Job 31:1-40 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Reader Related Verse
Bible Comments

Job 31. The Oath of Clearing. Job's final protestation of his innocence, and appeal to God to judge him. This chapter, says Duhm, is the high-water mark of the OT ethic, higher than the Decalogue or even than the prophets, since they deal with social not private morality. Duhm notes especially the humanity towards the slave based on the fact of a common creation, also that we are not to hate our enemies. (Job does not go so far as to say, Love your enemies; that is Christ's.)

Job 31:1-4. Job clears himself of secret sensual desires. He remembered that the all-seeing God punishes the evildoer. Job speaks from the standpoint he had occupied before his trials made him doubt the Divine justice.

Job 31:5-8. He clears himself of falsehood and covetousness.

Job 31:9-12 of adultery. If he has been guilty of this let his wife become another's slave and concubine (Job 31:10). The slave-woman at the mill was the lowest female slave (Exodus 11:5).

Job 31:13-23. Job clears himself of the abuse of power, or the selfish indifference of wealth.

Job 31:21 means that Job knew that with his great influence he could always win his cause in the courts.

Job 31:24-34. Job clears himself of trust in his wealth, of idolatrous tendencies, of hating his enemy, of inhospitableness, of other secret sin.

Job 31:27 b is literally, and my hand hath kissed my mouth. This strange form is chosen because the hand is the main instrument in the act; first it touches the lips to receive the kiss, then wafts the kiss to the object of worship. The kiss of homage was given to images by the worshipper, and of course - thrown-' to such deities as the distant heavenly bodies (Peake). Of Job 31:29 Duhm says that if ch. 31 is the crown of the ethical development of the OT, then this verse is the jewel in the crown. In Job 31:33 probably instead of text like Adam we should translate as mg. after the manner of men.

Job 31:35-37. Oh that one would hear him! Let God give him his indictment, he would proudly confront Him and declare his innocence.

In Job 31:35 signature is the mark which Job in imagination appends to his declaration of innocence.

Job 31:35 c is incomplete, but the sense is rightly given by RV. The adversary is God. The language in this verse reflects a judicial procedure where the charge and the defence were laid before the court in writing.

Job 31:38-40. Job clears himself of having violently dispossessed others of their land (as Ahab did Naboth). The cry of the land (Job 31:38) is to be understood as the cry of the blood of the dispossessed owners. There is no doubt that these verses are out of place; where during the earlier part of the chapter we should insert them is not clear. Unfortunately, however, their presence where they are spoils the magnificent close of Job 31:37.

Related Commentaries of Job 31:1

Job 31:1-40

1 I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

2 For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

3 Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity?

4 Doth not he see my ways, and count all my steps?

5 If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit;

6 Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know mine integrity.

7 If my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes, and if any blot hath cleaved to mine hands;

8 Then let me sow, and let another eat; yea, let my offspring be rooted out.

9 If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door;

10 Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her.

11 For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.

12 For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.

13 If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;

14 What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

15 Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not onea fashion us in the womb?

16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

17 Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

18 (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)

19 If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

20 If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

21 If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:

22 Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.b

23 For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of his highness I could not endure.

24 If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence;

25 If I rejoiced because my wealth was great, and because mine hand had gottenc much;

26 If I beheld the sund when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness;

27 And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouthe hath kissed my hand:

28 This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God that is above.

29 If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

30 Neither have I suffered my mouthf to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.

31 If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.

32 The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller.g

33 If I covered my transgressions as Adam,h by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom:

34 Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door?

35 Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book.

36 Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me.

37 I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.

38 If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;i

39 If I have eaten the fruitsj thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

40 Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cocklek instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.