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class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="http://biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="http://biblehub.com/commentaries/">Commentaries</a> > Job 34:9</div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../job/34-8.htm" title="Job 34:8">◄</a> Job 34:9 <a href="../job/34-10.htm" title="Job 34:10">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="topverse">For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God.</div><div id="jump">Jump to: <a href="/commentaries/barnes/job/34.htm" title="Barnes' Notes">Barnes</a> • <a href="/commentaries/benson/job/34.htm" title="Benson Commentary">Benson</a> • <a href="/commentaries/illustrator/job/34.htm" title="Biblical Illustrator">BI</a> • <a href="/commentaries/cambridge/job/34.htm" title="Cambridge Bible">Cambridge</a> • <a href="/commentaries/clarke/job/34.htm" title="Clarke's Commentary">Clarke</a> • <a href="/commentaries/darby/job/34.htm" title="Darby's Bible Synopsis">Darby</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ellicott/job/34.htm" title="Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers">Ellicott</a> • <a href="/commentaries/expositors/job/34.htm" title="Expositor's Bible">Expositor's</a> • <a href="/commentaries/edt/job/34.htm" title="Expositor's Dictionary">Exp Dct</a> • <a href="/commentaries/gaebelein/job/34.htm" title="Gaebelein's Annotated 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Commentary">Lange</a> • <a href="/commentaries/maclaren/job/34.htm" title="MacLaren Expositions">MacLaren</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhc/job/34.htm" title="Matthew Henry Concise">MHC</a> • <a href="/commentaries/mhcw/job/34.htm" title="Matthew Henry Full">MHCW</a> • <a href="/commentaries/parker/job/34.htm" title="The People's Bible by Joseph Parker">Parker</a> • <a href="/commentaries/poole/job/34.htm" title="Matthew Poole">Poole</a> • <a href="/commentaries/pulpit/job/34.htm" title="Pulpit Commentary">Pulpit</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sermon/job/34.htm" title="Sermon Bible">Sermon</a> • <a href="/commentaries/sco/job/34.htm" title="Scofield Reference Notes">SCO</a> • <a href="/commentaries/ttb/job/34.htm" title="Through The Bible">TTB</a> • <a href="/commentaries/wes/job/34.htm" title="Wesley's Notes">WES</a> • <a href="#tsk" title="Treasury of Scripture Knowledge">TSK</a></div><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="comtype">EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/ellicott/job/34.htm">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</a></div>(9) <span class= "bld">It profiteth a man nothing.</span>—Comp. what Job had said (<a href="/context/job/9-20.htm" title="If I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me: if I say, I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse.">Job 9:20-22</a>; <a href="/context/job/9-30.htm" title="If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean;">Job 9:30-31</a>; <a href="/context/job/10-6.htm" title="That you enquire after my iniquity, and search after my sin?">Job 10:6-7</a>; <a href="/context/job/10-14.htm" title="If I sin, then you mark me, and you will not acquit me from my iniquity.">Job 10:14-15</a>). Eliphaz had virtually said the same thing, though the form in which he cast it was the converse of this (see <a href="/job/22-3.htm" title="Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that you are righteous? or is it gain to him, that you make your ways perfect?">Job 22:3</a>), for he had represented it as a matter of indifference to <span class= "ital">God </span>whether man was righteous or not, which was, of course, to sap the foundations of all morality; for if God cares not whether man is righteous or not, it certainly cannot <span class= "ital">profit </span>man to be righteous. On the other hand, Eliphaz had in form uttered the opposite doctrine (<a href="/job/22-21.htm" title="Acquaint now yourself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come to you.">Job 22:21</a>).<p><a name="mhc" id="mhc"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/mhc/job/34.htm">Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary</a></div>34:1-9 Elihu calls upon those present to decide with him upon Job's words. The plainest Christian, whose mind is enlightened, whose heart is sanctified by the Spirit of God, and who is versed in the Scriptures, can say how far matters, words, or actions, agree with true religion, better than any that lean to their own understandings. Job had spoken as if he meant wholly to justify himself. He that say, I have cleansed my hands in vain, does not only offend against God's children, Ps 73:13-15, but gratifies his enemies, and says as they say.<a name="bar" id="bar"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/barnes/job/34.htm">Barnes' Notes on the Bible</a></div>For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself in God - That is, there is no advantage in piety, and in endeavoring to serve God. It will make no difference in the divine dealings with him. He will be treated just as well if he lives a life of sin, as if he undertakes to live after the severest rules of piety. Job had not used precisely this language, but in <a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-22.htm">Job 9:22</a>, he had expressed nearly the same sentiment. It is probable, however, that Elihu refers to what he regarded as the general scope and tendency of his remarks, as implying that there was no respect paid to character in the divine dealings with mankind. It was easy to pervert the views which Job actually entertained, so as to make him appear to maintain this sentiment, and it was probably with a special view to this charge that Job uttered the sentiments recorded in <a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21.htm">Job 21</a>; see the notes at that chapter. <a name="jfb" id="jfb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/jfb/job/34.htm">Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary</a></div>9. with God—in intimacy (Ps 50:18, Margin).<div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/poole/job/34.htm">Matthew Poole's Commentary</a></div> <span class="bld">He hath said; </span> not absolutely and in express terms, but by unforced consequence, and as concerning this life, and with reference to himself; because he said that good men were no less, nay, sometimes more, miserable here than the wicked, <span class="bld"><a href="/job/9-22.htm" title="This is one thing, therefore I said it, He destroys the perfect and the wicked.">Job 9:22</a> 30:26</span>, and that for his part he was no gainer as to this life by his piety, but a loser, and that God showed him no more kindness and compassion than he usually did to the vilest of men; which was a very unthankful and ungodly opinion and expression, seeing godliness hath the promise of this life as well as of that to come, and Job had such supports, and such assurances of his own uprightness, and of his future happiness, as he confesseth, as were and should have been accounted even for the present a greater comfort and profit than all which this world can afford. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><span class="bld">That he should delight himself with God; </span> that he should choose and delight to walk with God, and make it his chief care and business to please him, and to do his commandments; which is the true and proper character of a godly man. <span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="gil" id="gil"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gill/job/34.htm">Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible</a></div>For he hath said,.... Not plainly and expressly, but consequentially; what it was thought might be inferred from what he had said, particularly in <a href="/job/9-22.htm">Job 9:22</a>; <p>it profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God; in his house and ordinances, ways and worship; he may as well indulge himself in the pleasures of sin, and in the delights of the world, if God destroys the perfect and the wicked, as Job had said in the place referred to; if this be the case, it is in vain to serve God, and pray unto him, or keep his ordinances; which are the language and sentiments of wicked men, and according to which they act, see <a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-14.htm">Job 21:14</a>, <a href="/malachi/3-14.htm">Malachi 3:14</a>. Mr. Broughton renders it, <p>"when he would walk with God;'' <p>and so the Targum, <p>"in his walking with God;'' <p>and another Targum, <p>"in his running with God:'' <p>though he walks and even runs in the way of his commandments, yet it is of no advantage to him; or he does the will of God, as Aben Ezra; or seeks to please him or be acceptable to him, and to find grace in his sight. Whereas though love and hatred are not known by prosperity and adversity, but both come to good and bad men, which seems to be Job's meaning in the above place, from whence this inference is deduced; yet it is certain that godliness is profitable to all, <a href="/1_timothy/4-8.htm">1 Timothy 4:8</a>. <a name="gsb" id="gsb"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/gsb/job/34.htm">Geneva Study Bible</a></div><span class="cverse2">For he hath said, <span class="cverse3">{h}</span> It profiteth a man nothing that he should <span class="cverse3">{i}</span> delight himself with God.</span><p>(h) He wrests Job's words who said that God's children are often punished in this world, and the wicked go free.<p>(i) That is, live godly, Ge 5:22.</div></div><div id="centbox"><div class="padcent"><div class="comtype">EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)</div><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/cambridge/job/34.htm">Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges</a></div><span class="bld">9</span>. Job had nowhere used this precise language, though the idea is not an unnatural inference from much that he had said; comp. ch. <a href="/job/9-12.htm" title="Behold, he takes away, who can hinder him? who will say to him, What do you?">Job 9:12</a>, <a href="/job/21-7.htm" title="Why do the wicked live, become old, yes, are mighty in power?">Job 21:7</a>, <a href="/job/24-1.htm" title="Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?">Job 24:1</a>, and ch. 21 throughout. This charge that a man is nothing bettered by being religious Elihu refutes in ch. 35, directing his attention in the meantime to the general charge of in justice so far as it bore on God Himself.<span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a name="pul" id="pul"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/pulpit/job/34.htm">Pulpit Commentary</a></div><span class="cmt_sub_title">Verse 9.</span> - <span class="cmt_word">For he hath said, It profiteth a man nothing that he should delight himself with God</span>. Again it must be remarked that Job had not said this. The nearest approach to it is to be found in <a href="/job/9-22.htm">Job 9:22</a>, where this passage occurs: "It is all one; therefore I say, He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked" (Revised Version). Elsewhere Job speaks, not generally, but of his own individual case, remarking that his righteousness has not saved him from calamity (<a href="/job/9-17.htm">Job 9:17, 18</a>; <a href="/job/10-15.htm">Job 10:15</a>; <a href="/job/17-9.htm">Job 17:9</a>-17, etc.). And the fact is one that causes him the deepest perplexity. Job 34:9<a name="kad" id="kad"></a><div class="vheading2"><a href="/commentaries/kad/job/34.htm">Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament</a></div> 5 For Job hath said: "I am guiltless,<p>"And God hath put aside my right.<p> 6 "Shall I lie in spite of my right,<p>"Incurable is mine arrow without transgression."<p> 7 Where is there a man like Job,<p>Who drinketh scorning like water,<p> 8 And keepeth company with the workers of iniquity,<p>And walketh with wicked men,<p> 9 So that he saith: "A man hath no profit<p>"From entering into fellowship with God"?!<p>That in relation to God, thinking of Him as a punishing judge, he is righteous or in the right, i.e., guiltless (צדקתּי with Pathach in pause, according to Ew. 93, c, from צדק equals צדק, but perhaps, comp. <a href="/proverbs/24-30.htm">Proverbs 24:30</a>; <a href="http://biblehub.com/psalms/102-26.htm">Psalm 102:26</a>, because the Athnach is taken only as of the value of Zakeph), Job has said verbatim in <a href="http://biblehub.com/job/13-18.htm">Job 13:18</a>, and according to meaning, <a href="/job/23-10.htm">Job 23:10</a>; <a href="http://biblehub.com/job/27-7.htm">Job 27:7</a>, and throughout; that He puts aside his right (the right of the guiltless, and therefore not of one coming under punishment): <a href="/job/27-2.htm">Job 27:2</a>. That in spite of his right (על, to be interpreted, according to Schultens' example, just like <a href="/job/10-7.htm">Job 10:7</a>; <a href="/job/16-17.htm">Job 16:17</a>), i.e., although right is on his side, yet he must be accounted a liar, since his own testimony is belied by the wrathful form of his affliction, that therefore the appearance of wrong remains inalienably attached to him, we find in idea in <a href="/job/9-20.htm">Job 9:20</a> and freq. Elihu makes Job call his affliction חצּי, i.e., an arrow sticking in him, viz., the arrow of the wrath of God (on the objective suff. comp. on <a href="/job/23-2.htm">Job 23:2</a>), after <a href="/job/6-4.htm">Job 6:4</a>; <a href="/job/16-9.htm">Job 16:9</a>; <a href="/job/19-11.htm">Job 19:11</a>; and that this his arrow, i.e., the pain which it causes him, is incurably bad, desperately malignant without (בּלי as <a href="/job/8-11.htm">Job 8:11</a>) פּשׁע, i.e., sins existing as the ground of it, from which he would be obliged to suppose they had thrust him out of the condition of favour, is Job's constant complaint (vid., e.g., <a href="/job/13-23.htm">Job 13:23</a>.). Another utterance of Job closely connected with it has so roused Elihu's indignation, that he prefaces it with the exclamation of astonishment: Who is a man like Job, i.e., where in all the world (מי as <a href="/2_samuel/7-23.htm">2 Samuel 7:23</a>) has this Job his equal, who ... . The attributive clause refers to Job; "to drink scorn (here: blasphemy) like water," is, according to <a href="http://biblehub.com/job/15-16.htm">Job 15:16</a>, equivalent to to give one's self up to mockery with delight, and to find satisfaction in it. ארח לחברה, to go over to any one's side, looks like a poeticized prose expression. ללכת is a continuation of the ארח, according to Ew. 351, c, but not directly in the sense "and he goes," but, as in the similar examples, <a href="/jeremiah/17-10.htm">Jeremiah 17:10</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/44-19.htm">Jeremiah 44:19</a>; <a href="http://biblehub.com/2_chronicles/7-17.htm">2 Chronicles 7:17</a>, and freq., in the sense of: "he is in the act of going;" comp. on <a href="/job/36-20.htm">Job 36:20</a> and <a href="/habakkuk/1-17.htm">Habakkuk 1:17</a>. The utterance runs: a man does not profit, viz., himself (on the use of סכן of persons as well as of things, vid., on <a href="/job/22-2.htm">Job 22:2</a>), by his having joyous and familiar intercourse (בּרצתו, as little equivalent to בּרוּץ as in <a href="/psalms/50-18.htm">Psalm 50:18</a>) with God. Job has nowhere expressly said this, but certainly the declaration in <a href="http://biblehub.com/job/9-22.htm">Job 9:22</a>, in connection with the repeated complaints concerning the anomalous distribution of human destinies (vid., especially <a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-7.htm">Job 21:7</a>, <a href="/job/24-1.htm">Job 24:1</a>), are the premises for such a conclusion. That Elihu, in <a href="http://biblehub.com/job/34-7.htm">Job 34:7</a>, is more harsh against Job than the friends ever were (comp. e.g., the well-measured reproach of Eliphaz, <a href="/job/15-4.htm">Job 15:4</a>), and that he puts words into Job's moth which occur nowhere verbatim in his speeches, is worked up by the Latin fathers (Jer., Philippus Presbyter, Beda,<p>(Note: Philippus Presbyter was a disciple of Jerome. His Comm. in Iobum is extant in many forms, partly epitomized, partly interpolated (on this subject, vid., Hieronymi Opp. ed. Vallarsi, iii. 895ff.). The commentary of Beda, dedicated to a certain Nectarius (Vecterius), is fundamentally that of this Philippus.)<p>Gregory) in favour of their unfavourable judgment of Elihu; the Greek fathers, however, are deprived of all opportunity of understanding him by the translation of the lxx (in which μυκτηρισμόν signifies the scorn of others which Job must swallow down, comp. <a href="/proverbs/26-6.htm">Proverbs 26:6</a>), which here perverts everything. <div class="vheading2">Links</div><a href="/interlinear/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 Interlinear</a><br /><a href="/texts/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 Parallel Texts</a><br /><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/niv/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 NIV</a><br /><a href="/nlt/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 NLT</a><br /><a href="/esv/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 ESV</a><br /><a href="/nasb/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 NASB</a><br /><a href="/kjv/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 KJV</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="http://bibleapps.com/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 Bible Apps</a><br /><a href="/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 Parallel</a><br /><a href="http://bibliaparalela.com/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 Biblia Paralela</a><br /><a href="http://holybible.com.cn/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 Chinese Bible</a><br /><a href="http://saintebible.com/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 French Bible</a><br /><a href="http://bibeltext.com/job/34-9.htm">Job 34:9 German Bible</a><span class="p"><br /><br /></span><a href="/">Bible Hub</a><br /></div></div></td></tr></table></div><div id="mdd"><div align="center"><div class="bot2"><table align="center" width="100%"><tr><td align="center"><div align="center"> <script id="3d27ed63fc4348d5b062c4527ae09445"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=51ce25d5-1a8c-424a-8695-4bd48c750f35&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script> <script id="b817b7107f1d4a7997da1b3c33457e03"> (new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=cb0edd8b-b416-47eb-8c6d-3cc96561f7e8&cid=3a9f82d0-4344-4f8d-ac0c-e1a0eb43a405'; </script><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-2'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-0' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-3'> </div><br /><br />  <div id='div-gpt-ad-1529103594582-1' style='max-width: 300px;'> </div><br /><br />  <div align="center" id='div-gpt-ad-1531425649696-0'> </div><br /><br /> <ins class="adsbygoogle" style="display:inline-block;width:200px;height:200px" data-ad-client="ca-pub-3753401421161123" data-ad-slot="3592799687"></ins> <script> (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); </script><br /><br /> </div> <div id="left"><a href="../job/34-8.htm" onmouseover='lft.src="/leftgif.png"' onmouseout='lft.src="/left.png"' title="Job 34:8"><img src="/left.png" name="lft" border="0" alt="Job 34:8" /></a></div><div id="right"><a href="../job/34-10.htm" onmouseover='rght.src="/rightgif.png"' onmouseout='rght.src="/right.png"' title="Job 34:10"><img src="/right.png" name="rght" border="0" alt="Job 34:10" /></a></div><div id="botleft"><a href="#" onmouseover='botleft.src="/botleftgif.png"' onmouseout='botleft.src="/botleft.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botleft.png" name="botleft" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div><div id="botright"><a href="#" onmouseover='botright.src="/botrightgif.png"' onmouseout='botright.src="/botright.png"' title="Top of Page"><img src="/botright.png" name="botright" border="0" alt="Top of Page" /></a></div> <div id="bot"><iframe width="100%" height="1500" scrolling="no" src="/botmenubhnew2.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></div></td></tr></table></div></body></html>