For what is the hope of the godless when God cuts him off, when God takes away his life?
Job's friends have accused him of hypocrisy, and he denies it flatly. He turns their own word back on them and asks what a pretender is left with when God takes his life.
Job Turns the Charge Back
Job holds on to his integrity to his dying day, and he names who he thinks the guilty party really is.
William KellyNow he turns on them; he says, "You are the guilty ones, not I." "Till I die I will not remove my integrity from me. My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go." ... "It is you who are acting the part of wicked men without knowing it." ... "For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he has gained, when God takes away his soul?" It shows that he had a great hatred of it — as much as they had, or more.
The Words Themselves
Where the ESV says "godless," older translations read "hypocrite." The word covers more than play-acting: it marks a man as profane. And for God to take away his life is for God to summon his soul.
William KellyHe was at least as sure as they were that the hope of the hypocrite or profane man must perish when God summons his soul.
Gain That Death Cancels
Job allows that pretending can pay well in this world. His question is what that profit is worth on the day God takes the man's life.
Leslie M. GrantJob's friends had accused him of hypocrisy, but he asks them about the hypocrite's end. Though he gained much in this world, what can he do when God takes away his life? "Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him?" (v.9). In fact, would a hypocrite delight himself in God so much as to call upon God Himself? (v.10). It is not the character of such an evil man to really call on God, yet it was clear to Job's friends that Job was crying out to God in his affliction.
A Cry That Comes Too Late
The warning turns on timing. Some prayers come too late.
Samuel RidoutJob now turns to the end of the wicked. What hope has he when God cuts him off and takes away his soul? What shall be the end of the man to whom God says, "Fool! This night your soul is required of you"? Will God hear his cry when it is too late? Or has He not given the solemn warning, "I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when terror strikes you" (Prov. 1:26)? Is it too late to call upon God when the present opportunities have been put off for a "more convenient season" — which never comes?
Two Kinds of Hope
The verse warns the pretender, but it can also frighten a sincere believer. Stanley sets two hopes side by side: the shallow hearer's and the believer's.
Charles StanleyThis is all true of the hearers on stony ground; but it is not true of Job — and not true of the soul that sincerely trusts in Christ. The water that is in him is a well of water, springing up to everlasting life. "The hypocrite's hope shall perish," but the feeblest sheep of Christ shall never perish.
Where Job Himself Still Stood
Job was right that he was no pretender. That is not the same as being right with God, and the chapter's opening complaint shows it.
F. B. HoleHe had been charged with being a deceiver and a hypocrite. He knew he was not this, and he was not going to plead guilty to it for a moment. We too know that he was not, but outward correctness does not in itself count for righteousness in the presence of God. Job's own words here prove it, for the way he complains of God in verse 2 shows that his heart was not right in His sight.
Summary
- Gain — pretending can pay well in this world. Job grants it. The question is what that gain is worth when God takes the soul away.
- Hope — the hypocrite's hope rests on what he gained, so it dies when he dies. The one who trusts Christ has a hope death cannot touch.
- Cry — a man who never delighted in God or called on Him has no voice God answers when the trouble lands.
- Too late — chances to call on God get put off for a better moment that never comes. Then the cry itself comes too late.
- Integrity — Job was no pretender, and he was right to say so. But clean conduct is not righteousness before God, and his own complaint in this chapter shows his heart needed more.