{"commentary":{"id":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","website":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jamieson-Fausset-Brown_Bible_Commentary","licenseUrl":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/","licenseNotes":null,"licenseNotice":null,"englishName":"Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary","language":"eng","textDirection":"rtl","sha256":"db3d4c8b3c1f32ef9d1430a57392e02bda3a17aac1f9bbe398461de021a3cb13","availableFormats":["json"],"listOfBooksApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/books.json","listOfProfilesApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/profiles.json","numberOfBooks":66,"totalNumberOfChapters":1187,"totalNumberOfVerses":17056,"totalNumberOfProfiles":0,"languageName":"English","languageEnglishName":"English"},"book":{"id":"JOB","commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","name":"Job","commonName":"Job","introduction":"JOB A REAL PERSON.--It has been supposed by some that the book of Job is an allegory, not a real narrative, on account of the artificial character of many of its statements. Thus the sacred numbers, three and seven, often occur. He had seven thousand sheep, seven sons, both before and after his trials; his three friends sit down with him seven days and seven nights; both before and after his trials he had three daughters. So also the number and form of the speeches of the several speakers seem to be artificial. The name of Job, too, is derived from an Arabic word signifying repentance.\n\nBut Eze 14:14 (compare Eze 14:16, Eze 14:20) speaks of \"Job\" in conjunction with \"Noah and Daniel,\" real persons. St. James (Jam 5:11) also refers to Job as an example of \"patience,\" which he would not have been likely to do had Job been only a fictitious person. Also the names of persons and places are specified with a particularity not to be looked for in an allegory. As to the exact doubling of his possessions after his restoration, no doubt the round number is given for the exact number, as the latter approached near the former; this is often done in undoubtedly historical books. As to the studied number and form of the speeches, it seems likely that the arguments were substantially those which appear in the book, but that the studied and poetic form was given by Job himself, guided by the Holy Spirit. He lived one hundred and forty years after his trials, and nothing would be more natural than that he should, at his leisure, mould into a perfect form the arguments used in the momentous debate, for the instruction of the Church in all ages. Probably, too, the debate itself occupied several sittings; and the number of speeches assigned to each was arranged by preconcerted agreement, and each was allowed the interval of a day or more to prepare carefully his speech and replies; this will account for the speakers bringing forward their arguments in regular series, no one speaking out of his turn. As to the name Job--repentance (supposing the derivation correct)--it was common in old times to give a name from circumstances which occurred at an advanced period of life, and this is no argument against the reality of the person.\n\nWHERE JOB LIVED.--\"Uz,\" according to GESENIUS, means a light, sandy soil, and was in the north of Arabia-Deserta, between Palestine and the Euphrates, called by PTOLEMY (Geography, 19) Ausitai or Aisitai. In Gen 10:23; Gen 22:21; Gen 36:28; and Ch1 1:17, Ch1 1:42, it is the name of a man. In Jer 25:20; Lam 4:21; and Job 1:1, it is a country. Uz, in Gen 22:21, is said to be the son of Nahor, brother of Abraham--a different person from the one mentioned (Gen 10:23), a grandson of Shem. The probability is that the country took its name from the latter of the two; for this one was the son of Aram, from whom the Arameans take their name, and these dwelt in Mesopotamia, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. Compare as to the dwelling of the sons of Shem in Gen 10:30, \"a mount of the East,\" answering to \"men of the East\" (Job 1:3). RAWLINSON, in his deciphering of the Assyrian inscriptions, states that \"Uz is the prevailing name of the country at the mouth of the Euphrates.\" It is probable that Eliphaz the Temanite and the Sabeans dwelt in that quarter; and we know that the Chaldeans resided there, and not near Idumea, which some identify with Uz. The tornado from \"the wilderness\" (Job 1:19) agrees with the view of it being Arabia-Deserta. Job (Job 1:3) is called \"the greatest of the men of the East\"; but Idumea was not east, but south of Palestine: therefore in Scripture language, the phrase cannot apply to that country, but probably refers to the north of Arabia-Deserta, between Palestine, Idumea, and the Euphrates. So the Arabs still show in the Houran a place called Uz as the residence of Job.\n\nTHE AGE WHEN JOB LIVED.--EUSEBIUS fixes it two ages before Moses, that is, about the time of Isaac: eighteen hundred years before Christ, and six hundred after the Deluge. Agreeing with this are the following considerations: 1. Job's length of life is patriarchal, two hundred years. 2. He alludes only to the earliest form of idolatry, namely, the worship of the sun, moon, and heavenly hosts (called Saba, whence arises the title \"Lord of Sabaoth,\" as opposed to Sabeanism) (Job 31:26-28). 3. The number of oxen and rams sacrificed, seven, as in the case of Balaam. God would not have sanctioned this after the giving of the Mosaic law, though He might graciously accommodate Himself to existing customs before the law. 4. The language of Job is Hebrew, interspersed occasionally with Syriac and Arabic expressions, implying a time when all the Shemitic tribes spoke one common tongue and had not branched into different dialects, Hebrew, Syriac, and Arabic. 5. He speaks of the most ancient kind of writing, namely, sculpture. Riches also are reckoned by cattle. The Hebrew word, translated \"a piece of money,\" ought rather be rendered \"a lamb.\" 6. There is no allusion to the exodus from Egypt and to the miracles that accompanied it; nor to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (PATRICK, however, thinks there is); though there is to the Flood (Job 22:17); and these events, happening in Job's vicinity, would have been striking illustrations of the argument for God's interposition in destroying the wicked and vindicating the righteous, had Job and his friends known of them. Nor is there any undoubted reference to the Jewish law, ritual, and priesthood. 7. The religion of Job is that which prevailed among the patriarchs previous to the law; sacrifices performed by the head of the family; no officiating priesthood, temple, or consecrated altar.\n\nTHE WRITER.--All the foregoing facts accord with Job himself having been the author. The style of thought, imagery, and manners, are such as we should look for in the work of an Arabian emir. There is precisely that degree of knowledge of primitive tradition (see Job 31:33, as to Adam) which was universally spread abroad in the days of Noah and Abraham, and which was subsequently embodied in the early chapters of Genesis. Job, in his speeches, shows that he was much more competent to compose the work than Elihu, to whom LIGHTFOOT attributes it. The style forbids its being attributed to Moses, to whom its composition is by some attributed, \"whilst he was among the Midianites, about 1520 B.C.\" But the fact, that it, though not a Jewish book, appears among the Hebrew sacred writings, makes it likely that it came to the knowledge of Moses during the forty years which he passed in parts of Arabia, chiefly near Horeb; and that he, by divine guidance, introduced it as a sacred writing to the Israelites, to whom, in their affliction, the patience and restoration of Job were calculated to be a lesson of especial utility. That it is inspired appears from the fact that Paul (Co1 3:19) quotes it (Job 5:13) with the formula, \"It is written.\" Our Savior, too Mat 24:28), plainly refers to Job 29:30. Compare also Jam 4:10 and Pe1 5:6 with Job 22:29; Rom 11:34-35 with Job 15:8. It is probably the oldest book in the world. It stands among the Hagiographa in the threefold division of Scripture into the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa (\"Psalms,\" Luk 24:44).\n\nDESIGN OF THE BOOK.--It is a public debate in poetic form on an important question concerning the divine government; moreover the prologue and epilogue, which are in prose, shed the interest of a living history over the debate, which would otherwise be but a contest of abstract reasonings. To each speaker of the three friends three speeches are assigned. Job having no one to stand by him is allowed to reply to each speech of each of the three. Eliphaz, as the oldest, leads the way. Zophar, at his third turn, failed to speak, thus virtually owning himself overcome (Job 27:1-23). Therefore Job continued his reply, which forms three speeches (Job 26:1-14; Job 27:1-23; Job 28:1-28; Job 29:1-31:40). Elihu (Job 32:1-37:24) is allowed four speeches. Jehovah makes three addresses (Job 38:1-41:34). Thus, throughout there is a tripartite division. The whole is divided into three parts--the prologue, poem proper, and epilogue. The poem, into three--(1) The dispute of Job and his three friends; (2) The address of Elihu; (3) The address of God. There are three series in the controversy, and in the same order. The epilogue (Job 42:1-17) also is threefold; Job's justification, reconciliation with his friends, restoration. The speakers also in their successive speeches regularly advance from less to greater vehemence. With all this artificial composition, everything seems easy and natural.\n\nThe question to be solved, as exemplified in the case of Job, is, Why are the righteous afflicted consistently with God's justice? The doctrine of retribution after death, no doubt, is the great solution of the difficulty. And to it Job plainly refers in Job 14:14, and Job 19:25. The objection to this, that the explicitness of the language on the resurrection in Job is inconsistent with the obscurity on the subject in the early books of the Old Testament, is answered by the fact that Job enjoyed the divine vision (Job 38:1; Job 42:5), and therefore, by inspiration, foretold these truths. Next, the revelations made outside of Israel being few needed to be the more explicit; thus Balaam's prophecy (Num 24:17) was clear enough to lead the wise men of the East by the star (Mat 2:2); and in the age before the written law, it was the more needful for God not to leave Himself without witness of the truth. Still Job evidently did not fully realize the significance designed by the Spirit in his own words (compare Pe1 1:11-12). The doctrine, though existing, was not plainly revealed or at least understood. Hence he does not mainly refer to this solution. Yes, and even now, we need something in addition to this solution. David, who firmly believed in a future retribution (Psa 16:10; Psa 17:15), still felt the difficulty not entirely solved thereby (Psa. 83:1-18). The solution is not in Job's or in his three friends' speeches. It must, therefore, be in Elihu's. God will hold a final judgment, no doubt, to clear up all that seems dark in His present dealings; but He also now providentially and morally governs the world and all the events of human life. Even the comparatively righteous are not without sin which needs to be corrected. The justice and love of God administer the altogether deserved and merciful correction. Affliction to the godly is thus mercy and justice in disguise. The afflicted believer on repentance sees this. \"Via crucis, via salutis\" [\"The way of the cross, the way of deliverance\"]. Though afflicted, the godly are happier even now than the ungodly, and when affliction has attained its end, it is removed by the Lord. In the Old Testament the consolations are more temporal and outward; in the New Testament, more spiritual; but in neither to the entire exclusion of the other. \"Prosperity,\" says BACON, \"is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity that of the New Testament, which is the mark of God's more especial favor. Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost has labored more in describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; and adversity is not without comforts and hopes.\" This solution of Elihu is seconded by the addresses of God, in which it is shown God must be just (because He is God), as Elihu had shown how God can be just, and yet the righteous be afflicted. It is also acquiesced in by Job, who makes no reply. God reprimands the \"three\" friends, but not Elihu. Job's general course is approved; he is directed to intercede for his friends, and is restored to double his former prosperity.\n\nPOETRY.--In all countries poetry is the earliest form of composition as being best retained in the memory. In the East especially it was customary for sentiments to be preserved in a terse, proverbial, and poetic form (called maschal). Hebrew poetry is not constituted by the rhythm or meter, but in a form peculiar to itself: 1. In an alphabetical arrangement somewhat like our acrostic. For instance, Lam. 1:1-22. 2. The same verse repeated at intervals; as in Psa 42:1-11; Psa. 107:1-43. 3. Rhythm of gradation. Psalms of degrees, Psa. 120:1-134:3, in which the expression of the previous verse is resumed and carried forward in the next (Psa 121:1-8). 4. The chief characteristic of Hebrew poetry is parallelism, or the correspondence of the same ideas in the parallel clauses. The earliest instance is Enoch's prophecy (Jde 1:14), and Lamech's parody of it (Gen 4:23). Three kinds occur: (1) The synonymous parallelism, in which the second is a repetition of the first, with or without increase of force (Psa 22:27; Isa 15:1); sometimes with double parallelism (Isa 1:15). (2) The antithetic, in which the idea of the second clause is the converse of that in the first (Pro 10:1). (3) The synthetic, where there is a correspondence between different propositions, noun answering to noun, verb to verb, member to member, the sentiment, moreover, being not merely echoed, or put in contrast, but enforced by accessory ideas (Job 3:3-9). Also alternate (Isa 51:19). \"Desolation and destruction, famine and sword,\" that is, desolation by famine, and destruction by the sword. Introverted; where the fourth answers to the first, and the third to the second (Mat 7:6). Parallelism thus often affords a key to the interpretation. For fuller information, see LOWTH (Introduction to Isaiah, and Lecture on Hebrew Poetry) and HERDER (Spirit of Hebrew Poetry, translated by Marsh). The simpler and less artificial forms of parallelism prevail in Job--a mark of its early age. \n\n\n\nNext: Job Chapter 1\n\n","order":18,"numberOfChapters":42,"sha256":"e28c73d19b068ae7148f623bfa79b3c43dd6e60e7a803672cdd5f8a7d5080b3a","firstChapterNumber":1,"firstChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/1.json","firstChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":1},"lastChapterNumber":42,"lastChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/42.json","lastChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":42},"totalNumberOfVerses":954},"chapter":{"number":31,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["Had I let my senses tempt me to sin, \"what portion (would there have been to me, that is, must I have expected) from (literally, of) God above, and what inheritance from (literally, of) the Almighty,\" &c. [MAURER] (Job 20:29; Job 27:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["Answer to the question in Job 31:2. \n\nstrange--extraordinary.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["Doth not he see? &c.--Knowing this, I could only have expected \"destruction\" (Job 31:3), had I committed this sin (Pro 5:21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["Job's abstinence from evil deeds. \n\nvanity--that is, falsehood (Psa 12:2).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Parenthetical. Translate: \"Oh, that God would weigh me . . . then would He know,\" &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["Connected with Job 31:6. \n\nthe way--of God (Job 23:11; Jer 5:5). A godly life. \n\nheart . . . after . . . eyes--if my heart coveted, what my eyes beheld (Ecc 11:9; Jos 7:21). \n\nhands-- (Psa 24:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Apodosis to Job 31:5, Job 31:7; the curses which he imprecates on himself, if he had done these things (Lev 26:16; Amo 9:14; Psa 128:2). \n\noffspring--rather, \"what I plant,\" my harvests.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["Job asserts his innocence of adultery. \n\ndeceived--hath let itself be seduced (Pro 7:8; Gen 39:7-12). \n\nlaid wait--until the husband went out.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["grind--turn the handmill. Be the most abject slave and concubine (Isa 47:2; Sa2 12:11).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["In the earliest times punished with death (Gen 38:24). So in later times (Deu 22:22). Heretofore he had spoken only of sins against conscience; now, one against the community, needing the cognizance of the judge.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["(Pro 6:27-35; Pro 8:6-23, Pro 8:26-27). No crime more provokes God to send destruction as a consuming fire; none so desolates the soul.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["Job affirms his freedom from unfairness towards his servants, from harshness and oppression towards the needy. \n\ndespise the cause--refused to do them justice.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["Parenthetical; the reason why Job did not despise the cause of his servants. Translate: What then (had I done so) could I have done, when God arose (to call me to account); and when He visited (came to enquire), what could I have answered Him?\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":15,"content":["Slaveholders try to defend themselves by maintaining the original inferiority of the slave. But Mal 2:10; Act 17:26; Eph 6:9 make the common origin of masters and servants the argument for brotherly love being shown by the former to the latter.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["fail--in the vain expectation of relief (Job 11:20).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["Arabian rules of hospitality require the stranger to be helped first, and to the best.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Parenthetical: asserting that he did the contrary to the things in Job 31:16-17. \n\nhe--the orphan. \n\nguided her--namely, the widow, by advice and protection. On this and \"a father,\" see Job 29:16.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["perish--that is, ready to perish (Job 29:13).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["loins--The parts of the body benefited by Job are poetically described as thanking him; the loins before naked, when clad by me, wished me every blessing.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["when--that is, \"because.\" \n\nI saw--that I might calculate on the \"help\" of a powerful party in the court of justice--(\"gate\"), if I should be summoned by the injured fatherless.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["Apodosis to Job 31:13, Job 31:16-17, Job 31:19-21. If I had done those crimes, I should have made a bad use of my influence (\"my arm,\" figuratively, Job 31:21): therefore, if I have done them let my arm (literally) suffer. Job alludes to Eliphaz' charge (Job 22:9). The first \"arm\" is rather the shoulder. The second \"arm\" is the forearm. \n\nfrom the bone--literally, \"a reed\"; hence the upper arm, above the elbow.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["For--that is, the reason why Job guarded against such sins. Fear of God, though he could escape man's judgment (Gen 39:9). UMBREIT more spiritedly translates, Yea, destruction and terror from God might have befallen me (had I done so): mere fear not being the motive. \n\nhighness--majestic might. \n\nendure--I could have availed nothing against it.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["Job asserts his freedom from trust in money (Ti1 6:17). Here he turns to his duty towards God, as before he had spoken of his duty towards himself and his neighbor. Covetousness is covert idolatry, as it transfers the heart from the Creator to the creature (Col 3:5). In Job 31:26-27 he passes to overt idolatry.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["If I looked unto the sun (as an object of worship) because he shined; or to the moon because she walked, &c. Sabaism (from tsaba, \"the heavenly hosts\") was the earliest form of false worship. God is hence called in contradistinction, \"Lord of Sabaoth.\" The sun, moon, and stars, the brightest objects in nature, and seen everywhere, were supposed to be visible representatives of the invisible God. They had no temples, but were worshipped on high places and roofs of houses (Eze 8:16; Deu 4:19; Kg2 23:5, Kg2 23:11). The Hebrew here for \"sun\" is light. Probably light was worshipped as the emanation from God, before its embodiments, the sun, &c. This worship prevailed in Chaldea; wherefore Job's exemption from the idolatry of his neighbors was the more exemplary. Our \"Sun-day,\" \"Mon-day,\" or Moon-day, bear traces of Sabaism.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["enticed--away from God to idolatry. \n\nkissed . . . hand--\"adoration,\" literally means this. In worshipping they used to kiss the hand, and then throw the kiss, as it were, towards the object of worship (Kg1 19:18; Hos 13:2).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":28,"content":["The Mosaic law embodied subsequently the feeling of the godly from the earliest times against idolatry, as deserving judicial penalties: being treason against the Supreme King (Deu 13:9; Deu 17:2-7; Eze 8:14-18). This passage therefore does not prove Job to have been subsequent to Moses.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["lifted up myself--in malicious triumph (Pro 17:5; Pro 24:17; Psa 7:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["mouth--literally, \"palate.\" (See on Job 6:30). \n\nwishing--literally, \"so as to demand his (my enemy's) soul,\" that is, \"life by a curse.\" This verse parenthetically confirms Job 31:30. Job in the patriarchal age of the promise, anterior to the law, realizes the Gospel spirit, which was the end of the law (compare Lev 19:18; Deu 23:6, with Mat 5:43-44).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["That is, Job's household said, Oh, that we had Job's enemy to devour, we cannot rest satisfied till we have! But Job refrained from even wishing revenge (Sa1 26:8; Sa2 16:9-10). So Jesus Christ (Luk 9:54-55). But, better (see Job 31:32), translated, \"Who can show (literally, give) the man who was not satisfied with the flesh (meat) provided by Job?\" He never let a poor man leave his gate without giving him enough to eat.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["traveller--literally, \"way,\" that is, wayfarers; so expressed to include all of every kind (Sa2 12:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["Adam--translated by UMBREIT, \"as men do\" (Hos 6:7, where see Margin). But English Version is more natural. The very same word for \"hiding\" is used in Gen 3:8, Gen 3:10, of Adam hiding himself from God. Job elsewhere alludes to the flood. So he might easily know of the fall, through the two links which connect Adam and Abraham (about Job's time), namely, Methuselah and Shem. Adam is representative of fallen man's propensity to concealment (Pro 28:13). It was from God that Job did not \"hide his iniquity in his bosom,\" as on the contrary it was from God that \"Adam\" hid in his lurking-place. This disproves the translation, \"as men\"; for it is from their fellow men that \"men\" are chiefly anxious to hide their real character as guilty. MAGEE, to make the comparison with Adam more exact, for my \"bosom\" translates, \"lurking-place.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["Rather, the apodosis to Job 31:33, \"Then let me be fear-stricken before a great multitude, let the contempt, &c., let me keep silence (the greatest disgrace to a patriot, heretofore so prominent in assemblies), and not go out,\" &c. A just retribution that he who hides his sin from God, should have it exposed before man (Sa2 12:12). But Job had not been so exposed, but on the contrary was esteemed in the assemblies of the \"tribes\"--(\"families\"); a proof, he implies, that God does not hold him guilty of hiding sin (Job 24:16, contrast with Job 29:21-25).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":35,"content":["Job returns to his wish (Job 13:22; Job 19:23). Omit \"is\"; \"Behold my sign,\" that is, my mark of subscription to the statements just given in my defense: the mark of signature was originally a cross; and hence the letter Tau or T. Translate, also \"Oh, that the Almighty,\" &c. He marks \"God\" as the \"One\" meant in the first clause. \n\nadversary--that is, he who contends with me, refers also to God. The vagueness is designed to express \"whoever it be that judicially opposes me\"--the Almighty if it be He. \n\nhad written a book--rather, \"would write down his charge.\"\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":36,"content":["So far from hiding the adversary's \"answer\" or \"charge\" through fear, \n\nI would take it on my shoulders--as a public honor (Isa 9:6). \n\na crown--not a mark of shame, but of distinction (Isa 62:3).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":37,"content":["A good conscience imparts a princely dignity before man and free assurance in approaching God. This can be realized, not in Job's way (Job 42:5-6); but only through Jesus Christ (Heb 10:22).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":38,"content":["Personification. The complaints of the unjustly ousted proprietors are transferred to the lands themselves (Job 31:20; Gen 4:10; Hab 2:11). If I have unjustly acquired lands (Job 24:2; Isa 5:8). \n\nfurrows--The specification of these makes it likely, he implies in this, \"If I paid not the laborer for tillage\"; as Job 31:39, \"If I paid him not for gathering in the fruits.\" Thus of the four clauses in Job 31:38-39, the first refers to the same subject as the fourth, the second is connected with the third by introverted parallelism. Compare Jam 5:4, which plainly alludes to this passage: compare \"Lord of Sabaoth\" with Job 31:26 here.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":39,"content":["lose . . . life--not literally, but \"harassed to death\"; until he gave me up his land gratis [MAURER]; as in Jdg 16:16; \"suffered him to languish\" by taking away his means of living [UMBREIT] (Kg1 21:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":40,"content":["thistles--or brambles, thorns. \n\ncockle--literally, \"noxious weeds.\" \n\nThe words . . . ended--that is, in the controversy with the friends. He spoke in the book afterwards, but not to them. At Job 31:37 would be the regular conclusion in strict art. But Job 31:38-40 are naturally added by one whose mind in agitation recurs to its sense of innocence, even after it has come to the usual stopping point; 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.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Job Chapter 32\n\n"]}],"introduction":"(Job 31:1-40)\n\nJob proceeds to prove that he deserved a better lot. As in the twenty-ninth chapter, he showed his uprightness as an emir, or magistrate in public life, so in this chapter he vindicates his character in private life.\nHe asserts his guarding against being allured to sin by his senses. \n\nthink--rather, \"cast a (lustful) look.\" He not merely did not so, but put it out of the question by covenanting with his eyes against leading him into temptation (Pro 6:25; Mat 5:28).\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/31.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":31},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/32.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":32},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/30.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":30},"numberOfVerses":38}