Job 31:3 - Exposition

Is not destruction to the wicked? The inheritance of the wicked is "destruction"—ruin both of soul and body. This is what I should have to expect if I yielded myself to the bondage of lust and concupiscence . And a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity? The rare word neker ( גכר ), translated here by "strange punishment," seems to mean "alienation from God"—being turned from God's friend into his enemy (comp. Buxtorf, 'Lexicon Hebraicum et Chaldaicum,' who explains גכר by " alienatio ;" and the comment of Schultens on Job 31:3 , " Necer , a Deo alienatio ") .