Job 31:29

If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(29) If I rejoiced at the destruction.—He now proceeds to the realm of the wishes and thoughts, and is, therefore, far more thorough and searching with his own case than his friends had been.

Benson Commentary

Job 31:29-30. If I rejoiced, &c. — I was so far from being malicious toward, and from revenging myself on, an enemy, which is the common and allowed practice of ungodly men, that I did not so much as delight in his ruin, when it was brought upon him by other hands. By this, and other passages of the Old Testament, (see Exodus 23:4; Proverbs 24:17-18,) we see that to love, forgive, and do good to our enemies, is not a duty peculiar to Christianity, but a part of that charity which now is, and ever was, by the law of nature, of indispensable obligation upon all men. Or lifted up myself when evil found him — Hebrew, התעררתי, hithgnorarti, stirred up himself, to rejoice and insult over his misery. Neither have I suffered my mouth — Hebrew, חכי, chicchi, my palate, which, being one of the instruments of speech, is put for all the rest; to sin by wishing a curse to his soul. The sense is, if any desire of his hurt did arise in me, I forthwith suppressed it, and did not suffer it to break forth in my uttering an imprecation against him.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

31:24-32 Job protests, 1. That he never set his heart upon the wealth of this world. How few prosperous professors can appeal to the Lord, that they have not rejoiced because their gains were great! Through the determination to be rich, numbers ruin their souls, or pierce themselves with many sorrows. 2. He never was guilty of idolatry. The source of idolatry is in the heart, and it corrupts men, and provokes God to send judgments upon a nation. 3. He neither desired nor delighted in the hurt of the worst enemy he had. If others bear malice to us, that will not justify us in bearing malice to them. 4. He had never been unkind to strangers. Hospitality is a Christian duty, 1Pe 4:9.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me - Job here introduces another class of offences, of which he says he was innocent. The subject referred to is the proper treatment of those who injure us. In respect to this, he says that he was entirely conscious of freedom from exultation when calamity came upon a foe, and that he had never even wished him evil in his heart. The word "destruction" here, means calamity, disappointment, or affliction of any kind. It had never been pleasant to him to see one who hated him suffer. It is needless to remark how entirely this accords with the New Testament. And it is pleasant to find such a sentiment as this expressed in the early age of the world, and to see how the influence of true religion is at all times the same. The religion of Job led him to act out the beautiful sentiment afterward embodied in the instructions of the Savior, and made binding on all his followers; Matthew 5:44. True religion will lead a man to act out what is embodied in its precepts, whether they are expressed in formal language or not.

Or lifted up myself - Been elated or rejoiced.

When evil found him - When calamity overtook him.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29. lifted up myself—in malicious triumph (Pr 17:5; 24:17; Ps 7:4).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I was so far from malice and revenging myself of mine enemy, which is the common and allowed practice of ungodly men, that I did not so much as desire or delight in his ruin, when it was brought upon him by other hands. Compare Exodus 23:4 Proverbs 24:17,18. Whence we may judge whether the great duty of loving and forgiving our enemies be a peculiar precept of Christianity, or whether it be a natural and moral duty, and a part and act of that charity which now is, and ever was, the duty of one man to another in all ages.

Lifted up myself, Heb. stirred up myself, to rejoice and insult over his misery.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me,.... Job, though a good man, had his enemies, as all good men have, and that because of their goodness, and who hated him with an implacable hatred, without a cause, there being a rooted bitter enmity in the seed of the serpent against the godly in all generations; on whom sooner or later, at one time or another, destruction comes, one calamity or another on their families, diseases on their bodies, loss of substance, death of themselves or relatives; now it is a common thing with wicked men to rejoice in the adversity of their enemies, but good men should not do so; yet it is a difficult thing, and requires a large measure of grace, and that in exercise, not to feel any pleasing emotion, a secret joy and inward pleasure, at the hearing of anything of this sort befalling an enemy; which is a new crime Job purges himself from:

or lifted up myself when evil found him; either the evil of sin, which sooner or later finds out the sinner, charges him with guilt, and requires punishment, or the evil of punishment for sin; which, though it may seem to move slowly, pursues the sinner, and will overtake him, and light upon him. Mr. Broughton renders the words, "and bestirred me when he found loss": loss in his family, in his cattle, and in his substance; now, when this was the case, Job did not raise up himself in a haughty manner, and insult and triumph over him, or stir up himself to joy and rejoicing, or to make joyful motions, as Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom interpret it; and by his gestures show that he was elated with the evil that had befallen his enemy; indeed so far as the fall and destruction of the wicked make for the public good, for the interest of religion, for the glory of God, and the honour of his justice, it is lawful for good men to rejoice thereat; but not from a private affection, or from a private spirit of revenge, see Psalm 58:10.

Geneva Study Bible

If I rejoice at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

29. at the destruction] Or, at the misfortune, ch. Job 12:5.

lift up myself] Or, exalted.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 29. - If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me. "If at any time I was malevolent, if I wished evil to others, and rejoiced when evil came upon them, being (as the Greeks expressed it) ἐπιχαιρέκακος - if I so acted even in the case of my enemy - then," etc. The apodosis is wanting, but may be supplied by any suitable imprecation (see vers. 8, 10, 22, 40). Or lifted up myself - i.e. was puffed up and exalted - when evil found him. In the old world men generally regarded themselves as fully entitled to exult at the downfall of an enemy, and to triumph over him with words of contumely and scorn (camp. Judges 5:19-31; Psalm 18:37-42; Isaiah 10:8-1.4, etc.). There appears to be but one other passage in the Old Testament, besides the present, in which the contrary disposition is shown. This is Proverbs 17:5, where the writer declares that "he who is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished." Job 31:29

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

29 If I rejoiced over the destruction of him who hated me,

And became excited when evil came upon him -

30 Yet I did not allow my palate to sin

By calling down a curse upon his life.

The aposiopesis is here manifest, for Job 31:29 is evidently equal to a solemn denial, to which Job 31:30 is then attached as a simple negative. He did not rejoice at the destruction (פיד, Arab. fêd,

(Note: Gesenius derives the noun פיד from the verb פיד, but the Arabic, which is the test here, has not only the verb fâda as med. u and as med. i in the signification to die, but also in connection with el̇feid (fêd) the substantival form el-fı̂d ( equals el-môt), which ( equals fiwd, comp. p. 26, note) is referable to fâda, med. u. Thus Neshwn, who in his Lexicon (vol. ii. fol. 119) even only knows fâda, med. u, in the signif. to die (comp. infra on Job 39:18, note).)

as Job 12:5; Job 30:24) of his enemy who was full of hatred towards him (משׂנאי, elsewhere also שׂנאי), and was not excited with delight (התערר, to excite one's self, a description of emotion, whether it be pleasure, or as Job 17:8, displeasure, as a not merely passive but moral incident) if calamity came upon him, and he did not allow his palate (חך as the instrument of speech, like Job 6:30) to sin by asking God that he might die as a curse. Love towards an enemy is enjoined by the Thora, Exodus 23:4, but it is more or less with a national limitation, Leviticus 19:18, because the Thora is the law of a people shut out from the rest of the world, and in a state of war against it (according to which Matthew 5:43 is to be understood); the books of the Chokma, however (comp. Proverbs 24:17; Proverbs 25:21), remove every limit from the love of enemies, and recognise no difference, but enjoin love towards man as man. With Job 31:30 this strophe closes. Among modern expositors, only Arnh. takes in Job 31:31 as belonging to it: "Would not the people of my tent then have said: Would that we had of his flesh?! we have not had enough of it," i.e., we would eat him up both skin and hair. Of course it does not mean after the manner of cannibals, but figuratively, as Job 19:22; but in a figurative sense "to eat any one's flesh" in Semitic is equivalent to lacerare, vellicare, obtrectare (vid., on Job 19:22, and comp. also Sur. xlix. 12 of the Koran, and Schultens' Erpenius, pp. 592f.), which is not suitable here, as in general this drawing of Job 31:31 to Job 31:29 is in every respect, and especially that of the syntax, inadmissible. It is the duty of beneficence, which Job acknowledges having practised, in Job 31:31.