13 "But those who are godless in heart lay up anger. They don't cry for help when he binds them.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath - By their continued impiety they lay the foundation for increasing and multiplied expressions of the divine displeasure. Instead of confessing their sins when they are afflicted, and seeking for pardon: instead of returning to God and becoming truly his friends, they remaian impenitent, unconverted, and are rebellious at heart. They complain of the divine government and plans, and their feelings and conduct make it necessary for God further to interpose, until they are finally cut off and consigned to ruin. Elihu had stated what was the effect in two classes of persons who were afflicted. There were those who were truly pious, and who would receive affliction as sent from God for purposes of discipline, and who would repent and seek his mercy; Job 36:11. There were those, as a second class, who were openly wicked, and who would not be benfited by afflictions, and who would thus be cut off, Job 36:12. He says, also, that there was a third class - the class of hypocrites, who also were not profited by afflictions, and who would only by their perverseness and rebellion heap up wrath. It is "possible" that he may have designed to include Job in this number, as his three friends had done, but it seems more probable that he meant merely to suggest to Job that there was such a class, and to turn his mind to the "possibility" that he might be of the number. In explaining the design and effect of afflictions, it was at least proper to refer to this class, since it could not be doubted that there were people of this description.
They cry not when he bindeth them - They do not cry to God with the language of penitence when he binds them down by calamities; see Job 36:8.
But the hypocrites in heart - חנפי chanphey, the profligates, the impious, those who have neither the form nor the power of godliness. The hypocrite is he who has the form but not the power, though he wishes to be thought as inwardly righteous as he is outwardly correct; and he takes up the profession of religion only to serve secular ends. This is not the meaning of the word in the book of Job, where it frequently occurs.
They cry not - "Though he binds them, yet they cry not." They are too obstinate to humble themselves even under the mighty hand of God.
But the hypocrites (h) in heart heap up wrath: they (i) cry not when he bindeth them.
(h) Which are maliciously bent against God, and flatter themselves in their vices.
(i) When they are in affliction they do not seek God for help, as Asa in (2-Chronicles 16:12).
But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath,.... Or "and the hypocrites" (s); for these are the same with the disobedient in Job 36:12; who seem to be righteous, but are not; pretend to what they have not; have a double heart, Psalm 12:2, or say one thing with their mouth, and mean another thing in their hearts; or with their mouths draw nigh to God, but their hearts are far from him, Matthew 15:8; and so hypocrites, at least outwardly righteous before men, but inwardly full of wickedness, as the Pharisees were, whom our Lord often calls hypocrites, Matthew 15:7, these "put" or add wrath, as Aben Ezra interprets it; they increase the wrath of God; or, as we express it, heap up wrath; or, to use the apostle's phrase, treasure up wrath against the day of wrath: though some understand it of the wrath of the hypocrites against God for afflicting them; so Jarchi. When afflictions come upon them, they reproach and blaspheme; they are angry with God and are wrathful, and quarrel at his dealings with them: "they put the nose" (t); so it may be literally rendered; they erect that against God, and point it at him in a proud, haughty, wrathful, and contumacious manner;
they cry not when he bindeth them; in fetters and cords of affliction, Job 36:8; or when he corrects them, as Mr. Broughton rightly as to the sense renders it: they pray not, as Ben Gersom interprets it; whereas sanctified afflictions bring good men to the throne of grace, who have been too long absent from it: but these men cry not unto God for grace and mercy, help, assistance, and deliverance; they cry out against God, but not unto him.
(s) "et hypocritae", Montanus; "et loripedes", Schultens. (t) "ponent nasum", Montanus; "ponunt nasum". Schultens.
Same sentiment as Job 36:11-12, expanded.
hypocrites--or, the ungodly [MAURER]; but "hypocrites" is perhaps a distinct class from the openly wicked (Job 36:12).
heap up wrath--of God against themselves (Romans 2:5). UMBREIT translates, "nourish their wrath against God," instead of "crying" unto Him. This suits well the parallelism and the Hebrew. But the English Version gives a good parallelism, "hypocrites" answering to "cry not" (Job 27:8, Job 27:10); "heap up wrath" against themselves, to "He bindeth them" with fetters of affliction (Job 36:8).
13 Yet the hypocrites in heart cherish wrath,
They cry not when He hath chained them.
14 Thus their soul dieth in the vigour of youth,
And their life is like that of the unclean.
15 Yet He delivereth the sufferer by his affliction,
And openeth their ear by oppression.
He who is angry with God in his affliction, and does not humbly pray to Him, shows thereby that he is a חנף, one estranged from God (on the idea of the root, vid., i. 216), and not a צדיק. This connection renders it natural to understand not the divine wrath by אף: θησαυρίζουσιν ὀργήν (Rosenm. after Romans 2:5), or: they heap up wrath upon themselves (Wolfson, who supplies עליהם), but the impatience, discontent, and murmuring of man himself: they cherish or harbour wrath, viz., בּלבּם (comp. Job 22:22, where שׁים בלב signifies to take to heart, but at the same time to preserve in the heart). Used thus absolutely, שׂים signifies elsewhere in the book, to give attention to, Job 4:20; Job 24:12; Job 34:23, or (as Arab. wḍ‛) to lay down a pledge; here it signifies reponunt s. recondunt (with an implied in ipsis), as also Arab. šâm, fut. i, to conceal with the idea of sinking into (immittentem), e.g., the sword in the sheath. With תּמת, for ותּמת (Isaiah 50:2) or ותמת, the punishment which issues forth undistinguished from this frustration of the divine purpose of grace follows ἀσυνδέτως, as e.g., Hosea 7:16. חיּה interchanges with נפשׁ, as Job 33:22, Job 33:28; נער (likewise a favourite word with Elihu) is intended just as Job 33:25, and in the Psalm 88:16, which resembles both the Elihu section and the rest of the book. The Beth of בּקּדשׁים has the sense of aeque ac (Targ. היך), as Job 34:36, comp. תּחת, Job 34:26. Jeremiah. translates inter effeminatos; for קדשׁים (heathenish, equivalent to קדושׁים, as כּמרים, heathenish, equivalent to כּהנים) are the consecrated men, who yielded themselves up, like the women in honour of the deity, to passive, prematurely-enervating incontinence (vid., Keil on Deuteronomy 23:18), a heathenish abomination prevailing now and again even in Israel (1-Kings 14:24; 1-Kings 15:12; 1-Kings 22:47), which was connected with the worship of Astarte and Baal that was transferred from Syria, and to which allusion is here made, in accordance with the scene of the book. For the sufferer, on the other hand, who suffers not merely of necessity, but willingly, this his suffering is a means of rescue and moral purification. Observe the play upon the words יחלּץ and בּלחץ. The Beth in both instances is, in accordance with Elihu's fundamental thought, the Beth instrum.
Cry not - Unto God for help. Bindeth - With the cords of affliction.
*More commentary available at chapter level.