Job 5:11

To set up on high those that be low; that those which mourn may be exalted to safety.

Ver. 11. To set up on high those that be low] By those rich rains whereby he fatteneth the earth, and makes it fruitful, giving them a whole country of corn, as he did that vir divitiarum qui animam etiam habuit triticeam, a man of wealth who moreover a spirit of grain. Luke 12:16. But God hath more ways than this to prefer men to riches, honour, and authority, as he did Joseph, David, Daniel, Mordecai, &c. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill, "that he may set him with princes," &c., Psalms 113:6,7. Let Job hear this, and know it for his good, as Job 5:27 .

That those which mourn] As those do commonly who are in a low condition; and it is much if they murmur not. The word signifieth, such as are pullati, clad in mourner's weeds, or that having lain among the pots, are smutched and sullied like so many black scullions, Psalms 68:13. Lo, these shall the Lord not only make to be as the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold, but shall also make them to mount up with wings as eagles, Isaiah 40:31. He shall exalt them to safety, saith Eliphaz here; yea, he shall safely exalt them to safety. Wicked men are oft exalted, Psalms 12:8, but then it is not to safety; - tolluntur in altum ut lapsu graviore ruant, they are lifted up, but for a mischief, that they may be brought down again with the greater poise, as Haman, and Pharaoh's chief baker, whose head was lifted up, but to the gallows; the chief butler's head was lifted up too, but after another manner. There is great difference between the advanced merit of the righteous and the wicked. Those God carrieth as the eagle doth her young on her wings, to exalt them to safety, to set them upon a rock that is higher than they; these he lifteth up as the eagle doth her prey in her talons, to dash them against some rock, and to destroy them.