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Job humbles himself before God, ver. 1 - 5.
God challenges him to vie with him, in justice, power, majesty, and
dominion over the proud, ver. 6 - 14.
And gives an instance of his power in the Behemoth, ver. 15 - 24.
1: Answered - Having made a little pause to try what Job could
answer. This is not said to be spoken out of the whirlwind, and
therefore some think God said it in a still, small voice, which
wrought more upon Job, (as upon Elijah) than the whirlwind did.
Tho' Job had not spoken any thing, yet God is said to answer him.
For he knows mens thoughts, and can return a fit answer to their silence.
2: Reproveth - That boldly censureth his ways or works; it is at his
peril.
5: Answer - Speak again; I will contend no more with thee.
Twice - Often, the definite number being used indefinitely.
6: Whirlwind - Which was renewed when God renewed his charge upon
Job, whom he intended to humble more throughly.
8: Wilt thou - Every word is emphatical, wilt (art thou resolved
upon it) thou (thou Job, whom I took to be one of a better mind)
also (not only vindicate thyself, but also accuse me) disannul
(not only question, but even repeal and make void, as if it were unjust)
my judgment? My sentence against thee, and my government and
administration of human affairs? Wilt thou make me unrighteous that
thou mayst seem to be righteous?
10: Deck - Seeing thou makest thyself equal, yea, superior to me,
take to thyself thy great power, come and sit in my throne, and display
thy Divine perfections in the sight of the world.
13: Hide - Kill every one of them at one blow. Bind - Condemn
or destroy them. He alludes to the manner of covering the faces
of condemned persons, and of dead men. In secret - In a secret
place, bury them in their graves.
15: Behemoth - Very learned men take the leviathan to be the
crocodile, and the behemoth to be the river - horse, which may fitly
be joined with the crocodile, both being well known to Joband his
friends, as being frequent in the adjacent parts, both amphibious,
living and preying both in the water and upon the land. And both
creatures of great bulk and strength. Made - As I made thee.
Grass - The river - horse comes out of the river upon the land to feed
upon corn, and hay, or grass, as an ox doth, to whom also he is not
unlike in the form of his head and feet, and in the bigness of his
body, whence the Italians call him, the sea - ox.
16: Strength - He hath strength answerable to his bulk, but this
strength by God's wise and merciful providence is not an offensive
strength, consisting in, or put forth by horns or claws, as it is
in ravenous creatures, but only defensive and seated in his loins,
as it is in other creatures.
17: Tail - Which though it be but short, yet when it is erected,
is exceeding stiff and strong. Thighs - The sinews of his thighs.
His thighs and feet are so sinewy and strong, that one of them
is able to break or over - turn a large boat.
19: The chief - He is one of the chief of God's works, in regard of
its great bulk and strength.
20: Mountains - Though he lives most in the water, yet he often
fetches his food from the land, and from the mountains or hills,
which are nigh the river Nile. Play - They not only feed securely,
but sport themselves by him, being taught by experience that he
is gentle and harmless.
22: Brook - Or, of the Nile, of which this word is often used in
scripture. His constant residence is in or near this river, or the
willows that grow by it.
23: River - A great quantity of water, hyperbolically called a river.
Hasteth not - He drinks not with fear and caution; but such is his courage,
that he fears no enemy either by water or by land. He drinks as if he
designed, to drink up the whole river. He mentions Jordan, as a river
well known, in and nigh unto Job's land.
24: Sight - Can any man take him in his eyes? Openly and by
force? Surely not. His strength is too great for man to overcome:
and therefore men are forced to use wiles and engines to catch him.
