Job 34:31 - Exposition

Surely it is meet to be said unto God, I have borne chastisement . (So Rosenmuller and others.) If the passage be thus rendered, Elihu must be considered as, like Eliphaz ( Job 5:8 ), Bildad ( Job 8:5 ), and Zophar ( Job 11:13-15 ), counselling Job to submit himself to God, acknowledging his sin, accepting his punishment, and promising amendment for the future (verse 22). But perhaps it is better to regard the passage as interrogative, and Elihu as asking—What man, among those whom God has cast down and punished, has ever sought to deprecate his wrath by contrition, confession, and promise of amendment, implying that, had they done so, God would have relented and forgiven them? (see the Revised Version). In this case no direct counsel is offered to Job; but still an indirect hint is given him. I will not offend any more . This is preferable to the marginal rendering of the Revised Version, "though I have not offended."