Job 22:7 - Exposition

Thou hast not given water to the weary to drink . To give water to the thirsty was regarded in the East as one of the most elementary duties of man to man. The self-justification of the dead in the Egyptian Hades contained the following passage: "I gave my bread to the hungry, and drink to him that was athirst ; I clothed the naked with garments; I sheltered the wanderer" ('Ritual of the Dead,' ch. CXXV . § 38). The same claim appears continually on Egyptian tombs. "All men respected me," we read on one; " I gave water to the thirsty ; I set the wanderer in his path; I took away the oppressor, and put a stop to violence". In the proverbs assigned to Solomon, "which the men of Hezekiah copied out" ( Proverbs 25:1 ), the duty was declared to be one owed even to enemies (see Proverbs 25:21 , "If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink "). Isaiah notices it as praiseworthy in the Temanites (Eliphaz's people), that they " brought water to him that was thirsty ' and prevented with their bread him that fled" ( Isaiah 21:14 ). Jael is praised for going further than this: He asked water, and she gave him milk; she brought forth butter in a lordly dish" ( 5:25 ). And thou hast withholden bread from the hungry . Later on Job absolutely denies this, as well as many of the other charges. "If I have withheld," he says, "the poor from their desire, or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; or have eaten my morsel myself alone , and the fatherless hath not eaten thereof, " then let mine arm fall from my shoulder-blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone" ( Job 31:16-22 ).