these judgements which God hath laid upon thee dost thou still maintain thy self to be sincere and upright Being brought so low at the very point of death wilt thou still deny thy hypocrisie Take heed by acknowledging thy hypocrisie blesse God give glory to God and so die or curse God and die that is thou hadst as good discover by a desperate blasphemy at last what thou hast formerly been that so dying it may be seen that God hath dealt justly with thee in all that he hath laid upon thee But because in the third verse this phrase of retaining his integrity is used concerning Iob in a way of commendation the more ordinary exposition of these words I take to be the best which is this Dost thou still retain thine integrity That is after all these calamities and vain patience dost thou yet retain thy integrity alas what doth it profit you to what end do you still hope in God and pray to him and blesse him He still as a persecuting enemy pours out his wrath more and more upon you rather therefore curse God and die where by cursing God is meant as before chap. 1.11 whatever might tend to Gods reproach and this his wife like an infernall fury adviseth him to either as intimating that he had as good die cursing of God as blessing him since thereby he should at least satisfie his grieved and afflicted spirit or else as prescribing this as a means to put an end to all his insufferable miseries to wit by provoking God with his blasphemy to kill him outright Vers 10. But he said unto her Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh As if he should have said Thou dost not now wife speak like thy self this had not wont to be thy language even those women that are most silly and foolish most profane and irreligious most desperately violent in their passions could not speak more Atheistically and wickedly then thou hast now spoken more indeed like those idolatrous women that use to revile their sencelesse Gods then like a woman who had been instructed in the knowledge of the true ever living God and one that had hitherto carried her self as one that feared him Shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evil These words imply many reasons why it is fit that men should patiently endure those many afflictions that sometimes fall upon them 1. Because it is not fit that wretched man should bind God to his will and prescribe him what he should do to wit that he should still lade him with his blessings and never intermix any sorrows with them 2. Because the many blessings which he hath bestowed upon us far surpassing the evils he inflicts may well bind us by way of thankfulnesse to be content that he should exercise his dominion over us and afflict us when he seeth cause without any murmuring against him 3. Because the good he doth for us proves him a loving father and therefore should assure us that even in the evil he inflicts he seeks our advantage The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it saith Christ Iohn 18.11 and so Heb. 12.9 We have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the father of spirits and live In all this did not Iob sin with his lips That is not so much as with speaking a hasty and impatient word which was indeed a high degree of patience Iames 3.2 If any man offend not in word the same is a perfect man and able also to bridle the whole body See the note chap. 1.22 Vers 11. Now when Iobs three friends heard c. That is his three speciall choice and most intimate friends to wit Eliphaz who is called the Temanite either because he was of the stock of Teman the son of Eliphaz the son of Esau Gen. 36.11 or else because he was of the land of Teman mentioned Ier. 49.7 and Bildad who is called the Shuhite perhaps because he was of the stock of Shuah the son of Abraham by Keturah Gen. 25.2 perhaps of some country or city so called and Zophar the Naamathite so called also for some such like reason it may be from the city Naamah Iosh 15.41 As for Elihu of whom mention is made chap. 32.2 he came not it seems with these his three friends but standing by as perhaps many others did and hearing their conference he brake out also and spake his mind It is said by some that these men were Kings but no such thing do we find in the Scripture Men they were doubtlesse of eminent learning and piety as by their discourse with Iob doth every where appear yea such to whom the Lord used to appear in dreams and visions Now a thing was secretly brought to me saith Eliphaz chap. 4.12 13. and mine ear received a little thereof in thoughts from the visions of the night as likewise men of great years and experience whence is that of Elihu concerning these men chap. 32.6 7. I am young and ye are very old I said Daies should speak and multitude of years should teach wisdome and Iobs faithfull friends doubtlesse they were and in their love to him came now to visit him and spake all they said to him out of a sincere desire of his good though they erred fouly in judging of his cause All which made the harsh censures which afterward they passed upon him the more bitter and grievous to be born For they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him to wit because it is a kind of ease to an afflicted man to see that others pity him and compassionate his case neither can words of comfort be acceptable unlesse they come from those of whom he is perswaded that they have a fellow-feeling of his sorrows Vers 12. And sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven It seems there were two severall waies of sprinkling dust sometimes they did barely sprinkle it upon their heads concerning which see the Notes Iosh 7.6 but sometimes again they took the dust and threw it up into the air so letting it fall back upon their heads for so we read also of the Iews that were enraged at Pauls preaching Acts 22.23 They cryed out and casting off their cloths threw dust into the aire and this circumstance of their throwing the dust toward heaven might signifie either that it was a day of grievous darknesse and affliction that was come upon them yea a day of dismall confusion wherein things were turned upside down and earth and aire as it were mingled together or else that the spectacle they beheld was such that they might well wish the heavens were overclouded with darknesse that they might not behold it Vers 13. So they sat down with him upon the ground seven daies and seven nights That is say some Expositours many daies and many nights
thy self to the search of their fathers for we are but of yesterday and know nothing c. shewing that we are not to be carried away merely with the learning or age of the speaker but by the eare must judge of what is spoken even as by the mouth we judge of the tast of meats that are set before us or else rather by way of reprooving his friends because they slighted and disregarded his words yea because they misconstrued what he had spoken and that for want of due pondering and considering his words Doth not the eare try words and the mouth tast his meat as if he had said ought you not to let your ears doe their office which is to attend to that which I speak and not thus to slight what I say and so for want of well weighing my words to misunderstand and pervert what I have spoken And indeed because Elihu useth the same expression thereby to perswade Iob and his friends well to mind what he would say chap. 34.2 3. Hear my words O ye wise men and give ear unto me ye that have knowledge for the ear tryeth words as the mouth tasteth meat this is that I conceive which Iob also chiefly intended in these words Vers 12. With the ancient is wisedome and in length of daies understanding Either this is added as a farther illustration of that which he had said concerning the knowledge of God which may be learnt from the creatures namely that hence it comes to passe that ancient men that have many years observed what God hath discovered in the works of creation are therefore better able to judge of these things then young men are and some are of opinion that Iob might herein covertly strike at some of his friends that were younger then he and yet insulted over him as if he were not worthy to speak to them But yet because elsewhere it seems evident that these friends of Iob were very aged men chap. 15.10 With us are both the gray-headed and very aged men much elder then thy father saith Eliphaz and Elihu speaking to these friends of Iob chap. 32.6 7. I am saith he young and ye are very old wherefore I was afraid and durst not shew mine opinion I said Daies should speak and multitude of years should teach wisedome I should rather think that this is added either in answer to that which Bildad had said chap. 8.8 9. concerning enquiring of the aged of which mention is made above in the foregoing Note or at least in answer to the high opinion which his friends might have of their great wisedome because of their years wherein he first yields that it is true indeed that with the ancient is wisedome that is they have had a fair advantage for the gaining of wisedome but then adds in the following verse what doth plainly imply that yet all the wisedome in man however it is to be esteemed in it self is no better then vanity if it come to be compared with the wisedome of God and that therefore we ought not so to prize the judgement of men of great years as therefore to reject any truth which God hath taught us Vers 13. With him is wisedome and strength he hath counsell and understanding Some indeed conceive that Iob here expresseth what it is that men learn concerning God from the creatures to wit that with him that is with God is wisedome and strength c. But rather as is noted on the former verse this is added as by way of correcting or opposing what was said there concerning the wisedome of the aged Nay saith he with him that is with God is both wisedome and power too and that in such a transcendent manner that the wisedome that is in the wisest of men is not worthy the name of wisedome in comparison of that which is in God he is essentially infinitely incomprehensibly wise and mighty and this unsearchable wisedome he daily exerciseth in disposing all things that are done in the world Vers 14. He shutteth up a man and there can be no opening That is if he undertake to shut up a man for ever either in prison or in any streights of distresse or under the power of any sicknesse or calamity whatever there is no possibility ever to find out any way to set such a man free Vers 15. Behold he withholdeth the waters and they dry up c. That is he withholdeth the waters from above the rain and then the waters beneath in ponds lakes brooks and rivers do soon dry up or it may be understood without any such distinction of the waters above and the waters beneath to wit that if God commands that there shall be a drought and forbears to give a supply of water either by rain from above or springs and fountains beneath there will soon be no water left which agreeth fully with that of the prophet Nahum chap. 1.4 He rebuketh the sea and maketh it dry and dryeth up all the rivers yea and then all things growing in such places are dryed and parched up too also he sendeth them out and they overturn the earth that is the fruits and inhabitants of the earth where these flouds of water come Vers 16. With him is strength and wisedome c. This is the very same that Iob had said before vers 13. for though in the originall there be not the same words here and there yet they are to the same purpose and meaning and therefore are rendered by our Translatours with the same words and two probable reasons may be given why here he should so immediately repeat the same thing again as 1. Because that vers 13. might be only intended to shew what God is in himself to wit that he is a God of infinite wisedome and might and then this here he might adde either to shew that this wisedome and might of God is every moment discovered in his wise and wonderfull ordering of all things that are and that are done in the world or else that all the strength and wisedome that is in the creature comes from him and is at his disposing so that he gives and takes it away as seems good in his own eyes and 2. Because being now to instance in works of providence that are farre more above the reach of mans reason then any thing he had yet spoken of he repeats again here that which he said before concerning the wonderfull power and wisedome of God thereby as it were to curb men from quarrelling and contending with God about such things which is most clear in the first particular he alledgeth in the words that immediately follow The deceived and the deceiver are his that is they are both alike under Gods all-ordering power and command who is the Sovereign Lord of the whole world and are herein guided by his providence and made to serve his counsels and glory when one man seduceth another into any errour or any other way gulls and deceives him there is
for the number seven is sometimes used indefinitely as 1 Sam. 2.5 of which see the Note there or else the meaning may be that the greatest part of seven daies and seven nights they spent in a silent sitting by him condoling his misery and mourning with him It cannot be thought that Iob sat so long amongst the ashes without ever withdrawing himself upon any occasion much lesse can this be conceived of his friends but as it is said of Anna that she continued daily in the Temple though it cannot be thought that she never went out of it Luke 2.37 So it is here said of Iobs friends that they sat with him on the ground seven daies and seven nights that is the greatest part of that time but yet doubtlesse they took their time for necessary food and rest c And none spake a word unto him for they saw that his grief was very great To wit both because they at first thought it not so seasonable to begin to comfort him before he had a little unladed his heart of sorrow least by speaking they should rather cause him to break forth into greater passion then any whit asswage his grief and likewise because the longer they observed and considered in what extremity Gods hand was upon him the more they were even overwhelmed with sorrow and so not able to speak and that doubtlesse especially because though formerly they had alwaies esteemed him a sincere godly man and therefore came with a full resolution to speak comfortably to him yet now the excessive misery they saw him in made them begin to stagger concerning this and suspect that all he had formerly done was done in hypocrisie and therefore the Lord abhorred him and punished him thus severely and so herewith they were so astonished and perplexed that they could not speak nor knew what to say to him CHAP. III. Vers 1. AFter this opened Iob his mouth That is though for a while he sat silent as being overwhelmed with grief and not able to speak according to that of David Psal 77.4 I am so troubled that I cannot speak yet getting at last some power over himself he gave vent to his sorrows and cursed his day or thus though hitherto Iob had carried himself with admirable patience yet after this now at length he began to speak and that freely and boldly for that is the meaning of this Hebrew phrase Iob opened his mouth having sat silent with his friends a long time before he began now to complain of his miseries and gave therein too much liberty to himself and was carried too farre beyond the bounds of patience by his passions and therefore afterward was sharply reproved by God out of the whirlewind chap. 38.2 Who is this that darkneth counsell by words without knowledge and condemned by himself chap. 40.4 Behold I am vile what shall I answer thee I will lay my hand upon my mouth c. And so again chap. 42.3 6. And doubtlesse the cause of this sudden change was because God was now pleased to withdraw not only the light of his countenance to make his tryall the more terrible but also the strength of grace whereby he had been hitherto enabled to endure with such patience what he had suffered that to make it manifest that all comfort and strength to stand in tryalls comes from God and what the holiest and best of Gods servants would be if they should be left unto themselves yet it is not strange that Iobs patience should be so highly extolled in the Scripture if we consider 1. That his afflictions were not only exceeding great and very many but had also continued a long time upon him ere he brake forth into this impatience for at the end of this dispute which he had with his friends ere they left him God began to raise him up again chap. 42.10 and yet then he had been many months as some conceive many years under these heavy pressures we see what he saith chap. 7.3 I am made to possesse months of vanity 2. That upon the silence of his friends so many daies together the Devil might have occasion to suggest that even they also as his other friends had done before deemed him a wicked man upon whom God had begun to pour forth his wrath and therefore had not one word of comfort for him which might much imbitter his soul 3. That in his greatest impatience he was not wholly over-born his desire was still to approve himself to God only the flesh lusted against the spirit and prevailed sometimes too farre over him and when he did forget himself it was not so much Iob that did it as sin that dwelt in him Rom. 7.17 he still strove against it and 4. That he did at length prevail over his corruptions we see what he saith chap. 40.4 5. Behold I am vile I will lay my hand upon my mouth I will speak no more â—nd chap. 42. I abhorre my self and repent in dust and ashes And herein especially is the patience of Iob commended to us as a pattern because at the end he prevailed and got the day Iam. 5.11 Behold we count them happy which endure ye have heard of the patience of Iob and have seen the end of the Lord. And cursed his day That is his birth-day as it is expressed vers 3. Let the day perish wherein I was born not the very day whereon he was born which was long since past and gone but his anniversary birth-day which was in its time to return every year as is evident vers 4. Let that day be darknesse let not God regard it c. And this he cursed to wit with those execrations mentioned in the following verses not as having a thought that those things were like to befall his birth-day upon his imprecations or as deliberately and seriously wishing it might so be only transported with the heat of his passions he seeks thereby with all vehemency to expresse how he abhorred his life what a dismall and unhappy thing it was to him that he was ever born c. Vers 3. Let the day perish wherein I was born and the night c. That is whereas the tydings of a child born especially of a man child are usually received with much joy their birth-daies afterwards solemnized with a great deal of mirth and jollity I may rather wish that I had never been born or that the day of my birth and the night of my conception may perish and not have their course in the Kalender amongst the daies and nights of the year at least that they may be no more solemnized but may be buried in eternall oblivion as it is more plainly expressed vers 6. Let it not be joyned to the daies of the year let it not come into the number of the months and that because I was born to so much misery and sorrow Some Expositours indeed will have the night whereof Iob here speaks to be not the night of
looks not upon men with partiall eyes when he judgeth them as men doe that are blinded with gifts and corrupt affections whether anger or love and taken with the outward splendour of men and so despise the poor and favour only the great and mighty which agrees with that expression the prophet useth concerning Christ Esa 11.3 He shall not judge after the sight of his eyes c. or that God judgeth not men by their actions only which is the only way of mans judging but by that which he sees in the men he judgeth them by that which they alwaies are and not by that which they sometimes act But the first exposition is farre most agreeable to the drift of Iobs speech Vers 5. Are thy daies as the daies of man c. That is they are not as the daies of man and this may be understood generally to wit that God is not subject to any such infirmities as man is But because of those following words Are thy years as mans daies that thou inquirest after mine iniquity and searchest after my sin it may more particularly be meant either 1. Of the immutability of God that he is not as man changeable and inconstant to day a friend to morrow an enemy and therefore it could not but seem strange to him that after so many clear manifestations of his love to him all should be now turned into such extremity of indignation against him or 2. Of the eternity of God that he is not short-lived as mortall man is that hereupon he should deal with him in so great severity heaping upon him such a multitude of miseries least he should not have time to search out his sins or to punish him for them when he had found them out in reference whereto some observe that only daies are here ascribed to frail man but years to the immortall ever-living God or 3. Of the omniscience of God and that in relation also to his eternity namely that whereas man gains knowledge by degrees in continuance of time God is eternall his life consists not in a succession of daies and years and so he knows all things past present and to come in the indivisible moment of his eternity and therefore there was no need that by long continuing tortures and enquiries he should thus labour to search out his iniquity and sin Vers 7. Thou knowest that I am not wicked c. Having in the foregoing verses reckoned up many particulars which could not be conceived of God as that he should oppresse or despise the work of his own hands c. here now Iob applyes these things to himself and shews how strange Gods dealing with him was in these regards thereby also to imply his desire that God would remove these sore calamities from him and not deal otherwise with him then he dealt with any of his servants besides Accordingly therefore for the words of this verse Thou knowest that I am not wicked and there is none that can deliver out of thine hand Some conceive they are added in reference to the words in the two foregoing verses and that to proove that God needed not to goe on in such a way of searching out his sins as men are wont to doe to wit by long continuing tortures and that 1. Because he knew his heart and therefore could not be ignorant of his integrity Thou knowest that I am not wicked that is of thy self without any search or enquiry thou knowest that my heart is upright and that I am not a wicked man and 2. Because there was no possibility that he should escape out of his hand None can deliver out of thine hand as if he should have said malefactours are wont to be shut up fast in prison to be shackled and bound in fetters and chains lest they should escape the judgement that is to be executed upon them yea and sometimes judges proceed with the greater rigour to bring those they have in their hands to confesse the evil they suspect they have done as fearing lest they should by some higher power be fetched out of their hands before they have gotten that out of them which they desire to know But now Lord there is no cause why thou shouldest thus shackle and coop up me as thou seemest to doe to be sure to make me forth-coming since there is no possibility that any man should escape out of thy hand either by flight or rescue But now again others doe and I think better referre these words to that which Iob had said before vers 3. Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppresse and accordingly conceive that they are added to shew that since it was no way likely that God would causelessely oppresse a poor wretch that was not able to withstand him how strange therefore it must needs seem to him that God should so crush him as he had done both because he durst say that God knew that he was not wicked though he could not justifie himself as free from sin as himself had formerly confessed chap. 9.20 yet he durst say that God knew that his heart was upright Thou knowest that I am not wicked and it was indeed a very notable evidence of a clear conscience that the hand of God being so heavy upon him and his friends charging him so expressely with hypocrisie he should notwithstanding thus courageously appeal to Gods knowledge of him that he was not wicked and also because he was by no means able to save himself from Gods unresistable power none can deliver out of thine hand when humane powers oppresse there is one above them that can deliver the oppressed as Solomon saith Eccles 5.8 He that is higher then the highest regardeth and there be higher then they But now none can deliver out of Gods hand and therefore the innocent and righteous would be in an ill condition if he should oppresse them And this is the argument whereby Iob doth here covertly plead with God to remove his hand from him Vers 8. Thine hands have made me and fashioned me round about c. That is in every part all my body over yea every member of my body and every faculty of my soul the meaning is that he was wholly the work of Gods own hands that there was not the least piece of him from head to foot within or without not so much as the nailes upon his fingers and toes which the Lord had not wrought and fashioned with all possible diligence care and skill and in the words there may seem to be an allusion to a carefull and cunning workman that useth when he hath made any choice piece to turn it this way and that to look round about to see if there be any thing that is defective or that may be made more curious and exact then as yet it is Now for the connection of these words with that which went before Some conceive that Iob here prooves what he had said in the foregoing verse to
me or they came upon me thick and threefold so that I had no breathing time to arm my self against them Vers 28. I went mourning without the Sun c. Even this verse also some Expositours understand of his mourning for others that were in misery to wit that he went mourning up and down for them and that his sorrow was so great that he could take comfort in nothing he seemed not sensible of the warmth of the sun shining upon him and that he stood up and tryed in the congregation that is that in publick assemblies he bewailed their miseries labouring to stirre up others also to take pity of them But I rather take this also as the rest to be an expression of his sad condition in regard of his own miseries and accordingly the first clause I went mourning without the Sun may be very probably understood three severall waies to wit either first of his black skin that his body was clad all over with a black mourning skin in stead of a mourning vesture and yet it was not the scorching heat of the Sun but the strength of his diseases that had put this hue upon him and so this should be the same with that which is said afterwards in plainer tearms vers 30. My skin is black upon me or secondly of his solitarinesse that being in much heavinesse he avoided as much as might be the light of the Sun and loved to be alone by himself in the dark or thirdly of his sorrow only that he was alwaies mourning as being under the darknesse of very sad afflictions and not having the least Sun-light of pleasure and comfort and to the same purpose is that which follows I stood up and I cryed in the congregation that is I could not contain my self but which was a very unseemly thing in one of my gravity and quality I did even weep and howl in the very publick assemblies of people Vers 29. I am a brother to dragons and a companion to owls Or ostriches as it is in the margin and indeed so they must needs render the words that will have the meaning to be as some would have it that Job herein complains of the mercilesnesse of those with whom he conversed to wit that they were barbarously cruel to him like dragons yea like ostriches that are cruell to their own young ones But rather I conceive he tearms himself a brother to dragons and a companion to owls because his condition was like to theirs to wit either for that he was forsaken and left in a desolate and solitary estate or because his complaints and cries by reason of his extreme misery were like the howling and screeches of these creatures which make in the wildernesse many times a very lamentable noise according to that Micah 1.8 I will make a wailing like the dragons and mourning as the owls and indeed the phrase is much like this which Solomon useth Prov. 18.9 He also that is slothfull in his work is brother to him that is a great waster Vers 30. My skin is black upon me c. This may be meant of the blacknesse of the scabs and scurf which were all over his body but besides even the skin of a mans body may become black by extremity of grief and violent sicknesse whence is that Lam. 5.10 Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine and that also of David Psal 119.83 I am become like a bottle in the smoke see also the Note above vers 28. Vers 31. My harp also is turned to mourning c. Hereby is implyed that not only his joy was turned into mourning but also that those things which formerly were used for his delight did now only encrease his sorrow CHAP. XXXI Vers 1. I Made a covenant with mine eyes c. In this Chapter Job makes a solemn protestation how piously he had lived thereby to confute his friends unjust censures and to shew how strange therefore it was that he should be brought into so sad a condition and first he begins with this how carefully he had suppressed all carnall concupiscence because this is the sin that doth usually surprize men in their youth And this he expresseth in these tearms I have made a covenant with mine eyes to imply that he kept his eyes from gazing upon any wanton object with as much care as men use when they are bound to any thing by covenant and perhaps also that he was on each side carefull both that his eyes should not allure him to evil and that he likewise would not imploy his eyes in any such dishonourable service And then for the following clause why then should I think upon a maid the drift thereof is to imply that as he watched over his eyes so also over his thoughts that he might not think upon a maid and much lesse upon a married wife which would have been a farre greater sin and that either because there was the same ground for avoiding this evil of his thoughts as for avoiding the other of his looks or because it would have been in vain to have set such a strict guard upon his eyes if in the mean season he should give liberty to himself for such wanton and lustfull thoughts or because being so farre convinced of the evil of this carnall concupiscence he durst not give way to an evil thought for fear of Gods wrath why then should I think upon a maid as if he should have said If I should would not God have punished me for it The first clause I know may be understood generally of covenanting with his eyes against all that may be comprehended under that which Saint John calls the lust of the eyes 1 John 2.16 but commonly it is limited by Expositours to looking after women Vers 2. For what portion of God is there from above and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high Some Expositours understand this thus that unclean persons are no part of Gods portion and inheritance or that they have no part nor interest in God But because of these expressions from above and from on high farre more probable it is that Job speaks here of a portion and inheritance of recompence which God from above shall allot to those that give way to such lustfull looks and thoughts as he had mentioned in the foregoing words for what portion of God is there from above c. as if he should have said I dare not give way to such wanton looks and lascivious thoughts for though such as doe so may scape well enough with men that may never discern nor suspect any thing amisse in them yet what will God from above allot them for their portion which he answers in the following verse See the Note chap. 20.29 Vers 3. Is not destruction to the wicked and a strange punishment to the workers of iniquity That is Is not this the portion of such wicked men that God doth certainly at last destroy them yea