Job 27:5

Job 27:5 God forbid that I should justify you: till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

Ver. 5. God forbid that I should justify you] sc. By saying as you say; viz. that I am a hypocrite, and secretly guilty of some foul practices, for which I thus grievously suffer. I know nothing of this nature by myself, God forbid, Absit, res profana sit mihi. The Hebrew word signifies a profanation, or profane thing. It was the same they used when they rent their clothes at blasphemy.

Till I die, I will not remove mine integrity] My perfection, some render it; and so God accounteth it, when the bent, frame, and tendencies of the heart are for him; though the man’s wants be many and great. This Job knew, and would hold to. Let not the devil baffle us out of our integrity.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Job 27:5-6. God forbid that I should justify you — In your opinion concerning me, and censure of me; till I die, &c. — Never hope that I will yield to your judgment, which I know to be false: no, I abhor the thought of it, and will sooner die than confess the guilt which you charge upon me. My righteousness I hold fast — You shall never extort that from me, but I will resolutely maintain my uprightness, and not be persuaded by any reason to desert its defence. My heart shall not reproach me, &c. — With betraying my own cause and innocence; my conscience doth not hitherto accuse me, and it shall not upbraid me hereafter.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

27:5-6 Job considered it profane and reprehensible to concede that his friends were right. Condemning the innocent, as they were doing to him, was an abomination (Exod 23:7; Prov 6:16-19; 17:15).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

I will not confess that God doth thus punish me for my sins.

Which condemns me as a wicked man, because the hand of God is upon me.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

justify you--approve of your views.

mine integrity--which you deny, on account of my misfortunes.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 5. God forbid] חלילה לי chalilah lli, far be it from me, that I should justify you - that I should now, by any kind of acknowledgment of wickedness or hypocrisy justify your harsh judgment. You say that God afflicts me for my crimes; I say, and God knows it is truth, that I have not sinned so as to draw down any such judgment upon me. Your judgment, therefore, is pronounced at your own risk.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(5) God forbid that I should justify you.—To admit the wickedness with which his friends charged him would have been to justify them—to say that they were right and he was wrong. This he resolves not to do.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. should justify you] i. e. concede that you are in the right, viz. in charging me with evil.

remove my integrity] i. e. give up my blamelessness—refrain from asserting my innocence.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

God forbid that I should justify you,.... Not but that he counted them righteous and good men God-ward; he did not take upon him to judge their state, and to justify or condemn them with respect to their everlasting condition; but he could not justify them in their censures of him, and say they did a right thing in charging him with wickedness and hypocrisy; nor could he justify them in all their sentiments and doctrines which they had delivered concerning the punishment of the wicked in this life, and the happiness that attends all good men; and that a man by his outward circumstances may be known to be either a good man or a bad man; such things as these he could not say were right; for so to do would be to call evil good, and good evil; and therefore he expresses his utmost abhorrence and detestation of showing his approbation of such conduct as theirs towards him, and of such unbecoming sentiments of God, and of his dealings, they had entertained; and to join in with which would be a profanation and a pollution, as the word used by him signifies; he could not do it without defiling his conscience, and profaning truth:

until I die one will not remove my integrity from me; Job was an upright man both in heart and life, through the grace of God bestowed on him; and he continued in his integrity, notwithstanding the temptations of Satan, and his attacks upon him, and the solicitations of his wife; and he determined through the grace of God to persist therein to the end of his life; though what he chiefly means here is, that he would not part with his character as an upright man, which he had always had, and God himself had bore testimony to; he would never give up this till he gave up the ghost; he would never suffer his integrity to be removed from him, nor remove it from himself by denying that it belonged to him, which his friends bore hard upon him to do. So Jarchi paraphrases it,

"I will not confess (or agree) to your saying, that I am not upright;''

the phrase, "till I die", seems rather to belong to the first clause, though it is true of both, and may be repeated in this.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

God forbid - לי חלילה châlı̂ylâh lı̂y. “Far be it from me.” Literally, “Profane be it to me;” that is, I should regard it as unholy and profane; I cannot do it.

That I should justify you - That I should admit the correctness of your positions, and should concede that I am an hypocrite. He was conscious of integrity and sincerity, and nothing could induce him to abandon that conviction, or to admit the correctness of the reasoning which they had pursued in regard to him. Coverdale (1535 a.d.) has given this a correct translation, “God forbid that I should grant your cause to be right.”

Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me - I will not admit that I am insincere and hypocritical. This is the language of a man who was conscious of integrity, and who would not be deprived of that consciousness by any plausible representations of his professed friends.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Till. Never will I abandon this path, (Haydock) nor will I yield to your reasons, (Calmet) or cease to defend myself. (Menochius) --- It would have been contrary to justice and charity, (Haydock) as well as to truth, to confess a false crime. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

That I should justify you, i.e. your opinion and censure concerning me, as one convicted to be impious or hypocritical, by God’s unusual and severe dealing with me.

I will not remove, to wit, declaratively, as real words are frequently understood; or by renouncing or denying my integrity, of which God and my own conscience bear me witness. I will not, to gratify you, say that I am a hypocrite, which I know to be false.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. God forbid — Literally, Far be it from me, μη γενοιτο, (Rom_6:2,) to concede that you are right in the impeachment of my righteousness, and thus to compromise the truth. Hitzig supposes “God” to be the subject of the textual form חלילה, in 2Sa_23:17, and follows frequent renderings of the word in the Septuagint, and its cognate meaning in the Arabic, by translating it, “God be gracious to me, if,” etc.

Mine integrity — Among the heaviest strokes that fell upon Job were the cruel aspersions against his integrity.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

God forbid that I should justify you; i.e. allow that you have been right all along, and that I have drawn these judgments down upon me by secret sins. Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me. So long as he continues to live, Job will not cease to maintain his innocence. It has been repeatedly pointed out that he does not mean to declare himself absolutely without sin, but only to deny such heinous guilt as his friends imputed to him. (see Job_22:5-9)

HOMILIES BY R. GREEN Vers. 5, 6. Determined integrity.

Job is resolved to retain his integrity in spite of every rude assault. He will not suffer himself to be withdrawn from his fixed resolve. By firm resolution integrity may be preserved, though a boastful spirit exposes itself to temptation. Between the perils of presumptuous boasting on the one hand and timid irresolution on the other, lies the path of safety in a lowly, humble determination.

I RESOLUTION FORTIFIES THE MIND AGAINST THE ATTACKS OF TEMPTATION. Evil finds its easiest prey in the irresolute and undetermined. Subtle and sudden suggestions of wrong are instantly rejected by the determined mind. They are cast off. There is a spirit of antagonism a cherished antipathy to wrong; and before temptation has power to draw away the feet of the unwary, the determined one casts back the oftenting presence. He waits not to parley. There is a law established to cleave to the right; and the presence of the wrong becomes the watchword for an uprising of the whole strength against the usurper.

II RESOLUTION, BY ITS DECISIONS, PREVENTS THE MIND FROM THE INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF VACILLATION. The mind is kept braced up to its duty. Its judgments are formed beforehand. It has not to wait for any mental process. The instant wrong is suggested, that instant its reply is at hand. While the wavering and uncertain are being overcome, the resolute man walks on his plain path fearlessly and safe.

III RESOLUTION TO MAINTAIN INTEGRITY ARISING OUT OF A JUST ESTIMATE OF ITS WORTH PRESERVES FROM DECEPTION BY FALSE VIEWS. Low estimates of the worth of personal integrity make a man the sport of the trafficker in evil. Personal rectitude being held cheaply would be bartered away for any gilded bait.

IV THE ENCOURAGEMENT OF RESOLUTENESS OF SPIRIT BECOMES AN OBVIOUS AND PRESSING DUTY. No one can be neglectful of this without doing great wrong to himself. To stand firm, entrenched by a strong will, guards the soul from the delusions that are rife enough; but that the will may be well supported, it is needful to encourage the spirit of resolute, unyielding determination. Then, with a high sense of the preciousness of conscious integrity, and with a mind adjusted to an attitude of proposed resistance against whatever would threaten to impair that integrity, the faithful one holds fast to his possession, and gains, in addition to his own quiet approval, that of all observers, and, above all, that of the great Judge of human conduct. In this Job succeeds, and becomes a pattern to all tempted ones. From the depth of his acute and prolonged suffering arises the cry of holy resolve, "Till I die will I not remove mine integrity from me." So that from his inmost heart cometh no reproach upon his days.

He that. thus acts secures

(1) peace of mind;

(2) consciousness of the Divine approval;

(3) the benefit of daily growth in goodness;

(4) the final reward of fidelity. R.G.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

that I should justify you That I should say that you are right in condemning me.

I will not give up my innocence I will not concede to your words and say that I am not innocent.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.