Morning Bible Study: Job 34:1-9

34:1 Then Elihu continued, saying:
2 Hear my words, you wise ones,
and listen to me, you knowledgeable ones.
3 Doesn’t the ear test words as the palate tastes food?
4 Let us judge for ourselves what is right;
let us decide together what is good.
5 For Job has declared, “I am righteous,
yet God has deprived me of justice.
6 Would I lie about my case?
My wound is incurable,
though I am without transgression.”
7 What man is like Job?
He drinks derision like water.
8 He keeps company with evildoers
and walks with wicked men.
9 For he has said, “A man gains nothing
when he becomes God’s friend.”

Commentary
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary, 1706 -- www.christianity.com) 

"Elihu calls upon those present to decide with him upon Job's words. The plainest Christian, whose mind is enlightened, whose heart is sanctified by the Spirit of God, and who is versed in the Scriptures, can say how far matters, words, or actions, agree with true religion, better than any that lean to their own understandings. 

Job had spoken as if he meant wholly to justify himself. He that say, I have cleansed my hands in vain, does not only offend against God's children, Psalm 73:13-15, but gratifies his enemies, and says as they say."

Psalm 73: 13-15 

Did I purify my heart

and wash my hands in innocence for nothing?

For I am afflicted all day long

and punished every morning. 

If I had decided to say these things aloud,

I would have betrayed your people.