“If I have rejected the cause of my manservant or my maidservant, when they brought a complaint against me,
Near the end of his long defence, Job turns to the way he treated the people who worked for him. He does not measure himself by custom or by what his neighbours thought. He asks what he would say if God stood up to question him.
What the Claim Means
Job is not only saying he never mistreated a servant. He is saying that when a servant had a complaint and pressed it against him, he heard it out. Older translations read that he did not despise their cause, where the ESV says he did not reject it.
Leslie M. GrantHad Job despised the cause of any of his servants, whether male or female? (v.13). If this were true, he asks, what should he do when God raised the question with him? For God made these servants just as He had made Job. Job had surely weighed this fact long before, so he was not guilty of oppressing the creatures of God (vv.14-15).
Job stood far above his servants in rank. That never changed how he saw them.
William KellyHe shows, very movingly, that even in his high position his heart never forgot that his servants were of the same race and the same human family as himself. There was no room in him for cold personal pride. And it was not only a strong sense of ties within his own household. His compassion always went out to suffering people — the widow and the fatherless, the needy and the naked.
One Maker
Job's reason comes a moment later. The same God formed both him and his servant in the womb. That fact cuts both ways, and neither rich nor poor should forget it.
William KellyIn what really matters, how small the difference is! They come into the world alike, and they stand alike when the world passes away. "The rich and the poor meet together; the LORD is the Maker of them all." The poor man has a right to remember this, and the rich man should not forget it.
Another writer traces Job's fairness back to the man himself:
Samuel RidoutHe starts with his household, whose well-ordered character grew out of the purity of its master. He claims that he was fair in all his dealings with his servants, recognising their common nature and their common standing before God, "who shows no partiality."
The Master Who Has a Master
Job held back because he knew he would answer for it one day. The same duty rests on anyone with people under them, and it falls on the master:
Edward DennettServants are especially dependent on their masters. Their position itself is a claim on their masters for what is just and fair, and that covers both treatment and wages. They can safely leave themselves in their masters' hands, confident that their interests will be guarded. Masters are urged to this, knowing that they have a Master in heaven — One who watches all their conduct and holds them responsible for dealing faithfully with their servants. He shows no partiality.
So the duty becomes a question the master keeps putting to himself:
F. B. HoleEvery Christian master should keep asking himself about his servants, "What is just? What is fair?" And he is to remember that he himself is a servant, with his own Master in heaven.
The Limit of a Clean Record
Job's account of himself is true. Yet this chapter is also the peak of his self-defence, and the book will not leave him there.
C. StanleyRead chapters 29-31, and you will say, if any man could have justified himself by good works, Job was the man. There is not a man in all your town that can say as much as Job said, and say it truly. As to his kindness to the poor, he was the very opposite of the lying charges brought against him. So he lets memory list every good act of his life, but all fails to give rest to his troubled spirit. I, I, I, I did this, I did not do that. But it is all of no use.
Commentators differ on how hard to press this. Some stress that Job's claims were true. Others weigh what was wrong in the way he made them:
Samuel RidoutDivine truth, as well as divine love, will not allow him to wrap himself in these garments of self-righteousness. They are, for the most part, borrowed clothes belonging to God, to whom Job gives not one bit of glory.
Summary
- One Maker. The same God formed master and servant in the womb. The difference between them is real, but it is not deep. Both come into the world alike, and both stand alike when it ends.
- One claim. Servants depend on those over them. That dependence is itself a claim on the master for what is just and fair, in treatment and in wages.
- One Master. Whoever holds authority holds it under Someone. He has a Master in heaven who watches his conduct and shows no partiality.
- One question. Job held back by asking in advance what he would answer when God rose up. The daily form of that question is short: "What is just? What is fair?"
- One limit. No record of kindness, however true, gives rest to the soul. Job could say more than most men and say it truly, and it was still all of no use.