17 Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.
17 Not for any injustice H2555 in mine hands: H3709 also my prayer H8605 is pure. H2134
17 Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure.
17 Not for violence in my hands, And my prayer `is' pure.
17 Although there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure.
17 Although there is no violence in my hands, And my prayer is pure.
17 Though my hands have done no violent acts, and my prayer is clean.
If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty; If thou wert pure and upright; surely now he would awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous.
If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.
For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate, and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery.
Behold, I know your thoughts, and the devices which ye wrongfully imagine against me. For ye say, Where is the house of the prince? and where are the dwelling places of the wicked?
Is not thy wickedness great? and thine iniquities infinite? For thou hast taken a pledge from thy brother for nought, and stripped the naked of their clothing. Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry. But as for the mighty man, he had the earth; and the honourable man dwelt in it. Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live. Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.
Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem. I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame. I was a father to the poor: and the cause which I knew not I searched out. And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.
I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps? If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; Let me be weighed in an even balance that God may know mine integrity. If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands; Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out. If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door; Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her. For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges. For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase. If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me; What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof; (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;) If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering; If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep; If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate: Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure. If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence; If I rejoice because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gotten much; If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness; And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above. If I rejoice at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him: Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied. The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller. If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom: Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door? Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me. I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him. If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain; If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life: Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.
O LORD my God, If I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:) Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, and lay mine honour in the dust. Selah.
All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way; Though thou hast sore broken us in the place of dragons, and covered us with the shadow of death. If we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange god; Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
Their webs shall not become garments, neither shall they cover themselves with their works: their works are works of iniquity, and the act of violence is 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).