The interpretation timeline

Job 27:5

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

2 Patristic · 1 Catholic

Job 27:5 · Douay-Rheims
“God forbid that I should judge you to be just: till I die I will not depart from my innocence.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
407
A.D.
John Chrysostom Patristic
A.D. 347–407
“This is what Job means, one who is full of iniquity has neither liberty to express himself nor to say what I say now. Rather, he has been taken away and stays silent. On the contrary, I did not experience that, but I speak and answer. But the same does not happen to those who are iniquitous.”
197 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
604
A.D.
Gregory the Great Patristic
c. A.D. 540–604
“God forbid that I should justify you; till I die, I will not depart from mine innocency. For he would 'depart from his innocency,' if he reckoned good things of bad persons; as Solomon bears witness, who saith, He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord. For there are persons, who, whilst they extol with commendation deeds of men ill done, heighten that which they ought to have rebuked. For hence it is said by the Prophet, Woe to those that sew pillows under every elbow of the hand, and make cushions under the head of every age. For a 'pillow' is put for this, that we may rest the easier. Therefore whoever flatters persons doing wrongly is putting a pillow under the head or the elbow of one lying, so that the man that should have been chidden on account of sin, being stayed up therein by commendations, should rest at his ease. Hence again it is written, And one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it. For by the term of 'a wall,' the hardness of sin is denoted. And so 'to build up a wall' is for a man to rear against himself barriers of sin; but they 'daub the wall,' who flatter those that commit sins, that what the first by doing wickedly build, those same persons by spreading their flatteries should as it were make of bright colour. But the holy man, as he does not think what is bad of the good, so he refuses to judge what is good of the bad; saying, God forbid that I should Judge you just: till I die, I will not depart from mine innocency.”
Source
670 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1274
A.D.
Thomas Aquinas Catholic
1225–1274
“Since the friends of Job had asserted opinions like this he adds, "Far be it from me to judge you just": for he could not judge them just unless he approved of their unjust opinion, in which he would be deviating from his own justice. So he says, "until I fall," in death, "I will not desert," for I do not intend to desert, "my innocence." I would desert my innocence if I with you judged the saints suffering adversity in this world to be evil.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.