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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 27:8 - 27:8
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
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 יֵשֶׁל to שָׁלָה in the signification tranquillum esse (thus even Blumenfeld after Ralbag and others). נַפְשֹׁו 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; Isa 38:12. שׁלח נפשׁ, extrahere animam (from שָׁלָה, whence שִׁלְיָח Arab. salan, the after-birth, cogn. שָׁלַל . Arab. sll, נשׁל Arab. nsl, nṯl, nšl), is of similar signification, according to another figure, wince the body is conceived of as the sheath (נִדְנֶה, Dan 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 יֵשֶׁל (= יִשְׁלְ) is therefore in meaning equivalent to the intrans. יִשַּׁל, Deu 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 Neh 3:20.)
(when he is in distress יצק, when one demeans his soul with a curse יִשָּׁאֵל בְּאָלָה), 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 (יִתְעַנָּג, pausal form of יתענַג, the primary form of יתענֵג) 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; Psa 37:4, Psa 37:11; Isa 55:2; Isa 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 discimus in rich abundance. I will instruct you, says he, in the hand, i.e., the mode of action, of God (בְּ just as in Psa 25:8, Psa 25:12; Psa 32:8; Pro 4:11, of the province and subject of instruction); I will not conceal עִם־שַׁדַּי אֲשֶׁר, i.e., according to the sense of the passage: what are the principles upon which He acts; for that which is with (אִם) 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 אַתֶּם כֻּלְּכֶם 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 (זֶה 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 הָבַל signifies to think and act vainly (without ground or connection), 2Ki 17:15 (comp. ἐματαιώθησαν, Rom 1:21); the combination הָבַל הֶבֶל is not to be judged of according to Ges. §138, rem. 1, as it is also by Ew. §281, a, but הֶבֶל may also be taken as the representative of the gerund, as e.g., עֶרְיָה, Hab 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.