{"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":34,"content":[{"type":"verse","number":2,"content":["This chapter is addressed also to the \"friends\" as the thirty-third chapter to Job alone.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":3,"content":["palate--(See on Job 12:11; Job 33:2).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":4,"content":["judgment--Let us select among the conflicting sentiments advanced, what will stand the test of examination.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":5,"content":["judgment--my right. Job's own words (Job 13:18; Job 27:2).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":6,"content":["Were I to renounce my right (that is, confess myself guilty), I should die. Job virtually had said so (Job 27:4-5; Job 6:28). MAURER, not so well, \"Notwithstanding my right (innocence) I am treated as a liar,\" by God, by His afflicting me. \n\nmy wound--literally, \"mine arrow,\" namely, by which I am pierced. So \"my stroke\" (\"hand,\" Job 23:2, Margin). My sickness (Job 6:4; Job 16:13). \n\nwithout transgression--without fault of mine to deserve it (Job 16:17).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":7,"content":["(Job 15:16). Image from the camel. \n\nscorning--against God (Job 15:4).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":8,"content":["Job virtually goes in company (makes common cause) with the wicked, by taking up their sentiments (Job 9:22-23, Job 9:30; Job 21:7-15), or at least by saying, that those who act on such sentiments are unpunished (Mal 3:14). To deny God's righteous government because we do not see the reasons of His acts, is virtually to take part with the ungodly.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":9,"content":["with God--in intimacy (Psa 50:18, Margin).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":10,"content":["The true answer to Job, which God follows up (Job 38:1-41). Man is to believe God's ways are right, because they are His, not because we fully see they are so (Rom 9:14; Deu 32:4; Gen 18:25).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":11,"content":["Partly here; fully, hereafter (Jer 32:19; Rom 2:6; Pe1 1:17; Rev 22:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":12,"content":["(Job 8:3). In opposition to Job, Job 34:5, will not--cannot.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":13,"content":["If the world were not God's property, as having been made by Him, but committed to His charge by some superior, it might be possible for Him to act unjustly, as He would not thereby be injuring Himself; but as it is, for God to act unjustly would undermine the whole order of the world, and so would injure God's own property (Job 36:23). \n\ndisposed--hath founded (Isa 44:7), established the circle of the globe.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":14,"content":["\"If He were to set His heart on man,\" either to injure him, or to take strict account of his sins. The connection supports rather [UMBREIT], \"If He had regard to himself (only), and were to gather unto Himself (Psa 104:29) man's spirit, &c. (which he sends forth, Psa 104:30; Ecc 12:7), all flesh must perish together,\" &c. (Gen 3:19). God's loving preservation of His creatures proves He cannot be selfish, and therefore cannot be unjust.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":16,"content":["In Job 34:2, Elihu had spoken to all in general, now he calls Job's special attention.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":17,"content":["\"Can even He who (in thy view) hateth right (justice) govern?\" The government of the world would be impossible if injustice were sanctioned. God must be just, because He governs (Sa2 23:3). \n\ngovern--literally, \"bind,\" namely, by authority (so \"reign,\" Sa1 9:17, Margin). UMBREIT translates for \"govern, repress wrath, namely, against Job for his accusations. \n\nmost just--rather, \"Him who is at once mighty and just\" (in His government of the world).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":18,"content":["Literally, (Is it fit) to be said to a king? It would be a gross outrage to reproach thus an earthly monarch, much more the King of kings (Exo 22:28). But MAURER with the Septuagint and Vulgate reads, (It is not fit to accuse of injustice Him) who says to a king, Thou art wicked; to princes, Ye are ungodly; that is, who punishes impartially the great, as the small. This accords with Job 34:19.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":19,"content":["(Act 10:34; Ch2 19:7; Pro 22:2; Job 31:15).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":20,"content":["they--\"the rich\" and \"princes\" who offend God. \n\nthe people--namely, of the guilty princes: guilty also themselves. \n\nat midnight--image from a night attack of an enemy on a camp, which becomes an easy prey (Exo 12:29-30). \n\nwithout hand--without visible agency, by the mere word of God (so Job 20:26; Zac 4:6; Dan 2:34).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":21,"content":["God's omniscience and omnipotence enable Him to execute immediate justice. He needs not to be long on the \"watch,\" as Job thought (Job 7:12; Ch2 16:9; Jer 32:19).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":22,"content":["shadow of death--thick darkness (Amo 9:2-3; Psa 139:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":23,"content":["(Co1 10:13; Lam 3:32; Isa 27:8). Better, as UMBREIT, \"He does not (needs not to) regard (as in Job 34:14; Isa 41:20) man long (so Hebrew, Gen 46:29) in order that he may go (be brought by God) into judgment.\" Literally, \"lest his (attention) upon men\" (Job 11:10-11). So Job 34:24, \"without number\" ought to be translated, \"without [needing any] searching out,\" such as has to be made in human judgments.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":24,"content":["break in pieces-- (Psa 2:9; Job 12:18; Dan 2:21).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":25,"content":["Therefore--because He knows all things (Job 34:21). He knows their works, without a formal investigation (Job 34:24). \n\nin the night--suddenly, unexpectedly (Job 34:20). Fitly in the night, as it was in it that the godless hid themselves (Job 34:22). UMBREIT, less simply, for \"overturneth,\" translates, \"walketh\"; that is, God is ever on the alert, discovering all wickedness.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":26,"content":["He striketh them--chasteneth. \n\nas--that is, because they are wicked. \n\nsight of others--Sinners hid themselves in darkness; therefore they are punished before all, in open day. Image from the place of public execution (Job 40:12; Exo 14:30; Sa2 12:12).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":27,"content":["The grounds of their punishment in Job 34:26. Job 34:28 states in what respect they \"considered not God's ways,\" namely, by oppression, whereby \"they caused the cry,\" &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":29,"content":["(Pro 16:7; Isa 26:3). \n\nmake trouble--rather, \"condemn\" (Rom 8:33-34). MAURER, from the reference being only to the godless, in the next clause, and Job 34:20 translates, \"When God keeps quiet\" (leaves men to perish) Psa 83:1; [UMBREIT] from the Arabic (strikes to the earth), \"who shall condemn Him as unjust?\" Job 34:17. \n\nhideth . . . face-- (Job 23:8-9; Psa 13:1). \n\nit be done--Whether it be against a guilty nation (Kg2 18:9-12) or an individual, that God acts so.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":30,"content":["Ensnared--into sin (Kg1 12:28, Kg1 12:30). Or rather, \"enthralled by further oppression,\" Job 34:26-28.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":31,"content":["Job accordingly says so (Job 40:3-5; Mic 7:9; Lev 26:41). It was to lead him to this that Elihu was sent. Though no hypocrite, Job, like all, had sin; therefore through affliction he was to be brought to humble himself under God. All sorrow is a proof of the common heritage of sin, in which the godly shares; and therefore he ought to regard it as a merciful correction. UMBREIT and MAURER lose this by translating, as the Hebrew will bear, \"Has any a right to say to God, I have borne chastisement and yet have not sinned?\" (so Job 34:6). \n\nborne--namely, the penalty of sin, as in Lev 5:1, Lev 5:17. \n\noffend--literally, \"to deal destructively or corruptly\" (Neh 1:7).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":32,"content":["(Job 10:2; Psa 32:8; Psa 19:12; Psa 139:23-24). \n\nno more-- (Pro 28:13; Eph 4:22).\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":33,"content":["Rather, \"should God recompense (sinners) according to thy mind? Then it is for thee to reject and to choose, and not me\" [UMBREIT]; or as MAURER, \"For thou hast rejected God's way of recompensing; state therefore thy way, for thou must choose, not I,\" that is, it is thy part, not mine, to show a better way than God's.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":34,"content":["Rather, \"men . . . will say to me, and the wise man (Job 34:2, Job 34:10) who hearkens to me (will say), 'Job hath spoken,'\" &c.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":36,"content":["Margin, not so well, \"My father,\" Elihu addressing God. This title does not elsewhere occur in Job. \n\ntried--by calamities. \n\nanswers for wicked men--(See on Job 34:8). Trials of the godly are not removed until they produce the effect designed.\n\n"]},{"type":"verse","number":37,"content":["clappeth . . . hands--in scorn (Job 27:23; Eze 21:17). \n\nmultiplieth . . . words-- (Job 11:2; Job 35:16). To his original \"sin\" to correct which trials have been sent, \"he adds rebellion,\" that is, words arraigning God's justice.\n\n\n\n\nNext: Job Chapter 35\n\n"]}],"introduction":"(Job 34:1-37)\n\nanswered--proceeded.\n\n"},"thisChapterLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/34.json","thisChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":34},"nextChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/35.json","nextChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":35},"previousChapterApiLink":"/api/c/jamieson-fausset-brown/JOB/33.json","previousChapterReference":{"commentaryId":"jamieson-fausset-brown","book":"JOB","chapter":33},"numberOfVerses":33}