As God liveth, who hath taken away my judgment; and the Almighty, who hath vexed my soul;
Job 27:2 stands within the extended debate between Job and his three friends over the meaning of his afflictions. It is Job's solemn oath that the living God has taken away his judgment and that the Almighty has vexed his soul. It gives voice to his deep distress and his inability to comprehend God's dealings with him while he remains conscious of his own integrity. It does not establish that his friends were correct in concluding that his suffering proved God's displeasure against him.
Taken together with the verses immediately following, it shows that human beings, like the animals, possess a living soul or spirit and are wholly dependent on God for the breath of life. Here soul, spirit, breath, and life alike denote the animating life-principle that sustains living creatures. None of these terms implies immortality, so that continued existence rests entirely on the life which God gives.
Job 27:2 stands within the extended debate between Job and his three friends over the meaning of his afflictions. It is Job's solemn oath that the living God has taken away his judgment and that the Almighty has vexed his soul. It gives voice to his deep distress and his inability to comprehend God's dealings with him while he remains conscious of his own integrity. It does not establish that his friends were correct in concluding that his suffering proved God's displeasure against him.
Taken together with the verses immediately following, it shows that human beings, like the animals, possess a living soul or spirit and are wholly dependent on God for the breath of life. Here soul, spirit, breath, and life alike denote the animating life-principle that sustains living creatures. None of these terms implies immortality, so that continued existence rests entirely on the life which God gives.