Job 36:21

21 cave ne declines ad iniquitatem hanc enim coepisti sequi post miseriam

Job 36:21 Meaning and Commentary

Job 36:21

Take heed, regard not iniquity
Not any iniquity, as to show any approbation of it, love for it, and desire after it. All appearance of sin, of every sin, is to be abstained from; but particularly by the iniquity here meant may be the sin of impatience under his affliction; murmuring at the dealings of God with him; arraigning his justice, and saying very indecent things of him, as in ( Job 34:5 ) ( 35:2 ) . Or it may mean the evil he had been guilty of in so earnestly desiring the night of death:

for this thou hast chosen rather than affliction;
chose rather to die than to be afflicted as he was; or chose rather to complain of God, as if he dealt hardly with him, and did not do justly by him, than to submit patiently to the will of God, as he, ought to have done: or this he chose "through affliction" F4; through the force of it, because of it, and by means thereof; and so is a sort of excuse that Elihu makes for him; though at the same time he would have him by no means to regard such iniquity, and indulge to it.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 (ynem) "prae afflictione", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "prae miseria ex adflictione", Michaelis.

Job 36:21 In-Context

19 depone magnitudinem tuam absque tribulatione et omnes robustos fortitudine
20 ne protrahas noctem ut ascendant populi pro eis
21 cave ne declines ad iniquitatem hanc enim coepisti sequi post miseriam
22 ecce Deus excelsus in fortitudine sua et nullus ei similis in legislatoribus
23 quis poterit scrutari vias eius aut quis ei dicere operatus es iniquitatem
The Latin Vulgate is in the public domain.