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Selected Verse: Job 36:19 - King James
Verse |
Translation |
Text |
Job 36:19 |
King James |
Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength. |
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] |
forces of strength--that is, resources of wealth (Psa 49:7; Pro 11:4). |
Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Will he esteem thy riches? - That is God will not regard thy riches as a reason why he should not cut you off, or as a ransom for your forfeited life. The reference here must be to the fact that Job "had been" a rich man, and the meaning is, either that God would not spare him because he "had been" a rich man, or that if he had now all the wealth which he once possessed, it would not be sufficient to be a ransom for his life.
Nor all the forces of his strength - Not all that gives power and influence to a man - wealth, age, wisdom, reputation, authority, and rank. The meaning is, that God would not regard any of these when a man was rebellious in affliction, and refused in a proper manner to acknowledge his Maker. Of the truth of what is here affirmed, there can be no doubt. Riches, rank, and honors cannot redeem the life of a man. They do not save him from the grave, and from all that is gloomy and revolting there. When God comes forth to deal with mankind, he does not regard their gold, their rank, their splendid robes or palaces, but he deals with them as "men" - and the "happy," the beautiful, the rich, the noble, moulder back, under his hand, to their native dust in the same manner as the most humble peasant. How forcibly should this teach us not to set our hearts on wealth, and not to seek the honors and wealth of the world as our portion! |
Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
19 Shall thy crying place thee beyond distress,
And all the efforts of strength?
20 Long not for the night to come,
Which shall remove people from their place!
21 Take heed, incline not to evil;
For this thou hast desired more than affliction.
Those expositors who found in Job 36:18 the warning, that Job should not imagine that he would be able to redeem himself from judgment by a large ransom, go on to explain: will He esteem thy riches? (Farisol, Rosenm., Umbr., Carey, Ebr., and others); or: will thy riches suffice? (Hirz., Schlottm.); or some other way (Ew.). But apart from the want of connection of this insinuation, which is otherwise not mentioned in the book, and apart from the violence which must be done to היערך to accommodate it to it, שׁוּע, although it might, as the abstract of שׁוע, Job 34:19, signify wealth (comp. Arab. sa‛at, amplitudo), is, however, according to the usage of the language (vid., Job 30:24), so far as we can trace it, a secondary form of שׁוע (שׁועה), a cry for help; and Job 35:9., Job 36:13, and other passages, also point to this signification. What follows is still less appropriate to this thought of ransom; Hirz. translates: Oh, not God and all the treasures of wealth! But בּצר is nowhere equivalent to בּצר, Job 22:24; but צר, Job 36:16, signifies distress; and the expression לא בצר, in a condition devoid of distress, is like לא בחכמה, Job 4:21, and לא ביד, Job 34:20. Finally, אמּיץ כּח signifies mighty in physical strength, Job 9:4, Job 9:19, and מאמצּי־כח strong proofs of strength, not "treasures of wealth." Stick. correctly interprets: "Will thy wild raging cry, then, and all thine exertions, as a warrior puts them forth in the tumult of battle to work his way out, put thee where there is an open space?" but the figure of a warrior is, with Hahn, to be rejected; ערך is only a nice word for שׁית שׂים, to place, set up, Job 37:19.
Job 36:20
Elihu calls upon Job to consider the uselessness of his vehement contending with God, and then warns him against his dreadful provocation of divine judgment: ne anheles (Job 7:2) noctem illam (with the emphatic art.) sublaturam populos loco suo. לעלות is equivalent to futuram (ההוה or העתידה) ut tollat = sublaturam (vid., on Job 5:11, לשׂוּם, collocaturus; Job 30:6, לשׁכּן, habitandum est), syncopated from להעלות, in the sense of Psa 102:25; and תּחתּם signifies, as Job 40:12 (comp. on Hab 3:16), nothing but that just where they are, firmly fixed without the possibility of escape, they are deprived of being. If whole peoples are overtaken by such a fate, how much less shall the individual be able to escape it! And yet Job presses forward on to the tribunal of the terrible Judge, instead of humbling himself under His mighty hand. Oh that in time he would shrink back from this absolute wickedness (און), for he has given it the preference before עני, quiet, resigned endurance. בּחר על signifies, Sa2 19:39, to choose to lay anything on any one; here as בחר בּ, elsewhere to extend one's choice to something, to make something an object of choice; perhaps also under the influence of the phrase התענּג על, and similar phrases. The construction is remarkable, since one would sooner have expected על־עני זה בחרת, hanc elegisti prae toleratione. |
Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
Thy riches - If thou hadst as much of them as ever. Forces - The strongest forces. |
4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.
7 None of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for him:
39 And all the people went over Jordan. And when the king was come over, the king kissed Barzillai, and blessed him; and he returned unto his own place.
16 When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest in the day of trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops.
12 Look on every one that is proud, and bring him low; and tread down the wicked in their place.
25 Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
6 To dwell in the clifts of the valleys, in caves of the earth, and in the rocks.
11 To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.
2 As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow, and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work:
20 Desire not the night, when people are cut off in their place.
19 Teach us what we shall say unto him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness.
19 If I speak of strength, lo, he is strong: and if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead?
4 He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered?
20 In a moment shall they die, and the people shall be troubled at midnight, and pass away: and the mighty shall be taken away without hand.
21 Doth not their excellency which is in them go away? they die, even without wisdom.
16 Even so would he have removed thee out of the strait into a broad place, where there is no straitness; and that which should be set on thy table should be full of fatness.
24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
13 But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath: they cry not when he bindeth them.
9 By reason of the multitude of oppressions they make the oppressed to cry: they cry out by reason of the arm of the mighty.
24 Howbeit he will not stretch out his hand to the grave, though they cry in his destruction.
19 How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? for they all are the work of his hands.
18 Because there is wrath, beware lest he take thee away with his stroke: then a great ransom cannot deliver thee.