Job 31:22

[Then] let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade,.... With which the upper part of it is connected; let it be disjointed from it, or rot and drop off from it; a dreadful calamity this, to lose an arm

If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me; Job affirms his freedom from unfairness toward his servants: from harshness and oppression toward the needy.

I am contented that that arm which hath been so wickedly employed may either rot off, or fall out of joint, and so be useless and burdensome to me.

Job 31:22 [Then] let mine arm fall from my shoulder blade, and mine arm be broken from the bone.Ver. 22. Then let mine arm fall from the shoulder blade] That unworthy arm of mine (as Cranmer cried out of that unworthy right hand of his, which he therefore burnt first), so injuriously lifted up against the fatherless, Job 31:21, let it never be useful to me any more, but let me be punished with that wherewith I have sinned. God sometimes takes notice of the offending member; as in Jeroboam’ s withered hand, Abimelech’ s head, which had stolen the crown, Samson’ s eyes, the rich man’ s tongue, the adulteress’ s thigh, Numbers 5:27. This Job knew, and therefore subjoineth this imprecation, Diris se devovens, thereby to clear himself from Eliphaz’ s false imputations, Job 22:6-7. The like may be done by us, but sparingly, and not without great necessity, for the helping of the truth in necessity, lest if we do it falsely or rashly, God say, Amen, and set his fiat to it; as he had done in sundry instances in several ages; witness Alexander, the cruel keeper of Newgate, and his son-in-law, John Peter, who rotted above ground, according to their wish. So Anne Averies, in Queen Elizabeth’ s days; Sir Gervaise Elloways, in King James’ s, hanged on the Tower hill, which he confessed was just upon him, for that in carding and dicing he had often wished himself hanged, if it were not so and so. And mine arm be broken from the bone] Broken to shivers, as the word signifieth, and by the infamous hands of the hangman, for a terror to all false judges, as some do sense it; Rumpar medius, saith Brentius, as Judas burst in the midst with a huge crack, Acts 1:18, his guts gushing out; as did likewise Foxford’ s, a great persecutor in Henry VIII’ s time. Some men’ s sins go before to judgment, God hanging them up, as it were, in gibbets, that others may hear and fear, and do no more so.

Verse 22. Let mine arm fall] Mr. Good, as a medical man, is at home in the translation of this verse: - "May my shoulder-bone be shivered at the blade, And mine arm be broken off at the socket." Let judgment fall particularly on those parts which have either done wrong, or refused to do right when in their power.

22. The imprecation is closely connected in form with the preceding verse—if I have lifted up mine hand, then let mine arm, &c. mine arm fall] Or, my shoulder fall. from the bone] Marg. the chanel bone, “an old term for the collar bone” (Wright, Bible Word-Book). The word is lit. tube, or shaft.

Then let mine arm - The strong language which Job uses here, shows his consciousness of innocence, and his detestation of the offences to which he here refers, Job 31:16-22.

22. Mine arm — There is a striking grandeur in this imprecation on the arm that was lifted up to threaten an orphan in the court of justice. (Scott.)