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Selected Verse: Job 34:5 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
Job 34:5	King James	For Job hath said, I am righteous: and God hath taken away my judgment.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
judgment--my right. Job's own words (Job 13:18; Job 27:2).

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

judgment--my right. Job's own words (Job 13:18; Job 27:2).

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
For Job hath said, I am righteous - see Job 13:18, "I know that I shall be justified;" compare Job 23:10-11, where he says, if he was tried he would come forth as gold. Elihu may have also referred to the general course of remark which he had pursued as vindicating himself. And God hath taken away my judgment - This sentiment is found in Job 27:2; see the notes at that place.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
5 For Job hath said: "I am guiltless, "And God hath put aside my right. 6 "Shall I lie in spite of my right, "Incurable is mine arrow without transgression." 7 Where is there a man like Job, Who drinketh scorning like water, 8 And keepeth company with the workers of iniquity, And walketh with wicked men, 9 So that he saith: "A man hath no profit "From entering into fellowship with God"?! That in relation to God, thinking of Him as a punishing judge, he is righteous or in the right, i.e., guiltless (צדקתּי with Pathach in pause, according to Ew. 93, c, from צדק = צדק, but perhaps, comp. Pro 24:30; Psa 102:26, because the Athnach is taken only as of the value of Zakeph), Job has said verbatim in Job 13:18, and according to meaning, Job 23:10; Job 27:7, and throughout; that He puts aside his right (the right of the guiltless, and therefore not of one coming under punishment): Job 27:2. That in spite of his right (על, to be interpreted, according to Schultens' example, just like Job 10:7; Job 16:17), i.e., although right is on his side, yet he must be accounted a liar, since his own testimony is belied by the wrathful form of his affliction, that therefore the appearance of wrong remains inalienably attached to him, we find in idea in Job 9:20 and freq. Elihu makes Job call his affliction חצּי, i.e., an arrow sticking in him, viz., the arrow of the wrath of God (on the objective suff. comp. on Job 23:2), after Job 6:4; Job 16:9; Job 19:11; and that this his arrow, i.e., the pain which it causes him, is incurably bad, desperately malignant without (בּלי as Job 8:11) פּשׁע, i.e., sins existing as the ground of it, from which he would be obliged to suppose they had thrust him out of the condition of favour, is Job's constant complaint (vid., e.g., Job 13:23.). Another utterance of Job closely connected with it has so roused Elihu's indignation, that he prefaces it with the exclamation of astonishment: Who is a man like Job, i.e., where in all the world (מי as Sa2 7:23) has this Job his equal, who ... . The attributive clause refers to Job; "to drink scorn (here: blasphemy) like water," is, according to Job 15:16, equivalent to to give one's self up to mockery with delight, and to find satisfaction in it. ארח לחברה, to go over to any one's side, looks like a poeticized prose expression. ללכת is a continuation of the ארח, according to Ew. 351, c, but not directly in the sense "and he goes," but, as in the similar examples, Jer 17:10; Jer 44:19; Ch2 7:17, and freq., in the sense of: "he is in the act of going;" comp. on Job 36:20 and Hab 1:17. The utterance runs: a man does not profit, viz., himself (on the use of סכן of persons as well as of things, vid., on Job 22:2), by his having joyous and familiar intercourse (בּרצתו, as little equivalent to בּרוּץ as in Psa 50:18) with God. Job has nowhere expressly said this, but certainly the declaration in Job 9:22, in connection with the repeated complaints concerning the anomalous distribution of human destinies (vid., especially Job 21:7, Job 24:1), are the premises for such a conclusion. That Elihu, in Job 34:7, is more harsh against Job than the friends ever were (comp. e.g., the well-measured reproach of Eliphaz, Job 15:4), and that he puts words into Job's moth which occur nowhere verbatim in his speeches, is worked up by the Latin fathers (Jer., Philippus Presbyter, Beda, (Note: Philippus Presbyter was a disciple of Jerome. His Comm. in Iobum is extant in many forms, partly epitomized, partly interpolated (on this subject, vid., Hieronymi Opp. ed. Vallarsi, iii. 895ff.). The commentary of Beda, dedicated to a certain Nectarius (Vecterius), is fundamentally that of this Philippus.) Gregory) in favour of their unfavourable judgment of Elihu; the Greek fathers, however, are deprived of all opportunity of understanding him by the translation of the lxx (in which μυκτηρισμόν signifies the scorn of others which Job must swallow down, comp. Pro 26:6), which here perverts everything.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

5 For Job hath said: "I am guiltless,

"And God hath put aside my right.

6 "Shall I lie in spite of my right,

"Incurable is mine arrow without transgression."

7 Where is there a man like Job,

Who drinketh scorning like water,

8 And keepeth company with the workers of iniquity,

And walketh with wicked men,

9 So that he saith: "A man hath no profit

"From entering into fellowship with God"?!

That in relation to God, thinking of Him as a punishing judge, he is righteous or in the right, i.e., guiltless (צדקתּי with Pathach in pause, according to Ew. 93, c, from צדק = צדק, but perhaps, comp. Pro 24:30; Psa 102:26, because the Athnach is taken only as of the value of Zakeph), Job has said verbatim in Job 13:18, and according to meaning, Job 23:10; Job 27:7, and throughout; that He puts aside his right (the right of the guiltless, and therefore not of one coming under punishment): Job 27:2. That in spite of his right (על, to be interpreted, according to Schultens' example, just like Job 10:7; Job 16:17), i.e., although right is on his side, yet he must be accounted a liar, since his own testimony is belied by the wrathful form of his affliction, that therefore the appearance of wrong remains inalienably attached to him, we find in idea in Job 9:20 and freq. Elihu makes Job call his affliction חצּי, i.e., an arrow sticking in him, viz., the arrow of the wrath of God (on the objective suff. comp. on Job 23:2), after Job 6:4; Job 16:9; Job 19:11; and that this his arrow, i.e., the pain which it causes him, is incurably bad, desperately malignant without (בּלי as Job 8:11) פּשׁע, i.e., sins existing as the ground of it, from which he would be obliged to suppose they had thrust him out of the condition of favour, is Job's constant complaint (vid., e.g., Job 13:23.). Another utterance of Job closely connected with it has so roused Elihu's indignation, that he prefaces it with the exclamation of astonishment: Who is a man like Job, i.e., where in all the world (מי as Sa2 7:23) has this Job his equal, who ... . The attributive clause refers to Job; "to drink scorn (here: blasphemy) like water," is, according to Job 15:16, equivalent to to give one's self up to mockery with delight, and to find satisfaction in it. ארח לחברה, to go over to any one's side, looks like a poeticized prose expression. ללכת is a continuation of the ארח, according to Ew. 351, c, but not directly in the sense "and he goes," but, as in the similar examples, Jer 17:10; Jer 44:19; Ch2 7:17, and freq., in the sense of: "he is in the act of going;" comp. on Job 36:20 and Hab 1:17. The utterance runs: a man does not profit, viz., himself (on the use of סכן of persons as well as of things, vid., on Job 22:2), by his having joyous and familiar intercourse (בּרצתו, as little equivalent to בּרוּץ as in Psa 50:18) with God. Job has nowhere expressly said this, but certainly the declaration in Job 9:22, in connection with the repeated complaints concerning the anomalous distribution of human destinies (vid., especially Job 21:7, Job 24:1), are the premises for such a conclusion. That Elihu, in Job 34:7, is more harsh against Job than the friends ever were (comp. e.g., the well-measured reproach of Eliphaz, Job 15:4), and that he puts words into Job's moth which occur nowhere verbatim in his speeches, is worked up by the Latin fathers (Jer., Philippus Presbyter, Beda,

(Note: Philippus Presbyter was a disciple of Jerome. His Comm. in Iobum is extant in many forms, partly epitomized, partly interpolated (on this subject, vid., Hieronymi Opp. ed. Vallarsi, iii. 895ff.). The commentary of Beda, dedicated to a certain Nectarius (Vecterius), is fundamentally that of this Philippus.)

Gregory) in favour of their unfavourable judgment of Elihu; the Greek fathers, however, are deprived of all opportunity of understanding him by the translation of the lxx (in which μυκτηρισμόν signifies the scorn of others which Job must swallow down, comp. Pro 26:6), which here perverts everything.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Said - I am so far righteous, that I have not deserved, such hard usage from God. Had taken - So Job had said, Job 27:2, he denies me that which is just and equal, to give me a fair hearing.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Job hath said, I am righteous - Job had certainly said the words attributed to him by Elihu, particularly in Job 27:2, etc., but it was in vindication of his aspersed character that he had asserted his own righteousness, and in a different sense to that in which Elihu appears to take it up. He asserted that he was righteous quoad the charges his friends had brought against him. And he never intimated that he had at all times a pure heart, and had never transgressed the laws of his Maker. It is true also that he said, God hath taken away my judgment; but he most obviously does not mean to charge God with injustice, but to show that he had dealt with him in a way wholly mysterious, and not according to the ordinary dispensations of his providence; and that he did not interpose in his behalf, while his friends were overwhelming him with obloquy and reproach.

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² As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;

¹⁸ Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.

² As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;

¹⁰ But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
¹¹ My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.

¹⁸ Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.

⁶ He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage.

⁴ Yea, thou castest off fear, and restrainest prayer before God.

⁷ What man is like Job, who drinketh up scorning like water?

¹ Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?

⁷ Wherefore do the wicked live, become old, yea, are mighty in power?

²² This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked.

¹⁸ When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst with him, and hast been partaker with adulterers.

² Can a man be profitable unto God, as he that is wise may be profitable unto himself?

¹⁷ Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

²⁰ Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.

¹⁷ And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me, as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I have commanded thee, and shalt observe my statutes and my judgments;

¹⁹ And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?

¹⁰ I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.

¹⁶ How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water?

²³ And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things and terrible, for thy land, before thy people, which thou redeemedst to thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?

²³ How many are mine iniquities and sins? make me to know my transgression and my sin.

¹¹ Can the rush grow up without mire? can the flag grow without water?

¹¹ He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

⁹ He teareth me in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.

⁴ For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.

² Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.

²⁰ If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.

¹⁷ Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure.

⁷ Thou knowest that I am not wicked; and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand.

² As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;

⁷ Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

¹⁰ But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

¹⁸ Behold now, I have ordered my cause; I know that I shall be justified.

²⁶ They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed:

³⁰ I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;

² As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;