Matthew Poole Commentary - Job 31:31 - 31:31

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Matthew Poole Commentary - Job 31:31 - 31:31


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The men of my tabernacle, i.e. my domestics and familiar friends, who were much conversant with me in my house, and were witnesses of my carriage to others, and of their carriages to me, and therefore best able to judge in the case.



Of his flesh; either,



1. Of Job’s flesh, which is thought to be an expression either,



1. Of their fervent love to him, caused by his great tenderness and kindness to them. But his meek and gentle carriage to his servants he had expressed before in plain terms, Job_31:13; and therefore it is not likely he would repeat it, at least in such an obscure and ambiguous phrase, as is no where used in this sense, and is used in a contrary sense, Job_19:22. Or,



2. Of their hatred and rage against him, for the excessive trouble he put upon them in the entertainment of strangers, which follows, Job_31:32. But it is very improbable, either that so just and merciful a man as Job would put intolerable burdens upon his servants; or that some extraordinary trouble brought upon them by hospitality would inflame them to such a height of rage as this phrase implies, against so excellent and amiable a master. Or,



2. Of the flesh and other provisions made by Job for strangers: He feeds them liberally, but scarce alloweth us time to satisfy ourselves therewith; which also is very unlikely. Or rather,



3. Of the flesh of Job’s enemy, of whom he last spoke, Job_31:29,30. And so this is an amplification and further confirmation of Job’s charitable disposition and carriage to his enemy, although his cause was so just, and the malice of his enemies was so notorious and unreasonable, that all who were daily conversant with him, and were witnesses of his and their mutual carriages, did condemn and abhor them for it, and were so concerned and zealous in Job’s quarrel, that they protested they could eat their very flesh, and could not be satisfied without it. And yet notwithstanding all these provocations of others, he restrained both them and himself from executing vengeance upon them, as David afterwards did in a like case, 1Sa_24:4 2Sa_16:9,10.



We cannot be satisfied, to wit, without eating his flesh.