_A.M. 2484. B.C. 1520._ Job shows that open sinners are often prosperous, Job 24:1. That secret sinners often pass undiscovered, Job 24:13. That God punishes such by secret judgments, and reserves them for future judgment, Job 24:19.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Why_, &c. Job, having by his complaints, in the foregoing chapter, given vent to his passion, and thereby gained some ease, breaks them off abruptly, and now applies himself to a further discussion of the doctrinal controversy between him and his friends, concerning the prosperity of wicked people.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Some_, &c. In proof that wicked persons prosper, he instances in two sorts of unrighteous people, whom all the world saw thriving in their iniquity: 1st, Tyrants, and those that did wrong under pretence of law and authority; and, 2d, Robbers and plunderers, that did wrong by downright force, as the... [ Continue Reading ]
_They drive away the ass of the fatherless_ Whose helpless condition required their pity and mercy. He says, _the ass_, to aggravate their sin, in that they robbed him who had but one ass. _They take the widow's ox _ Thereby depriving her, not only of the ox itself, but of all the benefit of its lab... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, as wild asses_ Which are lawless and fierce, and greedy of prey; _in the desert_ Which is the proper habitation of wild asses, Jeremiah 2:24: _they go forth to their work_ These oppressors go forth to spoil and rob, which is their constant work and trade: _rising betimes for the prey_ Begin... [ Continue Reading ]
_They reap every one his corn in the field_ The words, _every one_, are not in the original, and ought not to have been inserted here, as they alter the sense. The clause would be better translated without them. _They reap his corn in the field;_ that is, these plunderers make incursions, reap and t... [ Continue Reading ]
_They cause the naked_ That is, those whom they have made naked, whom they have stripped of their garments and coverings; so far were they from exercising charity or even justice toward them; _to lodge without clothing_ To sleep in the night without bed-clothes to cover them; _that they have no cove... [ Continue Reading ]
_They are wet_ That is, the poor, being stripped of their raiment, and forced away from their houses; _with the showers of the mountains_ With the rain-water, which, in great showers, runs down from the rocks or mountains into the caves or holes in the sides of them, to which they have fled for shel... [ Continue Reading ]
_They_ The wicked oppressors; _pluck the fatherless from the breast_ Either out of cruelty, not sparing poor infants, or out of covetousness, not allowing the mother time for the suckling of her infant. _They take away the sheaf from the hungry_ That single sheaf, which the poor man had got with the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Which make oil within their walls_ The walls of the rich oppressors, for their use and benefit. _And tread their wine-presses_ That is, the grapes in their wine-presses; _and suffer thirst_ Because they are not permitted to quench their thirst out of the wine which they make. _Men groan_ Under the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Those that rebel against the light_ Who sin impudently, in the face of the sun, and obstinately, in spite of all their light, as well the light of reason and conscience, which abhors and condemns their wicked actions, as the light of divine revelation, which was then, in good measure, imparted to t... [ Continue Reading ]
_The murderer rising with the light_ As soon as the light appears, using no less diligence in his wicked practices than labourers do in their honest and daily employments; _killeth the poor and needy_ Where he finds nothing to satisfy his covetousness, he exerciseth his cruelty. _And in the night is... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the dark they dig through houses_ Either the adulterer last mentioned, or rather the thief or robber, whose common practice this is, of whom he spake, Job 24:14; and having, on that occasion, inserted the mention of the adulterer, as one who acted his sin in the same manner as the night thief di... [ Continue Reading ]
_He is swift as the waters_ That is, the wicked man quickly passeth away, with all his glory, as the waters, which never stay in one place, but are always hasting away. _Their portion_ Or, _his_ portion (for he still speaks of the same person, though with a change of the number) _is cursed in the ea... [ Continue Reading ]
_Drought and heat consume the snow-waters_ As the snow, though it doth for a time lie upon the ground, yet at last is dissolved into water by the heat of the season, and that water is quickly swallowed up by the earth when it is dry and thirsty; so ungodly sinners, though they live and prosper for a... [ Continue Reading ]
_The womb shall forget him_ His mother that bare him, and much more the rest of his friends, shall seldom or never mention or remember him, but shall rather be ashamed to own their relation to one that lived such a vile and wretched life, and died such an accursed death. This portion he shall have,... [ Continue Reading ]
_He evil-entreateth the barren_ Job here returns to the declaration of his further acts of wickedness, the causes of these judgments; _that heareth not_ Barrenness was esteemed a curse and reproach; and so it is mentioned as an instance of this man's wickedness, that he added affliction to the affli... [ Continue Reading ]
_He draweth also the mighty with his power_ He draweth into his net, as Psalms 10:9, or to his party, to assist and serve him in his enterprises, those who are mighty in place, or wealth, or power; he practiseth upon these as well as upon the poor: _he riseth up_ Namely, against any man, as the same... [ Continue Reading ]
_Though it be given him_ Namely, of God; _to be in safety_ That is, Though God granteth to the oppressor to be for a time in apparent safety, and to live a comfortable life; _whereon he resteth_ His former experience of God's long-suffering makes him confident of the continuance of it, so that he is... [ Continue Reading ]
_They are exalted for a little while_ They live in honour and prosperity, but not for ever; it is only, at the most, during this short and mortal life, which lasts but for a very little time; and, therefore, their present happiness is not to be envied; nor is it any reproach to God's providence, whi... [ Continue Reading ]
_And if it be not so now_ Namely, as I have discoursed; if God does not often suffer wicked men to live long and prosperously in the world, before he punishes them; and if good men be not sometimes sorely afflicted here; if all things do not fall alike to all men in these matters; and if it do not f... [ Continue Reading ]