Job 31:39
If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life:
If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money,.... Or, "the strength thereof without silver" {b}; see Genesis 4:12, silver being the money chiefly in use in those times. Job's meaning is, that he ate not anything of the fruits and increase of his own land, without having paid for the same, which he would have done, if he had got his land out of the hands of the rightful owners of it, by deceit or violence; or if he had not paid his workmen for ploughing, sowing, reaping, &c. or if he had demanded the fruits of the earth of his tenants, to whom he had let out his farms, without giving them a proper price for them:
or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life; as Jezebel caused Naboth to lose his, who was the original proprietor, that Ahab might possess it, 1 Kings 21:7; or it may signify tenants, to whom Job rented out fields, but did not starve them by renting them under hard leases, or lands on hard terms, so that they could not live upon them; or it may design the tillers of the land, as Jarchi and Bar Tzemach; those that wrought in it, the servants that were employed in ploughing, &c. to whom wages were due, and who had not too hard labour imposed upon them, to the endangering of their lives; or he did not "afflict and grieve" {c} them, as some versions; or make their lives bitter, through hard bondage and service, as the Israelites in Egypt.
{b} hxk "robur ejus", Montanus, Bolducius, Mercerus, Drusius; "vim ejus", Junius & Tremellius, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens;
Pok ylb "sine, vel absque argento", Mercer, Drusius, Cocceius, Michaelis, Schultens.
{c} ytxph "afflixi", V. L. "dolore affeci", Pagninus; so Broughton.