24 He sends the strong to destruction without searching out their cause, and puts others in their place.
He takes the poor man out of the dust, lifting him up from his low position; To give him a place among the rulers, even with the rulers of his people.
For this reason the Lord God of Israel has said, Truly I did say that your family and your father's people would have their place before me for ever: but now the Lord says, Let it not be so; I will give honour to those by whom I am honoured, and those who have no respect for me will be of small value in my eyes. See, the days are coming when your arm and the arm of your father's people will be cut off; And never again will there be an old man in your family. But one man of your family will not be cut off by my hand, and his eyes will be made dark, and grief will be in his heart: and all the offspring of your family will come to their end by the sword of men. And this will be the sign to you, which will come on Hophni and Phinehas, your sons; death will overtake them on the same day. And I will make a true priest for myself, one who will do what is in my heart and in my mind: and I will make for him a family which will not come to an end; and his place will be before my holy one for ever. Then it will be that the rest of your family, anyone who has not been cut off, will go down on his knees to him for a bit of silver or a bit of bread, and say, Be pleased to put me into one of the priest's places so that I may have a little food.
Go, say to Jeroboam, These are the words of the Lord, the God of Israel: Though I took you from among the people, lifting you up to be a ruler over my people Israel, And took the kingdom away by force from the seed of David and gave it to you, you have not been like my servant David, who kept my orders, and was true to me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.
You are my fighting axe and my instrument of war: with you the nations will be broken; with you kingdoms will be broken; With you the horse and the horseman will be broken; with you the war-carriage and he who goes in it will be broken; With you man and woman will be broken; with you the old man and the boy will be broken; with you the young man and the virgin will be broken; With you the keeper of sheep with his flock will be broken, and with you the farmer and his oxen will be broken, and with you captains and rulers will be broken.
While you were looking at it, a stone was cut out, but not by hands, and it gave the image a blow on its feet, which were of iron and earth, and they were broken in bits. Then the iron and the earth, the brass and the silver and the gold, were smashed together, and became like the dust on the floors where grain is crushed in summer; and the wind took them away so that no sign of them was to be seen: and the stone which gave the image a blow became a great mountain, covering all the earth.
And in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will put up a kingdom which will never come to destruction, and its power will never be given into the hands of another people, and all these kingdoms will be broken and overcome by it, but it will keep its place for ever. Because you saw that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that by it the iron and the brass and the earth and the silver and the gold were broken to bits, a great God has given the king knowledge of what is to take place in the future: the dream is fixed, and its sense is certain.
Peres; your kingdom has been cut up and given to the Medes and Persians. Then, by the order of Belshazzar, they put a purple robe on Daniel, and a gold chain round his neck, and a public statement was made that he was to be a ruler of high authority in the kingdom. That very night Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldaeans, was put to death.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on Job 34
Commentary on Job 34 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 34
Job 34:1-37.
1. answered—proceeded.
2. This chapter is addressed also to the "friends" as the thirty-third chapter to Job alone.
3. palate—(See on Job 12:11; Job 33:2).
4. judgment—Let us select among the conflicting sentiments advanced, what will stand the test of examination.
5. judgment—my right. Job's own words (Job 13:18; 27:2).
6. Were I to renounce my right (that is, confess myself guilty), I should die. Job virtually had said so (Job 27:4, 5; 6:28). Maurer, not so well, "Notwithstanding my right (innocence) I am treated as a liar," by God, by His afflicting me.
my wound—literally, "mine arrow," namely, by which I am pierced. So "my stroke" ("hand," Job 23:2, Margin). My sickness (Job 6:4; 16:13).
without transgression—without fault of mine to deserve it (Job 16:17).
7. (Job 15:16). Image from the camel.
scorning—against God (Job 15:4).
8. Job virtually goes in company (makes common cause) with the wicked, by taking up their sentiments (Job 9:22, 23, 30; 21:7-15), or at least by saying, that those who act on such sentiments are unpunished (Mal 3:14). To deny God's righteous government because we do not see the reasons of His acts, is virtually to take part with the ungodly.
9. with God—in intimacy (Ps 50:18, Margin).
10. The true answer to Job, which God follows up (Job 38:1-41). Man is to believe God's ways are right, because they are His, not because we fully see they are so (Ro 9:14; De 32:4; Ge 18:25).
11. Partly here; fully, hereafter (Jer 32:19; Ro 2:6; 1Pe 1:17; Re 22:12).
12. (Job 8:3). In opposition to Job, Job 34:5, will not—cannot.
13. If the world were not God's property, as having been made by Him, but committed to His charge by some superior, it might be possible for Him to act unjustly, as He would not thereby be injuring Himself; but as it is, for God to act unjustly would undermine the whole order of the world, and so would injure God's own property (Job 36:23).
disposed—hath founded (Isa 44:7), established the circle of the globe.
14, 15. "If He were to set His heart on man," either to injure him, or to take strict account of his sins. The connection supports rather [Umbreit], "If He had regard to himself (only), and were to gather unto Himself (Ps 104:29) man's spirit, &c. (which he sends forth, Ps 104:30; Ec 12:7), all flesh must perish together," &c. (Ge 3:19). God's loving preservation of His creatures proves He cannot be selfish, and therefore cannot be unjust.
16. In Job 34:2, Elihu had spoken to all in general, now he calls Job's special attention.
17. "Can even He who (in thy view) hateth right (justice) govern?" The government of the world would be impossible if injustice were sanctioned. God must be just, because He governs (2Sa 23:3).
govern—literally, "bind," namely, by authority (so "reign," 1Sa 9:17, Margin). Umbreit translates for "govern, repress wrath, namely, against Job for his accusations.
most just—rather, "Him who is at once mighty and just" (in His government of the world).
18. Literally, (Is it fit) to be said to a king? It would be a gross outrage to reproach thus an earthly monarch, much more the King of kings (Ex 22:28). But Maurer with the Septuagint and Vulgate reads, (It is not fit to accuse of injustice Him) who says to a king, Thou art wicked; to princes, Ye are ungodly; that is, who punishes impartially the great, as the small. This accords with Job 34:19.
19. (Ac 10:34; 2Ch 19:7; Pr 22:2; Job 31:15).
20. they—"the rich" and "princes" who offend God.
the people—namely, of the guilty princes: guilty also themselves.
at midnight—image from a night attack of an enemy on a camp, which becomes an easy prey (Ex 12:29, 30).
without hand—without visible agency, by the mere word of God (so Job 20:26; Zec 4:6; Da 2:34).
21. God's omniscience and omnipotence enable Him to execute immediate justice. He needs not to be long on the "watch," as Job thought (Job 7:12; 2Ch 16:9; Jer 32:19).
22. shadow of death—thick darkness (Am 9:2, 3; Ps 139:12).
23. (1Co 10:13; La 3:32; Isa 27:8). Better, as Umbreit, "He does not (needs not to) regard (as in Job 34:14; Isa 41:20) man long (so Hebrew, Ge 46:29) in order that he may go (be brought by God) into judgment." Literally, "lest his (attention) upon men" (Job 11:10, 11). So Job 34:24, "without number" ought to be translated, "without [needing any] searching out," such as has to be made in human judgments.
24. break in pieces—(Ps 2:9; Job 12:18; Da 2:21).
25. Therefore—because He knows all things (Job 34:21). He knows their works, without a formal investigation (Job 34:24).
in the night—suddenly, unexpectedly (Job 34:20). Fitly in the night, as it was in it that the godless hid themselves (Job 34:22). Umbreit, less simply, for "overturneth," translates, "walketh"; that is, God is ever on the alert, discovering all wickedness.
26. He striketh them—chasteneth.
as—that is, because they are wicked.
sight of others—Sinners hid themselves in darkness; therefore they are punished before all, in open day. Image from the place of public execution (Job 40:12; Ex 14:30; 2Sa 12:12).
27, 28. The grounds of their punishment in Job 34:26. Job 34:28 states in what respect they "considered not God's ways," namely, by oppression, whereby "they caused the cry," &c.
29. (Pr 16:7; Isa 26:3).
make trouble—rather, "condemn" (Ro 8:33, 34). Maurer, from the reference being only to the godless, in the next clause, and Job 34:20 translates, "When God keeps quiet" (leaves men to perish) Ps 83:1; [Umbreit] from the Arabic (strikes to the earth), "who shall condemn Him as unjust?" Job 34:17.
hideth … face—(Job 23:8, 9; Ps 13:1).
it be done—Whether it be against a guilty nation (2Ki 18:9-12) or an individual, that God acts so.
30. Ensnared—into sin (1Ki 12:28, 30). Or rather, "enthralled by further oppression," Job 34:26-28.
31. Job accordingly says so (Job 40:3-5; Mic 7:9; Le 26:41). It was to lead him to this that Elihu was sent. Though no hypocrite, Job, like all, had sin; therefore through affliction he was to be brought to humble himself under God. All sorrow is a proof of the common heritage of sin, in which the godly shares; and therefore he ought to regard it as a merciful correction. Umbreit and Maurer lose this by translating, as the Hebrew will bear, "Has any a right to say to God, I have borne chastisement and yet have not sinned?" (so Job 34:6).
borne—namely, the penalty of sin, as in Le 5:1, 17.
offend—literally, "to deal destructively or corruptly" (Ne 1:7).
32. (Job 10:2; Ps 32:8; 19:12; 139:23, 24).
no more—(Pr 28:13; Eph 4:22).
33. Rather, "should God recompense (sinners) according to thy mind? Then it is for thee to reject and to choose, and not me" [Umbreit]; or as Maurer, "For thou hast rejected God's way of recompensing; state therefore thy way, for thou must choose, not I," that is, it is thy part, not mine, to show a better way than God's.
34, 35. Rather, "men … will say to me, and the wise man (Job 34:2, 10) who hearkens to me (will say), 'Job hath spoken,'" &c.
36. Margin, not so well, "My father," Elihu addressing God. This title does not elsewhere occur in Job.
tried—by calamities.
answers for wicked men—(See on Job 34:8). Trials of the godly are not removed until they produce the effect designed.
37. clappeth … hands—in scorn (Job 27:23; Eze 21:17).
multiplieth … words—(Job 11:2; 35:16). To his original "sin" to correct which trials have been sent, "he adds rebellion," that is, words arraigning God's justice.