Job 22:22

Receive, I pray thee, &c.— This phrase, says Bishop Warburton, was taken from the verbal delivery of the Jewish law from Mount Sinai. He adds, "The rabbins were so sensible of the expressive peculiarity of this phrase, that they say the law of Moses is here spoken of by a kind of prophetic anticipation." It is of little moment, in the present case, what the rabbins say; the argument, if it carries any weight with it, must proceed upon this supposition, that men were under no divine law; had no precepts of their duty given them by God, before the law was published from Mount Sinai; or at least, whatever precepts might be given them, they were not distinguished by the term here used, of a law. But neither of these points can be allowed. God says to Isaac, Genesis 26:5. I will bless thee, because that Abraham kept my charge, and my law, or laws. This, we are assured, was long before the law of Moses was given; and therefore means probably some divine precepts of religion, delivered down from Adam, or from Noah, to succeeding generations. These are what Job calls the words of the holy One, chap. Job 6:10 and remarkably, chap. Job 23:12 the words of God's mouth, which he esteemed more than his necessary food.