26 For then you will delight yourself in the Almighty, and shall lift up your face to God.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty - Instead of complaining of him as you now do, you would then find calm enjoyment in contemplating his character and his moral government. This is a correct account of the effects of reconciliation. He who becomes truly "acquainted" with God has pleasure in his existence and attributes; in his law and administration. No longer disposed to complain, he confides in him when he is afflicted; flees to him when he is persecuted; seeks him in the day of prosperity; prefers him to all that this world can give, and finds his supremest joys in turning away from all created good to hold communion with the Uncreated One.
And shalt lift up thy face unto God - An emblem of prosperity, happiness, and conscious innocence. We hang our face down when we are conscious of guilt; we bow the head in adversity. When conscious of uprightness; when blessed with prosperity, and when we have evidence that we are the children of God, we look up toward heaven. This was the natural condition of human beings - made to look upward, while all other animals look grovelling on the earth. So Milton describes the creation of man:
There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done; a creature, who, not prone
And brute as other creatures, but endued
With sanctity of reason, might erect
His stature, and upright with front serene
Govern the rest, self-knowing; and from thence
Magnanimous to correspond with heaven,
But grateful to acknowledge whence his good
Directed in devotion, to adore
And worship God supreme, who made him chief
Of all his works.
Paradise Lost, B. vii.
The Classic reader will instantly recollect the description in Ovid:
Pronaque cum spectent animalia caetera terram;
Os homini sublime dedit; coelumque tueri
Jussit, et erectos ad sidera tollere vultus.
Meta. 1:84.
For then shalt thou have thy delight - Thou shalt know, from thy temporal prosperity, that God favors thee; and for his bounty thou shalt be grateful. How different is this doctrine from that of St. Paul and St. John! "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus." "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father!" "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our spirits that we are the children of God." "We glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." "We love him because he first loved us." Tribulation itself was often a mark of God's favor.
For then shall thou have thy delight in the Almighty,.... In the perfections of his nature, in the works of his hands, in his word and worship, in communion with him, and in the relation he stands in to his people as their covenant God and Father; this would be the case when Job should be more and better acquainted with God, and with the law or doctrine his month, and the words of his lips, and should return unto him with his whole heart; and when his affections should be taken off of all earthly riches; when he should look upon gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brook, and God should be to him his gold and his silver; then, and not till then, could he have true delight and complacency in God:
and shalt lift up thy face unto God; in prayer, as Sephorno interprets it, with an holy confidence, boldness, and cheerfulness; as a believer in Christ may, having on his righteousness, and having his heart sprinkled from an evil conscience by his blood; such an one can appear before God, and lift up his face to him, as without spot, so without confusion, shame, and blushing, without a load of guilt upon him, without fear of wrath or punishment, and of being repulsed; see Job 11:15.
lift up . . . face, &c.--repeated from Zophar (Job 11:15).
26 For then thou shalt delight thyself in the Almighty,
And lift up they countenance to Eloah;
27 If thou prayest to Him, He will hear thee,
And thou shalt pay thy vows.
28 And thou devisest a plan, and it shall be established to thee,
And light shineth upon thy ways.
29 If they are cast down, thou sayest, "Arise!"
And him that hath low eyes He saveth.
30 He shall rescue him who is not guiltless,
And he is rescued by the purity of thy hands.
כּי־אז might also be translated "then indeed" (vid., on Job 11:15), as an emphatic resumption of the promissory והיה (tum erit), Job 22:25; but what follows is really the confirmation of the promise that God will be to him a rich recompense for the earthly treasures that he resigns; therefore: for then thou shalt delight thyself in the Almighty (vid., the primary passage, Psalm 37:4, and the dependent one, Isaiah 58:14; comp. infra, Job 27:10), i.e., He will become a source of highest, heartfelt joy to thee (על as interchanging with בּ by שׂמח). Then shall he be able to raise his countenance, which was previously depressed (נפלוּ, Genesis 4:6.), in the consciousness of his estrangement from God by dearly cherished sin and unexpiated guilt, free and open, confident and joyous, to God. If he prays to Him (תּעתּיר may be thus regarded as the antecedent of a conditional clause, like יברח, Job 20:24), He will hear him; and what he has vowed in prayer he will now, after that which he supplicated is granted, thankfully perform; the Hiph. העתּיר (according to its etymon: to offer the incense of prayer) occurs only in Ex 8-10 beside this passage, whereas גּזר (to cut in pieces, cut off) occurs here for the first time in the signification, to decide, resolve, which is the usual meaning of the word in the later period of the language. On ותגזר (with Pathach, according to another reading with Kametz-chatuph), vid., Ges. 47, rem. 2. Moreover, the paratactic clauses of Job 22:28 are to be arranged as we have translated them; קוּם signifies to come to pass, as freq. (e.g., Isaiah 7:7, in connection with היה, to come into being). That which he designs (אמר) is successful, and is realized, and light shines upon his ways, so that he cannot stumble and does not miss his aim, - light like moonlight or morning light; for, as the author of the introductory Proverbs, to which we have already so often referred as being borrowed from the book of Job (comp. Job 21:24 with Proverbs 3:8), ingeniously says, ch. Job 4:18 : "The path of the righteous is as the morning light (כּאור נגהּ, comp. Daniel 6:20), which shineth brighter and brighter into the height of day (i.e., noonday brightness)."
Lift up - Look up to him, with chearfulness and confidence.
*More commentary available at chapter level.