CHAPTER 31

(1520 B.C.)

JOBS FINAL DEFENSE

¹I made a covenant with my eyes: why then should I think upon a maid? (Job says here that hes not guilty of the sin of lust.)

²For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high? (What would the Lord say about such sin? The next Verse tells us.)

³Is not destruction to the wicked? and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? (This is what sin does ruin both of soul and body.)

⁴Does not He see my ways, and count all my steps? (The Lord sees all!)

⁵If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot has hasted to deceit (in this Passage, Job claims that he is not guilty of deceit);

⁶Let me be weighed in an even balance, that God may know my integrity (in fact, the only even balance in the universe is that which is of God; all else is spurious).

⁷If my step has turned out of the way, and my heart walked after my eyes, and if any blot has cleaved to my hands (it is to be remembered that Job has the testimony of God Himself to the fact that he was a perfect and an upright man, one who feared God, and hated evil [2:3]; this doesnt mean that Job was sinlessly perfect, for he wasnt; but it does mean that he was attempting to follow the Lord as closely as possible);

⁸Then let me sow, and let another eat; yes, let my offspring be rooted out (if the Lord says Im guilty, then I will accept my punishment).

⁹If my heart has been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbours door (I have not committed adultery);

¹⁰Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her (if adultery is committed by a husband, the wife suffers, and suffers unjustly).

¹¹For this is an heinous crime; yes, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges (the crime of adultery subverts the family relation on which it has pleased God to erect the entire fabric of human society).

¹²For it is a fire that consumes to destruction, and would root out all my increase (the sin of adultery, lacking Repentance, will bring down the wrath of God upon the person who commits such).

JOB IS NOT GUILTY OF OPPRESSING OTHERS

¹³If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me (Job now disclaims the oppression of his dependants; of which he had been accused by Eliphaz [22:59]);

¹⁴What then shall I do when God rises up? and when He visits, what shall I answer Him?

¹⁵Did not He Who made me in the womb make him? and did not One fashion us in the womb? (Here the Spirit of God through Job proclaims the equality of all men, irrespective of race, creed, or color.)

¹⁶If I have withheld the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail;

¹⁷Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless has not eaten thereof (Job claims to have always shared his bread with orphans and made them partakers of his abundance);

¹⁸(For from my youth he was brought up with me, as with a father, and I have guided her from my mothers womb;)

¹⁹If I have seen any perish for want of clothing, or any poor without covering;

²⁰If his loins have not blessed me, and if he were not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;

²¹If I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, when I saw my help in the gate (in other words, I have done everything for the poor and the helpless that I had the power to do):

²²Then let my arm fall from my shoulder blade, and my arm be broken from the bone.

²³For destruction from God was a terror to me, and by reason of His highness I could not endure (I could not have committed the sins of which I am accused, because of my fear of God).

JOBS HOPE WAS NOT IN MONEY

²⁴If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, You are my confidence;

²⁵If I rejoice because my wealth was great, and because my hand had gotten much (Job feels that it is wrong even to care greatly for wealth);

JOB IS NOT GUILTY OF IDOLATRY

²⁶If I beheld the sun when it shined, or the moon walking in brightness (not guilty of idolatry);

²⁷And my heart has been secretly enticed, or my mouth has kissed my hand (a part of the process of the worship of planetary bodies):

²⁸This also were an iniquity to be punished by the judge: for I should have denied the God Who is above (the worship of any other god besides the supreme God is tantamount to atheism).

JOB DOES NOT REJOICE AT THE DOWNFALL OF OTHERS

²⁹If I rejoiced at the destruction of him who hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

³⁰Neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul (Job left all others to the Lord [Rom. 12:1721]).

³¹If the men of my tabernacle said not, Oh that we had of his flesh! we cannot be satisfied (all were satisfied with Jobs hospitality).

³²The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveler.

³³If I covered my transgressions as Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom (Adam tried to hide the true state of his heart from God [Gen. 3:8]):

³⁴Did I fear a great multitude, or did the contempt of families terrify me, that I kept silence, and went not out of the door? (Because of his integrity, Job had no fear of facing people.)

³⁵Oh that one would hear me! behold, my desire is, that the Almighty would answer me, and that my adversary had written a book (to be sure, the Lord was definitely hearing Job, and noting all that was said by his adversaries).

³⁶Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me (I am this sure of my integrity).

³⁷I would declare unto him (my adversary) the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him (I can face any man without a guilty conscience).

³⁸If my land cry against me, or that the furrows likewise thereof complain;

³⁹If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:

⁴⁰Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended (Job is not trying here to justify himself before God, but merely answering the charges made against him by his friends).