Albert Barnes Commentary Job 35:15

"But now, because he hath not visited in his anger, Neither doth he greatly regard arrogance;" — Job 35:15 (ASV)

But now, because it is not so - This verse, as it stands in our authorized translation, conveys no intelligible idea. It is evident that the translators meant to give a literal version of the Hebrew, but without understanding its sense.

An examination of the principal words and phrases may enable us to ascertain the idea that was in Elihu's mind when it was uttered.

The Hebrew phrase here (ועתה כי־אין kı̂y - 'ayin ve‛attâh) may mean, “but now it is as nothing.” This is to be connected with the following clause, meaning, “now it is comparatively nothing that he has visited you in his anger.” That is, the punishment he has inflicted on you is almost as nothing compared with what it might have been, or what you have deserved.

Job had complained much, and Elihu says to him that, far from having cause for complaint, his sufferings were as nothing—scarcely worth noticing compared with what they might have been.

He hath visited in his anger - Margin, that is, “God.” The word rendered “hath visited” (פקד pâqad) means to visit for any purpose—for mercy or justice; to review, take an account of, or investigate conduct. Here it is used with reference to punishment—meaning that the punishment which he had inflicted was trifling compared with the desert of the offences.

Yet he knoweth it not - Margin, that is, “Job.” The marginal reading here is undoubtedly erroneous. The reference is not to Job, but to God, and the idea is, that He did not “know,” that is, did not “take full account” of the sins of Job. He passed them over, and did not bring them all into the account in His dealings with him. Had He done this, and marked every offence with the utmost strictness and severity, His punishment would have been much more severe.

In great extremity - The Hebrew here is מאד בפשׁ bapash me'ôd. The word פשׁ pash occurs nowhere else in the Hebrew.

The Septuagint renders it παράπτωμα paraptōma—“offence,” and the Vulgate “scelus,” that is, “transgression.” The authors of those versions evidently read it as if it were פשׁע pesha‛—iniquity.

It may be that the final ע (‛) has been dropped, like שו for שׁוא shâv'—as in Job 15:31.

Gesenius, Theodotion, and Symmachus in like manner render it “transgression.” Others have regarded it as if from פוש, “to be proud,” and as meaning “in pride” or “arrogance”; and others, as the rabbis generally, as if from פוש, to “disperse,” meaning “on account of the multitude,” namely, of transgressions. So Rosenmuller, Umbreit, Luther, and the Chaldee.

It seems probable to me that the interpretation of the Septuagint and the Vulgate is the correct one. The sense is that God “does not take cognizance severely (מאד me'ôd) of transgressions”; that is, He had not done so in Job's case.

This interpretation agrees with the scope of the passage and with the view Elihu meant to express: that God, far from having given any just cause for complaint, had not even dealt with Job as his sins deserved.

Without any impeachment of His wisdom or goodness, His inflictions “might” have been far more severe.