Commentary on Ezra Nehemiah Ester Job and Psalms

CHAP. IX. Verse 1. Then Job answered and said]

HE answered to his two friends who had formerly spoken: first, to that of Eliphaz, chap. 4.17. and next to that of Bildad, chap. 8.3. Bildad had interrupted him when he would have excused himself, that he did by no means deny the justice of God, as they mistook him. Now therefore, that Bildad had spoke his utmost, Job beginneth to dispute and to declare his judgment concerning that subject: and this he doth longe magnificentiùs & augustiùs quàm socii, saith Mercer, far more magnificently and majestically then his two friends had done; proving that God is just, even then when he afflicteth the innocent: neither have such any just cause to except against his proceedings in that behalf, since he fetcheth not the causes of his decrees and purposes from the things which he governeth; but his will, which is before all things, is the rule of all justice. St. Paul also had respect unto this, Rom. 9.20. & 11.32. rising a great deal higher, namely, to the eternal decree of Election and Reprobation: after this, Job setteth forth what is the condition of men, and what poor things they are in comparison of God, thereby to bring himself and others to the true knowledge of God, and of themselves, which is the highest wisdom in the world.

Verse 2. I know it is so of a truth ] Bildads argument was, God who hath punished thee is just, therefore thou art unjust. Job grants the Antecedent here, but denies and refutes the consequent, verse 22, 23. &c. To Eliphaz also Job grants, not only that man could not be more just then God, as he had said, chap. 4.3. but also that none could ever be found so just, that he might any way be compared to God: Job is one of those Candidates of Immortality, who can do nothing against the truth; but for the truth, 2 Cor. 13.8. every parcel whereof he accounted precious, and could not but be a friend to it, though brought by them who seemed his enemies; this spoke him ingenuous and humble, a well-tempered champion for the truth: Athanasius is said to be such another, and so Mr. Bucer. Helvidius is taxed by Jerome, for the contrary, and B. Montague, by D. Rivet.

But how should man be just with God? ] Mr. Broughton translateth, And how can man be just before the Omnipotent? Sorry, sickly, wretched man, how can he be just ( sc. by an inherent righteousness; by an imputed he may) before the most Holy and Almighty God; or compared to him? Job afterwards setting himself by God, and considering the infinite distance and disproportion, crieth out, I abhor myself; and repent in dust and ashes, chap. 42.5, 6. I say likewise, Woe is me, for I am undone, chap. 6.5. He that hath looked a while intentively upon the body of the Sun, is so dazzled with the beams thereof, that he can see nothing.

Verse 3. If he will contend with him ] If any one would be so fool-hardy, or adventurous, as to dispute with God about his judgments, he could not, though he were never so wise, or well-skilled, answer him one objection of a thousand, but must needs yield any say, I am no fit match for God. The Jew-Doctors (and after them Vatablus ) set this sense upon the text, If he (that is, if man) should contend with him, (that is, with God, as through the Luciferian pride of his heart, he is apt enough to do) he would not answer him one of a thousand: God would not honor him so far as to answer so contemptible an adversary, and so slight and senseless arguments; if he vouchsafe an answer, it shall not be so much as the Echo giveth the voice: it shall not be to one article or argument of a thousand. Egregius quidem sensus, saith Mercer: this is a good sense, but the other is better, and well agreeth with verse 14.

Verse 4. He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength ] And must therefore needs be a most just judge, since he neither wanteth wisdom to judge, nor power to execute: what then should turn him out of the track of Justice? Let God be just and true; but every man a liar: as it is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome (or be clear) when thou judgest, or when thou art judged: for at the same time that God doth judge, or execute judgment upon any, he may also be said to be judged: whilst men pass their censures, either as applauding or disliking his judgments: and then may he be said to overcome, when judged, when men acknowledge the justice of his judgments; when they conclude him wise in heart, that is, the only wise God, 1 Tim. 1.17. and mighty in strength, that is, the mighty strong God, Isai. 9.6. Who doth whatsoever he will in heaven and earth, Psal 1 • 8. In speaking of these and other his most glorious attributes, we speak non quantum debemus, sed quentum possumus, not so much as we ought, but so much as we are able. As for the wisdom of God, Nemo sapientiam Dei immensam in omnem aeternitatem exhauriet, (saith Gra • ian the Emperor in an Epistle to Ambrose ) no man shall ever be able to fathom or find it out. And as for his power, so infinite, is the distance betwixt God, and the greatest Noble, that it is an honor that they may be suffered to live in his sight, Exod. 24.10, 11. And it is all one with God whether against a man, or a nation, Job 34.29.

Who hath hardened himself against him, and hath prospered? ] Instance but any one, whether tongue-smitter, or hand-smiter, that could ever boast of the last blow, or could cry, Victoria; Quis dura locutus est • i? so some render it. Who ever uttered hard speeches ( Jude 15) stout words, Mal. 3.13. against God, and prospered, scaped scot-free, as we say, and had not his full payment? Blasphemers set their mouths against heaven, witness Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Julian, &c. dealing with Almighty God, as if Augustus Caesar were dealing with some god Neptune; Caligula with his Jupiter, whom he dared to a duel: or the three sons trying their archery at their fathers heart, to see who can shoot nighest. But shall they thus escape by iniquity? No; In thine anger cast down the people, O God. Psalm 56.7. The wall of Aphek did execution upon the blasphemous Syrians; the Angel of God upon the Assyrians: his visible vengeance fell upon Julian, Arius. and Olympius an Arian bishop, who denying the Trinity, was struck with three thunderbolts, and killed in a bath. Others understand here the word Libbo, and read it thus, who hath hardened his heart against him? &c. Surely if men harden their hearts, God will harden his hand, and hasten their destruction. See Prov. 29.1. Isai. 6.10, 11. Rom. 2, 5. and get thy flinty heart made fleshy, since an hard heart is in some respect worse then hell (which is the just hire of it) since one of the greatest sins is far greater in evil, then any of the greatest punishments.

Verse 5. Which removeth the mountains, and they know not ] For further proof of God's power first (and then afterwards of his wisdom). Job produceth divers particular acts of his upon the creatures, both unreasonable and reasonable. El • phaz had said somewhat to this purpose chap. 4. se hîc admirandus est Job, saith Merceri, Job doth it admirably: his tongue like a silver trumpet, sets forth the high praises of God far more plainly, plentifully and magnificently then any of his friends, who yet have done it very well too. God to show his power, removeth the mountains, saith Job, sc. by stupendous earthquakes, and otherwise, at his pleasure, Nahum 1.5. Psalm 97.4, 5. Isa. 40.15. he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing; he can remove mountains with a wet finger, as we say, though so mighty in bulk, and strongly founded. Dionysius thinketh, that in thus speaking, Job aimeth at that which was done in the time of Noah's flood, when the waters with their mighty force, galled and bare down many great mountains, but that's uncertain. Great things God will do by the fire of the last day, when mountains shall melt, rocks rent, and the earth with the works therein, shall be all burnt up, 2 Pet. 2.10. And what desolations he hath made in sundry parts of the earth by terrible earth-quakes, as at Antioch often (which was there-hence called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , because so visited by God) in divers places of Italy, Sicily, Burgundy, Helvetia, and here in Hereford -shire, mention is made in Pliny, Stumpsius, Jovius, and other historians, all making good this of Job, and that of the Psalmist, The mountains will skip like rams, and the little hills like lambs, when the Lord is displeased, Psalm 114.4.

And they know it not ] Dicto citiùs, it is done with a trice, speedily and secretly, before the mountains (if they could at all know) could know what is done to them▪ or before the mountaineers or the neighbourhood could foresee and avoid the danger of being overwhelmed and buried alive.

Which overturneth them in his anger ] Or, that he overturneth them in his anger. Men are not sensible of God's anger for sin, no not in the greatest commotions, such is their stupidity; but will needs swelter and pine away in their iniquities, as if nothing could awake them, Lev. 26 39.

Verse 6. Which shaketh the earth out of her place ] By mighty earthquakes, dislocating the earth; some part of it; for the whole was never removed, though God can take up the whole Globe as a man would do a hall, tossing the very center itself whereon it is established, 2 Sam. 22.8. &c. There is a twofold power of God, 1. Absolute. 2. Actual. By the former he can do more then he doth: By the latter, whatsoever he willeth, that without impediment he effecteth. As for the earth, as God upholdeth it by the word of his power, Heb. 1.3. so he hath poised it me •• lie by its own weight, that it should not be removed forever, Psalm 104.5. For if you imagine that the earth could be removed out of its natural place, which way so ever it be removed, it shall move towards heaven, and so shall naturally ascend: but to do so is utterly repugnant to the nature of the earth, which is, to bear downward. All which notwithstanding, the God of nature, as he is in the heaven, so he doth whatsoever he will in heaven and earth.

Verse 7. Which commandeth the Sun, and it riseth not ] God in framing the world, began above, and wrought downward: but Job in describing the great works of God here, began below: and now goes upward from earth to heaven. It is as natural to the heaven to move, as to the earth to stand still. Copernicus his opinion, that the earth turns round, and heaven stands still, is worthily exploded: round the earth is indeed, notwithstanding the hills and valleys (as an apple is round, notwithstanding some knots and bunches in it:) and being round, it is naturally apt for motion (the Pythagoreans held, that the earth was naturâ suâ mobilis, as the heavens are) but God hath fixed and made it immovable, whiles the heavenly bodies are restless in their courses. The Sun (the glistering Sun, as the word here signifieth) rejoiceth as a strong man to run his race, Psalm 19.5. Bellarmine saith, that in the eighth part of an hour the Sun runneth 700 miles. But God the Sovereign of the Sun can speak to it, and it riseth not. If he do but give the word of command to the Sun not to rise, the morning shall be made darkness, Amos 4.13. and the day dark with night Amos 5.8. Was it not so in that three days darkness in Egypt? in that miraculous standing still of the Sun in Joshua 's days, when the Sun rose not with the Antipodes one morning, and the stars were sealed up part of the night? in that dismal darkness (mentioned by Lavater upon this text) March 12. 1585, lasting for a quarter of an hour, and being so like the night, that the fouls went to roost at noon, and many fell to their prayers for pardon of their sins, as thinking verily that the day of judgment was come. St. Paul in the tempest at sea saw neither Sun nor stars for many days, Acts 27.20. And I have read of a forraigner, who having been in these parts in the deep of winter, and returning home again, desired one that was then bound for England to commend him to the Sun when he next saw him, for I have not seen him there, said he, of a whole fortnight together. Ezek. 32.7. I will cover the Sun with a cloud; and, in that sense, speak to it that it rise not.

And sealeth up the stars ] Heb. Sets a seal upon the stars, making them hide their heads, and with-draw their influences: for stars are God's store-houses, Deut. 28.12. which he openeth or shutteth at his pleasure. Every star is like a purse of gold: out of which God can, when he will, throw down riches and plenty into the earth: but many of them never appear to us, though visible to the Antipodes, Job 37.7.

Verse 8. Which alone spreadeth out the heavens ] Without the help or counsel of any other. As God was alone and by himself in making the world, Isa. 44.24. so lie is in ordering it, Job 37.18. Psalm 104.1, 2. The Hebrews, as they held with Pythagoras in the point of transanimation; so with Plato in that false opinion of his, that the Angels were the movers of the heavens, and the governors of the whole world; whence grew that Angel-worship amongst them, Col. 2.18. As God made the heavens alone, even that whole Expanse or Firmament, Gen. 1.6. the whole region of the Air; so he still spreadeth it out as a curtain, which he draweth before the Sun and stars, masking and muffling them up with clouds, whensoever he pleaseth.

And treadeth upon the waves of the sea ] Or, spurneth, exercising a regiment over the raging surges of the seas, though they seem to swell against him. Thus Job fetcheth evidences of God's power from all places. See Psalm 89.9.

Verse 9. Which maketh Arcturus, Orion and Pleiades ] Those glorious constellations, which do after a sort, govern the four seasons of the year: but are governed by God, from whose power all their influence and virtue is borrowed, even that which they exercise upon the raging seas. The Learned interpreters have not unfitly translated Has Acturus, Chesil Orion, Chimah Pleiades, or the seven stars, and the Climates of the South, the Summer signs; altogether neglecting the toys of the unlearned Rabbin's: which stars or signs are answerable to Autumn and Winter, the Spring time, and Summer. But I had rather (saith Reverend Mr. Beza ) retain still the Hebrew words, then use the other: which have been so much abused with glosure and impure tales and devices of the wicked and profane Poets. See the Note on Job 38.31.

And the Chambers of the South ] Interiora Austri, the most remote, hidden and secret parts of the South; so called, because the stars which are under the Southern pole are hidden from us, and are enclosed and lodged as in a chamber. Those stars (and so all the rest) God maketh, that is, he maketh them to appear and do their office for the use and good of man. It is He alone that telleth the number of the stars, he calleth them by their names: neither can they do anything but as they receive order and commission from him. That was an idle brag of Aratus the Astrologer, that he had found out and set down the whole number of the stars: and that is a strange arrogancy of the Kings of Mexico, who when they are consecrated, are reported to take this oath, I swear that the Sun, during my life, shall hold on his course: and that the clouds shall send down rain, the rivers shall run, and the earth bring forth all manner of fruit &c.

Verse 10 Which doth great things &c. ] See the Note on chap. 5.9. whence this verse is taken verbatim. If Eliphaz say the truth of God's wisdom and power, Job will soon seal to it: he can find in his heart to speak all good of a wounding God, of a killing God, and not wish as Spira did, O that I were above God, and could over-power him! Or as Hacket here did, Anno 1591. threaten God to fire the heaven about him, to pluck him out of his throne &c.

Verse 11. Lo he goeth by me. and I see him not ] As he is powerful in his deeds, so he is secret in his desingns, passing, and not repassing daily, but yet unseen: he is everywhere present, and not so far from any one of us, as the bark is from the tree; for in him we live, move, and have our being; and therefore we had need take heed what we say or think of him in any extremity or misery, for he over-heareth us; yea he knoweth our thoughts long before, Psalm 139.2. As a circumspect judge that goeth obscured under some disguise, to hear and see what is said and done by those that are to be judged by him. Or as the Great Turk standing behind the Arras, at the dangerous door, to hear all the debates and decrees of his Senate, and to call them to a strict account of all afterwards: God, as he is invisible, too subtle for sinew or sight to seize upon; so he is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , All-eye, to survey and look round about us; yea, to see through us: The Lord is in his holy-Temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven: Howbeit, he is not so confined or shut up there (as the Epicures dreamt) but that his eyes behold, his eye-lids try the children of men, Psalm 11.4. The one points out his knowledge, the other his judgment; or his critical descant: he prieth into the very entrails of the soul, the heart of the heart; the reins, those seats of lust, and most abstruse parts of the body. No man needs a window in his breast (as the Heathen Momus wisht) for God to look in at: every man before God is all window, and he like the Optike virtue in the eye, seeth all, and is seen of none. Look to it therefore, and walk exactly. Cave, spectat Cato, Take heed, Cato seeth you, was an ancient watchword among the Romans, and a great retentive from vice: how much more should this amongst all men, Take heed, the Lord looks on? What though he be invisible, and we see him not; he passeth on also, and we perceive him not; shall we, like the foolish Bustard, thrust our heads in an hole, and then think that because we see none, we are therefore seen of none? The whole world is to God as a sea of glass, clear and transparent, Rev. 4.6. and his eyes are as a flaming fire, Rev. 1.14. that need no outward light, but can see by sending out a ray. God, that fills and sees all (saith Nazianzen ) though he lighten the mind, yet flies before the beams thereof, still leaving it as it is able in sight to follow him; and so draws it by degrees to higher things: yet interposeth betwixt it and his incomprehensible Essence, as many vails as were over the Tabernacle.

Verse 12. Behold he taketh away ] Raptim aufert; He snatcheth away, or taketh by force, as a Lion doth his prey, or a thief doth another man's goods: Confer Prov. 23.28. Which if he do, who can repel or turn him back? Here Job plainly alludeth to the taking away of his children, servants, and cattle, the likelihood also of losing his life (according to the Chaldee paraphrast) by his present miseries, which if it should befall him from God, it would not be safe for him to cavil, or once question God's proceeding, to urge him to restitution, or charge him with oppression; since he is chief Lord of all, and may do with his own what he pleaseth. He is uncontrollable as Nebuchadnezzar at length acknowledged, Dan. 4.35. and his will is the true and only rule of justice itself, nec solum recta, sed & regula. Wherefore let all the earth keep silence before him, Hab. 2.20. and let none presume once to ask him what he hath done, either to question his right to do it, or to question his righteousness in doing of it.

Verse 13. If God will not with-draw his anger ] That is, of his own free accord forbear to execute his judgments, the stoutest must stoop; for he is in one mind, and who can turn him! and what his soul desireth even that he doth, Job 23.13. his power is altogether irresistible. Men, though never so puissant, may be withstood and over-matched, as Asa was, 2 Chron 14.8, 9. Nature may be resisted, and her power suspended, as when the fire burned not the three worthies, the red Sea drowned not the Israelites passing through it. In the creatures there is an essence, and a faculty whereby they work; between these God can separate, and so hinder their working. In the Angels there is an essence, and an executive power: God comes between these sometimes, and hinders them from doing what they would. But God is most simple and entire, and therefore the strong helper: Qui portant orbem, saith the Vulgar, that bear up the pillars of the world (which some understand of the Angels, others of the Saints, who stand in the gap, Ezek. 22.30. and others again of carnal Combinations) shall not hinder him, but shall stoop and buckle under him, or under it, viz. his wrath, as not able to bear up: helpers shall prove no helpers against the mind and purpose of God: no, though they be as potent and as proud as Egypt (such an allusion there may be in the Hebrew text) or although they be helpers of latitude, as one rendereth it, that is, of the largest extent, either in power, or by an elate mind, and so the meaning is. None are so mighty, or so high-conceited of their own ability, but if he be angry, he will make them to stoop under, as not being able to bear his wrath.

Verse 14. How much less shall I answer him ] If heaven, earth, sea, cannot stand before him, if strongest men, and strongly befriended, and seconded, cannot make their party good with him, it is not for me to stout it out: but rather to stoop and strike sail, seeking to disarm his indignation by an humble yeildance; especially since I am not able to hold discourse with him, to answer him one of a thousand; I not only have not arguments, but I want fit words; not argumentative words only, but persuasive also.

And choose out my words to reason with him? ] Heb. Shall I choose out words with him? Broughton renders it, Shall I choose to word it with God? Surely my best eloquence in this case will be a submissive silence. It can be neither wisdom nor duty in me to deal with, and undertake God, either with an open or a closed hand; either with Logical subtleties, or rhetorical flourishes. If I should either be Respondent or Opponent, I should come off with loss.

Verse 15. Whom though I were righteous ] Legally righteous, as none ever were, but the first and second Adam.

Yet would I not answer ] viz. by pleading mine own righteousness, since no created righteousness can answer God. Some render it, non attollam vocem, ne hiscere quidem audebo, I will not lift up my voice, nor dare to mute against him. (See 1 Cor. 4.4.) No though I were never so innocent, and did suffer this misery undeservedly.

But I would make supplication to my Judge ] As he doth, though it were a good while first, in the end of the next chapter. It is likely that he intended to do it sooner, but was put by by his passions; which when they fume up into the head, gather oft into so thick a cloud, that we lose the sight of ourselves, and what is best to be done. Jonas thought to have prayed chap. 4.1, 2. but it proved a brawl; and when as by prayer he thought to overcome his anger, anger overcame him and his prayer too.

Verse 16. If I had called and he had answered ] If in confidence of mine own righteousness I had sought some, good thing at his hands, and he had therein condescended to me; yet would I not believe that he had (in mercy) hearkened to my voice; but rather, for a further mischief, that he might roll himself upon me, as Joseph upon his brethren, and as God did upon the Israelites after their quail; that he might tear them with his tempest &c. Some think that Job speaketh these words, as despairing of audience, or denying God's particular providence: but neither of these is likely. Rather it seemeth (saith Pineda ) to be the speech of a mind marvelously cast down, and meanly conceited of himself, and of his prayer: and trusting to the goodness of God alone; so Drusius. Job speaketh not this, saith he, out of diffidence, but out of fear of God's judgments, and sense of his own imperfections.

Yet I would not believe that he had hearkened unto my voice ] Namely, for any worth that he findeth in it: what am I poor creature, that I should think I had carried the matter with God?

Verse 17. For he breaketh me with a tempest ] q. d. This is one thing also that maketh me think I am not heard, because I am not helped; but after my prayer I am in as bad a case as before, and seem to have a repulse from God. Afflictions continued are no evidence that prayer is not heard; yet usually it is very inevident to an afflicted person, that his prayer is heard. The Hebrew (and so the Vulgar) hath it, He will break me, that is, saith one, If I should plead before him as pure, although I might temporally, or for a time be delivered, yet I should not finally escape destruction, although I should give him none other cause. Whereby we may see upon what danger of being torn in pieces by God's judgments, our justiciaries put themselves, that will needs go to God in their own righteousness, as the proud Pharisee, Luke 18. The calamity of these merit-mongers shall rise suddenly. Behold a whirl-wind, or a tempest of the Lord goeth forth in fury, even a grievous whirl-wind; it shall fall grievously upon the head of these wicked ones, Jer. 23.19. This Saint Paul knew, and therefore did his utmost that he might be found in Christ ( sc. when sought for by the justice of God) not having his own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Philip. 3 9.

And multiplieth my wounds without cause ] i. e. Without any other cause then to try me, and prove my patience, which now Job began to perceive, as Philip gathereth, or without any manifest cause, and perceivable by an afflicted man, so Aquinas senseth it. God hath not told me the reason of his chastenings; but to increase my grief, he concealeth from me the cause of them; and yet he multiplieth still my sores and my sorrows. Or without cause, that is, without any such cause as his friends alleged against him, viz. that he was a rank hypocrite.

Verse 18. He will not suffer me to take my breath ] I am so far from a period, that I have no pause of my troubles. I cannot get any interspiria's, or free breathing-whiles. See chap. 7.19. And in the former verse he had complained, that God had stormed him. Interim per Pathos, saith Mercer; here he returns to his old practice of expostulating about the greatness of his grief, and spares not to hyperbolize. Beda, and others understand this text of a bodily distemper upon Job, which had made him short-winded. And Lavater hath this good note here, Hoc cogitandum nobis est &c. Let this text be thought upon when our spirits begin to sink; as also when by reason of the Ptisick, or any other like disease, we feel a difficulty of breathing, and a straitening of our pectorals, or be otherwise compassed about with great sorrows.

But filleth me with bitterness ] Heb. He satiateth me with bitternesses, i. e. with sore and sharp afflictions, which are no way joyous, but grievous to the flesh, Heb. 12.11. Job had his belly-full of gall and worm-wood: he had not only a draught or two, but a diet-drink made him of most bitter ingredients. Of this he complaineth heavily: what then will the wicked do that must suck up the dregs of God's cup, Psalm 78.8. which hath eternity to the bottom?

Verse 19. If I speak of strength, lo he is strong ] Neither by might nor right can I deal with him: Broughton renders it, As for force, he is valiant; the Lord is a man of war, saith Moses, Exod. 15.3. Yea, he is the Lord of arms. saith David, Psal. 84. Yea, He alone is a whole army of men, Van & Rear both, saith Isaiah cap. 52.12. there is no doubt then, but he will carry the day, since no creature is able to grapple with him. The weakness of God (if any such thing there were) is stronger then men, 1 Cor. 1.25. and by weakest means, he can effect greatest matters, as once he did in Egypt.

And if of judgment, who shall set me a time to plead? ] Who shall appoint the time and place of our meeting? If I shall go about to sue him at law, I shall have but a cold suit, an ill pull of it: for who shall make him appear, or bring him to his answer? and where shall I find an advocate, a patron to plead my cause? yea, where shall I get a witness? for so the vulgar reads it, Nemo audet pro me restimonium dicere: No man will be so bold as to give an evidence for me, or be a witness on my side.

Verse 20. If I justify myself ] If, in default of other pleaders, I should undertake to manage my cause myself, I should be never the near.

Mine own mouth shall condemn me ] i. e. God out of mine own mouth, as finding mine arguments weak and worthless: He knows us better then we know ourselves; and when he comes to turn the bottom of the bag upwards (as once Josephs steward did theirs) all our secret thefts will out, and those will appear to be faults that we little thought of. A Dutch Divine, when to die, was full of fears and doubts; said some to him, you have been so employed, and so faithful, why should you fear? Oh, said he, the judgment of man, and the judgment of God are different. Vae hominum vitae quantumvis laudabili, si remotâ misericordiâ judicetur; Woe to the most praise-worthy man alive, if he meet with judgment without mercy. The best lamb should abide the slaughter, except the ram were sacrificed, that Isaac might be saved.

If I say, I am perfect ] What if God had said so, chap. 1.1. yet. Job might not, Prov. 27.2. 2 Cor. 10.18. Or if he do at any time justify himself, as chap. 29. & 30 he doth, it is in his own necessary and just defense, against the charge of his friends. Real apologies we must ever make for ourselves when wronged: verbal, if any, must be managed with meekness of wisdom.

Verse 21. Though I were perfect ] That is, of an unblameable conversation, yet could not I know mine own soul, that is, those secret sins Psalm 19.12. those litters of lusts that lurk therein, therefore I despise my life, I have no joy at all of it, but could wish to be out of the world, to be rid of these evil inmates, that will not out of doors till the house fall upon the heads of them, till the earthly Tabernacle that harboreth them be once dissolved. Others read and sense the words thus, I am perfect or upright, neither do I know mine own soul, i. e. quicquam perversi in anima mea, any allowed sin in my soul; yet I am so afflicted, that I despise my life, as being but a continued death. Ibn-Ezra reads the verse with an admiration, thus, Perfect I am; and think you that I know not mine own soul▪ that I am so great a stranger to myself! or, that I have so little care of mine own good, as that I despise my life, and walk at all adventures! Tremellius thus, I am upright, whatever you my friends would make of me, neither value I my life or soul in comparison of mine integrity: my life is but a trifle to my conscience &c.

Verse 22. This is one thing, therefore I say it ] And will stand to it, though I stand alone; this being the one thing wherein I differ in opinion from you; and because it is the hinge upon which the whole dispute betwixt us is turned, therefore I will abide by it, and be Doctor resolutus, resolute in the maintenance of it, viz.

He destroyeth the perfect and the wicked ] A harsh doctrine, yet a good one, saith an Interpreter: Grace is no target against the greatest affliction. See Eccles. 9.1, 2, 3. Mal. 3.14. Ezek. 21.3. Heb. 11. shows that none out of hell have ever suffered more then God's dearest children: and Heb. 12.6. He not only chasteneth, but scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. God will not cast away a righteous man said Bildad, chap. 8.20. That is, totally destroy him in temporals, but restore him again: no such matter, saith Job, for it may, and many times doth fall out, that a godly man may as to this life present, perish, as well as a wicked man: he may be totally and finally bereft of outward comforts, The righteous perisheth, Isa. 57.1. Only with this difference, as hath been before noted, God's judgments on the wicked are penal and typical of eternal torment; whereas upon the godly they are no more then medicinal or probational &c.

Verse 23. If the scourge slay suddenly ] By scourge here is meant a common calamity, such as rides circuit, compassing a country as a scourge doth a man's body round about. Any sweeping judgment is a swinging scourge in God's hand; such as is the sword, Isai. 10.26. which when it rides circuit (as a judge) it is in commission, Ezek 14.17. Jer. 47.6, 7. devouring flesh, and drinking blood. Thus Attila the H • nne styled himself God's scourge. Tamerlane was commonly called The wrath of God, and terror of the world; Think the same of famine, pestilence, wild beasts, Ezek. 14.12. &c. these oft slay suddenly Isai. 30.13. Jer. 18.22. as did the sweating sickness here in England, the Massacre of France, and that later of Ireland, that scourge, if ever any, slew suddenly the perfect and the wicked. When an over-flowing storm sweeps away the wicked, the tail of it may dash their best neighbors.

He laugheth at the trial of the innocent ] The Vulgar readeth, He will not laugh at the trial of the innocent: but there is no Not in the Original: others thus, Will he laugh at the trial of the innocent? q. d. No, he will not. God may seem to slight his own in affliction, as Psalm 77.2, 3. The Lion lets her whelps roar sometimes, till they do almost kill themselves with roaring. The truth is, (and I think the true sense of this Scripture) God scorneth the allegation of innocence, or the justification and plea of the most upright man breathing, in the way of exemption or prevention of his just and wise dispensations, when he pleaseth to inflict them, involving good and bad in the same common calamity.

Verse 24. The earth is given into the hand of the wicked ] God many times suffereth the wicked most licentiously to reign in the world, Jer. 27.6. Dan. 5.18, 19. And it is thought by some, that Job speaking here in the singular number, aims at some famous tyrant in those parts, known both to himself and to his friends: such as was Phocas the Emperor, who when he had slain his Master Maurice, and was set up in his stead; there was an honest poor man (saith Ce • renus ) who was wonderful importunate at the throne of grace to know a reason why that wicked man prospered so in his design? he was answered again by a voice, that there could not be a worse man found; and that the sins of Christians, and of the City of Constantinople did require it.

He covereth the faces of the Judges thereof ] i. e. That Tyrant above-mentioned, subverteth all order of justice, condemneth and putteth to death even the Judges themselves, if they will not pervert justice, as Bassia • us did Papinian. The covering of the face was the mark of a condemned man, Esth. 7.8. Job. 40.8. Isai. 12.17. Mar. 14.65. Or thus, God blindeth the Judges by giving them over to error, or permitting them to take bribes; so that they cannot discern right from wrong &c. Some by judges here understand the Saints, who shall one day judge the world, but are in the mean-while grievously afflicted by the wicked.

If not, where, and who is he? ] Which things, if we say they are done, besides the will and foreknowledge of God, we shall thrust God out of the world, and set up fate and blind fortune: or thus, It is even so; or if not where is he, and who is he (see Esth. 7.5. Mal. 2.17) that can disprove what I have asserted? prodeat, siqui • me potest falsi arguere, I would fain see the man that can convince me of error.

Verse 25. Now my days are swifter then a p • st &c. ] Not my prosperous days only (as Broughton glosseth) but the whole course of my life; the vanity whereof Job expresseth by many similitudes; and here search is made into three of the four Elements, earth, water, and air, to find out a fit one. What is swifter upon earth then a post, who rides without stop o • stay, and spares for no horse-flesh: indeed he taketh some time to rest in; but so doth not man's lise; it is ever in motion, and every moment we yield somewhat to death. Animantis cujusque vita est f •• a. saith the Philosopher, our last day stands, the rest run. Cum crescit vita, decrescit, to live is but to lie a dying.

They flee away ] As David fled from the face of Absalom, Psalm 3.1. as Brenz was advised by that Senator of Hala to flee for his life cito, citiùs, citissime, with all possible speed, since they were at hand that sought it. See 1 Sam. 19.11, 18.

They see no good ] But are few, and withal evil, Gen. 47.9. Job 14.1. See the notes there. Some good days Job had had, but they were so soon over (and his present pressures so great) that he was scarce aware of them, nor could take the comfort of them now: the Epicures indeed held that a man might be cheerful amidst the most exquisite torments ex praeteritarum voluptatum recordatione, by the remembrance of those pleasures and delights that formerly he had enjoyed. Job held this but a slight comfort: his care was in prosperity how to make the best use of it: his thoughts ran upon the uncertainty of all creature-comforts, that he might hang loose to them, and hold them no otherwise then a child doth a bird in his hand, open &c.

Verse 26. They are passed away as the swift ships ] Heb. They are changed (gliding away insensibly) as the ships of desire (so called, because they seem willing to beat the haven as soon as may be) or as the ships of Ebeh, a very swift river in Arabia, saith Rabbi Solomon; or as the Pirates ships, so Broughton, such as are your nimble Frigots, fly-boats, and catches &c. Let our souls be like a ship which is made little and narrow down-ward; but more wide and broad upward. Let them be ships of desire, hastening heavenward; and then let our days pass away as they can, we shall but be the sooner at home: Mortality shall appear to be no small mercy.

As the Eagle that hasteth to the prey ] When hunger addeth swiftness to her wings, and maketh her pour, or sowce down upon the prey like a thunderbolt; so transitory is our time: redeem it therefore. It is reported of Ignatius, that when he heard a clock strike, he would say, Here is one hour more now past, that I have to answer for.

Verse 27. If I say, I will forget my complaint, ] And suffer in silence, as thou Bildad hast advised me, chap. 8.2. Sorrows are not so easily forgotten, Lam. 3.19. remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. The Stoics boasting of their indolency, or ability to bear afflictions, without making moan, or complaining, when it came to their own turn, found by experience that they had spoken more trimly then truly; and therefore one Dionysius, surnamed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or the Flincher, fell off (for this reason) from the Stoics to the Peripatetics.

I will leave off my heaviness ] Heb. my face, viz. the sowrnesse that used to sit upon it, as 1 Sam. 1.18. The Pharisees were vultuosi tetrici inamoeni, Matth 6.16. of a sad and sour countenance, grim, and ghastly: they affected to look like Scythians, as the word signifieth, that they might seem great fasters, when as inwardly they were merry and pleasant. Jobs case was far different: his heart was heavy as lead; nevertheless, to give content to his friends, he would endeavor to look lightsomely, but found a very hard task of it.

And comfort myself ] Heb. strengthen, viz. so as not to make moan, but bite in my pain. Invalidumomne naturâ querulum, the weaker anything is, the more apt it is to complain; and on the contrary, some men's flesh will presently rankle and fester, if but razed with a pin only: so some men's spirits, they are ever whining.

Verse 28. I am afraid of all my sorrows ] That come thronging thick about me, and terrify me; they will surely be doubled and trebled upon me; hence my sorrow is uncurable; if I should resolve never so much against it, I should break my resolution, and fall to fresh complaints, Psalm 39.1, 3. Hîc vides, saith Lavater. Here we may see how little is to be ascribed to man's free-will in the things of God, since it is not in our power to comfort and cheer up ourselves under afflictions, though we would never so fain.

I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent ] But wilt hold me guilty, and accordingly punish me. This was the language of Johs fear: had his faith been in heart, it would have quelled and killed such distrustful fears, and have gathered one contrary out of another, life out of death, assurance of deliverance out of deepest distresses, Deut. 32.36. So 2 Kings 14.26. going into captivity was a sign of Israel's returning out of captivity.

Verse 29. If I be wicked ] Heb. I am wicked, sc. in your thoughts, and you have so earnestly and effectually affirmed it, and confirmed it, that I am almost ready to say as you say, I am wicked. Plato brings in Socrates in his apology to the Judges, thus bespeaking them, My Lord's, I know not how you have been affected with mine accusers eloquence whiles you heard them speak: for mine own part, I assure you that I whom it toucheth most, was almost drawn to believe that all they said, though against myself, was true, when they scarcely uttered one word of truth. The Chaldee paraphrase reads it, I shall be culpable, or, I shall be condemned.

Why then labor I in vain? ] Or, for nothing, as the Chaldee hath it. See the like Psalm 73.13, 14. Why put I myself to so much fruitless pains, either in praying to God, or apologising to you my friends, since by God I am still afflicted, and by you reputed a wicked person? Jobs hope was low, his endeavor was therefore little. Si nihil sperarem, nihil orarem, saith one. Let us pray on: God sometimes defers to come, till men have even left looking for him, till he scarce findeth saith upon earth, Luke 18.8.

Verse 30. If I wash myself with snow-water ] Some take the former words I am wicked, to be Jobs confession of his own sinfulness in comparison of God's surpassing holiness. And then this followeth very fitly, Though I wash myself with snow water, i. e. with water as clear as show is white. Some read it aquis vivis for aquis nivis, spring-water for snow-water.

And make my hands never so clean ] Though I wash my hands with soap, (so some read it) as Jer. 2.22. Mal. 3.2. Or, Though I wash mine hands in a well (where there is no want of water) both in-side and outside, as Jam. 4.8.

Verse 31. Thou shalt plunge me in the ditch ] Thou shalt declare me to be no less loathsome, then he that having fallen into a foul guzzle, or nasty jakes, abhorreth himself and his own clothes, being ready to lay up his gorge at the sight and smell of them. The Vulgar hath it, Sor • ibus intinges me, thou shalt dip me in the dirt over head and ears, and stain me all over, as Diers do the cloth they color. By the ditch, Beza and others understand the grave; and by clothes, grave-clothes, q. d. My very winding-sheet shall abhor my filthiness. Take the proud Pharisee for instance, and Popish merit-mongers, whom the Lord abhorreth.

Verse 32. For he is not a man as I am ] He is not such an one, nor can be, as I am, and must be: he hath other eyes, and thoughts, and ways then creatures have. He who is just before men, is unjust before God; therefore he is no fit match for me to contend withal: Have I an arm like God? or can I thunder with a voice like him? chap. 40.9? Is it safe to contend with him that is mightier then I, Eccles. 6.10? Surely if I should be so mad as to justify myself, yet I should soon be given to know, that that which is highly esteemed amongst men, is an abomination in the sight of God, Luke 16.15.

And we should come together in judgment ] How can that possibly be, when as God is the supreme Judge; neither is there any appealing from, or repealing of his sentence?

Verse 33. Neither is there any Days-man betwixt us ] Heb. Any Arguer or Reprover, as Gen. 31.24. We call him an Umpire or Referree, who hath power to reprove and to lay the blame where he findeth it, and finally to compromise the business. The late Judge Dyer amongst us, if there came any controversies of poor men to be tried afore him, would usually say, that either the parties are willful, or their neighbors without charity, because their suits were not quietly ended at home. Now, saith Job, as there is no Judge, so there is no days-man betwixt me and God. If one man sin against another, saith good old Eli. the Judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who can mediate? 1 Sam. 2.24.

That may lay his hand ] To moderate and keep us both in compass, and to compose the difference.

Verse 34. Let him take his rod away from me ] Having sufficiently set forth that he will not once offer to contend with God, he here humbly begs of God, no further to contend with him, but to grant a truce at least-wise during the treaty; and either to take away or (howsoever) to mitigate his sorrows and sores. See the like chap. 15.20, 21.

And let not his fear terrify me ] i. e. His formidablenesse (see chap. 7.14.) let it not scare me, or put me, as it were, beside my wits. Psalm 88.15.

Verse 35. Then would I speak and not fear him ] I would come boldly to the throne of grace, and freely pour out my soul into his bosom. If he meant that he would maintain his own cause against God's proceedings (as some understand it, grounding upon chap. 33.6, 7.) he was questionless in a very great error, and the flesh had got the hill of the Spirit.

But it is not so with me ] So, how? so as you imagine: Non sum talis, qualem me esse putatis, I am no such one as you take me for, viz. an hypocrite: I am not so self-guilty, say the Septuagint: or thus, It is not so with me: that is, I do not find God answering my suit: for I am still scourged and frighted, so that I scarce know what I say.

CHAP. X. Verse 1. My soul is weary of my life.]

BEcause it is a lifeless life. Mortis habet vires, a death more like. Life is sweet, and every creature maketh much of it, from the highest Angel in heaven, to the lowest worm on earth. The Scripture setteth it forth as a sweet mercy, Gen. 45.28. Lam. 3.39. Esth. 7.3. Jer. 39.18. and 45.5. But God can so embitter it with outward and inward troubles, that it shall become a burden. I am weary of my life (saith good Rebecca, Gen. 27.46.) and what good shall my life do me? David forced to be in bad company, cries, Oh that I had the wings of a dove &c. Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech &c. Elias fleeing from Jezebel, requested for himself that he might die, saying, It is enough Lord, take away my life, for I am not better then my fathers, 1 Kings 19.4. No: but God had provided some better thing for him (as the Apostle speaketh in another case) for he was shortly after translated and taken out of the reach both of Jezebel whom he feared, and of death which he desired; Sed multi magni viri, sub Eliae junipero sedent, saith one, Many good men sit under Eli • s his juniper, wishing to be out of the world, if God were so pleased, that they might rest from their labors, and be rid of their many burdens and bondages; as in the mean while, they rather endure life then desire it, as holding it little better then hell, were it not for the hopes they have of heaven hereafter.

I will leave my complaint upon myself ] Liberty I will take to complain, whatever come of it. I will lay the reins in the neck, and let my passions have their full swinge at my peril. See the like chap. 13.3. Verùm Job hac in re nimius, saith Mercer, but Job was too blame in doing and saying thus; and it is to be attributed to the infirmity of his flesh, wherewith, although the spirit do notably combat, yet the flesh seemeth sometimes, and in some sort to get the better; Nimis augusta res est, •• spaim errare, saith one; Triste mortalitatis privilegium est; licere aliquando peccare, saith another. The snow-like swan hath black legs: and in many things we offend all: Gold is not to be refused because it wanteth some grains, and hath a crack &c.

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul ] And so seek to ease my grief by giving a vent unto it. But it is evident, that such out-bursts and overflowings of the gall and spleen come from a fullness of bad humors.

Verse 2. I will say unto God, Do not condemn me ] You may say so, as an humble suppliant, but not as holding yourself innocent, and therefore harshly dealt with. The Hebrew is, Do not make me wicked: rather do good, ô Lord, to those that be good, and to them that are upright in their hearts; but lead me not forthwith the workers of iniquity, as a melefactor is led forth to execution, Psal. 125.5.

Shew me wherefore thou contendest with me ] i. e. Quare sic me affligas, saith Vatablus, why thou thus afflictest me, whether for sin, or for trial; and this Job desired to know, not to satisfy his curiosity, but his conscience, as one well observeth; and that the world might be satisfied, the rash judgment of his friends confuted, and answered by a determination from heaven.

Verse 3. 〈◊〉 it good unto thee that thou shouldst oppress? ] It is the guise of wicked judges to take this counsel, to follow this course; whom thou, being a most just and righteous judge, canst not confirm or encourage by thine own example, as it were by a light shining from above. Thus Job rhetoricateth; his complaints are high, yet ever with an allay or mixture of modesty.

That thou shouldst despise the work of thine hands ] i. e. Me thy poor creature; wilt thou do and undo? make a man, and unmake him again for thy minds sake? Builders use not to ruin what they have built: Artificers love and plead for their own handy-work: Fathers foster their children with all tenderness. Some Authors dote upon their own doings, as Laurentius Valla did upon his Logic, as if there had been none such; calling it in a bravado Log • c • m Laurentinam: and as Ca • pian the Jesuit did upon his ten leaden reasons, which he deemed and boasted to be unanswerable. Heliod • rus would rather be unbishopped, then yield that his Ethiopic history (a toilsome toy, but the brat of his brain) should be abolished. The Saints are God's building, 1 Cor. 3.9. Handy-work; Ephes. 2.18. Children, Job 1.12. Epistle known and read of all men, 2 Cor. 3.2, 3. This if we plead, when sorely afflicted (as the Church did Isa. 64.8. And David, Psalm 138.8. and Job here) we may have anything. See that notable text Isaiah 45.11. And that other Isai. 59.16.

And shine upon the counsel of the wicked ] That is, favor and further their designs: God makes his Sun to shine upon such, but himself never shineth upon them: he may be angry enough with men, though they outwardly prosper; yea, to prosper in sin is a most heavy judgment. See Zac • . 1.15. with the note there.

Verse 4. Hast thou eyes of flesh? ] Which see but the surface of things, and not that neither in the dark. Hast thou not fiery eyes Rev. 1.14. that need no outward light, but see by sending out a ray, and pierce the inward parts also? Hast thou not made the eye? yea the optic virtue in the eye, which seeth all, and is seen of none? If the Sun be the eye of the world, God is much more; the Greeks give him his name from seeing, because he seeth through and through: eyes he hath, but not of flesh: he seeth, but not as man.

Or seest thou as man seeth? ] Art thou subject to error, ignorance, partiality, popularity, &c. Proceedest thou not according to truth (yea, truth in the inward parts ) and not according to opinion or appearance? Of a good Judge it is said, that he doth neque suspicere, nec despicere, nec respicere, nec circumspicere; neither look up nor down, nor this way nor that, but straight forward to the cause, and not to the person. Of a just law it is said, that it is an heart without affection, an eye without lust, a mind without passion, a treasurer which keepeth for every man what he hath, and distributeth to every man what he ought to have; so and much more then so is God, whatever thoughts might arise sometimes in Jobs heart to the contrary.

Verse 5. Are thy days as the days of man? ] Art thou mortal and short-lived as sorry man is, that thou proceedest in this sudden and severe manner, as if thou shouldest not have time enough to try me, and to take an order with me? Art not thou eternal, and dost thou not know in the indivisible moment of thine eternity, all what hath been, is, and shall be? Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world, Acts 15.18. yea, long before. The truth is, neither foreknowledge, nor remembrance are properly in God, since all things both past and future are present with him, Rom. 4.17. 2 Pet. 3.8. Jer 1.5, 6, 7. Psal. 139.2. and all things without him are but as a point or ball, which with as much ease he discerneth, as we turn our eyes.

Are thy years as many days; ] It is well observed that God's time is set out by years, man's by days; his time is so short, that it is reckoned by the shortest complete time, a day. The days of our years are threescore and ten, Psalm 90.10. As for God, he is not only the Ancient of days, Dan. 7.9. But the days Ancient, for he made the day.

Verse 6. That thou enquirest after mine iniquity &c. ] viz. By strong pains, and mighty terrors: as judges sometimes make inquisition by torture, to find out treason or other heinous offense. What, wouldst thou that I should confess myself a wicked person?

Verse 7. Thou knowest that I am not wicked ] A lewd liver, and a rank hypocrite as these men would make of me; a sinner I am, but I allow not, wallow not in any known sin: there is no way of wickedness found in me; hypocrisy reigns not in my heart: Haeret in regenitis peccatum, saith one, sin abideth in the best; yet they may not, they must not be called wicked. Julian the Apostate affirmed that Peters halting at Antioch, was so taxed by Paul, that Peter must needs be an hypocrite; but this cavil and calumny can never be proved from Paul's words, for not everyone that through infirmity dissembleth sometimes, is presently an hypocrite. It is upon thy knowledge, saith Job, that however I am weak, yet wicked I am not: my great scum is not in me, Ezek. 24.11, 12. The good heart admits not the mixture of any sin; like right wine or honey, as the scum ariseth, it ever casteth it out: as spring-water worketh itself clean: as the sea will endure no poisonful thing, but casts it up upon the shore, so a Christian cleareth himself of sin. Well it may cleave to it for a while, as dross doth to silver, but it entereth not into the frame and constitution: Job is confident of that, and will venture all upon it.

And there is none (or nothing) that can deliver out of thine hands ] q. d. Thus thou, Lord, knowest it to be with me, that I have no wicked heart: but for this, I expect not to be delivered, for thou canst still find matter in me for which to lay thine hand upon me: But the more I submit myself, the more mild shouldst thou surely be in thy dealings toward me; as a Lion to a man crouching to him: as Paul said, I know nothing by myself, yet am I not thereby justified 1 Cor. 4.4. So Job saith, Lord, thou knowest nothing by me, yet hereby I cannot be delivered.

Verse 8. Thine hands have made me, ] Or thoroughly and accurately wrought me, as it were, with much pains and labor: thou hast exactly fashioned all my members; not that God either hath hands, or putteth himself to pains; for he doth his work without either tool or toil, Isai. 40.28. But this is attributed to him after the manner of men, to show the curious workmanship shown in man's creation, the masterpiece of all his works of wonder. This David sweetly s;ingeth of Psalm 139. and Galen admireth in that excellent book of his De usu partium humani corporis, setting forth the praises of that God whom he knew not, and singing an hymn unto him. Man, saith one, is cura divini ingenii, he is God's scutcheon wherein he hath portrayed all the titles of the most excellent beauties of the world. The Sun, Moon, and Stars, are but the works of God's fingers, Psalm 8. but man is the work of his hands, Psalm 139.14. He is the most beautiful building of a most wise architect, saith Euripides: the bold attempt of daring nature, saith another heathen: the greatest of all miracles, saith a third. David speaking of him, and of God's goodness to him, begins to wonder before he speaketh, and leaves off to speak, but not to wonder, Psalm 8. • , 9.

And fashioned me together round about ] A metaphor from potters, who make their work by turning it round till it be all finished. Jer. 18 3. Thou hast fashioned me, and made me in every point, so Broughton rendereth it. Totum me, non dimidium. Thou hast made the whole, and every part of me from top to toe, not my nails excepted, (as Mercer hath it) with extraordinary care and cunning, bestowing upon me mercies enow betwixt head and foot, to fill a volume. Who is there (saith Galen ) which looking but upon the skin only of man's body, wondereth not at the artifice of the Creator? but especially he was amazed at the manner of the motion of the lungs by Systole and Diastole, and would needs offer hecatombs to that God whosoever he were, that was Author of so admirable and excellent a piece of work.

Yet thou dost destroy me ] And this seemeth strange to me, Dost thou yet destroy me? (so some read this text) wilt thou swallow me up quick and devour me, as the greater fishes do the lesser? (See the Note on verse 3.) Carest thou not that I am thy workmanship created unto good works, Eph. 2.10? One in whom thou hast erected the fair fabric of the new man? for this also Job may here very likely refer to.

Verse 9. Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay: ] Remembrance and foreknowledge are not properly in God, as was noted before on verse 5. But he is said to remember us, when he relieveth us, Psalm 136.23. and 9.18. 1 Sam. 1.19. That thou hast made me &c. viz. in those Protoplasts, my first parents, formed out of the ground, Gen. 2.7. whence the Heathen Philosopher could say, that man is nothing else but a piece of clay weakly made up: or thou hast wrought me like clay, sc. in the womb, where thou hast framed and formed my body, as the potter worketh his clay, well-tempered, into an earthen vessel. Here then Job in-minds the Lord (by the matter whereof he was made) of the frailty, vility and impurity of his nature ( Lutum enim conspurcat omnia, sic & caro ) to move him to a mitigation of his misery. See Psal. 103.14. and 78.39.

Wilt thou bring me into the dust again ] viz. By those grievous torments: Or, And that thou wilt bring me into dust again: for so thou hast said, to dust shalt thou return, Gen. 3.19. And it is appointed for all men once to die, Heb. 9.27. Oh therefore that I might have some small rest and respite, before I go hence, and be no more seen, Psal. 39.12, 13.

Verse 10. Hast thou not poured me out as milk ] Or, melted me, that is, made me of some such thing as liquid and white milk. Generationem hominis describit; Man is a very mean thing in his first conception, modestly here set forth by the making of cheeses.

Concerning man's formation in the womb, see the Naturallists, and Lactantius de Opificio Dei cap. 12. but especially Psalm 139. where, and in this text there is enough spoken to satisfy us about this great natural mystery, saith Mercer: that is a good Moral that one maketh of it; God strains out the motes of corruption from a godly-man, while his heart is poured out like milk with grief and fear, whereby the iniquity of Jacob is purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin, Isa. 27.9.

And curdled me like cheese ] Siccastissimo ore, & elegantibus metaphoris, saith an Interpreter, i. e. Thus in a most modest manner, and with elegant metaphors, doth Job, as a great Philosopher, set out man's conception in the womb. Aristotle (whose manner is obscurioribus obscura implicare, as Bodin observeth) hath some such expression as this, but nothing so clear and full.

Verse 11. Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh ] Out of that soft and liquid substance (the slime of my parents loins) grossed first into a rude fleshy mass, and consolidated, Thou hast made not only a thin skin, and firm flesh, but also hard bones, and knitting nerves; and all this for a garment or guardment to those more noble inward parts, the brain, heart, liver, &c. which Job here accounts to be the man, when he saith, Thou hast clothed me, that is, my vital parts with the upper garment of skin, and with the under-garment of flesh, all which, and the rest of the parts, both similar and organical, are in their original but the same matter which God hath thus diversified, and all by the book, Psalm 139.16. Had he left out any member in his common-place-book, thou hadst wanted it, saith one.

And hast fenced me with bones and sinews ] Bones are the pillars of the body, giving it stability, straightness and form. The Rabbin's say, there are as many of them in man's body, as there are affirmative precepts in the law, that all his bones may say, Lord, who is like unto thee &c? Psal 35.10. By the sinews are the bones knit together, that upon them man may move from place to place, as he pleaseth. Sense also and Motion is by these, in their wonderful and inexplicable conjugations, conveyed to the rest of the parts. It is God alone that knoweth how the bones (think the same of the sinews, arteries, veins, gristles, flesh and blood &c.) do grow in the womb of her that is with child, Eccles. 11.5. The Anatomists find out every day almost new wonders; and an Ancient styleth Man the miracle of miracles. Besides what is seen, God hath pack many rarieties, mysteries, yea, miracles together in man's chest. And surely, saith one, if all the Angels in heaven had studied to this day, they could not have cast man into a more curious mould, or have given a fairer, or more 〈◊〉 edition of him.

Verse 12. Thou hast granted me life ] i. e. Into my body thus formed and organized, thou hast infused a soul, that principle of life quickened me in the womb, and brought me alive out of it: which because it is a miracle of mercy, therefore 〈◊〉 addeth favor, thou hast granted me (Heb. thou hast wrought with me) life and fav ••• . Thou hast dealt life and goodness unto me; that is, thou hast given me life accompanied with thy goodness and blessings; so Beza senseth it. Some understand it of the reasonable soul; others of the beauty of the body according to Isa. 40 6.

And thy visitation hath preserved my Spirit ] i. e. Thy good providence hath safe guarded me from innumerable deaths and dangers. Puerilitas est periculorum pelagus, children are apt to run into mischief; and those of riper years are subject to a thousand disasters and evil-occurrences. God's special care is exercised over his, as is sweetly expressed Psalm 121. and Psalm 23. ( David's pastoral:) and Psalm 3. where David doubteth not of safety, though asleep, and in the midst of enemies, because God sustained him: when as Samson and Ishbosheth, a sleep in the midst of friends, were circumvented, because deserted by him: oh pray, pray, that the Lord Jesus Christ would be ever with our spirits: visit him in duty, that he may visit us in mercy.

Verse 13. And those things hast thou hid in thine heart ] Legendum hoc cum stomach • , saith Mercer: And hast thou indeed hid these things in thine heart? What things meaneth Job? his afflictions, which God was long before preparing for him, and now took his time to lay load upon him, to be revenged on him at unawares, and at greatest advantage. If this be the fence of Jobs words (as some would conclude from the next verses) he was mightily mistaken; and this was atrox querimonia, a grievous complaint, and unworthy of God, who lieth not at the catch, nor pretendeth fair, when he intendeth otherwise. A Cain may do so to Abel, Esau to Jacob, Absalom to Amn • n, Joab to Amasa &c. The Creator needs not daub or prevaricate thus with his creatures: if Job thought he did with him, Job was utterly out, though for confirmation he add, I know that this is with thee; I am sure that thou hast dealt thus closely and covertly with me, and that thy plagues have surprised me. O these still revenges! Merlin and others understand by those thing hid in God's heart, and which he was well assured could not have befallen him without God's will and decree, the mercies which in the former verses Job had recounted and reckoned up, viz. his conception, quickening, preservation; all which he looked upon as love-tokens coming out of the heart of God, and from the spring of special love. Here then we see whence we may fetch comfort when most hardly bestead: namely, from those effects whereby God sealed up his love to us in forming us in the womb; but especially in his Covenant of Grace, that be-hive of heavenly honey, whereby he hath engaged to be our God even from the womb to the tomb; yea, to all perpetuity. Hereunto Job had respect, and so had David, Psalm 22.10, 11. and Psalm 25.10.

Verse 14. If I sin, then thou markest me ] Though through human frailty only I offend ( & ni • is dedignatur mortalitatem qui peccasse erubescit, ) thou soon notest it, thou followest me up and down, as it were, with pen, ink and paper, to set down my faults. How then, say some, that God sees not sin in his children? Job thought the Lord was over-strict with him (which yet could not be) and that he put no difference betwixt him and those that were notoriously wicked, as the next words import.

And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity ] That is, from the punishment of mine iniquity. Verba diffidentis, saith Mercer: words spoken according to the judgment of the flesh, saith Diodate, which holdeth God's visitations to be punishments and vengeances.

Verse 15. If I be wicked, woe unto me ] Here he bringeth a Dilemma, whereby he declareth himself every way miserable, faith Mercer; whether he be bad or good, suffer he must without remedy. If I be wicked, woe unto me; woe is the wicked man's portion; tell him so from me, saith God, Isai. 3.10, 11. Though he love not to hear on that ear, but can bless himself in his heart, when God curseth him with his mouth, Deut. 29.19. And a godly man setteth the terror of sins woes before his flesh, that slave, that must be frighted at least with the sight of the whip. Woe be to me, saith Paul, if I preach not the Gospel, 1 Cor. 9.16. Or if, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-a-way verse 27. which to prevent, he kept under his body (his corruption) and gave it a blue eye: for we are not debtors to the flesh, saith he, Rom. 8.10. We owe nothing but stripes and menaces, cursing it in every cruse &c.

And if I be righteous, yet I will not lift up my head ] Indeed I cannot, because I am so bowed down with changes of sorrows, armies of afflictions: my pains are continued, and I shall surely sink under them: much ado I have now to keep head above water. Others make this a description of Jobs humility, I will not lift up my head, viz. in pride, but humble myself to walk with my God, as that poor publican did who stood afar off, and would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven, Luk. 18.13.

I am full of confusion ] Cast upon me by my friends, who reproach me for an hypocrite, and make my cheeks glow. The fullness of an aspersion may possibly put an innocent person to the blush: and it is the property of defamations to leave a kind of lower estimation many times, even where they are not believed. This was the confusion that Job complained of, the stomach of his mind was full of it, even to satiety and surfeit.

Therefore see thou mine affliction ] My pressing and piercing affliction, see it and remedy it, as Psalm 119.153. Let not all my trouble seem little unto thee, as Nehem. 9.32. See Lord, see, behold it is high time for thee to set in.

Verse 16. For it increaseth ] Heb. For it lifteth up itself: it even boileth up to the height, or it waxeth proud, as the proud surges of the sea: Broughton rendereth it, Oh haw it fleeth up! Why how? Surely, as a fierce lion, so it hunteth me: it riseth upon me, as a Lion rampant doth upon his prey, or as a Lion when he is pursued, gives not place, hides not his head, but comes into the open fields as holding it a disgrace to withdraw, so some sense it: Or,

Thou huntest me as a fierce Lion ] Tanquam • e. God when he afflicteth men, is oft compared to a Lion: or Tanquam leonem, as if I were a ravening Lion; so thou huntest me, setting thy nets and toils, making thy snares and pits ut capiar ad occisionem (so the Septuagint) that I may be taken and destroyed, as 2 Pet. 2 12.

And again thou showest thyself marvelous upon me ] Heb. And thou returnest. Here Job showeth, saith an Interpreter, what a confidence he had, that God returning to him in mercy would do wonderfully for him in the end: the word turning here, and the turning his captivity, chap. 42. so aptly answering the one to the other to approve this exposition. But others understand it of the continued or repeated acts of Jobs affliction unâ vi • e post aliam; as if he should say, thou clappest on one affliction upon another: my pains know not only no period, but no pause: thou layest upon me extraordinary sorrows, as if thou wouldst declare in me alone, quàm mirus sis artifex, what an excellent artisan thou art when thou pleasest, and what thou canst do against a poor creature: surely thou hast made my plagues wonderful, Deut. 28.59. So the Apostles were made a gazing-stock, a theater, a spectacle of human misery, 1 Cor. 4.9.

Verse 17. Thou renewest thy witnesses against me ] These fresh witnesses were devils say some; Jobs friends, say others, his dolorous sufferings rather, saith Austir, those open witnesses of some secret wickedness in Job, as the world would esteem them. See chap. 16.8. Ruth 1.21. Thus the Jews censured our Savior, Isa. 53.3, 4. The Barbarians Paul, Acts 28. and those in the Gospel them that perished by the fall of the tower of Siloam. And how many precious men as well as Job, have been cast upon this evidence for traitors and rebels against the highest majesty? J •• u • thinks, that when Job uttered the words of this text, he felt some new pains growing upon him and increasing.

Thou in reasest thine indignation upon me ] Or within me, as chap. 6.4. and this was it that put a sting into his sufferings; God's heavy displeasure seemed to be kindled against him. Be not thou a terror unto me ô Lord, said Jeremy, and then I shall do well enough with the rest.

Changes and war (or armies ) are upon me, or against me ] Variety of troubles come trooping and treading, as it were, on the heels of one another: fluctus fluct • um • rudi • : there is a continual succession of my sorrows, fresh forces sent against me &c. We see then that Job complained not without cause, though he kept not always within compass, as appeareth by that which followeth.

Verse 18. Wherefore hast thou brought me forth out of the womb? ] Why? but was not that a mercy? David esteemed it so, and gives God the glory, Psalm. 22.9. But discontent is an utter enemy to thankfulness. The bird sings not till she have taken up her stand to her mind. Some men's eyes are so bleared and glazed with tears for what they want, that they cannot see what good they have, cannot see mercies for blessings. Job here in a distemper wisheth himself, (as he had done before, chap. 3. Who can understand his errors? Psalm 19.12.) either unborn, or presently dead, without the distance of one day betwixt his birth and his burial. In quo errorem erravit non levem, vir alioqui pientissimus; this was a worse wish then if he had desired that his life might be presently taken away from him, for herein he showeth himself unthankful to God for all his former benefits: and not so only, but angry with God for the good he had done him: thus we have seen dogs in a chafe fly at their masters, and children in a pelt strike at their parents. But these were the voices of the flesh lusting against the spirit, which afterwards (being justly reprehended for them, first by Elihu, and then also by God himself) he repressed and repented of in dust and ashes, Psalm 42.6.

Oh that I had given up the ghost, and no eye had seen me ] sc. with delight; for what pleasure is there in seeing a dead corps, especially a still-born child? see Gen. 23.4. with the Note. This text teacheth us, saith an Interpreter, what sad effects extreme grief and pain worketh in the very best: it distempereth their spirits, and so disturbeth them, that their complaints look like the blasphemies of the wicked, and they sometimes wish absurd things, dishonorable to God, and prejudicial to themselves.

Verse 19. I should have been as though I had not been ] Here he sings the same song as chap. 3. and 6. It is hard to say how oft a child of God may discover the same infirmity. Our lives are fuller of sins then the firmament is of stars, or the furnace of sparks.

I should have been carried from the womb to the grave ] He makes mention of the grave as a desirable place, which yet in the two last verses he describeth as a place of darkness and disorder. Thus Job himself was in the dark; and in his passion he throweth out words without wisdom; Itaque solicit orandus est Dius, saith one here, God is therefore to be earnestly entreated, that when we are hard put toit with pain and misery, we may not give way to unruly passion, nor suffer our tongues to out-lash, as they will be apt to do. See Psal. 39.1. confer Psal. 22.77.88 & 89. and we shall see David well nigh as far out, as Job in his complaints and wishes; but God can put a difference between the godly and sin in them, as between poison and the box that holdeth it. He can also pity them, as we do poison in a man, which yet we hate in a toad &c.

Verse 20. Are not my days few? ] And oh that they might not be also evil! since I shall not much trouble the world, oh that I might not find much trouble in the world! What man is he that would fain see good days, saith David, Psalm 34.12? What man is he that would not, saith Austin in answer to him? Job and David join in one and the same suit for a truce from trouble, since their time here was so very short, Psalm 39.13. and 89.47.

Cease then, and let me alone ] After he had vented his passions, he falls again to his prayers. Ye have done all this wickedness (saith Samuel to the people who had been over-importunate for a King) yet turn not aside from following the Lord &c. 1 Sam. 12.20. Whilest prayer stands still, the whole trade of godliness stands still. Saints, though they have sinned, yet must not restrain prayer, but go home to God again with shame in their faces, and tears in their eyes, and he will speak peace; only they must be sensible that their Father hath spit in their faces &c.

That I may take comfort a little ] A modest request: the poor man speaks supplications, begs a farthing. They who are lowly, make low demands. Oh that I were but a door keeper! oh that Ishmael might live in thy sight &c.

Verse 21. Before I go whence I shall not return ] Before I go out of this world, never more to return hither to enjoy the comforts that are here to be had. Death is a departure hence, 1 Pet. 1.15. Luke 9.31. And so the Ancients ( Irenaeus, Clement, and others) used to call it: I shall change my place, but not my company, said that dying Saint who had here walked with God in uprightness, and was now to bid adieu to all worldly interests. The old Romans were wont to say of a dead friend, Abiit, & eversurus est, He is gone, and will come again. It seems hereby that they had some dark notions of a Resurrection; whence also their Poets called a dead body, a soul; — animamque sepulchro condimus. The Hebrews did the like, Numb. 5.2. and 9.10. and 19.11. Hag. 2.14. as having a more sure word of Prophesy: and Job was clear in this point, firmly believing the resurrection of his body, chap. 19.26, 27. It must needs be therefore that he speaks here of not returning into this world. See the like chap. 16.22. Psalm 39.13. 2. Sam. 12.23.

Even to the land of darkness &c. ] See the Note on verse 22.

Verse 22. •• land of darkness &c. ] This is not a description of hell, and of the state of the damned (as some would have it) for Job never meant to come there, no more then Jacob did, Gen. 37.35. and 42.38. But it is such an elegant description of the grave, 〈◊〉 exceedeth the fantasy of Poets, and the rhetoric of all heathen Orators. There is something like it in David's Psalms, especially Psalm 88.11, 12. where the grave is called a place of perdition, a land of forgetfulness, and of darkness, whereinto they who descend; praise not God, Psalm 115.17. In respect of their bodies they do not, they cannot, Isai. 38.18. Hell, indeed, is much more a land of darkness, as darkness itself; it is that outer-darkness; a darkness beyond a darkness, as the dungeon is beyond the prison; and the pains of hell are the chains of darkness. now death is • e ••• a • binger to the wicked, and hence it is so dreadful in the apprehension and approach of it, that men's hearts do even die within them, as Nabal's did, through fear of death; and they tremble thereat as the trees of the wood, or leaves of the forest, with Ahaz, Isai. 7.2. Darkness we know, is full of terror: the Egyptians were sorely a frighted by their three days thick darkness, in so much as that none stirred off his stool all that while, Exod. 10.23. and it was the more terrible, doubtless, because they had no warning of it, as they had of other plagues. How oft do men chop into the chambers of death (their long-home the grave) all on the sudden, as he that travelleth in the snow, may do over head and ears into a marle-pit? Death of any sort, is unwelcome to nature, as being its slaughterman: but when sudden, It is so much the more ghastly; and those that desperately dare death to a duel, cannot look it in the face with blood in their cheeks: only to those that are in Christ, the bitterness of death is past, the sting of it pulled out, the property altered, as hath been already noted. Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, saith a Learned Expositor here, lay in the grave, and hath left perpetual beams of light there for his purchased people. The way to the grave is very dark, but Christ hath set up lights for us &c.

And of the shadow of death ] The shadow is the dark part of the thing; so that the shadow of death is the darkest side of death, death in its most hideous and horrid representations: the shadow of death is the substance of death, or death with addition of greatest deadliness.

Without any order ] Heb. and not orders, What then? confusion surely, without keeping to rules or ranks: men's bones are mingled in the grave; whether they have been princes or peasants, it cannot be discerned: Omnia mors aequat; as chesse-men are put up all together in the bag when the game is ended, without distinction of King, Duke, Bishop. &c. so here: Junius rendereth it, expertem vicissitudinum, without any interchanges, distinctions, vicissitudes, or varieties (as of day, night, summer, winter, heat, cold, &c.) of which things consisteth the greatest part of the brevity of this world.

And where the light is 〈◊〉 darkness ] How great then must needs be that darkness? as our Savior speaketh in another case, Matth. 6.23. Surely when by the return of the Sun; there is light in the land of the living; in the grave all is abyssed and sunk into eternal might: as the bodies of those two smothered Princes were by their cruel Uncle Richard the third, in the black-deeps, a place so called at the Thames-mouth: in the grave light and darkness are both alike: and as the Images in Popish Temples see nothing, though great wax candles be lighted up before them: so the clearest light of the Sun shining in his strength would be nothing to those that are dead and buried. Let this be much and often thought on: mors tu • , mors Christi &c. Cyrus that great Conqueror lying on his death-bed, praised God, saith Xenophon, that his prosperity had not puffed him up; for he ever considered that he was but mortal, and must bid adieu to the world. Charles the fifth Emperor of Germany caused his sepulcher and grave clothes to be made five years before his death, and carried them closely with him whithersoever he went. Samuel sent Saul newly anointed to Rachel's sepulcher, 1 Sam. 10.24. that he might not surfeit upon his new honors, &c.

CHAP. XI. Verse 1. Then answered Zophar the Naamathite.

WIth a most bitter invective, savouring more of passion, then charity; Zophar rejoyneth, or rather revileth innocent Job, mis-interpreting his meaning, verse 4. and laying to his charge, 1. Loquacity or talkativenesse. 2. Lying. 3. Scoffing at God's good providence, and men's good counsel. 4. Self-conceitedness and arrogancy, besides rashness, boldness, &c. For want of better arguments against him, he falls foul upon him in this sort. And if the adversaries of the truth do the like by us (as our Savior saith they will, Matth. 5.11. and as himself, after Job and many other of his members, had the experience of it) we must not be over-troubled. Zophar signifieth a watcher, he watched for Jobs halting, and took him up before he was down: he is styled the Naamathite from Naamah (a city in the land of Uz, eighteen miles from Jobs Pyramis, saith Adricomius ) which signifieth • air. But he dealeth not so fair with his friend, as had been fit, for he giveth him no honor or respect at all, but treateth him with singular sharpness and violence, or rather virulence of speech: hear him • else.

Verse 2. Should not the multitude of words be answered ] Should not he who speaketh what he will, hear what he would not? yes, Job shall now, or you will want of your will: but if Job have talked more then his part came to (the truth is, his speeches are longer then any of those his three friends, which are all, except that first made by Eliphaz, chap. 4. and 5. comprehended in one chapter, whereas his take up two, three, or more) he may well be excused, considering the sharpness of his disease, the ungentlenesse of his friends, and the sense of God's displeasure, which his soul labored under. Zophar and the rest looked upon him as a wretched hypocrite, and were angry that he would not yield himself so; they accused his former conversation as wicked; what way had he therefore to defend and assert his own integrity, but by words? and must he yet pass for a prattling fellow, a man of lips, a very wordy man, one that loveth to hear himself talk, because he will not be by them out-talked, and over-born by their false charges? Most sure it is, that profane and profuse babblings are to be avoided, and to bring fullness of matter in fewness of words, it is very commendable. Quàm multa quàm paucis! said Tully of Bru •• s his Laconical Epistle; how much is here in a little! but 1. Every man cannot be a short-spoken Spartan: It is reported that in Luther's house was found written, Melancthou hath both matter and words: Luther hath matter, but wants words; Erasmus hath words at will, but wants matter. Everyone hath his own share: all are not alike-gifted. 2. He is to be accounted talkative, who uttereth unprofitable words, and far from the purpose, beside the point: and so Zophar himself was to be blamed in this whole discourse of his, wherein he talketh much, but speaketh little. Concerning the infinite and unsearchable wisdom of God, he argueth truly and gravely, but yet nothing fitly to convince Job, who himself had said as much and more of the same subject. The counsel also that therehence he giveth Job, doth little or nothing concern him: it being the same in effect that Eliphaz and Bildad had said before him: Zophar therefore was the locutuleius, the talkative man here mentioned, rather then Job, the lip • -man, adversus sua ipsius vitia facundus satis: and as Bion was wont to say, that the Grammarians of his time could discourse well of the errors of Ulysses, but not at all see their own; so it befell Zophar.

And should a man full of talk be justified? ] Heb. a man of lips, so called, as if he were made all of lips, and had no other members. Shall such an one be ever a whit the better thought of? Not among wise men surely, what ever he may amongst his fellow fools: for in multiloquio stultiloquium: Some gravel and mud passeth away with much water; some vanity with much talk: it is no wisdom for a man to lay on more words then the matter will well bear. A good Orator, saith Plutarch, will see that his words and his matter be matches. And Hesiod saith, that words, as a precious treasure, should be thriftily husbanded, and warily wasted: especially since an account is to be rendered, as our Savior assureth us, Matth. 12.36. yea, by thy words (he saith not, for thy words ) thou shalt be justified, and by thy words (if superfluous and sinful, wast and wicked) thou shalt be condemned, verse 37.

Vers. 3. Should thy lies make men hold their peace? ] Or, Thy toys, toilsome toys, hammered in thine own head, hatched in thine own heart, which is deceitful above all things, and so a fit shop to frame lies in: but should we be silent at the hearing of them, and so become guilty of thy sin by a tacit consent? Can any mortal wight hear what thou hast said in behalf of thine own imaginary innocence? chap. 6.29, 30. And how bold an appeal thou hast made to God as a witness thereof chap. 10.7. and not reply upon thee, and reprove thee? The truth is, had Job been a liar, as Zophar would make of him, (even mendaciorum loquacissimum, as Tertullian saith of Tacitus, one that fearing his many words would not carry his cause, had intermixed divers untruths the better to grace the business) he ought not to have been forborne by Zophar or any else, that wished well to his soul: But it was far from good Job to be guilty of this foul sin, so hated of God, so like the devil, so inconsistent with religion. Christianus est, non mentietur, he is a Christian, you may be sure he will not lie, was the old argument; he will rather die then lie; Davia indeed in a distress, roundly told two or three lies together to Abimelech the high-priest, who suspected that he fled as a proscribed person 1 Sam. 21.2, 8. So 1 Sam 27.10. But that he allowed not this sin in himself it appeareth in that 1. He had chosen the way of truth, his election was truth Psalm 119.30. And 2. He prayed against the contrary evil, Remove from me the way of lying, Psalm 119.29. He was not one of those that took fast hold of deceit, as Jeremiah phraseth it chap. 8.5. Much less was Job; however Zophar was mistaken in him, as he was much more in his next charge, wherein he maketh him a scoffer of God and good people.

And when thou mockest, shall no man make thee ashamed? ] Job is made a mocker here; yea, a scorner, and derider, as the word signifieth, such as David describeth, Psalm 22.6. and the Author to the Hebrews, chap. 11.36. where he speaks of cruel mockings, such as the Scripture everywhere (but especially in the Proverbs) brandeth for the worst sort of sinners: See Psalm 1.1. where the Septuagint translate for scorners, Pests: as elsewhere Incorrigible, Prov. 21.1. Naught, Prov. 9.12. Proud, Prov. 3.34. Workers of iniquity Psalm 119.51. But where did Job mock in Zophars judgment? First, he spoke contemptuously (as he thought) of God, as chap. 10.3. Is it good unto thee that thou shouldst oppress? &c. And whereas he spake better sometimes of God's wisdom and righteousness, Zophar thought it was but from the teeth-outward: but poor Job had little lift or leisure to mock and jear: next, he mocked his friends for saying that he was justly afflicted; saying, that they were cold comforters, void of God's fear, merciless men &c. This they took in very ill part, and Zophar thinks to make him ashamed of it: for saith he,

Shall no man make thee ashamed? ] sc. By refuting thee, and by bringing thee to a due sight of thine error: this good office he that shall undertake to do for another, must be sure that he be able to do it effectually, else better not to attempt it. When Carolostadius opposed Luther's Consubstantiation but weakly and insufficiently, Zwingli said, he was sorry, that so good a cause wanted shoulders.

Vers. 4. For thou hast said. ] Thou hast confidently affirmed; and this he makes to be a loud lie, and not an idle word only. But where and when had Job said it? Did not Zophar openly play the Sophister, so interpreting what Job had spoken chap. 6.10. and 9.22. and 10.7. in defense of his innocence, as if Job had maintained that he was free from all sin; whereas notwithstanding, he had very often witnessed and confessed himself to be a sinner, insomuch, as that albeit he were without sin, yet he could not be accounted clear and pure in the sight of God? But Zophar took these for good words only, and was therefore so sharp-set against him. So Cyril and Theodoret mistook one another, and objected heresy mutually: when as afterwards it appeared, that they were both of one judgment. Charity would have taught Zophar to have taken Job in a better sense, and to have said of him as Cruciger did of Luther, eum commodiùs sentire quàm loquitur, dum effervescit, that he held right, though in his heat he spake not so fitly as might be wished; good men's words are reverenter glossanda (as one said of the Laws) to have a reverent gloss put upon them, and not by a spiritual unmannerlinesse, to be taken with the left hand; when they might and ought to be taken with the right.

My doctrine is pure ] Clear as crystal, transparent as a crystal glass with a light in the midst; you may see through it, and find no flaw or filth in it: Job was no professed preacher, yet he had not concealed the words of the Holy One, chap. 6.10. As he had received the knowledge of the truth from parents and teachers (the word here rendered doctrine, comes from a root that signifieth to receive ) so he had freely and purely imparted it to others, commending it unto them as sound and sincere, and therefore well worthy of all acceptation. But that which troubled Zophar and his two fellows was, that Job should affirm that God did afflict good men in this world as heavily as bad men, which yet was an irrefragable truth, such as Job resolved to live and die in.

And I am clean in thine eyes ] i. e. I am not sinless, but sincere and upright, no hypocrite (as you have charged me) no worker of iniquity, but one that would be cleansed from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, and do by the daily practice of mortification, purify myself as God is pure: more then this Job said not, though Zophar thought he did, and therefore wisheth in the next words that God himself would convince him of his error.

Verse 5. But oh that God would speak &c. ] For we do but lose our sweet words upon thee, since thou art set, and so wedded and wedged to thine own will and way, that thou canst not be removed and rectified, but by an extraordinary touch from the hand of heaven; O therefore that God would speak and open his lips against thee, and for us: for so Zophar doubts not but he would do; but if it proved otherwise chap. 42. Job was justified, and these three condemned, because they had not spoken of God, (or to God, as in this text) the thing that was right, verse 7. but had been Satan's instruments to discourage Job • and to drive that good man to many passionate speeches. Some men (and women too, as Sarah, Gen. 16.5.) are over-hasty to send for God, as it were, by a post, to decide their controversies: who, if he should come at their call, would certainly pronounce against them. Fret not thyself therefore to do evil: be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter anything in this kind before God, or to interest him in thy quarrels and controversies, for he will surely pass an impartial sentence, • either is there any iniquity with the Lord our God, nor respecting of persons, nor rec • iving of gifts, 1 Chron. 19.7. One Interpreter from this wish of Zophar noteth, that it is an ordinary practice of heretics (Satan's factors) to mention God, as approving of their errors, if by speaking he would from heaven declare himself plainly; and that therefore we should take heed of those that labor to work upon us this way, when by right reason they are able to evince nothing that they say.

Vers. 6. And that he would show thee the secrets of wisdom ] This may be understood of God's law (saith Diodate ) or of the hidden ways of his providence; which if God would show Job, he should at once see that he mistook much, and knew little of those many mysteries that are both in the word and works of God, in all divine dispensations, which are such as none can unriddle but God himself; neither can we see them till he show them. It is well observed, that the word here rendered [show] signifieth to interpret and expound that which is dark, mysterious and enigmatical; and till God show us in this sort, we remain ignorant both in the book of the creatures, and in the book of the Scriptures. Oh pray that ye may be all taught of God, that he would show you great and mighty things which you know not, Jer 33.3. that he would so open your eyes, that ye may behold wondrous things out of his Law, Psalm 119.18. &c.

That they are double to that which is ] Sunt enim Deo judiciorum duo genera, so the Tigurines translate the words, for God hath judgments of two several sorts, viz. open and secret, such as thou with all thy skill canst not dive into. The Hebrew is, dovbles to the being; that is, saith one, manifold more then is by thee apprehended; and although God hath afflicted thee according to what he hath revealed, yet he might afflict thee more, if he should proceed according to the height of his secret wisdom: thy plagues should be double to that which is, if God should deal rigorously with thee: there is reason therefore thou shouldst be patient, since thy sins are far more then thy sufferings.

Know then that God exacteth of thee less then thine iniquity deserveth ] This is a meditation that may be of special use, as to humble us, so to stanch murmuring, and to strengthen patience under present pressures. See Ezra 9.13. with the Note. Junius rendereth it acknowledge at least that God exacteth somewhat of thee for thine iniquity: somewhat it is, and but somewhat, since hell is the just hire of the least sin, and it is the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed Lament. 3.22.

Verse 7. Canst thou by searching find out God? ] i. e. The nature of God, or the course of his providence, and the reason of his proceedings? thou canst never do it: Neither did Job ever take upon him to do it, but had excellently and accurately set out the same things chap. 9.4. &c. that Zophar here doth; so that he might well have spared his pains in this discourse as to Job; but that being too pertinacious in his evil opinion of him, he chose rather to thwart him, then to close with him, as contentious people use to do.

Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? ] No nor the brightest Angel in heaven, the highest graduate in glory. Find him we may possibly, but not find him out, much less find him out to perfection. Tantum recedit, quantum capitur, saith Nazianzen. The nearer you draw unto God, the further off he is from you, and you are as much to seek as ever: he is indeed like the pool Polycritus writeth of (cited by Aristotle ) which in compass at the first scarce seemed to exceed the breadth of a shield, but if any went in to wash, it extended itself more and more. A Country fellow thinks, if he were upon such a mountain, he could touch heaven, and take a star in his hand; but when he comes thither, heaven is as far off as it was &c. So it is here; eye hath not seen, nor ear heard &c. 1 Cor. 2.9. Chrysostom speaking of God's love in Christ, saith, I am like a man digging in a deep spring: I stand here, and the water riseth up upon me, and I stand there, and still the water riseth upon me. What the Apostle saith of this infinite love of God, that it passeth knowledge, as having all the dimensions Ephes. 3.18, 19. the same is true of the wisdom of God, as Zophar setteth forth in the following verses.

Verse 8. It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? ] And much higher; it is as the highnesses of heaven (so the Hebrew hath it) which is so high, that one would wonder we should be able to behold the starry sky (which yet is but as the marble wall round about the palace) and the very eye not be tired in the way. See the Note on Prov 25.3. How high that second heaven is, may hereby be gathered, in that the stars (whereof those of the first magnitude are said to be everyone above 107. times as big again as the whole earth) do yet seem to us but as so many small sparks or spangles: but how high the third heaven is above them, cannot be conjectured Ephes 4.10. And yet the wisdom of the Almighty is far above that. But what meaneth Zophar by these cutted questions of his, What canst thou do? and what canst thou know? He thought belike, that either Job considered not what he had said, when he so set forth God's wisdom, and his own shallowness: or else that he contradicted himself, when he nevertheless stood so much upon his own integrity, and complained so greatly of his misery, as of an injury

Deeper then hell ] Which where-ever it is, appeareth by this and other texts of Scripture, as Revel. 14.11. Deut. 32.22. Psalm 55.15. Prov. 15.24. &c. To be 〈◊〉 , Ubi sit, se • tient, qui curi • siùs quae •• nt, saith one; where it is, they shall find one day, whoever curiously inquire. The word here rendered hell; signifieth the lower and more remote parts of the earth: and David telleth us, that the wicked shall be turned into hell, into the lowest part of it, as the He licale there implieth Psalm 9 17.

Verse 9. The measure thereof is longer then the earth: ] Wherein, some kingdoms are of a very great length, as those of the Turks, and of the Tartars at this day. How long then in the earth itself? Some have undertaken to tell in how many days a nimble footman might measure it, but that's but a conjecture. It must be remembered, that these things are spoken after the manner of men; for the wisdom of God can neither be measured nor numbered: of his understanding there is no number, saith the Prophet, Psalm 147.5. Archimedes the Mathematician vaunted, that he by his skill in Arithmetic, could number up all the sand or dust that is in the whole world habitable and inhabitable. But who can cast up the extent of the Divine wisdom.

And broader then the sea ] Which yet David calleth the great and wide sea, Psalm 104.25. Breadth is ascribed to the sea, because of its huge extension, mariners for many days together whiles they sail upon the main, see no land, but only sky and water. God's wisdom goes beyond all these: neither must we think to lade this Ocean with our cockle-shell. We may sooner drain the sea with a spoon; then the perfections of God with our largest understandings.

Verse 10. If he cut off and shut up ] Heb. If he change, viz. his course or way of proceedings toward men, either to shut them up close prisoners, or otherwise to put them to such straits that ( Job -like) they know not what to do, or which way to turn themselves.

Or gather together ] viz. His witnesses, say some, against an offender, his armies and military forces, saith the Chaldee paraphrast, to ruin his enemies: his outcasts, say some interpreters, according to that Psalm 147.2. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem, he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. If he do any or all of these to show his sovereignty, as well he may;

Then who can hinder him ] Heb. turn him away, or put a stop to him? If God should do and undo, confound all things, turn the world upside down, who shall contradict him or question him? May he not do with his own as he pleaseth? And might not Zophar have spared thus to have spoken to Job; since Job had said the same to him in effect before? But Zophars design was to prove hereby that he who is by God brought into straits, is a wicked liver. He therefore in the two following verses glanceth at him as vain, wicked, brutish, and not unlike to a wild asse-colt, such as God would surely tame and tutor to better things by afflictions, and so bring him to hand.

Verse 11. He knoweth vain man, he seeth wickedness also ] Doubtless he beholdeth faithless men, mortals of vanity, head-long and head-strong wights; homines falsitatis (so Cajetan rendereth it) men of false-hood; homines mendaces (so Pagnine ) lying persons, such as thou Job art presumed to be by thy impious words, and grievous punishments: He seeth wickedness, inanitatem & iniquitatem, vanity and villainy: God seeth all, how closely and cleanly soever hypocrites think to carry the matter; first, hiding God from themselves, and then vainly hoping to hide themselves also from God; but his eyes behold, his eye-lids try the children of men; Psalm 11.4. He seeth their wickedness or unreasonableness (as the word properly signifieth) for wicked men are absurd men, 2 Thes. 3.2. they are compact of mere incongruities, solecizing in opinion, speeches, actions, all.

Will he not then consider it? ] sc. To judge and punish it? Man maketh no great matter of sin, but God doth. He will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil, Eccles. 12.14. he will see that every transgression and disobedience shall receive a just recompense of reward, Heb. 2.2. This Zophar doth not only affirm, but puts i • home strongly by a question (wherein he closely taxeth Job of hypocrisy) Will he not consider it? Some read it without a question thus, But he (that is man) considereth not, is without understanding of God's wisdom and justice, being dull and stupid like a wild asse-colt, as it followeth.

Verse 12. For vain man would be wise ] Heb. Hollow man, that is, as void of grace, as an hollow tree is of heart of oak. Would be wise. ] Heb. would be hearty, • gregie cordatus home, there is an elegancy in the Original that cannot be Englished. Wilt thou know, O vain man, saith St. James chap. 2.20. The Greek is, thou empty man, thou that hast nothing in thee, and yet art highly conceited: thou that art ( Ephraim -like) a silly dove without an heart, Hos. 7.11. and yet in superbiam erect •• (as the Vulgar here hath it) raised up to pride: that little knowledge he hath, puffeth him up, 1 Cor. 8.1. So hollows-like is the natural soul, or rather so bladder-like, like, that filled with earthly vanities, it grows great, and swelleth in pride: but pricked with the least pin of piercing grief, it shriveleth to nothing. The Prophet Isaiah fitly compareth it to a bul-rush, chap. 58.5. the color whereof is fresh, the skin smooth: but if you pill it, what is under but a kind of spongious, unsubstantial substance, of no use in the world worth the speaking of? Formallists and pretenders to holiness, are flat nothing, worse then nothing, iniquity, Matth. 23.28.

Though man he born as a wild asses colt ] Take him in his pure naturals, he is no wiser; created he was in God's image, which consisted in knowledge, righteousness and holiness: knowledge in his understanding, rightness or straightness in his will, and holiness in his affections. But since the fall, all this is lost and gone quite: he hath principium laesum, neither can he know the things of God, no though he be 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a souly man, one that doth excolere animam, such as Tully and Aristotle: yet is he in spirituals, as blind as a beetle, a mere asse-colt: a colt is none of the wisest creature, much less an asse-colt, least of all a wild asse-colt; and yet such is man, sensual man, Judge. 19. sapless man, Psalm 14.1. he is as an asses foale for rudeness, a wild asses for unruliness, untamed, and intractable. Surely, as a wild asse-colt, (saith Gregory upon this text) not used to the yoke, runneth up and down the large fields and woods at his pleasure, and when he is weary, lieth down, and thus doth from day today: So man by nature is licentious, running as his lusts carry him, to all manner of sin, and giveth not overrunning till he is weary: he will not be held in by any reins, or kept to do the work he should by any yoke which the Lord by teaching seeks to put upon him. Surely (saith another) God is fain to deal with such, as men do with frisking jades in a pasture, that cannot take them up, till they get them to a gate: so till the hour of death &c. Thomas Blaverus chief counselor sometime to the King of Scots, believed not that there was God or devil, heaven or hell, till he came to die, and then cried out, he was damned: so also died one Arthur Miller: and before him, a desperate Dean of Paul's. When death comes (saith Sir Walter Raleigh ) which hates and destroys men, that is believed. But God that loveth and maketh men, he is not regarded. O eloquent death! O mighty death! whom none could advise, thou art able to persuade &c.

Verse 13. If thou prepare thine heart ] viz. to meet God, Amos 4.12. humbly submitting to his justice, and heartily imploring his mercy. The sum of what Zophar saith in the following verses, is this; if thou truly repent, thou shalt prosper: as if not, thou shalt perish: this he might have said more fitly to most of us, who are deeply guilty (saith Lavater ) then to Job, who was nothing so sinful as we are, and yet much more penitent. But Zophar calls upon him to quarrel with his faults, and not with his friends, and to break off his sins by repentance; without which, if he should have peace, it would be but like those short interims between the Egyptian plagues.

And stretch out thine hands towards him ] Heb. And spread thy palms to him: so in prayer for pardon of sin, and power against sin: for this stretching out, or spreading of the hands, is a prayer-gesture, wherein God's people come formâ pauperis, holding out the hand to receive mercy, as beggars do an alms: or as men beg quarter for their lives with hands held up: or lastly, as he that is fallen into a ditch, or deep pit, and cannot get out, lifteth up his hands, and crieth out for help. See Exod. 17.11, 12. and 19.29. 1 Kings 8.22. Psalm 141.2. It appeareth that the Ancients prayed not with their hands joined together, or a little way lifted up, but with their arms stretched abroad, and the palms of their hands turned up towards heaven.

Verse 14. If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away ] Cast away all thy transgressions, and throw thy lusts out of service. Hands lifted up in prayer must be pure, 1 Tim. 2.8. for the fountain of goodness will not be laden at with foul hands Isai. 1.15, 16. Good therefore is the counsel of Jeremiah, chap. 4.14. and of St. James, chap. 4.8. The Priests had their laver to wash in before they sacrificed, and their brazen altar to offer on before they burnt incense. He that comes to pray, having not first purged himself of all filthiness of flesh and spirit, doth (say the Jew-doctors) as he that cometh to offer a clean beast, but holds an unclean one in his hand. By iniquity in the hand here, Beza and others understand wrong-dealing, either by fraud or force, by strength or slight of hand: and then Zophar presseth Job to restitution: away with it, saith he, send it home to the right owner: else you will cough in hell, and the devils will laugh at you, saith Latimer.

And let not wickedness dwell in thy Tabernacles ] i. e. In thy family, and where ever else thou hast to do; I and my house will serve the Lord, saith Joshua: I and my maids, saith Esther. David's care for the reforming and well-ordering of his household, and of his whole kingdom, See Psalm 101. throughout. Such a man is really as he is relatively. Those Governors of families and countries show themselves perfect strangers to the practice of repentance, who make no other use of their servants and subjects, then they do of their beasts; whiles they may have their bodies to do their service, they care not if their souls serve the devil. This will lie heavy one day.

Verse 15. For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot &c. ] Repentance must be performed in faith, or else it will prove to be poenitentia Iscariotica, a Judas -like repentance. Lord (said that dying Saint) cast me down as low as hell in repentance, and lift me up by faith into the highest heavens in confidence of thy salvation. Zophar, that he may move Job kindly and rightly to repent, promiseth him thereupon malorum ademptionem, bonorum adeptionem, freedom from evil, and fruition of good. And first, thou shalt lift up thy face without spot, i. e. Thou shalt be full of comfort and of confidence, not casting down thy countenance, as guilty Cain but looking up boldly and cheerfully, as St. Steven did, Acts 7.15. they saw his face as it had been the face of an Angel.

Yea, thou shalt be steadfast ] Or durable and compact as a molten pillar; thine heart shall be established with grace, thy mind with peace: thine outward estate with a lasting felicity.

And shall not fear ] sc. The loss of those enjoyments. To be freed from the fear of evil, is better then to be freed from evil: and a great part of the Saints portion both on earth and in heaven, lies in their deliverance from fear, Luke 1.74. Psalm 112.7. See Zepb. 3.13. Isa. 17.2. Repent, and thou shalt fear no more a revolution of any thy troubles.

Verse 16. Because thou shalt forget thy misery ] There being no fear left, or foot step thereof remaining to renew thy grief, Gen. 41.30. Remember thy former trouble thou shalt, with thankfulness for a better condition now, but no otherwise: all the marks of former affliction shall be worn out. See Isa. 65.16.13. so that thou shalt discount all the evil thou hast endured.

And remember it as waters that pass away ] As a land-flood, soon gone, as a light cloud quickly over: or as Noah's flood which that good man thought upon: when it was past, with thankfulness to God, offering sacrifice for his safety. So shalt thou Job: and as a man seldom thinketh how much water passeth by his habitation by day and by night; or if he do; yet its no trouble to his mind, no more shall the remembrance of by-past miseries be to thine.

Verse 17. And thine age shall be clearer then the noon-day ] The rest of thy life which thou givest for lost, shall be the very prime part of thy time for glory. Solid glory springeth out of innocence of life, beneficence toward all men, acts done valiantly and successfully with justice and moderation of mind: whereunto is added the constant applause of good men, proceeding from an admiration of so great virtue. This Zophar promiseth Job upon his true repentance, with a daily increase thereof, as the Sun shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Fame followeth virtue, as the shadow doth the body at the very heels. If there be any virtue, if any praise, saith the Apostle Philip. 4.8. Where the one is, the other will be. Abel for his faith and righteousness is yet spoken of (as some render Hebr. 11.4.) though dead long ago. The Righteous shall be had in everlasting remembrance, Psalm 112.6.

Thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning ] Isai. 58.8. Or, If thou dost wax obscure, yet thou shalt match the morning which disperseth darkness, and conquers it by the approaching light. Look how the Moon wadeth out of a cloud, so shall thine over-cast righteousness break, forth as the light, and thy judgment as the noon-day, Psalm 37.6.

Verse 18. And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope ] It's a spiritual security that's here promised, which is a fruit of faith, quelling and killing distracting and distrustful fears; faith, I say, unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5. which produceth hope unfailable Rom. 5.5. Hope is the daughter of faith, but such as is a staff to her aged mother.

Yea, thou shalt dig about thee ] That is (saith one Interpreter) by searching to find out how to do all things for the best, thou shalt prosper in all. Others sense it thus, thou shalt be secure as they that lie in trenches. Rabbi David, Thou shalt dig only about thy city, and not need to make any walls about it for thy security. Others, thou shalt labor hard, and sleep soundly thereupon. Or thus, God shall so encompass thee with his safe protection, as if thou dost but dig a place to pitch thy tent in, thou shalt enjoy thyself safelier therein then otherwise thou wouldst do in a walled city.

And thou shalt take thy rest ] God will keep off those gnats of cares and fears, that might disquiet thee. We read of some great Princes that could not sleep; as Ahasuerus Esth. 6.1. Richard the third of England; and Charles the ninth of Franc, after that barbarous Massacre at Paris: but David could Psalm 3. and 4. because God was his keeper. No marvel that Philip sleepeth soundly, when Antipater (his fast friend) watched by him the while. Job and all God's beloved ones shall sleep on both ears, Psalm 127.2. rest securely and comfortably. What should hinder, when the keeper of Israel, who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth, shall watch over them for good?

Verse 19. Thou shalt lie down, and none shall make thee afraid ] Thou shalt walk about the world like a conqueror, being ever under a double guard, the Peace of God within thee, Philip. 4.7. and the Power of God without thee 1 Pet. 1.5. neither shall any enemy come upon thee in the night to fright and to disturb thee, which is a great mercy. It is not long since we of this Nation did eat the bread of our souls in peril of our lives, neither could we rest in our beds for the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war: Destruction upon destruction was cried &c. Jer. 4.19, 20. Should this ever be forgotten?

Yea, many shall make suit unto thee ] Heb. Shall entreat thy face: yea, they shall tire thee out with their entreaties. Many seek the Rulers favor, Prov. 29.26. he is even thronged with suitors, so that he cannot be without a Master of Requests. Hence the Poet Orpheus feigneth that Litae or Supplications and Petitions are Joves daughters: and that they are ever attending at his throne. Here then Zophar promiseth Job, that upon his return to God he shall be as great a man as ever; and that many, yea, that his very enemies shall not only not molest him, but fear his power, and beg his favor. And whereas once it was, this is Job whom no man feeketh, after, then the rich among the people shall entreat thy favor, Psalm 45.12. and all that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the foals of thy seat, Isai 60.14. See Isai 45.14. Rev. 3.9. Prov. 19.6. Lo this is the honor God putteth upon holiness, Holy and reverend is his name; and therefore reverend because holy: so also is ours, Isai. 43.4. Howbeit we have cause to complain, that in these last and worst times, as the Turks count all fools to be Saints, so men with us account all Saints to be fools; and not a few turn to unholiness, lest they should be despised.

Verse 20. But the eyes of the wicked shall fail ] Contraries illustrate one another: and Zophar willing his words should stick and work, thinks to leave a sting in Jobs mind by telling him what he must trust to if he persist in his sin. And first, his eyes shall sails: The eye is a principal part of the body: and the failing of the eyes followeth either upon some sudden fright, or upon much weeping, Damen. 2. Psalm 88. and 38. (we read of one Faustus son of Vortiger King of Britain, who wept out his eyes) or too long looking after the same thing, or on the same object. The wicked, saith Zophar, shall never want frights and griefs; they shall also look many a long look after help, but none shall appear Lam. 4.17. their hopes shall be fruitless their projects successelesse.

And they shall not escape ] Heb. refuge or flight shall perish from them • miseries and mischiefs they shall never be able to avert or avoid; many sorrows shall be to the wicked Psalm 32.10. and although they may think to get off, of out-run them, yet it will not be, Amos 2.14. Psalm 142.4. Saul for instance. God hath forsaken me, saith he, and the Philistines are upon me, 1 Sam. 28.15.

Their hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost ] Broughton rendereth it, Their hope is naught but pangs of the soul. Of that which yieldeth but cold comfort, we use to say, It comforteth a man like the pangs of death: the Vulgar hath it, Their hope shall be the abomination of their soul: the Tigurine, Their hope shall be most vain, even as a puff of breath which presently passeth away, and cometh to nothing. Some Rabbin's make this the sense, Their hope shall be as the snuffing of the breath: that is, they shall be so angry at their disappointments, that they shall vex and snuff at it. According to our translation, the wicked man's hope is set forth as utterly forlorn, and at an end for any good ever to befall him. The godly man's hope is lively, 1 Pet. 1.3. and the righteous hath hope in his death, Prov. 14.32. Cum expiro spero is his motto: whereas the wicked's word when he dieth is, or may be, spes & fortuna valete, my life and hope endeth together; Spes eorùm expiratione animae, so Tremellius rendereth the text: Death causeth in the wicked a total despair, and a most dreadful schreek giveth the guilty soul, when it seeth itself launching into an infinite ocean of scalding lead, and considereth that therein it must swim naked forever.

CHAP. XII. Verse 1. And Job answered and said]

BEing nipped and nettled with his friends hard usage of him, and harsh language to him, but especially with Zophars arrogant and lofty preface in the former chapter, he begins now to wax warm, and more roughly and roundly to shape them an answer.

Verse 3. No doubt but ye are the people ] The select peculiar people, the only Ones, as a man is put for a good man, Jer. 5.1. a wife for a good wife, Prov. 18.22. a name for a good name Eccles. 7.1. As Athens was said to be the Greece of Greece, and as one promising to show his friend all Athens at once, shown him Solo •• or as the Latin Poet, saying of Fabius Maximus.

So saith Job by an holy jear (not to disgrace his friends, but to bring them to more modesty and moderation, if it might be) Certes, ye are not one or two men, but specimen totius orbis, an Epitome of the world, or at least the Representative of some whole people: ye have got away all the wit from myself and others, whom ye look upon as so many wild asses colts in comparison of yourselves. Thus the Pope ( Simon Magus -like) gives himself out to be some great thing, Acts 8.9. even the Church-virtual and that in his breast, as in Noah's Ark, is comprehended all wisdom and worth: ye know nothing at all, saith he ( Caiaphas -like) to all others, Job. 11.49. So do his Janizaries, the Jesuits, who will needs be taken for the only Scholars, Politicians, and Orators of the world. The Church, say they, is the soul of the world, the Clergy of the Church; and we of the Clergy: the Empire of learning is ours &c.

And wisdom shall die with you ] As being looked up in your bosoms. Suetonius telleth us of Palaemon the Grammarian, that he was heard to say, that Learning was born with him, and would die with him. The Gnostics would needs be held the only knowing men: Illuminates in Spain the only spiritual men: Swe • kfeldians in Germany styled themselves the Confessors of the glory of Christ: our Antinomians the Hearers of the Gospel, and of free-grade. But what saith Solomon? Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth, Prov. 27.2. And that which had been much to a man's commendation, if from another, soundeth very slenderly from himself, saith Pliny. Ibn Ez •• , and Rabbi Levi set another sense upon this verse, as if it were no 〈◊〉 , but a plain assertion to this effect: Questionlesse you are to be counted 〈◊〉 the common sort of people (see John 7.49.) Neither is there in you anything excellent or extraordinary, that ye should be looked upon, as drained from the dregs, or sifted from the brans of the very vulgar: your wisdom, if ever you had any, is even dead and decayed with you, and you have out-lived your prime &c.

Verse 3. But I have understanding as well as you ] Think not that you have engrossed all the knowledge, and that you have the monopoly of wisdom in your breasts, for surely I may come into the balance with you, and claim as great a share in understanding as yourselves. Zophar was pleased to call me hollow and heartless, chap. 11.12. But I have an heart (so the Hebrew here hath it) that seat of understanding: and that shall appear in the ensuing discourse, where Job proveth, that by solid arguments concerning God's power, wisdom, &c. which Zophar had but barely propounded. And whereas this patient man was not without his impatiencies, yet he discovereth more grace, even in his distempers, then his friends did in their seeming wise carriages. Breaking out in the body shows strength of nature. Some infirmities discover more good, then some seeming beautiful actions.

I am not inferior to you ] Heb. I fall not lower then you. See Nehem. 6.16. Esth. 6.13. Job 13.2. He meaneth, that he was much their superior, and did better understand the doctrine of God's providence then they. This he speaketh not out of any vain-glory, or ambitious boasting; but as David, and Paul, and others after them did, commending themselves, either in defense of their own wronged innocence, or when it appeared unto them, that the concealing of their good parts and practices might turn to the hindrance of the truth, or to the hurt of the Church, or to the impairing and impeaching of God's glory. In these cases, self-commendation is not unseemly: but a Job may lawfully stand upon, not his comparisons only, but his disparisons also.

Yea, who knoweth not such things as these? ] Viz. That God rewardeth the righteous, and punisheth the ungodly. The Heathen saw this by the rush-candle of natures dim light. Doth not nature itself teach you? saith Paul 1 Cor. 11.14. And again, This ye know, that no whoremonger &c. hath any inheritance in the kingdom of God, and of Christ, Eph. 5.5.

Verse 4. I am as one mocked of his neighbor ] Those that should countenance and comfort me, contemn and scorn me. I am their laughter and pastime; so he took it, since they sat so heavily upon the skirts of his conscience, and would not weigh his reasons brought in his own defense.

Who calleth upon God, and he answereth him ] i. e. I Job do make God my refuge, when these jeering neighbors of mine do shame my counsel, Psalm 14.6. and would mock me out of my religion: but God favoreth me though men frown: and where human help faileth, divine appeareth. Or thus rather: I am derided of those who profess to call upon God, and to hear often from heaven. They are hard-hearted to me, though themselves have liberally tasted of God's tenderness: and they pull up the bridg of mercy before me, which themselves have oft gone over.

The just upright man is laughed to scorn ] Shame shall be the promotion of fools, Prov. 3.35. and such a dissembler as Doeg may well be derided, Psalm 52.6, 7. But what hath the righteous done? And why should just, upright Job be laughed to scorn? But this is no news: Christ and his people have ever been for signs, and for wonders in this mad world, always besides itself in point of salvation. He that departeth, from evil, maketh himself a prey, or is accounted mad, Isai. 59.15. If he will needs be a just upright man, if he will live godly in Christ Jesus (if he be so set upon it, that none shall hinder him) he shall suffer persecution, this of the tongue howsoever, 2 Tim. 3.12. A wolf flieth not upon a painted sheep; we can look upon a painted toad with delight: it is the reality of godliness that is hated.

Verse 5. He that is ready to slip with his feet ] He who is in a declining, tottering condition, ready to fall and perish under the burden of his afflictions, though formerly he was looked upon and made use of as a lamp or torch, yet when he is at an under, and brought low, is shamefully slighted by such as have the world at will: like as a torch when wasted and waxen short is cast out of the hands, and trodden on with the feet of him that held it. The holiest men, if afflicted, do but smother instead of shining. When Christ himself was a man of sorrows, he was therefore despised and rejected of men, who hid, as it were, their faces from him, and esteemed him not, Isa. 53.3. The Prodigals elder brother speaks scornfully of him, because poor, Luke 15.30. This thy son; he saith not, This my brother &c. Gregory saith, that the poor just man is here compared to a lamp extinct, because he shineth inwardly by the virtue of an upright heart: but outwardly is as it were extinct, because there is nothing outward to commend him; no glorious appearel, no goodly houses, &c. whence they are slighted by the rich wretches of this world. But such a lamp (saith he, following the Vulgar translation) is set for an appointed time; that is, the day of judgment, when he shall shine most brightly, even as the Sun &c. when the worlds favorites shall be thrust into utter darkness.

Verse 6. The tabernacles of robbers prosper ] By Robbers here understand all such as sin against the second table, but especially oppressors, and wrong-dealers, whether by force or fraud. As by those that provoke God (quires Dei interturbant, so the Tigurines translate) that irritate and disquiet him, attempting to put him out of temper, are meant sinners against the first table. See the like 1 Tim. 1.13. I was (against God) a blasphemer, (against man) a persecutor, against both injurious: but I obtained mercy, special mercy. So do not these Robbers and God-provokers in the text: thrive they may, and be in a peaceable condition; yea, they may be secure and confident of the continuance of their prosperity: confidences are to them; saith the Hebrew verity; for they trust in uncertain riches, whiles God bringeth into their hands, viz. whatsoever they wish, yet not as love-tokens, but as wrath-tokens: these fatting beasts are but fitting for the slaughter. God oft giveth that in wrath to some, which he with-holdeth from others in great mercy. Mean-while Zophars twofold assertion in the former chapter, verse 17, 20. that good men prosper here, and bad men suffer, falls to the ground; whiles Job disproves it, 1. By experience in this verse and the former. 2. By the testimony of the creatures, those Catholic preachers, ver. 7, 8, 9, 10. 3. By the testimony of the senses, and of ancient men, verse 11, 12.

Verse 7. But ask now the beasts of the earth, and they shall teach thee ] Even the wildest of them that abide in the wilderness: there is not one of these, or else of the fouls of the air, but can both teach thee, and tell thee that the world is ordered by a providence, that God is Powerful, Wise, Just, &c. and must therefore be loved and served. That he suffereth the bad to oppress the good, as the great beasts do devour the little ones; as the hurtful fouls destroy the harmless; as the great fishes eat up the smaller: man, who was once the Captain of God's school, is now, for his truantlinesse, turned down into the lowest form, as it were, to learn his A b c again; yea, to learn it of the meanest creatures. See Prov. 6.6. Jer. 8.7. Matth. 6.26. where it appeareth, that in the Ant, Stork, Swallow, &c. God hath set before us, as in a picture, the lively resemblance of many excellent virtues, which we ought to pursue and practice. These are the right lay-men's-books, the images that may truly teach people the knowledge of God, and of his will, of themselves, and of their duties: which we should the rather learn; because God hath given us wisdom beyond them, Job 37.11. and yet by sending us to them, shameth our dullness and disobedience.

Verse 8. Or speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee ] Teach thee? What? surely many good lessons; as that of humility and modesty, considering out original: that of fruitfulness, whiles she liberally yields her riches and strength, and brings forth food for the maintenance of those innumerable armies of creatures that live upon her: but especially, and for the purpose, this the earth teacheth, that the tabernacles of robbers prosper, that oppressors swallow down most of her delicates, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, ruffle in her silks, and rifle in her hid treasures of gold and silver.

And the fishes of the sea shall declare unto thee ] These muti magistri have somewhat also to say to thee, and by a dumb kind of eloquence read thee a divinity-lecture, whilst they are able to produce many such particular examples of violence in the seas; and will further declare (or ciphe up unto thee) how oft they are served up to great men's tables, and do fill the far paunches of oppressors. It is not unlikely that Job, in this frequent sending Zophar to school to the unreasonable and inanimate creatures, closely twitteth him with those quicker questions of his, chap. 10.8. What canst thou do? what canst thou know, &c.? giving him also to know that he need not travel so far as heaven or hell for instances of God's infant • power and wisdom, since we may contemplate the foot-steps of God in each creature: and since he is so near unto us, that he may be almost felt with our hands, as Paul speaketh.

Verse 9. Who knoweth not in all these &c. ] Or, By all these forementioned creatures &c. and therefore Zophar, you have shown no more wisdom in your lofty discourse, then the birds, beasts, and fishes have taught and told us. It is a silly vanity to pretend mysteriousnesse about vulgar truths; to dig deep for that which lieth above ground; to talk of new truths, and never before heard of, when as the hearer may well say, as here, Who knows not such things as these? Of some in these days it is observed, that they call upon their hearers to mark, it may be they shall hear that which they have not heard before: when the thing is either false, or if true, no more then ordinarily is taught by others.

That the hand of the Lord hath wrought this ] That he alone made all without tool or toile, and that he alone manageth and ordereth all according to the good pleasure of his will: neither need he subscribe his name to his work; for the very things that he hath made, proclaim that he made them. Mean while, hereby we may see how much we are beholden to Aristotle, Elian, Gesner, and other Learned men, who have written books concerning the Natures of living creatures.

Verse 10. In whose hand is the soul of every living thing ] That is, the life of every beast, flowing from a sensitive soul, Lev. 17, 10, 11. This, God both giveth to the creature, and conserveth it: he suffereth it not to be taken away from little sparrows, or the like, without order from him: much less befalleth any such thing to man without his singular providence, since our very hairs also are numbered, Matth. 10.30. Luke 12.7. The Jew-doctors do therefore offer manifest injury to Job, when they say, that he held indeed that God created, and doth preserve the several kinds of things, but permitteth the particulars and individua 's to hap-hazard; whereas here he delivereth his judgment plainly to the contrary, when he saith,

And the breath of all mankind ] Heb. The spirit of all man's flesh (and so Broughton readeth it) that is, of every man's body: hence God is called the God of the spirits of all flesh, Numb. 16.22. and the Father of Spirits, Heb. 12.9. and the Former of the spirit of man within him, Zech. 12.1. My times are in thine hand, saith David, Psalm 31.15. God preserves our lives as a light in a lantern: and we may be glad it is in so safe an hand; we should therefore honor him, as Daniel telleth Belshazzar, Dan. 5.23. yea, let everything that hath breath praise the Lord, Psalm 150.6. Or as the Hebrew hath it, Let every breath praise the Lord: as oft as we breathe, we are to breathe out the praise of God, and to make our breath like the smoke of the Tabernacle: this we should do the rather, because our breath is in our nostrils, every moment ready to puff out, and the grave cannot praise God, death cannot celebrate him, Isai. 38.18.

Verse 11. Doth not the ear try words &c. ] The mind may as easily conceive of these truths, as the ear judgeth certainly of the variety of sounds, and the tongue of the diversity of tastes: neither may you think that I will, without any examination or distinction, allow of your discourses; or that I can take it well that you reject, as void of reason, whatsoever I have said, without once weighing it. The ear is one of the two learned senses, it is an instrument of discipline: only it should be kept clean and free from prejudice or passion, which will be as gall in the ear. See Exod. • .9. Demosthenes called oft upon his Athenians to get their ears purged of tholer: and Alexander, when he heard a cause, was wont always to keep 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 one ear free for the other party: he would not be prepossessed. Mercer observeth, that the Hebrew word for an ear, doth in the dual number signify a pair of balancer, to note, that a judicious Christian taketh not up truth upon trust, but considereth first, and afterwards believeth; he trieth all things, and then holdeth first that which is good, but abstaineth from all appearance of evil, 1 Thes. 5.21, 22. The ear and the mind are in the Greek tongue very like in sound: the mind judgeth of the truth of words by the ears, as the hearn in a pair of balances determineth the just weight of things by the two scales. He that is spiritual discerneth all things, 1 Cor. 2.15. he hath spiritual sense • . Philip. 1.9. senses exercised, habitually exercised, to 〈◊〉 good and evil, H • b 5.14. his service is a rational service, Rom. 12.1 his obedience the obedience of faith, Rom. 16.26. Whereas the natural man is carried away as he is led, 2 Cor. 12.2. pulled away with the error of the wicked, 2 Pet. 3.17. taken prisoner by seducers, 2 Tim. 3.6. and by them made prize of, Col. 2.8. as having either no skil, or no will to examine what is doctrinally propounded to him.

As the mouth tasteth his meat ] Heb. the palate, which is the proper instrument of tasting: Now the order of nature requireth (saith one) that seeing our bodily senses, are so nimble and able to discern what is sour, what sweet, &c. our understandings also should do the same by right reason: and the contrary is very absurd and unbecoming a man; neither can there be any good excuse made for our dullness, if we bend not our minds to the search of the truth, for as much as there is so much ado made to please the palate, eyes, ears, and other senses: Catullus wished all his body were nose, that he might-spend all his time in sweet smells. Philoxenus, that his neck were as long as a Cranes, that he might take more delight in meats and drinks (it seems that he placed tasting not in the mouth, but in the throat.) Boccace the Italian Poet said, that he was born a • amore delle donne, for the love of women: and of a prodigal pleasure-monger in London, we read, that to please all his five senses at once, he allowed to the delight of every several sense, a several hundred pound. See the Note on Amos 6.6. There is a sancta crapula, an holy gluttony, as Luther calleth an hearty feeding on divine viands, a finding fatness and sweetness beyond that of the honey and honey-comb in God's Ordinances, crying to Jesus Christ as the Spouse doth Cant. 8.13. Cause me to hearken to thy voice: and obeying him, thus bespeaking us, Eat ô friends, drink. yea, drink abundantly ô beloved, till you are even inebriated with loves, Cant. 5.1.

Verse 12. With the ancient is wisdom ] Heb. with the decrepit, who have a long, long being upon earth, and are now become wondrous old, even four-score and upward: with such is wisdom, or else it is a shame for them. See 1 John 2.12. Heb. 5.12. True it is, that wisdom doth not always lean upon a staff, nor look through spectacles. Age is no just measure of wisdom: there are beardless sages, (as was Solomon ) and gray-headed children, as Rehoboam. Macarius was called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the old youth; ( Samuel, Daniel, Timothy were such.) When Arsacius, who succeeded Chrysostom, was an old dotrel of fourscore years, adorandae rubiginis, (as one saith of some ancient Authors:) and Nectarius who succeeded Nazianzen, was a mere novice, and preferred to that place, only because he was of a venerable aspect, and of a bishop-like presence and deportment. Of the Brabants Erasmus testifieth, that the elder they are, the foolisher. And Job here seemeth to tax his friends, that though old, yet they were not over-wise, not worthy of their years: since they understood not what he spake concerning God's providence: Is wisdom with the ancient, saith he, and understanding in length of days? so some read it question-wise, q. d. it ill appeareth.

And in length of days, understanding ] By reason of their much observation, and frequent experience, together with their ability to draw other things out of those they have observed, and from former events to presage future. This is to be understood of such old men as are like flowers, which have their roots perfect, when themselves are withering; as with roses, keep a sweet savor though they lose their color; as with the Sun, shine most amiably at their going down. But lest we should attribute too much to such sages, Job shows in the next verse, that all their wisdom is but derivative, and that all their understanding is but a spark of God's flame, a drop of his Ocean.

Verse 13. With him is wisdom and strength &c ] Wisdom, strength, counsel, and understanding, are all concentred in the Ancient of days: complete he is in all excellencies and perfections, all which do meet in him, and continue always in the highest degree. The mighty God fainteth not, neither is weary: there is no searching of his understanding Isai. 40.28. He is also no less good then great and wise; good, original, universal, all-sufficient, and satisfactory, proportionable, and fitting for our soul; which as it was made by him, and for him, so it is never at quiet till it resteth in him. See chap. 9.4.

He hath counsel and understanding ] Counsel he hath, but without consultation: Wisdom, but without experience: Knowledge, but without discourse: Decree, but without deliberation: Loquimur de Deo &c. we speak of God. saith one, not as we ought, but as we are able. And these things we speak of God (saith another Father) because we find not what better to speak of him. But Job hath a mind to say the utmost that may be said.

Verse 14. Beheld, he breaketh down, and it cannot be built again ] As he did the old world, Sodom and Gomorrah, many Monarchies and Empires, the Tower of Babel, and other castles and houses which now live by fame only, If at all. If God have a mind to mine these, who shall raise or repair them? Julian the Apostate, in spite to the Christians, set the Jews awork to re-edify the Temple at Jerusalem, but they could never effect it, by reason of a terrible earth-quake, that slew the workmen, and marred the materials. The Arian Bishops held a second Council at Nice, with purpose to have abolished the memory of the first, together with the Nicene Creed, and to have established Arianism: but God disappointed them, and sent them packing thence by a huge earth-quake, which overturned a great part of that city, and destroyed a number of people. Constance Nephew to Heraclius the Greek Emperor, and (three hundred years after him) Othe Emperor of Germany, endeavored, but in vain, to make Rome the seat of their Empires, as anciently it had been. God would not suffer it so to be, saith Genebrard, because the Kingdom of the Church, foretold by Daniel, was to have its seat there. If he had said, the kingdom of Antichrist foretold by Paul, and John the Divine, he had hit the nail on the very head.

He shutteth up a man, and there can be no opening ] He clappeth him up close prisoner, as Manasseh, Zedekiah, Bajazet, Boniface the 8. &c) or fasteneth him to his bed by some chronical disease (as he did Abimelech, Ahaziab, Asa, Aeneas, Acts 9.33.) or otherwise straiteneth him that he knows not how to help himself, as he did Pharaoh, Saul (when the Philistines were upon him of every side) those refractaries in Isaiah, chap. 9.2. and shall do the whore of Babylon, Rev. 18. when her lovers shall bewail her, but not be able to bestead her, ver. 9, 10. For when God shutteth up any in this sort, they must lie by it till he please to release them, and extricate them, as he did Joseph Jehoshaphat, David, Peter, Valentinian. and many others, when they were even forsaken of their hopes.

Verse 15. Behold he with-holdeth the waters, and they dry up ] He not only when he pleaseth, imprisoneth men, but waters also, that they cannot get out of the clouds, those bottles of rain, those airy sponges, vessels as thin as the liquor that is contained in them: it is from the power of God that they dissolve not upon us at once, and overwhelm us. Bartholinus reports that in the year of grace 1551. a great number of men and cattle were drowned by the sudden breaking of a cloud, divers vine-yeards, stone walls, strong houses, were destroyed and ruined. At sea sometimes, ships are by the same means sunk, sea-men call it a spo • t. Again, it is by the anger and judgments of God that the clouds are sometimes so closed up, that they yield no more water then iron or adamant: If I shut up heaven, saith he, that there the no rain, 2 Chron. 7.13. and Deut. 28.23, 24. God threateneth, as a punishment of men's sin, that the heavens over their heads shall be brass, and the earth under them shall be iron; that the rain of their land shall be made powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon them &c. by exceeding great drought, grains of dust shall ascend into the air with the wind, and come down as the drops of rain in a shower when it is kindly weather. Thus it was in A • obe days 1 King. 18. See Joel 1.20. with the Note.

And they dry up ] The rivers, fruits of the earth, roots of trees, all dry up, languish, and perish, fevers also, and other acute diseases abound.

Also he sendeth them out, and they overturn the earth ] They did so with an accent in the general deluge, and in Deucalious flood in Thessaly, besides many other great tracts and parts of the earth over-turned by water. Pliny and Seneca give us sundry instances of towns and countries laid waste by water. What great hurt was lately done about Amsterdam by water, and what breaking down of bridges, mills, and other houses, by excessive rain, and floods thereupon, besides marring of grounds, and rotting of cattle in many places amongst us, needeth not here to be related.

Verse 16. With him is strength and wisdom ] i. e. Such strength as he exerciseth most wisely, mightily and righteously. Sic volo, sic 〈◊〉 , saith the Tyrant, Right or wrong, thus it shall be: Volumus & • u • emus, saith that man of sin, we will and command &c. neither must any one mute or say so much as what dost thou? upon pain of damnation. When Constantius would have Paulinus, Lucifer, and other Bishops subscribe against Athanasius, and communicate with the Arians, he yielded to no other reason but this, Quod ego volo, pro canone fit, Do as I bid, or get you into banishment. But God, though he hath all power in his hand, and may do whatsoever he pleaseth, yet with him is strength and equity (so Vatabius rendereth the word Tusbijah here used) or the being, substance, and permanency of all creatures (so Munster ) which subsist merely by his manutention: or, the rule and certain law of wisdom and judgment, by which wisdom acteth, saith Mercer. So then the Lord, though he make his will a law, yet he cannot do otherwise then well, because nothing but wisdom and equity is in it.

The deceived, and the deceiver are his ] This Job produceth as a proof of God's insuperable strength, and unsearchable wisdom, that he hath an over-ruling hand in the artifices and slights of men, even the cunning craftiness (as the Apostle speaketh) Eph. 4.14. Whereby they lie in wait to deceive. These he not only and barely permitteth in his just judgment upon the deceived (whether through ignorance, or idleness) but disposeth also, & ordereth both the deceiver and the deceived, (whether in spiritual things, or civil) to his own righteous ends, and holy purposes. See Ezek. 14.9. 1 Kin. 22.19, 20 2 Thes. 2.11. Isa. 19.14. and then conclude with Job, that wisdom and strength are his, who can thus draw light out of darkness, and powerfully order the disorders of the world to his own glory, and the good of his people: For there must be heresies, that they which are approved may be made manifest, 1 Cor. 11.9. Mean-while, here is the comfort of every good soul, that none can take them out of the Father hands, Job. 10.29. and it is impossible that the elect should be totally and finally deceived, because both the deceived and the deceiver are God's: by him, and from him, and for him are deceivers and deceived, (so Broughton translateth this text). By him, for he suffereth and ordereth them: From him, for he sendeth them: And For him, for they promote his glory, and serve his ends. He many times suffereth the tree of the Church to be shaken, that rotten fruit may drop off. There are the set this sense upon the words; they are both in God's hands, the deceiver to have revenge taken upon him, and the deceived who revengeth not himself to have his cause righted, as 1 Thes. 4.6. an argument both of God's wisdom to find out the deceiver, how subtle soever: and likewise of his power in punishing them, how potent soever.

Verse 17. He leadeth counsellors away spoiled ] Viz. Of wit, wealth, and honor. This should be a warning to such not to take ill causes in hand, not to call evil good, and good evil, not to justify the wicked for a reward, and to take away the righteousness of the righteous from him; not to bolster out a bad cause, and to outface a good, lest if they improve their wits and parts to so evil an end, God make them as despicable as before they were honorable. They may see what the Lord did to Abitophel that Oracle of his time, to Pharaohs counsellors, Isa. 19.11, 12. to Pharaoh himself, Ex. 1.10. with Pr. 28.15.

And he maketh the Judges fools ] Broughton rendereth the verse thus, He brings Counselors to badness, and Judges to stark madness: He infatuateth them, not by infusing folly into them anymore, then the Sun when he shineth not in our Horizon, causeth darkness in the air, which of itself, and of its own nature is dark: But when God with-holdeth that light of wisdom which he had imparted to a man, his in-bred darkness must needs show itself. More then this, it sometimes cometh to pass, that when God delivereth a man up for his sins to a reprobate sense to an injudicious mind, he is thenceforth deprived sometimes of natural wisdom, and common sense, that the divine revenge may be the more apparent.

Verse 18. He looseth the bonds of Kings ] He degradeth them, taking away all command and authority from them, which is the bond that bindeth the people to obedience and subjection; Job 30.11. Isai. 45.1, 5. as our Henry the third, who was called Regni dilapidator, ill beloved of his people, and far a less King (saith the Chronicler) by striving to be more then he was: the just reward of violations.

And gardeth their loins with a girdle ] With a rope, say the Vulgar: he brings them from the throne to the prison: he layeth affliction upon their loins, as Psalm 66.11. An instance hereof (beside the late King, and Corradinus King of Germany likewise beheaded at Naples ) we had here in Richard the second, brought forth in a royal robe to be deposed, and then hunger-starved in prison: as also in Henry the sixth, who having been the most potent Monarch for dominions that ever England had, was afterwards (when deposed) not the Master of a mole-hill, nor owner of his own liberty, but baffled and beaten by every base fellow. Some Interpreters make the sense of this to be thus; God sometimes looseth the bonds, into which Princes are brought, and advanceth them again to kingly dignity, the ensign whereof, was of old a precious girdle. So it befell Manasseh, Nebuchadnezzar, Jehoiakins, restored and honored again as a king, by Evilmerodach, 2 Kings 25.28 Historians write, that Nebuchadnezzar was so offended with his son and successor Evilmerodach, as he cast him into prison, and that in prison he and Jehoiakim became acquainted together, whence his advancement afterwards.

Verse 19. He leadeth away Princes spoiled ] Or Priests Ducit sacerdotes inglerias, so the Vulgar translateth, He leadeth away the Priests without glory, dishonored. Priests were generally much esteemed and privileged in all ages. Alexander the great gave greatest respect to Jaddus the Jewish High Priest. When the Gauls had burnt Rome, and were besieging the Capitol, Gaius Fabius Dorso, attired as a Priest, with his sacrifice, and other necessaries in his hand, marched through the midst of the enemies, astonished at his resolution, offered his sacrifice on the hill Quirinalis, and returned in safety. The Bardi, a kind of Priests, were here in Albion of such esteem among the greatest commanders, that if two armies were even at push of pike, and a Bard had step'd in betwixt them, they would have held their hands, hearkened to his advice, and not have offered to strike till he were out of danger: Magna fuit quondam capitis reverentia sacri. Howbeit, such also have been carried captive, and slain by the enemy, as was Seraiah the high-priest by Nebuchadnezzar; and before him the two sons of Eli (whose white Ephod covered foul sins) slain by the Philistines. The Lord hath despised in the indignation of his anger, both the King and the Priest, Lam. 2.6. Both the Prophet and the Priest go about into a land that they know not, Jer. 14.18. The word Cohen is used indifferently to signify a Priest, or Prince, an Ecclesiastical or secular Governor. Broughton rendereth it here Dukes; others, Presidents or praefects of Provinces: Honor is no shelter against the wrath of God.

And overthroweth the mighty ] Such as might seem immovable, as a rock or tree firmly rooted; these God shaketh and shattereth to pieces, he rooteth them up, and ruineth them. Let no man think to prevail by strength, 1 Sam. 2.9. since the weakness of God (if any such thing there were) is stronger then men, 1 Cor. 1.25. He will smite his enemies (as so many puny-boys) in the hinder-parts, and so put them to a perpetual reproach, Psalm