Job 31:26–27 | True Bible Answers

Job is at the end of his long self-defence, going through his life area by area and naming the sins he did not commit. Here he turns to the sky — and to the question of how looking at the sun or the moon could ever be a sin.

Idolatry in its earliest form

The verse names no idol and no shrine. One commentator points out what is missing here, and what Job was careful never to do:

Job means looking at the sun or moon in the way of adoration — bowing down to them, which was the earliest form of idolatry. We do not hear here of Baal or Ashtoreth, or of any of the shameful and wicked gods the nations worshipped. What we do hear of is a work of God of the highest kind. Yet Job leaned toward it in no way at all — not even the slightest act of honouring the creature!

William Kelly

The kiss of the hand

In the next verse Job mentions the mouth kissing the hand. The gesture was a known mark of honour:

Permission to kiss the hand of a superior is a mark of honour. The heathen kissed their gods. When the object of worship was far away, like the sun or the moon, they kissed their own hand instead. That is why the most common New Testament word for worship is proskuneo, which comes from kuneo, meaning to kiss.

Morrish Bible Dictionary

The sin that never reached the hand

Job does not stop at the outward gesture. He also denies the pull of the heart behind it, and that inward test runs right through the chapter:

This chapter shows that before the law came, a high standard of morality was still found among God-fearing men. That standard covered not only the outward act but also the inward motive behind the act. Look at the examples. In verse 1 he speaks of what he thought, or did not think. In verse 7, of his heart following his eyes. In verse 27, of his heart being secretly enticed. In verse 33, of hiding his guilt and covering his sins, like Adam. This may remind us of the Sermon on the Mount.

F. B. Hole

Gold first, then the sky

This verse follows Job's denial that he trusted his wealth. One writer reads the two together as a single movement of thought:

Having spoken of his generosity, Job goes on to speak of wealth. He rejects the love of gold that is so common among people — that "covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5). When his riches had increased, he had not set his heart upon them; gold had not allured him. And when he lifted up his eyes to the shining heavens, he had not given the glory to the sun, a creature of God, nor to the moon, "queen of heaven," walking in splendour. He had not even secretly blown them a kiss of worship, for that would have denied God; he would have been a hypocrite, well deserving punishment.

Samuel Ridout

What such worship would have denied

Why would a secret thought deserve judgment? Because of what it would say about God:

In contemplating the sun and the moon, had Job been enticed to worship them, as many others are enticed? Both of these are amazing objects, but Job looked higher than them and had not even secretly given them honour. He recognised that anything taking God's place in the heart is an idol. If he had allowed even a secret thought of that kind, it would have been sin deserving of judgment. It would have meant denying the God who is infinitely high above all.

Leslie M. Grant

True — and still the wrong use of it

Everything Job says here is true. But he is saying it in a speech that defends himself:

To all of this we can but say, True and excellent, but why should he speak of it? Why not let his fear of God keep him from these things, rather than boast of them?

Samuel Ridout

Summary

- Creature. The oldest idolatry was not a carved image but the sun and moon — real works of God, given the honour owed to their Maker.

- Gesture. People kissed their hand to worship what they could not reach. The New Testament word for worship still carries that root.

- Heart. Job denies the secret pull of the heart as well as the visible act. The standard reaches the motive, not just the deed.

- Denial. Anything that takes God's place is an idol. To give it that place, even in thought, is to deny God Himself.

- Boast. All of it is true. Yet Job boasts of it, when his fear of God could simply have kept him from these things.