Job 31:29

If I have rejoiced in my enemy’s ruin, or exulted when evil befell him—

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Job speaks in his sworn oath of innocence, addressing God directly as he systematically rules out hypothetical sins to demonstrate his integrity. The words — אֶ֭שְׂמַח ('Es.mach) = I rejoiced and מְצָ֥א/וֹ (me.Tza.'o/v) = it had found him. The thread — Proverbs 24:17 commands against gloating when an enemy falls, and Proverbs 17:5 states that rejoicing over calamity insults the Maker. Psalms 35:13 records the psalmist wearing sackcloth and fasting for the sick rather than celebrating their distress. Why it lands — The passage requires readers to audit their private reactions to others' misfortunes. It demands the rejection of internal schadenfreude and the adoption of a posture consistent with divine justice.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

אִם־'im-if אֶ֭שְׂמַח'Es.machI rejoiced בְּפִ֣ידbe./Fidin/ [the] disaster of מְשַׂנְאִ֑יme.san.'/I[one who] hated/ me וְ֝הִתְעֹרַ֗רְתִּיve./hit.'o.Rar.tiand/ I excited myself כִּֽי־ki-if מְצָ֥אוֹme.Tza.'o/vit had found/ him רָֽע׃Ra'calamity

King James Version

If I rejoiced at the destruction of him that hated me, or lifted up myself when evil found him:

Cross-references

Proverbs 24:17 Do not gloat when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart rejoice when he stumbles,
Proverbs 17:5 He who mocks the poor insults their Maker; whoever gloats over calamity will not go unpunished.
Psalms 35:13 Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting, but my prayers returned unanswered.
Obadiah 1:12 But you should not gloat in that day, your brother’s day of misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast proudly in the day of their distress.
Psalms 35:25 Let them not say in their hearts, “Aha, just what we wanted!” Let them not say, “We have swallowed him up!”
2 Samuel 1:12 They mourned and wept and fasted until evening for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the people of the LORD and the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.
2 Samuel 4:10 when someone told me, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ and thought he was a bearer of good news, I seized him and put him to death at Ziklag. That was his reward for his news!
2 Samuel 16:5 As King David approached Bahurim, a man from the family of the house of Saul was just coming out. His name was Shimei son of Gera, and as he approached, he kept yelling out curses.