Job 31:2

31:1-8 Job did not speak the things here recorded by way of boasting, but in answer to the charge of hypocrisy. He understood the spiritual nature of God's commandments, as reaching to the thoughts and intents of the heart. It is best to let our actions speak for us; but in some cases we owe it to ourselves and to the cause of God, solemnly to protest our innocence of the crimes of which we are falsely accused. The lusts of the flesh, and the love of the world, are two fatal rocks on which multitudes split; against these Job protests he was always careful to stand upon his guard. And God takes more exact notice of us than we do of ourselves; let us therefore walk circumspectly. He carefully avoided all sinful means of getting wealth. He dreaded all forbidden profit as much as all forbidden pleasure. What we have in the world may be used with comfort, or lost with comfort, if honestly gotten. Without strict honestly and faithfulness in all our dealings, we can have no good evidence of true godliness. Yet how many professors are unable to abide this touchstone!

For what portion of God is there from above?.... What good portion, as the Targum paraphrases it, can impure persons expect from God? such who indulge themselves, and live in the sin of uncleanness, cannot hope to have any part in God, or a portion of good things from him; he is above, and in the highest heavens, and every good thing comes from thence, and from him there; and particularly the spiritual blessings, wherewith he blesses his people, are in heavenly places in Christ, and from thence come to them; and here a special respect may be had to God himself, who is the portion of his people, both in life and at death, and to all eternity; but men that live a vicious course of life cannot conclude they have any part in God and Christ, nor in the grace of God, and the blessings of it, nor enjoy communion with him: and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?

heaven is an inheritance which belongs to the children of God, and he, as their heavenly Father, has bequeathed it unto then; this is from the almighty God, God all sufficient; he has chosen this inheritance for them, and appointed them unto it; this is laid up by him and reserved in heaven for them; and he gives both a right unto it, and a meetness for it, and will put them into the possession of it: but then impure persons, as fornicators and adulterers, have no inheritance in the kingdom of God and of Christ, Ephesians 5:5; and this was a reason with Job, and what had an influence on him, to be careful to avoid the sin of uncleanness. Some understand the words as a question concerning what would be the portion and heritage of a wicked man, a corrupter of virgins; the answer to which is given in the next verse, destruction and a strange punishment; this is their portion from God, and the heritage appointed to them by him; see Job 20:29.

Job 31:2. For what portion of God is there, &c. — What recompense may be expected from God for those who do otherwise? From above — How secretly soever unchaste persons carry the matter, so that men cannot reprove them, yet there is one who stands upon a higher place, whence he seeth in what manner they act.

2–4 . The considerations that restrained him from such a sin. These are recited as they then influenced his mind. 2. And what is the portion from God above? And what the heritage from the Almighty on high? 3. Is it not destruction to the wicked, And calamity to the workers of iniquity?

Verse 2. - For what portion of God is there from above? The meaning seems to be, "For what portion in God would there be to me from above, if I were so to act?" i.e. if I were secretly to nurse and indulge my lusts. Impurity, perhaps, more than any other sin, cuts off from God, who is "of purer eyes than to behold iniquity" ( Habakkuk 1:13 ). And what inheritance of the Almighty from on high! What should I inherit, i.e. what should I receive, from on high, if I were so sinful? The next verse gives the answer, Job 31:2

The reason of my continency and chastity was, the consideration of God’s presence, and providence, and judgments. What portion of God; what fruit or recompence might be expected from God for those who do such things? Nothing but destruction, as it follows, Job 31:3 . I considered, that though these practices might at first please me, yet they would be bitterness in the latter end. From above ; an emphatical phrase, to note, that how secretly and slily soever unchaste persons carry the matter, so as men cannot reprove or reproach them; yet there is one who stands upon a higher place, whence he hath the better prospect, who seeth both when, and in what manner, and with what design they do these things.

For what portion of God is there from above? - Or, rather, "What portion should I then have from God who reigns above?" Job asks with emphasis, what portion or reward he should expect from God who reigns on high, if he had not made such a covenant with his eyes, and if he had given the reins to loose and wanton thoughts? This question he himself answers in the following verse, and says, that he could have expected only destruction from the Almighty.

1 I have made a covenant with mine eyes, And how should I fix my gaze upon a maiden! 2 What then would be the dispensation of Eloah from above, And the inheritance of the Almighty from the heights - 3 Doth not calamity overtake the wicked, And misfortune the workers of evil? 4 Doth He not see my ways And count all my steps? After Job has described and bewailed the harsh contrast between the former days and the present, he gives us a picture of his moral life and endeavour, in connection with the character of which the explanation of his present affliction as a divinely decreed punishment becomes impossible, and the sudden overthrow of his prosperity into this abyss of suffering becomes to him, for the same reason, the most painful mystery. Job is not an Israelite, he is without the pale of the positive, Sinaitic revelation; his religion is the old patriarchal religion, which even in the present day is called dı̂n Ibrâhı̂m (the religion of Abraham), or dı̂n el-bedu (the religion of the steppe) as the religion of those Arabs who are not Moslem, or at least influenced by the penetrating Islamism, and is called by Mejânı̂shı̂ el-hanı̂fı̂je (vid., supra, p. 362, note) as the patriarchally orthodox religion. (Note: Also in the Merg district east of Damascus, which is peopled by an ancient unmixed race, because the fever which prevails there kills strangers, remnants of the dı̂n Ibrâhı̂m have been preserved despite the penetrating Islamism.