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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 22:19 - 22:19
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19 The righteous see it and rejoice,
And the innocent mock at them:
20 “Verily our opponent is destroyed,
And the fire hath devoured their abundance.”
This thought corresponds to that expressed as a wish, hope, or anticipation at the close of many of the Psalms, that the retributive justice of God, though we may have to wait a long time for it, becomes at length the more gloriously manifest to the joy of those hitherto innocently persecuted, Psa 58:11. The obj. of יִרְאוּ, as in Psa 107:42, is this its manifestation. לָמֹו is not an ethical dative, as in Psa 80:7, but as in Psa 2:4 refers to the ungodly whose mocking pride comes to such an ignominious end. What follow in Job 22:20 are the words of the godly; the introductory לאמר is wanting, as e.g., Psa 2:3. אִם־לֹא can signify neither si non, as Job 9:24; Job 24:25; Job 31:31, nor annon, as in a disjunctive question, Job 17:2; Job 30:25; it is affirmative, as Job 1:11; Job 2:5; Job 31:36 - an Amen to God's peremptory judgment. On נִכְחַד (he is drawn away, put aside, become annulled), vid., supra, p. 398. קִימָנוּ (for which Aben-Ezra is also acquainted with the reading קִימֵנוּ with קמץ קטן, i.e., צירי) has a pausal â springing from ê, as Job 20:27, מתקומָמה for מתקומֵמה; Rth 3:2, לרמותָנו; Isa 47:10, רֹאָנִי (together with the reading ראַני, comp. 1Ch 12:17, לרמותַני). The form קִים is remarkable; it may be more readily taken as part. pass. (like שִׂים, positus) than as nom. infin. (the act of raising for those who raise themselves); perhaps the original text had קמינו (קָמֵינוּ). יִתְרָם is no more to be translated their remnant (Hirz.) here than in Psa 17:14, at least not in the sense of Exo 23:11; that which exceeds the necessity is intended, their surplus, their riches. It is said of Job in b. Megilla, 28a: איוב וַתְרָן בממוניה הוה, he was extravagant (prodigus) with his property. The fire devouring the wealth of the godless is an allusion to the misfortune which has befallen him.
After this terrible picture, Eliphaz turns to the exhortation of him who may be now perhaps become ripe for repentance.