Job 27 · a question people ask
Job swears, "As God lives" (27:2), that he will not put away his integrity (27:5). Is he right to swear this?
The book doesn't say here. Job swears by God that his lips will not speak unrighteousness (27:2-4), and that he will not justify the friends or put away his integrity (27:5). Before any of the speeches the LORD said of Job, "He still maintains his integrity" (2:3), with 27:5's integrity, and the book said, "In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips" (2:10); in Hebrew lips there is the word of 27:4. Later the book says Elihu's wrath was kindled against Job "because he justified himself rather than God" (32:2), and Elihu says Job has said, "I am righteous, God has taken away my right" (34:5). When the LORD answers Job, he asks, "Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?" (38:2), and "Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?" (40:8); in Hebrew my judgment there is 27:2's my right, and justified is the verb of 27:5's justify. Job says, "therefore I have uttered that which I didn’t understand" (42:3). And the LORD says to Eliphaz that he and his two friends "have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job has" (42:7). The book doesn't say which of Job's words each of these verses has in view. These notes set them side by side and don't decide.
The verses
““As God lives, who has taken away my right, the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter (for the length of my life is still in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils); surely my lips will not speak unrighteousness, neither will my tongue utter deceit. Far be it from me that I should justify you. Until I die I will not put away my integrity from me.”
“The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.””
“But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?” In all this Job didn’t sin with his lips.”
“Then the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel, the Buzite, of the family of Ram, was kindled against Job. His wrath was kindled because he justified himself rather than God.”