Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 36:19 - 36:19

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Keil and Delitzsch Commentary - Job 36:19 - 36:19


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

19 Shall thy crying place thee beyond distress,

And all the efforts of strength?

20 Long not for the night to come,

Which shall remove people from their place!

21 Take heed, incline not to evil;

For this thou hast desired more than affliction.

Those expositors who found in Job 36:18 the warning, that Job should not imagine that he would be able to redeem himself from judgment by a large ransom, go on to explain: will He esteem thy riches? (Farisol, Rosenm., Umbr., Carey, Ebr., and others); or: will thy riches suffice? (Hirz., Schlottm.); or some other way (Ew.). But apart from the want of connection of this insinuation, which is otherwise not mentioned in the book, and apart from the violence which must be done to הֲיַֽעֲרֹךְ to accommodate it to it, שׁוּעַ, although it might, as the abstract of שֹׁועַ, Job 34:19, signify wealth (comp. Arab. sa‛at, amplitudo), is, however, according to the usage of the language (vid., Job 30:24), so far as we can trace it, a secondary form of שֶׁוַע (שַׁוְעָה), a cry for help; and Job 35:9., Job 36:13, and other passages, also point to this signification. What follows is still less appropriate to this thought of ransom; Hirz. translates: Oh, not God and all the treasures of wealth! But בְּצָר is nowhere equivalent to בֶּצֶר, Job 22:24; but צָר, Job 36:16, signifies distress; and the expression לֹא בְצָר, in a condition devoid of distress, is like לא בחכמה, Job 4:21, and לא ביד, Job 34:20. Finally, אַמִּיץ כֹּחַ signifies mighty in physical strength, Job 9:4, Job 9:19, and מַֽאֲמַצֵּי־כֹחַ strong proofs of strength, not “treasures of wealth.” Stick. correctly interprets: “Will thy wild raging cry, then, and all thine exertions, as a warrior puts them forth in the tumult of battle to work his way out, put thee where there is an open space?” but the figure of a warrior is, with Hahn, to be rejected; עָרַךְ is only a nice word for שִׁית שִׂים, to place, set up, Job 37:19.

Job 36:20

Elihu calls upon Job to consider the uselessness of his vehement contending with God, and then warns him against his dreadful provocation of divine judgment: ne anheles (Job 7:2) noctem illam (with the emphatic art.) sublaturam populos loco suo. לַעֲלֹות is equivalent to futuram (הַהֹוֲה or הָֽעֲתִידָה) ut tollat = sublaturam (vid., on Job 5:11, לָשׂוּם, collocaturus; Job 30:6, לִשְׁכֹּן, habitandum est), syncopated from לְהַֽעֲלֹות, in the sense of Psa 102:25; and תַּחְתָּם signifies, as Job 40:12 (comp. on Hab 3:16), nothing but that just where they are, firmly fixed without the possibility of escape, they are deprived of being. If whole peoples are overtaken by such a fate, how much less shall the individual be able to escape it! And yet Job presses forward on to the tribunal of the terrible Judge, instead of humbling himself under His mighty hand. Oh that in time he would shrink back from this absolute wickedness (אָוֶן), for he has given it the preference before עֳנִי, quiet, resigned endurance. בָּחַר עַל signifies, 2Sa 19:39, to choose to lay anything on any one; here as בחר בְּ, elsewhere to extend one's choice to something, to make something an object of choice; perhaps also under the influence of the phrase הִתְעַנֵּג עַל, and similar phrases. The construction is remarkable, since one would sooner have expected עַל־עֹנִי זה בחרת, hanc elegisti prae toleratione.