Job27
New International Version
1And Job continued his discourse:
2“As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter,
3as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils,
4my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies.
5I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
6I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live.
7“May my enemy be like the wicked, my adversary like the unjust!
8For what hope have the godless when they are cut off, when God takes away their life?
9Does God listen to their cry when distress comes upon them?
10Will they find delight in the Almighty? Will they call on God at all times?
11“I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.
12You have all seen this yourselves. Why then this meaningless talk?
13“Here is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:
14However many his children, their fate is the sword; his offspring will never have enough to eat.
15The plague will bury those who survive him, and their widows will not weep for them.
16Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay,
17what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver.
18The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman.
19He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.
20Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night.
21The east wind carries him off, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.
22It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power.
23It claps its hands in derision and hisses him out of his place.”
Study Guide
Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Job 27.
Chapter Summary
In this chapter: Job protests his sincerity. (1–6). The hypocrite is without hope. (7–10). The miserable end of the wicked. (11–23).
vv1-6
Job's friends now suffered him to speak, and he proceeded in a grave and useful manner. Job had confidence in the goodness both of his cause and of his God; and cheerfully committed his cause to him. But Job had not due reverence when he spake of God as taking away his judgment, and vexing his soul. To resolve that our hearts shall not reproach us, while we hold fast our integrity, baffles the designs of the evil spirit.
vv7-10
Job looked upon the condition of a hypocrite and a wicked man, to be most miserable. If they gained through life by their profession, and kept up their presumptuous hope till death, what would that avail when God required their souls? The more comfort we find in our religion, the more closely we shall cleave to it. Those who have no delight in God, are easily drawn away by the pleasures, and easily overcome by the crosses of this life. (Job 27:11-23)
vv11-23
Job's friends, on the same subject, spoke of the misery of wicked men before death as proportioned to their crimes; Job considered that if it were not so, still the consequences of their death would be dreadful. Job undertook to set this matter in a true light. Death to a godly man, is like a fair gale of wind to convey him to the heavenly country; but, to a wicked man, it is like a storm, that hurries him away to destruction. While he lived, he had the benefit of sparing mercy; but now the day of God's patience is over, and he will pour out upon him his wrath. When God casts down a man, there is no flying from, nor bearing up under his anger. Those who will not now flee to the arms of Divine grace, which are stretched out to receive them, will not be able to flee from the arms of Divine wrath, which will shortly be stretched out to destroy them. And what is a man profited if he gain the whole world, and thus lose his own soul?
Key Words
אִיּוֹב: Ijob, the patriarch famous for his patience
יָסַף: to add or augment (often adverbial, to continue to do a thing)
נָשָׂא: to lift, in a great variety of applications, literal and figurative, absolute and relative
מָשָׁל: properly, a pithy maxim, usually of metaphorical nature; hence, a simile (as an adage, poem, discourse)
אָמַר: to say (used with great latitude)
אֵל: strength; as adjective, mighty; especially the Almighty (but used also of any deity)
חַי: alive; hence, raw (flesh); fresh (plant, water, year), strong; also (as noun, especially in the feminine singular and masculine plural) life (or living thing), whether literally or figuratively
סוּר: to turn off (literal or figurative)
מִשְׁפָּט: properly, a verdict (favorable or unfavorable) pronounced judicially, especially a sentence or formal decree (human or (participant's) divine law, individual or collective), including the act, the place, the suit, the crime, and the penalty; abstractly, justice, including a participant's right or privilege (statutory or customary), or even a style
שַׁדַּי: the Almighty
Cross References
Job 27Parallels God taking/requiring the soul of the rich, complacent fool who gained much worldly wealth.
Supported by Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole
Directly echoes Eliphaz's words about "delighting" in the Almighty, which Job claims he truly does.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Zophar's exact vocabulary of the wicked man's "portion" and "heritage" from God is taken up by Job.
Supported by Matthew Henry, JFB
Alludes to the "breath" and "spirit of God" breathed into man's nostrils at creation.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Affirms that God will not hear the cry or prayer of the hypocrite or wicked.
Supported by JFB
Job echoes Bildad's earlier imagery of the wicked building a fragile house like a moth's web.
Supported by JFB
Explains the elevated, poetic "parable" form that Job uses to declare dark, weighty wisdom.
Supported by Matthew Poole, JFB
Typologically foreshadows Christ whose judgment/justice was taken away in His humiliation.
Supported by JFB
Parallels the devastating judgment where priests fall by the sword and their widows cannot make lamentation.
Supported by Matthew Poole
Employs identical imagery of heaping up silver "as the dust" and fine raiment "as the clay."
Supported by JFB
Parallels God's own description of Job holding fast his integrity despite being ruined without cause.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Parallels Christ's question on what it profits a man to gain the world yet lose his soul.
Supported by Matthew Henry
Verbal link using a temporary, flimsy "booth" built by a keeper in a vineyard.
Supported by JFB