Job 31

13–15 Here Job refers to the sin of treating servants unjustly. Job is saying that he could never have treated them unjustly because in God's eyes they were equal to him (verse 15). To sin against them would be to sin against God.⁶⁴

16–23 Here Job mentions various sins involving the mistreatment of the poor and needy, especially orphans and widows (see James 1:27). Notice, in verse 18, that Job interrupts himself and says that he has always helped orphans and widows. In verses 21–22, Job says that if he has raised his arm to strike the fatherless, then let his arm be broken off at the shoulder joint. Then Job ends by saying he could never have committed such sins because of his fear of God (verse 23).

24–28 In these verses Job talks about idolatry—trusting in gold and wealth (verses 24–25), and also paying homage to the sun and moon (verses 26–27). The sun and moon were often worshiped as gods in ancient times; and riches are still “worshiped” as gods today.⁶⁵

29–40 These verses deal with various sins: gloating over one's enemies (verse 29), inhospitality (verse 31), hypocrisy (verses 33–34), and withholding payment from tenant farmers (verses 38–39). Job says that if he is guilty of any of these wrongs—which he is not—let his land produce only briers and weeds (verse 40). Notice that verses 30 and 32are interruptions, in which Job denies having committed the sins of gloating and inhospitality.⁶⁶

There is a more important interruption in verses 35–37; one wonders why these verses weren't placed at the end of the chapter. Here Job makes his final plea of innocence: he is ready to sign his defense-as if he were presenting a written petition to God-and he asks the accuser to put his indictment in writing (verse 35). Job does not say who his “accuser” is; perhaps he is thinking of one of his three friends, or perhaps he is thinking of God. But even if Job does think that God is his accuser, still he hopes that when God knows all the facts and “weighs them in honest scales” (verse 6), then God will find Job blameless and acquit him. Job is ready to answer every charge in the indictment; he will not approach God like a criminal but like a prince (verse 37).

Although we the readers know that Job is indeed innocent of the charges against him, we cannot commend his self-confident attitude. And later God would rebuke him fo it: “Who is this that darkens my counsel without knowledge?” (Job 38:2). Let us never presume to go before God “like a prince.”