Job 36:21

21 Take heed, do not turn to iniquity, For you have chosen this rather than affliction.

Job 36:21 Meaning and Commentary

Job 36:21

Take heed, regard not iniquity
Not any iniquity, as to show any approbation of it, love for it, and desire after it. All appearance of sin, of every sin, is to be abstained from; but particularly by the iniquity here meant may be the sin of impatience under his affliction; murmuring at the dealings of God with him; arraigning his justice, and saying very indecent things of him, as in ( Job 34:5 ) ( 35:2 ) . Or it may mean the evil he had been guilty of in so earnestly desiring the night of death:

for this thou hast chosen rather than affliction;
chose rather to die than to be afflicted as he was; or chose rather to complain of God, as if he dealt hardly with him, and did not do justly by him, than to submit patiently to the will of God, as he, ought to have done: or this he chose "through affliction" F4; through the force of it, because of it, and by means thereof; and so is a sort of excuse that Elihu makes for him; though at the same time he would have him by no means to regard such iniquity, and indulge to it.


FOOTNOTES:

F4 (ynem) "prae afflictione", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "prae miseria ex adflictione", Michaelis.

Job 36:21 In-Context

19 Will your riches, Or all the mighty forces, Keep you from distress?
20 Do not desire the night, When people are cut off in their place.
21 Take heed, do not turn to iniquity, For you have chosen this rather than affliction.
22 "Behold, God is exalted by His power; Who teaches like Him?
23 Who has assigned Him His way, Or who has said, 'You have done wrong'?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.