to spurn · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
cause
מִשְׁפַּ֣טmish.Pat
H4941
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
manservant
עַ֭בְדִּי'Av.di
H5650
a servant · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
maidservant
וַאֲמָתִ֑יva.'a.ma.Ti
H519
a maidservant or female slave · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
contended
בְּ֝רִבָ֗םbe.ri.Vam
H7379
a contest (personal or legal) · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Exodus 21:20-21 And if a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his hand; he shall be surely punished.
Exodus 21:26-27 And if a man smite the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, that it perish; he shall let him go free for his eye’s sake.
Leviticus 25:43 Thou shalt not rule over him with rigour; but shalt fear thy God.
Leviticus 25:46 And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a possession; they shall be your bondmen for ever:…
Deuteronomy 15:12-15 And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let…
Deuteronomy 24:14-15 Thou shalt not oppress an hired servant that is poor and needy, whether he be of thy brethren, or of thy strangers that are in thy land with…
Jeremiah 34:14-17 At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years,…
Ephesians 6:9 And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 31:9-15
Two more instances we have here of Job's integrity: -
I. That he had a very great abhorrence of the sin of adultery. As he did not wrong his own marriage bed by keeping a concubine (he did not so much as think upon a maid, v. 1), so he was careful not to offer any injury to his neighbour's marriage bed. Let us see here, 1. How clear he was from this sin, Job 31:9. (1.) He did not so much as covet his neighbour's wife; for even his heart was not deceived by a woman. The beauty of another man's wife did not kindle in him any unchaste desires, nor was he ever moved by the allurements of an adulterous woman, such as is described, Pro 7:6, etc. See the original of all the defilements of the life…
Job affirms his freedom from unfairness towards his servants, from harshness and oppression towards the needy.
despise the cause--refused to do them justice.
John Gill on Job 31:13
If I did despise the cause of my manservant, or of my maidservant,.... Whether it was a cause that related to any controversy or quarrel among themselves when it was brought before him, he did not reject it, because of the meanness of the contending parties, and the state of servitude they were in; but he received it and searched into it, heard patiently what each had to say, examined them thoroughly, entered into the merits of the cause, and either reconciled them, or passed a righteous sentence, punished the delinquent, and protected the innocent; or, if it was a cause relating to himself, any complaint of their work, or wages, or food, or clothing, as it seems to be from what follows:
wh…
13 If I despised the cause of my servant and my maid,
When they contended with me:
14 What should I do, if God should rise up,
And if He should make search, what should I answer Him?
15 Hath not He who formed me in the womb formed him also,
And hath not One fashioned us in the belly?
It might happen, as Job 31:13 assumes, that his servant or his maid (אמה, Arab. amatun, denotes a maid who is not necessarily a slave, ‛abde, as Job 19:15, whereas שׁפחה does not occur in the book) contended with him, and in fact so that they on their part began the dispute (for, as the Talmud correctly points out, it is not בּריבי עמּם, but בּריבם עמּדי), but he did not then treat them as a despot; they were no…
The Church Fathers
After describing his virtues of justice, mercifulness and chastity, he adds now a new one, that is, the virtue of moderation. Indeed, he does not defend himself against the complaints of his servants with the authority of a landlord but by satisfying the reasons of righteousness.
"If I refused to do justice to my servant or to my servant, when they were judged in my presence," according to this saying, "If you have lawsuits for the interests of this world." He calls his servants, those of the people still attached to temporal goods.
If I despised to submit to judgment with my man-servant or with my maid-servant, when they contended with me. For he who did not refuse to be 'judged with menservants and maid-servants,' clearly shews that against no fellow-creature was he at any time swoln with pride in himself. But herein it is interesting to remark with what circumspection the holy man preserved his life in all respects. For not far above he said, The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose and stood up. The princes refrained talking, and laid their hand on their mouth. The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to their throat. While now he says; If I have despised to submit to judgment with my man-servant or with my maid-servant, when they contended with me. Who might be able proportionately to view these high counterpoises of virtues in this holy man? In whom there is so great authority of governance that princes are bound to silence, such lowliness of heart, that 'maid-servants' are permitted to come to 'judgment' on an equal footing. See how in a wonderful way he appears in power superior to princes, in contest on a level with servants; in the assemblage of princes mindful of his office, in contest with domestics mindful of his creation. For he beholds himself a servant under the real Lord, and therefore he does not in loftiness of heart lift himself up above servants...
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Contempt · Sin of — Sin of
Employer · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Injustice · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Integrity · 16:19,20; — 16:19,20;
Judgment · THE GENERAL — THE GENERAL
Man · EQUALITY OF — EQUALITY OF
Master · SCRIPTURES RELATING TO MASTERS OF SERVANTS — SCRIPTURES RELATING TO MASTERS OF SERVANTS
Masters · Duty of, toward servants: To act justly — Duty of, toward servants: To act justly
Respect Of Persons · God does not have — God does not have
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
unfair to . . . servants: This might refer to violations of the fourth commandment (Deut 5:12-15). • God created both me and my servants: Job extended the implications of being created in God’s image to the poor (Prov 14:31; 22:2) and even to slaves.
Rashi on Job 31:12
and it uproots all my grain i.e., this fire. Therefore, I refrained from committing [this sin]. When he speaks with an expression of uprooting, he says תְּשָׁרֵשׁ, and to express roots, he also uses תַּשְׁרֵשׁ. Similarly, יְשֹׁרָשׁוּ is an expression of uprooting and יַשְׁרִשׁוּ is an expression of a root.
