (OT 2552), to be hot, and here it may signify fury, rage, anger; and thus it was understood by the Vulgate.

LESSON FOUR JOB

Tanakh “I walk about in sunless gloom; I rise in the assembly and cry out.” Job 30:28

Job 30:29[I am a brother to dragons] By my mournful and continual cry I resemble taniym (OT 8577), the jackals or hyenas.[And a companion to owls.] To the daughters of howling: generally understood to be the ostrich; for both the jackal and the female ostrich are remarkable for their mournful cry, and for their attachment to desolate places. -- Dodd. Tanakh “I have become a brother to jackals, a companion to ostriches.”Job 30:30[My skin is black] By continual exposure to the open air, and parching influence of the sun.[My bones are burned with heat.] A strong expression, to point out the raging fever that was continually preying upon his vitals.Job 30:31[My harp [lyre] also is turned to mourning] Instead of the harp, my only music is my own plaintive cries.[And my [pipe] organ] What the ùgaabiy (OT 5748) was, we know not; it was most probably some sort of pipe or wind instrument. His harp, and his pipe, were equally mute, or only used for mournful ditties.

This chapter is full of the most painful and pathetic sorrow; but nevertheless tempered with a calmness and humiliation of spirit which did not appear in Job's lamentations previously to the time in which he had that remarkable revelation mentioned in the nineteenth chapter. After he was assured that his Redeemer was the living God, he submitted to his dispensations, kissed the rod, and mourned not without hope, though in deep distress, occasioned by his unremitting sufferings. If the groaning of Job

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was great, his stroke was certainly heavy.Adam Clarke

31:1-40 (B-3) SOLEMN ASSEVERATION OF HIS INNOCENCE.

B-3 A-1 31:1 Sin. (Unchastity.)B-1 31:2-4 Consequence.

A-2 31:5 Sin. (Deceit.)B-2 31:6 Consequence. (Trial desired.)

A-3 31:7 Sin. (Dishonesty.)B-3 31:8 Consequence. (Imprecation.)

A-4 31:9 Sin. (Adultery.)B-4 31:10-12 Consequence. (Imprecation.)

A-5 31:13 Sin. (Injustice.)B-5 31:14, 15 Consequence. (Penalty.)

A-6 31:16-21 Sin. (Inhumanity.)B-6 31:22.23 Consequence. (Imprecation.)

A-7 31:24-27 Sin. (Sins of heart.) (Covetousness, 24, 25. Idolatry, 26, 27)B-7 31:28 Consequence. (Penalty.)

A-8 31:29-34 Sin. (Sins of heart.) (Malignity, 29-31. Inhospitality, 32.Hypocrisy, 33, 34)B-8 31:35-37 Consequence. (Trial desired.)

A-9 31:38, 39 Sin (Fraud.)B-9 31:40 Consequence.

LESSON FOUR JOBRemember the “I” of self-justification.

Job 31:1-4031:1 Job Defends His Righteousness "I have made a covenant with my eyes; why then should I look upon a young woman? 2 For what is the allotment of God from above, and the inheritance of the Almighty from on high? 3 Is it not destruction for the wicked, and disaster for the workers of iniquity? 4 Does He not see my ways, and count all my steps? 5 "If I have walked with falsehood, or if my foot has hastened to deceit, 6 let me be weighed on honest scales, that God may know my integrity. 7 If my step has turned from the way, or my heart walked after my eyes, or if any spot adheres to my hands, 8 Then let me sow, and another eat; Yes, let my harvest be rooted out. 9 "If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor's door, 10 then let my wife grind for another, and let others bow down over her. 11 For that would be wickedness; yes, it would be iniquity deserving of judgment. 12 For that would be a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase. 13 "If I have despised the cause of my male or female servant when they complained against me, 14 what then shall I do when God rises up? When He punishes, how shall I answer Him? 15 Did not He who made me in the womb make them? Did not the same One fashion us in the womb? 16 "If I have kept the poor from their desire, or caused the eyes of the widow to fail, 17 or eaten my morsel by myself, So that the fatherless could not eat of it 18 (But from my youth I reared him as a father, and from my mother's womb I guided the widow); 19 If I have seen anyone perish for lack of clothing, or any poor man without covering; 20 If his heart has not blessed me, and if he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; 21 If I have raised my hand against the fatherless, When I saw I had help in

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the gate; 22 Then let my arm fall from my shoulder, Let my arm be torn from the socket. 23 For destruction from God is a terror to me, And because of His magnificence I cannot endure. 24 "If I have made gold my hope, or said to fine gold, 'You are my confidence'; 25 if I have rejoiced because my wealth was great,And because my hand had gained much; 26 if I have observed the sun when it shines, Or the moon moving in brightness, 27 So that my heart has been secretly enticed, And my mouth has kissed my hand; 28 This also would be an iniquity deserving of judgment, For I would have denied God who is above. 29 "If I have rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted myself up when evil found him 30 (Indeed I have not allowed my mouth to sin by asking for a curse on his soul); 31 If the men of my tent have not said,'Who is there that has not been satisfied with his meat?' 32 (But no sojourner had to lodge in the street,For I have opened my doors to the traveler); 33 If I have covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom, 34 because I feared the great multitude, And dreaded the contempt of families, So that I kept silence And did not go out of the door — 35 Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my mark.Oh, that the Almighty would answer me, that my Prosecutor had written a book! 36 Surely I would carry it on my shoulder, and bind it on me like a crown; 37 I would declare to Him the number of my steps; Like a prince I would approach Him. 38 "If my land cries out against me, and its furrows weep together; 39 If I have eaten its fruit without money, or caused its owners to lose their lives; 40 Then let thistles grow instead of wheat, and weeds instead of barley." The words of Job are ended. NKJV

31:1-40: Job’s confession of innocence. The summation by the defense before both the Lord and Job’s three friends most certainly constitutes Job’s last word in his trial (see 31:1). Eliphaz accused Job of failing to provide for the needs of the impoverished (22:7) and of adding to the suffering of widows and orphans (22:9). Here (verses 16-19) Job responds with a plea of innocence to these and other charges that have been mentioned or implied in the course of the condolence call turned into symposium (Chapters 4-26). Jewish Study Bible

LESSON FOUR JOBWith this plea Job rests his case. Many scholars have compared Job’s confession of innocence with the negative confession in the Egyptian Book of the Dead from the Egyptian New Kingdom (1555-1085 BCE). In the latter text the deceased declares – before Osiris, the divine ruler of the realm of the dead (who himself had overcome death), and forty two judges – the deceased person’s innocence of thirty-six offenses, including both murder and short comings with respect to religious rites.Job Chapter 31 has three especially significant rhetorical features:

1. First, a list of 14 (i.e. 7 x 2) sins from which Job claims innocence, similar to the listing of 14 capital offenses punishable by stoning to dead in (Talmud m. Sanh. 7:4;) to the 14 ages of humans in (Talmud m. ‘Avot 5:21); and to the 14 qualities induced by the study of Torah according to (Talmud ‘Avot 6:7)

2. Second, twenty instances of the particle “im” in three distinct meanings: (1) “if” in the protasis (conditional clause) of an ordinary conditional sentence (31:19); (2) “if” in the protasis describing a crime where the apodasis (concluding clause) describes the penalty (verses 7-8; 9-10; 21-22; 38-40); (3) the interrogative particle introducing a rhetorical question which calls for a negative reply (verses 5, 13, 16, 19, 24, 25, 26, 33).

3. Third, virtual quotations of Job’s thought processes in verses 2-4 and 14-15 [Reference Robert Gordis, The Book of Job (New York, 1978), pages 543-545].

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The self-imprecation (curse) of this chapter would have been seen as very serious in antiquity, and not as a mere rhetorical statement. Many of the consequences suggested for offences reflect the biblical principle of measure-for-measure, which is further developed in the rabbinic period (see especially verses 9-10 and 21-22 note, e.g. Exodus 22:20-23).

Jewish Study Bible

1: Not to gaze on a maiden: Hebrew “betulah,” “maiden,” like its Akkadian masculine and feminine cognates, can designate a young, unmarried person of marriageable age. In some contexts (e.g. Deuteronomy 22:13-21) it means specifically “virgin.” The exact reference of this verse is obscure and many scholars relocate it to later in the chapter. 3: Calamity is surely for the iniquitous: Here, as in 6:29-30; 9:17, 21; 13:23; 23:4-12; 24:25, Job protests that he is totally innocent and that his sufferings is totally underserved. Contrast 7:21; 13:26; 14:16-17, and see the discussion at 7:21. Job wavers between admitting that he is, like all persons, guilty of some misdemeanors, for which he would like to be forgiven, and asserting his total innocence. Jewish Study Bible

Job 31:1[I made a covenant with mine eyes] "I have cut" or divided "the covenant sacrifice with my eyes." My conscience and my eyes are the contracting parties; God is the Judge; and I am therefore bound not to look upon anything with a delighted or covetous eye, by which my conscience may be defiled, or my God dishonored.[Why then should I think upon a maid?]. And why should I set myself to contemplate, or think upon, Betulah? That Betulah may here signify an idol is very likely. Tanakh “I have covenanted with my eyes not to gaze on a maiden. What fate is decreed by God above? What lot, by Shaddai in the heights? Calamity is surely for the iniquitous; misfortune, for the worker of mischief.” Job 31:1-3Job 31:2[For what portion of God is there from above?] Though I have not, in this or in any other respect, wickedly departed from God, yet what reward have I received? Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

Job 31:3[Is not destruction to the wicked?] If I had been guilty of such secret hypocritical proceedings, professing faith in the true God while in eye and heart an idolater, would not such a worker of iniquity be distinguished by a strange and unheard-of punishment?Job 31:4[Doth not he see my ways?] Can I suppose that I could screen myself from the eye of God while guilty of such iniquities? Adam Clarke

5-6: An affirmation that Job has not cheated in business; for the prohibition (see Leviticus 19:35-36; Deuteronomy 25:13-16). 7-8: An affirmation that Job has not expropriated material goods belonging to others; for the relevant prohibitions in the Torah (see Leviticus 5:20-26; 19:11-13). 9-12: Committing adultery with another man’s wife is an offense against that man’s property in ancient Near Eastern law.

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In “measure-for-measure” penalties, or the law of talion, found in the Bible and the ancient Near East, if a man injures or mistreats a member of another man’s family, the comparable member of the criminal’s family is similarly injured or mistreated. There is, however, no biblical law stating that an adulterer’s wife may be sexually used by the man whose own wife engaged in the adulterous relationship. Job is merely speaking rhetorically here, to show how innocent of wrong doing he is. He invokes the principle of talion against himself in the following verses as well, for the same reason. Jewish Study Bible

Job 31:5[If I have walked with vanity] If I have been guilty of idolatry, or the worshipping of a false god: for thus shaaw' (OT 7723), which we here translate vanity, is used <Jer. 18:15>; (compare with <Psa. 31:6; Hos. 12:11>; and <Jonah 2:9> ;) and it seems evident that the whole of Job's discourse here is a vindication of himself from all idolatrous dispositions and practices.Job 31:6[Mine integrity.] Tumaatiy (OT 8538), my perfection, the totality of my unblamable life.Job 31:7[If my step hath turned out of the way] I am willing to be sifted to the uttermost-- for every step of my foot, for every thought of my heart, for every look of mine eye, and for every act of my hands.Job 31:8[Let me sow, and let another eat] Let me be plagued both in my circumstances and in my family.[My offspring is rooted out.] It has already appeared probable that all Job's children were not destroyed in the fall of the house mentioned <Job 1:18-19> Adam Clarke

Tanakh “Have I walked with worthless men, or my feet hurried to deceit? Let Him weigh me on the scale of righteousness; let God ascertain my integrity. If my feet have strayed from their course, my heart followed after my eyes, and a stain sullied my hands, may I sow, but another reaps, may the growth of my field be uprooted?” Job 31:5-8

Note: So again we see the difference between:1. Walking in vanity and walked with worthless men. Verse 52. My integrity and God to ascertain my integrity. Verse 63. My offspring and the growth of my field be uprooted. Verse 8

Paul the Learner

LESSON FOUR JOB

Remember: Christian theologians like Jewish sages many times only guess as to what the scripture text states in fact in many places in the Tanakh text under footnotes you will find the notation (Meaning of Hebrew uncertain) and so they make the best guess as do all of the theologians do and even me as well.

Paul the LearnerJob 31:9[If mine heart have been deceived by a woman] The Septuagint adds another man's wife.Job 31:10[Let my wife grind unto another] Let her work at the hand mill, grinding grain; which was the severe work of the meanest slave. In this sense the passage is understood both by the Syriac and Arabic. See <Exo. 11:5>, and <Isa. 47:2>; and see at the end of the chapter.

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[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 scortation and concubinage, but they were accustomed to accommodate their guests with them! Job is so conscious of his own innocence, that he is willing it should be put to the utmost proof; and if found guilty, that he may be exposed to the most distressing and humiliating punishment, even to that of being deprived of his goods, bereaved of his children, his wife made a slave, and subjected to all indignities in that state.Job 31:11For this is a heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.[For this is a heinous crime] Mr. Good translates, "For this would be a premeditated crime, and a profligacy of the understanding." See also <Job 31:28>That is, It would not only be a sin against the individuals more particularly concerned, but a sin of the first magnitude against society, and one of which the civil magistrate should take particular cognizance, and punish as justice requires.Job 31:12[For it is a fire] Nothing is so destructive of domestic peace. Where jealousy exists, unmixed misery dwells, and the adulterer and fornicator waste their substance on the unlawful objects of their impure affections. Adam Clarke

13-14: The rhetorical question requiring a negative answer is tantamount to asserting that Job was granted his slaves the full protection of the law; see Exodus 21:20-21, 26-27; Deuteronomy 23:16-17. Likewise, he expects that God will treat His servant, i.e. Job, just as fairly. 14-15: Here (as in verses 2-4, 11-12) is a virtual quotation of Job’s thoughts which led to his virtuous behavior described in (verse 13). 15: One, a possible name of God; (see also Zechariah 14:9). Jewish Study Bible

Job 31:13[The cause of my man-servant] In ancient times slaves had no action at law against their owners; they might dispose of them as they did of their cattle, or any other property. The slave might complain; and the owner might hear him if he pleased, but he was not compelled to do so. Job states that he had admitted them to all civil rights; and, far from preventing their ease from being heard, he was ready to permit them to complain even against himself, if they had a cause of complaint, and to give them all the benefit of the law.

LESSON FOUR JOB

Job 31:15[Did not he that made me in the womb make him?] I know that God is the Judge of all; that all shall appear before him in that state where the king and his subject, the master and his slave, shall be on an equal footing, all civil distinctions being abolished forever. If, then I had treated my slaves with injustice, how could I stand before the judgment-seat of God? I have treated others as I wish to be treated.

Adam Clarke16-19: Job claims for himself innocence of the principal offenses ascribed to the people of Sodom in (Ezekiel 16:49). 16a: Here Job denies ever having failed to provide for the needs of the impoverished. If

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so, Eliphaz in 22:7 is either mistaken or sarcastic. Alternatively, Job could be lying. In that case, God would not have praised his virtue in 1:8; 2:3 against the insults hurled upon him by his friends. The virtue to which Job confesses here is commanded in Leviticus 19:9-10; 23:22; Deuteronomy 14:22-29; 15:8.

16b: Or let a widow pine away: Hebrew “almanah,” commonly translated “widow,” actually means a once-married woman who has no means of financial support and who is thus in need of special legal protection. Pine away, better, “cry her eyes out.” The Hebrew “kilah ‘einei” refers to causing someone’s eyes to empty, as it were, by profuse crying. It is taken for granted here as also in 22:9 that Job, as an extremely affluent person, would have been expected by the social norms of the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age Levant (see, e.g. Isaiah 1:17) to provide legal and financial aid to the underprivileged, including the “’almanah.” His failure to do so would be a crime. 17: Contrast Eliphaz’s assertion in (22:9b). 19: Contrast Eliphaz’s assertion in (22:6). Jewish Study Bible

Job 31:17[Or have eaten my morsel myself alone] Hospitality was a very prominent virtue among the ancients in almost all nations: friends and strangers were equally welcome to the board of the affluent. The supper was their grand meal: it was then that they saw their friends; the business and fatigues of the day being over, they could then enjoy themselves comfortably together. The supper was called caena on this account. But Job speaks here of dividing his bread with the hungry: Or have eaten my morsel myself alone. And he is a poor despicable caitiff who would eat it alone, while there was another at hand full as hungry as him.Job 31:18 This is a very difficult verse, and is variously translated. Take the following instances: -- For from his youth he (the male orphan) was brought up with me as a father. Yea, I have guided her (the female orphan) from her mother's womb. -- Heath.

“Why, from my youth he grew up with me as though I were his father; since I left my mother’s womb I was her [Viz. the widow’s] guide.” Tanakh Text

Job 31:20[If his loins have not blessed me] This is a very delicate touch: the part that was cold and shivering is now covered with warm woolen. It feels the comfort, and by a fine Prosopopoeia, is represented as blessing him who furnished the clothing. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOB

21: Raised my hand, i.e. engaged in physical violence. In the gate, here (as in Deuteronomy 21:19; 22:15, 14; Ruth Chapter 4) the public place of one’s community, which was located just inside any of the gates of the city walls. It was here that judges tried cases and issued legal decisions, and this is where the verdicts of the court were carried out. Consequently, the extended meaning is “in the process of

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litigation.” 26: The light: As pointed out by Rashi and Ibn Ezra, this refers to the sun; hence the moon is in the following clause. Jewish Study Bible

Job 31:21 [If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless] I have at no time opposed the orphan, nor given, in behalf of the rich and powerful, a decision against the poor, when I saw my help in the gate-- when I was sitting chief on the throne of judgment, and could have done it without being called to account.Job 31:22[Let mine arm fall] Mr. Good, as a medical man, is at home in the translation of this verse: "May my shoulder-bone be shivered at the blade, and mine arm be broken off at the socket."Let judgment fall particularly on those parts which have either done wrong, or refused to do right when in their power.Job 31:23[Destruction from God was a terror] I have ever been preserved from outward sin, through the fear of God's judgments; I knew his eye was constantly upon me, and I could "Never in my Judge's eye my Judge's anger dare."Job 31:24[Gold my hope] For the meaning of zaahaab (OT 2091), polished gold, and ketem (OT 3800), stamped gold, see the note at <Job 28:15-17>Job 31:26[If I beheld the sun when it shined] In this verse Job clears himself of that idolatrous worship which was the most ancient and most consistent with reason of any species of idolatry; viz., Sabaeism, the worship of the heavenly bodies; particularly the sun and moon, Jupiter and Venus; the two latter being the morning and evening stars, and the most resplendent of all the heavenly bodies, the sun and moon excepted. "Job," says Calmet, "points out three things here:"1. The worship of the sun and moon; much used in his time, and very anciently used in every part of the East, and in all probability that from which idolatry took its rise."2. The custom of adoring the sun at its rising, and the moon at her change; a superstition which is mentioned in <Ezek. 8:16>, and in every part of profane antiquity."3. The custom of kissing the hand; the form of adoration, and token of sovereign respect." Adoration, or the religious act of kissing the hand, comes to us from the Latin; the hand lifted to the mouth, and there saluted by the lips. Adam Clarke

27: And I secretly succumbed to worship of the sun and moon. Deuteronomy 4:19 prohibits worship of the sun and moon only to Israelites. Job however, like Adam, Noah, Jethro, Rahab, and Ruth, is portrayed in Scripture and in rabbinic literature as a non-Israelite who is faithful to the Lord. This verse is thus anomalous within this chapter, which otherwise notes infraction of customs shared by both Israelites and non-Israelites. My hand…in a kiss, blowing a kiss into one or both palms, a gesture of worship frequently illustrated pictorially on cylinder seals from ancient Mesopotamia. Jewish Study Bible

LESSON FOUR JOBJob 31:28[For I should have denied the God that is above.] Had I paid divine adoration to them, I should have thereby denied the God that made them.

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Job 31:29[If I rejoiced] I did not avenge myself on my enemy; and I neither bore malice nor hatred to him.Job 31:30[Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin] I have neither spoken evil of him, nor wished evil to him. How few of those called Christians can speak thus concerning their enemies; or those who have done them any mischief!Job 31:31[If the men of my tabernacle said] I believe the Targum gives the best sense here: -- "If the men of my tabernacle have not said, who hath commanded that we should not be satisfied with his flesh?" My domestics have had all kindness shown them; they have lived like my own children, and have been served with the same viands as my family. They have never seen flesh come to my table, when they have been obliged to live on pulse. Mr. Good's translation is nearly to the same sense: "If the men of my tabernacle do not exclaim, who hath longed for his meat without fullness?""Where is the man that has not been satisfied with his flesh?" i. e., fed to the full with the provisions from his table. See <Prov. 23:20; Isa. 23:13>, and <Dan. 10:3>Try this one.Though have not those of mine own household said, “Oh! That we had [our foeman’s] flesh [to eat], that we might satiate ourselves [therewith].” Adam Clarke

Tanakh “(Indeed, the men of my clan said, “We would consume his flesh insatiably!”).”

Job 31:32[The stranger did not lodge in the street] My kindness did not extend merely to my family, domestics, and friends, the stranger-- he who was to me perfectly unknown, and the traveler-- he who was on his journey to some other district, found my doors ever open to receive them, and were refreshed with my bed and my board.Job 31:33[If I covered my transgressions as Adam] Here is a most evident allusion to the fall. Adam transgressed the commandment of his Maker, and he endeavored to conceal it; first, by hiding himself among the trees of the garden: "I heard thy voice, and went and HID myself;" secondly, by laying the blame on his wife: "The woman gave me, and I did eat;" and thirdly, by charging the whole directly on God himself: "The woman which THOU GAVEST ME to be with me, SHE gave me of the tree, and I did eat." And it is very likely that Job refers immediately to the Mosaic account in the Book of Genesis. The spirit of this saying is this: When I have departed at any time from the path of rectitude, I have been ready to acknowledge my error, and have not sought expenses or palliatives for my sin.Job 31:34 [Did I fear a great multitude?] Was I ever prevented by the voice of the many from decreeing and executing what was right? When many families or tribes espoused a particular cause, which I found, on examination, to be wrong, did they put me in fear, so as to prevent me from doing justice to the weak and friendless? Or, in any of these cases, was I ever, through fear, self-seeking, or favour, prevented from declaring my mind, or constrained to keep my house, lest I should be obliged to give judgment against my conscience? Mr. Good thinks it an imprecation upon himself, if he had done any of the evils which he mentions in the preceding verse. Adam Clarke

LESSON FOUR JOBHe translates thus: "Then let me be confounded before the assembled multitude, and let the reproach of its families quash me! Yea let me be struck dumb! Let me never appear abroad!"

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I am satisfied that <Job 31:38-40>, should come in either here, or immediately after <Job 31:25>; and that Job's words should end with <Job 31:37>, which, if the others were inserted in their proper places, would be <Job 31:40>. Adam Clarke

33: A rare reference outside of Genesis to the Garden story. 35-37: This interrupts the flow of the chapter, but returns to a main theme of the book. 36: As elsewhere, Job is using a wisdom image with a twist: It is wisdom that is typically worn as adornment or jewelry (see, e.g. Proverbs 3:22). Jewish Study Bible

Job 31:35[O that one would hear me!] I wish to have a fair and full hearing: I am grievously accused; and have no proper opportunity of clearing myself, and establishing my own innocence.[Behold, my desire is] Or, hen (OT 2005) taawiy (OT 8420), "There is my pledge." I bind myself, on a great penalty, to come into court, and abide the issue.[That the Almighty would answer me] That he would call this case immediately before himself, and oblige my adversary to come into court, to put his accusations into a legal form that I might have the opportunity of vindicating myself in the presence of a judge who would hear dispassionately my pleadings, and bring the cause to a righteous issue.[And that mine adversary had written a book] That he would not indulge himself in vague accusations, but would draw up a proper bill of indictment, that I might know to what I had to plead, and find the accusation in a tangible form.Job 31:36[Surely I would take it upon my shoulder] I would be contented to stand before the bar as a criminal, bearing upon my shoulder the board to which the accusation is affixed. In one case a large, heavy plank, through which there is a hole to pass the head,-- or rather a hole fitting the neck, like that in the pillory,-- with the crime written upon it, rests on the criminal's shoulders, and this he is obliged to carry about for the weeks or months during which the punishment lasts. It is probable that Job alludes to something of this kind; which he intimates he would bear about with him during the interim between accusation and the issue in judgment; and, far from considering this a disgrace, would clasp it as dearly as he would adjust a crown or diadem to his head; being fully assured, from his innocence, and the evidence of it, which would infallibly appear on the trial, that he would have the most honorable acquittal. There may also be an allusion to the manner of receiving a favour from a superior: it is immediately placed on the head, as a mark of respect; and if a piece of cloth be given at the temple, the receiver not only puts it on his head, but binds it there.Job 31:37 [I would declare unto him the number of my steps] I would show this adversary the different stations I had been in, and the offices which I had filled in life, that he might trace me through the whole of my civil, military, and domestic life, in order to get evidence against me.[As a prince would I go near] Though carrying my own accusation, I would go into the presence of my judge as the naagiyd (OT 5057), chief, or sovereign commander and judge, of the people and country, and would not shrink from having my conduct investigated by even the meanest of my subjects.

LESSON FOUR JOB

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In these three verses we may observe the following particulars:1. Job wishes to be brought to trial, that he might have the opportunity of vindicating himself: O that I might have a hearing!2. That his adversary, Eliphaz and his companions, whom he considers as one, party, and joined together in one, would reduce their vague charges to writing, that they might come before the court in a legal form: O that my adversary would write down the charge!3. That the Almighty, Shadday (OT 7706), the all-sufficient GOD, and not man, should be the judge, who would not permit his adversaries to attempt, by false evidence, to establish what was false, nor suffer himself to cloak with a hypocritical covering what was iniquitous in his conduct: O that the Almightily might answer for me-- take notice of or be judge in the cause!4. To him he purposes cheerfully to confess all his ways, who could at once judge if he prevaricated, or concealed the truth.5. This would give him the strongest encouragement: he would go boldly before him, with the highest persuasion of an honorable acquittal.Job 31:38[If my land cries] 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, <Lev. 25:1-7>, 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.Job 31:39[If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money] I have never been that narrow-minded man who, through a principle of covetousness, exhausts his land, putting himself to no charges, by labour and manure, to strengthen it; or defrauds those of their wages who were employed under him. If I have eaten the fruits of it, I have cultivated it well to produce those fruits; and this has not been without money, for I have gone to expenses on the soil, and remunerated the laborers.[Or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life] They have not panted in labour without due recompense."Job 31:40[Let thistles grow instead of wheat] “May nettles grow there instead of wheat; instead of barley, stinkweed!” Tanakh Text[And cockle] Baa'ªshaah (OT 890), some fetid plant, from baa'ash (OT 887), to stink. In <Isa. 5:2,4>, we translate it wild grapes; and Bishop Lowth, poisonous berries: "May I have a crop of this instead of barley, if I have acted improperly either by my land or my laborers!"[The words of Job are ended.] That is, his defense of himself against the accusations of his friends, as they are called. He spoke afterwards, but never to them, has he only addressed God, who came to determine the whole controversy.

Dr Kennicott, on this subject, observes: "Chapters 29, 30, and 31, contain Job's animated self-defense, which was made necessary by the reiterated accusation of his friends. This defense now concludes with six lines (in the Hebrew text) which declare, that if he had enjoyed his estates covetously, or procured them unjustly, he wished them to prove barren and unprofitable. This part, therefore, seems naturally to follow <Job 31:25>, where he speaks of his gold, and how much his hand had gotten.

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The remainder of the chapter will then consist of these four regular parts, namely:"1. His piety to God, in his freedom from idolatry, <Job 31:26-28>"2. His benevolence to men, in his charity both of temper and behavior, <Job 31:29-32>"3. His solemn assurance that he did not conceal his guilt, from fearing either the violence of the poor, or the contempt of the rich, <Job 31:33-34>"4. (Which must have been the last article, because conclusive of the work) he infers that being thus secured by his integrity, he may appeal safely to God himself. This appeal he therefore makes boldly, and in such words as, when rightly translated, form an image which perhaps has no parallel. For where is there an image so magnificent or as splendid as this? Job, thus conscious of innocence, wishing even God himself to draw up his indictment (rather his adversary Eliphaz and companions to draw up this indictment, the Almighty to be judge), that very indictment he would bind round his head; and with that indictment as his crown of glory, he would, with the dignity of a prince, advance to his trial! Of this wonderful passage I add a version more just and more intelligible than the present:

"<Job 31:35>. O that one would grant me a hearing!Behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me;And, as plaintiff against me, draw up the indictment.With what earnestness would I take it on my shoulders!I would bind it upon me as a diadem.The number of my steps would I set forth unto Him;Even as a prince would I approach before Him!" Adam Clarke

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THE HISTORICAL BOOKS - Lakeside Ministrieslakesideministries.com/1stCovenant/1st_Cov_Unedited/Job... · Web viewOr is it gain to Him that you make your ways blameless? 4 "Is it because