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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 34:29 - 34:29
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
29 If He, however, maketh peace, who will then condemn?
And if He hideth His countenance - who then can behold Him? -
Both concerning numbers and individuals together:
30 That godless men reign not,
That they be not nets to the people.
31 For one, indeed, saith to God,
“I have been proud, I will not do evil;
32 “What I see not, show Thou me;
“If I have done wrong, I will do it no more”!? -
If God makes peace (יַשְׁקִיט as Psa 94:13, comp. Isa 14:7, הארץ שָֽׁקְטָה כל־, viz., after the overthrow of the tyrant) in connection with such crying oppression of the poor, who will then condemn Him without the rather recognising therein His comprehensive justice? The conjecture יַרְעִשׁ
(Note: Vid., Grätz in Frankel's Monatsschrift, 1861, i.)
is not required either here or 1Sa 14:47 (where הרשׁיע signifies to punish the guilty); יַרְשִׁעַ is also not to be translated turbabit (Rosenm.), since רָשַׁע (Arab. rs‛, rsg) according to its primitive notion does not signify “to be restless, to rage,” but “to be relaxed, hollow” (opposite of צדק, Arab. ṣdq, to be hard, firm, tight). Further: If God hides His countenance, i.e., is angry and punishes, who can then behold Him, i.e., make Him, the veiled One, visible and claim back the favour withdrawn? The Waw of וּמִי, if one marks off the periods of the paratactic expression, is in both cases the Waw of conclusion after hypothetical antecedents, and. Job 34:29 refers to Job's impetuous challenging of God. Thus exalted above human controversy and defiance, God rules both over the mass and over individuals alike. יַחַד gives intensity of the equality thus correlatively (et-et) expressed (Targ., Syr.); to refer it to אדם as generalizing (lxx, Jer. et super omnes homines), is forbidden by the antithesis of peoples and individuals. To the thought, that God giveth rest (from oppressors) and hides His countenance (from the oppressors and in general those who act wrongly), two co-ordinate negative final clauses are attached: in order that godless men may not rule (מִמְּלֹךְ, as e.g., 2Ki 23:33, Keri), in order that they may no longer be (מ( e = מִֽהְיֹות, under the influence of the notion of putting aside contained in the preceding final clause, therefore like Isa 7:8 מעם, Isa 24:2 מעיר, Jer 48:2 מגוי, and the like) snares of the people, i.e., those whose evil example and bad government become the ruin of the community.
In Job 34:31 the view of those who by some jugglery concerning the laws of the vowel sounds explain הֶאָמַר as imper. Niph. (= הֵאָמֵר), be it in the sense of לְהֵאָמֵר, dicendum est (Rosenm., Schlottm., and others, after Raschi), or even in the unheard-of reflexive signification: express thyself (Stick., Hahn), is to be rejected. The syncopated form of the infin. בֶּהָרֵג, Eze 26:15, does not serve as a palliation of this adventurous imperative. It is, on the contrary, אָמַר with הֶ interrog., as Eze 28:9 הֶאָמֹר, and probably also הֶעָמוּר Mic 2:7 (vid., Hitz.). A direct exhortation to Job to penitence would also not be in place here, although what Elihu says is levelled against Job. The כִּי is confirmatory. Thus God acts with that class of unscrupulous men who abuse their power for the destruction of their subjects: for he (one of them) says (or: has said, from the standpoint of the execution of punishment) to God, etc. Ew. differently: “for one says thus to God even: I expiate what I do not commit,” by understanding the speech quoted of a defiance which reproachfully demands an explanation. It is, however, manifestly a compendious model confession. And since Elihu with כי establishes the execution of punishment from this, that it never entered the mind of the עָדָם חָנֵף thus to humble himself before God, so נָשָׂאתִי here cannot signify: I have repented (put up with and had to bear what I have deserved); on the contrary, the confession begins with the avowal: I have exalted myself (נָשָׂא, se efferre, in Hos 13:1; Psa 89:10), which is then followed by the vow: I will not (in the future) do evil (חָבַל synon. עָוָה, as Neh 1:7, and probably also supra, Job 24:9), and the entreaty, Job 34:32 : beside that which I behold (elliptical object-clause, Ew. §333, b), i.e., what lies beyond my vision (= נִסְתָּרֹות or עֲלֻמִים, Psa 19:13; Psa 90:8, unacknowledged sins), teach me; and the present vow has reference to acknowledged sins and sins that have still to be acknowledged: if I have done wrong, I will do it no more. Thus speaking - Elihu means - those high ones might have anticipated the punishment of the All-just God, for favour instead of wrath cannot be extorted, it is only reached by the way of lowly penitence.