to the manner of drowning perfons, who ufed to tied hand and foot, as if rolled up inthe form of. globe, globe, and fo caft into the water; but rather the reference is to an army, befieging a place all-around in the form of a ball or globe, fo that there is no efcaping them; or rather it may be toa king ing up his army in fuch a form, ready to engage in battle 5 or putting it in fuch a pofition when camped or intrenched, waiting the motion of the| enemy}; fee 1 Sam. xxvi. 5.
bles that furround and prevail againft a wicked man, fee If, xxix. 3. the reafons of the wicked man ing brought into fuch a woful condition new, and with’ a_ brow like brafs: upon the thick dofes of bis bucklers; alluding to fhields, imbofled in the middle, where they are thicker than in the draw-jother parts, and ufed to have a fpike of iron fet in the middle; fo that it was daring and dangerous to in-jrun upon them: thefe may defign the perfections of God, denied by the wicked man; or his proviand fuch are the trou- dential difpenfations, defpifed by him; or his purpoles and decrees ridiculed, replied unto, and dif be- puted; or the flaming {word of juftice, and the fol-jcurfes of a righteous law, in defiance of which lan wicked men go en.in fin: or with the boffes of bis
¥. 25. For he ftretcheth out bis band againft God, &c.] Being an hater of him, an enemy to him, yea enmity itfelf againft him;
y. 26. He runneth upon him, even on his neck, &c.] Asa fierce and furious enemy runs upon another with great wrath and fury; as the he-goat in Daniels vifion ran upon-the'ram, in the fury of his power, that is, Alexander upon: Darius; which inftance Bar Tzemach refers to; and as an adverfary, who throws down his weapons, and goes in to clofer quarters, and takes his antagonift' by the throat, or round the neck, in order tothrow him| down to the ground 5 in fuch a bold and infolent manner does the wicked man encounter with God; he makes up to him, and flies in his face, and moft audacioufly attacks him: or he runs upon him with his neck”; with a ftretched-out neck, in the moft haughty manner, with aneck like an iron fibucklers*; with all his family, as Schmidt; or employing all his wealth and riches, his power and aus an enemy in his thority, againft God, and _the intereft of religion in the world. Some underftand this of God, meeting the wicked man, ftretching out his hand, and and ftrengthening himfelf againft him, as if he, God, ran upon the wicked man, and upon his neck, and took him by it, and fhook him; as inch, xvi. 12. open, and upon the thick bofies of his buckler, his bones. and nerves, as Mr. Broughton; or.on his power and wealth, which are not able to fecure him from the vengeance of the Almighty; but the former fenfe feems bett.;
mind, which appears by his wicked works, which are fo many acts of hoftility againft God; all fins are againft God, his ‘nature, his will, his law, all his remonftrances, exhortations, cautions, and inftructions; but fome are more’daring and impudent than others, or are committed in a more bold, and audacious manner, as were thofe committed by the inhabitants of Sodom, and thofe who are fimilar to them; elpecially fuch as ftrike at the being of God and his perfections, his providence and government of the world; and fuch as deny thefe may moft truly ‘be faid to ftretch out their hands againft God, and ftrike at him: and'this may regard not only fins committed againft the light of nature, and the law of God, but againft the evangelic revelation, fhe doctrines of the gofpel, and the ordinances of it; for fuch who deny the one, and reject the other, openly oppofe themfelves God, and expofe themfelves to his'wrath.and-vengeance; for of how much forer punifhment fhall fuch be thought worthy, who trample Chri# and his blood under foot, defpife and difobey his gofpel: and ftrengtheneth bimfelf againft the Almighty; by hardening his heart againft him as Pharaob did; by putting on a bold and brazen countenance, by fetting his mouth againft God in heaven, and fuffering his tongue to walk-through the earth, neither God nor man; by entering into a friendfhip with the world, and making alliances with the enemies of God, even by making a covenant with death, and an agreement with ‘hell; all which is egregious folly and madnefs: for a finful man to oppofe himfelf to God, is to fet briars and thorns to a confuming fire; for a weak feeble creature fet himfelf againft the Almighty, who can crufh in a moment, and fend him down to hell, is the height of folly; let the pottherds ftrive with the potfherds. of the earth, but not man with his maker; who ever ftrengthened: or hardened himfelf againft him, and profpered?
¥. 27. Becaufe be covereth his face with his fate #e/s, &c.] He has no fear of God, nor fhame for his fin; he bluthes not to.rife. up againft God in the manner he does, becaufe his eyes ftand out with fatnefs; or rather his face is covered with it, that jis; he abounds in riches, he enjoys great profperity, a large affluence of all good things; and this tojmakes him haughty and imperious, neither to fear. God, nor regard man, like.Feburun, who when he waxed fat, was grown thick, and:covered with fatne/s, kicked againft God, and his providences, finned and rebelled againft him; Sorfook God which made bim, and lightly efeemed the rock of 61s falvation, Deut. xxxii. 15. and. to the fame purpofe is: the following claufe: ad maketh collops of fat az bis flanks; a delcription of a very fat man, fearingjand one that pampers the flefh, and indulges himfelf in eating and drinking; and, figuratively, of one that abounds in the good things of this world, and which make him vain and proud, and lead him on tocommit fin in a bold and daring way, promifing himfelf impunity in it, but withouc any juft ground for ir, as the following veries thew; to perhaps fome refpect may be had to ¥0d’s children him feafting:with one another in their profperity, which led on to fin, and iffued in their ruin, as Elipbaz would fuggeft.. / y.28. dud be dwelleth in defolate. cities, &c.} This is: either a continuation of the account of the wicked man’s profperity, which makes him haughty; fuch is his might and power, that he deftroys cities and palaces, built and enjoyed by. others, and then out. of the ruins of them builds greater cities and more noble palaces, to perpetuate. his name to pofterity; which fenfe agrees with ch. iii.. 14. and with the Targum, ‘* and he makes tabernacles in defert cities, that he may dwell in houfes which were not inhabited;” and fo Ben Gerom: and hence becaufe of his fuccels among men, and the grandeur he lives in, his heart is lifted up, and his hand is ftretched out againft God; or elfe this mayexprefs the finful courfe of life fuch.a man lives, who chufes to dwell in defolate places, and deferts, to do hurt to others, tq feize upon travellers as they pafs by, and reb and plunder ners of their fubftance, fitting and waiting for them in fuch rife up to the former pitch it did; but being, fallen, places, as the:: 2. which is the fenfe of fome, as dben Ezra obferves; or rather this points at the punifhment the wicked man, who though for the prefent may be in great prefperity, poffefied of large cities ftately palaces, yet or dut*, for fo the particle may be rendered, be dwelleth in defolate cities fach as fhall become defolate, being deftroyed by fuperior enemy, that fhall come upon him; through his fubjeéts forfaking him, not being able to bear his tyranny and cruelty;
driven from his dominions by them, and beobliged to fly, and dwell in defert places 5 or he fhall chufe to dwell there, through the horrors of a guilty confcience; or beft of all, he fhall be reduced fuch diftrefs and poverty, that he fhall not have houfe fit to dwell in; but /hall inhabit the parched places in the wildernefs, in a falt land, and not inhabited, Fer. xvii. 6. as follows: and in houfes which no man inbabiteth, which are ready to become fuch as have been deferted by their former tants, becaufe come to decay, and ready to down upon them, and become heaps of ftones and the perfection of it upon the earth, though indeed of there is no perfection in the creature, nor in creatureenjoyments, nor in outward riches and fubftance; and fuch as have had the largeft fhare of them, as David and Solomon, have declared they have feen an in end of all perfection, and that all things, the higha eft enjoyments, are vanity and vexation of fpirit; orjyet when men are got to the fummit, and height, and. perfection of outward happinefs, as they or or he fhall bejothers may think, this is not prolonged, or continued long in the earth, or they continued in it; but often are fuddenly caft down from the pinnacle of honour, wealth, and riches; hence fome render tothe words, and their profperity fhall not be fixed into athe earth’; fhall not take root, though it may feem to do, Fer. xii. 2. and fo fhall not {pread itfelf as a tree well rooted does; and as does the fpiritual profperity, perfection, and fulnefs of good heaps;;men, which they have in and by Chri; being inhabi-jrooted in the leve of God, in the grace of Chrift, falljand having the root of the matter in them, they caft forth their roots as Lebanon, and their branches rubbifh.: {pread, and they are full of the fruits and bleffings y¥. 29. He foall not be rich, &c.] Though his heart is fet upon it, he is determined at any rate to be rich; he labours for it with all his might and main, and yet fhall not attain what he is fo defirous of; many who take a great deal of pains to be rich, and even in a lawful way, and are men of underftanding in trade and bufinefs, and yet riches of grace, Ho/. xiv. 5, 6.
¥. 30. He fall not depart out of darknefs, &c.] Out of the darknefs of poverty, calamity, and diftrefs. he comes into, and indeed he defpairs of it himfelf, as in y. 22. and in a {piritual fenfe he departs not out of the darknefs of fin, out of the dark ftate of unregeneracy; nor will he depart out
Arabian in the wildernefs, Fer. iii.|into poverty there they lie: neither shall be prolong are not their portion; and fome who get a great deal, yet don’t grow rich; what they get, they of the blacknefs and darknefs referved for him hereafter, when he is once come into it: the flame put into a bag of holes, and it drops through as foall dry up bis branches; alluding either to a vio- faft as they put in; what they get in one finful way, they confume in another, and fo are always poor; and others, though they have amaffed together a vaft fubftance, yet ftill are but poor men, not ufing what they have either for their own good, or the good of others; and not being content with what they have, but always craving more, and fo are even poor in their own account, not having what they would have: however, fuch a man is not rich towards God; for in godly and {fpiritual things, he is deftitute of the true riches of grace, and has no title to the riches of glory; and as for his earthly riches, thefe fhall not endure, though he may be rich for the prefent, he will not be always fo; and this fenfe the next claufe confirms: neither foall his fubftance continue, or his firength®, his power and might, a rich man’s wealth being his ftrong city, in which he places his truft and confidence; riches ate called /ud/tance, though they are but a fhadow, yea, mere non-entities, things that are nat, in comparifon of heavenly things; fee Prov. xxiii. 5. and viii. 22. at leaft they are notan enduring fubftance; they are uncertain things, here to-day, and gone to morrow; that make themfelves wings, and fly away from the owners of them; or they are taken away from them, and are not like the riches of grace, which are durable riches; or like thofe of glory; but by one means or another, are taken out of the hands of the poffeffors of them, and they are reduced to poverty: and this their fubjtance fhall not rife; or rather, not rife again®, as the word may be rendered; notwithftanding all the pains they may take, their fubftance fhall not rife, grow, and increafe; or not
2 So the Annotator of the Aflembly of Divines: © Dip’ N7 neque refurgent opes ejus, Schmidt. V. L. & non pangetur in terram profperitas eorum, Schultens, lent drought and heat, which dries up paftures herbs, and trees, and the branches of them; or to awind, as the Septuagint, a burning wind, in the eaftern countries, which confumed all green things; or to a flafh of lightning, which fhatters, ftrips, and deftroys branches of trees: here it may fignify the wrath of God, like a flame of fire confuming the wealth and fubftance, and families of wicked men; whofe children particularly may be compared to branches, and fo refpect may be had to: Fod’s children, who were fuddenly deftroyed by a violent wind, which threw down the houfe in which they were: and by the breath of his mouth fhall be go away; out of the world, a phrafe expreflive of death; either becaufe of the breath of his own mouth,.as fome in Yarchi, becaufe of his blafphemies againft God and his people, becaufe of his curfing and {wearing his mouth is full of, and the many vain, foolifh, and idle words which come out of it, and for which he will be condemned; or rather ‘* by the breath of the mouth of God,” as the Targum; either according to his purpofe and decree, and by his order, and the word that goes out of his mouth; the wicked man fhall be obliged to depart out of the world at once, being ftruck dead by him, as Ananias and Sappbira were; or by his powerful wrath and vengeance, whofe breath is as a ftream of brimftone, and with which he will flay the wicked of the earth, and particularly will confume the wicked one, Antichrift, even with the fpirit of his mouth, and with the brightnefs of his coming, Jf xi. 4. 2 Thef. ii. 8.
¥. 31. Let not him that is deceived truft in vanity,
&c.] Every wicked man is deceived, either
“Satan, who deceives the whole world, deceived our firft parents, and deceives all their pofterity, ‘not only prophane finners, but many profeffors of religion alfo; or by their own hearts, which are deceitful and defperately wicked; or through the deceitfulnefs of fin, which promifes profit, pleafure, and liberty, and iffues in ruin, pain, and bondage; and through the deceitfulnefs of riches, which promife that fatisfaction they do not give; and fuch as are deceived in this manner are prone to truft in vanity;in men, whoin every fate, high or low, are altogether vanity;
¥. 32. It foalibe accomplifbed before bis time, &c. Hither the recompence or reward of his trufting in Vanity, in vain perfons or things, the punifhment of fuch a truft, the forrows and troubles following upon it; thefe fhall come upon the wicked man before bis day‘, as it may be rendered; day of his death, even before his old age; before the evil days come in a courfe of nature, and thofe years in which he has no pleafure: or his life, and the days of his life, foal? be filled up* or be at an end before his time; not before the time fixed in the decree and purpofe of God, ch. xiv. 5. but before his own time, that he and his friends thought he might have lived, ‘and as his healthful conftitution promifed; or before the then common term of human life; and fo the phrafe is expreffive of an immature death: and bis branch fhall not be green; but dried up and wither away; his wealth and riches, his children and family, be utterly extinct; inftead of being like a branch, green and flourifhing, fhall be like a dry ftick, ufelefsand unprofitable, only fit for burning; fee ¥. 30. ' ¥. 33. He foall foake off his unripe grape as the ine, ec.) Hither the wicked man himfelf fhall fhake off or lofe his fubftance; or God thall thake off from him all that was dear and valuable to him; or he fhall be fhaken by one providence or another, juft as a vineis fhaken by a violent wind and temeft, and its unripe prapes are battered off by Pail’ ftorm, or plucked off by the hand, or through rottennefs; fo it is fignified by this metaphor, that 4 wicked man fhould be {tript of his wealth and riches in a fudden manner 3; or his children fhould be fnatched from him in their youth, before they were well grown up to maturity, and fo like the unripe grape; perhaps refpect is had to ¥0b’s cafe; both with regard to his fubftance and his family: and fhall caft off his flower as the o/ive; which tree when thaken in a violent manner, drops its flower, and fo brings forth no fruit; itis obferved: by naturalifts*, that thele two trees, the and in creature-en- vine and the olive, flourifh much about.the fame time, and often fuffer much by ftorms and tempefts, which deftroy, their fruits, and efpecially when rain falls piihe time of their fowering; the fame thing is intended in this claufe.as in the former..
joyments, in outward riches and wealth, which are all vanity and vexation of {pirit; and in their own hearts, and the vanity of their minds, which to do is extreme folly; and'in their righteoufhefs and external privileges, which will be of no fervice to them, as to their acceptance with God, and eternal happinefs; and therefore truft in whatfoever is vain and empty, and affords no folid fatisfaction, real pleafure, and advantage, is here dehorted from; unlefs the words will be allowed tobe juftly rendered, as I'think they may, fru/t not in bim that is deceived by vanity; by any of the above vain things, fince “he muft himfelf be a vain man, and therefore not to be confided in; to which {enfe the Targum inclines; ** he will not (or fhould not) believe in a fon of tan, (or in a man) who errs through falfhood;” the reafon diffuading from it follows: for vanity fhail be bis recompenfe, all that a man gets by trufting in vanity, or by trufting in a man deceived, is nothing but emptinefS and vanity; he gets nothing folid and fubftantial, that will be of any advantage to him here or hereafter; and yet this he will not eafily believe; and fo Beza reads the words, be that is deceived by vanity will not believe that vanity fhall be his recompenje.
y. 34, Lor the congregation of hypocrites thall be de/olaze, &c.] Hypocrites are fuch- who feem to be, and would be thought to be what they are not; they are outwardly righteous before men, but ins wardly very wicked; havea form of godlinefs, but are deftitute of the power of it; pretend to much religion, and to be worfhippers of God, when it is only in outward appearance, and not in reality and fincerity: and fuch,as thefe have been in the congregations of the, righteous, in all ages; -but here Eiphaz fpeaks of a congregation of them, a fociety, a family of them; and very probably has his eye upon ¥0d’s, and would reprefent hereby, that he, the head of his family, and his children, when living,. and his fervants and affociates, were all hypocrites, and now become defolate, reduced to want and poverty, and in diftreffed circumftances: or were /olitary' and alone, as the word is rendered in ch. iii. 7. deftitute of friends, and of the comforts of life y and perhaps reference may be had to the future ftate of fuch, when they fhall aloud be |bid to depart from God, have no fociety with an+ gels: and faints, but fhall. have their portion with thofe of the fame character with them, hypocrites, in the higheft degree, of torment and mifery, Matt. xxiv. 51. and fire fhall gonfume the tabernacles of before the bribery, either fuch tents,.or houfes, as were built with money taken as bribes; fee Had. ii. 12. or where fuch who,rétéived bribes dwelt; unjutt judges, who took a gift that blinds the eyes, to pervert juftice.. ob is afterwards by Ekiphaz repre- {ented as if he was.an oppreffor, a wicked magi- {trate, and guilty of fuch like crimes as here pointed at, ch. xxii. 6—g. and the frre faid to confume the dwelling-places of fuch, may be underftood either of material fire, fuch as came down from heaven, and deftroyed Foé’s fheep; or figuratively, the wrath of God often, compared to fire, which would appear in one way or another, to the utter ruin of fuch perfons, their habitations, and thofe that dwelt in them.
y¥. 35. They conceive mifcbief, 8¢c.]. That. is, fuch wicked perfons, as before defcribed; they meditate fin in their minds, and contrive how to commit ic, and form {chemes within themfelves to do mifchief to others: and they bring forth vanity 5 or fin; for luft when it is conceived bringeth forth fin, and that is vanity, an empty thing, and neither yields profit nor pleafure in the iffue, but that which anjis ufelefs and unferviceable, yea hurtful and ruindropofflous; for fin when it is finifhed, bringeth forth inthe end proves deceitful to theméelves; the allu- Wibpeh4e vinds Ydw; ollie Weigiin sud dy Se ee teat at. 2 icaxee io j boosie yomitodieb br (nyse OF bs “eth eMirgorg How nh townie 1 Bs - sf exif: bres sen ae aii Baz 3° OR PRL osb 26) duvowte bay pashaed Si aa Vy TAL CS FEY aoe Bs) as. way. is ’ 61 2146! +i.3_ Siifnove sdotter - HIS: chapter and the following contain ¥ob"s' jof will; and. ore hai which) is what rhetoricians call,,an,.caymoron; he fpokeor was filet, ‘it was much, the: fame; there wasino alloy to his grief, y. 6. what ‘they faid, inftead of reli¢ving him la ts wherefore ‘he and heavy preflures upon him, he could not bear; by hefies againft him, ¥! 7,°8)° and then’ enters upon a pect it would be better with hint;