Job 13:1
_JOB REPROVES HIS FRIENDS FOR THEIR PREJUDICE: HE PROFESSES HIS CONFIDENCE IN GOD, AND ENTREATS TO KNOW OF HIM WHY HE HIDES HIS FACE FROM HIM, AND HOLDS HIM FOR AN ENEMY._ _Before Christ 1645._... [ Continue Reading ]
_JOB REPROVES HIS FRIENDS FOR THEIR PREJUDICE: HE PROFESSES HIS CONFIDENCE IN GOD, AND ENTREATS TO KNOW OF HIM WHY HE HIDES HIS FACE FROM HIM, AND HOLDS HIM FOR AN ENEMY._ _Before Christ 1645._... [ Continue Reading ]
PHYSICIANS OF NO VALUE— _Empty boasters:_ men who put on airs of great consequence, though in reality they were nothing. See Heath.... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL YE CONTEND FOR GOD— The Hebrew for _contend_ is a judicial term, and oftentimes used for putting a sentence in execution. Of this there is a particular instance in the case of Gideon, who was demanded by the men of his city to be put to death for casting down the altar of Baal, Judges 6:31.; wh... [ Continue Reading ]
IS IT GOOD, &C.— _Is it right for you to pay false adulation to him?_ Houbigant; who observes, that the word _adulate,_ in this clause, properly corresponds with _mock_ in the next.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL NOT HIS EXCELLENCY, &C.— _His majesty shall wholly confound you, and his terror shall fall upon you;_ Job 13:12. _Your boasting shall be like unto dust; your pride like a heap of sand,_ Job 13:13. _Hear me in silence and I will speak; I will deliver that which hath been known to me._ Houbigant... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE DO I TAKE MY FLESH IN MY TEETH, &C.?— That is, "You ask me, why I should consider my case as thus desperate? (for that is the meaning of these phrases.) Why should you be thus slow to believe that God will deliver you out of your troubles? This looks as if you were conscious of some wicked... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUGH HE SLAY ME, &C.— It is impossible to understand this of a temporal deliverance; for how should a man hope for this, _though he were slain?_ This passage, according to another reading, is, "Lo, he will kill; I will not hope; nevertheless, I will argue mine own ways, or plead mine own cause bef... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN CALL THOU— The word _call_ is here a judicial term, and imports the declaring the accusation. This, in our law, is termed _arraigning_ the criminal. The whole verse is of the same kind. Heath.... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE HIDEST THOU THY FACE, &C.?— This expression, among some others, has been charged upon Job by a learned writer as very improper and unbecoming. Now, though we might admit that there is something faulty in the expostulation, yet it is very much alleviated by those expressions of humility and... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU WRITEST BITTER THINGS AGAINST ME— The author of the Divine Legation, zealous to support his allegorical scheme, is always desirous, for that end, to point out inconsistencies in this book. "The great point Job insists upon (says he) throughout the whole book is, his innocence; and yet, to our s... [ Continue Reading ]
THOU PUTTEST MY FEET ALSO IN THE STOCKS, &C.— _Thou puttest my feet also in a clog; thou watchest all my paths; thou settest a mark on the soles of my feet._ This alludes to the custom of putting a clog on the feet of fugitive slaves with the owner's mark, that they might be tracked and found. Heath... [ Continue Reading ]