INTRODUCTION TO JOB 27 Though Job's friends were become silent, and dropped the controversy with him, he still continued his discourse in this and the four following Chapter s; in which he asserts his integrity; illustrates and confirms his former sentiments; gives further proof of his knowledge of... [ Continue Reading ]
MOREOVER JOB CONTINUED HIS PARABLE,.... Having finished his discourse concerning the worlds and ways of God, and the display of his majesty, power, and glory, in them, he pauses awhile, waiting for Zophar, whose turn was next to rise up, and make a reply to him; but neither he, nor any of his friend... [ Continue Reading ]
[AS] GOD LIVETH,.... Which is an oath, as Jarchi observes, and is a form of one frequently used, see 2 Samuel 2:27; and is used by God himself, who, because he can swear by no greater, swears by himself, and by his life, which ever continues, as in Ezekiel 18:3; and many other places; and so the Ang... [ Continue Reading ]
ALL THE WHILE MY BREATH [IS] IN ME,.... So long the oath of God would be upon him, or he bound himself under it: AND THE SPIRIT OF GOD [IS] IN MY NOSTRILS; which signifies the same thing. The breath of a man is his spirit, and this is of God, the Father of spirits; he first breathed into man the br... [ Continue Reading ]
MY LIPS SHALL NOT SPEAK WICKEDNESS,.... This is the thing he swears to, this the matter of his oath, not only that he would not speak a wicked word not anything corrupt, unsavoury, unchaste, profane, and idle nor speak evil of his neighbours and friends or of any man; but that he would not speak wic... [ Continue Reading ]
GOD FORBID THAT I SHOULD JUSTIFY YOU,.... Not but that he counted them righteous and good men God-ward; he did not take upon him to judge their state, and to justify or condemn them with respect to their everlasting condition; but he could not justify them in their censures of him, and say they did... [ Continue Reading ]
MY RIGHTEOUSNESS I HOLD FAST, AND WILL NOT LET IT GO,.... Meaning not his personal righteousness, or the righteousness of his works, as his justifying righteousness before God, and for acceptance with him; which no man that is convinced of the insufficiency of, as Job was, will hold fast, but renoun... [ Continue Reading ]
LET MINE ENEMY BE AS THE WICKED,.... Job in this, and some following verses, shows, that he was not, and could not, and would not be a wicked man and an hypocrite, or however had no opinion and liking of such persons; for whatever his friends might think of him, because he had said so much of their... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR WHAT [IS] THE HOPE OF THE HYPOCRITE,.... In religion, who seems to be what he is not, a holy and righteous man; professes to have what he has not, the grace of God; pretends to do what he does not, worship God sincerely and fervently, and does all he does to be seen of men; though such a man may... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL GOD HEAR HIS CRY WHEN TROUBLE COMETH, UPON HIM?] No, he will not, he heareth not sinners, and such as regard iniquity in their hearts, Psalms 66:18; every man has trouble more or less in this life, even the best of men; and generally speaking they have the most, and wicked men the least; but wh... [ Continue Reading ]
WILL HE DELIGHT HIMSELF IN THE ALMIGHTY?.... That is, the hypocrite; no, he will not; he may seem to delight in, him, but he does not truly and sincerely; not in him as the Almighty, or in his omnipotence, into whose hands it is a fearful thing to fall, and who is able to destroy soul and body in he... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL TEACH YOU BY THE HAND OF GOD,.... To serve God, and speak truth, says one of the Jewish commentators g; rather the works of God, and methods of his providence, with wicked men and hypocrites; the wisdom of God in his dispensations towards them; the reasons why he suffers them to live in outwa... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, ALL YE YOURSELVES HAVE SEEN [IT],.... As they were men of observation, at least made great pretensions to it, as well as of age and experience, they must have seen and observed somewhat at least of the above things; they must have seen the wicked, as David afterwards did, spreading himself l... [ Continue Reading ]
THIS [IS] THE PORTION OF A WICKED MAN WITH GOD,.... Not to be punished in this life, but after death. This is what Job undertook to teach his friends, and is the purport of what follows in this chapter. A wicked man is not only one that has been so from the womb, and is openly and notoriously a wick... [ Continue Reading ]
IF HIS CHILDREN BE MULTIPLIED,.... As it is possible they may; this is one external blessing common to good men and bad men. Haman, that proud oppressor, left ten sons behind him, and wicked Ahab had seventy, Esther 9:12: [IT IS] FOR THE SWORD; for them that kill with the sword, as the Targum; to b... [ Continue Reading ]
THOSE THAT REMAIN OF HIM,.... Of the wicked man after his death; or such that remain, and have escaped the sword and famine: SHALL BE BURIED IN DEATH: the pestilence, emphatically called death by the Hebrews, as by us the mortality, see Revelation 6:8. This is another of God's sore public judgments... [ Continue Reading ]
THOUGH HE HEAP UP SILVER AS THE DUST,.... Which, as it denotes the great abundance of it collected together, so it expresses the bias and disposition of such a man's mind, that he cannot be content without amassing great quantities of it, and also his diligence and success therein, see 1 Kings 10:27... [ Continue Reading ]
HE MAY PREPARE [IT],.... Raiment; beginning with that first which was mentioned last, which is frequent in the Hebrew and eastern languages; such things may be done, and often are, by wicked men: BUT THE JUST SHALL PUT [IT] ON; the wicked man will either have no heart, or have no time, to wear it,... [ Continue Reading ]
HE BUILDETH HIS HOUSE AS A MOTH,.... Which builds its house in a garment by eating into it, and so destroying it, and in time eats itself out of house and home, and however does not continue long in it, but is soon and easily shook out, or brushed off; so a wicked man builds himself an house, a stat... [ Continue Reading ]
THE RICH MAN SHALL LIE DOWN, BUT HE SHALL NOT BE GATHERED,.... That is, the wicked rich man; and the sense is, either he shall lie down upon his bed, but shall not be gathered to rest, shall get no sleep, the abundance of his riches, and the fear of losing them, or his life for them, will not suffer... [ Continue Reading ]
TERRORS TAKE HOLD ON HIM AS WATERS,.... The terrors of death, and of an awful judgment that is to come after it; finding himself dying, death is the king of terrors to him, dreading not only the awful stroke of death itself, but of what is to follow upon it; or rather these terrors are those that se... [ Continue Reading ]
THE EAST WIND CARRIETH HIM AWAY,.... Which is very strong and powerful, and carries all before it; afflictions are sometimes compared to it, Isaiah 27:8; and here either death, accompanied with the wrath of God, which carries the wicked man, sore against his will, out of the world, from his house, h... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR [GOD] SHALL CAST UPON HIM, AND NOT SPARE,.... Cast his sins upon him, which will lie as an intolerable weight upon his conscience; and his wrath upon him, which being poured out like fire, he will not be able to bear it; and deserved punishment on him, which, like a talent of lead, will bear him... [ Continue Reading ]
[MEN] SHALL CLAP THEIR HANDS AT HIM,.... In a way of joy and triumph, scorn and derision, see Lamentations 2:15; either at the time of his death, being glad they are rid of him, Psalms 52:5; or rather hereafter, to all eternity, while the wrath and vengeance of God is pouring on him; and this will b... [ Continue Reading ]