Job 31:22

22 my shoulder fall from his joint, and mine arm with his bones be all-broken. (then let my shoulder come out of its joint, and the bones of my arm be all-broken.)

Job 31:22 Meaning and Commentary

Job 31:22

[Then] let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade
With which the upper part of it is connected; let it be disjointed from it, or rot and drop off from it; a dreadful calamity this, to lose an arm and the use of it, to have it full off immediately, as a judgment from God, and in just retaliation for lifting up an hand or arm against the fatherless; as Jeroboam's arm withered when he put it forth from the altar, and ordered hands to be laid upon the prophet for crying against the altar, ( 1 Kings 13:4 ) ; and mine arm be broken from the bone; from the channel bone, as the margin of our Bibles, or rather from the elbow, the lower part of the arm and so may be rendered, "or mine arm" Eliphaz had brought a charge against Job, that the arms of the fatherless had been broken, and suggests that they had been broken by him, or by his orders, ( Job 22:9 ) ; and Job here wishes, that if that was the case, that his own arm was broken: such imprecations are not to be made in common, or frequently, and only when a man's innocence cannot be vindicated but by an appeal to the omniscient God; an instance somewhat like this, see in ( Psalms 137:5 Psalms 137:6 ) .

Job 31:22 In-Context

20 if his sides blessed not me, and were not made hot of the fleece of my sheep; (if his body had no reason to bless me, because he was not warmed with the fleece of my sheep;)

21 if I raised up mine hand upon a fatherless child, yea, when I saw me the higher (one) in the gate; (if I raised my hand against a fatherless child, when I knew that the higher men would overlook it;)

22 my shoulder fall from his joint, and mine arm with his bones be all-broken. (then let my shoulder come out of its joint, and the bones of my arm be all-broken.)

23 For ever[more] I dreaded God, as waves waxing great upon me; and I might not bear his burden. (But I have always feared God, like waves growing great upon me; and so I could never do any of these things.)

24 If I guessed gold (to be) my strength, and I said to pured gold, Thou art my trust (Thou art what I trust in);