Bible Commentaries

Job 28:11 — one thing necessary? … Si tanti vitreum, quanti veram margaritam? (Tertul.). All those outward things are nec vera, nee vestra, as Austin elegantly; they are neither true riches, nor ours, but another’s, as our Saviour telleth us, Luke 16:12 . Aristotle also teacheth us, That wise men may get riches, but not make it their business, Aλλ ’ ου τουτ εστι περι ου σπουδαζουσι

Job 30:20 — [not]. I cry unto thee, and thou dost not hear me — This was a sore trial, that God should cast him into straits, and there leave him. His enemies indeed he usually dealeth so by, Ezekiel 22:20 ; Ezekiel 29:5 , but not by his servants, Hebrews 13:5 . Or if he do leave them, yet he will not forsake them. The mother leaves her child sometimes, but when he setteth up his note and crieth lustily, she hasteneth to help him. So doth God: but now Job cried unto him, and was not heard or answered,

Job 31:14 — What then shall I do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what shall I answer him? What then shall I do when God riseth up, … — Job considered that he had a Master in heaven, Colossians 4:1 ; that there is one higher than the highest, Ecclesiastes 5:8 , with whom there is no respect of persons, but whereever any deal proudly, God is above them, Exodus 18:11 . These and the like humbling considerations, and not any placability or natural

Job 31:30 — private revenge, dared not do this, whatever David did out of a zeal of God’s glory, which wicked men sought to deface. By wishing a curse to his soul — Heb. by asking his life by a curse. Job knew that cursing men are cursed men, Psalms 109:18 . If the prophets cursed their enemies at any time, as Elisha did the children at Bethel, and David oft in the Psalms, it was not livore vindictae, sed zelo iustitae, not out of a vindictive spirit, but by the instinct of God’s Holy Spirit,

Job 32:19 — those bottles, speech to the opening of them, by taking away the stopple of silence. And although in this discourse Elihu may seem to lay on more words than the matter requireth, yet he doth not; for he saith no more than the psalmist doth, Psalms 45:1 , and Jeremiah, Jeremiah 6:11 , and the apostles, Acts 4:20 , "We cannot but speak," … And whereas Gregory saith that all this came from pride in Elihu, Chrysostom praiseth him rather (and therein he is in the right) for his zeal, which

Job 34:2 — Hear my words, O ye wise [men]; and give ear unto me, ye that have knowledge. Hear my words, O ye wise men — And those are not many, Hosea 14:9 . He excludeth poor Job, whom yet he had promised to teach wisdom, Job 33:33 . And that he spoke not to the many it is probable, for they have not those auras perpargatas, that he calleth for in the next verse. Bοιωτες

Job 35:8 — breadth, to giving of alms. But besides that, a good man draweth out, not only his sheaf, but his soul to the hungry. He also warneth the unruly, comforteth the feeble-minded, supporteth the weak, and tradeth all his talents for the good of others, 1 Thessalonians 5:14 . He is a common blessing to all that are about him. As Plutarch said of the neighbouring villages of Rome, in Numa’s time, That sucking in the air of that city, they breathed δικαιοσυνην

Job 36:29 — finds herself buried in darkness? Some render it, the divisions or differences of the clouds; illic enim fiunt miracula magna (Vatab.); for some clouds are empty, and answer not expectation (worthless and vain boasters are compared to such, Proverbs 25:14 ; Judges 1:12 ), some yield rain and drop fatness. Some, again, send forth hail, snow, frost, storm, thunder, lightnings, … (R. Levi). These are wonders in nature, far beyond human apprehension. The clouds God maketh one while as some airy seas,

Job 38:36 — sitteth and sovereigneth. The Hebrews say, That the heart understandeth, and the reins deliberate. They have their name here from plastering over, or covering, because they are overly covered with fat and flesh; howbeit the Lord trieth them, Jeremiah 17:10 ; and hath given wisdom to man to moderate his affections and concupiscences which are here seated, and to get truth into these inward parts, Psalms 51:6 , that this hidden man of the heart may be highly accepted in heaven, 1 Peter 3:4 . Or who

Job 42:9 — graciously ended, and all parties happily and heartily reconciled. What became of Satan, a chief actor in this tragedy, we read not; Victus enim abiit. And as God would not once call him to account, when he had beguiled our first parents, Genesis 3:1-7 , because he meant him no mercy; so here he never mentioned him, as being judged already, and by Job bravely worsted and defeated. All that we find of him is, that his commisslon to vex Job any further was now taken away, for so it followeth,

Psalms 119:1 — giveth us in his thoughts of it. When a book is set forth, verses of commendation are oft prefixed. David seemeth to set this Divine psalm as a poem of commendation before the Book of God; mentioning it in every verse (unless it be one only, Psalms 119:122 ), under the name of testimonies, laws, statutes, word, judgments, precepts, … Who walk in the law of the Lord — Who walk towards heaven in heaven’s way; avoiding the corruptions that are in the world through lust, 2 Peter 1:4

Psalms 19:13 — world in a bog of wickedness, adding rebellion to sin, and doing wickedly with both hands earnestly, unless God rein us in, and restrain us from such enormities. Pray we therefore as here, Etiam a superbiis contine servum tuum (Midrash Tillin. in Psalms 19:13 ). David’s murdering Uriah was a sin of this sort. The Rabbis here observe how the prophet riseth in his request, first for pardon of lesser sins, and then for power against greater; like as a beggar, say they, first craves a little water,

Psalms 27:13 — see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. I had fainted, unless I had believed — Saved he was then by his faith, which drank to him as it were in a cup of Nepenthes, and fetched him again when ready to swoon and sink. See Psalms 119:92 . The word rendered unless here is (as the Masorites note) one of the fifteen Scripture words, that were extraordinarily pointed by the men of the great synagogue ( Lule habet puncta supra and infra ). Hebrew Text Note The reason whereof given

Psalms 5:7 — come [into] thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: [and] in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple. But as for me — Who am conscious of none of these foul and flagitious practices. The upright shall dwell in God’s presence, Job 12:16 Psalms 140:13: not so the hypocrite and ungodly. He is like a vagabond begging at the gate, and not knowing whether the master of the house is providing for him an alms or a cudgel. I will come into thine house, … — He knew that the

Psalms 50:15 — between God and man. In the day of trouble — At any time, but then especially; the time of affliction being the time of supplication; for then we are fittest to call, and then God is readiest to give answer, then we may have anything, Zechariah 13:9 . I will deliver thee — It is but ask and have; and surely he is deservedly miserable who will not make himself happy by asking. When there was a speech among some holy men what was the best trade? One answered, beggary; it is the hardest and

Psalms 50:3 — keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence — He doth daily come and sit upon the tribunal in his Church by the ministry of his servants, Matthew 18:17 , who must reprove sinners with all authority, and show themselves sons of thunder, that they may save some at least with fear, snatching them out of the fire, Judges 1:23 , as Peter, Acts 2:40 , and Paul, 2 Corinthians 5:11 , but especially when,

Psalms 68:1 — arise, let his enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before him. A Psalm or Song of David — Made at that time when, having overcome his enemies, he brought arcam in arcem, the ark of God into the tower of Sion. Confer Psalms 68:1 with Numbers 10:35 . Herein also he treateth of the greatest secrets of Christ’s kingdom, and prophesieth of things to come, as Acts 2:30-31 ; witness the apostle, Ephesians 4:8 . Let God arise — He need do no more that his enemies may be

Psalms 75:8 — cup — A cup of affliction, whereof all must drink, more or less. The Chaldee calleth it a cup of curse. Affliction is in itself a fruit of sin and a piece of the curse. And the wine is red — And so more powerful and piercing, Proverbs 23:31-32 . That is an affliction, and grievous, that God maketh to be so. It is full of mixture — i.e. Ready prepared, as Proverbs 9:1-18: 2 Kings 14:10 , or mingled with spices, to make the wine more hot and inebriating, Vinum aromaticum. And he poureth

Psalms 8:5 — world; as Athens was the Greece of Greece; and as one said to his friend who desired to see Athens, Viso Selene vidisti onmia, When thou hast seen Solon thou hast seen all Athens; so man is a little world, and is therefore called every creature, Mark 16:15 ; and the saints (in whom God’s image is repaired) are called all things, Colossians 1:20 , Christ being unto them All, and in all.

Psalms 90:10 — is soon cut off, and we fly away. The days of our years are threescore, … — So Solon in Laertius saith, the term of man’s life is seventy years, this few exceed, and fewer attain to. To the same sense speaketh Macrobius also (Lib. 1., Som. cap. 6), saying, Septies deni anni a Physicis creditur meta vivendi, et hoc vitae humanae perfectum spacium terminatur, … The Fathers lived longer; but as men’s wickedness increased, so their days decreased; and now their lives are