Exposition of the Whole Bible

a ftone pillar that will bear a prodigious weight? no, it is not: or 7s my fle of bra/s? is it made of brafs? or is it like to brafs for hardnefs, ot every thing is included, both with refpeét to doctrine and practice, then revealed unto the fons of and therefore it can’t bear up under the ponderous load of afflictions on it, but muft fink and men, all which ‘70d had a fpecial regard unto; he embraced, profeffed and practifed them; he did not hide them from himielf, or fhuc his eyes to the evidence of them, and‘{mother within him the light he had;> nor did he conceal them from others, but communicated the knowledge of them among his neighbours, as far as he could reach; he was not afhamed to profefs the true religion of God; he held faft, and did ‘not deny the faith in the midft of a dark and heathenifh country; and he aéted up to his profeffion and principles in his life and converfation: now having a teftimony of a good conf{cience within him, that he through the grace of God had acted a fincere and upright part fail; it is but flefh and blood, and that flefh like grafs, weak and feeble; and therefore death is better than life laden with fuch an infupportable burden.

¥. 13. Is my help in me? &c.| Or my defence’, as fome; is it not in my power to defend myfelf againft the calumnies and reproaches caft upon me? it is; and though I have no help in myfelf to bear my burdens, or extricate myfelf out of my difficulties, yet I have the teftimony of a good con- {cience within me, that fupports me; and I have the ftrength and force of reafon and argument on my fide, to defend me againtt all objectors: and is wifdom driven from me? either found doctrine, the in the affair of religion; and having knowledge of /ew’, or rather the gofpel, the wifdom of God in a a living Redeemer, and faith in him, and in his juftifying righteoufnefs, he was not afraid of death,

~ €ome when it would, and in whatfoever fhape; and whereas his friends had fuggefted, that he was a hypocrite, and a wicked man, his confcience bore witnefs to the contrary; and to let them know they were miftaken in him, he fignifies he was not afraid to die, yea, he defired it; he cared not how foon he left the world, and appeared before God, the judge of all, fince the truth of grace was in him, and the righteoufnefs of Chrift upon him, and he had not through the courfe of his profeffion of religion departed wickedly from his God, his truths and ordinances. Some " connexion with the firft claufe, putting the reft in a parenthefis; this is yet my comfort, (though or when I am burned ov parched with pain, and be fpares not) that I have not concealed the words of the boly one.

v.11. What is my ftrength that I foould hope? &ey] For a perfect reftoration of health, fuggetted by Eliphaz, fince it was fo fadly weakened by the prefent affli€tion, which made death more defirable than life lengthened out in fo much weaknefs, pain and forrow; or that I fhould bear™, fuch a weight and heavy load that lay upon him, and crufhed-him, and to which his ftrength was not equal; or continue and endure*: what is mine end, that I fhould prolong my life? what end can be anfwered by living, or defiring a long life?. his children were gone, and none left to take care of and provide for; his fubftance was taken away from him, fo that he had not to fupport himéelf, nor to be ufeful to others, to the poor; he had loft all power, authofity and influence among men, and could be no more ferviceable by his counfel and advice, and by the adminiftration of juftice and equity as a civil magiftrate; and as to religious matters, he myftery, revealed in the words of the Holy One before mentioned; or wifdom in the hidden part, ‘the fear of God which is wifdom, true grace in the heart, which when once implanted can never be driven out; or natural reafon and underftanding, of which he was not bereaved; for though his body was thus forely afflicted, he retained his reafoning and intellectual faculties. The words, in connection with the former, may be read, what if help is not with me, is wifdom alfo driven quite from me*? does it follow, becaufe I am not able to help myfelf out of this afflicted and diftrefled condition in. which I am, that I am deprived of read this in|my reafon? or be it that] am fuch a weak impotent creature, and even diftracted as you take me to be, fhould I not then rather be pitied than infulted: fo fome ° conneét the words following.

Mw. 14. To him that is afflitied, pity thould be fhewed from his friend, &c.} An afflicted man is an object of pity, one that is afflicted of God; either inwardly with a wounded fpirit, with a fenfe of God’s difpleafure, with divine defertions, with the arrows of the almighty fticking in him, the poifon thereof, drinking up his fpirits; or outwardly with difeafes of body, with want of the neceflaries of life, with lofs of near relations, as well as fubftance, which was 7od’s cafe; or afflicted by Satan, fhot at, fifted and buffeted by him, diftreffed by his temptations, fuggeftions and folicitations; or afflicted by men, reproached and perfecuted for righteoufnets-fake: in all fuch cafes and circumftances, pity fhould be fhewed; which is an inward affection of the mind, a fympathy of fpirit, a fenfible feeling of the afflictions of others; and which. is expreffed by geftures, motions and actions, as by vifiting them in their affliction, fpeaking comfortably to them, and relieving their neceffities according to ability, and as the cafe re- was reckoned an hypocrite and a wicked man by his quires: and this may be expected from a friend, friends, and had lo{t his chara¢ter and intereft as and what the law of friendfhip requires, whether it a good man; and fo for him to live could anfwer no valuable end, and therefore he defires to die 5 for be in a natural and civil fenfe, or in a religious and fpiritual one; the union between friends being fo what is here, and in the two following verfes, faid, contain reafons of his above requeft.

¥. 12. Is my firength the frength of flones? &c.] Is it like fuch efpecially which are foundation and corner-ftones that fupport a building? or like near and clofe, that they are as it were one {oul, as David and Fonathan were; and as the people of God, members of the fame body are, fo that if one fuffers, all the reft do, or fhould fuffer and fympathize with it: and though this duty is not

always performed, at leaft as it fhouild be by natural and fpiritual friends, yet this grace is always fhewn by God, our beft of friends, who pities his children; and by Chrift, who is a friend that loves at all times; a brother born for adverfity, and {ticks clofer than any brother, and cannot but be touched with the feeling of the infirmities of his friends: the words may be rendered, o him that is melted*; afflictions are like a furnace or finingpot for the melting of metals, and are called the furnace of affiigtions; and faints are the metal, which are put into it; and afflictions alfo are the fire, or fiery trials, which heat and melt, and by which means the drofs of fin and corruption is removed, and the graces of the fpirit are tried and made the brighter; though here it rather fignifies the melting of the heart like wax or water thro’ the afflition; and denotes the anguith and diftrefs, the trembling and fears a perfon is in through being overwhelmed and borne down by it, which was ‘fod’s cafe: or he that melts pity, or whofe pity melts, or melts in pity to bis friend, he that is, he that fails in pity, is deftitute of compaffion, and fhuts up the bowels of it to his friend in diftrefs, has not the fear of God before his eyes; and this fenfe makes Fob himfelf to be the friend in affliction, and £liphaz, and thofe with him, the perfons that are deficient in their mercy, pity and compaffion: Some render the words*, should reproach be calt on him that is afflicted, as that he forfakes the fear of the Almighty? the word for pity is fo ufed in Prov. xiv. 34. and the reproach on ¥ob was, that he had caft off the fear of God, ch. iv. 6. and xv. 4. this grieved him moft of all, and added to his affliction, and of which he complains, as very cruel ulage; and very cutting it was, that he fhould be reckoned a man deftitute of the fear of God, and that becaufe he was afflitted by him; though rather the following words, dut be forfaketh. the fear of the Almighty, are a charge upon his friend Eiiphaz for not fhewing pity to him in his affliction, which was tacitly forfaking the fear of God. od here recriminates and retorts the charge of want of the fear of God on Elipbaz himfelf; for to fhew mercy to an afflicted friend is a religious act, a part of pure and undefiled religion, a branch of the fear of God; and he that neglects it, is far wanting in it, and aéts contrary to his profeffion of God, of fear of him, and love to him, fee Fames.i. 26. 1 Fobn iii. 17. or otberwife be forhim, and grieved him, and were miferable com= forters of him and this he illuftrates by the fimileof a brook, which he enlarges upon in the following verfes: thefe friends and brethren of his he » thatjcompares to a érock, not that'was fed by a {pring which continues,’ but filled with falls of water and melting fnows from the hills, with which it is fwelled, and looks like a large. river for a while, but when thefe fail, it is foon gone; hereby reprefenting his friends in his ftate of profperity, who looked\big, and promifed long and lafting friendfhip, but proved in a time ot adverfity unfaithful and deceitful; and fo it denotes the ficklenefs and inconftancy of their friendfhip: awd as the fiream of brooks they pafs away; or pas by*, as a ftream of water, fed by many brooks, or flows of water like unto many brooks, which run with great rapidity and force, and are quickly gone and feen it,jno more; thus his friends as fuch pafled by him, and were of no ufe to him any more than the prieit and Levite were to the man that fell among thieves, forfakes *, &c. | Luke x. 30, 31, 32+:

y.16. Which are blackifh by reafon of the ice, &c.] When frozen over they look of a blackifh colour, and is what is called.a black froft; and thefe either defcribe ‘ob and his domefticks, as fome * think, whom £/pbaz and_his.two friends compared to the above ftreams of water, pafied away from, or paffed by and neglected, and fhewed no friendthip to; who were in black, in mourns ful and rueful circumftances, through the fevere hand of God upon them; the word is rendered, thofe which mourn, ch. v. 11. or rather the friends of Yo compared to foul and troubled waters frozen over,, which cannot be fo well difcerned, or which were black through being frozen; and which de- {cribes the inward frame of their minds, the foulnefs of their fpirits, the. blacknefs of their hearts, though they outwardly appeared otherwile, as follows: and wherein the {now is hid, or on whom the /zow falling, and lying on heaps, Aides*, or covers; fo Fob’s friends, according to this account, be though black within as a black froft, yet white without as fnow; they appeared in their looks and words at firft as candid, kind and generous, but proved the reverfe.

foj y¥.17. What time they wax warm they vanifb, 8c.]° The ice and the fnow, which when the weather becomes warm, they melt away and difappear; and in like manner he fuggefts, his friends ceafed fakes, &c.' to be friends to him in a time of adverfity; the

¥.15. My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, &c.} Meaning his three friends perfonated by Eliphaz, who were of the fame fentiments with him, and behaved towards ob as he did: thefe|p were his brethren, not by birth, by blood; nor by country, but by the proteffion of the fame religion of the one true and living God, in oppofition to the idolatrous people among whom: they dwelt; and this their relation to him is an aggravation of their perfidy and. treachery, unfaithfulnefs and deceit, by which is meant their baulking and difappointing him in his expeétations; when they came to vifit him as friends, he might reafonably expect they came to condole and fympathize with him, and comfort him but inftead of this, they reproached fun of affliction having looked upon him, they deferted him, at leaft did not adminifter comfort to him: whem it is bot they are confiumed out of their ace; when it is hot weather, and the. fun has great ftrength, then the waters which fwelled thro’ the floods and fall of rain and fnow, and which when frozen looked black and big, as if they had great depth: in them, were quickly dried up, and no more to be feen in the place where they were;" - which ftill expreffes the fhort duration of friendfhip among men, which od had a forrowful experience of. vad goalies y. 18. The paths of their way are turned afide, &c.] That is, the waters when melted by the heat of the fun, and the warmth of the weather, run latur nix, Beza; tegit fe, q.d. multa nive teguatur, Drafius; the froftis hidden by the fnow, fo Sephorno; or -ath¢ black and frozen waters. +

Ch, vi ¥. 19-24. oy ae) 3B: 227 ‘fome one way, and fomeanother, in little windings, till they are quite loft, and the tracks of them are no more to be feen; denoting that all appearftreamsand)jcompany; of however fhould they patronize’and defend him; and afraid alfo of being too near him, lef{t his breath, and the fmell of him fhould be in- ance of friendfhip was quite gone, and no traces of it to be found > they go to nothing, and peri h, fome of them are loft in littke meanders and windings about, and others are exhaled by the heat of the fun, and go into Zohu, as the word is, into empty air; fo vain, and.empty, and _perifhing were all the comforts he hoped for from his friends; though fome underftand this of the paths of travellers.in the defarts, being covered. in the fand, and not to be deen and found; of which fee Pliny”. yt. 19. The troops of Tema looked, &c.] A, city in Arabia, fo called from Tema a fon of. bmael, Gen. xxv. 15. thefe troops or companies were travelling ones, either that travelled to Tema, or that went from thence to other places for merchandife, fee I/, xxi. 13, 14. thefe as they paffed along in their caravans, as the. Turks their fucceffors now do, looked at thofe places, where in the wintertime they obferved large waters frozen over, and covered with {now, and expected to have been fupplied from thence in the fummer-feafon, for the extinguifhing of their thirft: the companies-of Sheba waited for them; another people in Arabia, which went in companies through the defarts, where being in great want of water for their refrefhment, waited patiently till they came to thofe places, where they hoped to find water to relieve them, which they had before marked in the winter-time.

fectious, and they fhould catch a diftemper from him; or left he fhould be expenfive and troublefome to them.' w. 22. Did I fay, bring unto me, &c.]. Or, give unto me®; did U invite you to come to me, and bring in your hands prefents for me, to fupport me under my neceffitous circumftances? or give a reward for me of your fubjtance? did I ever afk any thing of you? if I-had, it would have been but your duty to have given freely to me in my deplorable circumftances; and it might have been expected you would have given without afking, feeing my neceffities fo great: or did I defire you to communicate out of the great wealth and: abundant riches you are poffeffed of to others on my be-_ half, to. plead my caufeamong men, and to geta favourable fentence upon me, that 1 might not be traduced as a wicked man by cenforious tongues? had I ever been troublefome to you in any refpect, you might have been provoked to ufe me ill; but fince nothing of this kind has ever been requefted of you, you might have foreborne ill language and hard words; which.are often given to beggars; for when a man is fallen into decay, and becomes troublefome by his importunity, twenty things are raked up by his friends-againft his character; as that he has been lazy and indolent, or lavifh and extravagant, &c. to fave their money, and excufe y¥. 20. And they were confounded becaufe they bad them from acts of charity; but this was not the hoped, &c.] When they came to the places, where they hoped to find water, finding none were afhamed of their vain hope, and reflected upon themfelves for being fo foolifh as to raife their expectations upon fuch a groundlefs furmize: they came thither, and were afpamed; which is the fame thing exprefled in different words; and aptly enough de- {cribes Fod’s difappointment in not meeting with that relief and comfort he expected from his friends, to’ whom he makes application of all this in the foling words.

v.21, For now-ye are nothing, &c.| Once they feemed to be fomething to him; he thought them men wife, good, and religious, kind, bountiful, and tender-hearted; but now he found them otherwife, they were nothing to him as friends or as comforters in his diftrefs; the Ceid, or fcripture, is as we read, and is followed by many; but the marginal reading is, mow ye are to it*, that is, ye are like to it, the brook whofe waters he had been defcribing 5 fo Farchi interprets it; Mr. Broughton very agreeably takes in both, /o now ye are become like that, even nothing, as that deceitful brook is no more, nor of any ufe to travellers, fainting through thirft; fo ye are like that, of no ufe and advantage to me in my affliction: ye fee my cafting down, trom a {tate of profperity to a ftate of adverfity; from the pinnacle of honour, from being

¥. 23. Or deliver me from the enemies hand? 8cc.] Or, out of the hand of ftraitne/s*; out of tribulation and difficulties with which he was preffed on every fide: or redeem me from the band of the mighty, fetch back his cattle out of the hands of the Sabeans and, Chaldeans, either by force of arms, as Abrabam brought back Lot, and all his goods, when taken and carried away by the fourkings, or by giving a ranfom-price for them. Fob had afked no fuch favour of.them; he had not troubled them with any fuch fuits, and therefore they had no reafon to ufe him in the manner they did, as he apprehended; it would be foon enough to flout and fling at him, when he applied to them for any relief.

¥. 24. Teach me, and I will hold my tongue, &c.] Fob having made his defence, and. which he thought a fufficient one to acquit him of the charge againft him; yet to fhew that he was not ftubborn and inflexible, but was open to conviction, and ready to attend and hearken to what might be further faid, defires to be taught and inftruéted in the way of his duty; fuggefting that upon being convinced of his miftakes, he fhould ingenuoufly acknowledge them: good men are defirous of being taught both of God and men; they are not above inftruction, or think themfelves-wifer than their the greateft man in the eaft, a civil magiftrate, the head of a flourifhing family, to the loweft degree of difgrace and difhonour;

riches to wantand poverty; as well as faw the inward dejection of his mind, through the poifoned arrows of the Almighty within him: and ye are afraid; of the righteous: judgments of God, taking thefe calamities ‘to be fuch, and fearing the fame or the like fhould fall on them, fhould they keep him andj teachers; they are willing to receive knowledge, not only from ‘their fuperiors, but from their equals, from wealth andjand even from thofe that are inferior to them, as 70d from his friends, though they had been unkind to him, and bore very hard upon him; and he promifes that whilft they were {peaking he would be filent, and not noify, and clamorous, nor interrupt nor contradict them; but would patiently and at- 'tentively liften to what they faid, and ferioufly one

* - ' - =: rk. el,. fidet it, and weigh it well in his mind; he be convinced thereby, would no longer continue his complaints unto God, nor murmur at his providences; and would ceafe reflecting on them friends, and no more charge them with deceit, and perfidy, and unkindnefs;

are according to right reafon; fuch as may be called {trong reafons, or boney arguments, as in J 21. there are ftreneth and weight in fuch words, reafonings, and arguments; they bring evidence and conviction with them, and are very powerful to perfuade the mind to an affent unto them, and have great influence to engage to a profeffion practice of what they are ufed for; fuch are more efpecially the words of God, the fcriptures of truth, the doétrines of the gofpel; thefe are right words, fee Prov. viii. 6, 8, 9. they are not contrary to right reafon, although above it; and are agreeable to fanctified reafon, and received by it; they are according to the perfeétions of God, even his righteoufnefs and holinefs, and according to the law of God, and in no wife repugnant to it, which is the rule of righteoufnefs; and they are doétrines according to godlinefs, and are far from encouraging licentioufnefs; and they are all ftrictly true, and muft be right: and there is a force and {trength in thofe words; they come with weight, efpecially when they come in demonftration of the {pirit and power of God; they are mighty through God, for the pulling down the ftrong holds of fin, Satan, and felf, and for the bringing of men to the obedience of Chrift; to the quickening dead finners, enlightening dark minds, foftening hard hearts s renewing, changing, and transforming men Into’ quite another temper and difpofition of mind they formerly had; for the comforting and relieving fouls in diftrefs, and faints under and fhould, have fo very wonderful an influence on the lives and converfations of thofe to whom they come, not in word only, but in power and in the Holy Ghoft, hisjas to teach them to deny all fin and ungodlinefs, to live foberly, righteoufly, and godly: or, and by his filence would how forcible are the words of an upright man*! that - is fincere, impartial, and faithful; which ob fuggefts his friends were not: fome think Jed has refpect to his own words, and render «the claufe, what bardnefs, or barfone/s, have right avords*4 fuch as he believed his own were, and in which there were nothing hard and harfh, fharp and fevere, or which might give juft offence; fuch as his-curfing the day in which he was born, or charging his ~ friends. with treachery and deceit: but rather, he cacitly reflects upon the words and arguments of his friends; intimating, that though there is force and {trength in right words, theirs were neither right nor forcible, but partial and unjuft, and weak and tojimpotent; which had no ftrength of reafoning in them, nor carried any conviction with them, as follows: but what dob your arguing reprove? their. wherefore wife andjarguments they had ufed with him had no ftrength them; they were of no avail; they did not reprove or convince of any evil he had been guilty of, or any miftake he had made’; they were weak, impertinent, and ufelefs, and fell with no weight upon him, nor wrought any conviction in him.

acknowledge his guilt, and not pertinacioufly ftand in an evil matter, but lay his hand on his mouth; hold his tongue, as our Englifh phrafe is, a Grecifm*, that is, be filent, as in Hebrew; and even take fhame to himfelf, and in this way confefs his iniquity, and do fo no more: and caufe me to underfiand wherein I have erred, not that he allowed that he was in an error; for all that he fays, both before and after, fhews that he thought himfelf free from any; only, thac whereas there was a poffibility that he might be in one, he fhould be glad to have it pointed out; for he would not willingly and obftinately continue therein: error is common to human nature; the beft of men are liable miftakes; and thofe are fo frequent and numerous, that many of them efcape notice; who can underftand bis errors? Pf. xix. 12.

good men will efteem it a favour to have theirlin errors difcovered to them, and their miftakes re¢tified; and it becomes men of capacity and ability to take fome pains to do this, fincé he that converts one that has erred, whether in principle or practice, faves afoul from death, and covers a multitude of fins 5 Yames, v. 19, 20. Fob is defirous, that if he had imbibed or uttered any error in principle, any thing unbecoming the Divine Being, contrary tojof his perfections, or to the holy religion which he profeffed; or was guilty of any in practice, in his conduct and behaviour, efpecially under the prefent providence, that it might be clearly made out him, and he fhould at once frankly and freely own it, retract, and relinquifh it.

y. 26. Do ye imagine to reprove words, &c.) Or with words; with bare words, without any force of reafoning and argument in them? put-a ‘parcel words together without any fenfe or meaning, or however without any cogency in them, and think to ran me down with them? or is your feheme and device only, and which you purfue, to catch untojat and lay hold on fome words of mine uttered in my diftrefs, and make me an offender for a word, or for a few words, fuppofing they have been ‘rafhly &c:| Thatland paffionately fpoken? have ye no faéts'to charge me with, before or fince thefe calamities befel me?..xli.Jis the charge of hypocrify and want of the fear of God to be fupported by producing fome hafty expreffions, without pointing at one fingle action in my li'e and converfation? and the fpeeches of one shat is de/perate, which are as wind; that is, do ye orjimagine to\reprove them? or, are your thoughts wholly and folely intent on them? are thefe only the ftrong reafons you have to produce to fix the fin of hypocrify upon me? for by him that is de/perate he means himfelf; not that he defpaired of his everlafting falvation; he was far from defpair; he was a ftrong believer, and determined, that though he was flain, he would truft in the Lord; he was well affured he fhould be juftified, both here and hereafter; and full well knew that his Redeemer lived, and that though he died, he fhould rife again and be happy in the vifion of Ged for ever: but he defpaired of a reftoration to outward happinefs, which £/iphez had fuggefted, thould he behave well; but alas, his condition was forlorn — and miferable, and there was no hope with him of being better; his children were dead, his fubftance in the hands of robbers, his health fo extremely bad that he had no expectation of a recovery to his former ftate; and therefore it was very unkind and ungenerous to lay hold upon and aggravate the ~~ fpeeches of fuch an one, and improve them againft; him; and efpecially as they were only for refr ment*, as fome chufe to render the words, fee ch.’ affli€tion; and|xxxii. 20. they were uttered to Bive vent to his "

¥. 25. How forcible are right words!

Ch.vi ¥.297—30. DB. 2.29 forrow and grief, and not with any ill defign God or men; or the fenfe of the whole is, that) they imagined that their words were right and fit to reprove with, and that there were force and {trength in them, and hada tendency to work convidtion and bring to confeffion; btit as for the words of Job they treated them as wind; as idle, vain, and empty, and ufelefs and fruitlefs as the againft before your faces®,; fhould I atternpt to deceive*you by telling you a parcel: of lies, you would foon difcern the falfhood in my countenance; you would eafily find it out in my words, which would iffue in my fhame and confufion; I-could not expect to go undetected by men of fuch fagacity and penetration, but I am not afraid of the mott diligent fcrutiny that can be made into. my words and y. 27. Yea, ye overwhelm the fatherlefs, &c.] Meaning himfelf; who was like’ a fatherlefs child, ftripped of all his mercies, of his children, his fubftance, and his health; and was in a moft miferable, helplefs, and forlorn condition; and moreover, deprived of the gracious ptefence and vifible protection of his heavenly father, being given up for a while into the hands of Satan; and now it was unkind and barbarous to overwhelm fuch aj man, who was overwhelmed with overmuch ‘orrow already: or, ye canfe to fall upon the fatherle/s; either their wrath and anger, as the Zargum and many others“, inftead of doing him juftice; or a wall, or any fuch thing, to crufh him, as dden Ezra; or a lot, as Simeon Bar Tzemach; fee Foel iii. 3. or rather a net, or a fnare to entrap him feeking to entangle him in talk, fo Mr. Broughton, which agrees with what follows: and ye dig a pit for your friend contrive mifchief againft him; fought to bring him to ruin;

y.29. Return, I pray you, &c.] From the ill opinion you have of me, and from your hard cenfures, and entertain other fentiments concerning me: or it may be, upon thefe words of Fob his friends might be rifing up as ufual to take their leave of him, and break off converfation with him; and therefore he intreats they would return to their feats and refume the debate, and give a friendly hearing of his cafe: Jet it not be iniquity; either let it not be reckoned an iniquity to return and go on hearing his cafe; or he intreats that they would take care not to fin in their anger and refentment ° againft him, nor goon to charge him with iniquity: or it may be rendered, there is no iniquity"; that is, it fhould be found that there was no fuch iniquity in,Jin him as he was charged with; not that he was free from all fin, which no man is, but from that which his friends judged he was guilty of, hypo-. - crify: yea, return again; he moft earneftly imporand which is aggra-jtunes them to return and patiently hear him out: my rightcou/ne/s is in it; in the whole of this affair before them, and which was the matter of controverfy between them; meaning, not his juttifying righteoufnels before God, but the righteoufnefs of his caufe before men; he doubted not but, when Kings, things were thoroughly fearched into, that his righteoufnefs would be as clear as the light, and his judgment as the noon-day; that he fhould appear to be a righteous man, and his caufe a juft one; and fhould ftand acquitted and free from all charges and imputations.

vated by his having been their old friend, with whom they lived in ftrit friendfhip, and had profeffed much unto, and ftill pretended to have re- {pest for; the allufion is to digging of pits for the catching of wild beafts: fome render it, ye fea/t upon your friend®; fo the word is ufed in 2 vi. 23. Fod xii. 6, this fenfe is taken notice of by Aben Ezra and Bar Tzemach, and then the meaning is, you rejoice at the mifery of your friend; ou mock him and that, and infult him in his diftrefs, with which the Septuagint verfion agrees;

which was cruel ufage. ¥. 30, Is there iniquity in my tongue? &c.]

y. 28. Now therefore be content, &c.] Or, may it now please you’; ‘fob addreffes them in a refpectful manner, and intreats them they would be fo kind as to look favourably on him, and entertain better thoughts of him; and give a frefh and friendly hearing of his cafe, when he doubted not he fhould be acquitted by them of the charge of iniquity, and that his caufe would appear to be a righteous one: look upon me, upon my countenance; and fee if you can find any traces of fear and falfhood, of difhonefty and hypocrify, of fhame and blufhing; and obferve if there is not all the appearance of an honeft mind, of a good confcience within, that has nothing to fear from the ftricteft examination; look upon my body, covered all over with boils and ulcers, and fee if there is not occafion for thofe expreffions of grief, and thofe heavy complaints that I have made; or rather, look upon me with an eye of pity and compaffion, with affection, favour, and benevolence, and not bear fo hard Meaning in his words; either thofe which he uttered when he curfed the day on which he was born, or in charging his friends with unkindnefs and falfhood; otherwife the tongue’is a world of iniquity, and the beft of men are apt to offend both God and men in word: cannot my tafte difcern perverfe ¢hings 2. which is to be underftood not of his natural tafte, which very probably thro’ his difeafe might be greatly vitiated, and incapable of relifhing his food as in time of health, and of diftinguifhing good from bad; but of his intelleétual tafte, or of his fenfe and reafon, his rational and {piritual tafte; he had his fenfes exercifed to difcern good and evil; orjhe could diftinguifh between right and wrong that was faid or done, either by himfelf or others; he had the ufe of his rational powers and faculties, and therefore not to be treated as a mad or diftracted man, but as one capable of carrying on a- converfation, of opening his true cafe, and defending uponjhimfelf; fee ch. xii. 11.

me: for it is evident unto you, if I lie; or, it is

¢ S$ iram, Vatablus, Mercerus, Coceeius; fo Jarchi and Sephorno, € AN epulamini, Pifcator; fo Beza, Gifetius. £ oan TINY} fed nunc placeat vobis, Schmidt..§ 3b SY coram facie veitra, Bolducius, Schultens; Ben Melech interprets it, dy your life if I lye, as being an oath. SY IF ON non erit injquitas,

N this chapter 70d goes on to defend himfelf | an addrefs to God; as that he had reafon to complain of his extraordinary afflictions, and wifh for death; by obferving the common cafe of mankind, which he illuftrates by that of an injand there was for Fob’s, of which he was well affured; and, by all appearance of things, and by the fymptoms upon, him, this time was near at hand; therefore it fhould not be thought aaa. hireling, minal thing in-him, confidering his extraordinary thefafflictions, and which were intolerable, that he fhould fo earneftly wifh the time was come; though. jin his more ferious thoughts he determined to wait for it: fome render the words, is there wota warfare for men on earth“? the word being fo rendered had elfewhere, particularly in J/ xl. 2. every man’s not, ftate on earth is a ftate of warfare; this is frequently faid by the Stoic philofophers'; even fo is that of natural and unregenerate men, who are and fo thoughtjoften engaged in war with one another, which arife from the lufts which war in their members; and and therefore, tojefpecially with the people of God, the feed of the wo- y. 1. and juftifies his eager defire of death by jervant and hireling; the one earneftly defiring the fhadow, and the other the reward of his work, y. 2. by reprefenting his prefent ftate as exceeding deplorable, even worfe than that of the fervant and hireling, fince they had reft at night, when,he none, and were free from pain, whereas he was his cafe hard; and the rather, fince after death he could enjoy no temporal good:

be deprived of it whilft living gave him juft reafon of complaint, ¥. 8—1r. and then he expoftulates with God for feting fuch a ftri€t watch upon him, giving him no eafe night nor day, but terrifying him with dreams and vifions, which made life difagreeable to him, and death more eligible than that, y¥. 12—16. and reprefents man as unworthy of the there has been an enmity from the beginning; and with themfelves, with the troubles of life, difeafes of body, and various afflictions they haye to conflict and grapple with: and more efpecially the life of good men here is a ftate of warfare, not only of the minifters of the word, or perfons in public divine regard, and below his notice to beltow favours on him, or to chaftife him for doing amifs, y.17, 18. and admitting that he himfelf had finned, yet he fhould forgive his iniquity, and not bear office, but of private believers; who are good foldiers of Chrift, enter volunteers into his fervice, fight under his banners, and quit themfelyes like fo)men; thefe have many enemies to combat with;

man, between whom and the feed of the ferpent.

hard upon him, and follow him with one affli€tion after another without intermiffion, and make him the butt of his arrows;

let him alone, or however take him out of the fome within, the corruptions of their héarts, which ' war againft the fpirit and law of their minds, which but fhould fpare him and) form a company of two armies. in them, militating againft each other; and others without, as Satanand world 19—21. his principalities and powers, the men of the world, falfe teachers, and the like: and thefe-are properly y. 1. Is there not an appointed time to man carth?| There is a fet time for his coming into the world, for his continuance in it, and for his going out of it; this is tovman om earth, with re- {pect to his being and abode here, not in the other world or future ftate: not in heaven; there is no certain limited time for man there, but an eternity; the life he will enter into is everlafting; the habitation, manfion, and houfe he will dwell in, are eternal; faints will be for ever with Chrift, in whofe prefence are pleafures for evermore: nor in hell; the punifhment there will be eternal, the fire be unquenchable and everlafting, the fmoke of the torments of the damned will afcend for ever ever; but men’s days and time on earth are but as a fhadow, and foon gone; they are of the, earth, earthly, and return unto it at a fixed appointed time, the bounds of which cannot be paffed over: this is true of mankind in general, and of Yod in particular; fee ch. xiv. 1,5, 14. Eccd. the word Enofh', here ufed, fignifies, as is commonly obferved, a frail, feeble, mortal man; Broughton renders it forrowful man; as every man more or lefs is; even a man of forrows, and quainted with griefs, is attended with them, has an experience of them: this.isthe common lot of'mankind; and if any thing more than ordinary is inflicted upon’ them, they are not able to bear it; and thefe forrows death at the appointed. time puts ar end to, which makes it defirable: now, feeing there is a fet time for every man’s life on earth, uponjaccoutred for fuch fervice, having the whole armour of God provided’ for them; and. have great encouragement to behave manfully, fince they may be fure of victory, and of having the crown of righteoufnefs, when they have fought the good fight of faith; even tho’ they are but frail, feeble, mortal, finful men, but flefh and blood, and fo not of themfelves a match for their enemies; but they are more than fo thro’ the Lord being on their fide, Chrift being the captain of their falvation, and the Spirit of God being in them greater than he that is willjin the world; and befides, it is only on earth this warfare is, and will foon be accomplifhed, the laft andjenemy being death that fhall be deftroyed: now this being the common cafe of man, to be a: with enemies, and always at war with them, if befides this, uncommon afflictions befal him, as was 70bs cafe, this muft make life burdenfome, and death, which is a deliverance from them, defire-, tii, 1, 2.Jable; this is his argument: fome chufe. to. render the words, is there not a fervile condition for mem om Mr.jearth™? the word being ufed of the miniftry: fervice of the Levites, Mead. iV: 35 45 all ac-!creation are or ought to be the fervants good men are fo by the grace of God, and wi lingly and «chearfully férve ‘him; and t sae great work of falvation ‘is wrought. out» by. Chritt for them, and the work. of grace isw Spirit of Chrift in them, yet they have work to do in their day and generation in the world, in their families, and in the houfe of God; and whic ind wiligh the, rought by the

‘though weak and feeble in themfelves, they are capable of doing, through Chrift, his fpirit, power, and grace: and this is only on earth; in the grave there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge; when the night of death comes, no man can work; his fervice, efpecially his toilfome fervice, is at an end; and as it is natural for fervants to wifh for the night, when their labours end, 70d thought it not unlawful in him to wifh for death, which would put an end to his toils and labours, and when he fhould have reft from them: are not bis days alfo like the days of an bireling? the time for which a fervant is hired, whether it be for a day or for a year, or more, it is a fet times it is fixed, fettled, and determined in the agreement, and fo are the days of man’s life on earth; and the days of an hireling are few at moft, the time for which he is hired is but fhort; and fuch are the days of men

¢ = «& 23% and allured by gracious prorhifes and divine encouragements to labour in the Lord’s vineyard, and may expect their reward; fee Matt. xx. 1, 2, 8. ¥. 3. Soam I made to poffefs months of vanity, 8c. This is not a reddition or application of the above fimilies of the fervant and hireling; for that is to be underftood, and to be fupplied at the erid of the preceding verfe; that as thofe looked for the fhadow and payment of hire, fo Fob looked for, and earneftly defired death, or to be removed out of the world; befides, the things here inftanced in don’t anfwer; for Fob, inftead of having the refrefhing fhadow had months of vanity, and inftead of reft from his labours had nothing but wearifome nights, and continual toffings to and fro; whereas the fléep of a labouring man is fweet to him; and havin laboured hard all day, the night is a time of reff to him; but fo it was not with Job; wherefore this in this world, they are but few indeed; fee ch. x. fo refers to the common ftate and condition of

5, 20. and xiv. 1. and as the days of an hireling are days of toil and labour and forrow, fo are the days of men, evil as well as few; his few days are full of trouble, Gex. xlvii. g. Fob xiv. 1. all this and what follows is fpoken to God, and not to his friends, as appears from ¥. 7, 8, 14, 17—21. y¥.2. 4s a fervant earneftly defireth the fbadow, &c,] - Either the fhadow of fome great rock, tree, or hedge, or any “fhady place to fhelter him from the heat of the fun in the middle of the day, which in thofe eaftern countries is hot and fcorching; and very burdenfome and fatiguing it is for fervants and Jabourers to work in fields and vineyards, or in keeping herds and flocks in fuch countries, and at fuch a time of the day; to which the allufion is in Cant. i. 7. If-xxv. 4. and xxxii. 2. Matt, xx, 12. Wherefore they gape for, or pant after fome fhady place for refrefhment, as the word” uled fignifies; or for the fhadow of the evening, or the fun-fetting, when the longeft fhadow is caft, ‘er. vi. 4. and when the work of a fervant is ended, and he retires to his houfe for refrefhment and reft: and fince now fuch a fhadow in either fenfe is defireable, and not unlawful to wifh for, Fob fuggefts it ought not to be charged as a crime in him, that he fhould importunately defire to be in the fhadow of death, or in the grave, where the weary are at reft; or to have the night come on him, when he fhould ceafe from all his toil and labour, forrows and pains: and as an bireling looketh for the reward of bis work; or for bis work®; either for new work; what was fet him being done, or rather for the finifhing of it, that he might have reft from it; or for the reward, the hire due to him upon its being done; fo Fod intimates he defired death with the fame view, that he might ceafe from his works, which fhould fol- mankind, in which od was, with an addition of extraordinary afflictions upon him: the time of his afflictions, tho’ but fhort, feemed long,and thereforeis exprefied by months; and fome months might have pafled from the time his calamities began to the prefent; fince it muft be fome timé before his friends heatd of them, and more ftill before they could meet together and agree upon their coming, and were actually come to him; as alfo fome time was {pent in filence, and now in converfation with him; the Fews? make them to be 12 months: and thefe months were months of vanity, or empty? ones; fuch as winter-months, empty of all joy, and peace, and comfort; times in which he had no pleafure, no eafe of body or of mind; deftitute of the good things of life, and of the prefence of God’ and communion with him; and full of trouble, forrow, and diftrefs: and thefe were given him for an inberitance"; were his lot and portion, which he received as an inheritance from his parents, in confequence of original fin, the fource of all the troubles and miferies of human life,: in common with other men; and which were allotted him by his heavenly father, according to his fovereign will and pleafure, as all the afflictions of the Lord’s people are, the inheritance bequeathed them by their Father, and the legacy of their Redeemer’: and wearifome nights are appointed to me; one after another, in fucceffion; in which he could have no fleep nor reft, thro? pain of body and diftrefs of mind; and fo became the more weary, through long lying down and toffings to and fro, through groans and tears, and much watching; and thefe were prepared for him in the purpofes of God, and appointed to him in - his counfels and decrees; fee ch. xxiiis14. or they prepared or appointed’; that is Elobim, the three low him, and when he fhould have the reward of divine perfons.

the inheritance, not in away of debt but of grace: nor indeed is it finful to look or have refpect unto the recompence of reward, in order to engage to go through fervice more chearfully, or to endure fufferings more patiently, fee Heb. xi. 26. for though

¥. 4. When I lie down I fay, When foall I arife, &c.] Or, then I fay, &c.‘ that is, as foon as he laid himfelf down in his bed, and endeavoured to compofe himfelf to fleep, in order to get reft and refrefhment; then he faid within himfelf, or with the hireling }s an emblem of a felf-righteous perfon, that works for life and expects it as the reward of his work, and of falfe-teachers and bad fhepherds, that take the care of the flock for filthy lucre-fake, fee Luke xv. 19. John x. 12. yet-hiring is fometimes ufed in a good fenfe, of good men, that are hired an articulate voice, to thofe about him, that fat up with him; oh that it was time to rife; when will it be morning, that I may rife from my bed, which is of no manner of fervice to me, but rather increafes wearinefs? and the night be gone? and the day dawn and break; or might or evening be mea- fured, as in the msargin, or meafures itfelf*; or that been glad that they had gone on fafter 5 bur either, be, i. e. God, or it, my'heart, meafures the even- his days in common, or particularly his days of ing", or night; lengthens it out to its full time: profperity and pleafure, thele were foon over with to a difcompofed perfon, that cannot fleep, the him; and which he fometimes wifhed for again,. night feems long; fuch count -every hour, tell fee ch, xxix. 1—5. and are [pent without hope 5 every clock that ftrikes, and long to fee peep of not without hope of happinefs in another world, day; thefe are they hat wateh for the morning, Pf. but without hope of being reftored to his outward cxxx. ¥. 6. and Iam full of toffings to and fro unto the felicity in this; which Euipbaz had given him fome dawning of the day; or, unto the twilight; the hint of, but he had no hope concerning it 5 fee ch. morning-twilight; though fome underftand it of v. 24, 25, 26. and vi. 11, 12, and XiX. 10,. the twilight or evening of the next day, fee 1 Sam.|_ y. 7. O remember that my life is wind, &c.] Or, Xxx. 17. and interpret the toffings to and fro, of ‘breath; man’s life is in his breath, and that breath the toils and Jabours of the day, and of the {orrows is in his noftrils, and therefore not to be accounted and miferies of it, lengthened out to the eve of the of, or depended on; man appears by this to be a following day; but rather, they are to be under-| poor, frail creature, whofe lite, with refpec& to him-. ftood either of the toffes of his mind, his diftreffed felf, is very precarious and uncertain; it is but asa and perplexed thoughts within him he was full of s| vapour, an air-bubble, full of wind, eafily broken or of the tofies of his body, his frequent turning and diffipated, and {oon vanifhes away; it is like himfelf upon his bed, from fide to fide, to eafe him; the wind, noify and blufterous, full of ftir and and with thefe he was filled, or fatiated*; he hadjtumult, and, like that, fwiftly pafles and fweeps enough and too much of them; he was glutted;away, and returns not again: this is an addrefs to and fated with them, as a manis with over muchjGod; and fo fome* fupply it, O God, or O Lord, eating, as the word fignifies. remember, 8c. not that forgetfulnefs is in God, or y. 5. My fich is clothed with worms and clods of|that he needs to be reminded of any thing; but he duff, &c.] Not as it would be at death, and in|may feem to forget the frailty of man when he lays the grave, as Schmidt interprets it, when it wouldjhis hand heavy on him; and may be faid to be be eaten with worms and reduced to duft; but as it; mindful of it, when he mercifully takes it off: then was, his ulcers breeding worms, or lice, as|what Yod here prays for, the Lord often does, as fome’; thefe fpread themfelves over his body:}he did with refpect to the L/raelites, Pf, Ixxvili. 39. fome think it was the vermicular or. pedicular sig jaciced eye foall na more fee good; meaning, not fpirifeafe that. was upon him, and the fcabs of them,'tual and eternal good, here and hereafter; he knew which were all over him like one continued cruft, |he fhould, after this life, fee his living Redeemer were as a garment to him; or thofe fores of his, {even with the eyes of his body, when raifed again; running with purplent matter, and he fitting andjthat he fhould fee him as he is, not through a rolling himfelf in duft and afhes, and this moiitoreletals, darkly, but face to face, in all his glory; mingling therewith, and clotted together, formed/and that for himfelf, and not another, and even clods of duft, which covered him all over; a dif-|fee and enjoy things he had never feen before: but mal fpectacle to look upon! a precious faint in ajhis fenfe is, that he fhould fee or enjoy no more vile body! my (kin is broken, with the boils and temporal good; either in this world, being withulcers, in all parts, and was parched and cleft without hope of any, or in the grave, whither he was the heat and breaking of them: and become loath-|going and would fhortly be; and therefore intreats ome; to himfelf and others; exceeding naufeous, that fome mercy might be fhewn him whilft he and extremely difagreeable both to fight and fmell:jlived; to which fenfe the following words incline. or liquified*, moittened with corrupt matter flow-| y.8. The eye of him that bath feen me Joall fee ing trom the ulcers in all parts of his body; theme wo more, &c.} Or the eye of fight*; the fleeing word in Arabic fignifies a large, broad, and openjeye, the moft acute and quick-fighted eye; fo wound, as a learned man* has obferved; and it is| Mr. Broughton renders it, the quick eye’: this is to as if he fhould fay, whoever obferves all this, this be underftood as after? death, that then the fharpeft long time of diftrefs night and day, and what a eye fhould not fee him, he would be out of the fhocking figure he was, as here reprefented, could reach of it; which muft be taken with a limiblame him for wifhing for death in the moft paf-jtation; for men after death are feen by the eyes fionate manner? of the omnifcient God, their fouls, be they in y. 6. My days are /wifter than a weaver’s fouttle, &c.] Which moves very {wiftly, being thrown and quick and faft to and fro;

it a racer’, one that runs a race on foot, rides on horfeback, agreeable to ch. ix. 25. and in the next verfe to it, other fimilies are ufed, to fet forth the fwiftnefs and fleetinefs of man’s days; as they alfo are elfewhere reprefented, as {wift as a tale told, a word exprefied, or a thought conceived, Pf. xc. 9. and fo here, by the Septuagint, are faid to be /wifter than /peech, though wrongly tranflated: this is to be underftood, not of his days affliction, diftrefs, and forrow; for thefe in his apprehenfion moved but flowly, and he could « So Saadiah Gaon. w AY TT) tum admenfus eft fo Aben Ezra, Ben Gerfom, and Bar Tzemach. tens. Y So Sephorno and Bar Tzemach. 2 ON? cator, Mercerus. * Hinckelman. prafat. ad Alcoran. heaven or in hell, and their bodies in the grave; as for good men, fuch as 70d, they are at once — fome verfions render, with him in his immediate prefence, beholding and. orjbeheld by him; and they are feen by angels, whofe. where,jcare and charge their foul$ become immediately: upon death, and are carried by them into heaven,; where they are fellow-worfhippers with them; ay they are feen by glorified faints, to whofe. they are joined; for if the rich man in hell co fee Abraham, and Lazarus in his bofom,’then much - more do the faints fee one another: but the mean~_ ofjing is, that when a man is dead, he is fongy 3 more by men on earth, by his relations, fr: " haveland acquaintance; the confideration of which oa vefperam, Schmidt; extendit, Schultens ¢ & cor, Mercerus; * *PyAu* fatior, Junius & Tremellius, Pifcator,. ius, Schul liquefit, Junius & Tremellius; colliqui; at - P. 30+ > dzopens, curfore, Aquila, Symmach cutting ftroke at parting, fee 4s xx. 25, 38. the {tate of the dead’ is an invifible ‘ftate, and therefore cailed in the Greek tongue Hades, unfeen; fo the dead will remain with refpect to the inhabitants of this world, till the refurrection, and then they fhall fee and be feen again in the fame bodies they now have; for this is no denial of the refurre€tion of the dead, as fome Fewi/h writers charge Fob with, and infer from this and fome following paffaces: thine eyes are upon me, and Iam not; am a dead man, a phrafe expreffive of death, and of being in the {tate of the dead, or however of being no more in this world, fee Genz. v. 24. and xlii. 36. Yer. xxxi. 15. not that the dead are non-entities, or are reduced to nothing; this is not true of them, either with refpeét to foul or body; their fouls are immaterial and immortal, and exift in a feparate {tate after death, and their bodies, though reduced ro duft, are not annihilated; they return to earth and duft, from whence they came; but ftill they are fomething, they are earth and duft, unlefs thefe can be thought to be nothing; and this duft is taken care of and preferved, and will be gathered together, and moulded, and framed, and fafhioned into bodies again, which will endure for ever: nor is the meaning, that they are no where; the {pirits of juft men made perfect are in heaven, in paradife, ina ftate of life, immortality and blifs; and the fouls of the wicked are in their own place, in the prifon of hell, referved with devils, to the judgment of the great day; and the bodies of both are in the graves till the day of the refurrection, but they are not, and no more in the land of the living, in their houfes and families, in their fhops and bufinefs, and places of trade and merchandife, or in the houfe of God ferving him there, according to their different ftations. And this ‘fod afcribes to God, thine eyes are upon me, meaning not his eyes of love, favour, and kindnefs, which had refpect unto him; and yet notwithftanding this, as it did not fecure him from afflictions, fo neither would it from death itfelf; for though his eyes were upon him in fuch fenfe, yet he would not be*, or fhould die; but rather his angry eyes, the frowns of his countenance, which were now upon him, and might be difcerned in the difpenfations of his providence towards him, by reafon of which he was not as he was before; not fit for any thing, as Sephorno underftands it; or fhould he frown upon him, one angry look would.fink him into the ftate of the dead, and he fhould be no more, who Jooks on the earth, and it trembles, Pf. civ..32.

Mr. Broughton renders it as a petition, Jet thine eyes be upon me, that I be no more; that is, let me die, the fame requeft he made in ch. vi. 8, 9. but it feems beft to interpret it of the eyes of God’s omniprefence and providence, which are on men in every ftate and place; and the fenfe be, either as granting, that though the eyes of men fhould not jee him after death, yet the eyes of God would be upon him when he was not, or in the ftate of the dead; or elfe, that fhould he long defer doing him good, it would be too late, he fhould foon die, and then, though he fhould look after him, and feek for him, he fhouldi not be in the land “of the living, according to ¥. 21. or this may denote the fuddennefs of death, which comes to a man in a moment, as Bar Tzemach obferves, in the twinkling of an eye; nay, as foon as the eye of God is upon a man, that is, as foon almoft

4 Etiam oculis tuis ad me refpicientibus, me non fore amplius, Junius & Tremellius, Pifcator,

¥.9. As the cloud is confumed and vanifbeth away, 8c.] Which being difperfed by the wind, or broke up by the fun, is never feen, or returns more; for though the wife man fpeaks of clouds returning after the rain, this is not to be underftood of the fame clouds, but of fucceeding ones, Hec/. xii. 2. fo pardon of fin is expreffed by the fame metaphor, to fhew that fin thereby is no more, no more to be feen or remembered, J/- xliii. 25. and xliv. 22. the Targum renders it as /moke, by which the fhortnefs and confumption of mens days are expreffed, Pf. cit. 3. but by the fimile of a cloud here, is not fo much defigned the fudden difappearance of of life, as the irrevocablenefs of it when gone, as the reddition or application following fhews: fo he that goeth down to the grave fhall come up no more; the grave is the houfe or long home that all mutt go to, it being the appointment of God that all fhould die, or be in the ftate of the dead; which is meant by the grave, fince all are not interred in the earth; and this, as here is frequently expreffed, as if it was man’s aét, being hither brought; and when it defigns an interment in the earth, it is with great propriety called a going down; and however that be, yet the ftate of the dead isa {tate of humiliation, a coming down from all the grandeur, honour, and glory of the prefent ftate, which are all laid in the duft; and when this is man’s cafe, he comes up no more from ir, that is, of himfelf, by his own power; none but Chrift, who is God over all, ever did this; or none naturally, or by the laws of nature, for nothing fhort of almighty power can effect this; it muft be done in an extraordinary way, and is no lefs than a miraculous operation; nor will this be done until the general refurrection of the juft and unjuft, when all that are in their graves fhall come forth, the one to the refurrection of life, and the other to the refurrection of damnation; excepting in fome few inftances, as the Shanamite’s fon, the man that touched the bones of the prophet Eli/ba, the daughter of Fairus, the widow of Naim’s fon, Lazarus,and thofe that rofe at our Lord’s refurrection; this is farther explained in the following. verfe.

y.10. He fhall return no more to his houfe, &c.] In a literal fenfe, built or hired by him, or however in which he dwelt; and if a good man, he’ll have no defire to return to that any more, having a better houfe, an houfe not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; or in a figurative fenfe, either his body, the earthly houfe of his tabernacle, an houfe of clay, which has its foundation in the duft; to this he fhall not return until the refurrection, when it will be rebuilt, and fitted up for the better reception and accommodation of him; or elfe his family, to whom he fhall not come back again, to have any concern with them in domeftic affairs, or in part of the bufinefs of life, as David faid of his child when dead, J /hall go to him, but he fhall not return to me, 2 Sam. xii, 23. neither [hall bis place know him any more, the place of his office, or rather of his habitation; his dwelling-houfe, his farms and his fields, his eftates and poffeffions, fhall no more know, own and acknowledge him as their mafter, proprietor and pofleffor, thefe coming at his death into other hands, who now are regarded as fuch; or the inhabitants of the place, ountry, city, town, village, and howfe in which e lived, fhal know him pices; no more being feen among them he will foon be forgotten 5 out fight, out of mind ’. waves, which attempt to

¥.12, AmJ a fea, or a whale, &c.} Like the reftlefs fea, to which very wicked, profligate and abandoned finners are compared, that are continually cafting up the mire and dirt of fin and wickednefs; am I fuch an one? or like the raging fea, its proud waters and foaming waves, to which fierce and furious perfecutors, and tyrannical oppreffors are compared; did I behave in fuch a manner to the poor and diftreffed in the time of prokind and gentle to them, took their part, and refcued them out of the hands of thofe that opprefof fed them? fee ch. xxix. 12—17. or like its toffing pafs the bounds that are fec to them; am I fuch an one that have tran{- grefied the laws of God and men, which are fet as boundaries to reftrain the worft of men? and am I a whale, or like any great fifh in the ocean,. the dragon inthe fea, the leviathan, the piercing: and crooked ferpeat? an emblem of cruel princes, am jas the kings of Egypt and Afjria, or antichrift, Y. XXvil. I. fee LY. Ixxiv. 13, 14. The Targum 1s, ‘° as the Egyptians were condemned to be drowned in the Red-fea, am I condemned? or as Phara2, who was fuffocated in the midft of it for his fin, fince thou fetceft a watch over me?” or, as another Targum, “am I as the great fea, which is moved to extreme parts, or the leviathan, which is ready to be taken?” or elfe the fenfe is, have I the ftrength of the fea, which fubfifts notwithftanding its waves are continually beating, and which carries fuch mighty veffels upon it, and would bear down all before it, if not reftrained? or of a whale, the leviathan, whofe flakes of flefh are joined together, and his heart as firm as a ftone, and as hard asa piece of the nether milftone, and laughs at the {pear, the fword, and the dart? no, I have not; I am‘a poor, weak, feeble creature, whofe ftrength is quite exhaufted, and not able to bear the weight of the chains and fetters of afflictions upon me; or rather the.principal thing complained of, and which he illuftrates by thefe metaphors, is, that he was bound with the cords of afflictions, and compaffed with gall and travail, and hedged in hereby, that he could not get out, as the church fays, Lam. iii. 5, 7. or could not get releafed from his forrows by death, or otherwife; juft as the fea is s of | {hut up with bars and doors, that its waves can come hitherto, and no farther; and as the whale is confined to the ocean, or furrounded with veflels and armed men in them, when about to be taken; and thus ic was with Yo, and of this he complains: that thou Jette a watch over me; which Farchi and others underftand of Satan; and though in his hands, he was not fuffered to take away his life; but befides him may be meant all his affliétions, calamities and diftrefles, in which he lay fettered and bound, in which he was fhut up as in a prifon, and by which he was watched over and guarded; and from which he could make no efcape, nor get a releafe.

y. 4t. Therefore I will not refrain my mouth, &c.) From {peaking and complaining; feeing, befides the common lot of mankind, which is a ftate of warfare, forrow and trouble, and is as much as a man can well grapple with, extraordinary affictions are laid upon me, which make life infupportable; and feeing { enjoy no good in this prefent life, and fhortly going where no temporal good is to be expected, and fhall never return to this world any more to enjoy any; therefore I will not be filent, and forbear {peaking my mind freely, and uttering my juft complaint, for which I think I have fuficient reafon: or J al/o will not refrain my mouth *, in turn, as a juft retaliation, fo Yarchi, fince God will not refrain his hand from me, I will not refrain my mouth from fpeaking concerning him; fince he fhews no mercy to me, [’ll utter my miferable complaints, and not keep them to myfelf; this was Yod’s infirmity when he fhould have held his peace, as daron, and been dumb and filent as David, and been ftill, and have known, owned and acknowledged the fovereignty of God, and not vented himfelf in paffion as he did: J will /peak in the anguifo of my [pirit; or in the firaitne/s* of it; he was furrounded on all fides with diftrefs, the forrows of death compafied him about, and the pains of hell got hold upon him; he was like one pent up in a narrow place, in a clofe confinement, that he could not get out of, and come forth from; and he felt not only exquifite pains of body from his boils and fores, buc great anguifh of foul; and therefore he determines to fpeak in and of ° all this, to give vent to his grief and forrow, his paffion and refentment: J wll complain in the bitterne my foul; his afflictions were like the waters of Marah, bitter ones, very grievous and difagreeable to flefh and blood, and by which his life and foul were embittered to him; and in and of ‘ this he determines to complain, or to utter in a complaining way what he had been meditating on, as the word ® fignifies; fo that this was not an hafty and precipitate action, but what upon deliberation he relolved to do; to pour out his complaint before God, and leave it with him, in a fubmiffive way, would not have been amifs, but if he complained of God and his providence, it was wrong: why Jhould a living man complain, not even a wicked man, of she punifhment of his fin, and much lefs a good man of fatherly chaftifements? We fee what the will of man is, what a ftubborn and obftinate thing it is, J w7//, I will, Iwill, even of a good man when left to himfelf, and not in the exercife of grace, and under the influence of it; the complaint follows, by way of expoftulation.

y¥.13. When I fay, my bed fhall comfort me, &c.] When he thought within himfelf, that he would lie down upon his bed and try if he could get a little fleep, which might comfort and refrefh him, and which he promised himfelf he fhould obtain by this means,as he had formerly had an experience of: my couch fhall eafé my complaint; he concluded, that by lying down upon his couch, and falling afleep, it would give fome eafe of body and mind; that his body would at leaft for fome time be free from pain, and his mind compofed, and fhould ceafe from complaining for a while; which interval would bea relief to him, and of confiderable fervice. Some ~ render it, my couch fhall burn®; be all on fire, and torture me inftead of giving eafe; and fo may haye refpect to his burning ulcers.;:

fperity? nay, was I not the reverfe of all this,|

Ch. vii. ¥.14—17. JF°O BE ¥.14. Then thou feareft me with dreams, &c.} Not with dreams and vifions being told him, as were by Eliphaz, ch. iv. 13. but with dreams he himfelf dreamt; and which might arife from. the force of his diftemper, and the pain of his body, whereby his fleep was broken, his imagination difturbed, and his fancy roving, which led him to objects as feemed to him very terrible and dreadful; or from a melancholy difpofition his afflictions had brought upon him; and hence in his dreams he had difmal apprehenfions of things, very diftreffing and terrifying; or from Satan, in whofe hands he was, and who was permitted to dittrefs and difturb him, at fuch feafons; all which he afcribes to God, becaufe he fuffered it fo to be: and now thefe dreams not only hindered found fleép, and getting that eafe and refrefhment he hoped for from thence, but even they were frightful and fearing to him, fo that inftead ot being the better for his bed and his couch, he was the worfe; thefe dreams added to his afflictions, and in them he fuffered much, as Pi/ate’s wife is faid to do, Matt. xxvii. 19. and terrifieft me thro vifions; {peétres, apparitions, and fuch like things being prefented to his fancy, whilft fleeping and dreaming, which filled him with terror, and forely diftrefled him; fo that he could receive no benefit hereby, but rather was more fatigued and weakthat either God would withdraw his affli@ing hand from him, or his preferving hand; either abate the’ affliction, or difmifs him from the world: for my days are vanity; a breath” or puff of wind; a vapour, as Mr. Broughton renders it, that foon vanithes away; days empty of all that is good, delightful and pleafant, and full of evil, trouble and forrow, as well as fleeting, tranfitory, and foon gone, are as nothing, yea lefs than nothing and vanity.

y.17. What is man, that thou fhouldef? magnify him? &c.] Man in his beft eftate, in his original ftate, was but of the earth, earthly; a mutable creature, and altogether vanity; fo that it was wonderful God fhould magnify him as he did, raife him to fuch honour and dignity, as to fet him over all the works of his hands, and beftow peculiar marks ‘of his favour upon him in Eden’s garden; but man in his low and fallen eftate, being, as the word here ufed is generally obferved to fignify, a frail, feeble, weak and mortal creature, yea, a finful one; it is much more marvellous, that God fhould magnify him, or make him great, that is, any of the human race, as he has fome, foas to /et his heart upon them, as Farchi conneéts this with the ened.. following claufe; to think of them and provide for y¥.15. So that my foul chufeth ftrangling, &c.} Not to ftrangle himfelf, as Abitophel did, or to be ftrangled by others, this being a kind of death in flicted on capital offenders; but rather, as Mr. Broughton renders it, to be choaked to death by any diftemper and difeafe, as fome are of a fuffoeating nature, as acatarrh, quinfey, ec. and killin that way; and indeed death in whatfoever way is the {topping of a man’s breath; and it was death that Fob chole, let it be in what way it would, whether natural or violent;

worms, rottennefs and duft; the Vulgate Latin verfion renders it, and my bones death, that is, defired and chofe death, being fo full of pain, fee P/. them in his purpofes and decrees, in his council and - covenant, to choofe any of them to grace here, and glory hereafter: he has magnified them, by efpoufing them to his Son, whereby they fhare with him in his glory, and in all the bleffings of his goodnefs 5. through the incarnation of Chrift, by means of which the human nature is greatly advanced and honoured; and by their redemption thro’ Chrift, whereby they are raifed to an higher dignity, and reftored to a greater eftate than they loft by the fo weary was he of life fall; by clothing them with the rich robe of Chrift’s righteoufnefs, comparable to the gold of Opbir, which are Jand raiment of needle-work; and by adorning them with the graces of the bleffed Spirit; and in a word, by taking them into his family, making chem his children and his heirs, rich in grace, and Jheirs of the kingdom. of heaven, and kings and and covered with [priefts unto him; taking them as beggars from the dunghil, to fit among princes, and to inherit the throne of glory. ‘The words may be underftood in a different fenfe, and more agreeable to the context, through his fore and heavy afflictions: and death rather than my life; or than my bones*; the more folid parts of the body, and the fupport of it, and are put for the whole and the life thereof; or than thefe bones of his, which were full of ftrong pain, and which had nothing but fkin upon them, and that was broken:

XXXV. 10, and to the fcope of Fob’s difcourfe, as they are by

¥.16. I loath it, &c.] Or them™, either his life which was a wearinefs to him, or his bones, which were fo painful and naufeous; or rather, J am become loathfome, to himfelf, to his fervants, and to his friends, and even his breath was ftrange to his wife; or being ulcerated, I pine and wafie away', and muft in courfe be quickly gone: J: would not live always; no man can or will; there. that lives but what fhall fee death, P/. Ixxxix. 48. Fob knew this, nor did he expect or defire it; and this was not his meaning, ‘but. that he defired he might not live long, or to the full term of life, yea, that he might die quickly; and indeed to a good man to die is gain, and to depart out of the world, and be with Chrift, is far better than to continue init. And had ¥ob exprefied himfelf without paflion, and with fubmiffion to the divine what he fays would not have been amifs: {ome®, of God’s magnifying men by afflicting them, according to which man is reprefented as a poor, weak, f{trengthlefs creature, a worm and clod of the earth; and the Lord, as the mighty God, as of great and infinite power and ftrength, between whom there is no manner of proportion; God is not a man that they fhould come together, or as isno manjif on equal foot; nor mana match for God; to wreftle with principalities and powers, which are not flefh and blood, is too much for men of themfelves, and how much lefs able are they to contend man’sjwith God? Now 7ob by this fuggefts, that his thought and fentiment of the matter was, and in which he has a particular view to himfelf, and his own cafe; that as on the one hand it was a demeaning the might and majefty of God, by makwill, jing himfelf a combatant with man; fo on the other /e¢ me hand it was doing man too much honour, as if he

2.35 alone; or ceafe from me™; from affi@ing him any more, having as great a weight upon him as he could bear, or greater than he could well ftand up under; or from fupporting him in Jife, he wifhes

‘as one of more importance andeéonfequence,* and ie mighty and powerful than he is; whereas he is unworthy of the divine noticé in any refpect, either to beitow his favours, or lay his afflicting hand upon him; compare with this 1S¢m, xxiv.14. Tence a late learned writer’, agreeable to the ufe of the word in the Arabic language, renders it, what is mortal man that thou fhouldf wrefile with him? {trive and’contend with him as if he was thy inatch, when thou couldft at one blow, and even at a touch, difpatch him at once? and shat thou Jhouldft fet thine heart upon him? have an affection for him, love him, delight in him, highly value and efteem him it is wonderful that God fhould have fuch a regard to any of the fons of men; and yet it is certain that he has, as appears by the good things he has provided and laid up for them in covenant, by fending his Son to die for them, by calling and quickening them by his Spirit and grace, and drawing them with loving-kindnefs to himfelf, by taking continual care of them, and keeping them as the apple of his eye: though thefe words may be interpreted agreeable to the other fenfe, that thou foouldft fet thine heart upon him? or towards him, to afflict him and chaftize him with afflictions, to Bar Tzemach; or to ftir up himfelf againft him, as Sephorno; and the above late learned writer chules to render them, that thou fhouldft. fet thine heart againft him’? and fo the Hebrew" particle is ufed in many other places; fee Zzek. xiii. 2. and fee ch. xxiii. to. and which he doubtlefs had in view in all he had faid, and more particularly expo-. ftulates about in the following vertes. 4 i y¥.19. How long wilt thou not depart from me, &c] From wreitling and contending with him, and afflicting of him; the Lord was too hard a combatant for Fob, and therefore he chofe to be rid of him, and was impatient of it; or look off from me*; fo Me Broughton renders it, how long wilt thou not look from me? this is to be underftood not of a look of love, which Fod would never have defired to have averted trom him; but a frowning and. angry look, fuch as the Lord put on in this difpentation of his providence towards him; the allufion may be to that fharp and conftant look, which antagonifts in wreftling have upon each other whilft conflicting together, and fo the metaphor before ufed is ftill carried on: nor et me alone till I fwallow down my {pittle? Some think Job has reference to his difeate, which affected his throat, that being fo dried up, or having.a quinfy in it, that he could not fwallow his fpittle, or it was with great difficulty he did it; or rather it is a proverbial expreffion, fignifying that his afflictions were inceflant, that he had no refpite nor intermiffion, had-not fpace enough given him to {wallow down his fpittle, or take his breath, as in ch. ix. 18. fo Schultens obferves, that with the Arabians this was a proverbial form of fpeech, when they required time for any thing, give me time to xxi. 3. compare with this Job xxxiv. 14,15 where| wallow my /pittle; or when they had not proper

R. Simeon bar Tzemach thinks, Elibu has. refpect to this paflage of od, and reproves him for it. ¥.18, And that thou fhouldft vifit him every morning, cc.) That is, daily, continually, as Aben /zra interprets it; either in a way of love, grace, and mercy; fo God has vifited men, by raifing up and {fending his Son.to be a redeemer of them; the Son of God has vifited them, as the day-fpring from on high, by his, incarnation and appearance in this world; fee Luke. i. 68, 78. and the Lord vifics them, by calling them by his grace, fee 4é7s xv, 14. by communing and converfing with them ina free and friendly manner; by helping right early, and by renewing his mercies to them every morning, all which is matter of admiration: or elfe the word may. be taken in a, different fenfe, as it fometimes is, either for punifhing man for fin, as in ‘Exod. xx.5. Fer. v. g. or for chaftizing the Lord’s people, which is a vifiting them, though in a fatherly way, and in love, and which is often and frequently down, even every morning, fee Pf.

“Ixxxix. 32, 33. and Ixxiii. 14. and fo the fenfe agrees with the former, though by fome given with this difference thus, «é2at is man that thou fhouldft magnify him? or make him great both in things temporal and fpiritual, as he had made od in the time of his profperity, which he may have refpeéct unto; having been the greateft man in all the eaft, with refpect to both characters, whereby it was plain he had intereft in the love and_ affections of the heart of God; and yet, notwith/tanding neverthelefi, thou vifite? him‘, with afflictions and chaftifements continually; which may feem ftrange, and look like a contradiétion, that thou fhouldtt: _and try him every moment? by afflictive providences; in this way the Lord often tries the faith and patience, the fear and love, the hope and humility

_Of his people, and all other graces, whereby they appear and fhine the brigher, which was ¥0d’s cafe, time, or any intermiffion, ufed to fay, you won't give me time to fwallow my fpittle; and one being afked a multitude of queftions, replied, juffer me to fwallow my /pittle, that is, give me time to make an anfwer: or the fenfe is, that his antagonift in wreftling with him held him fo faft, and kept him fo clofe to it, and fo twifted him about, and gave him fall upon fall, fo that he had no time to wallow his {pittle; or he fo collared him, and griped him, and almoft throttled him, that he could not {wallow it down; all which intends, how clofely and incefiantly ¥od was followed with one affliction upon another, and how fevere and diftreffing they were to him. Rs ¥. 20. 1 have finned, &c.] Some render it, sf I have finned™; be it fo that 1 have, as my friends fay, yet fince there is forgivenefs with ‘thee, why fhould I be fo afflicted as I am? but there is no need of fuch a fupplement, the words are an affirmation, J have finned, or | am a finner; not that he owned that he had been guilty of any notorious fin, or had lived a finful courfe of life, on account of which his afflictions came upon him, as his friends fuggefted; but that he was not without fin, was daily guilty of it as men, even the beft of men ordinarily are; and being a finner was not a match for a holy God; he could not contend with him, nor anfwer him for one fin of a thoufand committed by him in thought, word, or deed; and therefore defires him to defiit and depart from him, fee Luke v. 8. what fhall I do untothee? this he faid, not as one in diftrefs of mind on account of fin, and under the load of the guilt of it, enquiring what he muft do to make fatisfaétion for it, how and what way he could be faved from it; for he knew that nothing done by him in a ceremonial. way by facrifices, nor in a moral way by— the performance of duties, could take away fin, or atone for it, or fave him from it; he knew this was * Adverfus eum, ibid. “Vid.

was only by his living Redeemer, and whom he knew and determined fhould be his falvation, and he only; fee ch. ix. 30, 31. and xiii. 15, 76. and xix. 25. but rather as it may be rendered, what - can or ought I do unto thee*? that is, more than have done, nately, to confefs my fin unto thee; what more doft thou require of me? or what more can be done by me, than to repent of my fin, acknowledge it, and beg pardon for it’? as he’ does in the following verfe: or what can I do unto thee? thou art an over-match for me, I can’t ftrogele and contend with’ thee, a finful man with an ‘holy God: O thou preferver of men? ‘as he is in a providential way, the fupporter of men in their lives and beings; or, O thou keeper of men’, as he is, not only of J/rae/, but of all others, and that night and day; perhaps od may refer to his fetting and keeping a watch over him, y. 12. and enclofing and hedging him all around with afflictions, fo that he could not get out of the world as he defired; or O thou obferver of men*, of their words, ways, works and actions, and who kept fuch a {trict eye upon him whilft wreftling with him, and therefore what could he do? or O shou faviour of men*, by whom only I can be faved from the fins I have been and am daily guilty of: why haff thou fet me as amark againft thee, as ‘a butt to fhoot thine arrows at, one affliction after another, thick and faft, fee ch. xvi. 12. Lam. iii. 12. the words I think'may be ‘rendered, why hajt thou appointed me to meet thee, ot for a meeting with thee®? as-one man challenges another to meet him in fuch a placé and fight him: alas: I am not equal to thee, I am a mere worm, not able to contend with thee the mighty God, or to meet thee in the way of thy judgments, and to endure the heavy ftrokes of thy angry hand; and fo Bar Tzémach paraphrafes it, ** thou haft hated me, and not loved me; that thou haft fet, or appointed me to meet thee, as a man meets his enemy in the time of his wrath, and he ftirs up againft him all his fury:” and to the fame fenfe, and much in the fame'words, archi interprets it: /o that I am a burden to myfelf? weary of his life thro’ the many preffing and heavy afflictions upon him, as Rebekah was of hers, becaufe of the daughters of Heth, Gen. xxvii. 46. follow, and is followed by the Zargum, and by mioft intepreters, Fewi/o and Chriftian, is a. correction of the fcribes, and one of the eighteen places corrected by them; which is no argument of the corruption of the Hebrew text, but of the contrary; fince this was only placed in the margin of the bible, as the Ma/orites ‘afterwards did with their various readings, fhewing only what was their fenfé of this, and the like paffages; and as an in- {tru€tion how in their opinion to ‘undet{tand them, {till retaining the other reading or writing; and which, according to Aben Ezra, may be rightly interpreted, and is, fo that I am a burden to thee*; and which is followed by fome, fignifying as Fob thought'at leatt, that he was. fo offenfive to him that he could not bear him, but treated him as an ‘enemy; was weary of him, as God is faid to be of finners and their fins, and of the fervices and’ duties of carnal profeffors, fee J/. i. 14. and xlili. 24. fo Abendana interprets‘it, ‘ thou haft fet me for a mark unto thee, as if I was a burden to thee.”

.3:.. ~ 4. 23 7. ¥. 2%. wdnd why doft thou not pardon my tranf: greffion, &c.) Or iift it up; every fin is a tranfgreffiont of the law of God, and the guilt of it upon thé confcience is a burden too heavy to bear; and the punifhment of it is intolerable; pardon lifts up and takes ‘away all manner of fin, and all! that is in fin; it takes off the load of fin: from the confeience, and eafes it, and loofens from obligation to punifhment for it, which comes to pafs in this manner: Febovab has taken or lifted up fin from his people, and has put and Jaid it, or caufed it to meetion his Son, by the imputation of it to him; and he has voluntarily taken it on himfelf, and ‘has bore it, and has taken it away by his blood and facrifice, which being applied to the confcience of a finner, lifts it up and takes it from thence, and fpeaks peace and pardon to ‘him; it wholly and entirely removes it from him, even as far as the eaft is from the weft; and for fuch an application, od expoftulates with God, with whom there was forgivenefs, and who had proclaimed himfelf a God pardoning iniquity, tranf greffion.and fin; and which he does when he both temoves the guilt of it from the confcience, and takes away all the ‘effects of it, fuch as afflictions and the like; in which latter fenfe Yo may well be underftood, as agreeing with his cafe and circumftances: and take away mine iniquity? or caufe it to pafs away* from him, by applying his ‘par- ' doning grace and mercy to his confcience, and by removing his afflicting hand from him: for now foall I fleep in the ‘duff; having fin pardoned; and the hand of God removed; I fhall depart out of the world in peace, lie down in the grave, and reft quietly till the refurrection; there being in the bed of duft no toffings to and fro as now, nor a being {cared with dreams and terrified with night-vifions. Mr. Broughton renders it, whereas I lie now in the daft; as ‘it it referred to his prefent cafe, fitting as a mourner in duft and afhes, and his fleth clothed with clods of duft; or in a figurative fenfe, lying in the duft of felf-abhorrence; but the former fenfe feems beft: and thou fhall feck mein the morning, but I fhall mot be; meaning not in the morning of the refurrection, for then he will be found; but it is. a figurative way of fpeaking, as Bar Tzemach obferves, juft, as one goes to-vilit a fick man in a morning, and he finds him dead, and he is not any more in the Jand of the living: many interpreters underitand this as ‘¥0d’s fenfe, that he fhould quickly die; he could not be a long time in the circumftances he was; and therefore if the Lord had a mind to beftow any good thing on him in the prefent life, he muft make hafte to do it; fince in a fhort time he fhould be gone, and then if he fought for him, it would be too late, he fhould be no more: but the fenfeisthis, that when he Jay down in the duft, in the grave, he fhould be-feen no more on earth by any man, nay not by the eye of God himielf; fhould the moft early and the moft diligent fearch..be made for him. Mr. Broughton takes it to be a petition and requeft to die, rendering the words, ‘* why doft thou not *< quickly feek me out, that I fhould be no more?” and to which others ‘ agree.