1 Then Job continued to take up his proverb, and said:
2 As God liveth, who hath deprived me of my right,
And the Almighty, who hath sorely saddened my soul -
3 For still all my breath is in me,
And the breath of Eloah in my nostrils -
4 My lips do not speak what is false,
And my tongue uttereth not deceit!
5 Far be it from me, to grant that you are in the right:
Till I die I will not remove my innocence from me.
6 My righteousness I hold fast, and let it not go:
My heart reproacheth not any of my days.
7 Mine enemy must appear as an evil-doer,
And he who riseth up against me as unrighteous.
The friends are silent, Job remains master of the discourse, and his continued speech is introduced as a continued שׂאת משׁלו (after the analogy of the phrase נשׂא קול ), as in Numbers 23:7 and further on, the oracles of Balaam. משׁל is speech of a more elevated tone and more figurative character; here, as frequently, the unaffected outgrowth of an elevated solemn mood. The introduction of the ultimatum, as משׁל , reminds one of “the proverb ( el - methel ) seals it” in the mouth of the Arab, since in common life it is customary to use a pithy saying as the final proof at the conclusion of a speech.
Job begins with an asseveration of his truthfulness (i.e., the agreement of his confession with his consciousness) by the life of God. From this oath, which in the form bi - hajât allâh has become later on a common formula of assurance, R. Joshua, in his tractate Sota , infers that Job served God from love to Him, for we only swear by the life of that which we honour and love; it is more natural to conclude that the God by whom on the one hand, he believes himself to be so unjustly treated, still appears to him, on the other hand, to be the highest manifestation of truth. The interjectional clause: living is God! is equivalent to, as true as God liveth. That which is affirmed is not what immediately follows: He has set aside my right, and the Almighty has sorely grieved my soul (Raschi); but הסיר משׁפטי and המר נפשׁי are attributive clauses, by which what is denied in the form of an oath introduced by אם (as Genesis 42:15; 1 Samuel 14:45; 2 Samuel 11:11, Ges. §155, 2, f ) is contained in Job 27:4; his special reference to the false semblance of an evil-doer shows that semblance which suffering casts upon him, but which he constantly repudiates as surely not lying, as that God liveth. Among moderns, Schlottm. (comp. Ges. §150, 3), like most of the old expositors, translates: so long as my breath is in me,...my lips shall speak no wrong, so that Job 27:3 and Job 27:4 together contain what is affirmed. By (1) כּי indeed sometimes introduces that which shall happen as affirmed by oath, Jeremiah 22:5; Jeremiah 49:13; but here that which shall not take place is affirmed, which would be introduced first in a general form by כּי explic. s. recitativum , then according to its special negative contents by אם , - a construction which is perhaps possible according to syntax, but it is nevertheless perplexing; (2) it may perhaps be thought that “the whole continuance of my breath in me” is conceived as accusative and adverbial, and is equivalent to, so long as my breath may remain in me ( כל עוד , as long as ever, like the Arab. cullama , as often as ever); but the usage of the language does not favour this explanation, for 2 Samuel 1:9, נפשׁי בי כל־עוד , signifies my whole soul (my full life) is still in me; and we have a third instance of this prominently placed כל per hypallagen in Hosea 14:3, עון כל־תשׂא , omnem auferas iniquitatem , Ew. §289, a (comp. Ges. §114, rem. 1). Accordingly, with Ew., Hirz., Hahn, and most modern expositors, we take Job 27:3 as a parenthetical confirmatory clause, by which Job gives the ground of his solemn affirmation that he is still in possession of his full consciousness, and cannot help feeling and expressing the contradiction between his lot of suffering, which brand shim as an evil-doer, and his moral integrity. The נשׁמתי which precedes the רוח signifies, according to the prevailing usage of the language, the intellectual, and therefore self-conscious, soul of man ( Psychol . S. 76f.). This is in man and in his nostrils, inasmuch as the breath which passes in and out by these is the outward and visible form of its being, which is in every respect the condition of life ( ib. S. 82f.). The suff. of נשׁמתי is unaccented; on account of the word which follows being a monosyllable, the tone has retreated ( נסוג אחור , to use a technical grammatical expression), as e.g., also in Job 19:25; Job 20:2; Psalms 22:20. Because he lives, and, living, cannot deny his own existence, he swears that his own testimony, which is suspected by the friends, and on account of which they charge him with falsehood, is perfect truth.
Job 27:4 is not to be translated: “my lips shall never speak what is false;” for it is not a resolve which Job thus strongly makes, after the manner of a vow, but the agreement of his confession, which he has now so frequently made, and which remains unalterable, with the abiding fact. Far be from me - he continues in Job 27:5 - to admit that you are right ( חלילה לּי with unaccented ah , not of the fem., comp. Job 34:10, but of direction: for a profanation to me, i.e., let it be profane to me, Ew. §329, a , Arab. hâshâ li , in the like sense); until I expire (prop.: sink together), I will not put my innocence ( תּמּה , perfection, in the sense of purity of character) away from me, i.e., I will not cease from asserting it. I will hold fast (as ever) my righteousness, and leave it not, i.e., let it not go or fall away; my heart does not reproach even one of my days. מיּמי is virtually an obj. in a partitive sense: mon coeur ne me reproche pas un seul de mes jours (Renan). The heart is used here as the seat of the conscience, which is the knowledge possessed by the heart, by which it excuses or accuses a man ( Psychol . S. 134); חרף (whence חרף , the season in which the fruits are gathered) signifies carpere , to pluck = to pinch, lash, inveigh against. Jos. Kimchi and Ralbag explain: my heart draws not back) from the confession of my innocence) my whole life long (as Maimonides explains נחרפת , Leviticus 19:20, of the female slave who is inclined to, i.e., stands near to, the position of a free woman), by comparison with the Arabic inḥarafa , deflectere ; it is not, however, Arab. ḥrf , but chrf , decerpere , that is to be compared in the tropical sense of the prevailing usage of the Hebrew specified. The old expositors were all misled by the misunderstood partitive מימי , which they translated ex (= inde a ) diebus meis . There is in Job 27:7 no ground for taking יהי , with Hahn, as a strong affirmative, as supposed in Job 18:12, and not as expressive of desire; but the meaning is not: let my opponents be evil-doers, I at least am not one (Hirz.). The voluntative expresses far more emotion: the relation must be reversed; he who will brand me as an evil-doer, must by that very act brand himself as such, inasmuch as the מרשׁיע of a צדיק really shows himself to be a רשׁע , and by recklessly judging the righteous, is bringing down upon himself a like well-merited judgment. The כּ is the so-called Caph veritatis, since כּ , instar , signifies not only similarity, but also quality. Instead of קימי , the less manageable, primitive form, which the poet used in Job 22:20 (comp. p. 483), and beside which קם ( קום , 2 Kings 16:7) does not occur in the book, we here find the more usual form מתקוממי (comp. Job 20:27).
(Note: In Beduin the enemy is called qômâni (vid., supra , on Job 24:12, p. 505), a denominative from qôm , Arab. qawm , war, feud; but qôm has also the signification of a collective of qômâni , and one can also say: entum wa - ijânâ qôm , you and we are enemies, and bênâtna qôm , there is war between us. - Wetzst.)
The description of the misfortune of the ungodly which now follows, beginning with כי , requires no connecting thought, as for instance: My enemy must be accounted as ungodly, on account of his hostility; I abhor ungodliness, for, etc.; but that he who regards him as a רשׁע is himself a רשׁע , Job shows from the fact of the רשׁע having no hope in death, whilst, when dying, he can give no confident hope of a divine vindication of his innocence.
Verses 8-12
8 For what is the hope of the godless, when He cutteth off,
When Eloah taketh away his soul?
9 Will God hear his cry
When distress cometh upon him?
10 Or can he delight himself in the Almighty,
Can he call upon Eloah at all times?
11 I will teach you concerning the hand of God,
I will not conceal the dealings of the Almighty.
12 Behold, ye have all seen it,
Why then do ye cherish foolish notions?
In comparing himself with the רשׁע , Job is conscious that he has a God who does not leave him unheard, in whom he delights himself, and to whom he can at all times draw near; as, in fact, Job's fellowship with God rests upon the freedom of the most intimate confidence. He is not one of the godless; for what is the hope of one who is estranged from God, when he comes to die? He has no God on whom his hope might establish itself, to whom it could cling. The old expositors err in many ways respecting Job 27:8, by taking בצע , abscindere (root בץ ), in the sense of ( opes ) corradere (thus also more recently Rosenm. after the Targ., Syr., and Jer.), and referring ישׁל to שׁלה in the signification tranquillum esse (thus even Blumenfeld after Ralbag and others). נפשׁו is the object to both verbs, and בצע נפשׁ , abscindere animam , to cut off the thread of life, is to be explained according to Job 6:9; Isaiah 38:12. שׁלח נפשׁ , extrahere animam (from שׁלה , whence שׁליח Arab. salan , the after-birth, cogn. שׁלל . Arab. sll , נשׁל Arab. nsl , nṯl , nšl ), is of similar signification, according to another figure, wince the body is conceived of as the sheath ( נדנה , Daniel 7:15) of the soul
(Note: On the similar idea of the body, as the kosha (sheath) of the soul, among the Hindus, vid., Psychol. S. 227.)
(comp. Arab. sll in the universal signification evaginare ensem ). The fut. apoc. Kal ישׁל (= ישׁל ) is therefore in meaning equivalent to the intrans. ישּׁל , Deuteronomy 28:40 (according to Ew. §235, c , obtained from this by change of vowel), decidere; and Schnurrer's supposition that ישׁל , like the Arab. ysl , is equivalent to ישׁאל (when God demands it), or such a violent correction as De Lagarde's
(Note: Anm. zur griech. Uebers. der Proverbien (1863), S. VI.f., where the first reason given for this improvement of the text is this, that the usual explanation, according to which ישׁל and יבצע have the same subj. and obj. standing after the verb, is altogether contrary to Semitic usage. But this assertion is groundless, as might be supposed from the very beginning. Thus, e.g., the same obj. is found after two verbs in Job 20:19, and the same subj. and obj. in Nehemiah 3:20.)
(when he is in distress יצק , when one demeans his soul with a curse ישּׁאל בּאלה ), is unnecessary.
The ungodly man, Job goes on to say, has no God to hear his cry when distress comes upon him; he cannot delight himself ( יתענּג , pausal form of יתענג , the primary form of יתענג ) in the Almighty; he cannot call upon Eloah at any time (i.e., in the manifold circumstances of life under which we are called to feel the dependence of our nature). Torn away from God, he cannot be heard, he cannot indeed pray and find any consolation in God. It is most clearly manifest here, since Job compares his condition of suffering with that of a חנף , what comfort, what power of endurance, yea, what spiritual joy in the midst of suffering ( התענג , as Job 22:26; Psalms 37:4, Psalms 37:11; Isaiah 55:2; Isaiah 58:13), which must all remain unknown to the ungodly, he can draw from his fellowship with God; and seizing the very root of the distinction between the man who fears God and one who is utterly godless, his view of the outward appearance of the misfortune of both becomes changed; and after having allowed himself hitherto to be driven from one extreme to another by the friends, as the heat of the controversy gradually cools down, and as, regaining his independence, he stands before them as their teacher, he now experiences the truth of docendo discimu s in rich abundance. I will instruct you, says he, in the hand, i.e., the mode of action, of God ( בּ just as in Psalms 25:8, Psalms 25:12; Psalms 32:8; Proverbs 4:11, of the province and subject of instruction); I will not conceal עם־שׁדּי אשׁר , i.e., according to the sense of the passage: what are the principles upon which He acts; for that which is with ( אם ) any one is the matter of his consciousness and volition (vid., on Job 23:10).
Job 27:12 is of the greatest importance in the right interpretation of what follows from Job 27:13 onwards. The instruction which Job desires to impart to the friends has reference to the lot of the evil-doer; and when he says: Behold, ye yourselves have beheld (learnt) it all, - in connection with which it is to be observed that אתּם כּלּכם does not signify merely vos omnes , but vosmet ipsi omnes , - he grants to them what he appeared hitherto to deny, that the lot of the evil-doer, certainly in the rule, although not without exceptions, is such as they have said. The application, however, which they have made of this abiding fact of experience, as and remains all the more false: Wherefore then ( זה makes the question sharper) are ye vain (blinded) in vanity (self-delusion), viz., in reference to me, who do not so completely bear about the characteristic marks of a רשׁע ? The verb הבל signifies to think and act vainly (without ground or connection), 2 Kings 17:15 (comp. ἐματαιώθησαν , Romans 1:21); the combination הבל הבל is not to be judged of according to Ges. §138, rem. 1, as it is also by Ew. §281, a , but הבל may also be taken as the representative of the gerund, as e.g., עריה , Habakkuk 3:9.
In the following strophe (Job 27:13) Job now begins as Zophar (Job 20:29) concluded. He gives back to the friends the doctrine they have fully imparted to him. They have held the lot of the evil-doer before him as a mirror, that he may behold himself in it and be astounded; he holds it before them, that they may perceive how not only his bearing under suffering, but also the form of his affliction, is of a totally different kind.
Verses 13-18
13 This is the lot of the wicked man with God,
And the heritage of the violent which they receive from the Almighty:
14 If his children multiply, it is for the sword,
And his offspring have not bread enough.
15 His survivors shall be buried by the pestilence,
And his widows shall not weep.
16 If he heapeth silver together as dust,
And prepareth garments for himself as mire:
17 He prepareth it, and the righteous clothe themselves,
And the innocent divide the silver among themselves.
18 He hath built as a moth his house,
And as a hut that a watchman setteth up.
We have already had the combination אדם רשׁע for אישׁ רשׁע in Job 20:29; it is a favourite expression in Proverbs, and reminds one of ἄνθρωπος ὁδίτης in Homer, and ἄνθρωπος σπείρωϚ, ἐχθρός, ἔμπορος , in the parables Matt 13. Psik ( Pasek ) stands under רשׁע , to separate the wicked man and God, as in Proverbs 15:29 (Norzi). למו , exclusively peculiar to the book of Job in the Old Testament (here and Job 29:21; Job 38:40; Job 40:4), is ל rendered capable of an independent position by means of מו = מה , Arab. mâ . The sword, famine, and pestilence are the three punishing powers by which the evil-doer's posterity, however numerous it may be, is blotted out; these three, חרב , רעב , and מות , appear also side by side in Jeremiah 15:2; מות , instead of ממותי , diris mortibus , is (as also Jeremiah 18:21) equivalent to דּבר in the same trio, Jeremiah 14:12; the plague is personified (as when it is called by an Arabian poet umm el - farit , the mother of death), and Vavassor correctly observes: Mors illos sua sepeliet, nihil praeterea honoris supremi consecuturos . Böttcher ( de inferis , §72) asserts that במות can only signify pestilentiae tempore , or better, ipso mortis momento ; but since בּ occurs by the passive elsewhere in the sense of ab or per , e.g., Numbers 36:2; Hosea 14:4, it can also by נקבר denote the efficient cause. Olshausen's correction במות לא יקברו , they will not be buried when dead (Jeremiah 16:4), is still less required; “to be buried by the pestilence” is equivalent to, not to be interred with the usual solemnities, but to be buried as hastily as possible.
Job 27:15 (common to our poet and the psalm of Asaph, 78:64, which likewise belongs to the Salomonic age) is also to be correspondingly interpreted: the women that he leaves behind do not celebrate the usual mourning rites (comp. Genesis 23:2), because the decreed punishment which, stroke after stroke, deprives them of husbands and children, prevents all observance of the customs of mourning, and because the shock stifles the feeling of pity. The treasure in gold which his avarice has heaped up, and in garments which his love of display has gathered together, come into the possession of the righteous and the innocent, who are spared when these three powers of judgment sweep away the evil-doer and his family. Dust and dirt (i.e., of the streets, חוצות ) are, as in Zechariah 9:3, the emblem of a great abundance that depreciates even that which is valuable. The house of the ungodly man, though a palace, is, as the fate of the fabric shows, as brittle and perishable a thing, and can be as easily destroyed, as the fine spinning of a moth, עשׁ (according to the Jewish proverb, the brother of the סס ), or even the small case which it makes from remnants of gnawed articles, and drags about with it; it is like a light hut, perhaps for the watchman of a vineyard (Isaiah 1:8), which is put together only for the season during which the grapes are ripening.
(Note: The watchman's hut, for the protection of the vineyards and melon and maize fields against thieves, herds, or wild beasts, is now called either ‛arı̂she and mantara ( מנטרה ) if it is only slightly put together from branches of trees, or chême ( הימה ) if it is built up high in order that the watcher may see a great distance. The chême is the more frequent; at harvest it stands in the midst of the threshing-floors ( bejâdir ) of a district, and it is constructed in the following manner: - Four poles ( ‛awâmı̂d ) are set up so as to form the corners of a square, the sides of which are about eight feet in length. Eight feet above the ground, four cross pieces of wood ( 'awârid ) are tightly bound to these with cords, on which planks, if they are to be had, are laid. Here is the watcher's bed, which consists of a litter. Six or seven feet above this, cross-beams are again bound to the four poles, on which boughs, or reeds ( qasab ), or a mat ( hası̂ra , חצירה ) forms a roof ( sath , שׂטח ), from which the chême has its name; for the Piel -forms ערּשׁ , חיּם , and שׂטּח signify, “to be stretched over anything after the manner of a roof.” Between the roof and the bed, three sides of the che=me are hung round with a mat, or with reeds or straws ( qashsh , קשׁ ) bound together, in order both to keep off the cold night-winds, and also to keep the thieves in ignorance as to the number of the watchers. A small ladder, sullem ( סלּם ), frequently leads to the bed-chamber. The space between the ground and this chamber is closed only on the west side to keep off the hot afternoon sun, for through the day the watcher sits below with his dog, upon the ground. Here is also his place of reception, if any passers-by visit him; for, like the village shepherd, the field-watcher has the right of showing a humble hospitality to any acquaintances. When the fruits have been gathered in, the chême is removed. The field-watchman is now called nâtûr (Arab. nâṭûr ), and the verb is natar , נטר , “to keep watch,” instead of which the quadriliteral nôtar , נוטר (from the plur. Arab. nwâṭı̂r , “the watchers”), has also been formed. In one part of Syria all these forms are written with צ (d) instead of ט fo da , and pronounced accordingly. The נצר in this passage is similarly related to the נטר in Song of Solomon 1:6; Song of Solomon 8:11-12. - Wetzst.)
Verses 19-23
19 He lieth down rich, and doeth it not again,
He openeth his eyes and-is no more.
20 Terrors take hold of him as a flood;
By night a tempest stealeth him away.
21 The east wind lifteth him up, that he departeth,
And hurleth him forth from his place.
22 God casteth upon him without sparing,
Before His hand he fleeth utterly away.
23 They clap their hands at him,
And hiss him away from his place.
The pointing of the text ולא יאסף is explained by Schnurr., Umbr., and Stick.: He goes rich to bed and nothing is taken as yet, he opens his eyes and nothing more is there; but if this were the thought intended, it ought at least to have been ואין נאסף , since לא signifies non , not nihil; and Stickel's translation, “while nothing is carried away,” makes the fut. instead of the praet., which was to be expected, none the more tolerable; also אסף can indeed signify to gather hastily together, to take away (e.g., Isaiah 33:4), when the connection favours it, but not here, where the first impression is that רשׁע is the subj. both to ולא יאסף and to ואיננו . Böttcher's translation, “He lieth down rich and cannot be displaced,” gives the words a meaning that is ridiculed by the usage of the language. On the other hand, ולא יאסף can signify: and he is not conveyed away (comp. e.g., Jeremiah 8:2; Ezekiel 29:5; but not Isaiah 57:1, where it signifies to be swept away, and also not Numbers 20:26, where it signifies to be gathered to the fathers), and is probably intended to be explained after the pointing that we have, as Rosenm. and even Ralbag explain it: “he is not conveyed away; one opens his eyes and he is not;” or even as Schlottm.: “he is not conveyed away; in one moment he still looks about him, in the next he is no more;” but the relation of the two parts of the verse in this interpretation is unsatisfactory, and the preceding strophe has already referred to his not being buried. Since, therefore, only an unsuitable, and what is more, a badly-expressed thought, is gained by this reading, it may be that the expression should be regarded with Hahn as interrogative: is he not swept away? This, however, is only a makeshift, and therefore we must see whether it may not perhaps be susceptible of another pointing. Jerome transl.: dives cum dormierit, nihil secum auferet ; the thought is not bad, but מאוּמה is wanting, and לא alone does not signify nihil . Better lxx (Ital., Syr.): πλούσιος κοιμηθήσεται καὶ ου ̓ προσθήσει . This translation follows the form of reading יאסף = יוסיף , gives a suitable sense, places both parts of the verse in the right relation, and accords with the style of the poet (vid., Job 20:9; Job 40:5); and accordingly, with Ew., Hirz., and Hlgst., we decide in favour of this reading: he lieth down to sleep rich, and he doeth it no more, since in the night he is removed from life and also from riches by sudden death; or also: in the morning he openeth his eyes without imagining it is the last time, for, overwhelmed by sudden death, he closes them for ever. Job 27:20 and Job 27:20 are attached crosswise ( chiastisch ) to this picture of sudden destruction, be it by night or by day: the terrors of death seize him ( sing. fem. with a plur. subj. following it, according to Ges. §146, 3) like a flood (comp. the floods of Belial, Psalms 18:5), by night a whirlwind ( גּנבתּוּ סוּפה , as Job 21:18) carrieth him away. The Syriac and Arabic versions add, as a sort of interpolation: as a fluttering (large white) night-moth, - an addition which no one can consider beautiful.
Job 27:21 extends the figure of the whirlwind. In Hebrew, even when the narrative has reference to Egyptian matters (Genesis 41:23), the קדים which comes from the Arabian desert is the destructive, devastating, and parching wind κατ ̓ εξοχὴν .
(Note: In Syria and Arabia the east wind is no longer called qadı̂m , but exclusively sharqı̂ja , i.e., the wind that blows from the rising of the sun ( sharq ). This wind rarely prevails in summer, occurring then only two or three days a month on an average; it is more frequent in the winter and early spring, when, if it continues long, the tender vegetation is parched up, and a year of famine follows, whence in the Lebanon it is called semûm ( שׂמוּם ), which in the present day denotes the “poisonous wind” (= nesme musimme ), but originally, by alliance with the Hebr. שׁמם , denoted the “devastating wind.” The east wind is dry; it excites the blood, contracts the chest, causes restlessness and anxiety, and sleepless nights or evil dreams. Both man and beast feel weak and sickly while it prevails. Hence that which is unpleasant and revolting in life is compared to the east wind. Thus a maid in Hauran, at the sight of one of my Damascus travelling companions, whose excessive ugliness struck her, cried: billâh , nahâr el - jôm aqshar (Arab. 'qšr ), wagahetni (Arab. w - jhṫnı̂ ) sharqı̂ja , “by God, it is an unhealthy day to-day: an east wind blew upon me.” And in a festive dance song of the Merg district, these words occur:
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Job 27
Commentary on Job 27 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
1 Then Job continued to take up his proverb, and said:
2 As God liveth, who hath deprived me of my right,
And the Almighty, who hath sorely saddened my soul -
3 For still all my breath is in me,
And the breath of Eloah in my nostrils -
4 My lips do not speak what is false,
And my tongue uttereth not deceit!
5 Far be it from me, to grant that you are in the right:
Till I die I will not remove my innocence from me.
6 My righteousness I hold fast, and let it not go:
My heart reproacheth not any of my days.
7 Mine enemy must appear as an evil-doer,
And he who riseth up against me as unrighteous.
The friends are silent, Job remains master of the discourse, and his continued speech is introduced as a continued שׂאת משׁלו (after the analogy of the phrase נשׂא קול ), as in Numbers 23:7 and further on, the oracles of Balaam. משׁל is speech of a more elevated tone and more figurative character; here, as frequently, the unaffected outgrowth of an elevated solemn mood. The introduction of the ultimatum, as משׁל , reminds one of “the proverb ( el - methel ) seals it” in the mouth of the Arab, since in common life it is customary to use a pithy saying as the final proof at the conclusion of a speech.
Job begins with an asseveration of his truthfulness (i.e., the agreement of his confession with his consciousness) by the life of God. From this oath, which in the form bi - hajât allâh has become later on a common formula of assurance, R. Joshua, in his tractate Sota , infers that Job served God from love to Him, for we only swear by the life of that which we honour and love; it is more natural to conclude that the God by whom on the one hand, he believes himself to be so unjustly treated, still appears to him, on the other hand, to be the highest manifestation of truth. The interjectional clause: living is God! is equivalent to, as true as God liveth. That which is affirmed is not what immediately follows: He has set aside my right, and the Almighty has sorely grieved my soul (Raschi); but הסיר משׁפטי and המר נפשׁי are attributive clauses, by which what is denied in the form of an oath introduced by אם (as Genesis 42:15; 1 Samuel 14:45; 2 Samuel 11:11, Ges. §155, 2, f ) is contained in Job 27:4; his special reference to the false semblance of an evil-doer shows that semblance which suffering casts upon him, but which he constantly repudiates as surely not lying, as that God liveth. Among moderns, Schlottm. (comp. Ges. §150, 3), like most of the old expositors, translates: so long as my breath is in me,...my lips shall speak no wrong, so that Job 27:3 and Job 27:4 together contain what is affirmed. By (1) כּי indeed sometimes introduces that which shall happen as affirmed by oath, Jeremiah 22:5; Jeremiah 49:13; but here that which shall not take place is affirmed, which would be introduced first in a general form by כּי explic. s. recitativum , then according to its special negative contents by אם , - a construction which is perhaps possible according to syntax, but it is nevertheless perplexing; (2) it may perhaps be thought that “the whole continuance of my breath in me” is conceived as accusative and adverbial, and is equivalent to, so long as my breath may remain in me ( כל עוד , as long as ever, like the Arab. cullama , as often as ever); but the usage of the language does not favour this explanation, for 2 Samuel 1:9, נפשׁי בי כל־עוד , signifies my whole soul (my full life) is still in me; and we have a third instance of this prominently placed כל per hypallagen in Hosea 14:3, עון כל־תשׂא , omnem auferas iniquitatem , Ew. §289, a (comp. Ges. §114, rem. 1). Accordingly, with Ew., Hirz., Hahn, and most modern expositors, we take Job 27:3 as a parenthetical confirmatory clause, by which Job gives the ground of his solemn affirmation that he is still in possession of his full consciousness, and cannot help feeling and expressing the contradiction between his lot of suffering, which brand shim as an evil-doer, and his moral integrity. The נשׁמתי which precedes the רוח signifies, according to the prevailing usage of the language, the intellectual, and therefore self-conscious, soul of man ( Psychol . S. 76f.). This is in man and in his nostrils, inasmuch as the breath which passes in and out by these is the outward and visible form of its being, which is in every respect the condition of life ( ib. S. 82f.). The suff. of נשׁמתי is unaccented; on account of the word which follows being a monosyllable, the tone has retreated ( נסוג אחור , to use a technical grammatical expression), as e.g., also in Job 19:25; Job 20:2; Psalms 22:20. Because he lives, and, living, cannot deny his own existence, he swears that his own testimony, which is suspected by the friends, and on account of which they charge him with falsehood, is perfect truth.
Job 27:4 is not to be translated: “my lips shall never speak what is false;” for it is not a resolve which Job thus strongly makes, after the manner of a vow, but the agreement of his confession, which he has now so frequently made, and which remains unalterable, with the abiding fact. Far be from me - he continues in Job 27:5 - to admit that you are right ( חלילה לּי with unaccented ah , not of the fem., comp. Job 34:10, but of direction: for a profanation to me, i.e., let it be profane to me, Ew. §329, a , Arab. hâshâ li , in the like sense); until I expire (prop.: sink together), I will not put my innocence ( תּמּה , perfection, in the sense of purity of character) away from me, i.e., I will not cease from asserting it. I will hold fast (as ever) my righteousness, and leave it not, i.e., let it not go or fall away; my heart does not reproach even one of my days. מיּמי is virtually an obj. in a partitive sense: mon coeur ne me reproche pas un seul de mes jours (Renan). The heart is used here as the seat of the conscience, which is the knowledge possessed by the heart, by which it excuses or accuses a man ( Psychol . S. 134); חרף (whence חרף , the season in which the fruits are gathered) signifies carpere , to pluck = to pinch, lash, inveigh against. Jos. Kimchi and Ralbag explain: my heart draws not back) from the confession of my innocence) my whole life long (as Maimonides explains נחרפת , Leviticus 19:20, of the female slave who is inclined to, i.e., stands near to, the position of a free woman), by comparison with the Arabic inḥarafa , deflectere ; it is not, however, Arab. ḥrf , but chrf , decerpere , that is to be compared in the tropical sense of the prevailing usage of the Hebrew specified. The old expositors were all misled by the misunderstood partitive מימי , which they translated ex (= inde a ) diebus meis . There is in Job 27:7 no ground for taking יהי , with Hahn, as a strong affirmative, as supposed in Job 18:12, and not as expressive of desire; but the meaning is not: let my opponents be evil-doers, I at least am not one (Hirz.). The voluntative expresses far more emotion: the relation must be reversed; he who will brand me as an evil-doer, must by that very act brand himself as such, inasmuch as the מרשׁיע of a צדיק really shows himself to be a רשׁע , and by recklessly judging the righteous, is bringing down upon himself a like well-merited judgment. The כּ is the so-called Caph veritatis, since כּ , instar , signifies not only similarity, but also quality. Instead of קימי , the less manageable, primitive form, which the poet used in Job 22:20 (comp. p. 483), and beside which קם ( קום , 2 Kings 16:7) does not occur in the book, we here find the more usual form מתקוממי (comp. Job 20:27).
(Note: In Beduin the enemy is called qômâni (vid., supra , on Job 24:12, p. 505), a denominative from qôm , Arab. qawm , war, feud; but qôm has also the signification of a collective of qômâni , and one can also say: entum wa - ijânâ qôm , you and we are enemies, and bênâtna qôm , there is war between us. - Wetzst.)
The description of the misfortune of the ungodly which now follows, beginning with כי , requires no connecting thought, as for instance: My enemy must be accounted as ungodly, on account of his hostility; I abhor ungodliness, for, etc.; but that he who regards him as a רשׁע is himself a רשׁע , Job shows from the fact of the רשׁע having no hope in death, whilst, when dying, he can give no confident hope of a divine vindication of his innocence.
8 For what is the hope of the godless, when He cutteth off,
When Eloah taketh away his soul?
9 Will God hear his cry
When distress cometh upon him?
10 Or can he delight himself in the Almighty,
Can he call upon Eloah at all times?
11 I will teach you concerning the hand of God,
I will not conceal the dealings of the Almighty.
12 Behold, ye have all seen it,
Why then do ye cherish foolish notions?
In comparing himself with the רשׁע , Job is conscious that he has a God who does not leave him unheard, in whom he delights himself, and to whom he can at all times draw near; as, in fact, Job's fellowship with God rests upon the freedom of the most intimate confidence. He is not one of the godless; for what is the hope of one who is estranged from God, when he comes to die? He has no God on whom his hope might establish itself, to whom it could cling. The old expositors err in many ways respecting Job 27:8, by taking בצע , abscindere (root בץ ), in the sense of ( opes ) corradere (thus also more recently Rosenm. after the Targ., Syr., and Jer.), and referring ישׁל to שׁלה in the signification tranquillum esse (thus even Blumenfeld after Ralbag and others). נפשׁו is the object to both verbs, and בצע נפשׁ , abscindere animam , to cut off the thread of life, is to be explained according to Job 6:9; Isaiah 38:12. שׁלח נפשׁ , extrahere animam (from שׁלה , whence שׁליח Arab. salan , the after-birth, cogn. שׁלל . Arab. sll , נשׁל Arab. nsl , nṯl , nšl ), is of similar signification, according to another figure, wince the body is conceived of as the sheath ( נדנה , Daniel 7:15) of the soul
(Note: On the similar idea of the body, as the kosha (sheath) of the soul, among the Hindus, vid., Psychol. S. 227.)
(comp. Arab. sll in the universal signification evaginare ensem ). The fut. apoc. Kal ישׁל (= ישׁל ) is therefore in meaning equivalent to the intrans. ישּׁל , Deuteronomy 28:40 (according to Ew. §235, c , obtained from this by change of vowel), decidere; and Schnurrer's supposition that ישׁל , like the Arab. ysl , is equivalent to ישׁאל (when God demands it), or such a violent correction as De Lagarde's
(Note: Anm. zur griech. Uebers. der Proverbien (1863), S. VI.f., where the first reason given for this improvement of the text is this, that the usual explanation, according to which ישׁל and יבצע have the same subj. and obj. standing after the verb, is altogether contrary to Semitic usage. But this assertion is groundless, as might be supposed from the very beginning. Thus, e.g., the same obj. is found after two verbs in Job 20:19, and the same subj. and obj. in Nehemiah 3:20.)
(when he is in distress יצק , when one demeans his soul with a curse ישּׁאל בּאלה ), is unnecessary.
The ungodly man, Job goes on to say, has no God to hear his cry when distress comes upon him; he cannot delight himself ( יתענּג , pausal form of יתענג , the primary form of יתענג ) in the Almighty; he cannot call upon Eloah at any time (i.e., in the manifold circumstances of life under which we are called to feel the dependence of our nature). Torn away from God, he cannot be heard, he cannot indeed pray and find any consolation in God. It is most clearly manifest here, since Job compares his condition of suffering with that of a חנף , what comfort, what power of endurance, yea, what spiritual joy in the midst of suffering ( התענג , as Job 22:26; Psalms 37:4, Psalms 37:11; Isaiah 55:2; Isaiah 58:13), which must all remain unknown to the ungodly, he can draw from his fellowship with God; and seizing the very root of the distinction between the man who fears God and one who is utterly godless, his view of the outward appearance of the misfortune of both becomes changed; and after having allowed himself hitherto to be driven from one extreme to another by the friends, as the heat of the controversy gradually cools down, and as, regaining his independence, he stands before them as their teacher, he now experiences the truth of docendo discimu s in rich abundance. I will instruct you, says he, in the hand, i.e., the mode of action, of God ( בּ just as in Psalms 25:8, Psalms 25:12; Psalms 32:8; Proverbs 4:11, of the province and subject of instruction); I will not conceal עם־שׁדּי אשׁר , i.e., according to the sense of the passage: what are the principles upon which He acts; for that which is with ( אם ) any one is the matter of his consciousness and volition (vid., on Job 23:10).
Job 27:12 is of the greatest importance in the right interpretation of what follows from Job 27:13 onwards. The instruction which Job desires to impart to the friends has reference to the lot of the evil-doer; and when he says: Behold, ye yourselves have beheld (learnt) it all, - in connection with which it is to be observed that אתּם כּלּכם does not signify merely vos omnes , but vosmet ipsi omnes , - he grants to them what he appeared hitherto to deny, that the lot of the evil-doer, certainly in the rule, although not without exceptions, is such as they have said. The application, however, which they have made of this abiding fact of experience, as and remains all the more false: Wherefore then ( זה makes the question sharper) are ye vain (blinded) in vanity (self-delusion), viz., in reference to me, who do not so completely bear about the characteristic marks of a רשׁע ? The verb הבל signifies to think and act vainly (without ground or connection), 2 Kings 17:15 (comp. ἐματαιώθησαν , Romans 1:21); the combination הבל הבל is not to be judged of according to Ges. §138, rem. 1, as it is also by Ew. §281, a , but הבל may also be taken as the representative of the gerund, as e.g., עריה , Habakkuk 3:9.
In the following strophe (Job 27:13) Job now begins as Zophar (Job 20:29) concluded. He gives back to the friends the doctrine they have fully imparted to him. They have held the lot of the evil-doer before him as a mirror, that he may behold himself in it and be astounded; he holds it before them, that they may perceive how not only his bearing under suffering, but also the form of his affliction, is of a totally different kind.
13 This is the lot of the wicked man with God,
And the heritage of the violent which they receive from the Almighty:
14 If his children multiply, it is for the sword,
And his offspring have not bread enough.
15 His survivors shall be buried by the pestilence,
And his widows shall not weep.
16 If he heapeth silver together as dust,
And prepareth garments for himself as mire:
17 He prepareth it, and the righteous clothe themselves,
And the innocent divide the silver among themselves.
18 He hath built as a moth his house,
And as a hut that a watchman setteth up.
We have already had the combination אדם רשׁע for אישׁ רשׁע in Job 20:29; it is a favourite expression in Proverbs, and reminds one of ἄνθρωπος ὁδίτης in Homer, and ἄνθρωπος σπείρωϚ, ἐχθρός, ἔμπορος , in the parables Matt 13. Psik ( Pasek ) stands under רשׁע , to separate the wicked man and God, as in Proverbs 15:29 (Norzi). למו , exclusively peculiar to the book of Job in the Old Testament (here and Job 29:21; Job 38:40; Job 40:4), is ל rendered capable of an independent position by means of מו = מה , Arab. mâ . The sword, famine, and pestilence are the three punishing powers by which the evil-doer's posterity, however numerous it may be, is blotted out; these three, חרב , רעב , and מות , appear also side by side in Jeremiah 15:2; מות , instead of ממותי , diris mortibus , is (as also Jeremiah 18:21) equivalent to דּבר in the same trio, Jeremiah 14:12; the plague is personified (as when it is called by an Arabian poet umm el - farit , the mother of death), and Vavassor correctly observes: Mors illos sua sepeliet, nihil praeterea honoris supremi consecuturos . Böttcher ( de inferis , §72) asserts that במות can only signify pestilentiae tempore , or better, ipso mortis momento ; but since בּ occurs by the passive elsewhere in the sense of ab or per , e.g., Numbers 36:2; Hosea 14:4, it can also by נקבר denote the efficient cause. Olshausen's correction במות לא יקברו , they will not be buried when dead (Jeremiah 16:4), is still less required; “to be buried by the pestilence” is equivalent to, not to be interred with the usual solemnities, but to be buried as hastily as possible.
Job 27:15 (common to our poet and the psalm of Asaph, 78:64, which likewise belongs to the Salomonic age) is also to be correspondingly interpreted: the women that he leaves behind do not celebrate the usual mourning rites (comp. Genesis 23:2), because the decreed punishment which, stroke after stroke, deprives them of husbands and children, prevents all observance of the customs of mourning, and because the shock stifles the feeling of pity. The treasure in gold which his avarice has heaped up, and in garments which his love of display has gathered together, come into the possession of the righteous and the innocent, who are spared when these three powers of judgment sweep away the evil-doer and his family. Dust and dirt (i.e., of the streets, חוצות ) are, as in Zechariah 9:3, the emblem of a great abundance that depreciates even that which is valuable. The house of the ungodly man, though a palace, is, as the fate of the fabric shows, as brittle and perishable a thing, and can be as easily destroyed, as the fine spinning of a moth, עשׁ (according to the Jewish proverb, the brother of the סס ), or even the small case which it makes from remnants of gnawed articles, and drags about with it; it is like a light hut, perhaps for the watchman of a vineyard (Isaiah 1:8), which is put together only for the season during which the grapes are ripening.
(Note: The watchman's hut, for the protection of the vineyards and melon and maize fields against thieves, herds, or wild beasts, is now called either ‛arı̂she and mantara ( מנטרה ) if it is only slightly put together from branches of trees, or chême ( הימה ) if it is built up high in order that the watcher may see a great distance. The chême is the more frequent; at harvest it stands in the midst of the threshing-floors ( bejâdir ) of a district, and it is constructed in the following manner: - Four poles ( ‛awâmı̂d ) are set up so as to form the corners of a square, the sides of which are about eight feet in length. Eight feet above the ground, four cross pieces of wood ( 'awârid ) are tightly bound to these with cords, on which planks, if they are to be had, are laid. Here is the watcher's bed, which consists of a litter. Six or seven feet above this, cross-beams are again bound to the four poles, on which boughs, or reeds ( qasab ), or a mat ( hası̂ra , חצירה ) forms a roof ( sath , שׂטח ), from which the chême has its name; for the Piel -forms ערּשׁ , חיּם , and שׂטּח signify, “to be stretched over anything after the manner of a roof.” Between the roof and the bed, three sides of the che=me are hung round with a mat, or with reeds or straws ( qashsh , קשׁ ) bound together, in order both to keep off the cold night-winds, and also to keep the thieves in ignorance as to the number of the watchers. A small ladder, sullem ( סלּם ), frequently leads to the bed-chamber. The space between the ground and this chamber is closed only on the west side to keep off the hot afternoon sun, for through the day the watcher sits below with his dog, upon the ground. Here is also his place of reception, if any passers-by visit him; for, like the village shepherd, the field-watcher has the right of showing a humble hospitality to any acquaintances. When the fruits have been gathered in, the chême is removed. The field-watchman is now called nâtûr (Arab. nâṭûr ), and the verb is natar , נטר , “to keep watch,” instead of which the quadriliteral nôtar , נוטר (from the plur. Arab. nwâṭı̂r , “the watchers”), has also been formed. In one part of Syria all these forms are written with צ (d) instead of ט fo da , and pronounced accordingly. The נצר in this passage is similarly related to the נטר in Song of Solomon 1:6; Song of Solomon 8:11-12. - Wetzst.)
19 He lieth down rich, and doeth it not again,
He openeth his eyes and-is no more.
20 Terrors take hold of him as a flood;
By night a tempest stealeth him away.
21 The east wind lifteth him up, that he departeth,
And hurleth him forth from his place.
22 God casteth upon him without sparing,
Before His hand he fleeth utterly away.
23 They clap their hands at him,
And hiss him away from his place.
The pointing of the text ולא יאסף is explained by Schnurr., Umbr., and Stick.: He goes rich to bed and nothing is taken as yet, he opens his eyes and nothing more is there; but if this were the thought intended, it ought at least to have been ואין נאסף , since לא signifies non , not nihil; and Stickel's translation, “while nothing is carried away,” makes the fut. instead of the praet., which was to be expected, none the more tolerable; also אסף can indeed signify to gather hastily together, to take away (e.g., Isaiah 33:4), when the connection favours it, but not here, where the first impression is that רשׁע is the subj. both to ולא יאסף and to ואיננו . Böttcher's translation, “He lieth down rich and cannot be displaced,” gives the words a meaning that is ridiculed by the usage of the language. On the other hand, ולא יאסף can signify: and he is not conveyed away (comp. e.g., Jeremiah 8:2; Ezekiel 29:5; but not Isaiah 57:1, where it signifies to be swept away, and also not Numbers 20:26, where it signifies to be gathered to the fathers), and is probably intended to be explained after the pointing that we have, as Rosenm. and even Ralbag explain it: “he is not conveyed away; one opens his eyes and he is not;” or even as Schlottm.: “he is not conveyed away; in one moment he still looks about him, in the next he is no more;” but the relation of the two parts of the verse in this interpretation is unsatisfactory, and the preceding strophe has already referred to his not being buried. Since, therefore, only an unsuitable, and what is more, a badly-expressed thought, is gained by this reading, it may be that the expression should be regarded with Hahn as interrogative: is he not swept away? This, however, is only a makeshift, and therefore we must see whether it may not perhaps be susceptible of another pointing. Jerome transl.: dives cum dormierit, nihil secum auferet ; the thought is not bad, but מאוּמה is wanting, and לא alone does not signify nihil . Better lxx (Ital., Syr.): πλούσιος κοιμηθήσεται καὶ ου ̓ προσθήσει . This translation follows the form of reading יאסף = יוסיף , gives a suitable sense, places both parts of the verse in the right relation, and accords with the style of the poet (vid., Job 20:9; Job 40:5); and accordingly, with Ew., Hirz., and Hlgst., we decide in favour of this reading: he lieth down to sleep rich, and he doeth it no more, since in the night he is removed from life and also from riches by sudden death; or also: in the morning he openeth his eyes without imagining it is the last time, for, overwhelmed by sudden death, he closes them for ever. Job 27:20 and Job 27:20 are attached crosswise ( chiastisch ) to this picture of sudden destruction, be it by night or by day: the terrors of death seize him ( sing. fem. with a plur. subj. following it, according to Ges. §146, 3) like a flood (comp. the floods of Belial, Psalms 18:5), by night a whirlwind ( גּנבתּוּ סוּפה , as Job 21:18) carrieth him away. The Syriac and Arabic versions add, as a sort of interpolation: as a fluttering (large white) night-moth, - an addition which no one can consider beautiful.
Job 27:21 extends the figure of the whirlwind. In Hebrew, even when the narrative has reference to Egyptian matters (Genesis 41:23), the קדים which comes from the Arabian desert is the destructive, devastating, and parching wind κατ ̓ εξοχὴν .
(Note: In Syria and Arabia the east wind is no longer called qadı̂m , but exclusively sharqı̂ja , i.e., the wind that blows from the rising of the sun ( sharq ). This wind rarely prevails in summer, occurring then only two or three days a month on an average; it is more frequent in the winter and early spring, when, if it continues long, the tender vegetation is parched up, and a year of famine follows, whence in the Lebanon it is called semûm ( שׂמוּם ), which in the present day denotes the “poisonous wind” (= nesme musimme ), but originally, by alliance with the Hebr. שׁמם , denoted the “devastating wind.” The east wind is dry; it excites the blood, contracts the chest, causes restlessness and anxiety, and sleepless nights or evil dreams. Both man and beast feel weak and sickly while it prevails. Hence that which is unpleasant and revolting in life is compared to the east wind. Thus a maid in Hauran, at the sight of one of my Damascus travelling companions, whose excessive ugliness struck her, cried: billâh , nahâr el - jôm aqshar (Arab. 'qšr ), wagahetni (Arab. w - jhṫnı̂ ) sharqı̂ja , “by God, it is an unhealthy day to-day: an east wind blew upon me.” And in a festive dance song of the Merg district, these words occur:
wa rudd lı̂ hômet hodênik
seb‛ lejâlı̂ bi - ‛olı̂ja wa berd
wa sherd wa sharqı̂ja