Click
here to show/hide instructions.
Instructions on how to use the page:
The commentary for the selected verse is is displayed below.
All commentary was produced against the King James, so the same verse from that translation may appear as well. Hovering your mouse over a commentary's scripture reference attempts to show those verses.
Use the browser's back button to return to the previous page.
Or you can also select a feature from the Just Verses menu appearing at the top of the page.
Selected Verse: Job 31:29 - King James
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Job 31:29 |
King James |
If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him: |
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] |
| lifted up myself--in malicious triumph (Pro 17:5; Pro 24:17; Psa 7:4). |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me - Job here introduces another class of offences, of which he says he was innocent. The subject referred to is the proper treatment of those who injure us. In respect to this, he says that he was entirely conscious of freedom from exultation when calamity came upon a foe, and that he had never even wished him evil in his heart. The word "destruction" here, means calamity, disappointment, or affliction of any kind. It had never been pleasant to him to see one who hated him suffer. It is needless to remark how entirely this accords with the New Testament. And it is pleasant to find such a sentiment as this expressed in the early age of the world, and to see how the influence of true religion is at all times the same. The religion of Job led him to act out the beautiful sentiment afterward embodied in the instructions of the Savior, and made binding on all his followers; Mat 5:44. True religion will lead a man to act out what is embodied in its precepts, whether they are expressed in formal language or not.
Or lifted up myself - Been elated or rejoiced.
When evil found him - When calamity overtook him. |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
29 If I rejoiced over the destruction of him who hated me,
And became excited when evil came upon him -
30 Yet I did not allow my palate to sin
By calling down a curse upon his life.
The aposiopesis is here manifest, for Job 31:29 is evidently equal to a solemn denial, to which Job 31:30 is then attached as a simple negative. He did not rejoice at the destruction (פיד, Arab. fêd,
(Note: Gesenius derives the noun פיד from the verb פיד, but the Arabic, which is the test here, has not only the verb fâda as med. u and as med. i in the signification to die, but also in connection with el̇feid (fêd) the substantival form el-fı̂d (= el-môt), which (= fiwd, comp. p. 26, note) is referable to fâda, med. u. Thus Neshwn, who in his Lexicon (vol. ii. fol. 119) even only knows fâda, med. u, in the signif. to die (comp. infra on Job 39:18, note).)
as Job 12:5; Job 30:24) of his enemy who was full of hatred towards him (משׂנאי, elsewhere also שׂנאי), and was not excited with delight (התערר, to excite one's self, a description of emotion, whether it be pleasure, or as Job 17:8, displeasure, as a not merely passive but moral incident) if calamity came upon him, and he did not allow his palate (חך as the instrument of speech, like Job 6:30) to sin by asking God that he might die as a curse. Love towards an enemy is enjoined by the Thora, Exo 23:4, but it is more or less with a national limitation, Lev 19:18, because the Thora is the law of a people shut out from the rest of the world, and in a state of war against it (according to which Mat 5:43 is to be understood); the books of the Chokma, however (comp. Pro 24:17; Pro 25:21), remove every limit from the love of enemies, and recognise no difference, but enjoin love towards man as man. With Job 31:30 this strophe closes. Among modern expositors, only Arnh. takes in Job 31:31 as belonging to it: "Would not the people of my tent then have said: Would that we had of his flesh?! we have not had enough of it," i.e., we would eat him up both skin and hair. Of course it does not mean after the manner of cannibals, but figuratively, as Job 19:22; but in a figurative sense "to eat any one's flesh" in Semitic is equivalent to lacerare, vellicare, obtrectare (vid., on Job 19:22, and comp. also Sur. xlix. 12 of the Koran, and Schultens' Erpenius, pp. 592f.), which is not suitable here, as in general this drawing of Job 31:31 to Job 31:29 is in every respect, and especially that of the syntax, inadmissible. It is the duty of beneficence, which Job acknowledges having practised, in Job 31:31. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Lift up - Heb. stirred up myself to rejoice and insult over his misery. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
| If I rejoiced - I did not avenge myself on my enemy; and I neither bore malice nor hatred to him. |
4 If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy:)
17 Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:
5 Whoso mocketh the poor reproacheth his Maker: and he that is glad at calamities shall not be unpunished.
44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
31 If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
29 If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:
31 If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
22 Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
31 If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied.
30 Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.
21 If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
17 Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:
43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
4 If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray, thou shalt surely bring it back to him again.
30 Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?
8 Upright men shall be astonied at this, and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite.
24 Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
5 He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease.
18 What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.
30 Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul.
29 If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him: