Job 27:11-23

11 “I will teach you about the power of God; the ways of the Almighty I will not conceal.
12 You have all seen this yourselves. Why then this meaningless talk?
13 “Here is the fate God allots to the wicked, the heritage a ruthless man receives from the Almighty:
14 However many his children, their fate is the sword; his offspring will never have enough to eat.
15 The plague will bury those who survive him, and their widows will not weep for them.
16 Though he heaps up silver like dust and clothes like piles of clay,
17 what he lays up the righteous will wear, and the innocent will divide his silver.
18 The house he builds is like a moth’s cocoon, like a hut made by a watchman.
19 He lies down wealthy, but will do so no more; when he opens his eyes, all is gone.
20 Terrors overtake him like a flood; a tempest snatches him away in the night.
21 The east wind carries him off, and he is gone; it sweeps him out of his place.
22 It hurls itself against him without mercy as he flees headlong from its power.
23 It claps its hands in derision and hisses him out of his place.”

Job 27:11-23 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOB 27

Though Job's friends were become silent, and dropped the controversy with him, he still continued his discourse in this and the four following chapters; in which he asserts his integrity; illustrates and confirms his former sentiments; gives further proof of his knowledge of things, natural and divine; takes notice of his former state of prosperity, and of his present distresses and afflictions, which came upon him, notwithstanding his piety, humanity, and beneficence, and his freedom from the grosser acts of sin, both with respect to God and men, all which he enlarges upon. In this chapter he gives his word and oath for it, that he would never belie himself, and own that he was an hypocrite, when he was not, but would continue to assert his integrity, and the righteousness of his cause, as long as he lived, Job 27:1-6; for to be an hypocrite, and to attempt to conceal his hypocrisy, would be of no advantage to him, either in life, or in death, Job 27:7-10; and was this his character and case, upon their principles, he could expect no other than to be a miserable man, as wicked men are, who have their blessings turned into curses, or taken away from them, and they removed out of the world in the most awful and terrible manner, and under manifest tokens of the wrath and displeasure of God, Job 27:11-23.

Cross References 28

  • 1. Job 36:23
  • 2. ver 13
  • 3. S Job 15:20; Job 16:19; S Job 20:29
  • 4. S Job 5:4
  • 5. Deuteronomy 28:41; S Job 15:22; S Lamentations 2:22; Hosea 9:13
  • 6. S Job 4:11; Job 20:10
  • 7. Psalms 78:64
  • 8. S 1 Kings 10:27
  • 9. Zechariah 9:3
  • 10. Psalms 39:6; Psalms 49:10; Ecclesiastes 2:26
  • 11. S Job 7:8; Proverbs 13:22; Proverbs 28:8; Ecclesiastes 2:26
  • 12. Exodus 3:22; S Job 3:15
  • 13. S Job 8:22
  • 14. S Job 8:14
  • 15. Isaiah 1:8; Isaiah 24:20
  • 16. S Job 3:13; S Job 7:8
  • 17. S Job 14:20
  • 18. S Job 6:4
  • 19. S Job 15:21
  • 20. S Job 20:8
  • 21. Job 38:24; Jeremiah 13:24; Jeremiah 22:22
  • 22. Job 30:22
  • 23. S Job 7:10; Job 21:18
  • 24. Jeremiah 13:14; Ezekiel 5:11; Ezekiel 24:14
  • 25. 2 Kings 7:15
  • 26. S Job 11:20
  • 27. S Numbers 24:10; Nahum 3:19
  • 28. S Job 7:10; Job 18:18
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