Job 34:5

For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5) For Job hath said.—See Job 13:18-19; Job 27:2, especially.

Benson Commentary

Job 34:5-6. Job hath said, I am righteous — I am so far righteous that I have not deserved, nor had any reason to expect, such hard usage from God. God hath taken away my judgment — So Job had said, Job 27:2; that is, he denies me that which is just and equal, namely, to give me a fair hearing. Should I lie against my right — Thus Job had spoken in effect, Job 27:4-6. Should I falsely accuse myself of sins of which I am not guilty? Should I betray mine own cause, and deny that integrity which I am conscious I possess? My wound is incurable without transgression — Without any such crying sin as might reasonably bring down such terrible judgments upon my head.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

34:1-9 Elihu calls upon those present to decide with him upon Job's words. The plainest Christian, whose mind is enlightened, whose heart is sanctified by the Spirit of God, and who is versed in the Scriptures, can say how far matters, words, or actions, agree with true religion, better than any that lean to their own understandings. Job had spoken as if he meant wholly to justify himself. He that say, I have cleansed my hands in vain, does not only offend against God's children, Ps 73:13-15, but gratifies his enemies, and says as they say.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For Job hath said, I am righteous - see Job 13:18, "I know that I shall be justified;" compare Job 23:10-11, where he says, if he was tried he would come forth as gold. Elihu may have also referred to the general course of remark which he had pursued as vindicating himself.

And God hath taken away my judgment - This sentiment is found in Job 27:2; see the notes at that place.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

5. judgment—my right. Job's own words (Job 13:18; 27:2).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

I am righteous; either,

1. I am perfectly righteous. But this Job did not say, but the contrary, Job 9:2,3 14:4. Or,

2. I am a sincere person, no hypocrite, as my friends made me. But this Elihu doth not deny. Or,

3. I am so far righteous, and have been so holy and blameless in my life, that I have not deserved, nor had any reason to expect, such hard usage from God. And this Job had oft intimated, and Elihu doth justly blame him for it, that he blazoned his own righteousness with tacit reflections upon God for dealing so severely with him.

God hath taken away my judgment; for so Job had said, Job 27:2; i.e. he denies me that which is but just and equal, to give me a fair hearing, to suffer me to plead my cause with or before him, to show me the reasons of his contending with me, and what sins besides common infirmities I have been guilty of, whereby I have deserved such extraordinary judgments; which Elihu justly taxeth him with as a very irreverent and presumptuous expression.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For Job hath said, I am righteous,.... Not in express words, but what amounted to it: no doubt he was a righteous man in an evangelic sense, being justified by the righteousness of Christ, as all the Old Testament saints were, who looked to him and believed in him as the Lord their righteousness, and said, as the church in those times did, "surely in the Lord have I righteousness and strength"; Isaiah 45:24. And moreover he was an upright man, to which the Lord himself bore testimony, Job 1:8; and had the truth of grace in him, that "new man which is created in righteousness and true holiness"; and also lived an holy life and conversation; but then he did not say or think that he was righteous in or of himself, or so as to be free from sin: Job could not judge or speak thus of himself, which would be contrary to what he expressly declares, Job 7:20; though it must be owned, that he thought himself so righteous, holy, and good, that he ought not to have been afflicted in the manner he was; in which sense it is probable Elihu understood him: and besides, these words are not to be taken separately, but in connection with what follows, which shows Job's sense, and how Elihu understood him, that though he was a righteous person, he had not justice done him:

and God hath taken away my judgment; which words he did say; see Gill on Job 27:2; or, as Mr. Broughton renders the words, "the Omnipotent keeps back my right"; does not vindicate my cause, nor so much as give it a hearing, nor lets me know why he contends with me; and, though I call for justice to be done, cannot be heard, Job 19:7; a like complaint of the church in Isaiah 40:27.

Geneva Study Bible

For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken {c} away my judgment.

(c) That is, has afflicted me without measure.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. I am righteous] Or, in the right, I have right on my side.

my judgment] As before means my right, what is rightly due to me—God has dealt with me unjustly; comp. Job 9:15; Job 9:20, Job 13:18, Job 27:2; Job 27:6.

5–9. Elihu recites Job’s statement of his cause against God, expressing his abhorrence of Job’s sentiments.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - For Job hath said, I am righteous. Job had maintained his "righteousness" in a certain sense, i.e. his integrity, his honesty, his conviction that God would ultimately acquit him; but he had not maintained his sinlessness (see the comment on Job 33:9). He had not even said, in so many words, "I am righteous." The nearest that he had come to saying it was when (in Job 13:18) he had exclaimed, "I know that I shall be held righteous," or "justified." And God hath taken away my judgment. Job had said this (Job 27:2), but in the sense that God had withheld from him the judgment on his cause which he desired, not that he had perverted judgment, and wrongfully condemned him (see the 'Speaker's Commentary,' vol. 4. p. 97). Job 34:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

5 For Job hath said: "I am guiltless,

"And God hath put aside my right.

6 "Shall I lie in spite of my right,

"Incurable is mine arrow without transgression."

7 Where is there a man like Job,

Who drinketh scorning like water,

8 And keepeth company with the workers of iniquity,

And walketh with wicked men,

9 So that he saith: "A man hath no profit

"From entering into fellowship with God"?!

That in relation to God, thinking of Him as a punishing judge, he is righteous or in the right, i.e., guiltless (צדקתּי with Pathach in pause, according to Ew. 93, c, from צדק equals צדק, but perhaps, comp. Proverbs 24:30; Psalm 102:26, because the Athnach is taken only as of the value of Zakeph), Job has said verbatim in Job 13:18, and according to meaning, Job 23:10; Job 27:7, and throughout; that He puts aside his right (the right of the guiltless, and therefore not of one coming under punishment): Job 27:2. That in spite of his right (על, to be interpreted, according to Schultens' example, just like Job 10:7; Job 16:17), i.e., although right is on his side, yet he must be accounted a liar, since his own testimony is belied by the wrathful form of his affliction, that therefore the appearance of wrong remains inalienably attached to him, we find in idea in Job 9:20 and freq. Elihu makes Job call his affliction חצּי, i.e., an arrow sticking in him, viz., the arrow of the wrath of God (on the objective suff. comp. on Job 23:2), after Job 6:4; Job 16:9; Job 19:11; and that this his arrow, i.e., the pain which it causes him, is incurably bad, desperately malignant without (בּלי as Job 8:11) פּשׁע, i.e., sins existing as the ground of it, from which he would be obliged to suppose they had thrust him out of the condition of favour, is Job's constant complaint (vid., e.g., Job 13:23.). Another utterance of Job closely connected with it has so roused Elihu's indignation, that he prefaces it with the exclamation of astonishment: Who is a man like Job, i.e., where in all the world (מי as 2 Samuel 7:23) has this Job his equal, who ... . The attributive clause refers to Job; "to drink scorn (here: blasphemy) like water," is, according to Job 15:16, equivalent to to give one's self up to mockery with delight, and to find satisfaction in it. ארח לחברה, to go over to any one's side, looks like a poeticized prose expression. ללכת is a continuation of the ארח, according to Ew. 351, c, but not directly in the sense "and he goes," but, as in the similar examples, Jeremiah 17:10; Jeremiah 44:19; 2 Chronicles 7:17, and freq., in the sense of: "he is in the act of going;" comp. on Job 36:20 and Habakkuk 1:17. The utterance runs: a man does not profit, viz., himself (on the use of סכן of persons as well as of things, vid., on Job 22:2), by his having joyous and familiar intercourse (בּרצתו, as little equivalent to בּרוּץ as in Psalm 50:18) with God. Job has nowhere expressly said this, but certainly the declaration in Job 9:22, in connection with the repeated complaints concerning the anomalous distribution of human destinies (vid., especially Job 21:7, Job 24:1), are the premises for such a conclusion. That Elihu, in Job 34:7, is more harsh against Job than the friends ever were (comp. e.g., the well-measured reproach of Eliphaz, Job 15:4), and that he puts words into Job's moth which occur nowhere verbatim in his speeches, is worked up by the Latin fathers (Jer., Philippus Presbyter, Beda,

(Note: Philippus Presbyter was a disciple of Jerome. His Comm. in Iobum is extant in many forms, partly epitomized, partly interpolated (on this subject, vid., Hieronymi Opp. ed. Vallarsi, iii. 895ff.). The commentary of Beda, dedicated to a certain Nectarius (Vecterius), is fundamentally that of this Philippus.)

Gregory) in favour of their unfavourable judgment of Elihu; the Greek fathers, however, are deprived of all opportunity of understanding him by the translation of the lxx (in which μυκτηρισμόν signifies the scorn of others which Job must swallow down, comp. Proverbs 26:6), which here perverts everything.