Bible Commentaries

Job 10:5 — "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, Romans 4:17 2 Peter 3:8 Jeremiah 1:5-7 Psalms 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 man’s days — It is well observed that God’s time is set

Job 15:14 — righteous? What is man, that he should be clean? — Eliphaz hath now done chiding (it is but time he should), and falls to reasoning; wherein nevertheless he showeth himself an empty and troublesome disputer, urging again the same arguments as before, Job 14:17-19 , and not resting satisfied in a sufficient answer. Did Job ever assert himself clean? Said he not the clean contrary in many places? See Job 14:4 . Only as washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of

Job 19:18 — it, as Job 16:11 . Others, the baser sort of people. And surely none so base as they that deride virtue, especially because forsaken of fortune, as one phraseth it. What a bitter jeer was that of Tobiah, the servant, or slave, the Ammonite! Nehemiah 4:3 . The basest can mock, as the abjects did David, Psalms 44:15-16 , and the alestakes also, Psalms 69:12 . But it is a happiness to do well, and yet hear ill. All God’s people must be ready to pass through good report and evil report, 2 Corinthians

Job 19:8 — troubleth in his journey as hedges and darkness. God, saith Job, hath every way hedged me out of content and comfort, so that, though I seek it never so, I cannot find it. God’s people are oft brought into greatest straits, as David, Psalms 31:1-24 and Psalms 142:1-7 , Israel at the Red Sea, Jehoshaphat, 2 Chronicles 20:1-29 , that they may learn to depend upon the Divine providence, … And he hath set darkness in my paths — I am benighted, and know not whither to go or how to get

Job 24:7 — sort too. Abuse not these blessings to pride and luxury, lest God turn in upon the spoilers and plunderers, who may leave thee little enough; leave thee nudum tanquam ex mari, as they did many in these late shredding and stripping times, Ezekiel 25:4 . God threateneth to send the men of the East to dwell (as so many Lord Danes) in their palaces, and to eat their milk, … When the children play with their meat, and cast it to the dogs, what can the father do less than bid take away?

Job 26:12 — strong winds causing tempests: see the like Isaiah 51:15: so that it lieth as it were in ridges, the top of one wave far from another, Jeremiah 31:35 . That was a strange thing that is reported to have fallen out at London the last week. On Monday, Aug. 14, 1654, by reason of the great winds the tide was so low in the Thames, that boys waded over it from one side to the other, the old watermen affirming they never saw it so before. And by his understanding he smiteth through the proud — Heb. Pride,

Job 30:7 — condition and many miseries; which yet they would rather bootlessly bewail than take a right course to remedy. They lust, and have not; they kill (themselves through idleness), and desire to have (if it would come without labour), but cannot obtain, James 4:2 . And hence they bray like the wild ass when empty, and roar as the lion when bitten with hunger. Under the nettles they were gathered together — Or they were pricked, whealed, as we call it. Urtica ab urendo, they were nettle stung, while they

Job 31:25 — but rejoice in the increase of it; though, in truth, they do rather revel than rejoice; for true joy is a severe thing, saith the philosopher, and must have a better bottom than these bona scabelli, than corn, and wine, and outward substance, Psalms 4:7 . Job rejoiced not, though the world came tumbling in upon him, as we say. For he knew he was but a wether sheep, upon whom the shepherd had bestowed a bell more than upon the rest of the flock; and therefore he would not cast his noise into the wind,

Job 31:39 — eaten the fruits thereof without money, or have caused the owners thereof to lose their life: If I have eaten the fruits thereof without money — i.e. Not paying the labourers their wages, which is a bony sin, Amos 5:12-13 , crying cruelty, James 5:4 , such as hath a woe hanging on the heels of it, Jeremiah 22:17 . See what sins it is set among, and what punishment is awarded to it, Malachi 3:5 . Let Laban be guilty of it, Genesis 31:7 , but Job protesteth against it here with an imprecation. Or

Job 31:40 — forementioned cruelty, James 2:13 , αρουρα et Arvum ab Heb. Arur, accursed. And cockle instead of barley — Lolium et lappae, stinking stuff the word signifieth; as those were stinking grapes, Isaiah 5:2 ; Isaiah 5:4 , rotten, corrupted, vitiated; and as that was blasted corn, yielding nothing better than dust and chaff, Matthew 13:25 , ζιζανιον , Frumentum adustum. Whereas wheat and barley are the precious fruits of the earth,

Job 31:5 — air, and that air was pestilential too; his breath and death he drew in together. Job would have none of that. Or if my foot hath hasted to deceit — If I have been nimble and active to go beyond and defraud another in any matter, 1 Thessalonians 4:6 , which, what is it else but crimea stellionatus, the very sin of deception? and this not only acted, but arted, after long trading in it, as the words of walking and hasting seem to import.

Job 33:14 — man is not only naturally averse, but adverse, to listen, or lay to heart anything, till it light on his hide, to believe till he feeleth; yea, to his natural dullness he soon addeth a habitual hardness; to his sinews of iron brows of brass, Isaiah 48:4 . This is fearful, Acts 28:27 , and yet common to all, whose hard hearts God is not pleased to soften with the oil of his grace and to soak in the blood of his Son, that they may be supple and soluble.

Job 33:19 — with strong [pain]: He is chastened also with pain upon his bed — He is chastened or chidden, Coarguitur dolore; for all diseases are vocal; they are real reprehensions. As God is said to hold his peace when he punisheth not, Psalms 50:21 Isaiah 42:14 , so to preach and reprove when he doth, Isaiah 26:9 ; Isaiah 28:19 . Thus God, by chastening David, instructed him every morning, Psalms 73:14 . His reins also taught him in the night season. Sickness, saith one, is the shop of virtue. It is morum

Job 33:6 — to thy wish — Heb. According to thy mouth. If the saints do but open their mouths wide God will fill them; he will give them not only the desires of their hearts, but the request of their lips, Psalms 21:2 , fulfil all their counsel, Psalms 20:4 , in that very way, by that very means, they wished it: he fitteth his mercy ad cardinem desiderii; and lets it be to his even as they will. Was it not so with Job here? In God’s stead — Heb. For God, to act and plead for him, and to show

Job 33:9 — came to absolve him, he could not remember any particular sin he had to confess; till he went back in his thoughts as far as his youth. But good Job had no such conceit of himself, as may appear by many passages of his, as Job 9:2 ; Job 9:20-21 ; Job 14:4 ; … Only out of the greatness of his grief, and the unkind usage of his friends (who spared not without all reason to revile him as a most wicked and ungodly liver), he did soon cast out some rash and harsh words against God, see Job 10:7 ;

Job 34:10 — heart, Cor est sedes sapientiae. Egregie cordati viri. Et esse corculis datum est. Having recited Job’s evil speeches, he turneth away from him as it were in great displeasure, and directeth his speech to others. See the like done by Jacob, Genesis 49:4 . We should abhor that which is evil, and show our detestation thereof. Far be it from God that he should do wickedness, … — sc. By punishing any without a cause; and this he double denieth for better assurance. Cause enough there may

Job 37:9 — Turban. It suddenly ariseth and as suddenly ceaseth, but doth much mischief, and especially in strait and narrow places. In allusion whereunto the apostle would not have people to be wherried and whirled about with every wind of doctrine, Ephesians 4:14 , as unstable souls use to be. Illebius, for instance; who, as a Protestant, first turned Antinomian, and afterwards a Papist. So the old Illuminati, boasting at first of a certain angelic purity, fell suddenly to the very counterpoint of justifying

Job 39:16 — labour not to mend that by education which they have marred by propagation. These are worse than those daughters of Jerusalem, who, slain almost with grief and hunger, became cruel to their sucklings, like the ostriches of the wilderness, Lamentations 4:3 . What a cruel mother was Medea! and the mother of King Edward, the martyr, whom she basely murdered; and when his brother Egelred (who succeeded him in the kingdom), being then but ten years old, mourned thereat, his mother was so enraged, that taking

Job 9:1 — Then Job answered and said, Then Job answered and said — He answered to his two friends who had formerly spoken; first, to Eliphaz’s speech, Job 4:17 , and next to that of Bildad, Job 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 spoken his utmost, Job beginneth to dispute

Psalms 22:2 — have had hard conceits of him and heavy conceits of himself. But saith he in the following verses, Thou art holy, and thy name is to be sanctified, though I be not gratified. And moreover, others have called upon thee and have been heard, Psalms 22:4-5 , though I now for mine unworthiness am denied. For "I am a worm, and no man," Psalms 22:6 . Thus it puts him not off that he is not heard, as others; but humbles him. It drives him not (as is usual with carnal people in like case) to shifting