Job 6:25

How forcible are right words!.... That are according to right reason; such as may be called strong reasons, or bony arguments, as in Isaiah 41:21; there are strength and weight in such words,

Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: and cause me to understand wherein I have erred. Irony. If you can teach me the right view, I am willing to be set right and hold my tongue, and to be made to see my error.

Right words, i.e. the words of truth or solid arguments, have a marvellous power to convince and persuade a man; and if yours were such, I should readily yield to them. Your arguing reprove; or, your arguing argue. There is no truth in your assertions, nor weight in your arguments, and therefore are they of no account or power with me.

Job 6:25 How forcible are right words! but what doth your arguing reprove?Ver. 25. How forcible are right words] How sweet, saith the Chaldee, interpreting it by Psalms 119:103. It may be read Nimletsu for Nimretsu; but the word is well rendered forcible, potent, valid. It noteth also, saith Mr Caryl, acrimony, sharpness, or smartness, because right words have a pleasing acrimony upon the palate of the soul, and a power upon the judgment to sway and carry it. Ille regit dictis animos, &c. Audite senem iuvenes quem iuvenem senes audierunt: these few words from Augustus, falling right, quieted the rebels in his army; and the like is reported of Alexander the Great, of Menenius, Agrippa, &c. But we have better instances, as that of Abigail treating with David; the woman of Abel with Joab; Nicodemus, by a few seasonable words, dissolving the council gathered together against Christ, John 7:50; John 7:53; Paphnutius stickling for the married clergy at the Nicene council, &c. One seasonable truth failing on a prepared heart hath often a strong and sweet operation. Luther having heard Staupicius say that that is kind repentance which begins from the love of God, ever after that time the practice of repentance was sweeter to him. This speech also of his took well with Luther, The doctrine of predestination beginneth at the wounds of Christ; but before any of this he was much wrought upon by conferrence with an old priest about justification by faith. So was that Italian marquis, Galecius Caracciolus, by a similitude used by Peter Martyr reading upon the First to the Corinthians. Nescio quid divinum in auscultatione est, saith one, there is a kind of divine force and efficacy in hearing more than in reading the word. We may say of it, as David once did of Goliath’ s sword, There is none to that. And yet it cannot be denied that the word read also hath a mighty force and powerful influence upon the conscience Hence those many praises of it, Psalms 19:7-8, "The statutes of the Lord are right," &c. Right for every man’ s state and purpose; so penned, that every man may think they speak de se in re sua, of himself in this particular case, as Athanasius hath it; so right the good word of God is and suitable; how then can it be but forcible. And how forcible it is none can tell but those that have felt it; nor those neither; hence this expression by way of admiration, Oh how effectual are right words! But what doth your arguing reprove?] Heb. What doth your disputation dispute? What force, what energy, is in your arguments? how flat and sinewless are they! what dull stuff appear they! and how little to the purpose! Tam facile diluuntur argumenta vestra, quam vulpes comest pyrum. I can blow them off as easily as I could a feather off my hand.

(25) How forcible are right words !—“How forcible are words of uprightness! But what doth your reproof reprove? Open rebuke is better than secret love; better to be honestly and openly rebuked by you than be subject to the secret insinuations which are intended to pass for friendship.”

Verse 25. How forcible are right words] A well-constructed argument, that has truth for its basis, is irresistible. But what doth your arguing reprove?] Your reasoning is defective, because your premises are false; and your conclusions prove nothing, because of the falsity of the premises whence they are drawn. The last clause, literally rendered, is, What reproof, in a reproof from you? As you have proved no fault you have consequently reproved no vice. Instead of מה נמרצו mah nimretsu, "how forcible," מה נמלצו mah nimletsu, "how savoury or pleasant," is the reading of two MSS., the Chaldee, and some of the rabbins. Both senses are good, but the common reading is to be preferred.

25. how forcible are right words] Or, words of uprightness, that is honest, straightforward, close dealing with a man about himself, or his offences, sign of true friendship, Psalms 141:5; cf. ch. Job 33:3, where Elihu claims to speak out of this rectitude of mind. The word rendered forcible is of rather uncertain meaning. It occurs again 1 Kings 2:8, a grievous curse, Micah 2:10, a sore destruction, and in Job 16:3, what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? The fundamental sense of the word is assumed to be to be sharp, hence, to be strong, vehement. This is conjectural. What may be but another form of the word occurs in Psalms 119:103, how sweet are thy words unto my taste! And many prefer that meaning here: how sweet are words of uprightness. your arguing reprove] lit. what doth reproving from you, the kind of reproving that comes from you, insinuations and captious laying hold of more excited language, reprove? In Job 6:24 Job demanded to know from his friends directly what sins they laid to his charge. He would welcome straightforward dealing that went into his circumstances.

How forcible are right words! - How weighty and impressive are words of truth! Job means that he was accustomed to feel their power, and to admit it on his soul.

25. How forcible — How sweet, etc. Thus Furst, Ewald, and Zockler. Many others of equal authority, however, (for instance, Gesenius, Thes., p.