The Book of Job

Word Study

"covenant," Hebrew berith (בְּרִית), a solemn binding agreement. Job opens his oath at the most inward point of all: "I made a covenant with mine eyes." This is the great word of binding agreement, the same term used for God's covenants, and Job applies it to himself. Purity is not passive; it is a covenant deliberately made and kept, not merely a hope of avoiding sin but a firm, prior commitment.

"mine eyes," einai (עֵינַי). The party to that covenant is not his hands but his eyes, the gate through which temptation enters. Job understood that sin begins in the look, and he took decisive, covenantal action to guard that avenue.

"think upon," ethbonen (אֶתְבּוֹנֵן), gaze upon, look intently, consider with desire. Not the glance but the lingering look, the gaze that turns into desire. This is precisely the ethic Jesus would later make explicit: "whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). Job, centuries before, was already living by this inward standard, treating a lustful look as a sin to be forsworn.

"a maid," betulah (בְּתוּלָה), a young woman, virgin. Job did not merely avoid the outward act of adultery; he refused to let his eyes linger with desire even here, where no deed had been done and no marriage broken. This is a remarkable height of holiness, for it deals not with the deed but with the desire, not with the hand but with the heart and the eye, beginning with the eyes and reaching to the heart.

Explanation

Job opens his oath at the most inward point: "I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?" He did not merely avoid adultery but bound himself to guard his very gaze, refusing to let his eyes linger with lust. This is a remarkable height of holiness, dealing with the desire, not just the deed. Job understood that sin begins in the look and the thought, the very ethic Jesus made explicit (Matthew 5:28). Purity is not passive; it is a covenant deliberately made and kept, guarding the gate of the eyes and reaching to the heart.

Gospel Focus

"I made a covenant with mine eyes", Job's inward purity anticipates the teaching of the Lord Jesus, who located righteousness in the heart: "whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart" (Matthew 5:28), and called for radical measures against sin, "if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out" (Matthew 5:29). Job's covenant with his eyes is the very holiness Christ commands, and yet the Gospel gives what mere resolve cannot: a new heart and the power of the Spirit to keep such a covenant. "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God" (Matthew 5:8), and that purity is Christ's gift, "who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people" (Titus 2:14). We are called to Job's discipline, "make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (Romans 13:14); "flee also youthful lusts" (2 Timothy 2:22); to set no wicked thing before our eyes (Psalm 101:3). But we keep this covenant not in our own strength but by grace, walking in the Spirit so that we "shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16). And where we have failed, the blood of Christ cleanses even the sins of the eye and heart. Job made a covenant with his eyes; the believer, redeemed and indwelt by the Spirit, is enabled to keep it, pursuing the purity of heart that shall one day see God.

Word Study

"made," Hebrew oseni (עֹשֵׂנִי), the One who made me. Job defends his just treatment of his servants with a principle of stunning dignity: "If I did despise the cause of my manservant or of my maidservant, when they contended with me... Did not he that made me in the womb make him?" In an age when servants were often regarded as mere property, Job grounds their dignity in creation: the same God who made the master made the servant. He feared to despise his servants because he knew he would answer to that Maker: "what then shall I do when God riseth up?" (v14).

"fashion," yekhunennu (יְכֻנֶנּוּ) from kun, to establish, form, prepare. The verb is one of careful forming and setting in place, and it was done for servant and master alike in the womb. Therefore Job would listen to their grievances, honor their cause, and treat them as fellow human beings before their common Maker.

"one," echad (אֶחָד), one and the same. The whole argument rests on this word: not two makers for two classes of men, but one. This is a magnificent early witness to the equal dignity of all people, rooted not in social theory but in the doctrine of creation: "the rich and poor meet together: the LORD is the maker of them all" (Proverbs 22:2); "have we not all one father? hath not one God created us?" (Malachi 2:10). Because all are made by the one God, all bear His image and possess a dignity no station can erase. True righteousness treats every person, high or low, as one fashioned by the same God, and therefore worthy of justice and respect.

Explanation

Job defends his just treatment of his servants with a principle of stunning dignity: "Did not he that made me in the womb make him?" In an age that often treated servants as property, Job grounds their worth in creation, the same God fashioned both master and servant, so he listened to their grievances and honored their cause (Proverbs 22:2; Malachi 2:10). Because all are made by the one God, all bear His image and possess a dignity no station can erase. Job feared to despise his servants because he would answer to the God who made them both.

Gospel Focus

"Did not he that made me in the womb make him?", the equal dignity of all people, grounded in creation, is confirmed and deepened by the Gospel, in which every earthly distinction dissolves before the cross. If all are made by one God, all are also offered one salvation through one Saviour: "there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free... for ye are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28). The Gospel takes Job's creation-based dignity and adds redemption-based unity: masters and servants become brothers in Christ, as Paul urged Philemon to receive the runaway slave Onesimus "not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved" (Philemon 1:16). And it reshapes how we treat one another: masters are to give their servants "that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven" (Colossians 4:1), for "neither is there respect of persons with him" (Ephesians 6:9). The One who made us all took the form of a servant Himself (Philippians 2:7), dignifying the lowest place, and died for people of every station and nation. So Job's principle, that we must honor all whom God has made, becomes in the Gospel a call to love every person as one for whom Christ died, treating the least as we would treat the Lord Himself: "inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Matthew 25:40). The God who fashioned us all in the womb has redeemed a people from every rank, and calls us to see His image, and His Son's love, in every human face.

Word Study

"gold," Hebrew zahav (זָהָב). The ordinary word for gold, and Job, who had been one of the wealthiest men of the East, had plenty of it. His oath is not that he lacked it but that he never made it his god.

"my hope," kisli (כִּסְלִי), my confidence, that in which I trust. The word names what a man leans his whole weight upon. Job had great riches, but he did not trust in them, did not rejoice merely because his wealth was great (v25). This is a rare and searching integrity, for wealth is one of the most subtle idols, quietly stealing the heart's trust from God to gold.

"fine gold," ketem (כֶּתֶם), pure gold. The choicest kind, the refined metal, and the thing Job says he never addressed as though it could hear him. He links this to idolatry: to speak to gold this way, or to worship the sun and moon (v26-27), would be to have "denied the God that is above" (v28), a practical atheism of the heart.

"confidence," mivtachi (מִבְטַחִי), my security, my trust. This is the word Job refuses to say to his gold, and it is the whole point. Jesus put it sharply: "Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). The love of money is "the root of all evil" (1 Timothy 6:10), and those who "will be rich fall into temptation and a snare." Job's testimony is that, though rich, his hope and confidence rested in God, not gold. This is the true freedom of the godly toward wealth: to hold it, use it generously (as chapters 29 and 31 show he did), yet never to let it hold the heart. The question presses on every heart, rich or poor: where is your confidence, in gold, or in God?

Explanation

Job, one of the wealthiest men of the East, testifies he never made wealth his god: "If I have made gold my hope, or have said to the fine gold, Thou art my confidence." He had riches but did not trust in them, a rare integrity, for wealth is a subtle idol that quietly steals the heart's trust from God. Job even calls it a practical denial of God (v28), just as Jesus said, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). The godly may hold wealth and use it generously, yet never let it hold the heart. Where is your confidence, in gold, or in God?

Gospel Focus

"If I have made gold my hope", Job's refusal to trust in riches points to the Gospel's call to find our confidence in Christ alone, and its promise of a treasure gold can never buy. Jesus warned, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth... But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:19-20), and "ye cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). The Gospel frees us from the tyranny of gold by giving us a better hope: "charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God" (1 Timothy 6:17). Christ Himself, though rich, "became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich" (2 Corinthians 8:9), and offers "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Ephesians 3:8), a treasure that neither moth nor rust can touch. The believer's confidence rests not on a bank balance that death will empty, but on the living God and the finished work of His Son. And this frees us to be generous, to hold wealth loosely and give freely, as Job did, "ready to distribute, willing to communicate; laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come" (1 Timothy 6:18-19). Do not say to fine gold, "thou art my confidence"; say it to Christ. For the one who makes God his hope has a security no market can shake and a treasure no thief can steal, laid up in heaven, safe in the hands of the risen Lord.