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Job 27

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Job's Final Parable Begins 1–4

1
Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,
2
As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul; ​
3
All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;
4
My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

An Oath of Integrity 5–10

5
God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. ​
6
My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
7
Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous. ​
8
For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul? ​
9
Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?
10
Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?

The Portion of the Wicked 11–23

11
I will teach you by the hand of God: that which is with the Almighty will I not conceal. ​
12
Behold, all ye yourselves have seen it; why then are ye thus altogether vain?
13
This is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors, which they shall receive of the Almighty. ​
14
If his children be multiplied, it is for the sword: and his offspring shall not be satisfied with bread.
15
Those that remain of him shall be buried in death: and his widows shall not weep. ​
16
Though he heap up silver as the dust, and prepare raiment as the clay;
17
He may prepare it, but the just shall put it on, and the innocent shall divide the silver.
18
He buildeth his house as a moth, and as a booth that the keeper maketh. ​
19
The rich man shall lie down, but he shall not be gathered: he openeth his eyes, and he is not.
20
Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
21
The east wind carrieth him away, and he departeth: and as a storm hurleth him out of his place.
22
For God shall cast upon him, and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand.
23
Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Job 27

Verse 2

As God liveth — Job swears by the living God (chay) while saying that this same God ‘hath taken away my judgment’, his right or verdict (mishpat), the charge Elihu repeats at 34:5. ‘Vexed’ is marar, made bitter, the verb of Naomi’s ‘the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me’ (Ruth 1:20).

Verse 5

mine integrity — Tummah, the word the LORD used of Job to Satan, ‘still he holdeth fast his integrity’ (2:3), and which his wife challenged (2:9). ‘God forbid’ is chalilah, far be it; ‘justify’ is tsadaq, to declare in the right. Job will not call his friends right in charging him with guilt.

Verse 7

Let mine enemy be as the wicked — Job now states the friends’ teaching himself in vv.8–23, as Eliphaz (15:20–35), Bildad (18:5–21) and Zophar (20:5–29) had before him. ‘Wicked’ is rasha and ‘unrighteous’ is avval, one who does wrong. He wishes that end on whoever rises up against him.

Verse 8

the hypocrite — Chaneph, the impious, one soiled with sin. Bildad had said ‘the hypocrite’s hope shall perish’ (8:13), and Job takes up the same subject. ‘Hope’ is tiqvah; ‘gained’ is batsa, usually to plunder; and God ‘taketh away his soul’ (shalah, to draw out) at death, whatever has been seized.

Verse 11

by the hand of God — Job says his teaching comes from the hand he had said ‘hath touched me’ (19:21), the hand all creatures know has ‘wrought this’ (12:9). ‘Conceal’ is kachad, to hide. He will teach ‘that which is with the Almighty’ and keep nothing back, namely the portion of the wicked in vv.13–23.

Verse 13

the portion of a wicked man — Close to Zophar’s last line, ‘This is the portion of a wicked man from God, and the heritage appointed unto him by God’ (20:29). ‘Portion’ is cheleq, an allotted share; ‘heritage’ is nachalah, inheritance; ‘oppressors’ (arits) are the ruthless and violent.

Verse 15

his widows shall not weep — ‘Those that remain’ (sarid) are the survivors, who are buried ‘in death’ (mavet) with no mourning. Psalm 78:64 records the same silence after Shiloh: ‘Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.’

Verse 18

as a moth — Ash, the moth, which destroys what it feeds on. Job used it of ‘a garment that is moth eaten’ (13:28), and Eliphaz of those ‘crushed before the moth’ (4:19). The ‘booth’ is sukkah, a hut like ‘a cottage in a vineyard’ (Isa 1:8), put up by a keeper (natsar, a watchman) for a season.

Verse 23

clap their hands — Saphaq, to clap the hands in scorn, with sharaq, to hiss. The two stand together in Lamentations 2:15, where all who pass by ‘clap their hands’ and ‘hiss’ at Jerusalem. The wicked man is hissed ‘out of his place’, driven from the home he had held.