“For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges.”
For that would be a heinous crime; that would be an iniquity to be punished by the judges, asserting that adultery constitutes a crime meriting judicial punishment, emphasizing the seriousness of this transgression. The heinous crime designation establishes the moral gravity. The reference to judges suggests public judicial punishment. The verse establishes that Job views adultery as deserving of the strongest social and legal condemnation.
Church Fathers on Job 31:11
For this is an heinous crime; and the chiefest iniquity. For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and that rooteth out all increase. There is this difference between ‘sin’ and ‘crime,’ that all crime is sin, but not all sin is crime. And in this life there are numbers without crime, but no one can be without sins. And hence the holy preacher, when he was describing a man worthy of the grace of the priesthood, never said, ‘if any be without sin,’ but if any be without…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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