Job27
New Living Translation
1 Job continued speaking:
2 “I vow by the living God, who has taken away my rights, by the Almighty who has embittered my soul—
3 As long as I live, while I have breath from God,
4 my lips will speak no evil, and my tongue will speak no lies.
5 I will never concede that you are right; I will defend my integrity until I die.
6 I will maintain my innocence without wavering. My conscience is clear for as long as I live.
7 “May my enemy be punished like the wicked, my adversary like those who do evil.
8 For what hope do the godless have when God cuts them off and takes away their life?
9 Will God listen to their cry when trouble comes upon them?
10 Can they take delight in the Almighty? Can they call to God at any time?
11 I will teach you about God’s power. I will not conceal anything concerning the Almighty.
12 But you have seen all this, yet you say all these useless things to me.
13 “This is what the wicked will receive from God; this is their inheritance from the Almighty.
14 They may have many children, but the children will die in war or starve to death.
15 Those who survive will die of a plague, and not even their widows will mourn them.
16 “Evil people may have piles of money and may store away mounds of clothing.
17 But the righteous will wear that clothing, and the innocent will divide that money.
18 The wicked build houses as fragile as a spider’s web, as flimsy as a shelter made of branches.
19 The wicked go to bed rich but wake to find that all their wealth is gone.
20 Terror overwhelms them like a flood, and they are blown away in the storms of the night.
21 The east wind carries them away, and they are gone. It sweeps them away.
22 It whirls down on them without mercy. They struggle to flee from its power.
23 But everyone jeers at them and mocks them.
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Job 27Public-domain commentary and original-language notes for Job 27. The full AI study guide (summary, themes, context) has its own page.
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