Bible Commentaries

Job 10:16 — 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 leo. God, when he afflicteth men, is oft compared to a lion, Isaiah 38:13 Hosea 5:14 ; Hosea 13:7 . 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 Peter 2:12 . And

Job 10:18 — 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, Job 3:1-26 . "Who can understand his errors?" Psalms 19:12 ) either unborn, or presently dead, without the distance of one day between his birth and his burial. In quo errorem erravit non levem, vir alioqui pientissimus; this was a worse wish than

Job 10:7 — never be proved from Paul’s words, for not every one that through infirmity dissembleth sometimes is presently a 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, Ezekiel 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 poisonous thing, but casts it up upon the shore; so a Christian

Job 11:7 — 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, … So it is here, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard," …, 1 Corinthians 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

Job 12:12 — in length of days understanding. With the ancient is wisdom — Heb. With the decrepit, who have a long, long being upon earth, and are now become wondrous old, even fourscore and upward; with such is wisdom, or else it is a shame for them. See 1 John 2:12 Hebrews 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 grey headed children, as Rehoboam. Macarius was called μειρακιογερων

Job 12:3 — 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, Job 11:12 ; but I have a 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 which Zophar had but barely propounded. And whereas this patient

Job 15:16 — which drinketh iniquity like water? How much more abominable and filthy is man? — And therefore abominable because filthy, or stinking and noisome, as putrefied meat is to the nose and palate. Now this is every man’s case by nature, Psalms 14:3 , there being never a barrel of better herring, but all in a pickle, though few believe it. Kακοι κεν θριπες κακοι δε και

Job 18:2 — ye make an end of words? mark, and afterwards we will speak. How long will it be ere you make an end of words? — First he taxeth Job with being talkative, when he himself talked much, but said little, save only what he had spoken before, Job 8:1-22 , though Job had sufficiently refuted him. But as nothing in the world is more unreasonable than an ignorant person, who thinketh nothing well done but that which he doth himself; so those that bear themselves overly bold upon their own knowledge,

Job 19:23 — writing (either by Moses, or some other prophet of that age, or else by Job himself after his restoration), and put among the canonical books of Scripture; concerning which David saith, "For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven," Psalms 119:89 . And Christ, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle," …, Matthew 5:18 . Not one hair of that sacred head can fall to the earth. Thus God hath answered Job, ad cardinem desiderii, as a Father speaketh, letting

Job 20:10 — to beg of them. A just hand of God upon oppressors, whose work it hath been to make many poor; and now their posterity are brought to extreme poverty. Such shame consult these men to their houses, besides their sin against their own souls, Habakkuk 2:10 . See Trapp on " Habakkuk 2:10 " Some read it thus, The poor shall oppress his children; and how grievous that is, see Proverbs 28:3 . See Trapp on " Proverbs 28:3 " A heathen historian observed that Dionysius, after his death,

Job 20:16 — He shall suck the poison of asps: the viper’s tongue shall slay him. He shall suck the poison of asps — That lieth in his head, whence also it hath its name in the original. See Trapp on " Job 20:14 " Caput aspidis suger, saith the Vulgate. It is said of the toad that he hath in his head a stone of great virtue, called Bufonites. But the asp hath nothing in his head but strong poison. This the rich wretch shall suck, like as he was wont to

Job 20:24 — and bow, to show that both at home and afar off he can tame his rebels. Neither boots it any man to stand out with God, or to seek to save himself by fight or flight; since he is that "King, against whom there is no rising up," Proverbs 30:31 , and if he be angry, no other helps can relieve us. Brass and iron can fence me against an arrow or a sword, but if I were to be cast into a furnace of fire, it would help to torment me, if into a pit of water, to sink me. Now our God is a consuming

Job 22:24 — Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the [gold] of Ophir as the stones of the brooks. Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust — Which is as much as to say, saith one, Thou shalt make pavements of gold. See 2 Chronicles 1:15 Psalms 68:30 . Then shalt thou have thy desire; for thou shalt be rich with content, which is worth a million, as another paraphraseth it. Beza rendereth it thus: Cast thy gold on the ground (even that worldly wealth, whereto thou hast been wholly

Job 22:7 — when able did not serve, and died. Not to do good (when it is in the power of a man’s hand) is to do evil; and not to save a life is to destroy it, Mark 3:4 . Not robbing only, but not relieving the beggar, was the rich man’s ruin, Luke 16:24 , who, for a cup of cold water, duly given, might have had heaven, Matthew 10:42 . But what meant Eliphaz to charge innocent and munificent Job with such a cruelty? 1. The man was angry; and, Anger hinders the soul so that it is not able to know

Job 25:3 — it; Tremellius, turmariorum, of his troopers? they are innumerable, and yet no variance among them; this is admirable. The army of Nineveh was quiet, no failing out nor complaining in their hosts, therefore did their king march on, pass through, Nahum 1:12 . The Turks’ military discipline at this day is beyond that of all other nations in the world besides; yea, beyond that of the old Greeks or Romans. There is no quarrelling heard at any time among their many soldiers, no, nor any words at all.

Job 28:13 — is that man, sorry man, knoweth neither the price of Divine wisdom, for it is invaluable; nor the place of it, for it is investigable; nor the order of it, for that is unattainable till we come to heaven; there being a wheel within a wheel, Ezekiel 1:16 , and providence shall one day be unriddled. Neither is it found in the land of the living — That is, here upon earth, by any human wit or industry. In other texts of Scripture the time while we live in this world is called, the day, John 9:4

Job 31:12 — that consumeth to destruction — Ad Gehennam usque, to the place of destruction. Heb. to Abaddon, that burneth as low as hell itself. In case men should be slack to punish this heinous crime, yet whoremongers and adulterers God will judge, Hebrews 13:3 , shutting them out of heaven, Revelation 22:15 (for what should any such dirty dog do trampling on that golden pavement?), and thrusting them into hell, as he did the filthy Sodomites, Judges 1:7 , beside that hell above ground which he rained from

Job 31:2 — of God is there from above? — What but a portion with the devil and hypocrites? The unjust are reserved unto the day of judgment to be punished, saith Peter; but chiefly, they that walk after the flesh, in the lust of uncleanness, 2 Peter 2:9-10 . Such shall have a specialty of punishment, even the hottest fire in hell; and hereby Job frighted his conscience from this foul sin; and well he might: did men but consider what sin would cost them, they durst not but be innocent; but the hope of

Job 5:20 — from death — They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger, Lamentations 4:9 . Famine, therefore, is here set as the first and greatest of the six ensuing evils, the forest of God’s judgments, Ezekiel 6:11 Jeremiah 24:10 ; the certain harbinger of death, as here. From this so great a death God delivered Abraham, Genesis 12:12-20 ; Isaac, Genesis 26:6-12 ; Jacob and his family, Genesis 47:11-12 ; the poor widow, 1 Kings 17:9-16 ; the Israelites in the

Job 8:9 — know nothing, because our days upon earth [are] a shadow:) For we are but of yesterday — Heb. We are yesterday, that is, yesterday’s offspring, upstarts, mushrooms, novices of very small standing in the world. And yet they were old men, Job 15:10 . Eliphaz is esteemed to be a hundred and fifty, Bildad a hundred and forty, Zophar a hundred and twenty years old; and yet, in comparison to the fathers before the flood, they were but of yesterday, they had lived but a very little while, and were