Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.
Thistles - or brambles; thorns.
Cockle - literally, noxious weeds, perhaps wolfsbane, which is common in Arabia.
The words ... ended - i:e., in the controversy with the friends. He spoke in the book afterward, but not to them. At Job 31:37 would be the regular conclusion in strict art. But Job 31:38-40 are natural to be added by one whose mind in agitation recurs to its sense of innocence, even after it has come to the point usual to stop at; this takes away the appearance of rhetorical artifice. Hence, the transposition by Eichorn of Job 31:38-40 to follow Job 31:25 is quite unwarranted.
Remarks: (1) The eye (Job 31:1) is one of the greatest avenues by which lust enters into the soul. Then, when lust bath conceived, it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death (James 1:15). In the case of sexual passion the only safety is in fleeing from whatever would lead to temptation. The moth that hovers long about the candle is sure at last to burn himself. Joseph, when tempted by a licentious woman, avoided being "with her" at all, and when she caught him by the garment, "fled" from her (Genesis 39:12). Job "made a covenant with his eyes" to avoid occasion of temptation. Had David done so (2 Samuel 11:2), he would have escaped falling into the great sin of his life, and blot on his otherwise godly character: but beauty attracted his eye in a season of idleness and ease, and, suffering his mind to dwell on the first thought of passion, fanned his lust into a flame, and from lust he sunk into murder, and has 'given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme' (2 Samuel 12:14). The impure look is regarded before God as equivalent to the impure act (Matthew 5:28). Therefore let us oppose the first beginnings of sin, as we have to do with the God who searcheth the heart.
(2) Whatever professions of religion we make, if our practice be sinful, our final sentence shall be, "I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work in iniquity" (Job 31:2; Job 31:4; Job 31:14; Job 31:28; Matthew 7:23). God will "weigh, as in an even balance," at the judgment, and will vindicate His people's "integrity" (Job 31:6), flowing from faith, on the one hand, and, on the other, will take accurate note of those whose "step hath turned out of the way, and whose heart has walked after their eyes, and to whose hands any blot hath cleaved" (Job 31:7). Especially will He take cognizance of sins committed against the purity of the marriage bed. Even in this life such sins often bring on the perpetrator retribution in kind (Job 31:9-10): thus David's secret adultery with Bathsheba was punished by the incestuous act of his own son Absalom, who lay with his father's wives in the sight of all Israel (2 Samuel 12:11-12; 2 Samuel 16:22).
(3) The true child of God will jealously watch over himself, lest the natural pride and selfishness of the heart should betray him into the least unfairness in his dealings with his servants and labourers (Job 31:13; Job 31:38-39), knowing that he and they have one and the same Master in heaven, who is no respecter of persons-one and the same God, who rode them as well as him. Substantial pity for the poor, the widow, and the fatherless (Job 31:16-21), is another characteristic of the sincere follower of God, who is "a Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widow" (Psalms 68:5). How sweet the pleasure of imitating God, who delights to share His own happiness with others; and, instead of eating one's morsel alone (Job 31:17),
`To press the bashful stranger to his food, And learn the luxury of doing good' (verses 31,32)
(4) Covetousness and idolatry are different manifestations of one and the same principle-namely, love and service to the creature instead of the Creator. How apt the heart is to make gold its "confidence" (Job 31:24), instead of "trust in the living God!" (1 Timothy 6:17.) Here then especially we ought to set a watch over ourselves against "the love of money," which is "a (Greek) root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10.)
(5) Triumph in the calamity of an enemy is peculiarly offensive to God, who "resisteth the proud" (Job 31:29). A meek and forgiving spirit toward others best becomes us, who owe such a debt of forgiveness to God, when we were enemies.
(6) It is the natural tendency of us all to follow our first parent, Adam, in the vain attempt to hide ourselves and our transgressions from God (Job 31:33). Our truest wisdom is, instead of vainly trying to "cover" them ourselves, to go to God to "cover" them for us with the atonement provided in Christ, that so we may know experimentally the blessedness of the man whose iniquity is forgiven and whose sin is covered (Psalms 32:1).