Job34chapter 34

Job 34:1-4

Furthermore Elihu answered and said opens his second argument, addressed now not to Job alone but to ye wise men, ye that have knowledge, an audience wider than the four men on stage. His method is stated as a maxim, the ear trieth words, as the mouth tasteth meat, testing speech by discernment rather than by the speaker's age, the same claim he made for himself at 32:9. Let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good invites a shared verdict rather than another private one, which is the charge Elihu laid against the three friends at 32:13.

Job 34:5-9

For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment states Elihu's version of Job's case, tightened from Job's fuller complaints into a single charged claim. Should I lie against my right, my wound is incurable without transgression, is offered as Job's own reasoning, and Elihu treats it as dangerously close to accusing God of injustice. What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water is a harsh line, and Barnes notes it goes further than anything Job has actually said, sharpening it profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God into something closer to blasphemy than Job's own words support. Clarke reads verses 8 and 9 as Elihu's weakest move in the speech, a summary that borrows the friends' habit of overstating Job's case in order to answer it more easily.

Job 34:10-12

Far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity states Elihu's core thesis for this second speech, the justice of the Governor defended as an axiom rather than argued from evidence. For the work of a man shall he render unto him, and cause every man to find according to his ways grounds the axiom in a plain doctrine of recompense, God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment. Wesley reads verse 10's far be it as a true and reverent claim in itself, whatever the reader judges of how Elihu goes on to apply it to Job's own case.

Job 34:13-15

Who hath given him a charge over the earth, or who hath disposed the whole world, grounds God's justice in his position as Creator rather than in any account he owes a creature, the same ground the whirlwind speeches will take up at length from chapter 38. If he set his heart upon man, if he gather unto himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall turn again unto dust states the argument at its starkest, that the Creator's power to unmake is itself a kind of proof against the charge of injustice. Davidson notes Elihu's move here anticipates the Lord's own answer out of the whirlwind, an argument from unaccountable power that Job will meet again from a different mouth.

Job 34:16-18

If now thou hast understanding, hear this: hearken to the voice of my words asks Job directly to judge the argument that follows. Shall even he that hateth right govern, and wilt thou condemn him that is most just, turns the axiom of verse 10 into a question aimed at Job's own complaint, that to charge God with injustice is to imagine him hating the right he governs by. Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked, and to princes, Ye are ungodly, presses the argument from lesser authority to greater, and Henry notes the analogy carries real force even where Elihu's tone toward Job does not.

Job 34:19-20

How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands extends the argument from earthly kings to the Creator, whose impartiality Elihu grounds in his making of every man alike. In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand states the reach of that impartial power, sudden and unanswerable regardless of rank. Barnes reads without hand as a claim that no human agency is needed for God's justice to act, a point Elihu presses further in the verses that follow.

Job 34:21-25

For his eyes are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings answers Job's old complaint of a God who hides himself, with the claim that nothing is in fact hidden from him. There is no darkness, nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves extends the claim to the wicked specifically, since he will not lay upon man more than right, that he should enter into judgment with God. He shall break in pieces mighty men without number, and set others in their stead, therefore he knoweth their works, and he overturneth them in the night describes the exercise of that justice in history, kings and rulers displaced by an authority no court can call to account. Gill reads verse 24's without number as Elihu's claim that God's justice operates at a scale far beyond the single case Job keeps pressing.

Job 34:26-30

He striketh them as wicked men in the open sight of others answers the objection that God's justice is hidden, insisting that where it falls it falls visibly. Because they turned back from him, and would not consider any of his ways names the ground of the striking, so that they cause the cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of the afflicted, turning the argument toward mercy for the oppressed rather than only punishment for the oppressor. When he giveth quietness, who then can make trouble, and when he hideth his face, who then can behold him, closes the unit with a claim of sovereign freedom Elihu applies equally to a nation or to a man only, that the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared. Henry reads verse 29 as the hardest line for a sufferer to hear, since it makes even the hiding of God's face a matter no creature may question.

Job 34:31-33

Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement, I will not offend any more proposes the confession Elihu believes the situation calls for, a model prayer offered in Job's place. That which I see not teach thou me: if I have done iniquity, I will do no more continues the model, humility paired with a request for instruction rather than a demand for explanation. Should it be according to thy mind, he will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose, and not I, therefore speak what thou knowest, turns back to Job with an edge, reminding him the terms are not his to set. Clarke reads the unit as Elihu's clearest statement of what he thinks Job owes God, offered as counsel rather than as the accusation the three friends had made of it.

Job 34:34-37

Let men of understanding tell me, and let a wise man hearken unto me appeals again to the wider audience named at the speech's opening, before Elihu delivers his verdict on Job in his own voice: Job hath spoken without knowledge, and his words were without wisdom. My desire is that Job may be tried unto the end because of his answers for wicked men is the speech's overreach, Elihu wishing continued affliction on Job rather than relief, a line the bench reads as the point where his zeal for God's justice outruns charity toward the sufferer in front of him. He addeth rebellion unto his sin, he clappeth his hands among us, and multiplieth his words against God closes the speech with a charge harsher than anything the three friends dared state so plainly, and the text leaves it standing as Elihu's own word, neither corrected nor endorsed before chapter 35 begins.