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Selected Verse: Job 31:22 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Job 31:22 |
King James |
Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
Apodosis to Job 31:13, Job 31:16-17, Job 31:19-21. If I had done those crimes, I should have made a bad use of my influence ("my arm," figuratively, Job 31:21): therefore, if I have done them let my arm (literally) suffer. Job alludes to Eliphaz' charge (Job 22:9). The first "arm" is rather the shoulder. The second "arm" is the forearm.
from the bone--literally, "a reed"; hence the upper arm, above the elbow. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Then let mine arm - The strong language which Job uses here, shows his consciousness of innocence, and his detestation of the offences to which he here refers, Job 31:16-22. The word rendered "arm" here (כתף kâthêph) means properly the shoulder. Isa 46:7; Isa 49:22; Num 7:9; compare the notes at Isa 11:14. There is no instance, it is believed, unless this is one, in which it means arm, and the meaning here is, that he wished, if he had been guilty, his shoulder might separate from the blade. So Herder, Rosenmuller, Umbreit, and Noyes render it; and so the Vulgate and the Septuagint.
From my shoulder-blade - The scapula - the flat bone to which the upper arm is attached. The wish of Job is, that the shoulder might separate from that, and of course the arm would be useless. Such a strong imprecation implies a firm consciousness of innocence.
And mine arm - The word arm here denotes the forearm - the arm from the elbow to the fingers.
From the bone - Margin, "the chanelbone." Literally, "from the reed" - מקנה miqâneh. Umbreit renders it, Schneller als ein Rohr - quicker than a reed. The word קנה qâneh means properly a reed, cane, calamus (see the notes at Isa 43:24), and is here applied to the upper arm, or arm above the elbow, from its resemblance to a reed or cane. It is applied, also, to the arm or branch of a chandelier, or candlestick, Exo 25:31, and to the rod or beam of a balance, Isa. xlvi. 6. The meaning here is, that he wished that his arm should be broken at the elbow, or the forearm be separated from the upper arm, if he were guilty of the sins which he had specified. There is allusion, probably, and there is great force and propriety in the allusion, to what he had said in Job 31:2 l: "If his arm had been lifted up against an orphan, he prayed that it might fall powerless." |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Let mine arm fall - Mr. Good, as a medical man, is at home in the translation of this verse: -
"May my shoulder-bone be shivered at the blade,
And mine arm be broken off at the socket."
Let judgment fall particularly on those parts which have either done wrong, or refused to do right when in their power. |
9 Thou hast sent widows away empty, and the arms of the fatherless have been broken.
21 If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:
19 If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;
20 If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
21 If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:
16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
17 Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;
13 If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me;
2 For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?
31 And thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold: of beaten work shall the candlestick be made: his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.
24 Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities.
14 But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them.
9 But unto the sons of Kohath he gave none: because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them was that they should bear upon their shoulders.
22 Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
7 They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.
16 If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;
17 Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;
18 (For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mother's womb;)
19 If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;
20 If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;
21 If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate:
22 Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.