Job 5:21

Job 5:21 Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.

Ver. 21. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue] That is, from reproaches and slanders, which is a tongue smiting, Jer 18:18, as smart as any hand smiting, and draws blood, Eze 22:9. Backbiting is backbeating (Speed.). The devil is both a liar and a murderer, Joh 8:44. Humphrey, duke of Gloucester, was by the people of England thought to be doubly murdered (saith the chronicler), viz. by detraction and deadly practice. Plato commendeth that law of the Lydians that punished detracters like as they did murderers; because their words are swords, and their breath, as fire, devoureth, Isa 33:10. Now from such pests the Lord promiseth to hide his people, that either the traducer shall not find them, or not fasten upon them: Dabbar is the Hebrew for a word, Debher for a pest (Drus.). Some render the text thus, He shall be hid, cum vagabitur lingua, when the tongue wandereth or walketh about. Their tongue walketh through the earth, Psa 73:9, it runs all the world over, and, like a mad dog, snaps at every one. Hence the Hebrew word Ragal, to defame or slander, Psa 15:3, properly noteth a footing it up and down, a going to and fro to carry tales and rumours, 2Sa 19:27. Now from such a mischief, from the lash of such lewd tongues, God will hide his people under the hollow of his hand, because he knows that many a good heart is more afflicted with words than with blows, Psa 42:3. St Paul reckoned that it were better for him to die than that any man should make his glorying void, that is, take away his good name, and so disable him from doing good by his ministry, 1Co 9:15.

Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh] Much less at the rumour of it, Mat 24:6 Luk 24:6. Thou shalt walk about the world as a conqueror, being above fear, then when others are below hope. Noah like-thou shall be, - mediis tranquillus in undis, calm in the midst of the waves, and not as Magormissabib, a terror to thyself and all about thee, Jer 20:3.

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.

Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue - Margin, Or, “when the tongue scourgeth.” The word rendered “scourge” - שׁוט shôṭ - means properly a whip. It is used of God when he scourges people by calamities and punishments; Isa 10:26; Job 9:23. See the use of the verb שׁוּט shûṭ in Job 2:7. Here it is used to denote a slanderous tongue, as being that which inflicts a severe wound upon the reputation and peace of an individual. The idea is, that God would guard the reputation of those who commit themselves to him, and that they shall be secure from slander, “whose breath,” Shakespeare says, “outvenoms all the worms of Nile.”

Neither shalt thou be afraid when destruction cometh - That is, your mind shall be calm in those calamities which threaten destruction. When war rages, when the tempest howls, when the pestilence breathes upon a community, then your mind shall be at peace. A similar thought occurs in Isa 26:3 : “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee;” and the same sentiment is beautifully illustrated at length in Ps. 91. The Chaldee Paraphrase applies all this to events which had occurred in the history of the Hebrews. Thus, Job 5:20 : “In the famine in Egypt, he redeemed thee from death; and in the war with Amalek, from being slain by the sword;” Job 5:21 : “In the injury inflicted by the tongue of Balaam thou wert hid among the clouds, and thou didst not fear from the desolation of the Midianites when it came;” Job 5:22 : “In the desolation of Sihon, and in the famine of the desert, thou didst laugh; and of the camps of Og, who was like a wild beast of the earth, thou wert not afraid.”

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

Job_5:21

Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue.

The scourge of the tongue

I. The scourge. The scourge of the tongue.

1. There is the lying tongue. It perverts facts. It turns the lame out of the way and misleads the blind.

2. There is the cursing tongue.

3. There is the obscene tongue.

4. There is the scolding tongue. What martyrs have some members of a family become! A scolding tongue withers and blights everything it comes across, just like the lightning withers and blasts the tree it strikes. It is as a goad to an ox, the mosquito to the traveller, the thorn eating into the gangrened flesh.

II. The deliverance. Thou shall be hid from the scourge of the tongue. It is one of the peculiarities of Gods promises that He does not undertake to remove evils. We shall be hid--

1. By the direct influence of Divine power. God will restrain the evil speaker and the rage of the ungodly.

2. By the sanctifying influence of Divine grace. There axe some creatures who when water is poured on them repel the same by the nature of their skin or feathers. So the heart which is prepared by grace, casts aside and rejects the evil word, or the cruel insinuation, or the boisterous abuse; these things have no power over it.

3. By the resignation of a chastened spirit. The chastened spirit of the Christian disarms the shafts of the evil tongue, and, bending before the furious blast, is spared the poignant stings of malice.

4. By the prospect of future freedom. The nauseous taste of medicine is little heeded when the anticipated end is considered, which is restored health and renewed strength. So in the view of future glory and entire sanctification, the present bitterness will be little regarded. (J. J. S. Bird.)

The scourge of the tongue

Some folks lay themselves out to be as unpleasant as they can and say disagreeable things. They are the wasps of human intercourse. The candid friends whom Canning so abhorred, the people who speak their mind, but have a mind that were far better not spoken. (H. O. Mackey.)

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

Job 5:21-22. Thou shalt be hid — Protected, as in some secret and safe place; from the scourge of the tongue — From false accusations, and virulent slanders and reproaches. Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction — Thou shalt have no cause to fear it, because God will secure thee in it and from it: when it cometh — Namely, upon others, near or round about thee. Bishop Patrick’s paraphrase on the verse is, “False accusers shall not be able to hurt thee; and when whole countries are depopulated, thou shalt be secure.” At destruction, &c., thou shalt laugh — With a laughter of joy and triumph; arising from a just security and confidence in God’s watchful and gracious providence. Neither shalt thou be afraid of the beasts of the field — The wild beasts, which were numerous and mischievous in those parts. As no apprehensions of fear shall possess thee in other heavy calamities, so neither shalt thou be under any dreadful consternation, should even the most fierce and savage beasts of the earth rise up against and be ready to devour thee. Perhaps it is not possible for that peace of mind, which arises from a good conscience and a confidence in the divine care and protection, to be expressed more elegantly or poetically than it is in this verse. Thus, leviathan, so far from being terrified, is said to laugh at the shaking of a spear, Job 41:29. And God himself, in the same beautiful style, is represented as disdaining the politic intrigues of kings, and the crafty counsels of the rulers of the earth against his church. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have them in derision, Psa 2:4.

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

(Psa 31:20; Jer 18:18). Smite (Psalm 73. 9).

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 21. Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue] The Targum refers this to the incantations of Balaam: "From injury by the tongue of Balaam thou shalt be hidden in the clouds; and thou shalt not fear from the blasting of the Midianites, when it shall come."

Perhaps no evil is more dreadful than the scourge of the tongue: evil-speaking, detraction, backbiting, calumny, slander, tale-bearing, whispering, and scandalizing, are some of the terms which we use when endeavouring to express the baleful influence and effects of that member, which is a world of fire, kindled from the nethermost hell. The Scripture abounds with invectives and execrations against it. See Ps 31:20; Ps 52:2-4; Pr 12:18; Pr 14:3; Jas 3:1-8.

Neither shalt thou be afraid] "Thou shouldst have such strong confidence in God, that even in the presence of destruction thou shouldst not fear death," the God of life and power being with thee.

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

(21) Shalt thou be afraid.—Comp. the expression in Job_5:15.

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

Thou shall be hid from the scourge of the tongue,.... Of Satan, as Jarchi, the accuser of the brethren; or rather from the evil tongue of wicked men, their slanders, calumnies, and reproaches; the tongue is a small weapon, but it is a cutting one; it is like a scourge or whip, with which wicked men strike hard: the enemies of Jeremiah encouraged one another to smite him with their tongue, Jer 18:18; and a sad thing it is to be under the lash of some men's tongues, and a great mercy it is to be delivered from them: God does sometimes hide his people, and keeps them secretly, as in a pavilion, from the strife of tongues; Psa 31:20; he either restrains the tongues of men, lays an embargo on them, and will not suffer them to say that evil of his people which Satan and their wicked hearts prompt them to; or, if they are suffered to defame and speak evil of good men, yet they do it in such a romantic way, and so overcharge and load it, that it is not credited by any what they say, even by those of their own party; so that the characters of God's people suffer not by their lies and calumnies: some render it, "when the tongue wanders about" (g); walks through the earth, and spares none, all ranks and degrees of men; God hides his people from being hurt by it, see Psa 73:9; Aben Ezra interprets the word rendered "tongue" of a nation or people; and so it may be understood of one nation entering into another, passing through it, and making desolations in it; as the Scythians, Gauls, Goths, Huns, and Vandals, have done in different ages; and that, in such a time of calamity, God has his hiding places in Providence for the protection and safety of his people: but the Targum interprets it of an evil tongue, and particularly of the tongue of Balaam:

neither shall thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh: meaning either of pestilence, which is the destruction that wastes at noonday, Psa 91:6; which, when it comes into a nation or neighbourhood, shall not come nigh the good man, and infect him; or if it does, shall not carry him off; and if it does that, it carries him home to heaven and happiness, and therefore he has no reason to be afraid of it: or of a general calamity; as when there is a complication of judgments in a nation, or in the world in general, as war, famine, pestilence, earthquakes, &c. as if all were just falling to pieces and into ruin; and yet even then the saints have no cause to fear; see Psa 46:1; or the destruction of the whole world at the last day, when the heavens and earth, and all therein, shall be burnt up: for then good and righteous men will be safe with Christ, and dwell with him in the new heavens and the new earth, which shall be prepared for them; see Pe2 3:10; the Targum refers this to the destruction of the Midianites.

(g) "dum pervagabitur", Vatablus; "quum grassatur", Cocceius, Godurcus; "grassabitur", Grotius; so Aben Ezra and Ben Gersom, and R. Jonah, in Ben Melech.

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

CHAPTER V.

Scourge. Ecclesiasticus (xxvi. 9., and xxviii. 21.) has the same expression. See James iii. 6. (Calmet) --- Calamity, from robbers, as the Hebrew shod, (Haydock) intimates. The word is rendered destruction, vastitate, ver. 22. (Menochius)

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).

Hid, i.e. protected, as in some secret and safe place.

From the scourge of the tongue, i.e. from false accusations and virulent slanders and reproaches, either by diverting their tongues to other persons or things, or by clearing thy integrity.

Neither shalt thou be afraid; thou shalt have no cause to fear it, because God will secure thee in it and from it.

When it cometh, to wit, upon others; near thee, or round about thee.

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

21. Scourge of the tongue — The Targum refers this to the incantations of Balaam, but without reason. The word scourge, שׁושׂ, means whip, and is used here figuratively, with prime reference, perhaps, to the whip so frequently depicted on the monuments of Egypt. The same word, שׁושׂ, used of Satan’s rapid and destructive course and rendered “going to and fro,” means literally “whipping through,” Job_1:7. Jeremiah (Jer_18:18) makes similar allusion to the tongue as a whip. Comp. Isa_28:15. Hitzig finds the secret of the figure used here in the resemblance of the sound of the tongue to that of a whip, or in their like flexibility — a thought which Homer has, “flexible is the tongue of mortals.” — Iliad, 20:248. It is worthy of remark, (Schlottmann calls it a certain irony,) that the very evil — calumny — from which Job is assured he should be hidden, in case he yields to the divine chastisement, is that with which the friends already threaten him.

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

Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue. (comp. Psa_31:20) God will also protect his own from "the scourge of the tongue," i.e. from calumny, from abuse, from bitter words (see the comment on ver. 15). Neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh; rather, of devastation. Shod (rwOv) populationes, praedationes, calamitosas tempestates, terrae motus, ruinas, incendia, mala omnia vastitatem inducentia, amplectitur" (Schultens).

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

from the scourging tongue of the Adversary you shall be hidden. These are the seven troubles: 1 famine, 2) the sword, 3) the tongue, 4) plunder etc., and 5) the beasts of the land, which are brigands.

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.