Job 34:27

Because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways:

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(27) Because they turned back from him.—Elihu, therefore, as well as Job’s other friends, believed in the direct execution of God’s judgments.

Benson Commentary

Job 34:27-28. Because they turned back from him — From God, whom they or their progenitors had owned; and from his laws, which God had written on their minds, Romans 2:14; and from the practice of true religion, to sin and folly. And would not consider any of his ways — So as to walk in them. Hebrew, לא השׂכילו, lo hischilu, they would not understand, or consider them wisely, so as to make a proper and wise use of their knowledge of them. They cause the cry of the poor to come to him — To God, as the following words imply, it being God’s work to hear the cry, and plead the cause, of the afflicted or oppressed. Their case is bad who have the prayers and tears of the poor against them; for these will draw down vengeance, sooner or later, on the heads of their oppressors.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

34:16-30 Elihu appeals directly to Job himself. Could he suppose that God was like those earthly princes, who hate right, who are unfit to rule, and prove the scourges of mankind? It is daring presumption to condemn God's proceedings, as Job had done by his discontents. Elihu suggests divers considerations to Job, to produce in him high thoughts of God, and so to persuade him to submit. Job had often wished to plead his cause before God. Elihu asks, To what purpose? All is well that God does, and will be found so. What can make those uneasy, whose souls dwell at ease in God? The smiles of all the world cannot quiet those on whom God frowns.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Because they turned back from him - Margin, "from after him." That is, they receded, or went away from God.

And would not consider any of his ways - They would not regard or attend to any of his commands. The word way, in the Scriptures, is often used to denote "religion." A "way" denotes the course of life which one leads; the path in which he walks. The "ways of God" denote his course or plan, his precepts or laws; and to depart from them, or to disregard them, is only another mode of saying that a man has no religion.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

27, 28. The grounds of their punishment in Job 34:26. Job 34:28 states in what respect they "considered not God's ways," namely, by oppression, whereby "they caused the cry," &c.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

From him; from the God, whom they or their progenitors had owned; and his laws, which God hath written in the minds of all men, Romans 2:14,15; and, it may be, from the practice of the true religion, which sometimes they professed;

Would not consider, or understand. They did not desire nor endeavour to know them, at least practically, or to any good purpose.

His ways; either,

1. God’s providential ways. They did not lay to heart any of God’s judgments inflicted upon such oppressors as themselves, which should have given them warning, but boldly persisted in the same wicked courses. Or,

2. His precepts; oft called his ways, because he hath appointed them for us to walk in. For these ways they were in a special manner obliged to consider and practise; and the next verse giveth us an instance of their backsliding from these ways.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Because they turned back from him,.... Became apostates from the ways and worship of God, as the posterity of Cain before the flood, and the posterity of Ham after it; who had been educated and trained up therein, and turned from the law of God, as the Septuagint version, from the light and law of nature:

and would not consider any of his ways; either of providence, whether in a way of mercy which might lead to repentance, or in a way of judgment which might be a caution and instruction to them; or of his precepts, the way of his commandments, not any of these would they consider; so as to express a value for them, show any regard to them, and walk in them; and which was owing to the stubbornness of their wills; they would not advert to them.

Geneva Study Bible

Because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 27. - Because they turned back from him (On the sin of "turning back," see 2 Kings 17:15, 16; Proverbs 26:11; 2 Peter 2:22.) And would not consider any of his ways (comp. Psalm 28:5; Isaiah 5:12). The folly and wickedness of such conduct is reproved by Solomon in the strongest terms, "Because I have called, and ye refused: I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Thou shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: for that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their Own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them" (Proverbs 1:24-32). Job 34:27

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The following תּחת רשׁעים cannot signify: on the place of the evil-doers, i.e., in the place where evil-doers are punished (Hirz., Hahn, and others), for תּחת (תּחתּי) only has this signification with the suff. (vid., on Habakkuk 3:16); but not otherwise than: in the evil-doers' stead, taking them and treating them as such, as Jer. has correctly translated: quasi impios (comp. Isaiah 10:4, Jerome, cum interfectis). The place first mentioned afterwards is not exactly the usual place of judgment, but any place whatever where all can see it. There He smites those who hitherto held positions of eminence, as of unimpeachable honour, like the common criminal; ספק, Arab. ṣfq, complodere, and then ictu resonante percutere, as the likewise cognate Arab. sf' signifies first to box the ear (as Arab. sfq equals ṣfq), then so to strike that it smacks. As little as לכן, Job 34:25, was equals לכן אשׁר, just so little is אשׁר על־כּן, Job 34:27, equals על־כן אשׁר (vid., on the other hand what is said on Genesis 18:5 concerning כּי־על־כּן). Elihu wishes to say that they endure such a destiny of punishment, because they therefore, i.e., in order to suffer such, have turned aside from following after God, and have not thought on all His ways, i.e., guidings, by which He manifested Himself to them: they have thus sought to cause the cry of the poor to come (Jer. well renders: ut pervenire facerent ad eum) before Him (עליו, perhaps with the idea of urging forward equals לפניו or בּאזניו), and that He may hear the cry of the lowly (construction exactly like Job 33:17), i.e., have sought to bring forth His avenging justice by injustice that cries aloud to heaven.