Job 22:9

Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Benson Commentary

Job 22:9. Thou hast sent widows — Whose helpless state called for thy pity; away empty — Either by denying them that relief that their poverty required, or that right which their cause deserved; or, by spoiling them of their goods, because thou knewest them to be unable to oppose thee, or to defend themselves. And the arms of the fatherless have been broken —

That is, all their supports and rights, a heinous sin, but falsely charged upon Job.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

22:5-14 Eliphaz brought heavy charges against Job, without reason for his accusations, except that Job was visited as he supposed God always visited every wicked man. He charges him with oppression, and that he did harm with his wealth and power in the time of his prosperity.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Thou hast sent widows away empty - That is, without regarding their needs, and without doing anything to mitigate their sorrows. The oppression of the widow and the fatherless is, in the Scriptures, every where regarded as a crime of special magnitude; see the notes at Isaiah 1:17.

The arms of the fatherless have been broken - Thou hast taken away all that they relied on. Thou hast oppressed them and taken advantage of their weak and defenseless condition to enrich yourself. This charge was evidently gratuitous and unjust. It was the result of an "inference" from the fact that he was thus afflicted, and about as just as inferences, in such cases, usually are. To all this, Job replies in beautiful language in Job 29:11-16, when describing his former condition, and in justice to him, we may allow him to speak "here," and to show what was, in fact, the course of his life.

When the ear heard me, then it blessed me;

And when the eye saw me, it gave witness to me:

Because I delivered the poor that cried,

And the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.

The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me:

And I caused the widow's heart to leap for joy.

I put on righteousness, and it clothed me;

My judgment was as a robe and a diadem.

I was eyes to the blind,

And feet was I to the lame;

I was a father to the poor,

And the cause which I knew not, I searched out

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9. empty—without their wants being relieved (Ge 31:42). The Mosaic law especially protected the widow and fatherless (Ex 22:22); the violation of it in their case by the great is a complaint of the prophets (Isa 1:17).

arms—supports, helps, on which one leans (Ho 7:15). Thou hast robbed them of their only stay. Job replies in Job 29:11-16.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Widows, whose helpless estate called for thy pity, Exodus 22:22 Deu 24:17,19.

Away empty; either by denying them that relief which their poverty required, or that right which their cause deserved; or by spoiling them of their goods, because thou knewest them to be unable to oppose thee, or to right themselves.

The arms, i.e. all their supports, and comforts, and rights. A heinous sin, but falsely charged upon Job.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Thou hast sent widows away empty,.... Either out of their own houses, which he spoiled, and devoured, and stripped, and cleared of all that were in them, as did the Scribes and Pharisees in Christ's time, Matthew 23:14; or out of his own house, when they came to him, as a rich man, for charity; as they came to him wanting relief, they went away so; if without food and clothing, they were bid to depart without giving them anything to feed and clothe them with; or if they came to him as a civil magistrate to have justice done them, and to be delivered out of the hands of their oppressors, they could not obtain any, but were dismissed without it; how contrary is this to Job 29:13;

and the arms of the fatherless have been broken; not in a literal sense, as if when refusing to go out, when their mothers, the widows, had their houses spoiled, and they sent empty out of them; these laid hold on something within them, and would not depart, and so, had their arms broken by the mighty man, the man of arms; but, in a metaphorical and figurative sense, their substance, and goods, and possessions, left them by their fathers for their support, these were taken away from them, and so they were as impotent and helpless as if their arms had been broken; or their friends on whom they relied for their sustenance, these were either ruined, and so could not help them; or else their affections were alienated from them, and would not. This indeed is not expressly charged upon Job, but it is intimated that it was done with his knowledge and consent, good will, and approbation; at least that he connived at it, and suffered it to be done when it was in his power to have prevented it, and therefore to be ascribed unto him; but how foreign is all this to Job's true character, Job 29:12?

Geneva Study Bible

Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the {e} fatherless have been broken.

(e) You have not only not shown pity, but oppressed them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

9. His treatment of widows—he ejected them empty; or when they came seeking redress, or pleading their rights, he let them go unheard. Comp. Job’s own language as to himself, ch. Job 29:13, Job 31:16.

The “arms” of the fatherless are their helps or rights, on which they relied, and by which they were supported.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 9. - Thou hast sent widows away empty. Job, on the contrary, declares that he "caused the widow s heart to sing for joy" (Job 29:13). The sin of oppressing widows was one of which Job deeply felt the heinousness. He is certainly a priori not likely to have committed it (Job 1:1; Job 4:3, 4), and the prejudiced testimony of Eliphaz will scarcely convince any dispassionate person to the contrary. And the arms of the fatherless have been broken; i.e. the strength of the fatherless has been (by thy fault) taken flora them. Job has allowed them to be oppressed and ruined. The reply of Job is, "When the ear heard, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw, it gave witness to me: because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him" (Job 29:11, 12; see also Job 31:21, 22). Job 22:9

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The man of the arm, זרוע, is in Eliphaz' mind Job himself. He has by degrees acquired the territory far and wide for himself, by having brought down the rightful possessors by open violence (Job 20:19), or even by cunning and unfeeling practices, and is not deterred by any threat of a curse (Job 15:28): לו הארץ, he looked upon it as his, and his it must become; and since with his possessions his authority increased, he planted himself firmly in it, filled it out alone, like a stout fellow who takes the room of all others away. Umbr., Hahn, and others think Job's partiality for power and rank is described in Job 22:8; but both assertions read straightforward, without any intimation of co-operation. The address is here only suspended, in order to describe the man as he was and is. The all-absorbing love of self regulated his dealings. In possession of the highest power and highest rank, he was not easy of access. Widows and orphans, that they might not perish, were obliged to turn suppliantly to him. But the widows he chased away with empty hands, and the arms of the orphans were crushed. From the address a turn is also here taken to an objective utterance turned from the person addressed, intended however for him; the construction is like מצות יעכל, unleavened bread is eaten, Exodus 13:7, according to Ew. 295, b. The arms are not conceived of as stretched out for help (which would rather be ידי), nor as demanding back their perverted right, but the crushing of the arms, as Psalm 37:17; Ezekiel 30:22, and frequently implies a total destruction of every power, support, and help, after the analogy of the Arabic phrase compared by Ges. in his Thes. pp. 268b, 433b. The arm, זרוע (Arab. ḏirâ‛, oftener ‛aḍud or sâ‛id), signifies power, Job 40:9, Psalm 57:1-11 :16; force and violence, Job 22:8, Job 35:9; self-help, and help from without, Psalm 83:9 (comp. Psalm 44:4). Whatever the orphans possessed of goods, honour, and help still available, is not merely broken, it is beaten into fragments.