NOTES for Job 31:1-40

Job delivers a long speech in his own defense. The list of arguments in favor of his righteousness might seem boastful if it were not compelled self-defense. Modesty in such a situation would be not only false, but suicidal, and so Job has to act as his own advocate. It is disturbing that not a single person was found to stand up for Job—not even necessarily to defend him, but simply, without claiming certainty about his sinlessness, to suggest that they should not finish off someone who had already been punished.

Job is under no obligation to justify himself to anyone, least of all to those who do not hear him; he could have turned away from them and fallen silent. But he speaks, and in his very speech, even apart from its content, one can sense the grandeur of an unbroken man.