to lift · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
shoulder
שִׁ֭כְמִיShikh.mi
H7926
the neck (between the shoulders) as the place of burdens · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
bind
אֶֽעֶנְדֶ֖נּוּ'e.'en.De.nu
H6029
to lace fast · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
crown
עֲטָר֣וֹתa.ta.Rot
H5850
a crown · noun, common feminine plural absolute
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
Isaiah 22:22 And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall ope…
Exodus 28:12 And thou shalt put the two stones upon the shoulders of the ephod for stones of memorial unto the children of Israel: and Aaron shall bear t…
Job 29:14 I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment was as a robe and a diadem.
Isaiah 62:3 Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the LORD, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
Philippians 4:1 Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 31:33–end
We have here Job's protestation against three more sins, together with his general appeal to God's bar and his petition for a hearing there, which, it is likely, was intended to conclude his discourse (and therefore we will consider it last), but that another particular sin occurred, from which he thought it requisite to acquit himself. He clears himself from the charge,
I. Of dissimulation and hypocrisy. The general crime of which his friends accused him was that, under the cloak of a profession of religion, he had kept up secret haunts of sin, and that really he was as bad as other people, but had the art of concealing it. Zophar insinuated (Job 20:12) that he hid his iniquity under his to…
So far from hiding the adversary's "answer" or "charge" through fear,
I would take it on my shoulders--as a public honor (Isa 9:6).
a crown--not a mark of shame, but of distinction (Isa 62:3).
John Gill on Job 31:36
Surely I would take it upon my shoulder,.... The bill of indictment, the charge in writing; this he would take up and carry on his shoulder as a very light thing, having nothing weighty in it, no charge of sin and guilt to bear him down; nothing but what he could easily stand up under, only some trifling matter, which could not be interpreted sin; for anything of that kind would have been a burden too heavy for him to have borne: or else his sense is, that should he be convicted of any sin, he would openly confess the charge, acknowledge the sin in the most public manner, that being visible which is borne upon the shoulder; and would also patiently bear the afflictions and chastisements that…
35 O that I had one who would hear me!
Behold my signature-the Almighty will answer me -
And the writing which my opponent hath written!
36 Truly I will carry it upon my shoulder,
I will wind it about me as a crown.
37 The number of my steps I will recount to Him,
As a prince will I draw near to Him.
The wish that he might find a ready willing hearer is put forth in a general way, but, as is clear in itself, and as it becomes manifest from what follows, refers to Him who, because it treats of a contradiction between the outward appearance and the true but veiled fact, as searcher of the heart, is the only competent judge. It may not be translated: et libellum (the indictment, or even: the r…
The Church Fathers
"I have torn all that was received unjustly." Without boasting, I have torn what I had received. And the expression "on my shoulders" suggests that some [of his friends] gloried in the afflictions of the others; and I did not content myself with giving it back simply, but I nullified it by tearing it. "I have torn all that was received unjustly."
"And if I do not tear it above my shoulders, it will be my crown, and I will read it by raising it above my spines:" I will be crowned and I will read it publicly, that is to say against myself. "I will expose you to your own eyes (3). I will be confounded by the people who surround me, adorned that I did not fulfill the precept of the Lord, as I had announced: I first refused to hear the sentence that has since been put under the eyes.
That I might bear it upon my shoulder, and put it round me like a crown. To 'bear the book upon the shoulder,' is by practising to carry out Holy Scripture. And observe how orderly it is described both first as being 'carried on the shoulder,' and afterwards 'put round' him 'as a crown;' because, that is to say, the precepts of Sacred Revelation, if they be now borne in practice, afterwards set forth for us the crown of victory in the recompensing. But why does blessed Job beg for 'the book to be written by the Judge,' who was not able to attain to the times of the New Testament? But, as has been often said already, he uses the accents of the Elect, and in the personifying of them begs that, which he foresaw would benefit them in all respects. For he himself by the Spirit had for long had that book with him, which by the grace of Inspiration he had obtained, that both by living he should be made acquainted with, and by foreseeing he should announce. But herein it requires to be known that when we take thought of the precepts of Sacred Revelation, and when we draw off the mind from love of the life of corruption, we as it were hasten on by a kind of footsteps of the heart, to the interior scene of things. Now no man, in abandoning things below, is directly made at the top; because for earning the title to perfection, whilst the soul is day by day being led forward on high, doubtless there is an attaining thereto as it were by a kind of steps of ascending. Whence in this place also it is fitly added; By my several steps I will declare it. Since concerning these 'steps' of merits it is said by the Psalmist, They go from virtue to virtue. Concerning these, again, regarding Holy Church he says; God is distinguished in her steps, what time He shall receive her. For neither is there any attaining suddenly to things above, as has been said, but to the topmost pitch of virtuous attainments the soul is led on by accessions. For hence it is that the same Prophet saith again; I was exercised, and my spirit failed little by little. What does he mean, then, that he says, my spirit, but the spirit of man, i.e. the spirit of exaltation? And because by secret grace we advance to the love of God by a measure regulated from above, in proportion as virtue is daily increased in us by the Spirit of God, our own spirit proportionally goes off. Which spirit of error, because it is…
Dictionary and topics
Integrity · 16:19,20; — 16:19,20;
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).
