Men shall clap their hands at him, and shall hiss him out of his place.
All Commentaries on Job 27:23 Go To Job 27
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
37. For to ‘bind up the hands’ is to establish the practices of his life in uprightness, Whence Paul too saith; Wherefore lift up the loosed hands, and the unstrung knees [Heb. 12, 12]. While, then, they behold the destruction of another, they are made to turn back to the conscience, to remind themselves of their own, and by the very same cause whereby one man is carried to torments, another is freed from torments, And so ‘he binds up his hands over him,’ because he observes in the punishment of another what to be afraid of; and whilst he sees one living in transgression so smitten, he binds fast his own too loose practices with the sinews of righteousness. And so it is brought to pass that he who, being a bad man, whilst living, had drawn numbers into transgression by the delightfulness of sin, in dying recovers some from transgression by the terribleness of torments. Which same the Psalmist bears witness to be of advantage to the good as well, saying, The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance; he shall wash has hands in the blood of sinners. [Ps. 58, 10] For ‘in the blood of sinners,’ when dying, ‘the righteous do wash their hands,’ because, when their punishment is seen, the life of the person seeing it is cleansed. It goes on;
And he shall hiss upon him, beholding his place.
38. What is expressed in the hissing, but the straining of wonderment? But if in the hissing there is some other meaning ought, when the sinner dies, these that witness his death draw tight the mouth in hissing, in that they are converted to those spiritual words, which they had contemned, so that they henceforth begin to believe and to teach, what before, while they perceived the wicked man thriving, they need not to believe. For it very often happens that the mind of the weak is the more unsteadied from the hearing of the truth, as it sees the despisers of the truth flourishing; but when just vengeance takes away the unjust, it keeps others away from wickedness. Whence it is said by Solomon; When the pestilent man is punished, the little one will be wiser. Thus the holy man after he had adequately filled up the punishments of the men of power that are lifted up in the world, again directs his words to the pride of heretics, who are lifted up in speech.
