Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 36:16 - 36:16

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 36:16 - 36:16


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

16 And He even bringeth thee out of the jaws of distress

To a broad place, whose ground hath no straitness,

And the adorning of thy table shall be full of fatness.

17 Yet thou art become full of the judging of the evil-doer:

Judging and judgment lay hold on one another!

18 For let not anger indeed entice thee to scorning,

And let not the greatness of the ransom mislead thee.

With Job 36:16 Elihu passes over to the application to Job of what he said in the preceding strophe. Since it is usual to place אַף (like גַּם and אַךְ) at the beginning of the sentence, although not belonging to the member of the sentence which immediately follows, וְאַף הֲסִיתְךָ for וְהֵסִית אַף אֹתְךָ cannot be remarkable. The praet. הסיתך is not promissory, but Elihu says with what design God has decreed the present suffering for Job. הֵסִית מִן is like 2Ch 18:31 : out of distress (צָר for צַר by Rebia magnum), which has him in its jaws, and threatens to swallow him, God brings him away to great prosperity; a thought which Elihu expresses in the imagery of the Psalms of a broad place and a bountiful table (comp. e.g., Psa 4:2; Psa 23:5). רַחַב is locative, and לֹא־מוּצַק תַּחְתֶּיהָ is either a relative clause: whose beneath (ground) is not straitened, no-straitness (in which case מוּצַק would not be constr. from the n. hophal. מוּצָק, Isa.Isa 9:1, but absol. after the form מַֽחֲנַק, Job 7:15, Ew. §160, c, Anm. 4), Saad. Arab. lâ ḍı̂q fı̂ mûḍ‛hâ (cujus in loco non angustiae); or it is virtually an adj.: without (לֹא = בְּלֹא, as Job 34:24), comp. on Job 12:24) straitness of what is beneath them, eorum quae sub se habet (comp. on Job 28:5). רַחַב is fem., like רְחֹוב, Dan 9:25. A special clause takes the place of the locative, Job 36:16 : and the settling or spreading, i.e., the provision (from נוּחַ, to come down gradually, to seat one's self) of thy table shall be full of fatness. מָלֵא (whether it be adj. or verb) is treated by attraction, according to the gender of the governed noun; and it is unnecessary, with Rosenm. and others, to derive נַחַת from נָחַת (Aram. for יָרַד).

In Job 36:17, דִּין is intended of Job's negative judgment concerning God and His dealings (comp. Psa 76:9, where it signifies a judicial decision, and Pro 22:10, where it signifies a wrangling refusal of a fair decision). Job 36:17 is not a conditional clause (Hahn), in which case the praet. hypothet. would have a prominent position, but an adversative predicative clause: but (nevertheless) thou art full of the judging of the evil-doer (evil judging); after which, just as ἀσυνδέτως as Job 36:14, the sad issue in which this judging after the manner of evil-doers results is expressed: such judging and judgment border closely upon one another. Röd., Dietr., and Schlottm. have wrongly reproduced this idea, discerned by Ges., when they translate: judgment and sentence (guilt and punishment) shall seize thee. יִתְמֹכוּ, prehendunt scil. se (Ebr.: put forth the hand), is used like the Aram. סְמַךְ, to draw nearer, fasten together (Rabb. סָמוּךְ, near at hand), Arab. tamâsaka (from Arab. msk = סמך, as e.g., hanash = נָחָשׁ). In Job 36:18 we leave the signification thick milk or cream (חֵמָה = חֶמְאָה, as Job 29:6) to those who persuade themselves that cream can be metaphorically equivalent to superfluity (Ew., Hirz., Vaih., Hlgst.). Renan's translation: N'espère pas détourner la colère de Dieu par une amende, we also leave as a simple puzzle to its discoverer, who, with this one exception, is destitute of thoughts proper to the book of Job. In general, the thought, “do not imagine by riches, by a great ransom, to be able to satisfy the claims of God,” is altogether out of place here. Moreover, חֵמָה, which, as e.g., דְּאָגָה, Pro 12:25 (Ew. §174, g), is construed as masc., cannot be understood of God's wrath, since the poet by הֵסִית will not at one time have ascribed to God a well-meant incitation, at another an enticement in malam partem. That which allures is Job's own חֵמָה, and that not the excitement of his affliction (Hahn), but of his passion; comp. אָף, Job 36:13. שֶׂפֶק is, however, to be explained according to Job 34:37, comp. Job 27:23 (clapping of hands = derision); and כֹּפֶר signifies reconciliation or expiation, as Job 33:24. Elihu admonishes Job not to allow himself to be drawn by the heat of passion into derision, or to deride; nor to be allured from the right way by the ransom which is required of him as the price of restoration to happiness, viz., humble submission to the divine chastisement, as though this ransom were exceeding great. The connection is clear: an adverse verdict (דִּין) and condemnation (מִשְׁפָּט) are closely connected; for (כִּי) hastiness of temper, let it not (פֶּן( ton ti ) lead thee astray ... thou wouldst not escape the judgment of God!