Job 34:6

Should I lie against my right?.... No; I ought not: this though Job had not said in so many words, yet this seems to be his sense in Job 27:4; that should he own and say that he was a wicked man, a

Should I lie against my right? my wound is incurable without transgression. i.e., were I to renounce my right (i:e., confess myself guilty), I should lie. Job virtually had said so (Job 27:4-5; Job 6:28).

Should I lie against my right? so Job had said in effect, . Should I falsely accuse myself of such sins of which I am no way conscious to myself? Should I betray mine own cause, and deny my integrity, and say that I deserved worse than I have done? Without transgression, i.e. without any great, or heinous, or crying sin, as this word commonly signifies, which might reasonably bring down such terrible judgments upon my head.

Job 34:6 Should I lie against my right? my wound [is] incurable without transgression.Ver. 6. Should I lie against my right?] Ut meam causam prodam, so as to betray my cause, and yield myself guilty when I know myself innocent (R. Levi). This I will never do, said Job; no more would that peerless Lady Elizabeth, when as a traitor she was laid up in the Tower, and pressed to appeach herself. Better die than lie. My wound is incurable without transgression] These last words, "without transgression," Elihu spitefully thrusteth in, saith Beza. Others think they may be gathered out of Job 9:17; Job 16:17. Without presumptuous sin (which David calleth the great transgression, the wickedness with a witness) Job might truly say, it may be; for all men are sinners, yet not all alike; though all have a discrasy, yet every man hath not a fever; and though none are without ill humours, yet some have not a leprosy upon them.

(6) Should I lie against my right?—Comp. Job 27:2-6. My wound is incurable.—Literally, my arrow, i.e., the arrow which hath wounded me. (See Job 16:11; Job 17:1, &c.) Without transgression.—That is to say, on my part. (See Job 16:17.) Some understand the former clause, “Notwithstanding my right, I am accounted a liar,” but the Authorised Version is more probably right.

Verse 6. Should I lie against my right?] Should I acknowledge myself the sinner which they paint me, and thus lie against my right to assert and maintain my innocence? My wound is incurable without transgression.] If this translation is correct, the meaning of the place is sufficiently evident. In the tribulation which I endure, I am treated as if I were the worst of culprits; and I labour under incurable maladies and privations, though without any cause on my part for such treatment. This was all most perfectly true; it is the testimony which God himself gives of Job, that "he was a perfect and upright man, fearing God and eschewing evil;" and that "Satan had moved the Lord against him, to destroy him, WITHOUT A CAUSE. See Job 1:1; Job 2:3. The Chaldee translates thus: - "On account of my judgment, I will make the son of man a liar, who sends forth arrows without sin." Mr. Good thus :- "Concerning my cause I am slandered; He hath reversed my lot without a trespass." The latter clause is the most deficient, אנוש חצי בלי פשע; Miss Smith's translation of which is the best I have met with: "A man cut off, without transgression." The word חצי chitstsi, which we translate my wound, signifies more literally, my arrow; and if we take it as a contracted noun, חצי chitstsey for חצים chitstsim, it means calamities. אנוש anush, which we translate incurable, may be the noun enosh, wicked, miserable man; and then the whole may be read thus: "A man of calamities without transgression." I suffer the punishment of an enemy to God, while free from transgression of this kind.

6. should I lie against my right?] This sense is possible, the meaning being, “shall I admit guilt when I am not guilty but wrongly afflicted”? Perhaps the sense is rather: against (or, notwithstanding) my right I am made to lie: when I affirm my rectitude God’s treatment of me belies my affirmations by making me guilty, and this against my right; comp. ch. Job 9:20, Job 16:8. my wound] lit. my arrow, the arrow of divine affliction infixed in me, comp. ch. Job 6:4, Job 16:13.

Should I lie against my right? - These are also quoted as the words of Job, and as a part of the erroneous opinions on which Elihu proposes to comment.

6. Should I lie against my right, etc. — Though this is not exactly, it is virtually, the language of Job. Compare, for instance, Job 6:4; Job 9:17; Job 9:20; Job 16:8.