Job 31:40

Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley,.... This is an imprecation of Job's, in which he wishes that if what he had said was not true, or if he was guilty of the crimes he

Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended. Thistles - or brambles; thorns. Cockle - literally, noxious weeds, perhaps wolfsbane, which is common in Arabia.

To wit, in answer to his friends; for he speaks but little afterwards, and that is to God.

Job 31:40 Let thistles grow instead of wheat, and cockle instead of barley. The words of Job are ended.Ver. 40. Let thistles grow instead of wheat] This was a piece of that first curse, Genesis 3:8, under which the earth hath lain bedridden, as it were, ever since, waiting for the coming of the Son of God, that it may he delivered from the bondage of corruption, Romans 8:20; and Job wished it as due to him, Ex lege Talionis, if he should be guilty of the forementioned cruelty, James 2:13, αρουρα et Arvum ab Heb. Arur, accursed. And cockle instead of barley] Lolium et lappae, stinking stuff the word signifieth; as those were stinking grapes, Isaiah 5:2; Isaiah 5:4, rotten, corrupted, vitiated; and as that was blasted corn, yielding nothing better than dust and chaff, Matthew 13:25, ζιζανιον, Frumentum adustum. Whereas wheat and barley are the precious fruits of the earth, James 5:7, whereof when the Metapontines had one year a great crop, they dedicated to their god Delphos, in token of thankfulness, a harvest graven in gold, Cρυσουνθερος (Strabo). The words of Job are ended] i.e. His conference with his three friends, whom having before silenced, and now for himself sufficiently apologized, he putteth a period to that discourse; having (as Octavius once said to Decius) to the understanding spoken sufficient, and to the ignorant or obstinate too much, had he said less.

Verse 40. Let thistles grow instead of wheat] What the word חוח choach means, which we translate thistles, we cannot tell: but as חח chach seems to mean to hold, catch as a hook, to hitch, it must signify some kind of hooked thorn, like the brier; and this is possibly its meaning. And cockle] באשה bashah, some fetid plant, from באש baash, to stink. In Isaiah 5:2; Isaiah 5:4, we translate it wild grapes; and Bishop Lowth, poisonous berries: but Hasselquist, a pupil of the famous Linnaeus, in his Voyages, p. 289, is inclined to believe that the solanum incanum, or hoary nightshade is meant, as this is common in Egypt, Palestine, and the East. Others are of opinion that it means the aconite, which [Arabic] beesh, in Arabic, denotes: this is a poisonous herb, and grows luxuriantly on the sunny hills among the vineyards, according to Celsus in Hieroboticon. [Arabic] beesh is not only the name of an Indian poisonous herb, called the napellus moysis, but [Arabic] beesh moosh, or [Arabic] farut al beesh, is the name of an animal, resembling a mouse, which lives among the roots of this very plant. "May I have a crop of this instead of barley, if I have acted improperly either by my land or my labourers!" The words of Job are ended.] That is, his defence of himself against the accusations of his friends, as they are called. He spoke afterwards, but never to them; he only addresses God, who came to determine the whole controversy. These words seem very much like an addition by a later hand. They are wanting in many of the MSS. of the Vulgate, two in my own possession; and in the Editio Princeps of this version. I suppose that at first they were inserted in rubric, by some scribe, and afterwards taken into the text. In a MS. of my own, of the twelfth or thirteenth century, these words stand in rubric, actually detached from the text; while in another MS., of the fourteenth century, they form a part of the text. In the Hebrew text they are also detached: the hemistichs are complete without them; nor indeed can they be incorporated with them. They appear to me an addition of no authority. In the first edition of our Bible, that by Coverdale, 1535, there is a white line between these words and the conclusion of the chapter; and they stand, forming no part of the text, thus: - Here ende the wordes of Job. Just as we say, in reading the Scriptures "Here ends such a chapter;" or, "Here ends the first lesson," c. Or the subject of the transposition, mentioned above, I have referred to the reasons at the end of the chapter. Dr. Kennicott, on this subject, observes: "Chapters xxix., xxx., and xxxi., contain Job's animated self-defence, which was made necessary by the reiterated accusation of his friends.

40. For “thistles” perhaps thorns is more accurate. The word translated “cockle” means perhaps any noisome weed. The concrete expressions, however, add to the vigour of the passage. Some have thought that these last verses (38–40) have been misplaced, and ought to be introduced at some other point in the chapter, allowing Job’s challenge Job 31:35-37 to be the last words which he utters. To modern feeling the passage would thus gain in rhetorical effect; but it is not certain that the Author’s taste would have coincided with modern feeling in this instance. And it is difficult to find in the chapter a suitable place where the verses could be inserted. If the verses belong to the passage at all, which there is no reason to doubt, they seem to stand in the only place suitable for them. The concluding statement “the words of Job are ended” hardly belongs to the Author of the Book. It is the remark of some editor or copyist, who drew attention to the fact that Job’s connected discourses here come to an end. It is rather hazardous to draw any critical conclusion from it in reference to the immediately following speeches of Elihu.

Let thistles grow; - Genesis 3:18. Thistles are valueless; and Job is so confident of entire innocence in regard to this, that he says he would be willing, if he were guilty, to have his whole land overrun with noxious weeds.

40. Thistles — Translated elsewhere thorns. Cockle — The Hebrew root points to some kind of noxious, ill-smelling weed.