Job 36:13-21

The godless cherish angry thoughts about God's discipline they refuse to cry for God's help (Job 36:13). They die young, perishing like the sodomites (those religiously consecrated to unnatural vice; see Deuteronomy 23:17). God saves the afflicted by his affliction, and opens their ear by adversity (following in Job 36:15 b mg. instead of text). So God would have dealt with Job (Job 36:16). As it is, Job is visited by the Divine judgment (Job 36:17). Let not Job be led astray by his sufferings (Job 36:18). Nothing but suffering can avail to save him (Job 36:19). Let him not desire the calamity that overwhelms nations (Job 36:20), or choose iniquity rather than affliction.

Job 36:16 is a very obscure and corrupt passage. The general sense may be as above given; but almost every line is matter of dispute. In Job 36:18 read Because there is wrath (i.e. with God), beware lest thou be led away into mockery (Peake). The ransom alluded to in Job 36:18 b is the suffering which is the only way of deliverance and escape for Job. In Job 36:19 a we should perhaps translate will thy riches suffice, without distress. This is the rendering above implied but is by no means certain.

Job 36:20 is a crux interpretum why should Job desire the night when peoples are cut off (cf. however, Job 18:4)? In any case, what is the connexion with the context?