Job 31:17

Or have eaten my morsel myself alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof;

King James Version · Read in your translation · Open the Explore console

Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
eaten	וְאֹכַ֣ל ve.'o.Khal	H398	to eat (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, qal, 1st person common singular
morsel	פִּתִּ֣י pi.Ti	H6595	a bit · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix
fatherless	יָת֣וֹם ya.Tom	H3490	a bereaved person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
eaten	אָכַ֖ל 'a.Khal	H398	to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular

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

Deuteronomy 15:11 For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother, to thy p…
Deuteronomy 15:14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath b…
Nehemiah 8:10 Then he said unto them, Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this da…
Job 22:7 Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink, and thou hast withholden bread from the hungry.
Job 29:12-16 Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him.
Ezekiel 18:7 And hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, a…
Ezekiel 18:16 Neither hath oppressed any, hath not withholden the pledge, neither hath spoiled by violence, but hath given his bread to the hungry, and ha…
Luke 11:41 But rather give alms of such things as ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 31:16-23

Eliphaz had particularly charged Job with unmercifulness to the poor (Job 22:6, etc.): Thou hast withholden bread from the hungry, stripped the naked of their clothing, and sent widows away empty. One would think he could not have been so very positive and express in his charge unless there had been some truth in it, some ground, for it; and yet it appears, by Job's protestation, that it was utterly false and groundless; he was never guilty of any such thing. See here, I. The testimony which Job's conscience gave in concerning his constant behaviour towards the poor. He enlarges most upon this head because in this matter he was most particularly accused. He solemnly protests, 1. That he had…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 31:17

Arabian rules of hospitality require the stranger to be helped first, and to the best.

John Gill on Job 31:17

Or have eaten my morsel myself alone,.... Though he had kept no doubt a plentiful table in the time of his prosperity suitable to his circumstances, yet had been no luxurious person, and therefore calls provisions a "morsel"; however, be it what it would, more or less, he did not eat it alone; what he had for himself the poor had a share of it with him, and the same he ate himself he gave to them: and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof: meaning the poor fatherless: for as to the rich fatherless, it was no charity to feed them: this verse contradicts the charge exhibited against him, Job 22:7.

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 31:16-18

16 If I held back the poor from what they desired, And caused the eyes of the widow to languish, 17 And ate my morsel alone Without letting the fatherless eat thereof: - 18 No indeed, from my youth he grew up to me as to a father, And from my mother's womb I guided her - The whole strophe is the hypothetical antecedent of the imprecative conclusion, Job 31:22, which closes the following strophe. Since מנע דּבר ממּנוּ, cohibere aliquid ab aliquo (Job 22:7), is said as much in accordance with the usage of the language as מנעו מדּבר, cohibere aliquem ab aliquo (Num 24:11; Ecc 2:10), in the sense of denegare alicui aliquid, there is no reason for taking מחפץ דּלּים together as a genitival clau…

The Church Fathers

Or have eaten my morsel alone, and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof. That is to say, reckoning that he prejudiced his pitifulness, if he ate alone what the Lord of all created in common. Which same fellowship of intercourse should be carried on within the domestic walls with those persons, by whom the rewards of eternal retribution may be promoted. Whence the holy man describes himself as having had not any indifferent person, but, for eating, the 'fatherless' as his companions. But these extraordinary bowels of pitifulness whether he had derived from himself, or obtained them by the grace of his Creator, let him make known...
— Gregory the Dialogist, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXI

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

Alms — Not found in the Old Testament, but repeatedly in the New. The Mosaic legislation (Lev. 25:35; Deut. 15:7) tended to promote a spirit of charity, and to prevent the occurrence of destitution among…
Beneficence · .Job — .Job
Hospitality · Exemplified: Job — Exemplified: Job
Integrity · 16:19,20; — 16:19,20;
Love To Man · Should be exhibited, in: Visiting the sick, &c — Should be exhibited, in: Visiting the sick, &c
Orphan · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Poor · UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO — UNCLASSIFIED SCRIPTURES RELATING TO

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).

Job 31:17

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 31:16-23

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 31:17

John Gill on Job 31:17

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 31:16-18

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Job 31:17

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Job 31:16-23

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Job 31:17

John Gill on Job 31:17

Keil & Delitzsch on Job 31:16-18

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Job 31:13-15

Rashi on Job 31:16