Job 27:9

Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him?

Ver. 9. Will God hear his cry] Here is another distinctive note between a hypocrite and an honest man. As many are said in Daniel to cleave to the better side by flattery, so many false signs will come in, and flatter a man (when he is in health and prosperity), and give their testimony, speak the same thing that true evidences do; but this will not always hold.

When trouble cometh upon him?] Then the hypocrite will cry, and make pitiful moans; as a prisoner at the bar begs for his life. Then Joab and Adonijah will run to the horns of the altar, who till then little cared to come there. But with as ill success they cry to God as Saul did, 1 Samuel 28:15, and as other of David's enemies did, Psalms 18:41; for either God answereth them not at all, Ezekiel 21:2,3, or else he answereth them according to the idols of their hearts, Ezekiel 14:3, gives them bitter answers, as Judges 10:13,14. Or if better, it is for the good of others, and for a further mischief to themselves, that he may snatch away his own and be gone, Hosea 2:9, and that he may consume them after he hath done them good, Joshua 24:20 : their preservation proverb but a reservation.