Job 27:5 Komentář

Job had sometimes complained of his friends that they were so eager in disputing that they would scarcely let him put in a word: "Suffer me that I may speak;" and, "O that you would hold your peace!" But now, it seems, they were out of breath, and left him room to say what he would. Either they were themselves convinced that Job was in the right or they despaired of convincing him that he was in the wrong; and therefore they threw away their weapons and gave up the cause. Job was too hard for them, and forced them to quit the field; for great is the truth and will prevail. What Job had said (Job 26:1-14) was a sufficient answer to Bildad's discourse; and now Job paused awhile, to see whether Zophar would take his turn again; but, he declining it, Job himself went on, and, without any interruption or vexation given him, said all he desired to say in this matter. I. He begins with a solemn protestation of his integrity and of his resolution to hold it fast (Job 27:2-6). II. He expresses the dread he had of that hypocrisy which they charged him with (Job 27:7-10). III. He shows the miserable end of wicked people, notwithstanding their long prosperity, and the curse that attends them and is entailed upon their families (Job 27:11-23).

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 27 Though Job's friends were become silent, and dropped the controversy with him, he still continued his discourse in this and the four following chapters; in which he asserts his integrity; illustrates and confirms his former sentiments; gives further proof of his knowledge of things, natural and divine; takes notice of his former state of prosperity, and of his present distresses and afflictions, which came upon him, notwithstanding his piety, humanity, and beneficence, and his freedom from the grosser acts of sin, both with respect to God and men, all which he enlarges upon. In this chapter he gives his word and oath for it, that he would never belie himself, and own that he was an hypocrite, when he was not, but would continue to assert his integrity, and the righteousness of his cause, as long as he lived, Job 27:1; for to be an hypocrite, and to attempt to conceal his hypocrisy, would be of no advantage to him, either in life, or in death, Job 27:7; and was this his character and case, upon their principles, he could expect no other than to be a miserable man, as wicked men are, who have their blessings turned into curses, or taken away from them, and they removed out of the world in the most awful and terrible manner, and under manifest tokens of the wrath and displeasure of God, Job 27:11.

God forbid that I should justify you,.... Not but that he counted them righteous and good men God-ward; he did not take upon him to judge their state, and to justify or condemn them with respect to their everlasting condition; but he could not justify them in their censures of him, and say they did a right thing in charging him with wickedness and hypocrisy; nor could he justify them in all their sentiments and doctrines which they had delivered concerning the punishment of the wicked in this life, and the happiness that attends all good men; and that a man by his outward circumstances may be known to be either a good man or a bad man; such things as these he could not say were right; for so to do would be to call evil good, and good evil; and therefore he expresses his utmost abhorrence and detestation of showing his approbation of such conduct as theirs towards him, and of such unbecoming sentiments of God, and of his dealings, they had entertained; and to join in with which would be a profanation and a pollution, as the word used by him signifies; he could not do it without defiling his conscience, and profaning truth: until I die one will not remove my integrity from me; Job was an upright man both in heart and life, through the grace of God bestowed on him; and he continued in his integrity, notwithstanding the temptations of Satan, and his attacks upon him, and the solicitations of his wife; and he determined through the grace of God to persist therein to the end of his life; though what he chiefly means here is, that he would not part with his character as an upright man, which he had always had, and God himself had bore testimony to; he would never give up this till he gave up the ghost; he would never suffer his integrity to be removed from him, nor remove it from himself by denying that it belonged to him, which his friends bore hard upon him to do. So Jarchi paraphrases it, "I will not confess (or agree) to your saying, that I am not upright;'' the phrase, "till I die", seems rather to belong to the first clause, though it is true of both, and may be repeated in this.

This is what Job means, one who is full of iniquity has neither liberty to express himself nor to say what I say now. Rather, he has been taken away and stays silent. On the contrary, I did not experience that, but I speak and answer. But the same does not happen to those who are iniquitous.

God forbid that I should justify you; till I die, I will not depart from mine innocency. For he would 'depart from his innocency,' if he reckoned good things of bad persons; as Solomon bears witness, who saith, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. For there are persons, who, whilst they extol with commendation deeds of men ill done, heighten that which they ought to have rebuked. For hence it is said by the Prophet, Woe to those that sew pillows under every elbow of the hand, and make cushions under the head of every age. For a 'pillow' is put for this, that we may rest the easier. Therefore whoever flatters persons doing wrongly is putting a pillow under the head or the elbow of one lying, so that the man that should have been chidden on account of sin, being stayed up therein by commendations, should rest at his ease. Hence again it is written, And one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it. For by the term of 'a wall,' the hardness of sin is denoted. And so 'to build up a wall' is for a man to rear against himself barriers of sin; but they 'daub the wall,' who flatter those that commit sins, that what the first by doing wickedly build, those same persons by spreading their flatteries should as it were make of bright colour. But the holy man, as he does not think what is bad of the good, so he refuses to judge what is good of the bad; saying, God forbid that I should Judge you just: till I die, I will not depart from mine innocency.

Since the friends of Job had asserted opinions like this he adds, "Far be it from me to judge you just": for he could not judge them just unless he approved of their unjust opinion, in which he would be deviating from his own justice. So he says, "until I fall," in death, "I will not desert," for I do not intend to desert, "my innocence." I would desert my innocence if I with you judged the saints suffering adversity in this world to be evil.

To-morrow is uncertain. Self-praise forbidden. Anger and envy. Reproof from a friend. Want makes us feel the value of a supply. A good neighbor. Beware of suretyship. Suspicious praise. The quarrelsome woman. One friend helps another. Man insatiable. The incorrigible fool. Domestic cares. The profit of flocks for food and raiment.

God forbid - חלילה לי - di chalilah lli, far be it from me, that I should justify you - that I should now, by any kind of acknowledgment of wickedness or hypocrisy justify your harsh judgment. You say that God afflicts me for my crimes; I say, and God knows it is truth, that I have not sinned so as to draw down any such judgment upon me. Your judgment, therefore, is pronounced at your own risk.

(Job 27:1-23) parable--applied in the East to a figurative sententious embodiment of wisdom in poetic form, a gnome (Psa 49:4). continued--proceeded to put forth; implying elevation of discourse.

justify you--approve of your views. mine integrity--which you deny, on account of my misfortunes.