INTRODUCTION TO JOB 34 In this chapter Elihu reassumes his discourse, and proceeds in his answer to Job, in which are first a preface exciting attention, Job 34:1; then a charge is brought against Job, expressed in or extracted from some words that dropped from his lips, not so well guarded, Job 3... [ Continue Reading ]
FURTHERMORE ELIHU ANSWERED AND SAID. It is reasonable to suppose that Elihu made a considerable pause, to see whether Job would make any reply to what he had delivered, or object to what he had said; which he gave him free liberty to do, if he had anything upon his mind: but perceiving he was not in... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAR MY WORDS, O YE WISE [MEN],.... This is not an address to Job's three friends, as some think; for Elihu had expressed his displeasure at them, in condemning Job without convicting him, and returning solid answers to him; and therefore he should not take their method of dealing with him, but take... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE EAR TRIETH WORDS,.... Not only the musical sound of them, the goodness of the language and diction, and the grammatical construction of them, but the sense of them, and whether the matter of them is good or not; that they are sound speech, which cannot be condemned, or unsound; whether they... [ Continue Reading ]
LET US CHOOSE TO US JUDGMENTS,.... Take the part of the question or controversy in which truth and justice lie, and he doubtless has respect to the present controversy with Job; LET US KNOW AMONG OURSELVES WHAT [IS] GOOD; agree upon that which is best to be done in the present case, what judgment t... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR JOB HATH SAID, I AM RIGHTEOUS,.... Not in express words, but what amounted to it: no doubt he was a righteous man in an evangelic sense, being justified by the righteousness of Christ, as all the Old Testament saints were, who looked to him and believed in him as the Lord their righteousness, an... [ Continue Reading ]
SHOULD I LIE AGAINST MY RIGHT?.... No; I ought not: this though Job had not said in so many words, yet this seems to be his sense in Job 27:4; that should he own and say that he was a wicked man, a hypocrite, and destitute of the grace of God, he should not only speak against himself, but, contrary... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT MAN [IS] LIKE JOB,.... This is said as wondering at the part he acted, that a man so wise and good as Job was esteemed to be should behave in such a manner as he did; [WHO] DRINKETH UP SCORNING LIKE WATER? For a foolish and wicked man to do so is not strange nor uncommon; but for a man of such... [ Continue Reading ]
WHICH GOETH IN COMPANY WITH THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY,.... The worst of men, who make it their constant business and employment to commit sin: AND WALKETH WITH WICKED MEN; the most abandoned of mankind. Not that Job kept company with such, and walked with them in all excess of not; nor did Elihu thin... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE HATH SAID,.... Not plainly and expressly, but consequentially; what it was thought might be inferred from what he had said, particularly in Job 9:22; IT PROFITETH A MAN NOTHING THAT HE SHOULD DELIGHT HIMSELF WITH GOD; in his house and ordinances, ways and worship; he may as well indulge hims... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE HEARKEN UNTO ME, YE MEN OF UNDERSTANDING,.... The same persons he addresses as wise men and men of knowledge, Job 34:2; and here as men of understanding, or "heart" z; the heart being the seat of wisdom and knowledge; and such Elihu desired to be his hearers, to attend to what he was about... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THE WORK OF A MAN WILL HE RENDER UNTO HIM,.... The reward of his work, as Ben Gersom interprets it, whether the work of a wicked man or of a good man: AND CAUSE EVERY MAN TO FIND ACCORDING TO [HIS] WAYS. Which is a truth frequently inculcated in the Scriptures; and will take place especially at... [ Continue Reading ]
YEA, SURELY GOD WILL NOT DO WICKEDLY,.... This truth is repeated and affirmed in the strongest manner; or "will not condemn", as the Vulgate Latin version, and so the Targum, that is, he will not condemn the righteous; for, though he may afflict them, which is done that they may not be condemned wit... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO HATH GIVEN HIM A CHARGE OVER THE EARTH?.... Or who hath committed the earth unto him, and made it his care and charge? Is there any above him that has put him into this post and office? Under whose direction and command is he, and to whom is he accountable? None at all; he is no deputy or sub-go... [ Continue Reading ]
IF HE SET HIS HEART UPON MAN,.... Not his love and affections; though there are some he does in this sense set his heart on, and whose souls at death he gathers to himself, but with this sense the next verse will not agree; but to destroy him, as Jarchi adds by way of explanation; if he gives his mi... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL FLESH SHALL PERISH TOGETHER,.... Not one by one, or one after another, as they generally do, but all together; as when the flood swept away the world of the ungodly. "All flesh" signifies all men, and their bodies of flesh particularly, which are weak, frail, and mortal; and if God gathers or ta... [ Continue Reading ]
IF NOW [THOU HAST] UNDERSTANDING, HEAR THIS,.... Not as calling his understanding in question, as if he, had none; for Job was a very understanding man; he had not lost his natural understanding by his afflictions, see Job 6:13; nor was he without an understanding of divine things, as his speeches a... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL EVEN HE THAT HATETH RIGHT GOVERN?.... That hates moral and civil justice; is such an one fit to rule among men or over them? No, surely; for to love righteousness and do it is a qualification of a civil governor; it is his business to administer justice; and if an hater of it, he can never be... [ Continue Reading ]
[IS IT FIT] TO SAY TO A KING, [THOU ART] WICKED?.... Not even to a bad king; for though he may be reproved for his sins, yet not by any or everyone, but by a fit and proper person: and generally speaking, if not always, the Scriptural instances of reproving such kings are of men that were prophets,... [ Continue Reading ]
[HOW MUCH LESS TO HIM] THAT ACCEPTETH NOT THE PERSONS OF PRINCES,.... And indeed God is not the respecter of the persons of any, no, not of the greatest men on earth, kings and princes, Acts 10:34; these are alike dealt with by him as others in the dispensations of his providence; nor do they escap... [ Continue Reading ]
IN A MOMENT SHALL THEY DIE,.... Princes as well as the common people, rich men as well as poor; all must and do die, great and small, high and low, kings and peasants, rich and poor men, and sometimes suddenly; are struck dead at once, and without any previous notice, that night, that hour, that mom... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HIS EYES [ARE] UPON THE WAYS OF MAN,.... Which denotes the omniscience of God, which reaches to every man, to every individual, and to all men in general; and to their ways, to every step taken by them, to the whole of their lives and conversations, and every action of them; to all their interna... [ Continue Reading ]
[THERE IS] NO DARKNESS, NOR SHADOW OF DEATH, WHERE THE WORKERS OF INIQUITY MAY HIDE THEMSELVES. By whom may be meant chiefly profane sinners that are abandoned to a vicious course of life, and make a trade of sin, or that the common course of their lives; though secret sinners, and even professors o... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE WILL NOT LAY UPON MAN MORE [THAN RIGHT],.... Neither in a way of duty, his law being holy, just, and good, not any of his commandments grievous, but all his precepts concerning all things right, his yoke easy and his burden light; nor in a way of punishment, always punishing then less than th... [ Continue Reading ]
HE SHALL BREAK IN PIECES MIGHTY MEN WITHOUT NUMBER,.... Such as are mighty in bodily strength, as the giants of the old world, and such as were inhabitants of some parts of the land of Canaan; or mighty in power and authority, being kings, princes, rulers, and governors, over nations and cities; or... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE HE KNOWETH THEIR WORKS,.... Being God omniscient, or rather takes notice of them, weighs and considers them, and gives to man according to them; or rather makes them known, for of his omniscience Elihu had spoken before; he makes them known to themselves, fastens convictions of their evil... [ Continue Reading ]
HE STRIKETH THEM AS WICKED MEN,.... Such is the strict justice of God, that he never strikes men, or inflicts punishment on them, or brings down his judgments upon them, but as wicked men, and because of their wickedness; the casting of man out of Eden was for his sin, as well as the casting down th... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE THEY TURNED BACK FROM HIM,.... Became apostates from the ways and worship of God, as the posterity of Cain before the flood, and the posterity of Ham after it; who had been educated and trained up therein, and turned from the law of God, as the Septuagint version, from the light and law of n... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT THEY CAUSE THE CRY OF THE POOR TO COME TO HIM,.... To God; through their oppressions of the poor they are made to cry by reason of them, and who come to God with their cries, and tears, and supplications, and which enter into the ears of the Lord of hosts; AND HE HEARETH THE CRY OF THE AFFL... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN HE GIVETH QUIETNESS, WHO THEN CAN MAKE TROUBLE?.... Quietness or peace is of God; external peace to bodies of men, to communities, civil and religious, and to particular persons; quietness and contentment in outward enjoyments, peace and safety at home, and from enemies abroad; inward spiritual... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT THE HYPOCRITE REIGN NOT,.... These words seem to be connected with Job 34:24, "he breaketh in pieces mighty men", c. the whole of Job 34:29 being read in a parenthesis or with the phrase "he hideth his face"; as God is said to be in the destruction of mighty wicked men, who oppress the poor, an... [ Continue Reading ]
SURELY IT IS MEET TO BE SAID UNTO GOD,.... By any afflicted person under his chastising hand, and particularly by Job, for whom the advice and instructions in this verse and Job 34:32 are designed: I HAVE BORNE [CHASTISEMENT]; the word "chastisement" is not in the text, but is very properly supplie... [ Continue Reading ]
[THAT WHICH] I SEE NOT TEACH THOU ME,.... Which may be understood either of the chastisements of God, and his dealings with his people in a providential way, and of the design and use of them, which are sometimes unsearchable, and at most but a part of them only seen and known; it is meet to say to... [ Continue Reading ]
[SHOULD IT BE] ACCORDING, TO THY MIND?.... O Job, for the words seem to he directed to him; and may respect either the government of the world in general, and the disposal of all things in it, treated of in this chapter, though more remotely, Job 34:13. Is it not proper that God should govern it, wh... [ Continue Reading ]
LET MEN OF UNDERSTANDING TELL ME,.... Whether I am right or wrong: AND LET A WISE MAN HEARKEN UNTO ME; to what I have said or shall say. Elihu here addresses the company around him, the wise and intelligent part of them; the words may be rendered in the future tense, men of understanding "will" tel... [ Continue Reading ]
JOB HATH SPOKEN WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE,.... Not that Job was an ignorant man, either in things natural or divine; but in this point, about the chastening hand of God upon him, he had said some things which betrayed lack of knowledge, as in Job 34:5; AND HIS WORDS [WERE] WITHOUT WISDOM; Job was not desti... [ Continue Reading ]
MY DESIRE [IS THAT] JOB MAY BE TRIED UNTO THE END,.... This is my opinion, or what "I bring in" o adduce, and lay before you, men of understanding and wisdom, and leave it with you to consider of. Some render it, "O my Father, let Job be tried", c. as if it was an apostrophe to God, and a request to... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR HE ADDETH REBELLION UNTO HIS SIN,.... Or he "may" or "will" add u, if he is suffered to go on at this rate, and is not stopped; as yet he has only committed, it may be charitably hoped, some sins through ignorance, error, and mistake, but if he is let alone he will proceed from evil to evil, to... [ Continue Reading ]