Job 31

— and bind it as a crown to me.] As a tiara, diadem, or turban. Linen is one of the oldest materials that ever were written upon, as appears by the bandages of the Egyptian mummies still preserved; and to this Job here probably alludes: this might readily be not only “taken on his shoulders,” but “bound about his head.” Parkhurst.

However dissimilar “binding a writing about the head” may be from our customs, yet we meet with such a practice in the East even to our days. For when a governour under the Great Mogul is receiving letters or orders from his master, the moment he sees the packet, he alights from his horse, and falls prostrate to the ground: which done, he takes the present from the messenger, binds it fast upon his own head, and returning to the court room, where he usually despatches business, reads it, and returns an answer immediately. Parkhurst.

Job 31:17

17. Or have eaten my morsel myself alone.] This verse affords us a beautiful picture of liberality and tender charity, which would not eat even the least morsel of bread without imparting some little portion to the poor and needy. Schultens.

The following passage, describing a custom that prevails among the Arabs, is illustrative of their hospitality: “No sooner was our food prepared, than one of the Arabs, after having placed himself upon the highest station he could find, invited three times with a loud voice all his brethren, the sons of the faithful, to come and partake of it; though none of them were in view, or perhaps within a hundred miles of us. This custom however they maintain to be always a token of their great benevolence, as it would be of their hospitality likewise, if they had an opportunity to shew it.” Dr. Shaw.

As we were at table, there came by a stranger wearing a white turban, who, after having saluted the company, sat down to the table without ceremony, ate with us during some time, and then went away, repeating several times the name of God. They told us, that it was some traveller who, no doubt, stood in need of refreshment, and who had profited by the opportunity, according to the custom of the East, which is to exercise hospitality at all times, and to all persons. De la Roque, Fragments to Calmet.

Job 31:21

21. If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless.] If I have used my power injuriously against the fatherless, when I saw that my sentence would have been seconded, and would have prevailed on the bench. Bp. Hall. See chap. xxix. 7, and the notes there.

Such was Job’s “religion pure and undefiled,” who “visited” the orphan and “widow in their affliction, and kept himself unspotted from the world:” no wonder then that it was accepted before “God, even the Father,” James v. 11. This surely is Gospel faith; and the Apostle James, in his excellent practical Epistle, seems to allude particularly to the case of Job, whose “patience” he expressly celebrates in the following marked passages, chap. i. 2 and 26. Dr. Hales.

Job 31:23

23. For destruction from God was a terror to me, &c.] For I never thought that I could escape the Divine vengeance; the dread of which affrighted me, when men could not, from all such insolence; for I know that I could not support myself against the majesty of God. Bp. Patrick.

Job 31:26

26-28. If I beheld &c.] If, when I have beheld Thy glorious creatures, the sun and the moon, I have given way to any idolatrous conceits, and have ascribed Divine honour unto them, as my heathen neighbours do; this were indeed a heinous and capital wickedness. Bp. Hall.

The only species of idolatry noticed in this book is Zabianism, or the worship of the heavenly bodies, which is the earliest on record, and an additional proof of the high antiquity of the composition; especially as it is noticed with abhorrence, as a novelty, deserving judicial punishment. We learn from Sir William Jones, that the people of Arabia very soon fell into the common, but fatal, error of adoring the sun and the firmament, the planets and fixed stars. Dr. Hales.

Job 31:27

27. — or my mouth hath kissed my hand:] So Lucian mentions the Greeks, even in his time, worshipping the sun by kissing their hand, and then thinking their adoration complete. Minucius Felix remarks, that when the heathen Cæcilius observes the statue of Serapis, “he, according to the custom of the superstitious vulgar, moving his hand to his mouth, kissed it with his lips.” Apuleius, who lived in the second century, speaking of one Æmilian, probably a Christian, says, “If he passes by a temple, he thinks it wicked to move his hand to his lips, as a sign of adoration.” Parkhurst.

We are told that the Mahomedans begin their worship with bringing their two thumbs together, and kissing them three times, and at every kiss touching their foreheads with their thumbs. When they cannot kiss the hand of a superior, they kiss their own, and put it to their foreheads; they venerate an unseen being, whom they cannot touch, in the same manner. Harmer, Dr. Durell.

Job’s integrity in several duties. Before CHRIST about 1330. mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.

Job 31:31

31. If the men of my tabernacle said not, &c.] He appeals to his own domesticus for his bounty towards them, and liberality to all others. The clearest translation of this verse is, “If the man of my tabernacle do not say, Who can produce a person not satisfied from his flesh?” that is, from his provisions. The Chaldee interpreter understood it in the same manner, “who cutteth off his flesh unsatisfied?” Scott.

Job 31:33

33, 34. If I covered my transgressions as Adam,] The passage should be thus translated:

Did I cover, like Adam, my transgression, By hiding, in my lurking place, mine iniquity; Then let me be terrified at the great assembly, And let the contempt of the families strike me down; Let me be cut off and never go out of my door.

The preceding passage contains a reference to the history of the first man, and his endeavours to hide himself after his transgression. Dr. Magee.

Amongst the particulars wherein Job vindicates his integrity, one is, that he was ready to acknowledge his errors. The allusion to Adam’s hiding himself is proper and apposite; but if the passage be rendered, as in the margin, “after the manner of men,” it becomes an accusation of others; and the vindication of himself has a mixture of pride in it, which does not suit the character of the speaker. Bp. Sherlock.

“Covering of sin” is spoken in several senses. God covers sin, when He hides it, as it were, from His sight, and will not observe it, Neh. iv. 5; Ps. lxxxv. 2; compare Ps. xxxii. 1. Man covers his own sin, when he cokes or palliates it, Ps. xxxii. 5; Prov. xxviii. 13: that of another, when he conceals or says nothing of it, Prov. xvii. 9; compare Prov. x. 12. Parkhurst.

Job 31:34

34. Did I fear &c.] This passage seems to intimate, that it was customary among the Arabs to assemble all the families in a tribe for trying a delinquent of high rank. Job imprecates on himself such a solemn condemnation, in case he had concealed, in this apology, any crime whereof he had been guilty. The punishment which he imprecates, is, execration by the whole tribe, a life of obscurity, and perpetual imprisonment in his own dwelling. Scott.

Job 31:35

35, 36. Oh that one would hear me! &c.] Oh that mine adversary had written a book, that is, a roll, accusation, or bill! surely I would take it on my shoulder, and would bind it as a crown upon me, that is, upon my head. Fragments to Calmet.

Job 31:36

36. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, &c.] Surely I would not endeavour to obscure it, but openly expose it to be read by all; nay, wear it as a singular

that mine adversary had written a book.

Job 31:37

37. I would declare unto him the number of my steps;] I would help him with such informations against myself as he would never be able to find out; and when I had done, I would encounter him boldly and courageously, as some warlike prince would come into the field against a weak enemy. Bp. Hall.

Job 31:38

38. If my land cry against me, &c.] If any part of my land was unjustly gained, or I have defrauded of their wages those who ploughed it. Bp. Patrick.

Job 31:39

39. — have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:] Killing them, that so I might have quiet possession of it. Clark.

Job 31:40

40. — thistles — cockle] What is precisely meant by the Hebrew words cannot be ascertained. In general, however, he imprecates barrenness upon his land. Scott.

This chapter deserves to be read and meditated upon with great attention; for it contains noble sentiments concerning the principal duties of religion, and particularly purity and chastity, justice and charity, the dread of God’s judgments, alms, and compassion on the miserable, contempt of worldly goods, piety towards God, the love of our enemies, and confession of sins. If Job had such pure and exalted notions, and behaved with so much prudence and piety in his time; much more must it be the duty of Christians to think and act as he did. Ostervald.

Here ends the controversy between Job and his friends. The grand question in debate between them was, Whether Job was a sinner and a hypocrite, or not.