Job makes a solemn protestation of his integrity, and concludes with a prayer that his defence might be heard and recorded.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 31:1. Why then should I think upon a maid?— This has been generally understood to mean the great care and circumspection which Job had used to avoid all temptations and occasions of sin; and he subjoins in the following verses the high and reasonable motives which had urged him, and should urge every man, to such a circumspection: Job 31:2. For what is the portion which God distributeth from above, and the inheritance of the Almighty from the place of his exaltation? Is it not destruction to the wicked, and a rejection of the workers of iniquity? ver.4. Doth he not see my ways, and numbereth he not all my steps? Which passage is a further proof that his prospects were to another life; for this very thing, had he meant it of a temporal destruction, was what his antagonists had repeated over and over to him, and had urged it as an argument of his guilt, that he was thus miserably destroyed. When Job, therefore, says the same thing, namely, that a sure destruction attends the wicked, it is their portion, an inheritance from God; it is plain that he must understand it in another sense than his antagonists did; namely, of their final retribution in a future state. See Peters, and the note on Job 31:13; Job 31:24. Mr. Heath, however, is of opinion, that the word rendered a maid is improperly translated. The passage throughout, says he, has no relation to adultery or fornication, but to idolatry. This the following verses evidently demonstrate: בתולה bethulah, therefore is certainly an idol; and what that idol was we are informed by Eusebius, who, from Sanchoniathan's history, tells us, that Ouranos was the first introducer of Baitulia, when he erected animated stones. Bochart supposes that the original word, rendered animated stones, signifies rather anointed stones. The custom, indeed, of anointing pillars was very ancient. So Jacob set up a pillar and had anointed it, and the stone itself was called by him, אלהים בית beth elohim. These pillars were afterwards turned to idolatrous uses; and it is one of the commands to the children of Israel to break them in pieces on their entrance into the land of Canaan. Exodus 34:13. Photius says, that he saw many of them in Mount Libanus. At first, these idols were only rude stones or pillars; afterwards they were made in human and brutal forms. For more concerning these betulia, see Boch. Geogr. Sacr. lib. 2: cap. 2.