Job 24:1-25

Job 24:3. They drive away the ass of the fatherless. In Job's time there was no regular government or empire, to bring neighbouring tyrants to justice; proof sufficient that this book is of the highest antiquity.

REFLECTIONS.

The second part of Job's reply turns, like chap. 12., on the wickedness of the world, and wickedness not bidden from the eyes of God. The bitter fountain in every age sends out its bitter streams. Our portraits come from holy men. Jeremiah represents Jerusalem as almost devoid of a good man. The language of David in the fourteenth Psalm, is confirmed by Paul: Romans 1:20. The complaints of Boëthius, in his consolations of philosophy, find a parallel in the metropolises of Europe. The dissipated prodigal, the avaricious worldling, who wrings out the blood of the widow and the orphan, the learned seducer, the drunkard and the profligate everywhere abound. Locks, bars, and bolts cannot protect the earnings of industry. Job, in his portrait of such characters in his day, gives the challenge ”If it be not so now, who will make me a liar?” The vices of man require excision, and excision at a stroke, lest the culprit should go into the fire of gehenna, where the worm dieth not, and where the fire is not quenched. The stony heart must be removed, and all things made new.