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Job's protestation of his innocence, with regard to wantonness,
ver. 1 - 4.
Fraud and injustice, ver. 5 - 8.
Adultery, ver. 9 - 12.
Haughtiness and severity toward his servants, ver. 13 - 15.
Unmercifulness to the poor, ver. 16 - 23.
Confidence in his wealth, ver. 24, 25.
Idolatry, ver. 26 - 28.
Revenge, ver. 29 - 31.
Neglect of poor strangers, ver. 32
Hypocrisy, or not reproving others, ver. 33, 34.
He wishes God would answer and that his words might be recorded,
ver. 35 - 37.
Protests his innocence, as to oppression, ver. 38 - 40.
1: I made - So far have I been from any gross wickedness, that I
have abstained from the least occasions and appearances of evil.
2: For - What recompence may be expected from God for those who do
otherwise. Above - How secretly soever unchaste persons carry the matter,
so that men cannot reprove them, yet there is one who stands upon an
higher place, whence he seeth in what manner they act.
5: Walked - Dealt with men. Vanity - With lying, or falsehood.
Deceit - If when I had an opportunity of enriching myself, by
wronging others, I have readily and greedily complied with It.
6: Let me - I desire nothing more than to have my heart and life
weighed in just balances, and searched out by the all - seeing God.
That God - Or, and he will know; (upon search he will find out: which
is spoken of God after the manner of men:) Mine integrity - So this is
an appeal to God to be witness of his sincerity.
7: Heart - If I have let my heart loose to covet forbidden things,
which mine eyes have seen: commonly sin enters by the eye into the heart.
A blot - Any unjust gain.
8: Increase - All my plants, and fruits, and improvements.
10: Then - Not as if Job desired this; but that if God should
give up his wife to such wickedness, he should acknowledge his justice in it.
11: This - Adultery. It is - Heb. an iniquity of the judges;
which belongs to them to take cognizance of, and to punish, even
with death; and that not only by the law of Moses, but even by
the law of nature, as appears from the known laws and customs of
the Heathen nations.
12: Destruction - Lust is a fire in the soul; it consumes all that
is good there, the convictions, the comforts; and lays the conscience
waste. It consumes the body, consumes the substance, roots out all the
increase. It kindles the fire of God's wrath, which if not quenched by
the blood of Christ, will burn to the lowest hell.
16: If I - Denied them what they desired of me. To fail - With
tedious expectation of my justice or charity. Job is most large upon
this head, because in this matter Eliphaz had most particularly accused
him.
18: Youth - As soon as I was capable of managing mine own affairs.
With me - Under my care. A father - With all the diligence and
tenderness of a father. Her - The widow mentioned ver.(16).
From - From my tender years; ever since I was capable of discerning
good and evil.
19: Perish - When it was in my power to help them.
21: When - When I saw I could influence the judges to do what I
pleased.
23: For - I stood in awe of God and of his judgments.
I could not - I knew myself unable either to oppose his power,
or to bear his wrath. Even good men have need to restrain
themselves from sin, with the fear of Destruction from God.
Even when salvation from God is a comfort to us, yet destruction
from God should be a terror to us. Adam in innocency was
awed by a threatning.
26: I - This place speaks of the worship of the host of heaven, and
especially of the sun and moon, the most eminent and glorious of that
number, which was the most ancient kind of idolatry, and most frequent
in the eastern countries. Shined - In its full strength and glory.
27: Kissed - In token of worship, whereof this was a sign.
28: The judge - The civil magistrate; who being advanced and
protected by God, is obliged to maintain and vindicate his honour,
and consequently to punish idolatry. Denied God - Not directly but
by consequence, because this was to rob God of his prerogative, by
giving to the creature, that worship which is peculiar to God.
29: Lift up - Heb. stirred up myself to rejoice and insult over
his misery.
31: If - My domesticks and familiar friends. His flesh - This is
farther confirmation of Job's charitable disposition to his enemy.
Although all who were daily conversant with him, and were witnesses
of his and their carriage, were so zealous in Job's quarrel, that
they protested they could eat their flesh, and could not be satisfied
without. Yet he restrained both them and himself from executing
vengeance upon them.
33: As Adam - As Adam did in Paradise.
34: Did I fear - No: all that knew Job knew him to be a man of
resolution, that boldly appeared, spoke and acted, in defence of
religion and justice. He durst not keep silence, or stay within,
when called to speak or act for God. He was not deterred by the
number, or quality, or insults of the injurious, from reproving
them, and doing justice to the injured.
35: Had written - Had given me his charge written in a book or paper,
as the manner was in judicial proceedings. This shews that Job did not
live, before letters were in use. And undoubtedly the first letters
were those wrote on the two tables, by the finger of God. He wishes,
his friends, who charged him with hypocrisy, would draw up the charge
in writing.
36: Take it - As a trophy or badge of honour.
37: Him - My judge, or adversary. My steps - The whole course of
my life. A prince - With undaunted courage and confidence.
38: Cry - Because I have gotten it by fraud or violence.
39: Without money - Either without paying the price for the land, or
by defrauding my workmen of their wages. Life - Killing them that I might
have undisturbed possession of it, as Ahab did Naboth.
