CHAPTER XXVII _Job strongly asserts his innocence; determines to maintain_ _it, and to avoid every evil way_, 1-7. _Shows his abhorrence of the hypocrite by describing his_ _infamous character, accumulated miseries, and wretched end_, 8-23. NOTES ON CHAP. XXVII Verse Job 27:1. _CONTINUED HIS... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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 thes... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 27:3. _ALL THE WHILE MY BREATH IS IN ME_] As 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... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 27:4. _MY LIPS SHALL NOT SPEAK WICKEDNESS_] As I have hitherto lived in all good conscience before God, as he knoweth, so will I continue to live.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 27:5. _GOD FORBID_] חלילה לי _chalilah lli, 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 n... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 27:6. _MY RIGHTEOUSNESS I HOLD FAST_] I stand firmly on this ground; I have endeavoured 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 offense before God... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 27:8. _WHAT_ IS _THE HOPE OF THE HYPOCRITE_] The word חנף _chaneph_, 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 ma... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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_, an... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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 emphatical: הבל תהבלו _hebel tehbalu_, and well expressed by... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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 th... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 27:14. _IF HIS CHILDREN BE MULTIPLIED_] As 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_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 27:15. _THOSE THAT REMAIN OF HIM_] שרידיו _seridaiv, 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_.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 27:16. _THOUGH HE HEAP UP SILVER_] Though he amass 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... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 27:18. _HE BUILDETH HIS HOUSE AS A MOTH_] With great skill, great pains, and great industry; but the structure, however skilful, 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... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 27:19. _THE RICH MAN SHALL LIE DOWN_] In the grave. _BUT HE SHALL NOT BE GATHERED_] Neither have 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, pr... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 27:21. _THE EAST WIND CARRIETH HIM AWAY_] Such as is called by Mr. _Good, a levanter_, the _euroclydon_, the _eastern storm_ of Acts 27:14.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse Job 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.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 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. Ver. Job 27:22: "For it shall fall upon him, and not spare: flying from its power he sha... [ Continue Reading ]