Then let Corn never grow there any more but let it be overrun with Thistles and the most stinking Weeds Here Job ended his Defence CHAP. XXXII ARGUMENT It appears by the 15. verse of this Chapter that there were several other persons present besides those that are named when this Dispute was held between Job and his three Friends Among whom there was a young man named Elihu who was either a Syrian in which language this Book was first written and translated by Moses into Hebrew says the Authour of the Commentaries under Origen's name descended from the second Son of Nahor Abraham's Brother XXII Gen. 21. or an Idumaean of the same Country with Eliphaz the Temanite XXV Jer. 23. I have made him a Syrian in my Paraphrase because he is said to be of the kindred of Ram by whom we are to understand either Aram or as the Hebrews think Abraham by whom such Wisedom and Piety might be promoted in his Brother's Family as is apparent in Elihu Who though much inferiour to the rest in years for which reason he had beld his peace thus long yet was much superiour to them in Knowledge Which he discovers in the judicious Censures he here passes not onely upon the three Friends but upon Job himself whom he hath nothing to charge withall relating to any Crime committed before this Affliction befell him but thinks he had not managed the Dispute about it with so much Calmness and Submission to God as became his Piety In this he differs from those that spake before him For I do not find that he blames him for any Miscarriages but those onely which he observed in the heat of his Disputation and he spends his time rather in justifying God then in carping at Job as the other had done 1. SO these three men ceased to answer Job because he was righteous in his own eyes 1. AND his three Friends also left off disputing with him because they saw him immovably fixed in the opinion of his Innocence 2. Then was kindled the wrath of Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite of the kindred of Ram against Job was his wrath kindled because he justified himself rather then God 2. Which very much displeased a young man who had stood by all this time and heard what both sides said for themselves His name was Elihu descended from a Brother of Abraham who was exceeding angry with Job because he spent more time in justifying himself then in justifying God 3. Also against his three friends was his wrath kindled because they had found no answer and yet had condemned Job 3. And with his three Friends also because they were not able to maintain their Charge against Job and yet had condemned him to be a wicked Hypocrite 4. Now Elihu had waited till Job had spoken because they were elder then he 4. Yet he moderated his passion so discreetly that he said not a word till he had waited as well as Job to see whether they would resume the Debate because it was not fit he thought for him to meddle as long as his Elders had any thing to say 5. When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men then his wrath was kindled 5. But when he saw that none of the three offered to reply but sate as men that knew not what to say he was not able to hold his peace any longer 6. And Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite answered and said I am young and ye are very old wherefore I was afraid and durst not shew you mine opinion 6. But in this manner addressed himself unto them saying I have considered all this while mine own Youth and your aged Experience which hath deterred me so much that I have hitherto been afraid to interpose my Opinion 7. I said Days should speak and multitude of years should teach wisedom 7. I thought with my self that it was becoming one of my small standing to hear rather then to speak and to learn Wisedom in such grave company as yours rather then pretend to teach it 8. But there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding 8. But I see I was mistaken Man is a very wretched thing though he live never so long if God do not illuminate him It is the Divine Inspiration which gives Understanding 9. Great men are not always wise neither do the aged understand judgment 9. They are not always the wisest who are in Authority and the Teachers of others nor do old men always so well imploy their years as to understand the difference of things 10. Therefore I said Hearken to me I also will shew mine opinion 10. Therefore let me intreat you to lend your ears a little to me I also will tell you what I think about this matter 11. Behold I waited for your words I gave ear to your reasons whilest you searched out what to say 11. Do not think me too forward for I have with great patience heard all your Discourses and observed your Arguments and let you proceed till you have searched as far as you could into the buisiness 12. Yea I attended unto you and behold there was none of you that convinced Job or that answered his words 12. And having duly considered and comprehended every word I must needs pronounce that there is none of you hath confuted Job nor said any thing to the purpose in answer to his Defence of himself 13. Lest ye should say we have found out wisedom God thrusteth him down not man 13. For it is not sufficient for you to say he is Obstinate and therefore it is wisely done of us to leave him to God He shall confound him by continuing his Affliction not We by our Arguments 14. Now he hath not directed his words against me neither will I answer him with your speeches 14. Which truly are so weak that I shall make no use of them But as Job hath directed none of his words against me so I shall trouble him with none of your Replies 15. They were amazed they answered no more they left off speaking 15. See I beseech you all you that hear us how these Disputants are amazed how silent they are as if their speech had forsaken them 16. When I had waited for they spake not but stood still and answered no more 16. You are my Witnesses that I have waited for satisfaction but after long expectation they bring forth nothing they are at a stand and furnished with no further Answer 17. I said I will answer also my part I also will shew mine opinion 17. Which made me resolve within my self that I would have a share in this Dispute and shew as I have often told you what my Opinion is concerning it 18. For I am full of matter the spirit within me constraineth me 18. And indeed it is high time
is as firm as a stone as hard as an anvil or a piece of the nether milstone 25. When he raiseth up himself the mighty are afraid by reason of breakings they purify themselves 25. But the stoutest hearts tremble when he lifts up himself above the water they are seized with such a fright that they are at their wits end and know not which way to turn themselves 26. The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold the spear the dart nor the habergeon 26. Though they assault him with the sword it will doe them no service for the hardness of his Skin will break it in pieces the Spear also the Dart and the Javelin are altogether as feeble and cannot enter into him 27. He esteemeth iron as straw and brass as rotten wood 27. All the other Weapons of iron which the wit of man can devise he values no more then a straw and those of brass no more then rotten wood 28. The arrow cannot make him flee sling-stones are turned with him into stubble 28. The Arrow shot out of the strongest bow cannot make him flee and those Stones which are thrown out of a Sling with so much force move him no more then a little chaff 29. Darts are counted as stubble he laugheth at the shaking of a spear 29. Lay at him with heavy Clubs and he regards them no more then if they were stubble shake the Launce at him and he contemns its most violent thrusts 30. Sharp stones are under him he spreadeth sharp-pointed things upon the mire 30. For in stead of him it meets onely with the rough Shells wherewith he is armed which are so hard that he beats back the sharpest Weapon and throws it into the mire 31. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot he maketh the sea like a pot of ointment 31. When he tumbles about in the bottom of the River he raises bubbles on the top and the water of the Lake is so troubled with the slimy mud which he stirreth up that it looks like a Pot of ointment 32. He maketh a path to shine after him one would think the deep to be hoary 32. When he swims he makes furrows in the face of the Deep and leaves a path behind him so covered with froth and foam that it looks as if it were grown old and were full of gray hairs 33. Vpon earth there is not his like who is made without fear 33. His fellow is not to be found upon the earth where he creeps indeed in the dust but is so made that he cannot be trodden under foot and bruised 34. He beholdeth all high things he is a king over all the children of pride 34. No though he lie so low yet he despises the tallest Beasts and reigns over the Oxen and Camels and all those creatures whose long legs raise them to the loftiest height whom he masters and rends in pieces at his pleasure CHAP. XLII ARGUMENT This Chapter concludes the Book with an account how Job compleated the Submission which he had begun before to make to God Whose Pardon he sorrowfully begs confessing and repenting of his Fault resigning himself intirely to be instructed by Him but resolving never hereafter to complain nor to move any questions about his Providence This Repentance God accepts and for his sake grants a Pardon also to his Friends whom he condemns as more faulty then Job Who after this receives extraordinary marks of God's Favour and hath such an ample Recompence made him for his Losses as may incourage all posterity to persevere in well doing and patient suffering believing stedfastly that nothing can be done or permitted by God without much reason whose Wisedom shines so gloriously in all his Works and humbly expecting a comfortable issue out of all our Troubles 1. THEN Job answered the LORD and said 1. THESE words so lively represented the Power and Wisedom of God in his Works that Job seeing his errour more clearly then ever submitted himself unto the Great Lord of all and said 2. I know that thou canst do every thing and that no thought can be withholden from thee 2. I am abundantly satisfied that thy Power is as large as thy Will and that nothing can hinder Thee from effecting every thing which Thou designest but as Thou hadst reason to cast me down so Thou canst restore me and lift me up again 3. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge therefore have I uttered that I understood not things too wonderfull for me which I knew not 3. I am sensible also of the Justice of the Reproof which Thou hast given me XXXVIII 2. and do confess I very much forgot my self when I adventured to talk so ignorantly of thy wise Administrations It was that which made me so rash as to discourse of things far above my reach wonderfull things which I ought humbly to admire not arrogantly censure 4. Hear I beseech thee and I will speak I will demand of thee and declare thou unto me 4. Be not angry with me I beseech Thee but graciously hear me speaking in thy own words I do not pretend to give an account of thy wonderfull Works and of thy Providence and therefore ask me no more Questions XXXVIII 3. but let me learn of Thee and do Thou instruct my Ignorance 5. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee 5. Something I did know before of thy Greatness and Mightiness and Wisedom but nothing so clearly as I do now by this revelation and visible appearance of thy dreadfull Majesty 6. Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes 6. Which touches me with a sensible displeasure against my self for my undecent Complaints and vehement Expostulations and eager Desires to die or to be delivered I condemn them all together with whatsoever I have spoken too boldly about thy Government and in the most sorrowfull manner repent that I have justified my self so much and Thee so little 7. ¶ And it was so that after the LORD had spoken these words unto Job the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite My wrath is kindled against thee and against thy two friends for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath 7. Which ingenuous Confession pleased the Lord so much that He did not chide Job any farther but turning his voice to Eliphaz his principal Accuser He said I am angry with thee and with thy two Friends For you have made a perverse construction of the Afflictions I sent upon Job whom notwithstanding all his Errours I acknowledge to be my Servant and to have spoken better of Me then you have done 8. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up for your selves a burnt-offering and my servant Job shall pray for you for him will I
doth any thing without reason though we cannot always comprehend it To that issue God himself at last brings all the dispute between Job and his friends representing his Works throughout the World to be so wonderful and unaccountable that it is fit for us to acknowledge our ignorance but never accuse his Providence if we cannot see the cause why he sends any affliction or continues it long upon us Instead of murmuring and complaining in such a case this Book effectually teaches us to resigne our selves absolutely to Him silently to adore and reverence the unsearchable depth of his wise counsels contentedly to bear what He inflicts upon us still to assert his righteousness in the midst of the calamities which befall the good and in the most prosperous successes of the wicked and stedfastly to believe that all at last shall turn to our advantage if like His servant Job we persevere in faith and hope and patience To which this Book gives so high an incouragement and contains such powerful comforts for the Afflicted that the old Tradition is Moses could not find any thing like it for the support and satisfaction of the Israelites in their Egyptian bondage and therefore took the pains to translate it into their Language out of the Syriack wherein it was first written Thus He who writes the Commentaries upon this Book under the name of Origen tells us That he found in Antiquorum dictis in the sayings of the Ancients that when the Great Moses was sent by God into Egypt and beheld the affliction of the Children of Israel to be so grievous that nothing he could say was able to comfort them in that lamentable condition He declared to them the terrible sufferings of Job with his happy deliverance and setting them down in writing also gave this Book to that distressed people That reading these things in their several Tribes and Families and hearing how sorely this blessed man suffered they might comfort and exhort one another to endure with patience and thanksgiving the evils which incompassed them and hearing withall how bountifully God rewarded Job for his patience they might hope for deliverance and expect the benefit of a blessed reward of their Labours Be ye constant O Children of Israel said Moses with a pleasing countenance when he delivered this Book into their hands do not faint in your minds O ye posterity of Abraham but suffer grief and bear these evils patiently as that man in the Land of Vz did whose name was Job who though he was a righteous and faithful person in whom was no fault yet suffered the sorest torments by the malice of the Devil as you do now most unjustly from Pharaoh and the Egyptians They treat you indeed very basely and have enslaved you without any fault of yours c. But do not despair of a better condition you shall be delivered as Job was and have a reward of your tribulations like that which God gave to him There follows a great deal more to the same purpose in that Writer which I shall not transcribe But only add that the Church of Christ as he observes was wont after this example to read this Passion of Job publickly in all their Assemblies upon Holy-days when they commemorated the Martyrs and upon Fasting days and days of Abstinence and upon the days of our Saviour's Passion of which they thought they saw a figure in the sufferings of Job as of our Saviour's Resurrection and exaltation in Job's wonderful recovery and advancement to a greater height of Prosperity And as they read this History in the Church publickly so when they went to visit any one privately that was in grief mourning or sorrow they read a Lesson of the patience of Job for their comfort and support under their troubles and to take away the distress and anguish of their heart I pray God it may have that effect upon all afflicted persons who shall read it and that others also considering the instability of all worldly things which is here also lively represented may use their prosperity with such moderation that they may bear a change of their condition if it come with an equal mind I am sure there is no Man of whatsoever rank or in whatsoever condition he be but may learn very much if he please from this admirable Pattern Which is the very first that is left us upon record of a Vertuous Life both in Prosperity and in adversity and that not only as a Private man but as a Prince In whom it is the greater commendation to obey the will of God because he hath more means and temptations to fulfil his own That therefore shall conclude the character of Job who when he had no superiour to controle him as you may read Chap. XXIX and XXXI gave such an example of Piety and Devotion Humility and Moderation Chastity and Purity Justice and Equity Charity and Compassion as few have done in a private Condition This is as admirable and will be praised as much to all generations as his generous Patience Which was so much famed in ancient times that from a passage which some Editions of the LXX have added to the Conclusion of this Book it went as a common Tradition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Theophanes speaks having nothing incredible in it that Job was one of those who had the honour to rise out of his Grave at our Saviour's Resurrection when as St. Matthew assures us XXVII 51. many bodies of Saints which slept arose and went into the holy City and appeared unto many V. James 7 11. Behold we count them happy which endure Be patient therefore Brethren unto the coming of the Lord. IMPRIMATUR Dec. 17. 1678. Guil. Jane R. P. D. Hen. Episc Lond. à sacris dom 〈…〉 A PARAPHRASE ON The BOOK of JOB CHAP. I. ARGUMENT This Chapter is a plain Narration of the flourishing condition wherein Job lived before the envy and malice of the Devil brought upon him the sorest Calamities which are particularly described with the occasion of them and his admirable Constancy under them whereby he became as eminent an example of Patience in Adversity as he had been of Piety and all manner of Vertue in his Prosperity 1. THere was a man in the land of Vz whose name was Job and that man was perfect and upright and one that feared God and eschewed evil 1. IN the time of the ancient Patriarchs before the giving of the Law of Moses there lived in Arabia a person of great eminence whose name was Job A man not more illustrious for his Birth or Place then for the height of his Vertue which appeared in a most unblamable life void of all hypocrisie both in his Piety toward God and in his dealings with men and all other ways 2. And there were born unto him seven sons and three daughters 2. Whom God therefore had so wonderfully blessed that his outward Prosperity was equal to the Perfections of his Mind
with a fiery Ulcer whose sharp humour was extream grievous and painfull and prick'd him according to his wish to the very bone 8. And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withall and he sate down among the ashes 8. The filthiness of the Disease also increased that sorrow and heaviness which before had seized on him and made him sit down in the ashes where he laid hold on what came next to hand a piece of a broken pot to wipe away the foul Matter which issued out of his Boils 9. ¶ Then said his wife unto him Dost thou still retain thine integrity curse God and die 9. And it was a farther addition to his Grief to hear his dear Consort whom the Divine goodness he thought had still left to help him to bear his Affliction utter this profane speech What a folly is it still to persist in the Service of God when all thou gettest by it is to give Him thanks and perish 10. But he said unto her Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh what shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil In all this did not Job sin with his lips 10. These words struck him to the very heart but in stead of being angry with God he onely severely reproved her telling her that she talked like one of the wicked women and then piously represented to her that we ought to take nothing ill which comes from the hand of God as all evil things do as well as good and the more good we have received from Him the less reason we have to complain when we suffer any evil No discourse but such as this was heard to come from his mouth 11. ¶ Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him they came every one from his own place Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him to comfort him 11. Now there dwelt in the neighbouring Provinces three great men with whom Job had long maintained a particular friendship who hearing the sad tidings of his Sufferings came every one from his country to visit him Their names were Eliphaz the Temanite Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite who all three met at his house on the same day according to an appointment they had made to come and condole with him and comfort him 12. And when they lift up their eyes afar off and knew him not they lifted up their voice and wept and they rent every one his mantle sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven 12. But as soon as ever they entred into the place where he lay they were surprised with so miserable a spectacle of deformity that they shrieked aloud as men affrighted and burst out into tears and rent their garments and threw dust into the air which falling on their heads expressed the confusion they were in to find him so covered over with Ulcers that they could not know him 13. So they sats down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights and none spake a word unto him for they saw that his grief was very great 13. And when they approached nearer him they onely sate down upon the earth in the same mournfull posture wherein they found him but were not able so much were they astonished for seven days and nights to say one word of the business about which they were come to him And indeed his Grief was so exceeding great that they did not well know what to say till time which alters all things had asswaged a little both his Grief and theirs CHAP. III. ARGUMENT Here begin the Discourses which Job and his Friends had about his Affliction which are all represented by the Authour of this Book poetically not as hitherto in a plain simple narration but in most elegant verse And being overcharged with Grief without the least word of comfort from his Friends he that had for some time born the weight of his Afflictions with an admirable Constancy could not contain himself any longer but bursts out to such a degree was the anguish of his spirit increased into the most passionate Complaints of the Miseries of humane Life The consideration of which made him prefer Death much before it and wish that either he had never come into the world or gone presently out of it again or at least might now forthwith be dismissed 1. AFter this opened Job his mouth and cursed his day 1. AND at the end of seven days Job himself began by Complaints to give some vent to his Grief which had stupefied him thus long But he burst out into such bitter Lamentations that he wisht a thousand times he had never been born 2. And Job spake and said 2. That which he said was to this effect 3. Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night in which it was said There is a man-child conceived 3. Let the Day and the Night of my Birth be never more mentioned but be quite forgotten as if it had never been 4. Let that day be darkness let not God regard it from above neither let the light shine upon it 4. Let that Day be turned into Night and not be counted among the days let the Sun then withdraw its light and never shine upon it 5. Let darkness and the shadow of death stain it let a cloud dwell upon it let the blackness of the day terrifie it 5. Let the most dismall darkness and the thickest clouds wholly possess it and render it terrible to men 6. As for that night let darkness seise upon it let it not be joyned unto the days of the year let it not come into the number of the months 6. And let the Night be of the same sort and both of them quite blotted out of the Calendar 7. Lo let that night be solitary let no joyfull voice come therein 7. Let no body meet together on that Night to feast or make merry 8. Let them curse it that curse the day who are ready to raise up their mourning 8. Let it be as odious as the day wherein men bewail the greatest misfortune or the time wherein they see the most dreadfull apparition 9. Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark let it look for light but have none neither let it see the dawning of the day 9. Let there not so much as a Star appear in that Night nor so much light as we see at peep of day 10. Because it shut not up the doors of my mother's womb nor hid sorrow from mine eyes 10. Because it did not bury me in my mother's womb and thereby secure me from all these Miseries 11. Why died I not from the womb why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly 11. What a
misfortune was it that I did not die before I was born or at least as soon as I came into the world 12. Why did the knees prevent me or why the breasts that I should suck 12. That they who received me from the womb did not let me fall on the ground or my Nurse refuse to give me suck 13. For now should I have lien still and been quiet I should have slept then had I been at rest 13. Then should I have felt none of these Miseries which I now endure but lain quiet and undisturbed 14. With kings and counsellers of the earth which built desolate places for themselves 14. Equall to Kings and the greatest persons who lie alone in the Tombs which they built themselves 15. Or with princes that had gold who filled their houses with silver 15. Having gold and silver in abundance whereof now they are bereaved 16. Or as an hidden untimely birth I had not been as infants which never saw light 16. Or like an Abortive which was never numbred among men 17. There the wicked cease from troubling and there the weary be at rest 17. There are none can hurt us in the grave though they be never so malicious nor shall we toil any more when we come thither 18. There the prisoners rest together they hear not the voice of the oppressour 18. The Captives and they who are condemned to hard servitude take no pains there and do not dread the voice of the Exactour of their labours 19. The small and great are there and the servant is free from his master 19. There none are greater then other but the Servant in that place is as free as his Master 20. Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery and life unto the bitter in soul 20. Is it not strange that a man should be forced to live when he hath no mind to it 21. Which long for death but it cometh not and dig for it more then for hid treasures 21. But wishes for death though in vain and seeks it more eagerly then the greatest riches 22. Which rejoyce exceedingly and are glad when they can find the grave 22. Leaping for joy when he can meet with his grave as far more welcome to him then a mine of Silver 23. Why is light given to a man whose way is hid and whom God hath hedged in 23. Not knowing which way to turn himself but onely thither 24. For my sighing cometh before I eat and my roarings are poured out like the waters 24. This is my condition whose meat merely sustains a miserable life which is all Sighs and Sobs as loud as the roarings of the Lion 25. For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me and that which I was afraid of is come unto me 25. For the very thing which I dreaded is faln upon me notwithstanding all my care to prevent it 26. I was not in safety neither had I rest neither was I quiet yet trouble came 26. I did not confide in my Riches nor in the least lull my self in security Chap. l. 5. and yet that did not preserve me from being miserable CHAP. IV. ARGUMENT Eliphaz incensed at this Complaint of Job in stead of condoling with him and pitying the Miseries which had put him into this Agony and applying fitting Lenitives to his Anguish bluntly rebukes him for not following the good Advice that he used to give to others in their Adversity and tells him he had reason to suspect his Piety because the Innocent were not wont to suffer such things but onely wicked Oppressours whom though never so mighty God had always humbled Witness the Horims who dwelt in Seir II. Deut. 12. whom the ancestours of Eliphaz XXXVI Gen. 11. had overcome though they were as fierce as Lions To those Beasts of prey of all sorts he compares the Tyrants whom he speaks of in this Chapter v. 10 11. intending it is likely to remember him also of the destruction of the Emims by the children of Moab II. Deut. 10 11. and of the Zamzummims v. 20 21. who were rooted out by the children of Ammon as the Horims by the children of Esau from whose Grandchild Eliphaz seems to have been descended and called by the name of the eldest Son of Esau He tells Job also of a Vision he had to confirm the same truth That man's Wickedness is the cause of his Destruction 1. THen Eliphaz the Temanite answered and said 1. THen Eliphaz one of his most ancient Friends descended from Teman replied to him and said 2. If we assay to commune with thee wilt thou be grieved but who can withhold himself from speaking 2. We must either still keep silence or speak what will not please thee But Truth sure is more to be regarded then Friendship and therefore I must remember thee 3. Behold thou hast instructed many and thou hast strengthened the weak hands 3. That thou it is well known hast given good Counsel unto others and perhaps reproved their Impatience thou hast incouraged those who were dis-spirited 4. Thy words have upholden him that was falling and thou hast strengthened the feeble knees 4. And by thy discourse hast supported those whose hearts were ready to sink and settled those who trembled under their burthen 5. But now it is come upon thee and thou faintest it toucheth thee and thou art troubled 5. And now that thou art faln into the same condition thou canst not practise thy own Lessons but faintest and art struck with consternation 6. Is not this thy fear thy confidence thy hope and the uprightness of thy ways 6. Is not this the time to exercise thy Piety so much fam'd thy Confidence in God thy Hope thine Integrity 7. Remember I pray thee who ever perished being innocent or where were the righteous cut off 7. Consult thine own observation and tell me when thou ever sawest a Righteous man forsaken by God 8. Even as I have seen they that plow iniquity and sow wickedness reap the same 8. Quite contrary I have seen the Wicked reaping the fruit of their doings 9. By the blast of God they perish and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed 9. God blasts and consumes them as the nipping wind or the fire doth the corn in the field 10. The roaring of the lion and the voice of the fierce lion and the teeth of the young lions are broken 10. Though they be as fierce as the Lions and as strong their power is broken 11. The old lion perisheth for lack of prey and the stout lions whelps are scattered abroad 11. The greatest Tyrants and their posterity after they have long injoy'd their power are deprived of all their riches gotten by oppression and come to nothing 12. Now a thing was secretly brought to me and mine ear received a little
Which are blackish by reason of the ice and wherein the snow is hid 16. When the melted Ice and Snow fall thick into them 17. What time they wax warm they vanish when it is hot they are consumed out of their place 17. They promise water but in the Summer-time are dried up 18. The paths of their way are turned aside they go to nothing and perish 18. So that you can scarce find any mark of the course wherein they ran they are so perfectly vanish'd 19. The troups of Tema looked the companies of Sheba waited for them 19. They that travell into our neighbouring Countries expected to quench their thirst there where they had sometime seen so much water 20. They were confounded because they had hoped they came thither and were ashamed 20. But were shamefully disappointed and blusht to think they should seek relief from such uncertain Streams 21. For now ye are nothing ye see my casting down and are afraid 21. Just such are you good for nothing who seeing my Calamity shrink from me 22. Did I say Bring unto me or Give a reward for me of your substance 22. And yet I never sent for you nor do I ask now you are come any Relief from you 23. Or Deliver me from the enemie's hand or Redeem me from the hand of the mighty 23. I do not expect you should deliver me from these Calamities which as so many mighty enemies oppress me 24. Teach me and I will hold my tongue and cause me to understand wherein I have erred 24. Do not mistake me nor think that I despise the assistence of your Counsel Advice no I am ready to receive your Reproofs and humbly to submit to them if you can better inform me 25. How forcible are right words but what doth your arguing reprove 25. Oh what power is there in Truth but your Reprehensions are ineffectual 26. Do ye imagine to reprove words and the speeches of one that is desperate which are as wind 26. You onely study to shew your Eloquence and in vain use words to drive me to Desperation 27. Yea ye overwhelm the fatherless and you dig a pit for your friend 27. You fall upon him who is already depressed and without defence and in a barbarous manner devise counsel against your Friend 28. Now therefore be content look upon me for it is evident unto you if I lie 28. But let it please you to consider my Case a little better and then judge if I be in the wrong 29. Return I pray you let it not be iniquity yea return again my righteousness is in it 29. Discuss things over again I beseech you and doe it fairly I say let me have a second Hearing it will but the more shew my Innocence 30. Is there iniquity in my tongue cannot my tast discern perverse things 30. Have I said any thing hitherto that is faulty I do not think my judgment is so corrupted but that I can discern what is bad though spoken by my self CHAP. VII ARGUMENT Job proceeds still in the defence of his Complaint and of his Wishes to see an end of so miserable a Life which at the best is full of Toil and Trouble And since his Friends had so little consideration of him he addresses himself to God and hopes he will not be angry if he ease his Grief by representing to him the Dolefulness of his condition and expostulating a little with him about the continuance of it and his release from it 1. IS there not an appointed time to man upon earth are not his days also like the days of an hireling 1. IS not the whole Life of miserable Man a perpetual conflict with various Troubles and must he not at best undergo much toil labour and weariness 2. As a servant earnestly desireth the shadow and as an hireling looketh for the reward of his work 2. Why may I not then as passionately wish to see an end of it as the Slave in a hot day gasps for the refreshment of the Shade or the Labourer longs for the Evening when he may rest and be paid for his pains 3. So am I made to possess moneths of vanity and wearisom nights are appointed to me 3. I am sure my days are no less void of Contentment then theirs and in the night when men are wont to forget their Sorrows I can doe nothing but restlesly increase them 4. When I lie down I say When shall I arise and the night be gone and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day 4. I no sooner am laid down but I wish to be up again and the night seems very tedious while I toss up and down in unquiet and tormenting thoughts calling for the morning 5. My flesh is cloathed with worms and clods of dust my skin is broken and become loathsom 5. How can I doe otherways when my Body is nothing but Ulcers full of Worms and crusted over with Scabs which have made such clefts in my skin that I am loathsom to my self 6. My days are swifter then a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope 6. All my happy days are run away in a moment and there is no hope I should recover them 7. O remember that my life is wind mine eye shall no more see good 7. O my God remember how short the most pleasant Life is which when it is gone I cannot live over again 8. The eye of him that hath seen me shall see me no more thine eyes are upon me and I am not 8. I can never return to my Friends after I have left them Thou dost but frown upon me and I vanish quite out of the World 9. As the cloud is consumed and vanisheth away so he that goeth down to the grave shall come up no more 9. Just as a Cloud dissolves on a sudden before the Sun so doth Man sink down into his grave and appear no more 10. He shall return no more to his house neither shall his place know him any more 10. He must make his habitation there for hither he cannot return but others shall take his place which will no longer acknowledge him the owner of it 11. Therefore I will not refrain my mouth I will speak in the anguish of my spirit I will complain in the bitterness of my soul 11. Suffer me then to speak freely and to give vent to my Grief by complaining a little of the inexpressible Miseries which oppress me 12. Am I a sea or a whale that thou settest a watch over me 12. Am I like a Sea or a Whale or wild Beast that must be shut up and confined under these unsupportable Sufferings and by no means break through them 13. When I say My bed shall comfort me my couch shall ease my complaint 13. If Death may not come and
put an end to them one would have hoped at least to have found some intermission of them by Sleep 14. Then thou scarest me with dreams and terrifiest me through visions 14. But then I am haunted with such frightfull Dreams and such horrid Apparitions 15. So that my soul chuseth strangling and death rather then my life 15. That I had much rather die the most violent death then carry this carkass any longer about with me 16. I loath it I would not live alway let me alone for my days are vanity 16. It is loathsome to me I would not if I might live always in it Dismiss me therefore since I have no pleasure in Life which of it self will end shortly 17. What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him 17. Is mortall Man so considerable that Thou shouldst honour him so much as to contend with him and set Thy self against him 18. And that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment 18. That Thou shouldst send new Afflictions on him every morning nay try his strength and courage every moment 19. How long wilt thou not depart from me nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle 19. It is time to turn away thy Displeasure from me at least for so short a space as to give me leave to breathe 20. I have sinned what shall I doe unto thee O thou preserver of men why hast thou set me as a mark against thee so that I am a burthen to my self 20. I am not able to give Thee satisfaction for my Offences against Thee O Thou Observer of men But why dost Thou not remove me quite out of thy sight if I be a burthen to Thee 21. And why dost thou not pardon my transgression and take away mine iniquity for now shall I sleep in the dust and thou shalt seek me in the morning but I shall not be 21. Or else forgive my Sin and so far release me from its Punishment as to let me die which I shall doe presently and not be found to morrow to endure these Afflictions if Thou dost not still hold me under them CHAP. VIII ARGUMENT The foregoing Apologies of Job it seems made little impression on his Friends for he had no sooner done but another of them called Bildad continued the Dispute with as little intermission as there was between the Messengers that brought him Chap. I. the sad tidings of his Calamities And it doth not appear by his discourse that he differed at all in his Principles from Eliphaz For though he give him very good Counsel yet he still presses this as the sense of all Antiquity v. 8. that God ever prospers the Just and roots out the Wicked be they never so flourishing for a season And he being descended from Shuah one of Abraham's Sons by Keturah XXV Gen. 2. seems to me to have a particular respect in this appeal to History unto the Records which then remained of God's blessing upon that faithfull man's posterity who hitherto and long after continued in his Religion and of the extirpation of those Eastern people neighbours to Job in whose countrey they were settled because of their Wickedness 1. THEN answered Bildad the Shuhite and said 1. WHEN Job had made an end of this Discourse Bildad another great Friend of his descended from Shuah one of Abraham's Sons by Keturah reprehended him in the same manner as Eliphaz had done saying 2. How long wilt thou speak these things and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind 2. Why dost thou persist to talk on this fashion and with such vehemence expostulate with God 3. Doth God pervert judgment or doth the Almighty pervert justice 3. Dost thou imagine the Supreme Judge will not doe thee right or that He who needs nothing will swerve from the rules of Equity 4. If thy children have sinned against him and he have cast them away for their transgression 4. Is it not now reasonable to think that thy Children had highly offended Him for which cause He took a sudden and hasty Vengeance on them 5. If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes and make thy supplication to the Almighty 5. And that if thou didst now in stead of Complaining implore his Grace and Favour with humble Supplication 6. If thou wert pure and upright surely now he would awake for thee and make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous 6. And wert thy self sincere in heart and upright in thine actions He would certainly have a regard to thee and restore thy Family to its former splendour 7. Though thy beginning was small yet thy latter end should greatly increase 7. I am confident thou art not now so low but in time He would make thee as high nay far more eminent then thou wast before 8. For enquire I pray thee of the former age and prepare thy self to the search of their fathers 8. I do not desire thee to take my word for it but let those who are gone before us instruct thee and search diligently into the Histories of the most ancient Times 9. For we are but of yesterday and know nothing because our days upon earth are a shadow 9. For alas we are not old enough to understand much being able to make but few Observations by reason of the exceeding shortness of our lives 10. Shall not they teach thee and tell thee and utter words out of their heart 10. They will not fail to inform thee aright and out of their long experience and the prudent Observations of many Ages justify the truth of my words 11. Can the rush grow up without mire can the flag grow without water 11. The Rushes and Flags we see can shoot up no higher when they want their mud and their moisture 12. While it is yet in his greenness and not cut down if withereth before any other herb 12. There is no need to stop their growth by cutting them down for they will wither of themselves even when they are fresh and green while smaller Herbs which want not water continue their beauty 13. So are the paths of all that forget God and the hypocrites hope shall perish 13. Just such is the condition of all those who neglect God without whose Blessing none can flourish who knows him also that counterfeits Piety and will defeat him of the Happiness he expects 14. Whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a spider's web 14. He may flatter himself with vain hopes and be so much the more miserable for the things wherein he trusts are as weak as a Spider's web 15. He shall lean upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not endure 15. He may fansy his Family to be so great and potent that it will
Thou hast cloathed me with skin and flesh and hast fenced me with bones and sinews 11. And first cover them with Skin and then with Flesh and at last strengthen them with Bones and Sinews 12. Thou hast granted me life and favour and thy visitation hath preserved my spirit 12. And in due time bring me into the world and give me all the Comforts of life and by thy constant care preserve both it and them 13. And these things hast thou hid in thine heart I know that this is with thee 13. Thou canst not have forgotten these things and I am sure that this Misery I now endure is not without thy order 14. If I sin then thou markest me and thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity 14. I cannot offend Thee in the least but Thou by whom I was thus formed must needs know and observe it and I cannot avoid thy Punishment for it 15. If I be wicked wo unto me and if I be righteous yet will I not lift up my head I am full of confusion therefore see thou mine affliction 15. If I be wicked I am undone and if I be righteous I am so oppressed that I cannot look upon what a lamentable confusion I am in beholding nothing but Misery which way soever I cast mine eyes 16. For it increaseth thou huntest me as a fierce lion and again thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me 16. For it grows greater and greater while Thou pursuest me as a Lion doth his prey and when I hope there is an end of my Troubles sendest more to fill me with new astonishment and horrour 17. Thou renewest thy witnesses against me and increasest thine indignation upon me changes and war are against me 17. Fresh witnesses of thine Anger rise up against me Thou multipliest thy Plagues upon me so that there is no end but onely a change of my Conflicts 18. Wherefore then hast thou brought me forth out of the womb Oh that I had given up the ghost and no eye had seen me 18. And therefore I cannot but wish as I did at the first that my Mother's womb had been my Grave Happy had it been for me if I had died there and never come into this miserable world 19. I should have been as though I had not been I should have been carried from the womb to the grave 19. Or that I had died as soon as I was born and been carried from the Womb to my Grave 20. Are not my days few cease then and let me alone that I may take comfort a little 20. To which I am now very near May I beg therefore but this one favour that since Thou wilt not quite remove thy Hand Thou wilt forbear a while to strike and let me breathe and refresh my self a little 21. Before I go whence I shall not return even to the land of darkness and the shadow of death 21. Before I depart thither from whence I shall not return to ask any more favours be laid I mean in my Grave the place of dismall darkness 22. A land of darkness as darkness it self and of the shadow of death without any order and where the light is as darkness 22. Where it is as dark as dark can be and there is no succession of day and night as we have here but one perpetual night CHAP. XI ARGUMENT This Chapter gives an account of the sense of Zophar about the buisiness in dispute It is uncertain whence he was descended but probably he dwelt upon the borders of Idumaea for there we find an ancient City called Naama XV. Josh 41. and from thence came to visit Job in his Affliction But in stead of joyning with him in his Prayer for a little respite from his Pain with which Job had concluded his last Discourse he calls him an idle Talker and accuses him of irreverence towards God Concerning whose incomprehensible Counsels and irresistible Power c. he discourses with great sense and gives Job exceeding good Advice but still follows the opinion of the other two Friends that he would not have been so miserable if he had not been Wicked 1. THEN answered Zophar the Naamathite and said 1. HERE a third Friend of Job's Zophar of Naama began to speak with no small passion 2. Should not the multitude of words be answered and should a man full of talk be justified 2. Dost thou think to stop our mouths with abundance of words and by thy Talkativeness to perswade us thou art innocent 3. Should thy lies make men hold their peace and when thou mockest shall no man make thee ashamed 3. Must we not confute thy false Allegations but suffer thee to be insolent because thou art miserable 4. For thou hast said My doctrine is pure and I am clean in thine eyes 4. For thou pretendest not to have offended either in word or deed and that God himself can find no reason to condemn thee 5. But Oh that God would speak and open his lips against thee 5. O that He would vouchsafe to shew thee thine errour and with his own mouth confute thee 6. And that he would shew thee the secrets of wisedom that they are double to that which is know therefore that God exacteth of thee less then thine iniquity deserveth 6. That He would shew thee the secret Reasons of his wise Counsels which far surpass thine in this Affliction and make thee know that He would be just if He should punish thy Sin more severely 7. Canst thou by searching find out God canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection 7. Art thou able after all thy buisy inquiries to give an account of God's Judgments and perfectly comprehend the Reasons of his Providence 8. It is as high as heaven what canst thou doe deeper then hell what canst thou know 8. Thou mayest as well take a measure of the height of Heaven or of the depth of Hell 9. The measure thereof is longer then the earth and broader then the sea 9. The Earth and the Sea as long and as broad as they are have their bounds but that hath none 10. If he cut off and shut up or gather together then who can hinder him 10. If He seize upon any thing and shut it up as a Hunter doth his prey in a net He will gather it and who shall force Him to restore it 11. For he knoweth vain men he seeth wickedness also will he not then consider it 11. For he knows vain Men who mind not what they say or doe He sees their most hidden wickedness and will not He punish it 12. For vain man would be wise though man be born like a wild asse's colt 12. Shall Man void of understanding take the confidence to dispute with God Man who is naturally as rude and blockish as a wild Asse's colt 13. If thou prepare thine heart and
stretch out thine hands towards him 13. If thou art truly wise cease disputing and fall to Prayer 14. If iniquity be in thine hand put it far away and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles 14. If thou art guilty of any Sin banish it quite away and reform thy self and thy Family 15. For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot yea thou shalt be stedfast and shalt not fear 15. For then shalt thou look chearfully again and be perfectly freed from this loathsome condition yea thou shalt be settled without any fear of losing thy Happiness 16. Because thou shalt forget thy misery and remember it as waters that pass away 16. Which shall be so great that it shall blot out the remembrance of thy past Miseries or thou shalt think of them as of Waters that are run away and will return no more 17. And thine age shall be clearer then the noon-day thou shalt shine forth thou shalt be as the morning 17. The rest of thy Life shall be more glorious then the Sun at noon even thy darkness shall be like the morning-light 18. And thou shalt be secure because there is hope yea thou shalt dig about thee and thou shalt take thy rest in safety 18. Thou shalt be confident though any evil threaten thee because there is hope God will deliver thee thou shalt dig wells of water and none shall disturb thy Tents or thy Flocks 19. Also thou shalt lie down and none shall make thee afraid yea many shall make suit unto thee 19. Thou shalt be in perfect peace and none shall disquiet thee yea the multitude shall sue to thee for thy Favour and the greatest persons shall desire thy Friendship 20. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail and they shall not escape and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost 20. But the Wicked shall in vain look for Happiness they shall not escape their deserved Punishment but their hope of Deliverance shall faint away CHAP. XII ARGUMENT In this Chapter Job taxes all his three Friends with too great a conceit of their own Wisedom which had not as yet taught them common Humanity to the miserable And lets them understand that he need not come to them to learn but might rather teach them the falseness of that Proposition wherewith Zophar had concluded his Speech concerning the Infelicity of the Wicked For the contrary he tells them was obvious to sense v. 7 8 c. And as for what Zophar had discoursed of the Wisedom and Power of God he would have them know that he was as well skill'd in those Points as the best of them and understood as much of the History of ancient Times particularly of the vain attempt at the Tower of Babel unto which it is probable he hath respect in the 14. verse as in all the following he seems to have to what you reade in XIV Gen. 5 6 7 8. of the rooting out of those fierce Giants the Rephaim and other such like barbarous and rapacious people of the particulars of which we have now no Records remaining 1. AND Job answered and said 1. TO this Job replied in such words as these 2. No doubt but ye are the people and wisedom shall die with you 2. You believe then there are no men of sense in the world besides your selves so that if you were dead there would be no Wisedom left among us 3. But I have understanding as well as you I am not inferiour to you yea who knoweth not such things as these 3. Let not your vanity abuse you I have Understanding as well and as much as you and so hath every-body else for I see nothing singular in all you have said 4. I am as one mocked of his neighbour who calleth upon God and he answereth him the just upright man is laughed to scorn 4. I am not so simple but I see how you deride your Friend when you bid him call upon God that He may answer him But this is no new thing the best of men hath been mock'd at on this fashion 5. He that is ready to slip with his feet is as a lamp despised in the thought of him that is at ease 5. Though he be as a Lamp yet they who are dazzled with the splendour of worldly Prosperity despise him the Upright is never acceptable to him who is not stedfast in his goings 6. The tabernacles of robbers prosper and they that provoke God are secure into whose hand God bringeth abundantly 6. For they thrive and flourish though they rob the Just and even such men live without disturbance as provoke God with those very things which He bestows upon them with his own hand 7. But ask now the beasts and they shall teach thee and the fowls of the air and they shall tell thee 7. Thou needest not go any farther then to the Beasts or Birds to learn how well the Wicked fare 8. Or speak to the earth and it shall teach thee and the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee 8. The Earth brings forth her fruit to them abundantly and the Fishes of the Sea deny them not their service 9. Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this 9. Who is so stupid as not to understand by all these that God hath ordered it should be thus 10. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind 10. Whose right it is to dispose of all creatures as well as of mankind 11. Doth not the ear try words and the mouth tast his meat 11. Cannot the mind distinguish truth from falshood as exactly as the palate sweet from bitter 12. With the ancient is wisedom and in length of days understanding 12. And the older we grow the wiser one would think we should be 13. With him is wisedom and strength he hath counsel and understanding 13. But what is all our wisedom to God's who as He knows so can doe all things and he never errs in his understanding or miscarries in his designs 14. Behold he breaketh down and it cannot be built again he shutteth up a man and there can be no opening 14. In is not in the power of any creature to repair that which He throws down nor to extricate that man whom He casts into difficulties and streights 15. Behold he withholdeth the waters and they dry up also he sendeth them out and they overturn the earth 15. If He deny us Rain the waters themselves dry up and He sends such Flouds as break the strongest banks 16. With him is strength and wisedom the deceived and the deceiver are his 16. Nor is his Wisedom as I said inferiour to his Power But the Subtlety of those who deceive is as well known to Him as the Silliness of those who are deceived
have reported it to their Children 19. Vnto whom alone the earth was given and no stranger passed among them 19. And they no mean persons neither but such as were alone thought worthy to be intrusted with the Government of whole Countries which no forrein power could enter as they have done thine while they ruled 20. The wicked man travelleth with pain all his days and the number of years is hidden to the oppressour 20. The wicked Tyrant this is their and my observation is never free from inward Torment all his life long he is in dread of some greater Oppressour then himself 21. A dreadfull sound is in his ears in prosperity the destroyer shall come upon him 21. His Guilt so pursues him that it makes him fear some mischief or other is still falling on him and in the most peaceable time he doth not think himself in safety 22. He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness and he is waited for of the sword 22. When he lies down he is afraid he shall be kill'd before the morning and fansies nothing but naked swords round about him 23. He wandreth abroad for bread saying Where is it he knoweth that the day of darkness is ready at his hand 23. He shall wander to get a Morsel of bread where he can find it and when he hath it he shall imagine it will prove his poison 24. Trouble and anguish shall make him afraid they shall prevail against him as a king ready to the battel 24. The Distress and Anguish wherein he sees himself shall affright him they shall press upon him and overpower him as a King doth his Enemies whom he hath surrounded with his forces 25. For he stretcheth out his hand against God and strengtheneth himself against the Almighty 25. Which will be a just punishment of his audacious Impiety because he defied God and resolutely set himself in opposition to the Almighty 26. He runneth upon him even on his neck upon the thick bosses of his bucklers 26. Who will suddenly lay fast hold on him and kill him though he be never so well armed 27. Because he covereth his face with his fatness and maketh collops of fat on his flanks 27. Because he minds nothing but his belly and casting away all fear of God nourishes up himself in Luxury Pride and Haughtiness 28. And he dwelleth in desolate cities and in houses which no man inhabiteth which are ready to become heaps 28. Possessing Cities which he hath laid desolate and Houses out of which he hath driven the owners and which are running to ruine 29. He shall not be rich neither shall his substance continue neither shall he prolong the perfection thereof upon the earth 29. But the Riches he hath gotten by such Violence and Oppression shall come to Nothing He may design great things but shall leave them imperfect 30. He shall not depart out of darkness the flame shall dry up his branches and by the breath of his mouth shall he go away 30. When his Troubles begin they shall not end till they have destroyed both him and his Children One word of God's mouth so mad a thing it is to set himself against Heaven will utterly consume him 31. Let not him that is deceived trust in vanity for vanity shall be his recompence 31. Let such Examples teach him that is seduced into evil ways not to trust to such uncertain Greatness for vexatious Disappointments shall be all that he will get by it 32. It shall be accomplished before his time and his branch shall not be green 32. He shall meet with them when he little thinks of it and see his Children wither away as well as himself 33. He shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine and shall cast off his flower as the olive 33. They shall die before their time as the unripe Grape or the Blossom of the vine or olive are struck with hail or bitten off by the frost 34. For the congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate and fire shall consume the tabernacles of bribery 34. The most numerous Families of such ungodly men shall have none in them left the Divine Vengeance shall destroy the House which was built with ill-gotten goods 35. They conceive mischief and bring forth vanity and their belly prepareth deceit 35. And they justly deserve to be thus punished because all they design and doe is nothing but the Oppression and Ruine of their Subjects against whom when one Design miscarries they conceive new arts to undo them CHAP. XVI ARGUMENT Job reproves the vanity and obstinacy of Eliphaz in repeating the same things over again and still persisting in his Inhumanity though he saw his Case so pitiable Which he again describes to make him sensible how unworthily he was treated by him and the rest of his Friends who in effect joyned with his Enemies who took this opportunity to rail at him Whereas there was no Crime of his appeared to justifie their Accusations and to make good Eliphaz his Argument which signified nothing unless he meant to say that Job was like that wicked Tyrant of whom he had discoursed Which was so far from any shew of truth that he protests he never hurt any-body and was alway a sincere lover of God c. v. 17 18. The truth of which God knew to whose Bar he appeals from their unjust Sentence 1. THEN Job answered and said 1. HERE Job interrupted him and said 2. I have heard many such things miserable comforters are ye all 2. Thou dost but repeat what hath been often said already Such Comforters as you are as troublesome as my Sufferings 3. Shall vain words have an end or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest 3. May not one endlesly pour out such empty Discourses as I may with more reason call thine then thou didst mine XV. 3. I wonder at thy confidence that having so little to say thou shouldst take upon thee to answer 4. I also could speak as ye do if your soul were in my soul's stead I could heap up words against you and shake mine head at you 4. I could insult as well as you and if we could change conditions let you see how easy it would be to oppress you with such words as these and in a grave fashion to mock at your Calamities 5. But I would strengthen you with my mouth and the moving of my lips should asswage your grief 5. But I abhor the thought of such a guilt I would not fail to fortify you in that case with the best Arguments I could invent and carefully abstain from the least word that should augment your Grief 6. Though I speak my grief is not asswaged and though I forbear what am I eased 6. Though as for my self I find my Misery admits of no Consolation For whether I defend my Innocence or silently
suffer you to condemn me it makes no difference 7. But now he hath made me weary thou hast made desolate all my company 7. God hath long since quite tired me with one Trouble upon another Thou hast not ceased O God till Thou hast left me neither Goods nor Children no nor a Friend to comfort me 8. And thou hast filled me with wrinkles which is a witness against me and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face 8. The furrows in my face which is not old shew the greatness of my Affliction which is extreamly augmented by him who rises up with false Accusations to take away mine Honour as this Consumption will do my Life 9. He teareth me in his wrath who hateth me he gnasheth upon me with his teeth mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me 9. He rends my Good name in pieces with a passion equal to his hatred my Enemy is inraged against me and cruelly sets himself to spy out the least occasion to calumniate me 10. They have gaped upon me with their mouth they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully they have gathered themselves together against me 10. There is no small number of such as these who look like so many wild beasts coming to devour me having already most shamefully abused me and joyned themselves together to give full satisfaction to their wrath wherewith they are fill'd against me 11. God hath delivered me to the ungodly and turned me over into the hands of the wicked 11. So God will have it who hath abandoned the protection of me and delivered me bound into the hands of the ungodly to use me at their pleasure 12. I was at ease but he hath broken me asunder he hath also taken me by my neck and shaken me to pieces and set me up for his mark 12. How happy was I heretofore and now I am crushed in pieces From an eminent condition he hath thrown me down into the most despicable and there I am exposed as a Butt to the Arrow to all manner of Indignities and Miseries 13. His archers compass me round about he cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare he poureth out my gall upon the ground 13. He is not content to take away all my Goods and destroy my Family but to the reproach of my Friends which strike like so many darts to my very heart He hath added Ulcers in every part of my Body with inward pains which rack me without intermission and in one word hath so mortally wounded me as if my bowels were already shed upon the ground 14. He breaketh me with breach upon breach he runneth upon me like a giant 14. Before one Wound be closed He makes another and in so violent a manner that I can make no more resistence then a Dwarf can do against a Giant 15. I have sowed sackeloth upon my skin and defiled my horn in the dust 15. The Sackcloth which I put on at the first now cleaves so fast to me as if I had sewed it to my skin and all my Authority and Honour is changed into Contempt 16. My face is foul with weeping and on my eye-lids is the shadow of death 16. My Face is dirty and mine Eyes in a manner quite put out by the very Tears which have faln from thence 17. Not for any injustice in mine hands also my prayer is pure 17. And yet I must still say I never offered such a violence as this to any man and was alway so false is Eliphaz his Accusation XV. 4. a sincere Worshipper of God 18. O earth cover not thou my bloud and let my cry have no place 18. If this be not true let my bloud be left to the Dogs to lick when I am dead and let neither God nor man regard my Complaint while I am alive 19. Also now behold my witness is in heaven and my record is on high 19. But what need these imprecations The great God who rules over all is my Witness and can testify how just I have been toward my Neighbours and how pious toward Himself 20. My friends scorn me but mine eye poureth out tears unto God 20. From your judgment therefore who in stead of comforting my Innocence scornfully set your selves to defame me I appeal to His and beseech Him with perpetual tears to vindicate me 21. O that one might plead for a man with God as a man pleadeth for his neighbour 21. I am so assured of the goodness of my Cause as well as of his Justice that I wish for nothing more then to have it speedily heard and tried by Him in the same manner that pleas are held before earthly Judges 22. When a few years are come then I shall go the way whence I shall not return 22. For my Life cannot last long and I know that when I am gone I cannot return hither again for Him to doe me justice CHAP. XVII ARGUMENT Here Job desires he may be tried presently before God's Tribunal his Life being just upon the point to expire as he had said in the end of the former Chapter and continues to urge again in this because his Friends were very unfit Judges in his case and had passed such a Sentence upon him as upright men would never approve of Whereby they had given him a new Vexation to hear them talk so idly and put him in hope of recovering his Happiness if he would follow their Admonitions when they saw him just dropping into the Grave which was the onely thing he saith that he could hope for 1. MY breath is corrupt my days are extinct the graves are ready for me 1. MY vital spirits are spent they give but a glimmering and dying light whereby I can see nothing but Graves on every side prepared for me 2. Are there not mockers with me and doth not mine eye continue in their provocation 2. How can I support my spirits when my Friends who should comfort me mock at all I say for my self This so bitterly exasperates me that I cannot take a wink of sleep nor think of any thing else 3. Lay down now put me in a surety with thee who is he that will strike hands with me 3. Once more therefore I beseech Thee O God to assure me that Thou wilt judge my Cause Thy self Let some-body undertake for Thee who is it that on thy behalf will ingage to doe me right 4. For thou hast hid their heart from understanding therefore shalt thou not exalt them 4. Not these Friends of mine for they comprehend nothing of the way of thy Judgments therefore Thou shalt not conferr this honour on them who talk so absurdly 5. He that speaketh flattery to his friends even the eyes of his children shall fail 5. I must speak the truth of them though it displease them and not sooth them up in their errours for he that
flatters his Friends when he should reprove them may look long enough before either he or his Children find one that will deal sincerely with them 6. He hath made me also a by-word of the people and aforetime I was as a tabret 6. This very person who spake last hath made me a proverb in every-bodie's mouth and it is the vulgar pastime to talk of my Calamities 7. Mine eye also is dim by reason of sorrow and all my members are as a shadow 7. No wonder then that excessive Sorrow hath darkned mine eyes and that all the flesh of my body is so consumed that I am but the Shadow of a man 8. Vpright men shall be astonied at this and the innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite 8. Upright men hereafter will be astonished at the cruel sentence which my Friends pass upon me and the innocent will resolutely oppose the wicked when he judges the worse of Piety because of my Afflictions 9. The righteous also shall hold on his way and he that hath clean hands shal be stronger and stronger 9. The righteous will not be moved by such arguments to change his purpose of well-doing much less will he doe any evil action but grow rather the better by Adversity and adde Perseverance to his Piety 10. But as for you all do you return and come now for I cannot find one wise man among you 10. And truly I wish that all you who have charged me so heavily would consider things better and hearken to what I have said for I must tell you again there is not a man of you that judges truly of my Case 11. My days are past my purposes are broken off even the thoughts of my heart 11. Repent of your harsh Censures before I die as I must speedily my Joys being quite gone and all the hopefull Designs which had possessed my heart being utterly subverted 12. They change the night into day the light is short because of darkness 12. In stead whereof other thoughts are come to torment me which will not let me sleep in the night nor enjoy any pleasure in the day 13. If I wait the grave is mine house I have made my bed in the darkness 13. If I hope for any thing now as you would have me it is for a Grave That 's the onely House I can promise my self there I am going to rest in a bed where I shall not be disturbed 14. I have said to corruption Thou art my father to the worm Thou art my mother and my sister 14. I have already made so near an alliance with Death that my Father and Mother and nearest Kindred are nothing so near me as Worms and Rottenness 15. And where is now my hope as for my hope who shall see it 15. How vain then are all the hopes you would have me feed my self withall XI 15 16 c. Who shall see when I am sure I shall not the Happiness you would have me look for here 16. They shall go down to the bars of the pit when our rest together is in the dust 16. All these Hopes you speak of shall sink down into the bottom of the grave when you my Friends as well as I shall take up your lodging in the dust CHAP. XVIII ARGUMENT In this Chapter Bildad again takes up the Dispute and pretends to reply to what Job had said But I do not see any thing new saving the description he makes as Eliphaz had done before him of the Ruine which shall inevitably fall according to the fixed rules of Providence so he fansied upon the Wicked and his family notwithstanding all the assistence that his Friends and Allies can lend him for his Preservation And this he seems to imply was the fate of Job whom he doth not so much as exhort to Repentance as he had done in his former Discourse Chap. VIII being very angry with him that he had no higher esteem of their Wisedom 1. THEN answered Bildad the Shuhite and said 1. THEN Bildad the Shuhite seeing Job continue in his first opinion rose up and said 2. How long will it be ere you make an end of words mark and afterwards we will speak 2. How long shall we continue this Dispute Let us make an end of it unless he will attend better to our Reasons then we will go on to argue with him 3. Wherefore are we counted as beasts and reputed vile in your sight 3. To what purpose is it to talk with one who tells us we understand nothing XVII 4 10. but looks upon us as a company of dull Beasts into whom nothing of Wisedome will enter 4. He teareth himself in his anger shall the earth be forsaken for thee and shall the rock be removed out of his place 4. Such is his Passion which will not let him see how he himself like a wild Beast tears his own Soul in pieces with impatient Anger What art thou that God for thy sake should cease to govern the world by his known Laws which are fixt and immutable 5. Yea the light of the wicked shall be put out and the spark of his fire shall not shine 5. Say what thou wilt it is an everlasting Truth that the Wicked shall not continue in the Splendour wherein we sometime see him but though he seem to sit as by a great fire warm in his wealth and honour and power there shall not remain so much as a spark to comfort him 6. The light shall be dark in his tabernacle and his candle shall be put out with him 6. The glory of his Family shall be turned into contempt and all their joy shall end in sorrow 7. The steps of his strength shall be streightned and his own counsel shall cast him down 7. The attempts which his power makes to preserve his Greatness shall but more perplex him and his own devices shall prove his overthrow 8. For he is cast into a net by his own feet and he walketh upon a snare 8. He shall intangle himself by his own wiles and having contrived himself into danger every step he takes in pursuance of his designs shall farther insnare him 9. The grin shall take him by the heel and the robber shall prevail against him 9. Before he is aware he shall find it so impossible to disengage himself that they who thirst after his bloud or wealth or place shall easily lay hold on him 10. The snare is laid for him in the ground and a trap for him in the way 10. He shall not foresee his danger but be caught as a Bird or a Beast in a Snare or Trap when he thinks himself secure in his proceedings 11. Terrours shall make him afraid on every side and shall drive him to his feet 11. Then he shall be surrounded with a thousand Terrours and which way soever he runs to save
inquiries but never be able with all his labour to dive into the bottom of this Secret why God doth not punish all the Wicked who so insolently contemn him 13. Man knoweth not the price thereof neither is it found in the land of the living 13. Alas this Wisedom is not to be purchased with all that wretched Man hath to give for it it is not a thing that any part of this world affords 14. The depth saith It is not in me and the sea saith It is not with me 14. The Miners poor Souls dig they never so deep are never like to come within the reach of it nor is it to be fetch'd by the Mariner from any of those Countries to which he sails 15. It cannot be gotten for gold neither shall silver be weighed for the price thereof 15. All the Gold and Silver which men have heaped up by such long toil and labour are too inconsiderable a price to be offered for it 16. It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir with the precious onyx or the sapphire 16. Though it be the purest Gold which comes from Ophir together with all the precious Stones wherewith that rich Country abounds they are of so little value 17. The gold and the crystal cannot equal it and the exchange of it shall not be for jewels of fine gold 17. That if you should adde the Gold and the Crystall which are brought from other places with all the Vessels made by the art of man of the most refined and massy gold they could doe nothing to obtain it 18. No mention shall be made of coral or of pearls for the price of wisedom is above rubies 18. The precious Stones which are fetch'd out of the mountains of the East are not worthy to be named with it Men may dive into the Sea and fetch up Pearls but this Wisedom lies a great deal deeper 19. The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal it neither shall it be valued with pure gold 19. The Arabian Topaz which is so much esteemed for its wonderfull lustre doth not come near it nor are all the golden Ornaments which they wear in those parts proportionable to it 20. Whence then cometh wisedom and where is the place of understanding 20. By what means then shall we get this Wisedom of which we are so desirous who can shew us where it lies that we may go and search for it 21. Seeing it is hid from the eyes of all living and kept close from the fowls of the air 21. We may ask this question as often as we please but none can resolve us for it is concealed from all men living the most soaring wits were never able to disclose it 22. Destruction and death say We have heard the fame thereof with our ears 22. Death is the best Informer and the Grave the onely place where we may learn something of it But this is all that they can tell us which is as far short of a full account as a rumour is from a certain knowledge that they will shortly make all men equal and then it will be of no great moment whether we have been happy or miserable 23. God understandeth the way thereof and he knoweth the place thereof 23. None but God understands the way and method of his own Providence He alone knows the place of that Wisedom we enquire after which is no-where else but in his own Mind 24. For he looketh to the ends of the earth and seeth under the whole heaven 24. For who should govern the World but He whose Understanding is infinite and sees the motions of all Creatures from one end of it to the other 25. To make the weight for the winds and he weigheth the waters by measure 25. Which He hath set in such exact order and given to them such just measures that the Wind cannot blow nor the Waters flow but in those proportions which He hath prescribed 26. When he made a decree for the rain and a way for the lightning of the thunder 26. To the like laws He hath bound the Rain and appointed the course which the Thundering cloud shall take 27. Then did he see it and declare it he prepared it yea and searched it out 27. And when He ordered all these things He was pleased in the wisedom which He saw in his works He made it visible and apparent He fixed it therefore and made these Laws perpetual because after all the search that could be made He found no fault in it 28. And unto man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is wisedom and to depart from evil is understanding 28. And making Man at the same time He imprinted this sense upon his heart that he ought to be an humble Adorer not a Censurer of his secret Wisedome whereby He governs the World For the highest Wisedom and skill that man can attain is to be possessed with such a Religious Fear of the great Lord of all as not to dare to doe any thing which he knows will displease Him CHAP. XXIX ARGUMENT To such Discourses as these Job presumes his Friends would have given greater attention then it seems they did had not the Vileness of his present condition made his Speeches also contemptible And therefore he puts them in mind with what reverence all his Orations were formerly received by great and small wishing God would restore to him those happy days and inserting all along some remarkable instances of his Integrity especially as a Judge in the height of his Princely Prosperity When he had an uncontrollable Power to doe as he pleased and yet never abused it but imployed it constantly for the defence and comfort of the meanest people in his Province 1. MOreover Job continued his parable and said 1. HERE Job made another pause to see if his Friends would return any Answer But they continuing silent he proceeded in his eloquent Vindication of himself saying 2. Oh that I were as in months past as in the days when God preserved me 2. Oh that God would re-establish me in that happy Condition wherein sometime agoe I was a principal part of his Care You would then give a greater regard to my words then you do now in my Misfortune 3. When his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness 3. Which hath left me Nothing but onely Wishes that He would restore me those pleasant days when I saw nothing but continued tokens of his Favour by which I passed untouch'd through all the Inconvenices and Troubles of this Life 4. As I was in the days of my youth when the secret of God was upon my tabernacle 4. Oh the flourishing season of that prosperous estate would it were possible to recall the Felicity of those days when the Divine Providence treated me so kindly that all my Answers were held for
for I am so full by long thinking of what I have to say that I am in pain till I have uttered my mind 19. Behold my belly is as wine which hath no vent it is ready to burst like new bottles 19. My thoughts work within me like new Wine in a Vessel and we are both alike in danger to burst unless there be a vent 20. I will speak that I may be refreshed I will open my lips and answer 20. I must speak therefore if it be but to ease my self I will open my lips as they do such Vessels and make an Answer because I cannot with safety hold my peace any longer 21. Let me not I pray you accept any man's person neither let me give flattering titles unto man 21. And I beseech you let me speak with all freedom with regard onely to the Cause and not to the Person and do not expect that I should complement and give to man any glorious titles 22. For I know not to give flattering titles in so doing my maker will soon take me away 22. For I do not understand that art of soothing men into a great opinion of themselves or if I did I should not venture to use it lest He that made me should presently stop my mouth for not dealing plainly CHAP. XXXIII ARGUMENT Here Elihu addresses his Speech to Job alone for he rejected all that the three Friends had said as sufficiently confuted by Job in his Dispute with them and tells him first that he was the man who would now plead with him in God's behalf as he had oft desired and that he was no unequal match for him And then begins to reprehend those passages which he thought were blameable in Job's Speeches particularly his insisting so much upon his Integrity which though true should not have been mentioned without due acknowledgment that the Sovereign of the World had done him no wrong in thus afflicting him and that it was not fit for him to question the Wisedom and Justice of God's Providence because he did not understand it For the care of God over Man and his kindness to him he shews is so apparent upon so many scores that it ought not to be denied because of the unaccountable Afflictions that may befall us which we ought rather to think are one of the ways whereby He doth Man good 1. WHerefore Job I pray thee hear my speeches and hearken to all my words 1. AND truly I think I need not use any farther Preface to perswade thee O Job to hear my Discourse and to give an attentive ear to all I have to say 2. Behold now have I opened my mouth my tongue hath spoken in my mouth 2. Behold now I begin my words are upon my tongue if thou art ready to receive them 3. My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly 3. And I assure thee they shall be the unfeigned language of mine heart which it shall not be hard for thee to understand for the instruction they give thee shall be clearly and perspicuously delivered 4. The spirit of God hath made me and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life 4. And first of all consider that I am no other Creature then what thou art a Man whom the power of God hath formed and then inspired with Life 5. If thou canst answer me set thy words in order before me stand up 5. Thou needest not therefore decline the Encounter but if thou art able to answer set thy forces in order against me and stand up to oppose me 6. Behold I am according to thy wish in God's stead I also am formed out of the clay 6. Thou hast formerly desired IX 33. XIII 3. that some-body would appear in God's stead to reason the Case with thee Behold thou hast thy wish I am the Man that appears for Him who am made of the same matter with thy self 7. Behold my terrour shall not make thee afraid neither shall my hand be heavy upon thee 7. Look upon me the Combate is not unequall as thou complainedst when thou lookedst upon God IX 34. XIII 21. thou seest no dreadfull Majesty in me to affright thee nor any Power to oppress thee 8. Surely thou hast spoken in mine hearing and I have heard the voice of thy words saying 8. I do not accuse thee neither as they three Friends have done of Crimes uncertain or unknown but of what I my self with mine own ears have heard thee utter 9. I am clean without transgression I am innocent neither is there iniquity in me 9. For surely thou hast said more then once X. 7. XIII 23. XVI 17 c. XXXI I am pure and without any Fault in my heart and in my actions both towards God and towards man 10. Behold he findeth occasions against me he counteth me for his enemy 10. Behold He who I thought would have vindicated my Innocence seeks for occasions to fall out with me and for slight matters declares himself mine Enemy 11. He putteth my feet in the stocks he marketh all my paths 11. Whom He keeps so fast in prison that I cannot stir and watches so narrowly that I can find no way to escape 12. Behold in this thou art not just I will answer thee that God is greater then man 12. This is thy complaining language and mark what I say to thee Though I cannot accuse thee as thy Friends have done of other Sins yet in this thou dost offend and I must reprehend thee for it by remembring thee that there is no comparison between God and Man 13. Why dost thou strive against him for he giveth not account of any of his matters 13. And therefore why dost thou presume to dispute with Him and call Him to an account for his actions who will not reveal to us all the Secrets of his Providence 14. For God speaketh once yea twice yet man perceiveth it not 14. Not that God envies knowledge to us for He teaches man more ways then one and a great deal more then he takes care to learn 15. In a dream in a vision of the night when deep sleep falleth upon men in slumbrings upon the bed 15. One way is by a Dream which you may call a Night-vision when men fall into a deep sleep or lie on their beds between sleeping and waking 16. Then he openeth the ears of men and sealeth their instruction 16. Then when their minds are free from the buisiness and cares of the day He secretly whispers Instruction in their ears and imprints it upon their minds 17. That he may withdraw man from his purpose and hide pride from man 17. Not to make them understand indeed all the secret reasons of his Providence but to turn man from his evil way and to dispose him with all humility to submit himself to his Heavenly
Instructer 18. He keepeth back his soul from the pit and his life from perishing by the sword 18. Who by this means mercifully preserves him if he obey his Admonition from running on to his own destruction and rescues him from the violent death which the sword of Justice or of an Enemy would have inflicted on him 19. He is chastened also with pain upon his bed and the multitude of his bones with strong pain 19. Another way and more common then this by Dreams is the painfull Diseases wherewith he chastises man and lays him low on his bed though his constitution of body be never so firm and strong 20. So that his life abhorreth bread and his soul dainty meat 20. In which languishing case he loaths his food yea nauseates that very meat which formerly was his greatest delight 21. His flesh is consumed away that it cannot be seen and his bones that were not seen stick out 21. Which makes so great a change in him that his Flesh which formerly appeared plump and fair cannot be seen and his Bones stick out which formerly did not appear 22. Yea his soul draweth near unto the grave and his life to the destroyers 22. There is but a step between him and his grave the pangs of death being ready to seize on him 23. If there be a messenger with him and interpreter one among â— thousand to shew unto man his uprightness 23. If then which is a third way whereby God teaches men there come a Divine Messenger unto him a rare person that can expound the mind of God and perswade the sick man to repent and amend his life 24. Then he is gracious unto him and saith Deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransom 24. He shall beseech God to be gracious to him saying Spare him good Lord and rescue him from going down to the grave let it satisfie thee that thou hast corrected him and that I have found him a Penitent 25. His flesh shall be fresher then a childs he shall return to the days of his youth 25. Presently the sick man shall begin to recover and become a new man in his Body as well as in his Mind His Flesh shall look as fresh as when he was a child and he shall be restored to the Vigour and Strength of his youthfull age 26. He shall pray unto God and he will be favourable unto him and he shall see his face with joy for he will render unto man his righteousness 26. His Prayer also shall be acceptable to God and prevail for the Blessings he asks He shall go into the House of God and with the most joyfull voice give thanks unto Him and praise his Goodness who will then acquit him and restore this poor man to his Favour 27. He looketh upon men and if any say I have sinned and perverted that which was right and it profited me not 27. And he as becomes a true Penitent casting his eyes upon his Neighbours shall openly confess and say I have offended God and He hath justly chastised me I have done wickedly and He hath punished me according to my desert 28. He will deliver his soul from going into the pit and his life shall see the light 28. But hath redeemed me from that Death into which I was going and not onely made me live but given me hope that I shall enjoy prosperous days 29. Lo all these things worketh God oftentimes with man 29. Behold in all this the wonderfull goodness of God who by so many means very often admonishes Man 30. To bring back his soul from the pit to be enlightned with the light of the living 30. To reduce him from those evil courses which had just brought him to his Grave and to raise him up again to live in all true Happiness and Pleasure 31. Mark well O Job hearken unto me hold thy peace and I will speak 31. Mark this well O Job for it may very much concern thee consider what I have said and if thou pleasest to hear me patiently I will still instruct thee more fully 32. If thou hast any thing to say answer me speak for I desire to justifie thee 32. Or if thou hast any thing to object to what I have said I am willing to hear it Speak before I go any farther for I heartily desire thou mayst clear thy self and appear a Righteous person 33. If not hearken unto me hold thy peace and I shall teach thee wisedom 33. If thou hast no exception against my Discourse then continue thy attentions and silently listen to me and I will teach thee more Wisedom CHAP. XXXIV ARGUMENT Here Job shews himself a far more humble and teachable person then his three Friends for though Elihu had invited him to make what exceptions he pleased to his Discourse in the former Chapter he would not open his mouth because he plainly saw that Elihu had hit upon the thing wherein he was defective And so this young man proceeds to carry the Charge a little higher and tells him with more sharpness then before that there were some words in his Discourses which sounded in his ears as if he accused God's Justice and Goodness For what else did he mean when he complained that God did not doe him right and that he destroyed alike both good and bad Which rash Assertions he overthrows from the consideration of the Sovereign Dominion Power Righteousness and Wisedom of God and represents to him what behaviour and discourse would have better become him then that which he had used 1. FVrthermore Elihu answered and said 1. TO this last motion Job consented and replying never a word Elihu proceeded in his Discourse and said 2. Hear my words O ye wise men and give ear unto me ye that have knowledge 2. I do not desire to be Judge alone in this Cause but I appeal to them that are wise and beseech all those among you that hear me who are intelligent to mark and consider what I now deliver 3. For the ear trieth words as the mouth tasteth meat 3. You can discern whether it be true or false for the Mind is as proper a Judg of Discourse as the Palate is of Meat 4. Let us choose to us judgment let us know among our selves what is good 4. Let us agree to examine the buisiness that we may be able to pronounce a righteous judgment let us debate among our selves and resolve whether Job have a good Cause or no. 5. For Job hath said I am righteous and God hath taken away my judgment 5. For he hath said I am innocent and God who knows I do not deserve to suffer in this manner XXVII 2 6. will not doe me right 6. Should I lie against my right my wound is incurable without transgression 6. I scorn to defend my self with lies but I
accept lest I deal with you after your folly in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right like my servant Job 8. And therefore take no less then seven Bullocks and as many Rams and carry them to my Servant Job whom I appoint to be your Priest to offer for you a Burnt-offering in token of my absolute Dominion over all Creatures And that faithfull Servant of mine shall pray for you and obtain your Pardon for I have a great love to him and will be favourable to you for his sake Do not fail to go about this lest I inflict some grievous punishment upon you because as I said you have made an ill representation of my Providence and repeated those things confidently which my Servant Job shewed you to be false 9. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did according as the LORD commanded them the LORD also accepted Job 9. So Eliphaz and his two Companions submitted themselves also unto God and went as He commanded them and desired Job to intercede for them And the Lord heard his Prayer and was reconciled to them 10. And the LORD turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends also the LORD gave Job twice as much as be had before 10. And at that very time when Job was performing this charitable office for his Friends the Lord was pleased to begin to restore to him all those things which had been taken away from him and never ceased till He had not onely established him in his former Splendour but made him twice as rich as he was before 11. Then came there unto him all his brethren and all his sisters and all they that had been of his acquaintance before and did eat bread with him in his house and they bemoned him and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him every man also gave him a piece of money and every one an ear-ring of gold 11. All his Kindred likewise and his familiar Acquaintance whom his unusual Affliction had estranged from him XIX 3. when they heard of the wonders the Lord had done for him came to visit him and feast with him And after they had condoled his Misery and testified their sorrow for all that had befaln him they congratulated his happy Recovery and in token of their joy every one of them presented him with a piece of money and a pendant of gold 12. So the LORD blessed the latter end of Job more then his beginning for he had fourteen thousand sheep and six thousand camels and a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she-asses 12. Thus the Lord impoverished this good Man onely to make him richer For in stead of seven thousand Sheep which he had before his Troubles he found he had fourteen thousand when they were ended and for three thousand Camels which were taken from him the Lord gave him six thousand and multiplied his yoke of Oxen which were but five hundred into a thousand and his she-Asses in the same proportion 13. He had also seven sons and three daughters 13. His Wife also became very fruitfull and brought him as many Children as he had lost seven Sons and three Daughters 14. And he called the name of the first Jemima and the name of the second Kezia and the name of the third Keren-happuch 14. And to preserve the memory of so marvellous a Deliverance of which they were so many living monuments he called the name of the first Jemima that is the Day because of the Felicity wherein he now shone after a sad Night of Affliction wherein he had lain and the second Kesia a Spice of an excellent smell because God had healed his filthy stinking Ulcers which made even his Wife refuse to come near him XIX 17 and the last he called Kerenhappuch i. e. Plenty restored or an Horn of varnish because God had wiped away the tears which fouled his face as he complains XVI 16. 15. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren 15. The Beauty also of these Women proved as bright as their Names for there were none so amiable in all that Country and their Father did not as the manner was endow them with a small portion of his goods but having a large estate and a great affection to them he made them Coheirs with their Brethren in the inheritance which he left them 16. After this lived Job an hundred and forty years and saw his sons and his sons sons even four generations 16. After which glorious Restitution of Himself and his Family his years were multiplied as well as his estate For the Lord added almost an Age and an half no less then an hundred and forty years to those he had lived before so that he had the pleasure to see his Childrens Children to the fourth generation 17. So Job died being old and full of days 17. And departed not out of the World till he was so fully satisfied that he desired not to live any longer AN APPENDIX TO THE PARAPHRASE HERE ends the Book of Job whose short Sufferings for the space of XII months as the Hebrews reckon in Seder Olam were recompensed with a very long Life in great Prosperity If we could rely upon all their Traditions this might have been added to the Paraphrase upon the last words that the whole time of his Life was two hundred and ten years For in the Hierusalem Targum upon XII Exod. 40. and in Bereschit Rabba upon XLII Gen. 2. they make account that the Israelites staid just so long in Egypt And in the Chronicle forenamed and in Bava Bathra and other Books they tell us that Job was born that very year when Jacob went with his Family down thither to sojourn and died that year when they were delivered from thence by the hand of Moses But this agrees neither with what other of their Authours say whom I mentioned in my Preface nor with the LXX who in the last verse but one of this Book insert this Clause All the days of his life were two hundred and forty years This indeed might be easily reconciled with the account before mentioned if we did but rectify their numbers in the beginning of that verse by the Hebrew Truth and cut off the thirty years which they have added to the true time that he lived after his recovery from his sickness for then this passage also must be corrected and in stead of 240 we must set down 210. Which we might also prove in this manner out of Seder Olam Cap. 3. to be the right account of his Age because it is said v. 10. of the last Chapter that the Lord added to Job the double of what he had before and therefore if an hundred and forty years were added he had seventy before
* Epist 80. ad Eustath or Greg. Nyssen ‖ Lib. de Trinitate it is uncertain whose Work it is wherein we find it is more remote from truth who determine that when the Scripture saith he went to consult with God we are thereby to understand the Devil For should we allow the word ELOHIM or GOD to be so equivocal that it may be applied not onely to other excellent Beings besides the Divinity but to the Devil himself which is the foundation there laid for that conclusion yet the word JEHOVAH or LORD is never so used and Balaam always says that he would go and meet with Him And accordingly the LORD is said to put a word in his mouth even then when just before we reade that God met him XXIII 4 5. where it is most reasonable by GOD to understand the Angel mentioned XXII 35. whom the LORD imployed to deliver His mind unto him All which I have said to shew that God did not quite desert the Gentile World as long as there were any considerable reliques of the ancient Religion remaining among them and they did not wholly divert to fables and deliver up themselves to the guidance of evil spirits against the apparent testimony of the Holy Spirit of God Who spake to them by such good men as Job in whose days those sinners were not onely reproved but punished also by the Judges who worshipped the Sun Moon and Stars which seems to have been the oldest Idolatry of all other as not onely Maimonides but Diodorus Siculus observes And if they had listened to such instructions and not suffered themselves to be led merely by sense to which those heavenly bodies appeared in such an amazing brightness that struck with admiration as the last named Authour speaks they fancied them to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both Eternal and the first Gods we cannot conceive that they would have sunk so low as to fall into Image-worship which in Job's Country doth not seem to have obtained in his days But the chiefest part of the Wisedom of this Prophet consisted in his piety of which he proved a rare example as I have said already especially in adversity Wherein he behaved himself with such admirable Vertue that though the Apostle to the Hebrews do not mention him among those who were famous for their Faith he not being of their race to whom the Promises were made yet S. James in the next Epistles highly magnifies and applauds his Patience And not only propounds him together with the Prophets and Holy men who had spoken to them in the Name of the Lord v. 10. as a pattern of well doing and contented suffering to the Christian Hebrews but numbers him among those Blessed Souls whose worthy deeds we praise and whose happiness we admire v. 11. Or rather he names him alone as an example of a happy man who endured more then any that we reade of in ancient times and in the end found the Lord so mercifully gracious and bountifull to him that it may incourage all pious men to indure with such wonderfull submission as he did Who when he lost his goods his house his children his health nay was all over ulcerous and in great pain and moreover was solicited by his wife to speak irreverently if not irreligiously of God and to deny his Providence and by his Friends was upbraided as an hypocrite nay accused in their passion as a tyrannical Oppressour whereby they indeavoured to bereave him as S. Ambrose observes * Lib. 1. de Interpell C. 4. of that great comfort in affliction culpâ vacare to be conscious of no enormous crime and to make him appear to himself as the authour of his calamity at which his inferiours mockt and scofft who had formerly had him in great veneration nay it exposed him to the scorn of those who were not worthy to be set with the dogs of his flock so that he lookt as if he had been deserted by God and made an example of his heaviest displeasure yet he bare all at the very first when men are wont to be shaken nay overthrown by the sudden news of such dreadfull disasters not onely with much resolution and resignation but with hearty thanksgiving and through the whole course of his calamity committed no errour that I can discern but what the indiscreet and uncharitable censures of his Friends provoked him unto which put him upon too frequent and long justifications of himself and perplexed him extremely which seems his greatest trouble that he could not find out the reason why God afflicted him so severely But in the issue God revealed to him what it was fit for him to think in this matter also and thereby hath given us such satisfaction in that great controversy and difficult question about God's Providence as is no-where to be met withall but in the Gospel of Jesus Christ Even prudent men as S. Ambrose * L. 11. de Interpellatione c. 1. observes in a Book he hath written about Job are apt to be extremely moved when they see the wicked abound with good things and the just very much afflicted and truly says he it is lubricus locus a slippery place in which the Saints have scarce been able to tread in the path of a true Opinion as we see in David and Job who maintained a long conflict with his three ancient Friends that came to comfort him upon this subject And God himself brought the dispute at last to such a conclusion as may fully settle the minds of all those who meet with this Book and preserve them from being scandalized or in the least offended on such occasions The Mahomtans themselves seem to be fully satisfied as we reade in the Lives of the Fathers written in the Arabian language by Kessaeus who brings in the Most High speaking to Job's Friends after this manner * Hotting Hist Orientalis l. 1. c. 3. Do you not know that Job is a Prophet of God whom He hath chosen to his Apostleship and to whom He hath committed his Inspiration God would not have you think that He is angry with him as you seem to gather from this afflicted state wherein he lies For you know that God is wont to prove the Prophets the Just the Martyrs and other good Men wherein notwithstanding there is no indignation or contempt of them but honour rather with God most high Thus S. Chrysostome I find most elegantly represents him as a far more glorious spectacle when he sate on the Dunghill then the greatest Prince without his vertue is when he sits upon a Throne His Ulcers says he * Hom. V. ad Populum Antiochenum were far more valuable in my account then all their precious Stones For what profit do we receive by them what necessity what want do they supply But these Ulcers of his are the comfort of all manner of heaviness that can seise upon us You may know this to be true if when
fruits of his piety and rehearsing his former prosperity and then pointing at his present which he received from the Lord for all his Sacrifices With abundance of such like words which were enough to disturb the most composed and subvert the most steady and resolved mind I am a vagabond said she and am forced to crouch to others like a slave I who was a Queen am constrained to depend upon my servants for relief I who maintained many liberally am now nourished my self out of other folks charity Adding that it would be far better for him to provoke his angry Creatour by impious words to cut him off then by an unprofitable patience thus to prolong both his and her misery But he more offended with these words then any of his former sufferings with eyes full of indignation look'd upon her as an enemy and ask'd what ailed her to talk thus like one of the foolish women Lay aside said he these thoughts and let me hear no more of this advice which makes me appear to my self as if one half of me were wicked and irreligious What shall we receive good at the hands of the Lord and shall we not suffer evil Remember all the past happines thou hast enjoyed and oppose better unto worse No man's life is intirely and throughout happy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be always as well as we can wish belongs to God If thou art grieved at what is present fetch thy comfort from what thou hast received before Now thou weepest but formerly thou didst laugh now thou art poor but there was a time when thou wantedst nothing Then thou drankest of the pure fountain of life be content and drink now the more patiently of the troubled waters Behold the Rivers their streams are not clear in all places And our life thou knowest is like to one of them which slides away continually and is oft times full of waves which come roling one upon another One part of this River is passed by and another is running on its course This part of it is gushing out from the fountain and the next is ready to follow it as soon as it is gone And thus we are all making great hast to the common Sea death I mean which swallows up all at last If we receive good from the hands of the Lord shall we not bear evil Think of that again Shall we go about to compell the Judge to afford us just the very same things for ever Shall we presume to instruct our Lord and Master how he ought to conduct our life He hath the power of His own decrees and orders as He pleases so he appoints our portion for us And we know that He is wise and that He dispenses to His servants what is most profitable for them Do not then curiously pry into the counsels and resolution of thy Lord and Governour onely take in good part and affectionately embrace whatsoever is ordered by his Wisedom Love his Administration and whatsoever He is pleased to give receive it with pleasure Demonstrate now in a sorrowfull condition that thou wast worthy of all the joy which thou hadst formerly in a better Thus Job discoursing he baffled the Devil once more and gave him such a repulse that he made him perfectly ashamed to see himself thus vanquished And what ensued after this why when the Devil was beaten his disease fled away too having assaulted him in vain and got no ground of him His flesh began to recover into a second Youth He flourished also in his Estate which was restored to him with increase For Riches flowed so plentifully into his house that they were double to what he had before First that he might be no loser by his Affliction and Secondly that he might have a mercifull reward of his patience under it Therefore it was that his Horses and Mules and Camels and Sheep and all the rest of his revenue were doubled onely his Children were no more then equal to the number he had before seven Sons and three Daughters The reason was because his Beasts indeed intirely perished but the better part of his Children still survived when they were taken from him And therefore being again adorned with as many Sons and Daughters as formerly he enjoyed he had a double portion of them also those who were present with him here and those who expected him in the other World Behold then what good things this just man Job heaped up to himself by his patient submission to God And do thou therefore if thou hast suffered grievously in this sire which the malice of the Devil kindled bear it constantly and lenify the affliction with these better thoughts according to that which is written Cast all thy care upon the Lord and he will sustain thee To this purpose that great person S. Basil discourses when he represents how Job received the first assaults of his Affliction and how happily it ended And there is great reason to think that he did not in the progress of it swerve from those good beginnings which had so blessed a conclusion but whatsoever expressions fell from him when he was engaged in the heat of Disputation he still preserved such a religious temper of mind as made him not cease to submit himself reverently to God's will and to thank him for all the benefits he had formerly received from his Bounty Nor do I find any cause for the Censures which Maimonides * More Nevochim Part. III. Cap. 23. and out of him Menasseh Ben-Israel ‖ Lib. 1. De Resurrectione c. 16. hath passed upon the disputation between him and his four Friends about Divine Providence which he hath thus stated Job saith he maintains that Mankind is so vile a sort of Being that God doth not regard the best of them any more then he doth the worst but it is all one to him when a Calamity comes whether it light upon the Offendours or upon the Innocent Nay more then this he affirms that there is no expectation after death and consequently no hope remaining for him Which are such blasphemies that Maimonides is fain to seek excuses for him and for that end alledges a common saying among their Wise men that a man is not apprehended or seized on because of his grief that is what he says in extremity of pain is not imputed to him for sin But there is no need of this Apology for the places he alledges do not prove him guilty of uttering such things as to speak in his words are evil in the highest degree Though Menasseh Ben-Israel is so presumptuous as to charge him with such a profane denial of Divine Providence at least here below the Moon that he makes him impute all his misery to the malignant aspect of the Planets under which he was conceived and born To which opinion of Job say they every one of his Friends opposed a particular opinion of their own differing each of them from the other And first
Eliphaz endeavours to establish this for a certain truth That as Afflictions do not come by chance but by the Providence of God so they are sent for the sins of men and therefore without all doubt Job was a great offendour which was the cause he was handled on this manner This opinion says Maimonides he held to the last onely was fain to adde in conclusion that all the ways whereby we deserve punishment do not appear Then after him when Job had argued against this comes Bildad who produces a new opinion grounded upon the doctrine of permutation or recompence as they speak That is he believed the Evils which Job indured here should if he proved innocent be changed into good things and in the issue be highly serviceable to him in another world After whom succeeds Zophar with a different resolution from all these which was that God acts according to his own pleasure and that we are not to search for any cause of his actions out of his own will nor to say why doth he this and not that In short we are not to seek the way of equity and the decree of wisedom in his doings for it necessarily belongs to his Essence that He doe what He will and our understanding is too shallow to comprehend the secrets of his Wisedom whose right and propriety it is that He may do according to his Pleasure and for no other cause And these four Opinions about Providence Maimonides undertakes to shew have had their several Assertors since who have propagated them among their Scholars Job's opinion he saith is the same with Aristotle's who attributed all to accident Bildad was followed by the Sect of Mutazali a kind of Pharisees among the Ismaelites who ascribed all to Wisedom Zophar by the Sect of Assaria who attributed all to will and pleasure And Eliphaz he fancies held the opinion of the Law which is that God deals with men according to their works But when all that these men had disputed nothing moved Job there stands up another whose name was Elihu who first proves the Providence of God from prophetical dreams XXXIII 13. and to those things which Eliphaz had said adds according to the imagination of Menasseh Ben-Israel the doctrine of the transmigration of Souls which he labours to find in v. 14. and thereby in a wonderfull way says he resolves all the doubt by determining that Job and other just men may be punished for sins which they committed in a former body But as there is no footstep that I can see for this fond conceit which he honours with the name of a mystery so it is evident these men follow their own vain inventions in all this discourse directly contrary to the Book it self For they make Job's opinion the very worst of all the rest when the Lord himself tells Eliphaz in the conclusion of the Book XLII 7. that He was angry with him and his two other Friends because they had not spoken of him so rightly as Job had And it doth not appear by their speeches that they held several opinions about Providence and took every one of them a different way that 's a meer Rabbinical subtilty to solve the doubt wherein Job's unusual sufferings had perplexed them But they seem to have harped all of them upon one and the same string as I have represented in the Arguments before each Chapter which it is thought fit should be here set down by themselves that the Reader may take a view of the whole work all together From whence the conclusion of Maimonides will be very evident which is the best thing he says that The scope of the Book is to establish the great Article of Providence and thereby to preserve us from errour in thinking that God's Knowledge is like our Knowledge or his Intention Providence and Government like our Intention Providence and Government Which foundation being laid nothing will seem hard to a man whatsoever happens Nor will he fall into dubious thoughts concerning God whether He knows what is befaln us or no and whether He takes any care of us But rather he will be inflamed the more vehemently in the love of God as it is said in the end of this Prophecy Wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes So say our Wise men They that act out of love will rejoyce in Chastisements THE ARGUMENTS TO THE SEVERAL CHAPTERS CHAP. I. ARGUMENT THIS Chapter is a plain Narration of the flourishing condition wherein Job lived before the envy and malice of the Devil brought upon him the sorest Calamities which are particularly described with the occasion of them and his admirable Constancy under them whereby he became as eminent an example of Patience in Adversity as he had been of Piety and all manner of Vertue in his Prosperity fol. 1 CHAP. II. ARGUMENT The first part of this Chapter is a continuation of the Narration which was begun in the foregoing of the Calamities which befell this good man whom God suffered the Devil to afflict in his Body as he had already done in his Goods and Children And then follows a farther testimony of his Constancy notwithstanding his Wife 's angry and profane accusation of the Divine Providence Though it is true he was so much dejected to see himself reduced to this extremity of Misery that neither he nor his Friends that came to visit him were able for several days to speak a word fol. 11 CHAP. III. ARGUMENT Here begin the Discourses which Job and his Friends had about his Affliction which are all represented by the Authour of this Book poetically not as hitherto in a plain simple Narration but in most elegant verse And being overcharged with Grief without the least word of comfort from his Friends he that had for some time born the weight of his Asslictions with an admirable Constancy could not contain himself any longer but bursts out to such a degree was the anguish of his spirit increased into the most passionate Camplaints of the Miseries of humane Life The consideration of which made him prefer Death much before it and wish that either he had never come into the world or gone presently out of it again or at least might now forthwith he dismissed fol. 17 CHAP. IV. ARGUMENT Eliphaz incensed at this Complaint of Job in stead of condoling with him and pitying the Miseries which had put him into this Agony and applying fitting Lenitives to his Anguish bluntly rebukes him for not following the good Advice that he used to give to others in their Adversity and tells him he had reason to suspect his Piety because the Innocent were not wont to suffer such things but onely wicked Oppressours whom though never so mighty God had always humbled Witness the Horims who dwelt in Seir II. Deut. 12. whom the ancestours of Eliphaz XXXVI Gen. 11. had overcome though they were as fierce as Lions To those Beasts of prey of all sorts he compares the Tyrants whom
he speaks of in this Chapter v. 10 11. intending it is likely to remember him also of the destruction of the Emims by the children of Moab II. Deut. 10 11. and of the Zamzummims v. 20 21. who were rooted out by the children of Ammon as the Horims by the children of Esau from whose Grandchild Eliphaz seems to have been descended and called by the name of the eldest Son of Esau He tells Job also of a Vision he had to confirm the same truth That man's Wickedness is the cause of his Destruction fol. 22 23 CHAP. V. ARGUMENT Eliphaz still prosecutes the very same Argument endeavouring to confirm it from the opinion and observation of other men as well as from his own And thereupon exhorts him to Repentance as the surest way to find mercy with God and to be not onely restored to his former Prosperity but to be preserved hereafter from the Incursions of savage people or of wild beasts and from all the rest of the Disasters which had befaln him Of this he bids him in the conclusion to be assured for it was a point he had studied fo 27 CHAP. VI. ARGUMENT Job not at all convinced by these Discourses justifies the Complaint he had made Chap. III. which Eliphaz had now accused maintaining that his Grief was not equal to the Cause of it And therefore he renews his wishes of Death at which though they might wonder who felt nothing to make them weary of Life yet he had reason he shews for what he did and one more then before which was their Vnkindness who pretended to be Friends but by this rude Reproof of him at the very first without so much as one compassionate word or the least syllable of Consolation shewed how little sympathy they had with him in his Sufferings These things he desires them to consider and weigh the cause of his Complaint a little better before they passed any farther judgment on it fol. 33 CHAP. VII ARGUMENT Job proceeds still in the defence of his Complaint and of his Wishes to see an end of so miserable a Life which at the best is full of Toil and Trouble And since his Friends had so little consideration of him he addresses himself to God and hopes he will not be angry if he ease his Grief by representing to him the Dolefulness of his condition and expostulating a little with him about the continuance of it and his release from it fol. 39 CHAP. VIII ARGUMENT The foregoing Apologies of Job it seems made little impression on his Friends for he had no sooner done but another of them called Bildad continued the Dispute with as little intermission as there was between the Messengers that brought him Chap. I. the sad tidings of his Calamities And it doth not appear by his discourse that he differed at all in his Principles from Eliphaz For though he give him very good Counsel yet he still presses this as the sense of all Antiquity v. 8. that God ever prospers the Just and roots out the Wicked be they never so flourishing for a season And he being descended from Shuah one of Abraham's Sons by Keturah XXV Gen. 2. seems to me to have a particular respect in this appeal to History unto the Records which then remained of God's blessing upon that faithfull man's posterity who hitherto and long after continued in his Religion and of the extirpation of those Eastern people neighbours to Job in whose countrey they were settled because of their Wickedness fol. 44 CHAP. IX ARGUMENT Job allows what Bildad had well spoken in the beginning of his Speech and very religiously adores the Justice Wisedom and Sovereignty of the Almighty with whom he protests he had no intention to quarrel or dispute but onely to assert the contrary Maxime to that which they maintained That Piety will not secure us from all Calamities which do not ever fall upon those that deserve them Witness on one hand the prosperous estate of wicked Princes v. 24. particularly of one great Prince who then somewhere reigned in their neighbouring countries and on the other hand his own Infelicity notwithstanding his known Integrity v. 25. About this he confesses he was very much unsatisfied though he knew it was in vain to argue with God about it nor would his Affliction suffer him to doe it fol. 49 50 CHAP. X. ARGUMENT In this Chapter the passionate Complaints and Expostulations with God from which Job tells us in the foregoing Chapter he intended hereafter to refrain break out afresh and he earnestly desires to know what his Guilt is which God who made him he was sure could not but perfectly understand if there was any and needed not for the discovery of it to expose him to these severe Torments Which he still is of the opinion may justify his Wishes of never being born or of dying presently after Though those Wishes being vain he acknowledges it is more rational to desire that God would be pleased to intermit his Pain a while if He did not think fit quite to remove it fol. 56 CHAP. XI This Chapter gives an account of the sense of Zophar about the buisiness in dispute It is uncertain whence he was descended but probably he dwelt upon the borders of Idumaea for there we find an ancient City called Naama XV. Josh 41. and from thence came to visit Job in his Affliction But in stead of joyning with him in his Prayer for a little respite from his Pain with which Job had concluded his last Discourse he calls him an idle Talker and accuses him of irreverence towards God Concerning whose incomprehensible Counsels and irresistible Power c. he discourses with great sense and gives Job exceeding good Advice but still follows the opinion of the other two Friends that he would not have been so miserable if he had not been Wicked fol. 61 CHAP. XII ARGUMENT In this Chapter Job taxes all his three Friends with too great a conceit of their own Wisedom which had not as yet taught them common Humanity to the miserable And lets them understand that he need not come to them to learn but might rather teach them the falseness of that Proposition wherewith Zophar had concluded his Speech concerning the Infelicity of the Wicked For the contrary he tells them was obvious to sense v. 7 8 c. And as for what Zophar had discoursed of the Wisedom and Power of God he would have them know that he was as well skill'd in those Points as the best of them and understood as much of the History of ancient Times particularly of the vain attempt at the Tower of Babel unto which it is probable he hath respect in the 14. vers as in all the following he seems to have to what you reade in XIV Gen. 5 6 7 8. of the rooting out of those fierce Giants the Rephaim and other such like barbarous and rapacious people of the particulars of which we have now no Records remaining
fol. 66 CHAP. XIII ARGUMENT From the foregoing Observations Job still continues to assert first his own Vnderstanding to be equal or rather superiour to theirs who had better therefore learn of him and know that God was not pleased to have his Providence defended by Vntruths nor to see men partial though it was in His behalf and secondly his own Integrity to be such that he would ever defend it against all Accusers even before God himself Whom he desires to take cognizance of the Cause and to let him understand what the Crimes were for which he was thus severely handled For he protests that he was ignorant of them though the Punishments he had endured were more then sufficient to awaken the sense of his Guilt he being almost consumed by them fol. 72 CHAP. XIV ARGUMENT The good man proceeds to plead with God for some mitigation of his Miseries from the consideration of the Shortness of life and the trouble that naturally belongs to it which he thought might move Him not to adde any greater burthen of Suffering especially considering that when he is dead he cannot come into the world again as the Plants do to receive the marks of his Favour Which he hopes therefore He will bestow upon him here notwithstanding the depth of his Misery which tempted him to the borders of Impatience v. 13. It being very easy for Him to remove his Affliction though never so heavy whose Power is so great that He removed Mountains out of their place and brought a Deluge as we may say of Sand as they saw sometimes in their Neighbouring Countries to overflow the most fruitfull Regions fol. 78 CHAP. XV. ARGUMENT In this Chapter Eliphaz renews the Dispute with more eagerness and fierceness then before being very angry that Job slighted them so much and thought himself so wise as he interpreted it that he disdained their Exhortations and would not follow the Counsel they had given him of Confessing his Sins and praying to God for Forgiveness V. 8. VIII 4 5 6. But except this one Argument that he need not be ashamed to confess his Guilt when he considered how prone all men are to sin there is nothing new in his Discourse but he merely urges what he had asserted at first from his own and the wisest mens observations That they are not the Good but the Wicked whom God punishes with such Calamities as now were faln upon Job And with great ornaments of speech he most admirably describes the Vengeance which God is wont to take upon impious Tyrants having his Eye I suppose upon Nimrod or some such mighty Oppressour fol. 83 84 CHAP. XVI ARGUMENT Job reproves the vanity and obstinacy of Eliphaz in repeating the same things over again and still persisting in his Inhumanity though he saw his Case so pitiable Which he again describes to make him sensible how unworthily he was treated by him and the rest of his Friends who in effect joyned with his Enemies who took this opportunity to rail at him Whereas there was no Crime of his appeared to justify their Accusations and to make good Eliphaz his Argument which signified nothing unless he meant to say that Job was like that wicked Tyrant of whom he had discoursed Which was so far from any shew of truth that he protests he never hurt any body and was alway a sincere lover of God c. v. 17 18. The truth of which God knew to whose Bar he appeals from their unjust Sentence fol. 91 CHAP. XVII ARGUMENT Here Job desires he may be tried presently before God's Tribunal his Life being just upon the point to expire as he had said in the end of the former Chapter and continues to urge again in this because his Friends were very unfit Judges in his case and had passed such a Sentence upon him as upright men would never approve of Whereby they had given him a new Vexation to hear them talk so idly and put him in hope of recovering his Happiness if he would follow their Admonitions when they saw him just dropping into the Grave which was the onely thing he saith that he could hope for fol. 97 CHAP. XVIII ARGUMENT In this Chapter Bildad again takes up the Dispute and pretends to reply to what Job had said But I do not see any thing new saving the description he makes as Eliphaz had done before him of the Ruine which shall inevitably fall according to the fixed rules of Providence so he fancied upon the Wicked and his family notwithstanding all the assistence that his Friends and Allies can lend him for his Preservation And this he seems to imply was the fate of Job whom he doth not so much as exhort to Repentance as he had done in his former Discourse Chap. VIII being very angry with him that he had no higher esteem of their Wisedom fol. 101 CHAP. XIX ARGUMENT The purpose of this Chapter in which Job replies to Bildad is to shew that it would be sufficient for him also merely to repeat the same things as they had done in Ten Discourses But the more to aggravate their want of Compassion or rather Cruelty toward him he represents several new things which made his condition more deplorable then he had hitherto said One of which was that he could not tell the Reason why God dealt thus with him who notwithstanding was so gracious that in the depth of this Misery and Anguish He affords Him a glimring of a comfortable Hope which began now to appear in his Soul and which he had hitherto wanted that God would at last take pity upon him and shew his Friends their errour by restoring him to his former Health and Splendour That seems to be the literal meaning of the 25. and 26. verses and of the two next that follow where among other things he says he doubted not but his Redeemer should stand last upon the earth so it is in the Hebrew the word day not being there that is quite overcome the Devil and deliver him from these Distresses like a mighty Conquerour who keeps the field when all his opposers are routed and fled away But in this he was as S. Austin calls him eximius Prophetarum and prophesied of the Resurrection of the Body at the last day fol. 106 107 CHAP. XX. ARGUMENT The abrupt beginning of this Speech of Zophar shews that he was in a passion which though he pretends to bridle it would not let him calmly consider the Protestation which Job had made of his Innocence But he goes on in the old Common place of the certain Downfall of the Wicked be he never so powerfull and well supported Which he illustrates indeed after an excellent fashion with great variety of Figures and remarks upon Histories as old as the World In some of which he had observed that the Wicked after their Fall had made notable attempts to get up again but by the hand of God were so crushed that they could never rise
more All the flaw in his Discourse is this which was common to him with the rest that he imagined God never varied from this method and therefore Job without doubt was a very bad man though it did not appear he was any other way but by his Infelicity fol. 114 115 CHAP. XXI ARGUMENT To bring the Dispute to a speedier issue Job after a short preface reproving their Incivility comes close to the buisiness and doth not content himself merely with denying what they had said but shews them where the fallacy in their Discourse lay viz. in concluding an Vniversal from some Particulars For he maintains from as good History and Observations as they could produce that though God do make some Wicked men such examples of his Vengeance as they had said yet He lets others and they of the vilest sort Atheists and Deriders of Divine Providence live prosperously and die peaceably and have stately Monuments built to perpetuate their Memory In brief he shews there is great variety in God's proceedings about the Punishment of the Wicked which makes them so bold as they are in their Impiety And seems to have respect to the History of Ishmael who was a wild or barbarous man grasping at all he could lay his hands on and persecuting Isaac and yet had XII Princes descended from him settled in their several Fortresses as we reade XVI Gen. 12. XVII 20. XXV 16. And it is possible to the History of Eliphaz his own Country Esau his Ancestour being very rich XXXVI Gen. 6 7. and having many Dukes whose posterity afterward advanced themselves to the title of Kings that sprang from him before there was any King over the Children of Israel XXXVI Gen. 15 31. fol. 122 123 CHAP. XXII ARGUMENT Though Job had clearly stated the Controversy in the foregoing Chapter yet Eliphaz would not yield but begins the Combate a third time without any ground at all but a pure mistake as I have expressed it in the first verse And to avoid the Reproof which had been given him of repeating merely the same things he now brings in a catalogue though without any proof so much was his anger and bitterness increased of the particular Sins both against God and against his Neighbour of which he supposes Job to have been guilty Else he still boldly concludes God would not have punished him with such severity that there was not a greater instance of his Indignation to be found any-where unless it was in the Old World and in Sodom Yet he hath so much Moderation that be invites him at last to Repentance and promises him the happy fruit of it as he had done in his first Speech but not in his second Nay he tells him in conclusion for his incouragement that he should be able to doe as much for a Nation as Ten righteous men could they have been found there might have done for Sodom fol. 131 132 CHAP. XXIII ARGUMENT To the foregoing Discourse of Eliphaz Job thought at first to make no Answer but onely by complaints of their Injustice and fresh Appeals to God by whom he desires more earnestly then ever to be tried being assured that He would acquit him And though for the present God was not pleased to give him andience of which he complains with too much passion yet he maintains that hope which began to appear in his Soul in his last Discourse with Bildad Chap. XIX that God would at last clear him from all the Aspersions which were cast upon him fol. 140 CHAP. XXIV ARGUMENT Vpon farther consideration Job thought good again to confute their rash Assertion about the Plagues which always befall the Wicked by an Induction of particulars that prove the contrary Among which the wild Arabs he tells them are a notorious instance whose profession is Rapine and yet they thrive and prosper in it v. 5 c. And so do the more civiliz'd Oppressours of whom he says something before and again v. 11 12. Where he seems to reflect upon hard Landlords and griping Merchants and Traffiquers in cities To whom he adds Murtherers Adulterers Pirates with several other wicked Villains in the conclusion of the Chapter who notwithstanding die like other men and are not called to an account for their enormous Crimes in this present World fol. 144 CHAP. XXV ARGUMENT The foregoing Discourse of Job in the XXIV Chapter was so undeniable that Bildad begins to break off the Dispute For he says not a word to it but onely advises him to speak more reverently of the Majesty of God then he imagined he had done in his appeal to him Chap. XXIII fol. 152 CHAP. XXVI ARGUMENT Job hearing Bildad wander so far from the buisiness derides his grave affectation of Wisedom and tells him that though he talk'd as if he thought himself fit to be a Coadjutour to God Almighty yet as his Discourse was impertinent so it was but mean and flat in comparison with what he was able to speak himself concerning the Omnipotent Wisedom of God which he sets forth in a far more lively manner fol. 154 CHAP. XXVII ARGUMENT As Bildad began to decline the Dispute so Zophar quite gives it over either looking upon Job as incurably obstinate or as we might more charitably conceive were it not for what we reade XXXII 1. being convinced he had more reason on his side Whose silence so raised the spirit of Job that he now triumphs over his Opponents as the word MASHAL which we render PARABLE may denote For it signifies among the Hebrews an elegant ingenious kind of speech excelling and as it were domineering over all other in its pithiness or neatness or some other rare quality Such is the following Discourse of Job which begins in this Chapter with a vehement Protestation that he would never desert his Plea nor yield to their Doctrine that a remarkable Vengeance always attends upon Wickedness in this world though he grants and largely here asserts that sometimes there doth fol. 158 159 CHAP. XXVIII ARGUMENT The Connexion of this Chapter with the foregoing I hope I have truly expressed in the first verse And that being found it is not difficult to see at what it drives viz. to stop the buisy Enquirie of mankind who are very wise he shews in other things but have not wit enough to comprehend the reasons why God doth not inflict those Punishments upon all Wicked men which fall upon some It is not needfull to set down here how this Argument is managed with such admirable elegance of words and such weightiness of matter as make it deserve the name of Mashal Parable or Proverb because it will sufficiently appear in the Paraphrase fol. 165 CHAP. XXIX ARGUMENT To such Discourses as these Job presumes his Friends would have given greater attention then it seems they did had not the Vileness of his present condition made his Speeches also contemptible And therefore he puts them in mind with what reverence all his Orations were formerly received
by great and small wishing God would restore to him those happy days and inserting all along some remarkable instances of his Integrity especially as a Judge in the height of his Princely Prosperity When he had an uncontrollable Power to doe as he pleased and yet never abused it but imployed it constantly for the defence and comfort of the meanest people in his Province fol. 173 CHAP. XXX ARGUMENT From the foregoing account of his ancient Splendour he takes occasion to annex a no-less elegant description of the Vileness of his present condition Hoping that the consideration of such a prodigious Change which he represents in several particulars and not without some touches still upon his Integrity might at last move his hard-hearted Friends to some compassion towards him especially when they saw how near he was to his Grave notwithstanding all his Prayers to God for relief fol. 180 CHAP. XXXI ARGUMENT It was possible his Friends might make quite another use then Job intended of the relation he had made of his miserable Condition in the Chapter foregoing and therefore lest it should harden them in their old Errour and they should take what he had said to be an argument of his Guilt He gives in this Chapter a large and particular account of his Integrity which in general he had so often asserted laying his very soul and the most secret Inclinations of it open before them together with the Actions of his whole life in his pripate capacity for of his vublick he had spoken before Chap. XXIX both in respect of his Neighbours of all sorts and in respect of God To whom he again most solemnly appeals in the conclusion of his Discourse that he did not boast of more Vertues then he had but would most gladly be tried before him by some impartial Judge I need not here enumerate his Vertues because they are plainly and distincily expressed in the Paraphrase and I do not pretend to give the intire contents but the design onely of each Chapter fol. 188 CHAP. XXXII ARGUMENT It appears by the 15. verse of this Chapter that there were several other persons present besides those that are named when this Dispute was held between Job and his three Friends Among whom there was a young man named Elihu who was either a Syrian in which language this Book was first written and translated by Moses into Hebrew says the Authour of the Commentaries under Origen's name descended from the second Son of Nahor Abraham's Brother XXII Gen. 21. or an Idumaean of the same Country with Eliphaz the Temanite XXV Jer. 23. I have made him a Syrian in my Paraphrase because he is said to be of the kindred of Ram by whom we are to understand either Aram or as the Hebrews think Abraham by whom such Wisedom and Piety might be promoted in his Brother's Family as is apparent in Elihu Who though much inferiour to the rest in years for which reason he had held his peace thus long yet was much superiour to them in Knowledge Which he discovers in the judicious Censures he here passes not onely upon the three Friends but upon Job himself whom he hath nothing to charge with all relating to any Crime committed before this Affliction befell him but thinks be had not managed the Dispute about it with so much Calmness and Submission to God as became his Piety In this he differs from those that spake before him For I do not find that he blames him for any Miscarriages but those onely which he observed in the heat of his Disputation and he spends his time rather in justifying God then in carping at Job as the other had done fol. 198 199 CHAP. XXXIII ARGUMENT Here Elihu addresses his Speech to Job alone for he rejected all that the three Friends had said as sufficiently confuted by Job in his Dispute with them and tells him first that he was the man who would now plead with him in God's behalf as he had oft desired and that he was no unequal match for him And then begins to reprehend those passages which he thought were blameable in Job's Speeches particularly his insisting so much upon his Integrity which though true should not have been mentioned without due acknowledgment that the Sovereign of the World had done him no wrong in thus afflicting him and that it was not fit for him to question the Wisedom and Justice of God's Providence because he did not understand it For the care of God over Man and his kindness to him he shews is so apparent upon so many scores that it ought not to be denied because of the unaccountable Afflictions that may befall us which we ought rather to think are one of the ways whereby He doth Man good fol. 205 CHAP. XXXIV ARGUMENT Here Job shews himself a far more humble and teachable person then his three Friends for though Elihu had invited him to make what exceptions he pleased to his Discourse in the former Chapter he would not open his mouth because he plainly saw that Elihu had hit upon the thing wherein he was defective And so this young man proceeds to carry the Charge a little higher and tells him with more sharpness then before that there were some words in his Discourses which sounded in his ears as if he accused God's Justice and Goodness For what else did he mean when he complained that God did not doe him right and that he destroyed alike both good and bad Which rash Assertions he overthrows from the consideration of the Sovereign Dominion Power Righteousness and Wisedom of God and represents to him what behaviour and discourse would have better become him then that which he had used fo 214 CHAP. XXXV ARGUMENT Job still keeps silence notwithstanding that Elihu had made the harshest construction of his words because he was sensible he meant him well and had now in the conclusion of his Discourse given him very wholsom Counsel and allowing his Integrity had onely charg'd him with some unhappy Expressions which had faln from him when he was in great anguish of spirit Which I suppose was the reason he doth not contradict him though he continue here in this Chapter to fasten the very same harsh sense upon his words v. 2 3. Which he refutes from the consideration of the infinite disproportion there is between Man and God who is never the worse indeed for any Evil nor at all the better for any good that we doe and yet hath such a Love to Mankind that it is certain He would not have them miserable but takes care for their relief when they are oppressed if they address themselves as they ought to Him fol. 224. CHAP. XXXVI ARGUMENT Having reprehended some of the unwarrantable Expressions in Job's Discourses which he himself would not justify Elihu comes closer to the buisiness and speaks to the very Cause it self Shewing from the Nature of God and the Methods of his Providence that if Job had in stead