Jobchapter 35
16 verses · unknown · 10th century BC · Wisdom and poetry
But no one asks, ‘Where is God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night,
Introduction
unknown, Wisdom and poetry, Job Overview.
This is the shortest of Elihu's speeches. He takes up a question Job raised earlier, whether a man gains anything by keeping himself clean, and turns it around. His hearers had cried out under oppression and heard nothing back. The chapter asks why such cries go unanswered and gives one reason. Listen for the difference Elihu draws between a cry of pain and a prayer addressed to God. Listen also for the phrase about songs in the night, which has outlived the speech.
Context
- Who
- Hearers who had cried out under oppression and heard nothing back
- What
- Elihu's third speech, on what a person's righteousness or sin does to God and why many cries go unanswered.
- Where
- The ash heap, under the open sky Elihu tells Job to look at.
- When
- The book sets Job in the age of the patriarchs, commonly placed about 2000 to 1800 BC, and it gives no date.
- Why
- To correct the idea that God gains or loses by human conduct, and to explain why some cries receive no answer.
Historical context
Elihu takes up a question Job had raised in chapter 21 and turns it around: what advantage is it to you, and what profit do I have, if I am cleansed from my sin? His answer is that a man's righteousness neither adds to God nor takes from him. Look to the heavens and see, and behold the clouds which are higher than thou, if you sin, what do you accomplish against him? Your wickedness hurts a man like yourself, and your righteousness may profit a son of man.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
That was a genuine correction in a world where sacrifice was widely understood as feeding the gods and keeping them in a good mood. Mesopotamian religion assumed the gods depended on human offerings. Elihu says God has no such need, so neither obedience nor sin changes his position.
His explanation for unanswered prayer follows. By reason of many oppressions men cry out, and they cry out because of the arm of the mighty, but none says, 'Where is God my maker, who giveth songs in the night, who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth and maketh us wiser than the fowls of heaven?' The complaint goes up, but it is not addressed to anyone. Elihu is distinguishing a howl of pain from a prayer.
'Songs in the night' is a small, memorable phrase. Nights were long, dark, and often frightening; a song in the night was what a person had when nothing else could be done, and Elihu credits God with supplying it.
Significance
The chapter makes a point Israel needed and would repeat: God does not need us, so his attention to us is not a transaction. Obedience is not a payment and worship is not maintenance.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
Where Elihu goes wrong is in applying it to Job. Job's cries were addressed to God, by name, over and over. The young man has the doctrine right and the man in front of him wrong, which is the friends' error in a newer coat.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
This chapter has no place in the synagogue year. The site's own table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts printed parashot total 0 and haftarah uses total 0 for the book of Job, and no festival reading.
The corpus joins it to the study of the Torah portions through the Midrash arranged by them. Under the eleventh verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Masei 6:1. Under the eleventh verse it carries Midrash Tanchuma, Masei 8:1.
How it is read
Rashi and Malbim are the two commentators on this chapter whose English the corpus carries. Rashi is quoted from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Malbim is quoted from Malbim's Job, trans. Jeremy I. Pfeffer. Ktav, 2003, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY. Malbim opens with a question Elihu has to meet. Suppose man had no free will, and the Cosmos decided who was righteous or wicked with no reward or punishment (Malbim on Job 35:2:1).
Malbim says this would undermine Elihu's account of why Providence acts invisibly. Without free will Providence has no meaning, and the question of injustice on God's part would fall away (Malbim on Job 35:2:1). He calls the fourth verse the crux of the argument. Job and his companions had misread Providence as an exchange, as though God needed something from man and paid for it. God needs nothing from man, so the complaint of an unpaid reward fails (Malbim on Job 35:4:1).
"Elihu’s thesis is that man’s relationship with God is like that between a patient and his doctor." (Malbim on Job 35:8:1). The reward for taking the medicine is recovery, and the punishment for refusing it is that the patient stays sick and might even die. Malbim applies this to persons and to societies alike. Mankind has the faculty to govern its own affairs and prospers or suffers by how it does so (Malbim on Job 35:8:1).
Malbim then answers Job's complaint about the wicked who exploit the weak. Dealing with tyrants and pirates is man's task as well as God's, through human government. A negligent man has no right to complain about God (Malbim on Job 35:8:1).
Rashi reads Elihu's opening as a rebuke. He asks whether it is the custom of creatures toward their Creator to claim a righteousness greater than His (Rashi on Job 35:2:1). Job had asked what profit uprightness would bring him more than sin (Rashi on Job 35:3:1, Rashi on Job 35:3:2). The companions of the fourth verse are those who stayed silent at Job's words (Rashi on Job 35:4:1). God is high and Job is low, and God has no benefit from his wickedness or righteousness, so Job should not boast to Him (Rashi on Job 35:5:1).
The wicked make the creatures cry out, and the poor cry for help from their oppressors (Rashi on Job 35:9:1). God made us greater than the beasts and the birds (Rashi on Job 35:11:1). He does not hear vanity immediately (Rashi on Job 35:13:1). Rashi ends by telling Job that his visitation is nothing compared to his many iniquities (Rashi on Job 35:15:1).
The corpus carries seven further notes on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited by ref and unquoted. Three stand at Metzudat David on Job 35:1:1, 35:6:1 and 35:7:1. One stands at Ramban on Job 35:1:1. One stands at Ibn Ezra on Job 35:5:1. Two stand at Malbim on Job 35:6:1 and 35:7:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries sixteen rabbinic locators on this chapter and the text of none, so each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. On the fifth verse it holds Tanna DeBei Eliyahu Zuta 2:1. On the sixth verse it holds Jerusalem Talmud Nedarim 9:1:4 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:5:7. On the ninth verse it holds Bereshit Rabbah 31:4. On the tenth verse it holds Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Eiruvin 2:2, Ein Yaakov, Eiruvin 2:4 and Eruvin 18b:16.
On the eleventh verse it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 23:9, Ein Yaakov, Eiruvin 10:6, Eruvin 100b:28, Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Masei 6:1 and Midrash Tanchuma, Masei 8:1. It also holds Otzar Midrashim, Perek Shirah ('Chapter of Song'), Introduction 1 and Yalkut Shimoni on Torah 31:2. On the fifteenth verse it holds Midrash Sekhel Tov, Bereshit 29:4:3. On the sixteenth verse it holds Shir HaShirim Rabbah 1:2:5. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Malbim, Malbim on Job 35:2:1 to 35:8:1, Malbim's Job, trans. Jeremy I. Pfeffer. Ktav, 2003, reported CC-BY; Rashi, Rashi on Job 35:2:1 to 35:16:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on Job 35:1:1, 35:6:1 and 35:7:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Ramban, Ramban on Job 35:1:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Ibn Ezra, Ibn Ezra on Job 35:5:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Malbim, Malbim on Job 35:6:1 and 35:7:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/job/35.json, the 16 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, printing no portion, no Haftarah and no festival reading for this book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Elihu: What Doth Thy Righteousness Give Him?
Job 35:1-4
And Elihu went on to say: Elihu opens his third speech by restating a charge against Job. Henry notes that Elihu summarizes Job instead of quoting him, tightening what Job argued in chapters 9 and 10 into one hard claim. Gill reads verse 3, “What does it profit me”, as Job's question turned into a complaint.
Job 35:1
“Eliu therefore spake these words again. Every one, who says many things, is anxious to be always beginning, in his speech, in order, by this very beginning, to keep his hearers in suspense, so that they may be the more attentively silent, the more they expect, as it were, to hear some new thing. But Eliu, finishing one subject, begins another without delay, in order that his loquacity may be continued without limit, by beginnings being constantly joined on.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIpatristic
2 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Job 35:1
“Elihu spake moreover, and said. Elihu very probably paused awhile, and waited to observe whether any of the company would rise up, and either contradict and refute what he had said, or declare their assent unto it and approbation of it; or rather to see whether Job would make any reply or not; but perceiving no inclination in him to it, he proceeded to take notice of some other undue expressions of Job, and refute them; one of which is observed in Job 35:2, and the proof of it given in Job 35:3.”
Job 35:1
“Elihu spake - Hebrew, ויען vaya‛an “And he answered”; the word “answer” being used, as it is often in the Scriptures, to denote the commencement of a discourse. We may suppose that Elihu had paused at the close of his second discourse, possibly with a view to see whether there was any disposition to reply.”
Adam Clarke renders the Hebrew as righteous before God, a far milder claim than more righteous than God. God Himself had called Job righteous. Clarke thinks Job could say it and be just.
Job 35:2
“Doth thy thought seem right to thee, that thou saidst, I am more righteous than God. Every one observes, who reads the text of the history, that blessed Job did not say that he was more righteous than God. But he says, Let Him put forth equity against me, and my judgment shall come to victory. [Job 23, 7. Vulg.] Examining namely his life, and not knowing the reasons of his smiting, as has been often observed, he believed that he was scourged for the sake of washing away his sins, and not of increasing his merits.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 35:2
“My righteousness is more than God’s? - This would indeed be a blasphemous saying; but Job never said so, neither directly nor constructively: it would be much better to translate the words צדקי מאל tsidki meel, I am righteous Before God. And Job’s meaning most certainly was, “Whatever I am in your sight, I know that in the sight of God I am a righteous man;” and he had a right to assume this character, because God himself had given it to him.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Job 35:2
“25:4: "I am righteous (literally, my righteousness is) before God." The English Version, however, agrees with Job 9:17; Job 4:17 is susceptible of either rendering. Elihu means Job said so, not in so many words, but virtually.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Elihu returns to the saying he answered at Job 34:9, as Albert Barnes and Jamieson, Fausset and Brown note. This time he argues that God gains nothing and loses nothing by what a man does. John Gill calls the saying an inference from Job's words.
Job 35:3
“Rather, explanatory of "this" in Job 35:2, "That thou sayest (to thyself, as if a distinct person) What advantage is it (thy integrity) to thee? What profit have I (by integrity) more than (I should have) by my sin?" that is, more than if I had sinned (Job 34:9).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
2 more voices on this verse
Job 35:3
“For thou saidst, that which is right doth not please thee, or what will it profit thee, if I shall have sinned. If the whole course of the book is attended to, blessed Job is proved to have said none of these things. But haughty men, as we have also said before, are wont to have this peculiarity, that while they go on in violent invective, they also speak falsely in their inveighing, and that, when they cannot justly blame the things which exist, they reprehend, in their falsehood, those which do not exist.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIpatristic
Job 35:3
“For thou saidst - Another sentiment of a similar kind which Elihu proposes to examine. He had already adverted to this sentiment of Job in Job 34:9, and examined it at some length, and had shown in reply to it that God could not be unjust, and that there was great impropriety when man presumed to arraign the justice of the Most High. He now adverts to it again in order to show that God could not be benefited or injured by the conduct of man, and that he was, therefore, under no inducement to treat him otherwise than impartially.”
to your friends as well: Albert Barnes takes the friends as Eliphaz above all, who raised the same question at Job 22:2 and turned to harsh charges. Elihu means to explain it more fully. Matthew Henry says Elihu falls back on the maxim of Job 33:12, that God is greater than man.
Job 35:4
“I will therefore answer thy words, and thy friends with thee. In his former saying, he mentioned culpable words, as if those of blessed Job, and derived from them matter for his remarks. But, in the words which follow, he examines, with great acuteness, that, which he craftily invented as matter to speak upon. And the sentiments which follow are powerful, but are not applicable to the character of blessed Job; and the shafts of this reproof strike him the less, the more unjustly they are launched against him.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIpatristic
Job 35:5-8
Look to the heavens and see: Satan asked at 1:9 whether Job's piety was paid, Elihu asks whether God is paid, and both hold that righteousness cannot bind the Most High. Delitzsch finds the answer's weight in verse 8, where wickedness affects only “a man like yourself”, so sin and virtue land on neighbors.
Job 35:5
“Look unto the heavens, and see - This is the commencement of the reply which Elihu makes to the sentiment which he had understood Job to advance, and which Eliphaz had proposed formerly to examine. The general object of the reply is, to show that God is so great that he cannot be affected with human conduct, and that he has no interest in treating people otherwise than according to character. He is so exalted that their conduct cannot reach and affect his happiness.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 35:5
“Elihu like Eliphaz (Job 22:2, 3, 12) shows that God is too exalted in nature to be susceptible of benefit or hurt from the righteousness or sin of men respectively; it is themselves that they benefit by righteousness, or hurt by sin. behold the clouds, which are higher than thou--spoken with irony.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
what do you accomplish against Him?: Matthew Henry holds both sides. Sin is against God, as the sinner means it and God takes it, yet it can do Him no harm. Albert Barnes draws the point for Job: God has nothing to gain by treating a man with partiality.
Job 35:6
“If thou sinnest, what dost thou against him?.... Sin is expressly said to be against God, Psa 51:4; it is contrary to his nature, as any opposites can be to each other: it is against his law, a breach and violation of it; and so against his supreme legislative power and authority, and a contempt of it; it is what he is angry with and is provoked by, being what he hates and abhors, and is abominable in his sight.”
2 more voices on this verse
Job 35:6
“If you look at the heavens and contemplate the clouds, you will understand that you sinned. And what do you need to do? It is necessary that you approach the high priest and implore him to offer a victim for you. "If any one does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the expiation of our sins." If you will do this, you will dissolve your numerous sins.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Fragments on Job 24.15-16patristic
Job 35:6
“It speaks much for the greatness and glory of God that it is not in the power of his worst enemies to do him any real prejudice. Sin is said to be against God because so the sinner intends it and so God takes it, and it is an injury to his honour; yet it cannot do any thing against him.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
what do you give Him: Matthew Henry turns the question around. A righteous man owes his righteousness to God, so he can demand nothing from Him. John Gill says the same, that all the righteousness any creature has comes from God.
Job 35:7
“If thou be righteous, what givest thou him?.... All righteousness is of God that any creatures have.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 35:7
“Our religion brings no accession at all to his felicity. He is so far from being beholden to us that we are beholden to him for making us righteous and accepting our righteousness; and therefore we can demand nothing from him, nor have any reason to complain if we have not what we expect, but to be thankful that we have better than we deserve.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
a man like yourself: Ishodad of Merv asks why God judges sins that never harm Him. Verse 9 gives his answer. People cry out under oppression, and the harm done to a man like yourself brings God to judge.
Job 35:8
“Thine iniquity will hurt a man, who is like thee, and thy righteousness will profit the son of man. The iniquity of man hurts him, whom it pollutes by perversion. And, again, our righteousness profits him, whom it converts from his wickedness. For those things cannot either hurt, or profit, which cannot either corrupt from what is good, or change from what is evil. The powers above, then, cannot be either hurt, or profiled, because they have already received to be free from change. But they who are involved in earthly desires, cannot consider these things.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 35:8
“Thy wickedness may hurt - It is better to translate this literally: To a man like thyself is thy wickedness: And to the son of man, thy righteousness: That is: - Thou mayest injure thyself and others by thy wickedness, And thou mayest benefit both by thy righteousness; But God thou canst neither hurt nor profit.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Job 35:8
“A wicked man may wound, or rob, or slander his neighbour, or may draw him into sin and so prejudice his soul. Thy righteousness, thy justice, thy charity, thy wisdom, thy piety, may perhaps profit the son of man. Our goodness extends to the saints that are in the earth, Ps. xvi.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Elihu: None Saith, Where Is God, Who Giveth Songs in the Night?
Job 35:9-11
Men cry out under great oppression: Elihu names a real evil, “Men cry out under great oppression”, and Barnes reads this as the honest half of his argument. Yet no one asks after “God my Maker, who gives us songs in the night”. Gill takes the songs as mercies given while the trouble continues.
Job 35:9
“By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry - It is not quite easy to see the connection which this verse has with what goes before, or its bearing on the argument of Elihu. It seems however, to refer to the “oppressed in general,” and to the fact, to which Job had himself adverted Job 24:12, that people are borne down by oppression and that God does not interpose to save them.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 35:9
“Is there a righteous God, and can it be that he should so slowly hear, so slowly see? How Elihu solves the difficulty. If the cries of the oppressed be not heard, the fault is not in God; he is ready to hear and help them.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
songs in the night: Adam Clarke lists the old versions of this line. The Chaldee has high angels praising God in the night, and the Septuagint has God setting the night watches. John Chrysostom sees God keeping the earth in order through the night while men sleep.
Job 35:10
“Where is God my Maker - They have no just apprehension of his being; they do not consider themselves his creatures, or that he who created them still preserves them, and would make them happy if they would pray unto him. Who giveth songs in the night - This is variously translated. “Before whom the high angels give praise in the night.” - Chaldee. “Who sets the night-watches.” - Septuagint. “Gives meditations in the night.” - Syriac and Arabic. “And that shyneth upon us that we might prayse him in the night.” - Coverdale.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Job 35:10
“But the reason is that the innocent sufferers often do not humbly seek God for succor; so to their "pride" is to be laid the blame of their ruin; also because (Job 35:13-16) they, as Job, instead of waiting God's time in pious trust, are prone to despair of His justice, when it is not immediately visible (Job 33:19-26).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Job 35:10
“ELIHU was a wise man, exceedingly wise, though not as wise as the All-Wise Jehovah, who sees light in the clouds and finds order in confusion. Hence Elihu, being much puzzled at beholding Job so afflicted, cast about him to find the cause of it and he very wisely hit upon one of the most likely reasons, although it did not happen to be the right one in Job's case.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2558: “Songs in the Night” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Albert Barnes reads the verse as a word on suffering. The beasts suffer and die without knowing why, and a man has reason to ask God the meaning of his pain. Matthew Henry calls that reason the gift that makes a man able to worship.
Job 35:11
“Who teacheth us more than the beasts of the earth - Who is able to teach us mere than the irrational creation; that is, in regard to the nature and design of affliction. They suffer without knowing why. They are subjected to toil and hardships; endure pain, and die, without any knowledge why all this occurs, and without any rational view of the government and plans of God. It is not, or need not be so, says Elihu, when man suffers. He is intelligent. He can understand why he is afflicted.”
1 more voice on this verse
Job 35:11
“Man's spirit, which distinguishes him from the brute, is the strongest proof of God's beneficence; by the use of it we may understand that God is the Almighty helper of all sufferers who humbly seek Him; and that they err who do not so seek Him. fowls--(see on Job 28:21).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Job 35:12-13
There they cry out, but He does not answer: Elihu explains the silence: “There they cry out, but He does not answer, because of the pride of evil men”. Henry notes Elihu grants real oppression and explains why one cry goes unheard, since pride corrupts the prayer. Wesley reads verse 13 as a general rule for all men.
Job 35:12
“There they will cry, and He will not hear, because of the pride of evil men. There; namely, in tribulation: as it is written on the other hand of joy, The children of thy servants shall inhabit there. [Ps. 102, 28] But it seems doubtful whether he says, Because of the pride of evil men He will not hear, or, they will cry because of the pride of evil men. But it can be better understood, if they are rather said not to be heard, than to cry out, because of the pride of evil men.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 35:12
“There they cry - They bewail their calamities, but sorrow not for the cause of them; they cry against their oppressors, but they call not upon God. Because of the pride of evil men - Or מפני mippeney, from the face, presence, or influence, of the pride of wicked men. They cry for deliverance from the pride of wicked men; but they are not heard, because they cry not to God.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Job 35:12
“It is because of the pride of evil men; they are evil men; they regard iniquity in their hearts, and therefore God will not hear their prayers, Ps. lxvi. God hears not such sinners. They have, it may be, brought themselves into trouble by their own wickedness; they are the devil's poor; and then who can pity them?”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
does not listen to empty pleas: Albert Barnes calls an empty plea a hollow, heartless prayer. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown tie it to the cry of verse 12 and apply it in some measure to Job's own cries. Gregory the Dialogist adds that God may delay His answer and still see what each man bears.
Job 35:13
“For God will not hear without reason, and the Almighty will behold the causes of men one by one. We must observe that two points are stated: both that He does not hear without reason him, who cries to Him, and yet regards his sufferings; and pretends not to hear his cry, and still is not ignorant what each one suffers. Let no one, then, who is not speedily heard, believe that he is not cared for by God's providence.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIpatristic
1 more voice on this verse
Job 35:13
“Surely God will not hear vanity - A vain, hollow, heartless petition. The object of Elihu here is to account for the reason why sufferers are not relieved - having his eye, doubtless, on the case of Job as one of the most remarkable of the kind. The solution which he here gives of the difficulty is, that it is not consistent for God to hear a prayer where there is no sincerity.”
Job 35:14-16
you do not see Him: Clarke reads verse 15 as Elihu accusing Job of concluding that God's slowness to punish evil means He has not “taken much notice of folly”. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown read the closing verdict as Elihu's version of the friends' charge, one God judges differently at 42:7.
Job 35:14
“Thou sayest thou shalt not see Him - Several MSS. have “Thou shalt not see me,” and the Septuagint, and one other, “Thou shalt not see us,” but without the points, תשורנו, the original may be read see Him or see Us, the third person singular, or the first person plural. Yet judgment is before him - Rest assured that God has not forgotten either to punish or to save; therefore trust in him; choose to be a monument of his mercy, rather than of his justice.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Job 35:14
“But it was not fair to charge this upon Job, which he had neither directly nor indirectly affirmed. Clouds, &c. - They are far above us, and God is far above them. How much then is he out of the reach either of our sins or our services?”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
taken much notice of folly!: Albert Barnes found the older English of this verse unclear. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown give Maurer's sense, which the Berean follows: God in His anger has not yet punished Job for his words. Umbreit, with the rabbis, reads folly as multitude.
Job 35:15
MAURER translates: "Because His anger hath not visited (hath not immediately punished Job for his impious complaints), nor has He taken strict (great) cognizance of his folly (sinful speeches); therefore," &c. For "folly," UMBREIT translates with the Rabbins, "multitude." GESENIUS reads with the Septuagint and Vulgate needlessly, "transgression."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
3 more voices on this verse
Job 35:15
“Because - Because Job doth not acknowledge God's justice and his own sins. Anger - Hath laid grievous afflictions upon him. He - Job is not sensible of it, so as to be humbled under God's hand.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Job 35:15
“But now, because it is not so - This verse, as it stands in our authorized translation, conveys no intelligible idea. It is evident that the translators meant to give a literal version of the Hebrew, but without understanding its sense. An examination of the principal words and phrases may enable us to ascertain the idea which was in the mind of Elihu when it was uttered.”
Job 35:15
“The foolishness of man perverts his way, and then his heart frets against the Lord, Prov. xix. Yet Elihu thinks that Job, being in great extremity, did not know and consider this as he should, that it was his own fault that he was not yet delivered.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Matthew Henry notes that Elihu stops short of calling Job a hypocrite, as the friends had done. He charges only rash speech under provocation, the sin of Moses. Gregory the Dialogist observes that Elihu faults Job for many words in a long speech of his own.
Job 35:16
“Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain, he multiplieth words without knowledge. By introducing these words, he doubtless asserts, that blessed Job both knew nothing, and had said much; and, though he introduces his own opinions loquaciously, he accuses him of the fault of loquacity.”
Gregory the Dialogist · written before 604 · Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVIpatristic
2 more voices on this verse
Job 35:16
“Therefore doth Job open his mouth in vain - God will execute vengeance when it may best serve the ends of his justice, providence, and mercy. The delay of judgment is not proof that it shall not be executed; nor is the deferring of mercy any proof that God has forgotten to be gracious. He multiplieth words without knowledge - However this may apply to Job, it most certainly applies very strongly and generally to the words, not only of Job’s three friends, but to those also of Elihu himself. The contest is frequently a strife of words.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Job 35:16
“He did not, as his other friends, condemn him for a hypocrite, but charged him only with Moses's sin, speaking unadvisedly with his lips when his spirit was provoked. When at any time we do so (and who is there that offends not in word?) it is a mercy to be told of it, and we must take it patiently and kindly as Job did, not repeating, but recanting, what we have said amiss.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
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Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Book of Job; Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXVI; Ishodad of Merv, COMMENTARY ON JOB 35:8; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Chrysostom, COMMENTARY ON JOB 35:10B; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.