CHAP. XXXI.
Job makes a solemn protestation of his integrity, and concludes with a prayer that his defence might be heard and recorded.
Before Christ 1645.
Job 31:1. Why then should I think upon a maid?— This has been generally understood to mean the great care and circumspection which Job had used to avoid all temptations and occasions of sin; and he subjoins in the following verses the high and reasonable motives which had urged him, and should urge every man, to such a circumspection: Job 31:2. For what is the portion which God distributeth from above, and the inheritance of the Almighty from the place of his exaltation? Is it not destruction to the wicked, and a rejection of the workers of iniquity? ver.4. Doth he not see my ways, and numbereth he not all my steps? Which passage is a further proof that his prospects were to another life; for this very thing, had he meant it of a temporal destruction, was what his antagonists had repeated over and over to him, and had urged it as an argument of his guilt, that he was thus miserably destroyed. When Job, therefore, says the same thing, namely, that a sure destruction attends the wicked, it is their portion, an inheritance from God; it is plain that he must understand it in another sense than his antagonists did; namely, of their final retribution in a future state. See Peters, and the note on Job 31:13; Job 31:24. Mr. Heath, however, is of opinion, that the word rendered a maid is improperly translated. The passage throughout, says he, has no relation to adultery or fornication, but to idolatry. This the following verses evidently demonstrate: בתולה bethulah, therefore is certainly an idol; and what that idol was we are informed by Eusebius, who, from Sanchoniathan's history, tells us, that Ouranos was the first introducer of Baitulia, when he erected animated stones. Bochart supposes that the original word, rendered animated stones, signifies rather anointed stones. The custom, indeed, of anointing pillars was very ancient. So Jacob set up a pillar and had anointed it, and the stone itself was called by him, אלהים בית beth elohim. These pillars were afterwards turned to idolatrous uses; and it is one of the commands to the children of Israel to break them in pieces on their entrance into the land of Canaan. Exodus 34:13. Photius says, that he saw many of them in Mount Libanus. At first, these idols were only rude stones or pillars; afterwards they were made in human and brutal forms. For more concerning these betulia, see Boch. Geogr. Sacr. lib. 2: cap. 2.

Job 31:5. If I have walked with vanity— If I have followed after a lie, or my foot hath hastened to fraud. Houbigant.

Job 31:7. And mine heart walked after mine eyes— The expression is strong and beautiful. The meaning of this latter clause is, "If my eyes have seduced my heart, or any corruption have defiled my hands."

Job 31:10. Then let my wife grind unto another— May my wife be defiled by another.

Job 31:17. Or have eaten my morsel myself alone— This is agreeable to the early ideas of hospitality, and is as strong an expression of benevolence as can be conceived. The Arabs practise it to this very day in its greatest extent. On a journey, after they have prepared their food, they go to the highest ground in the neighbourhood, and call out thrice with a loud voice to all their brethren, the sons of the faithful, to come and partake of it: Dr. Shaw tells us, that they did so when he travelled in that country, though none of those brethren were in view, or perhaps within a hundred miles of them. This custom, however, they maintain to be a token at least of their great benevolence, as indeed it would have been of their hospitality, provided they had had an opportunity to have shewn it. See the Preface to his Travels, p. 12. Schultens observes, very agreeably, that this verse affords us a beautiful picture of liberality and tender charity; which would not suffer Job to eat even the least morsel of bread without imparting some little portion to the poor and needy.

Job 31:18. For from my youth, &c.— Houbigant renders this most beautifully: how far it may be agreeable to the Hebrew, I take not upon me to determine. For compassion educated me from a child; she brought me up, even from my mother's womb. Heath reads the passage thus; If from his youth I brought him not up as a father; yea I guided her from her mother's womb; referring to both the male and female orphan.

Job 31:21. When I saw my help in the gate— When I saw myself superior in the gate. Houbigant. That is, superior in authority, sufficient to influence those judges, whose usual place of hearing causes was in the gates of cities, as we have often had occasion to observe.

Job 31:22. Then let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade— May my shoulder-blade fall from my shoulder, and my arm be broken from my elbow. Heath and Houbigant.

Job 31:28. This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge— The Hebrew of this passage is only two words, פלילי עון avon pelili, which Schultens renders iniquitas arbitratoria; meaning, as he explains it, such an iniquity as any one must judge to be so; and he confirms his interpretation by the use of the word פלילים pelilim, Deuteronomy 32:31. Their rock is not as our rock, even our enemies themselves being Judges 1 :e. in the judgment or opinion even of our very enemies; so that here is nothing intimated of a judicial trial or punishment; but only the notoriety of the sin observed; and thus it is that the Chaldee paraphrase, as well as the Greek and Latin versions, interpret it; a great or heinous iniquity. But, supposing that it were rightly rendered an iniquity to be punished by the judge; as this may be well understood of the Supreme Judge of all, who shall say that it does not belong to him, as the lord and sovereign of the world, to punish those who in effect deny him to be such, and transfer his honour to another? Peters. Houbigant renders it, This also is a wickedness worthy of judgment; and the next clause seems plainly to prove, that it was the divine judgment whereof Job thought it worthy. The phrase may be rendered in the same manner in the 11th verse, This is a heinous crime, yea, an iniquity worthy of judgment.

Job 31:31. If the men of my tabernacle said not— If the men of my dwelling had not said, Who can shew the man who hath not filled himself with his victuals? Heath and Schultens.

Job 31:33. If I covered my transgressions as Adam— This passage contains an allusion to one circumstance in the history of the fall. Among the particulars wherein Job vindicates his integrity, one is, that he was ever ready to acknowledge his errors. The allusion to Adam's hiding himself is proper and apposite; but if you render the passage agreeably to the marginal reading of our English Bible, after the manner of men, it becomes an accusation of others; and the vindication of himself has in it a mixture of pride which does not suit the character of the speaker. See Sherlock on Prophesy, p. 212.

Job 31:34. Did I fear a great multitude— Then may I be afraid of the great multitude, and may the contempt of kindred terrify me. May I even be silent, and not go out of my door. Heath.