to set in a row · interrogative particle + verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
riches
שׁ֭וּעֲךָShu.'a.kha
H7769
a halloo · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
gold
בְּצַרbᵉtsar
H1222
gold
forces
מַאֲמַצֵּיma.'a.ma.tzei-
H3981
strength · noun, common masculine plural construct
strength
כֹֽחַKho.ach
H3581
vigor · noun, common masculine singular 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
Proverbs 11:4 Riches profit not in the day of wrath: but righteousness delivereth from death.
Proverbs 11:21 Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished: but the seed of the righteous shall be delivered.
Job 9:13 If God will not withdraw his anger, the proud helpers do stoop under him.
Psalms 33:16-17 There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
Proverbs 10:2 Treasures of wickedness profit nothing: but righteousness delivereth from death.
Isaiah 2:20 In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and t…
Isaiah 37:36 Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose…
Zephaniah 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the LORD’s wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Job 36:15-23
Elihu here comes more closely to Job; and,
I. He tells him what God would have done for him before this if he had been duly humbled under his affliction. "We all know how ready God is to deliver the poor in his affliction (Job 36:15); he always was so. The poor in spirit, those that are of a broken and contrite heart, he looks upon with tenderness, and, when they are in affliction, is ready to help them. He opens their ears, and makes them to hear joy and gladness, even in their oppressions; while he does not yet deliver them he speaks to them good words and comfortable words, for the encouragement of their faith and patience, the silencing of their fears, and the balancing of their griefs;…
forces of strength--that is, resources of wealth (Psa 49:7; Pro 11:4).
Adam Clarke on Job 36:18
Because there is wrath - This is a time in which God is punishing the wicked; take heed lest thou be cut off in a moment. Redeem the time; the days are evil.
Then a great ransom - When he determines to destroy, who can save?
John Gill on Job 36:19
Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength. Riches can be of no account, nor bear any weight with God; for they are of him and come from him, and what he has a right to take away and dispose of as he pleases. These cannot ward off the stroke of death, or secure from it; nor can a man possessed of them carry them with him into the other world; nor will they profit in the day of wrath. Mr. Broughton renders it, "will he esteem thy nobleness?" so Junius and Tremellius; thy noble birth, rank and station, thou hast had among men? Not at all. God is no respecter of persons; he regards not the noble and the rich more than the poor: and as for gold, the same may be said…
"Do not turn away your will. This is not a warning to the Lord, nor an order imposed upon him. It is a way of speaking to the imperative, used in the prophets to predict the future, as in this passage: "Gird yourself with your sword, O Almighty (2). - Of the prayer of the weak, who cry out to you from the bosom of their miseries: "Unhappy that I am! who will deliver me from the body of this death? And all who are clothed with strength, who trust in their works, strive to establish their own righteousness.
But frequently, while the mind of a righteous man stands firm in the stronghold of its resolution, while it recovers itself from every dispersion of change, and keeps down whatever superfluously arises within; it is smitten by the very glory of its own rectitude, and is raised up with the pride of presuming on itself. For he who performs great deeds, though he may think humbly of himself, yet knows that his doings are great. For, if he knows not that they are great, he doubtless keeps but little watch over them. And while he neglects to watch them, he either makes less progress in them, or loses them altogether. Whilst then it is necessary to know our good deeds, in order to guard them; from the very knowledge of them, a way is opened to our pride, and the hand of sin, by whose ravages they are to be snatched away, is admitted to the heart of him who does them. But it is brought about by a marvellous dispensation, that our Creator suffers a mind which is elated by prosperity, to be smitten with sudden temptation; in order that it may, in infirmity, behold itself more truly, and may descend, already improved, from that haughtiness of pride, which it had assumed from its virtues. Whence it is now rightly subjoined; Lay down thy greatness without tribulation, and all the mighty in strength. For the motions of the heart are mighty, when they feel only those things which are virtuous. But we lay down our greatness and our mighty motions, when we are compelled, by the assaults of sin, to consider what we are. We lay aside our mighty motions, when we are no longer raised up by our virtue, but when, by consenting to sin, we are fearful of being overwhelmed by that infirmity, with which we are assaulted. For the mind has great confidence in itself, when it sees that its strength is adequate to its wishes. It arrogates at once to itself the assurance of sanctity, and thinks that it is now equal even to all the heights of virtues, which it has conceived in thought only. But when a temptation suddenly arises and pierces it through, it utterly confounds those lofty thoughts, which had sprung up from its virtues. For an unexpected enemy enters, as it were, an unsuspecting city; and the necks of haughty citizens are smitten with a sudden stroke. There is nothing then at that time but continual lamentation, whilst the captured city of the mind is, by means of slaughter,…
Dictionary and topics
Gold — (1.) Heb. zahab, so called from its yellow colour (Ex. 25:11; 1 Chr. 28:18; 2 Chr. 3:5). (2.) Heb. segor, from its compactness, or as being enclosed or treasured up; thus precious or “fine gold” (1…
Redemption · The present life, the only season for — The present life, the only season for
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).
Keil & Delitzsch on Job 36:19-21
19 Shall thy crying place thee beyond distress,
And all the efforts of strength?
20 Long not for the night to come,
Which shall remove people from their place!
21 Take heed, incline not to evil;
For this thou hast desired more than affliction.
Those expositors who found in Job 36:18 the warning, that Job should not imagine that he would be able to redeem himself from judgment by a large ransom, go on to explain: will He esteem thy riches? (Farisol, Rosenm., Umbr., Carey, Ebr., and others); or: will thy riches suffice? (Hirz., Schlottm.); or some other way (Ew.). But apart from the want of connection of this insinuation, which is otherwise not mentioned in the book, and apart from the violenc…
dying from lack of understanding: See also 4:21; Prov 5:23; 10:21.
Rashi on Job 36:19
Will you set up your prayer so that no trouble Have you come to set up a cry that no trouble befall you, or any forces of strength to rob you? If so, with what will He collect His debt?
Lay down thy greatness without sorrow, and all the mighty in strength. Whom else do we understand by the mighty of Holy Church, except those, who both by their lofty attempts, and by successful designs have strength to overcome the desires of this world? Its greatness therefore consists in the life of its mighty ones; because it is then rendered more glorious, when its Elect contend, even to the death, with constant resolution, in defence of the Faith. Haughty men, therefore, when Apostles have been withdrawn from this world, and Martyrs withdrawn also to heavenly places, because they perhaps perceive that more learned and powerful rulers are greatly wanting, suspect that they have remained the only ones within the Church. And hence, while they prefer themselves, they insult, under pretence of advising, her, and say, Lay down thy greatness without sorrow, and all the mighty in strength. As if they said in open reproaches, 'Be not confident, that thou possessest greatness, for, since the old fathers have been taken away, thou hast no longer any in whose life thou canst boast.' They say these things in truth, as not knowing that Almighty God does not leave His Church without proper government. For when He summons the strong to their reward, He strengthens, in their place, the weak for the contest: when He rewards the one by bearing them away, He supplies to the others strength for their labours, for Him to recompense. Of whom it is said to the same Holy Church, Instead of thy fathers, children are born to thee; thou shall make them princes over all the earth. [Ps. 45, 16] For those who are afterwards preferred, are appointed to supply the virtue of the old fathers, because also when aged trees are felled, tender shoots grow up in the place of their strength. But haughty men believe not that they are strong, whom they knew at one time to be weak: and they disdain to reverence those when changed, whom they remember to have been contemptible. But since they see that the more righteous are few, and the ungodly the largest body therein, just as in threshing the fruits, the quantity of the chaff is greater; they despise even the life of the righteous from their estimate of the wicked. They see in truth that some of its rulers, supported by temporal power, revel in the pride of that power. They see that that reverence for religion, which their fathers preserved to…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
