Job 31:14

Job 31:14 What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him?

Ver. 14. What then shall I do when God riseth up, &c.] Job considered that he had a Master in heaven, Col 4:1; that there is one higher than the highest, Ecc 5:8, with whom there is no respect of persons, but whereever any deal proudly, God is above them, Exo 18:11. These and the like humbling considerations, and not any placability or natural courteousness, made him deal thus fairly and kindly with his servants; how much more, then, with his wife and children!

And when he visiteth, what shall I answer?] Job looked to be visited, and called to an account of his household government. It is a good saying of a heathen, Ita vivamus, &c., Let us so live as those that must render an account of all we do (Cic. 4 in Verr.). And that which the ruffian in Seneca scoffeth at in the sober young man is true of the godly in a sense more divine, Ita laborat, ita ludit, ita coenat, ita potat, ita loquitur, ita vivit, ut qui Ephemeridas patri est approbaturus; that is, he so laboureth, so sporteth, so eateth, so drinketh, so speaketh, so liveth, as he that must approve his day books to his father. Job was not to learn that there is a way of upright walking in our houses, so as God will come to us, if our houses be rightly ordered, Psa 101:2, and we shall look him in the face with comfort; for it is called there a perfect way, in opposition to hypocrisy. Now uprightness hath boldness.

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_31:14

What then shall I do when God riseth up?

The great question

1. Jobs mind was deeply impressed with a sense of his own responsibility. There is a natural inclination in the mind of man to diminish the sense of responsibility. In most transactions of life men frequently evince a desire to escape as much as possible from personal responsibility. There are responsibilities arising out of the very conformation of the society in which we live, that cannot be avoided. It never can be a matter of choice with us, whether we shall be responsible to God, and in the sight of God. The very nature of our relation to God implies responsibility, and the very character of God, in reference to that relationship, also implies responsibility. The responsibility of man to God reaches to the whole of mans moral being.

2. Jobs conviction that there is a day coming in which God will arise. As a Sovereign, making inquisition, and holding a grand assize in which the universe should be concerned. And God will visit. That term is often used in the sense of visitation for the purpose of punishment. God will arise as the legislator of the universe--as the promulgator of a law which has been universally violated, and which has not exercised its restraining influence upon the hearts of men because their allegiance had departed. Of necessity there must be vindication. Either the justice of God must fail, or there must be a vindication. As the law of God reaches to the minutest details of human existence and of human conduct, the vindication must reach every personal interest, the details of every individual life. And the Lord must visit as an avenger; for vindication implies vengeance. The God whose own arm hath brought salvation, shall be the God who shall visit in the way of vengeance. Job asks, When He visiteth, what shall I answer Him? Should not we ask the same question? What will the man of this world, of pleasure, and of gain, answer? Realise the necessity for finding some answer. There is but one answer. There is nothing to do but to cling to the Cross of Jesus. (George Fish, LL. B.)

The great account

The subject brought before us here is our personal responsibility; that everyone must give account of himself to God. Nothing is hid from the all-seeing eye of Jehovah, that searcheth the heart and the reins, and looketh at the motive, the object, the spirit, in which the man acts.

I. Mans responsibility. We must all give account to God, not merely masters, but servants also; and we must give account in all the transactions of everyday life. Every man has time, talents, opportunities, gifts; every man has a certain station, every man has a certain amount of influence; and we are all responsible for the right use before God. Not one of you can help this influence going forth upon those around you; not one of you can avoid the things you do, telling, in one way or another, upon those with whom you have intercourse. You must do good, or you must do evil. This responsibility we need to face, for it is one that presses always.

II. The way of meeting this responsibility. Two things are spoken of here.

1. What shall we do? Regarding ourselves as responsible to God, what shall we do when He rises in judgment? Shall we not fear to face a holy God? Shall we hide ourselves from God, in order to elude His searching eye? That surely is a vain consideration. Shall we resist His summons? Surely that too is vain.

2. What shall we answer? Shall we say that we have not broken one of Gods commandments? Shall we, like the Pharisee, compare ourselves with others? Shall we begin to make excuse? Shall we plead Gods mercy? The careless cannot meet God. Nor can the formalist; nor the hypocrite and pretender. The two great things we require to be experimentally acquainted with, are repentance and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you are delivered at once from the power of the law, and all the accusations of Satan, because Jesus has conquered him, and you also win the victory through faith in Him. (John W. Reeve, M. A.)

The final judgment and ground of acquittal

I. The certainty of a day of visitation and reckoning.

1. This is indicated by the testimony of conscience. Conscience is the vicegerent of the Almighty. It discriminates between virtue and vice, attaching to either their respective awards.

2. By a reference to the moral economy of man, or the economy of Gods dealings towards man.

3. The certainty of a day of visitation is fully unfolded in the Book of God.

II. The ground upon which an answer is to be prepared to the question in our text. Classify the Christian community into four compartments.

1. There are some who have no answer prepared. This is a fact of undoubted certainty.

2. Others prepare an answer on a self-righteous principle. They plead obedience to the requirements of Gods law.

3. Others confide in the uncovenanted mercy of God.

4. But some take higher ground, and are preparing their answer in reference to the righteousness of Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the only plea which will bear inspection, the only foundation for the exercise of mercy. (Adam Gun, A. M.)

The day of visitation

Although Job appears to have taken an undue estimate of his own righteousness, and certainly adhered to his own integrity with a blamable tenacity, yet his scrupulous conscientiousness is greatly to be admired. The smallest act of injustice or oppression, nay, even of neglect, towards the meanest slave or household servant, was viewed by Job as a sin against God, and one for which God would hereafter call him to account!

I. The occasion contemplated. When God will rise up, and when He will visit in judgment.

1. He appears now, as it were, indifferent to the affairs of men.

2. A day is coming when He will arise and visit. It is the day of death. It is the day of punishment. It is the day of judgment.

3. The certainty of its approach. Accountability seems almost an instinct in man. The day of judgment must come--there is no escape from it.

4. Yet most persons believe and act as if they believed it not. How surprising is the indifference of professed believers!

II. The important inquiry respecting this solemn event. When He visiteth, what shall I answer Him?

1. There is individuality in this question; it is the souls soliloquy. Not what shall this man do; but what shall I do?

2. It is, what shall I do? But the time for action is then over. Can I escape and hide myself? Can I evade or deceive? Can I contend with Him?

3. It is, what shall I answer? Various are the excuses with which men satisfy their consciences now, but they will avail nothing then. The following will have nothing to answer,--vicious men and dissipated. Men who have neglected their souls. Self-satisfied formalists. The spiritual professor who has not departed from secret sin. There will be one who can answer--the poor, penitent, humble, believing disciple of Jesus. (F. Close, A. M.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

If I had oppressed others, how should I have escaped God’s judgment.

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

Parenthetical; the reason why Job did not despise the cause of his servants. Translate: What then (had I done so) could I have done, when God arose (to call me to account); and when He visited (came to enquire), what could I have answered Him?

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

14. when God riseth up] i. e. to judge, as the expression “visiteth” in the next clause suggests.

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.

Did not he that made me in the womb make him?.... And her also, both his manservant and maidservant: these were made, by the Lord as Job was, and in a like place and manner as he himself; though parents are the instruments of begetting children, and of bringing them into the world, God is the Maker of men, as at the beginning, and all are alike made by him, in whatsoever rank, condition, and circumstance of life, whether masters or servants; and they are all fabricated in the same shop of nature, the womb of a woman:

and did not one fashion us in the womb? that is, he who is the one God, according to Mal 2:10; God is one in nature and essence, though there are three Persons in the unity of the Godhead; and this one God, Father, Son, and Spirit, is the Creator of all men and things; hence we read of "Creators", Ecc 12:1; and, though one God makes the bodies and creates the souls of men now as at the first, and all are formed and fashioned by him, high, low, rich and poor, bond and free; and they have all the same rational powers and faculties of soul, Psa 33:15; as well as the same curious art and skill are employed in forming and fashioning their bodies and the members of them, in the lower parts of the earth, in their mother's womb; yea, they are fashioned "in one womb" (h), as the words will better bear to be rendered according to the position of them in the original and the accents; not indeed in the same identical womb, but in a like one: there are two words in the original here, both translated "womb"; the one signifies the "ovarium", in which the conception is made; the other designs the "secundine", in which the fetus is wrapped or covered; for so it may be rendered, "did he not cover us?" &c. (i); though Jarchi, Aben Ezra, Ben Gersom, and others, interpret it of the one God as we do: Job's reasoning is, that seeing he and his servants were equally the workmanship of God, and both made in the womb by him, and curiously fashioned alike, and possessed of the same rational powers, it would be unreasonable in him to use them ill, who were his fellow creatures; and should he, he might expect the Maker of them both would highly resent it. Macrobius (k), an Heathen writer, gives a remarkable instance of the care heaven, as he expresses it, has of servants, and how much the contempt of it is resented thereby; and reasons much in the same manner concerning them as Job does here, that they are men, though servants; are of the same original, breathe in the same air, live and die as other men.

(h) , Sept. "in utero uno", Munster; so Beza, Drusius, Michaelis. (i) Saturnal. l. 1. c. 11. (k) Vid. Hackman. Praecidan. Sacr. p. 193.

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

What then shall I do when God riseth up? - That is, when he rises up to pronounce sentence upon people, or to execute impartial justice. Job admits that if he had done injustice to a servant, he would have reason to dread the divine indignation, and that he could have no excuse. “I tremble,” said President Jefferson, speaking of slavery in the United States “when I remember that God is just!” Notes on Virginia.

And when he visiteth - When he comes to inspect human conduct. Umbreit renders it “when he punishes.” The word visit is often used in this sense in the Scriptures.

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

When God riseth up, to wit, to plead the cause of the oppressed against the oppressor, and to execute judgment, as this phrase is used, Psa 68:1; Zec 2:13, and elsewhere. I used my servant like one who was also myself a servant, and had a Master in heaven, Col 4:1, to whom I was to give an account of my carriage to my servant and to all men.

When he visiteth, i.e. when he shall call me to his tribunal, and severely examine all my actions, and particularly the cause between me and my servant, what apology shall I make for myself?

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

14. Riseth up — To judgment: such is the divine indignation at the contemplation of man’s cruelty to man. Stephen in the hour of martyrdom saw the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.

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

Vers. 14, 15. What then shall I do when God riseth up? Job regards God as the Avenger and Champion of all the oppressed. If he had been harsh and cruel to his dependants, he would have provoked God"s anger, and God would assuredly "rise up" one day to punish. What, then, could he (Job) do? What but submit in silence? When he visiteth, what shall I answer him? There could be no valid defence. The slave was still a man, a brother God"s creature, equally with his master. Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb? God "hath made of one Mood all nations of men," and all individual me, "to dwell on the face of the earth". (Act_17:26) All have rights in a certain sense, equal rights. All are entitled to just treatment, to kind treatment, to merciful treatment. Job is before his age in recognizing the substantial equality of the slave with the freeman, which otherwise was scarcely taught by any until the promulgation of the gospel. (see 1Ti_6:2 Phm_1:16)

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

then what will I do etc. I took this to heart, and when He visits, what will I answer Him?

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.