Jobchapter 34
37 verses · BSBJob book hub →
Speaks with:Job 27×3Job 33×3Job 35×3Romans 9×3Proverbs 1×2Job 12×2
Summary
Chapter summary
Elihu turns to the wise men listening and puts Job's words on trial: 'Job hath said, I am righteous, and God hath taken away my right': what man is like Job, who drinketh up scoffing like water? His answer is the impossibility of injustice in God: 'far be it from God, that he should do wickedness; and from the Almighty, that he should commit iniquity' (34:10), for the work of a man he will render unto him. If God gathered unto himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together and man turn again unto dust. But the verdict hardens: 'Job speaketh without knowledge.'
Context
Poetry · Unknown — Job overview
- A. 1–15 Elihu: Far Be It From God That He Should Do Wickedness
- B. 16–30 Elihu: Shall Even He That Hateth Justice Govern?
- C. 31–37 Elihu: Job Multiplieth Words Against God
The outline
A.Elihu: Far Be It From God That He Should Do Wickednessvv. 1 to 15
Read vv. 1 to 15 →B.Elihu: Shall Even He That Hateth Justice Govern?vv. 16 to 30
Read vv. 16 to 30 →C.Elihu: Job Multiplieth Words Against Godvv. 31 to 37
Read vv. 31 to 37 →
The world behind this chapter
Job 34The history
Elihu turns from Job to the other men present and asks them to judge between them: 'let us choose to us judgment: let us know among ourselves what is good.' He puts it in the language of tasting — the ear tries words as the mouth tastes food, a proverb of discernment used elsewhere in Israel's wisdom writing.
The charge he brings against Job is a quotation, and it is fair: Job has said 'I am righteous, and God hath taken away my judgment', and that it profits a man nothing to delight himself with God. Elihu's answer is that God cannot be corrupt because he has nothing to gain — nobody appointed him over the earth and nobody can impeach him, so there is no one for him to be partial toward.
His strongest image is about breath. If God set his heart on man and gathered to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together and man would turn again to dust. Life is not a possession men hold; it is on loan, moment by moment.
Then the political section, and hearers under kings would have felt it. God accepts not the persons of princes, nor regards the rich more than the poor, for they are all the work of his hands. He breaks in pieces mighty men without number and sets others in their place. In a moment they die; the people are troubled at midnight and pass away; the mighty are taken away without hand — that is, without human agency. It is the picture of a palace coup or a plague that no one can trace to a human author. And nowhere is there darkness deep enough for workers of iniquity to hide in.
What it meant to them
Elihu is defending something Job never actually denied — that God is just — and he does it by pressing further than the three friends dared: God has no motive to be unjust, because there is nothing anyone could offer him.
But he ends by wishing Job tried to the end for answering like a wicked man, and that is where he overreaches. Hearers who knew chapter 1 could see that the young man is closer than the elders and still on the wrong side of the truth.
Sources cited
- John E. Hartley, The Book of Job
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews & Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Job 34. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.