Job 35:6

If thou sinnest, what dost thou against him?.... Sin is expressly said to be against God, Psalms 51:4; it is contrary to his nature, as any opposites can be to each other: it is against his law, a

Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou.

Thy sins do him no hurt, and therefore thy righteousness brings him no benefit, as it follows.

Job 35:6 If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? or [if] thy transgressions be multiplied, what doest thou unto him?Ver. 6. If thou sinnest, what dost thou against him?] What more than show thy teeth? or shoot at a rock, where the arrow rebounds upon thee? In the sack of Constantinople the image of the crucifix was taken down by the Turks, and a Turk’ s cap put upon the head thereof, and so set up, and shot at with their arrows; and afterwards, in great derision, carried about in the camp, as it were in procession, with drums playing before it, railing and spitting at it, and calling it the God of the Christians. But what was all this to Christ? He that sitteth in the heavens ( extra iactum) laughed at them, the Lord had them in derision, Psalms 2:4. Do wicked sinners, when they work hardest against God, as the word here signifieth, and take greatest pains to go to hell; do they, I say, provoke the Lord to anger? Etsi naviter peccas. "Do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?" Jeremiah 7:19. And, nay we not well say to such, as Ulysses’ s companions said to him, when he would needs provoke Polydamas, Sχετλιετιπτεθελειςερεθιζεμεναγριονανδρα (Hom. Odys.). God can easily get him a name in the utter overthrow of a rabble of rebels conspiring against him, as at the flood, tower of Babel, Sodom, Egypt, Moab, &c., who were trodden down under him, as straw is trodden down for the dunghill, Isaiah 25:10. And in the next verse, "The Lord shall spread forth his hands in the midst of them, as he that swimmeth spreadeth forth his hands to swim" (that is, with greatest facility; for violent strokes rather sink than support a swimmer): "and he shall bring down their pride together with the spoils of their hands. And the fortress of the high fort of their walls shall he bring down, lay low, and bring to the ground, even to the dust," Isaiah 25:11-12.

Verse 6. If thou sinnest] God is not benefited by thy righteousness, nor injured by thy iniquity, howsoever multiplied it may be.

5–8. The reply of Elihu to Job’s complaint. A glance at heaven, the infinitely exalted abode of God, must tell us that our conduct whether good or bad cannot affect Him. Our righteousness confers no profit on Him, neither does our wickedness entail any loss. It is men themselves that their conduct affects. It is in human life that the influence of righteousness or evil-doing is seen. And being so eternally unlike they cannot have the same effect. Elihu does not contemplate any one going so far as to maintain that godliness and unrighteousness do not differ in themselves. Job assumes and most strongly asserts their difference. He even rises to the sublime height of resolving to adhere to righteousness though God and men should shew their indifference to it (ch. Job 17:9). And what he complains of is that God is indifferent to it, and that in His government the righteous is treated as the wicked. This is the point which Elihu touches.

If thou sinnest, what doest thou against him? - This should not be interpreted as designed to justify sin, or as saying that there is no evil in it, or that God does not regard it.

6, 7. What receiveth he of thine hand — Independent and above all human conduct, he is under obligations to none; a point that had been reached before in the argument.