Job 31:3

3 Whether perdition is not to a wicked man, and alienation of God is to men working wickedness? (Is it not perdition for the wicked, and alienation from God for those working wickedness?)

Job 31:3 Meaning and Commentary

Job 31:3

[Is] not destruction to the wicked?
&c.] It is even to such wicked men, who live in the sin of fornication, and make it their business to ensnare and corrupt virgins; and which is another reason why Job was careful to avoid that sin; wickedness of every sort is the cause of destruction, destruction and misery are in the ways of wicked men, and their wicked ways lead unto it, and issue in it, even destruction of soul and body in hell, which is swift and sudden, and will be everlasting: this is laid up for wicked men among the treasures of God's wrath, and they are reserved that, and there is no way of deliverance from it but by Christ:

and a strange [punishment] to the workers of iniquity;
the iniquity of fornication and whoredom, ( Proverbs 30:20 ) ; who make it their business to commit it, and live in a continued course of uncleanness and other sins; a punishment, something strange, unusual, and uncommon, as the filthy venereal disease in this world, and everlasting burnings in another; or "alienation" F25, a state of estrangement and banishment from the presence of God and Christ, and from the society of the saints, to all eternity; see ( Matthew 25:46 ) ( 2 Thessalonians 1:9 ) ( Luke 16:26 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F25 (rknw) "et abalienatio", Munster; "et alienatio", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Mercerus, Drusius, Schmidt.

Job 31:3 In-Context

1 I made [a] covenant with mine eyes, that I should not think on a virgin. (I made a covenant with my eyes, that I would not look at a young girl.)
2 For what part should God above have in me, and what heritage should Almighty God of high things have in me? (For I thought, what is the portion from God above, and what is the inheritance from Almighty God on high?)
3 Whether perdition is not to a wicked man, and alienation of God is to men working wickedness? (Is it not perdition for the wicked, and alienation from God for those working wickedness?)
4 Whether he beholdeth not my ways, and numbereth all my goings?
5 If I have gone in vanity, and my foot hath hasted to go in guile, (I have not gone in pride, and my feet have not gone in guile;)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.