3 Is it any pleasure H2656 to the Almighty, H7706 that thou art righteous? H6663 or is it gain H1215 to him, that thou makest thy ways H1870 perfect? H8552
I know H3045 also, my God, H430 that thou triest H974 the heart, H3824 and hast pleasure H7521 in uprightness. H3476 As for me, in the uprightness H4339 of mine heart H3824 I have willingly offered H5068 all these things: and now have I seen H7200 with joy H8057 thy people, H5971 which are present H4672 here, to offer willingly H5068 unto thee.
But he knoweth H3045 the way H1870 that I take: H5978 when he hath tried H974 me, I shall come forth H3318 as gold. H2091 My foot H7272 hath held H270 his steps, H838 his way H1870 have I kept, H8104 and not declined. H5186 Neither have I gone back H4185 from the commandment H4687 of his lips; H8193 I have esteemed H6845 the words H561 of his mouth H6310 more than my necessary H2706 food.
They also do H6466 no iniquity: H5766 they walk H1980 in his ways. H1870 Thou hast commanded H6680 us to keep H8104 thy precepts H6490 diligently. H3966 O that H305 my ways H1870 were directed H3559 to keep H8104 thy statutes! H2706 Then shall I not be ashamed, H954 when I have respect H5027 unto all thy commandments. H4687
A false H4820 balance H3976 is abomination H8441 to the LORD: H3068 but a just H8003 weight H68 is his delight. H7522
The sacrifice H2077 of the wicked H7563 is an abomination H8441 to the LORD: H3068 but the prayer H8605 of the upright H3477 is his delight. H7522
Ye have wearied H3021 the LORD H3068 with your words. H1697 Yet ye say, H559 Wherein have we wearied H3021 him? When ye say, H559 Every one that doeth H6213 evil H7451 is good H2896 in the sight H5869 of the LORD, H3068 and he delighteth H2654 in them; or, Where is the God H430 of judgment? H4941
Having G2192 therefore G3767 these G5025 promises, G1860 dearly beloved, G27 let us cleanse G2511 ourselves G1438 from G575 all G3956 filthiness G3436 of the flesh G4561 and G2532 spirit, G4151 perfecting G2005 holiness G42 in G1722 the fear G5401 of God. G2316
But G1161 I have G568 all, G3956 and G2532 abound: G4052 I am full, G4137 having received G1209 of G3844 Epaphroditus G1891 the things which were sent from G3844 you, G5216 an odour G3744 of a sweet smell, G2175 a sacrifice G2378 acceptable, G1184 wellpleasing G2101 to God. G2316
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Job 22
Commentary on Job 22 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 22
Eliphaz here leads on a third attack upon poor Job, in which Bildad followed him, but Zophar drew back, and quitted the field. It was one of the unhappinesses of Job, as it is of many an honest man, to be misunderstood by his friends. He had spoken of the prosperity of wicked men in this world as a mystery of Providence, but they took it for a reflection upon Providence, as countenancing their wickedness; and they reproached him accordingly. In this chapter,
Job 22:1-4
Eliphaz here insinuates that, because Job complained so much of his afflictions, he thought God was unjust in afflicting him; but it was a strained innuendo. Job was far from thinking so. What Eliphaz says here is therefore unjustly applied to Job, but in itself it is very true and good,
Job 22:5-14
Eliphaz and his companions had condemned Job, in general, as a wicked man and a hypocrite; but none of them had descended to particulars, nor drawn up any articles of impeachment against him, until Eliphaz did so here, where he positively and expressly charges him with many high crimes and misdemeanours, which, if he had really been guilty of them, might well have justified them in their harsh censures of him. "Come,' says Eliphaz, "we have been too long beating about the bush, too tender of Job and afraid of grieving him, which has but confirmed him in his self-justification. It is high time to deal plainly with him. We have condemned him by parables, but that does not answer the end; he is not prevailed with to condemn himself. We must therefore plainly tell him, Thou art the man, the tyrant, the oppressor, the atheist, we have been speaking of all this while. Is not thy wickedness great? Certainly it is, or else thy troubles would not be so great. I appeal to thyself, and thy own conscience; are not thy iniquities infinite, both in number and heinousness?' Strictly taken, nothing is infinite but God; but he means this, that his sins were more than could be counted and more heinous than could be conceived. Sin, being committed against Infinite Majesty, has in it a kind of infinite malignity. But when Eliphaz charges Job thus highly, and ventures to descend to particulars too, laying to his charge that which he knew not, we may take occasion hence,
Let us see the particular articles of this charge.
Job 22:15-20
Eliphaz, having endeavoured to convict Job, by setting his sins (as he thought) in order before him, here endeavours to awaken him to a sight and sense of his misery and danger by reason of sin; and this he does by comparing his case with that of the sinners of the old world; as if he had said, "Thy condition is bad now, but, unless thou repent, it will be worse, as theirs was-theirs who were overflown with a flood, as the old world (v. 16), and theirs the remnant of whom the fire consumed' (v. 20), namely, the Sodomites, who, in comparison of the old world, were but a remnant. And these two instances of the wrath of God against sin and sinners are more than once put together, for warning to a careless world, as by our Saviour (Lu. 17:26, etc.) and the apostle, 2 Pt. 2:5, 6. Eliphaz would have Job to mark the old way which wicked men have trodden (v. 15) and see what came of it, what the end of their way was. Note, There is an old way which wicked men have trodden. Religion had but newly entered when sin immediately followed it. But though it is an old way, a broad way, a tracked way, it is a dangerous way and it leads to destruction; and it is good for us to mark it, that we may not dare to walk in it. Eliphaz here puts Job in mind of it, perhaps in opposition to what he had said of the prosperity of the wicked; as if he had said, "Thou canst find out here and there a single instance, it may be, of a wicked man ending his days in peace; but what is that to those two great instances of the final perdition of ungodly men-the drowning of the whole world and the burning of Sodom?' destructions by wholesale, in which he thinks Job may, as in a glass, see his own face. Observe,
Job 22:21-30
Methinks I can almost forgive Eliphaz his hard censures of Job, which we had in the beginning of the chapter, though they were very unjust and unkind, for this good counsel and encouragement which he gives him in these verses with which he closes his discourse, and than which nothing could be better said, nor more to the purpose. Though he thought him a bad man, yet he saw reason to have hopes concerning him, that, for all this, he would be both pious and prosperous. But it is strange that out of the same mouth, and almost in the same breath, both sweet waters and bitter should proceed. Good men, though they may perhaps be put into a heat, yet sometimes will talk themselves into a better temper, and, it may be, sooner than another could talk them into it. Eliphaz had laid before Job the miserable condition of a wicked man, that he might frighten him into repentance. Here, on the other hand, he shows him the happiness which those may be sure of that do repent, that he might allure and encourage him to it. Ministers must try both ways in dealing with people, must speak to them from Mount Sinai by the terrors of the law, and from Mount Sion by the comforts of the gospel, must set before them both life and death, good and evil, the blessing and the curse. Now here observe,