Job 30

Job 30:2

2—4. For what portion of God is there from above?] When Job asserts the same thing with his antagonists, namely, that a sure destruction attends the wicked, that it is their portion, their inheritance from God; he must certainly be understood in a sense different from theirs, and can only refer to a final retribution in a future state: for the intimation conveyed in the 4th verse, had he meant it of a temporal destruction, was what his antagonists had repeated to him again and again, and had urged it as an argument of his guilt, that he was thus miserably destroyed. Peters.

Job 30:5

5. If I have walked with vanity, &c.] The word rendered “vanity” signifies falsehood, and is properly applied to idols: and the phrase is here peculiarly adapted to that signification; for “I walked with,” signifies in Scripture phrase paying acceptable service to the Deity. So Enoch is said to have “walked with God.” So that the meaning is, If I have paid religious

Job 30:6

6. Let me be weighed in an even balance.] Similar allusions to weighing the characters of mankind are frequent in Scripture. See Isai. xxvi. 7; Dan. v. 27;

Job 30:10

10. Then let my wife grind unto another.] That is, Let her be so degraded, that, instead of having her corn ground for her, she shall perform that servile office herself; not for herself, nor for me, but let her grind for another. Grinding was the work of the women in the East, and esteemed a very servile, as well as laborious employment. Frag. to Calmet. See the note on Exod. xi. 5. Otherwise the phrase here used is a decent expression for her committing adultery, as many learned men have understood it. This sense seems best to suit the context, and particularly the latter part of the verse, in which, as usual in Hebrew poetry, the same sentiment is repeated in other words. Parkhurst. Then let my wife become false to my bed, and repay my sin with the like adultery; let me be plagued, as I deserve, in my own kind: for this had been a capital offence, worthy to be punished by the sword of authority. Bp. Hall.

Job 30:12

12. For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction.] Such great wickedness would have called down upon me the Divine vengeance, which would have spent its fury against me, like a fire laying all things waste, and consuming the fruits of the earth. Rosemiller. 13, 14. If I did despise the cause of my manservant &c.] Job here speaks plainly of the future, of something which he was infallibly to expect, had he behaved unjustly to his slave: whereas could we suppose him to mean it of any temporal judgment or visitation of God, what is it that he had to expect? he seems to think his condition so miserable already, that it was scarcely possible for him to fall lower; and therefore he often and earnestly wishes for death, as the happiest event that could befall him. We need not question, therefore, but that he had here an eye to the future judgment; and it is remarkable, that he expresses himself in the same phrase here as in chap. xix. 25. Peters. Before CHRIST about 1890.