1Moreover Job continued on with his discourse, and said: 2As the Mighty God lives, who has taken away my justice, and the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter, 3as long as my breath is in me, and the spirit of God in my nostrils, 4my lips will not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. 5Far be it from me that I should say you are right. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me. 6I hold fast to my righteousness, and will not let it go; my heart does not reproach any of my days. 7Let my enemy be like the wicked, and he who rises up against me like the unrighteous. 8For what is the hope of the hypocrite when he is cut off, when God draws out his soul? 9Will the Mighty God hear his cry when distress comes upon him? 10Will he delight in the Almighty? Will he always call upon God? 11I will teach you about the hand of the Mighty God; that which is with the Almighty I will not hide. 12Behold, all of you have seen it. Why then are you vain like a vapor? 13This is the portion of a wicked man with the Mighty God, and the heritage of the ruthless, received from the Almighty: 14If his children are multiplied, it is for the sword; and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread. 15Those who survive him shall be buried in death, and their widows shall not weep, 16though he heaps up silver like dust, and provides clothing like clay; 17he may provide it, but the just shall wear it, and the innocent shall divide up the silver. 18He builds his house like a moth, like a booth which a watchman makes. 19The rich man shall lie down, but not be gathered up; he has opened his eyes, and is not. 20Terrors overtake him like waters; a tempest steals him away in the night. 21The east wind carries him away, and he is gone; it whirls him out of his place. 22It casts him out without pity; he hastens to flee from its hand. 23Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 (Job 27:1-23)
parable--applied in the East to a figurative sententious embodiment of wisdom in poetic form, a gnome (
Ps 49:4).
continued--proceeded to put forth; implying elevation of discourse.
2 (
1Sam 20:3).
taken away . . . judgment--words unconsciously foreshadowing Jesus Christ (
Isa 53:8;
Acts 8:33). God will not give Job his right, by declaring his innocence.
vexed--Hebrew, "made bitter" (
Ruth 1:20).
3 Implying Job's knowledge of the fact that the living soul was breathed into man by God (
Gen 2:7). "All the while." But MAURER, "As yet all my breath is in me" (notwithstanding my trials): the reason why I can speak so boldly.
4 (
Job 6:28,
Job 6:30). The "deceit" would be if he were to admit guilt against the witness of his conscience.
5 justify you--approve of your views.
mine integrity--which you deny, on account of my misfortunes.
6 Rather, my "heart" (conscience) reproaches "not one of my days," that is, I do not repent of any of my days since I came into existence [MAURER].
7 Let . . . be--Let mine enemy be accounted as wicked, that is, He who opposes my asseveration of innocence must be regarded as actuated by criminal hostility. Not a curse on his enemies.
8 "What hope hath the hypocrite, notwithstanding all his gains, when?" &c. "Gained" is antithetic to "taketh away." UMBREIT'S translation is an unmeaning tautology. "When God cuts off, when He taketh away his life."
taketh away--literally, "draws out" the soul from the body, which is, as it were, its scabbard (
Job 4:21;
Ps 104:29;
Dan 7:15). Job says that he admits what Bildad said (
Job 8:13) and Zophar (
Job 20:5). But he says the very fact of his still calling upon God (
Job 27:10) amid all his trials, which a hypocrite would not dare to do, shows he is no "hypocrite."
9 (
Ps 66:18).
10 Alluding to
Job 22:26.
always call--He may do so in times of prosperity in order to be thought religious. But he will not, as I do, call on God in calamities verging on death. Therefore I cannot be a "hypocrite" (
Job 19:25;
Job 20:5;
Ps 62:8).
11 These words are contrary to Job's previous sentiments (see on
Job 21:22-
Job 21:33;
Job 24:22-
Job 24:25).
Job 21:22-
Job 21:33;
Job 24:22-
Job 24:25). They therefore seem to be Job's statement, not so much of his own sentiments, as of what Zophar would have said had he spoken when his turn came (end of the twenty-sixth chapter). So Job stated the friends' opinion (
Job 21:17-
Job 21:21;
Job 24:18-
Job 24:21). The objection is, why, if so, does not Job answer Zophar's opinion, as stated by himself? The fact is, it is probable that Job tacitly, by giving, in the twenty-eighth chapter, only a general answer, implies, that in spite of the wicked often dying, as he said, in prosperity, he does not mean to deny that the wicked are in the main dealt with according to right, and that God herein vindicates His moral government even here. Job therefore states Zophar's argument more strongly than Zophar would have done. But by comparing
Job 27:13 with
Job 20:29 ("portion," "heritage"), it will be seen, it is Zophar's argument, rather than his own, that Job states. Granting it to be true, implies Job, you ought not to use it as an argument to criminate me. For (Job 28:1-28) the ways of divine wisdom in afflicting the godly are inscrutable: all that is sure to man is, the fear of the Lord is wisdom (
Job 28:28).
by the hand--rather, concerning the hand of God, namely, what God does in governing men.
with the Almighty--the counsel or principle which regulates God's dealings.
12 "Ye yourselves see" that the wicked often are afflicted (though often the reverse,
Job 21:33). But do you "vainly" make this an argument to prove from my afflictions that I am wicked?
13 (See on
Job 27:11).
14 His family only increases to perish by sword or famine (
Jer 18:21;
Job 5:20, the converse).
15 Those that escape war and famine (
Job 27:14) shall be buried by the deadly plague--"death" (
Job 18:13;
Jer 15:2;
Rev 6:8). The plague of the Middle Ages was called "the black death." Buried by it implies that they would have none else but the death plague itself (poetically personified) to perform their funeral rites, that is, would have no one.
his--rather, "their widows." Transitions from singular to plural are frequent. Polygamy is not implied.
16 dust . . . clay--images of multitudes (
Zech 9:3). Many changes of raiment are a chief constituent of wealth in the East.
17 Introverted parallelism. (See Introduction). Of the four clauses in the two verses, one answers to four, two to three (so
Matt 7:6).
18 (
Job 8:14;
Job 4:19). The transition is natural from "raiment" (
Job 27:16) to the "house" of the "moth" in it, and of it, when in its larva state. The moth worm's house is broken whenever the "raiment" is shaken out, so frail is it.
booth--a bough-formed hut which the guard of a vineyard raises for temporary shelter (
Isa 1:8).
19 gathered--buried honorably (
Gen 25:8;
2Kgs 22:20). But UMBREIT, agreeably to
Job 27:18, which describes the short continuance of the sinner's prosperity, "He layeth himself rich in his bed, and nothing is robbed from him, he openeth his eyes, and nothing more is there." If English Version be retained, the first clause probably means, rich though he be in dying, he shall not be honored with a funeral; the second, When he opens his eyes in the unseen world, it is only to see his destruction: the Septuagint reads for "not gathered," He does not proceed, that is, goes to his bed no more. So MAURER.
20 (
Job 18:11;
Job 22:11,
Job 22:21). Like a sudden violent flood (
Isa 8:7-
Isa 8:8;
Jer 47:2): conversely (
Ps 32:6).
21 (
Job 21:18;
Job 15:2;
Ps 58:9).
22 cast--namely, thunderbolts (
Job 6:4;
Job 7:20;
Job 16:13;
Ps 7:12-
Ps 7:13).
23 clap . . . hands--for joy at his downfall (
Lam 2:15;
Nah 3:19).
hiss--deride (
Jer 25:9). Job alludes to Bildad's words (
Job 18:18).
In the twenty-seventh chapter Job had tacitly admitted that the statement of the friends was often true, that God vindicated His justice by punishing the wicked here; but still the affliction of the godly remained unexplained. Man has, by skill, brought the precious metals from their concealment. But the Divine Wisdom, which governs human affairs, he cannot similarly discover (
Job 28:12, &c.). However, the image from the same metals (
Job 23:10) implies Job has made some way towards solving the riddle of his life; namely, that affliction is to him as the refining fire is to gold.
