Job 34:8

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.

Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity,.... The worst of men, who make it their constant business and employment to commit sin: and walketh with wicked men; the most abandoned of mankind. Not that Job kept company with such, and walked with them in all excess of not; nor did Elihu think so; Job was "a man that feared God, and eschewed evil", and evil men; he was "a companion of them that feared the Lord"; his delight was "with the excellent of the earth": nor should a good man keep company and walk with the wicked, nor can he with any pleasure. But the sense is, that by his words, the expressions that dropped from his lips, he seemed to agree with them, and to be of the same sentiments with them; and what he delivered tended to encourage and harden them in their sinful ways; and what those words were follow.

Verse 8. - Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity . It is impossible to supply any other antecedent to "which" than Job himself. Elihu therefore accuses Job of having turned aside from righteousness, and betaken himself to the "counsel of the ungodly, the way of sinners, and the seat of the scornful" ( Psalm 1:1 ). This is grossly to exaggerate Job's faults of temper, and puts Elihu very nearly on a level with Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar in respect of misconception and rudeness. And walketh with wicked men. If no more is meant than that Job has adopted principles and arguments commonly used by wicked men (Canon Cook), the language employed is unfortunate. Job 34:8

8. Job virtually goes in company (makes common cause) with the wicked, by taking up their sentiments (Job 9:22, 23, 30; 21:7-15), or at least by saying, that those who act on such sentiments are unpunished (Mal 3:14). To deny God's righteous government because we do not see the reasons of His acts, is virtually to take part with the ungodly.

Which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity - That is, in his sentiments. The idea is, that he advocated the same opinions which they did, and entertained the same views of God and of his government. The same charge had been before brought against him by his friends; see the notes at Job 21 .

5 For Job hath said: "I am guiltless, "And God hath put aside my right. 6 "Shall I lie in spite of my right, "Incurable is mine arrow without transgression." 7 Where is there a man like Job, Who drinketh scorning like water, 8 And keepeth company with the workers of iniquity, And walketh with wicked men, 9 So that he saith: "A man hath no profit "From entering into fellowship with God"?! 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. Proverbs 24:30; Psalm 102:26, because the Athnach is taken only as of the value of Zakeph), Job has said verbatim in Job 13:18, and according to meaning, Job 23:10; Job 27:7, and throughout; that He puts aside his right (the right of the guiltless, and therefore not of one coming under punishment): Job 27:2. That in spite of his right (על, to be interpreted, according to Schultens' example, just like Job 10:7; Job 16:17), 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 Job 9:20 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 Job 23:2), after Job 6:4; Job 16:9; Job 19:11; and that this his arrow, i.e., the pain which it causes him, is incurably bad, desperately malignant without (בּלי as Job 8:11) 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., Job 13:23.). 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 2 Samuel 7:23) has this Job his equal, who ... . The attributive clause refers to Job; "to drink scorn (here: blasphemy) like water," is, according to Job 15:16, 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, Jeremiah 17:10; Jeremiah 44:19; 2 Chronicles 7:17, and freq., in the sense of: "he is in the act of going;" comp. on Job 36:20 and Habakkuk 1:17.