Job 31:27

And mine heart hath been secretly enticed,.... Drawn away by beholding the magnitude of these bodies, the swiftness of their motion, their glorious appearance, and great usefulness to mankind, to

And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand: Enticed - away from God to idolatry. Kissed ... hand. Adoration literally means this.

Secretly; in my inward thoughts or affections, whilst I made open profession of my adherence to God and to the true religion. Enticed, or seduced, or deceived, by its plausible and glorious appearance, which might easily cheat a credulous and inconsiderate person to believe that there was something of a divinity in it, and so induce him to worship it. This emphatical expression seems to be used with design to teach the world this necessary and useful truth, that no mistake or error of mind would excuse the practice of idolatry. Or my mouth, Heb. and my mouth, which seems more proper here, because the secret error of the mind, without some such visible action and evidence as here follows, had not been punishable by the judges. Kissed my hand, in token of worship; whereof this was a sign, whether given to men, as , or to idols, . And when the idols were out of the reach of idolaters, that they could not kiss them, they used to kiss their hands, and, as it were, to throw kisses at them; of which we have many examples in heathen writers; of which see my Latin Synopsis on this place.

Job 31:27 And my heart hath been secretly enticed, or my mouth hath kissed my hand:Ver. 27. And my heart hath been secretly enticed] sc. By the devil, who is ειδωλοχαρης, as, saith Synesius, a great promoter of idolatry; and probably had tempted good Job to this sin also; but was bravely repulsed. If I have done this secretly, saith he, that is, contrary to my open profession of sincere religion. See Deuteronomy 27:10. Or, my mouth hath kissed my hand] An action of idolaters, who kissed their idols that were present, 1 Kings 19:18 Hosea 13:2 (as the Papists now do their idols, even to the wearing of hardest marble), and to those which were further from them, they held out their hand, and afterwards did put it to their mouth; as an acknowledgment that they had their life and breath from them, saith Diodati, as a sign of subjection, saith Piscator, from Genesis 41:40 Psalms 2:12, "Kiss the Son," sc. with a kiss of homage, such as wherewith Samuel kissed Saul, 1 Samuel 10:1. And Plutarch saith (in Caton. Uticens.), that not to all, but to some special chief commanders, and generals, it was granted among the Romans, That the hand should be kissed before them by way of honour; and this was called adorare, quasi applicare manum ad os. That saying of Bernard (In Cantic. serm. iv.) is worthy of inserting, Qui in se, non in Domino gloriatur, manum suam osculatur; He that glories in himself, and not in the Lord, kisseth his own hand, and is, interpretative, an idolater.

27. or my mouth hath kissed my hand] lit. and my hand hath kissed my mouth. The meaning is, if his hand touched his mouth “in order to wave the homage of the lips towards the object of adoration” (Con.). Pliny (quoted in Del.) says, Inter adorandum dexteram ad osculum referimus et totum corpus circumagimus. The worship of the heavenly bodies was widely spread in the East and in Arabia. The remarkable passage, Jeremiah 44:17 seq., shews that before the Exile worship of the “queen of heaven” had long been practised among all classes and in all the towns of Israel; comp. Ezekiel 8:16.

And my heart hath been secretly enticed - That is, away from God, or led into sin. Or my mouth hath kissed my hand - Margin, my hand hath kissed my mouth. The margin accords with the Hebrew.

27. Mouth… kissed… hand — Literally, My hand hath kissed my mouth, as in the margin. “In the act of worship,” says Pliny, we “kiss the right hand, and turn the whole body to the right,” Job 28:2; Job 28:5; also Job 11:45.