Job 16:11

God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) The ungodly and the wicked are the terms he retorts upon his friends, and they have certainly earned them. Now follows—

Benson Commentary

Job 16:11. God hath delivered me to the ungodly — Either, 1st, To my friends, who act the part of the wicked in censuring and condemning the righteous, whom God approveth, and in pleading for a false and wicked cause. Or, rather, to the Chaldeans and Sabeans, who were a most ungodly and wicked people, living in gross contempt of God, and injurious to all sorts of men. This seems best to suit both with the first clause of the next verse, which shows that Job speaks of his first afflictions which befell him when he was at ease, and with his principal design, which was to prove that both eminent prosperity and affliction did indifferently happen both to good and bad men, which indeed was evident from this example: because holy Job was ruined at the very time when this wicked people were most victorious and successful.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

16:6-16 Here is a doleful representation of Job's grievances. What reason we have to bless God, that we are not making such complaints! Even good men, when in great troubles, have much ado not to entertain hard thoughts of God. Eliphaz had represented Job as unhumbled under his affliction: No, says Job, I know better things; the dust is now the fittest place for me. In this he reminds us of Christ, who was a man of sorrows, and pronounced those blessed that mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

God hath delivered me - Margin "shut me up." The meaning is, that God had committed him to their hands as a prisoner or captive. They had power over him to do as they pleased.

To the ungodly - Into the hands of wicked people - meaning undoubtedly his professed friends.

And turned me over - The word used here (from ירט yârat) means to throw head long, to precipitate, to cast down. Here it means, "he has thrown me headlong into the hands of the wicked."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

11. the ungodly—namely, his professed friends, who persecuted him with unkind speeches.

turned me over—literally, "cast me headlong into the hands of the wicked."

Matthew Poole's Commentary

To the ungodly; either,

1. To my friends, who act the part of the wicked, in censuring and condemning the righteous, whom God approveth, and in pleading for a false and wicked cause. Or rather,

2. To the Chaldeans and Sabeans, who were a most wicked people, living in gross contempt of God, and injuriousness to all sorts of men. For this best suits both with the first clause of the next verse, which showeth that he speaketh of Job’s first afflictions, which befell him when he was at ease; and with Job’s principal scope, which was to prove that both eminent prosperity and affliction did indifferently happen to good and bad men; and this was evident from this example, because holy Job was ruined, when these wicked people were most victorious and successful.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

God hath delivered me up to the ungodly,.... The evil or wicked one, for it is in the singular number; and designs either Satan, into whose hands God had not only delivered his substance, but his person, excepting his life; though it may be, and which is an objection to this sense, Job as yet knew it not; or else Eliphaz, or, the singular number being put for the plural, as the next clause explains it, all his friends, whom he in turn calls evil and wicked men, because of their treatment of him; or else the Sabeans and Chaldeans are intended, who were suffered to plunder him of his substance; the words are very applicable to Christ, who was delivered to the Gentiles, and into the hands of sinners and wicked men, and that by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, who with wicked hands took him, and crucified him, Matthew 20:19; or God "shut him up", or "delivered him bound" (d), as the word signifies; which was literally true of Christ, who was bound by the Jews, and delivered first to the high priest, and then to the Roman governor, in such circumstances, John 18:12;

and turned me over into the hands of the wicked; signifying the same as before, unless it should be rendered, "and caused me to decline", or "come down by the hands of the wicked" (e) that is, from his former state of prosperity and happiness, into the low circumstances in which he was, and which he was brought into by the means of wicked men, God suffering it so to be.

(d) "vinctum me tradidit", Grotius, Michaelis, Schultens. (e) "divertere fecit a vita", Pagninus; "declinare me facit", Beza, Drusius, Mercerus.

Geneva Study Bible

God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the {m} hands of the wicked.

(m) They have led me where they would.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. hath delivered] delivereth. Similarly, turneth or casteth me into. By the “ungodly” Job does not mean his friends, but the low rabble of men, such as are described in ch. 30.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - God hath delivered me to the ungodly. All that Job had suffered at the hands of wicked men, the gibes of his "comforters," the insults and "derision ' of "base men" (Job 30:1, 8-10), the desertion of many who might have been expected to have come to his aid, being by God's per-minion, is attributed by Job to God himself, who has "delivered" him up to these "ungodly" ones, and permits them to add to and intensify his sufferings. He was not so ruthlessly treated as his great Anti-type; he was not bound with thongs, or crowned with thorns, or smitten with a reed, or scourged, or crucified - even the smiting on the cheek, spoken of in ver. 10, was probably metaphorical; but he suffered, no doubt, grievously, through the scorn and contumely that assailed him, through his friends' unkindness, and his enimies' insolent triumph, and the rude jeers of the "abjeets" who made him their "song" and their "byword" (Job 30:9). And turned me over into the hands of the wicked. Job speaks as if God had wholly given him up, made him over to the wicked, to deal with him exactly as they chose. This, of course, was not so. If the malevolence of Satan was limited by the Divine will (Job 1:12; Job 2:6); so, much more, would the malevolence of man be limited. Job 16:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

10 They have gaped against me with their mouth,

In contempt they smite my cheeks;

They conspire together against me.

11 God left me to the mercy of the ungodly,

And cast me into the hands of the evil-doer.

He does not mean the friends by those who mock and vex him with their contemptuous words, but the men around him who envied his prosperity and now rejoice at his misfortune; those to whom his uprightness was a burden, and who now consider themselves disencumbered of their liege lord, the over-righteous, censorious, godly man. The perfects here also have not a present signification; he depicts his suffering according to the change it has wrought since it came upon him. The verb פּער is used with the instrumental Beth instead of with the acc., as Job 29:23 (comp. on במלים, Job 16:4): they make an opening with their mouth (similar to Psalm 22:8, they make an opening with the lips, for diducunt labia). Smiting on the cheeks is in itself an insult (Lamentations 3:30); the additional בּחרפּה will therefore refer to insulting words which accompany the act. The Hithpa. התמלּא, which occurs only here, signifies not only to gather together a מלא in general, Isaiah 31:4, but (after the Arab. tamâla'a ‛ala, to conspire against any one)

(Note: Wetzstein thinks the signification conspirare for יתמלאון poor in this connection, and prefers to translate: All together they eat themselves full upon me, התמלּא as reflexive of מלּא, Job 38:39, synon. of נשׂבע, as in "the Lovers of Amsi," Ferhht, after the death of his beloved, cries out: We are not separated! To-morrow (i.e., soon) the All-kind One will unite us in paradise, and we shall satisfy ourselves one with another (Arab. w-ntmll' mn b-'dn 'l-b'd). One would, however, expect ממּנּי instead of עלי; but perhaps we may refer to the interchange of התענג על, Job 22:26; Job 27:10, with התענג מן, Isaiah 66:11.)

to complete one's self, to strengthen one's self (for a like hostile purpose): Reiske correctly: sibi invicem mutuam et auxiliatricem operam contra me simul omnes ferunt.

(Note: The signification to help, which belongs to the I. form Arab. mala'a, proceeds from malâ'un, to have abundance, to be well off; prop. to be able to furnish any one with the means (opes, copias) for anything, and thereby to place him in a position to accomplish it. Comp. the Lat. ops, opem ferre, opitulari, opes, opulentus (Arab. mal'un). - Fl.)

The meaning of עויל is manifest from Job 21:11; from עוּל, to suckle, alere (Arab. ‛âl med. Wau, whence the inf. ‛aul, ‛uwûl, and ‛ijâle), it signifies boys, knaves; and it is as unnecessary to suppose two forms, עויל and עויל, as two meanings, puer and pravus, since the language and particularly the book of Job has coined עוּל for the latter signification: it signifies in all three passages (here and Job 19:18; Job 21:11) boys, or the boyish, childish, knavish. The Arabic warratta leaves no doubt as to the derivation and meaning of ירטני; it signifies to cast down to destruction (warttah, a precipice, ruin, danger), and so here the fut. Kal ירטני for יירטני (Ges. 69, rem. 3), praecipitem me dabat (lxx ἔῤῥιψε, Symm. ἐνέβαλε), as the praet. Kal, Numbers 22:32 : praeceps equals exitiosa est via. The preformative Jod has Metheg in correct texts, so that we need not suppose, with Ralbag, a רטה, similar in meaning to ירט.