Job 31:16

“If I have withheld the poor from [their] desire, etc.] Their reasonable desires, and which it was in his power to grant; as when they desired a piece of bread, being hungry, or clothes to cover them, being naked; but not unreasonable desires, seeking and asking great things for themselves, or unlimited and unbounded ones, such as the two sons of Zebedee desired of Christ, (<411035>Mark 10:35); or have caused the eyes of the widow to fail; through long waiting for, and expecting help and succour from him, and at last disappointed. Job did not use the widow in such a manner as to give her reason to hope for relief or counsel from him she came for, and make her wait long, and then send her away…”

“fail--in the vain expectation of relief (Job 11:20).”

“If I have withheld the poor from their desire - Job now turns to another class of virtues, regarded also as of great importance in the patriarchal ages, kindness to the poor and the afflicted; to the fatherless and the widow. He appeals to his former life on this subject; affirms that he had a good conscience in the recollection of his dealings with them, and impliedly declares that it could not have been for any deficiency in the exercise of these virtues that his calamities had come upon him. The meaning here is, that he had not denied to the poor their wish. If they had come and desired bread of him, he had not withheld it; see Job 22:7. Or caused the eyes of the widow to fail - That is,…”

“If I - Denied them what they desired of me. To fail - With tedious expectation of my justice or charity. Job is most large upon this head, because in this matter Eliphaz had most particularly accused him. Job 31:18”

“withheld: Job 22:7-9; Deu 15:7-10; Psa 112:9; Luk 16:21; Act 11:29; Gal 2:10 the eyes: Deu 28:32; Psa 69:3, Psa 119:82, Psa 119:123; Isa 38:14; Lam 4:17 Job 31:17”

“16 If I held back the poor from what they desired, And caused the eyes of the widow to languish, 17 And ate my morsel alone Without letting the fatherless eat thereof: - 18 No indeed, from my youth he grew up to me as to a father, And from my mother's womb I guided her - The whole strophe is the hypothetical antecedent of the imprecative conclusion, Job 31:22, which closes the following strophe. Since מנע דּבר ממּנוּ, cohibere aliquid ab aliquo ( Job 22:7), is said as much in accordance with the usage of the language as מנעו מדּבר, cohibere aliquem ab aliquo ( Num 24:11; Ecc 2:10), in the sense of denegare alicui aliquid, there is no reason for taking מחפץ דּלּים together as a genitival…”