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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 31:19 - 31:19
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
19 If I saw one perishing without clothing,
And that the needy had no covering;
20 If his loins blessed me not,
And he did not warm himself from the hide of my lambs;
21 If I have lifted up my hand over the orphan,
Because I saw my help in the gate:
22 Let my shoulder fall out of its shoulder-blade,
And mine arm be broken from its bone;
23 For terror would come upon me, the destruction of God,
And before His majesty I should not be able to stand.
On אֹובֵד comp. on Job 4:11; Job 29:13; he who is come down from his right place and is perishing (root בד, to separate, still perfectly visible through the Arab. bâda, ba‛ida, to perish), or also he who is already perished, periens and perditus. The clause, Job 31:19, forms the second obj. to אִם אֶרְאֶה, which otherwise signifies si video, but here, in accordance with the connection, signifies si videbam. The blessing of the thankful (Job 29:13) is transferred from the person to the limbs in Job 31:20, which need and are benefited by the warmth imparted. אִם־לֹא here is not an expression of an affirmative asseveration, but a negative turn to the continuation of the hypothetical antecedents. The shaking, הָנִיף, of the hand, Job 31:21, is intended, like Isa 11:15; Isa 19:16 (comp. the Pilel, Isa 10:32), Zec 2:13, as a preparation for a crushing stroke. Job refrained himself from such designs upon the defenceless orphan, even when he saw his help in the gate, i.e., before the tribunal (Job 29:7), i.e., even when he had a certain prospect or powerful assistance there. If he has acted otherwise, his כָּתֵף, i.e., his upper arm together with the shoulder, must fall out from its שְׁכֶם, i.e., the back which bears it together with the shoulder-blades, and his אֶזְרֹעַ, upper and lower arm, which is considered here according to its outward flesh, must be broken out of its קָנֶה, tube, i.e., the reed-like hollow bone which gives support to it, i.e., be broken asunder from its basis (Syr. a radice sua), this sinning arm, which did not compassionate the naked, and mercilessly threatened the defenceless and helpless. The ת raphatum which follows in both cases, and the express testimony of the Masora, show that מִשּׁכְמָה and מִקָּנָה have no Mappik. The He quiescens, however, is in both instances softened from the He mappic. of the suff., Ew. §21,f. פַּחַד in Job 31:23 is taken by most expositors as predicate: for terror is (was) to me evil as God, the righteous judge, decrees it. But אֵלַי is not favourable to this. It establishes the particular thing which he imprecates upon himself, and that consequently which, according to his own conviction and perception, ought justly to overtake him out of the general mass, viz., that terror ought to come upon him, a divine decreed weight of affliction. אֵיד אֵל is a permutative of פחד = פחד אֱלֹהִים, and אלי with Dechî equivalent to אֵלַי (יָבֹא) יִהְיֶה, comp. Jer 2:19 (where it is to be interpreted: and that thou lettest no fear before me come over thee). Thus also Job 31:23 is suitably connected with the preceding: and I should not overcome His majesty, i.e., I should succumb to it. The מִן corresponds to the prae in praevalerem; שְׂאֵת (lxx falsely, λῆμμα, judgment, decision = משׂא, Jer. pondus) is not intended otherwise than Job 13:11 (parall. פחד as here).