17 Though my hands have done no violent acts, and my prayer is clean.
If you will make search for God with care, and put your request before the Ruler of all; If you are clean and upright; then he will certainly be moved to take up your cause, and will make clear your righteousness by building up your house again.
If you put far away the evil of your hands, and let no wrongdoing have a place in your tent;
For the band of the evil-doers gives no fruit, and the tents of those who give wrong decisions for reward are burned with fire.
See, I am conscious of your thoughts, and of your violent purposes against me; For you say, Where is the house of the ruler, and where is the tent of the evil-doer?
Is not your evil-doing great? and there is no end to your sins. For you have taken your brother's goods when he was not in your debt, and have taken away the clothing of those who have need of it. You do not give water to the tired traveller, and from him who has no food you keep back bread. For it was the man with power who had the land, and the man with an honoured name who was living in it. You have sent widows away without hearing their cause, and you have taken away the support of the child who has no father.
I will keep it safe, and will not let it go: my heart has nothing to say against any part of my life. Let my hater be like the evil man, and let him who comes against me be as the sinner.
For I was a saviour to the poor when he was crying for help, to the child with no father, and to him who had no supporter. The blessing of him who was near to destruction came on me, and I put a song of joy into the widow's heart. I put on righteousness as my clothing, and was full of it; right decisions were to me a robe and a head-dress. I was eyes to the blind, and feet to him who had no power of walking. I was a father to the poor, searching out the cause of him who was strange to me. By me the great teeth of the evil-doer were broken, and I made him give up what he had violently taken away.
I made an agreement with my eyes; how then might my eyes be looking on a virgin? For what is God's reward from on high, or the heritage given by the Ruler of all from heaven? Is it not trouble for the sinner, and destruction for the evil-doers? Does he not see my ways, and are not my steps all numbered? If I have gone in false ways, or my foot has been quick in working deceit; (Let me be measured in upright scales, and let God see my righteousness:) If my steps have been turned out of the way, or if my heart went after my eyes, or if the property of another is in my hands; Let me put seed in the earth for another to have the fruit of it, and let my produce be uprooted. If my heart went after another man's wife, or if I was waiting secretly at my neighbour's door; Then let my wife give pleasure to another man and let others make use of her body. For that would be a crime; it would be an act for which punishment would be measured out by the judges: It would be a fire burning even to destruction, and taking away all my produce. If I did wrong in the cause of my man-servant, or my woman-servant, when they went to law with me; What then will I do when God comes as my judge? and what answer may I give to his questions? Did not God make him as well as me? did he not give us life in our mothers' bodies? If I kept back the desire of the poor; if the widow's eye was looking for help to no purpose; If I kept my food for myself, and did not give some of it to the child with no father; (For I was cared for by God as by a father from my earliest days; he was my guide from the body of my mother;) If I saw one near to death for need of clothing, and that the poor had nothing covering him; If his back did not give me a blessing, and the wool of my sheep did not make him warm; If my hand had been lifted up against him who had done no wrong, when I saw that I was supported by the judges; May my arm be pulled from my body, and be broken from its base. For the fear of God kept me back, and because of his power I might not do such things. If I made gold my hope, or if I ever said to the best gold, I have put my faith in you; If I was glad because my wealth was great, and because my hand had got together a great store; If, when I saw the sun shining, and the moon moving on its bright way, A secret feeling of worship came into my heart, and my hand gave kisses from my mouth; That would have been another sin to be rewarded with punishment by the judges; for I would have been false to God on high. If I was glad at the trouble of my hater, and gave cries of joy when evil overtook him; (For I did not let my mouth give way to sin, in putting a curse on his life;) If the men of my tent did not say, Who has not had full measure of his meat? The traveller did not take his night's rest in the street, and my doors were open to anyone on a journey; If I kept my evil doings covered, and my sin in the secret of my breast, For fear of the great body of people, or for fear that families might make sport of me, so that I kept quiet, and did not go out of my door; If only God would give ear to me, and the Ruler of all would give me an answer! or if what he has against me had been put in writing! Truly I would take up the book in my hands; it would be to me as a crown; I would make clear the number of my steps, I would put it before him like a prince! The words of Job are ended. If my land has made an outcry against me, or the ploughed earth has been in sorrow; If I have taken its produce without payment, causing the death of its owners; Then in place of grain let thorns come up, and in place of barley evil-smelling plants.
O Lord my God, if I have done this; if my hands have done any wrong; If I have given back evil to him who did evil to me, or have taken anything from him who was against me without cause; Let my hater go after my soul and take it; let my life be crushed to the earth, and my honour into the dust. (Selah.)
All this has come on us, but still we have kept you in our memory; and we have not been false to your word. Our hearts have not gone back, and our steps have not been turned out of your way; Though you have let us be crushed in the place of jackals, though we are covered with darkest shade. If the name of our God has gone out of our minds, or if our hands have been stretched out to a strange god, Will not God make search for it? for he sees the secrets of the heart.
The offering of the evil-doer is disgusting to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright man is his delight.
Their twisted threads will not make clothing, and their works will give them nothing for covering themselves: their works are works of sin, and violent acts are in their hands.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Job 16
Commentary on Job 16 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 16
SECOND SERIES.
Job 16:1-22. Job's Reply.
2. (Job 13:4).
3. "Words of wind," Hebrew. He retorts upon Eliphaz his reproach (Job 15:2).
emboldeneth—literally, "What wearies you so that ye contradict?" that is, What have I said to provoke you? &c. [Schuttens]. Or, as better accords with the first clause, "Wherefore do ye weary yourselves contradicting?" [Umbreit].
4. heap up—rather, "marshal together (an army of) words against you."
shake … head—in mockery; it means nodding, rather than shaking; nodding is not with us, as in the East, a gesture of scorn (Isa 37:22; Jer 18:16; Mt 27:39).
5. strengthen … with … mouth—bitter irony. In allusion to Eliphaz' boasted "consolations" (Job 15:11). Opposed to strengthening with the heart, that is, with real consolation. Translate, "I also (like you) could strengthen with the mouth," that is, with heartless talk: "And the moving of my lips (mere lip comfort) could console (in the same fashion as you do)" [Umbreit]. "Hearty counsel" (Pr 27:9) is the opposite.
6. eased—literally, "What (portion of my sufferings) goes from me?"
7. But now—rather, "ah!"
he—God.
company—rather, "band of witnesses," namely, those who could attest his innocence (his children, servants, &c.). So the same Hebrew is translated in Job 16:8. Umbreit makes his "band of witnesses," himself, for, alas! he had no other witness for him. But this is too recondite.
8. filled … with wrinkles—Rather (as also the same Hebrew word in Job 22:16; English Version, "cut down"), "thou hast fettered me, thy witness" (besides cutting off my "band of witnesses," Job 16:7), that is, hast disabled me by pains from properly attesting my innocence. But another "witness" arises against him, namely, his "leanness" or wretched state of body, construed by his friends into a proof of his guilt. The radical meaning of the Hebrew is "to draw together," whence flow the double meaning "to bind" or "fetter," and in Syriac, "to wrinkle."
leanness—meaning also "lie"; implying it was a "false witness."
9. Image from a wild beast. So God is represented (Job 10:16).
who hateth me—rather, "and pursues me hard." Job would not ascribe "hatred" to God (Ps 50:22).
mine enemy—rather, "he sharpens, &c., as an enemy" (Ps 7:12). Darts wrathful glances at me, like a foe (Job 13:24).
10. gaped—not in order to devour, but to mock him. To fill his cup of misery, the mockery of his friends (Job 16:10) is added to the hostile treatment from God (Job 16:9).
smitten … cheek—figurative for contemptuous abuse (La 3:30; Mt 5:39).
gathered themselves—"conspired unanimously" [Schuttens].
11. the ungodly—namely, his professed friends, who persecuted him with unkind speeches.
turned me over—literally, "cast me headlong into the hands of the wicked."
12. I was at ease—in past times (Job 1:1-3).
by my neck—as an animal does its prey (so Job 10:16).
shaken—violently; in contrast to his former "ease" (Ps 102:10). Set me up (again).
mark—(Job 7:20; La 3:12). God lets me always recover strength, so as to torment me ceaselessly.
13. his archers—The image of Job 16:12 is continued. God, in making me His "mark," is accompanied by the three friends, whose words wound like sharp arrows.
gall—put for a vital part; so the liver (La 2:11).
14. The image is from storming a fortress by making breaches in the walls (2Ki 14:13).
a giant—a mighty warrior.
15. sewed—denoting the tight fit of the mourning garment; it was a sack with armholes closely sewed to the body.
horn—image from horned cattle, which when excited tear the earth with their horns. The horn was the emblem of power (1Ki 22:11). Here, it is
in the dust—which as applied to Job denotes his humiliation from former greatness. To throw one's self in the dust was a sign of mourning; this idea is here joined with that of excited despair, depicted by the fury of a horned beast. The Druses of Lebanon still wear horns as an ornament.
16. foul—rather, "is red," that is, flushed and heated [Umbreit and Noyes].
shadow of death—that is, darkening through many tears (La 5:17). Job here refers to Zophar's implied charge (Job 11:14). Nearly the same words occur as to Jesus Christ (Isa 53:9). So Job 16:10 above answers to the description of Jesus Christ (Ps 22:13; Isa 50:6, and Job 16:4 to Ps 22:7). He alone realized what Job aspired after, namely, outward righteousness of acts and inward purity of devotion. Jesus Christ as the representative man is typified in some degree in every servant of God in the Old Testament.
18. my blood—that is, my undeserved suffering. He compares himself to one murdered, whose blood the earth refuses to drink up until he is avenged (Ge 4:10, 11; Eze 24:1, 8; Isa 26:21). The Arabs say that the dew of heaven will not descend on a spot watered with innocent blood (compare 2Sa 1:21).
no place—no resting-place. "May my cry never stop!" May it go abroad! "Earth" in this verse in antithesis to "heaven" (Job 16:19). May my innocence be as well-known to man as it is even now to God!
19. Also now—Even now, when I am so greatly misunderstood on earth, God in heaven is sensible of my innocence.
record—Hebrew, "in the high places"; Hebrew, "my witness." Amidst all his impatience, Job still trusts in God.
20. Hebrew, "are my scorners"; more forcibly, "my mockers—my friends!" A heart-cutting paradox [Umbreit]. God alone remains to whom he can look for attestation of his innocence; plaintively with tearful eye, he supplicates for this.
21. one—rather, "He" (God). "Oh, that He would plead for a man (namely, me) against God." Job quaintly says, "God must support me against God; for He makes me to suffer, and He alone knows me to be innocent" [Umbreit]. So God helped Jacob in wrestling against Himself (compare Job 23:6; Ge 32:25). God in Jesus Christ does plead with God for man (Ro 8:26, 27).
as a man—literally, "the Son of man." A prefiguring of the advocacy of Jesus Christ—a boon longed for by Job (Job 9:33), though the spiritual pregnancy of his own words, designed for all ages, was but little understood by him (Ps 80:17).
for his neighbour—Hebrew, "friend." Job himself (Job 42:8) pleaded as intercessor for his "friends," though "his scorners" (Job 16:20); so Jesus Christ the Son of man (Lu 23:34); "for friends" (Joh 15:13-15).
22. few—literally, "years of number," that is, few, opposed to numberless (Ge 34:30).