9 If my heart went after another man's wife, or if I was waiting secretly at my neighbour's door;
And I saw a thing more bitter than death, even the woman whose heart is full of tricks and nets, and whose hands are as bands. He with whom God is pleased will get free from her, but the sinner will be taken by her.
And the chiefs of the Philistines came up to her, and said to her, Make use of your power over him and see what is the secret of his great strength, and how we may get the better of him, and put bands on him, so that we may make him feeble; and every one of us will give you eleven hundred shekels of silver.
Was it not in these things that Solomon, king of Israel, did wrong? among a number of nations there was no king like him, and he was dear to his God, and God made him king over all Israel: but even he was made to do evil by strange women.
And the man whose desire is for the wife of another is waiting for the evening, saying, No eye will see me; and he puts a cover on his face. And in the night the thief goes about; In the dark he makes holes in the walls of houses: in the daytime they are shutting themselves up, they have no knowledge of the light.
To take you out of the power of the strange woman, who says smooth words with her tongue; Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind: For her house is on the way down to death; her footsteps go down to the shades: Those who go to her do not come back again; their feet do not keep in the ways of life:
Let not your heart's desire go after her fair body; let not her eyes take you prisoner.
With her fair words she overcame him, forcing him with her smooth lips.
They were full of desire, like horses after a meal of grain: everyone went after his neighbour's wife.
They are all untrue; they are like a burning oven; the bread-maker does not make up the fire from the time when the paste is mixed till it is leavened.
For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil; But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword; Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld; She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge. Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you. Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house; For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men: And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others; And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted; And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training; I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me! I was in almost all evil in the company of the people. Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain. Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places. Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you. Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years. As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love. Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms? For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales. The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin. He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 31
Commentary on Job 31 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 31
Job had often protested his integrity in general; here he does it in particular instances, not in a way of commendation (for he does not here proclaim his good deeds), but in his own just and necessary vindication, to clear himself from those crimes with which his friends had falsely charged him, which is a debt every man owes to his own reputation. Job's friends had been particular in their articles of impeachment against him, and therefore he is so in his protestation, which seems to refer especially to what Eliphaz had accused him of, ch. 22:6, etc. They had produced no witnesses against him, neither could they prove the things whereof they now accused him, and therefore he may well be admitted to purge himself upon oath, which he does very solemnly, and with many awful imprecations of God's wrath if he were guilty of those crimes. This protestation confirms God's character of him, that there was none like him in the earth. Perhaps some of his accusers durst not have joined with him; for he not only acquits himself from those gross sins which lie open to the eye of the world, but from many secret sins which, if he had been guilty of them, nobody could have charged him, with, because he will prove himself no hypocrite. Nor does he only maintain the cleanness of his practices, but shows also that in them he went upon good principles, that the reason of his eschewing evil was because he feared God, and his piety was at the bottom of his justice and charity; and this crowns the proof of his sincerity.
Job 31:1-8
The lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world, are the two fatal rocks on which multitudes split; against these Job protests he was always careful to stand upon his guard.
Job 31:9-15
Two more instances we have here of Job's integrity:-
Job 31:16-23
Eliphaz had particularly charged Job with unmercifulness to the poor (ch. 22:6, etc.): Thou hast withholden bread from the hungry, stripped the naked of their clothing, and sent widows away empty. One would think he could not have been so very positive and express in his charge unless there had been some truth in it, some ground, for it; and yet it appears, by Job's protestation, that it was utterly false and groundless; he was never guilty of any such thing. See here,
Job 31:24-32
Four articles more of Job's protestation we have in these verses, which, as all the rest, not only assure us what he was and did, but teach us what we should be and do:-
Job 31:33-40
We have here Job's protestation against three more sins, together with his general appeal to God's bar and his petition for a hearing there, which, it is likely, was intended to conclude his discourse (and therefore we will consider it last), but that another particular sin occurred, from which he thought it requisite to acquit himself. He clears himself from the charge,
Thus the words of Job are ended; that is, he has now said all he would say in answer to his friends: he afterwards said something in a way of self-reproach and condemnation (ch. 40:4, 5, 42:2, etc.), but here ends what he had to say in a way of self-defence and vindication. If this suffice not he will say no more; he knows when he has said enough and will submit to the judgment of the bench. Some think the manner of expression intimates that he concluded with an air of assurance and triumph. He now keeps the field and doubts not but to win the field. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies.