mh_parser/vol_split/18 - Job/Chapter 24.xml

<div2 id="Job.xxv" n="xxv" next="Job.xxvi" prev="Job.xxiv" progress="12.32%" title="Chapter XXIV">
<h2 id="Job.xxv-p0.1">J O B</h2>
<h3 id="Job.xxv-p0.2">CHAP. XXIV.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Job.xxv-p1">Job having by his complaints in the foregoing
chapter given vent to his passion, and thereby gained some ease,
breaks them off abruptly, and now applies himself to a further
discussion of the doctrinal controversy between him and his friends
concerning the prosperity of wicked people. That many live at ease
who yet are ungodly and profane, and despise all the exercises of
devotion, he had shown, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.21.1-Job.21.34" parsed="|Job|21|1|21|34" passage="Job 21:1-34"><i>ch.</i>
xxi.</scripRef> Now here he goes further, and shows that many who
are mischievous to mankind, and live in open defiance to all the
laws of justice and common honesty, yet thrive and succeed in their
unrighteous practices; and we do not see them reckoned with in this
world. What he had said before (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.12.6" parsed="|Job|12|6|0|0" passage="Job 12:6"><i>ch.</i> xii. 6</scripRef>), "The tabernacles of
robbers prosper," he here enlarges upon. He lays down his general
proposition (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.1" parsed="|Job|24|1|0|0" passage="Job 24:1">ver. 1</scripRef>), that
the punishment of wicked people is not so visible and apparent as
his friends supposed, and then proves it by an induction of
particulars. I. Those that openly do wrong to their poor neighbours
are not reckoned with, nor the injured righted (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.2-Job.24.12" parsed="|Job|24|2|24|12" passage="Job 24:2-12">ver. 2-12</scripRef>), though the former are very
barbarous, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.21-Job.24.22" parsed="|Job|24|21|24|22" passage="Job 24:21,22">ver. 21, 22</scripRef>.
II. Those that secretly practise mischief often go undiscovered and
unpunished, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.13-Job.24.17" parsed="|Job|24|13|24|17" passage="Job 24:13-17">ver. 13-17</scripRef>.
III. That God punished such by secret judgments and reserves them
for future judgments (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.18-Job.24.20 Bible:Job.24.23-Job.24.25" parsed="|Job|24|18|24|20;|Job|24|23|24|25" passage="Job 24:18-20,23-25">ver.
18-20, and 23-25</scripRef>), so that, upon the whole matter, we
cannot say that all who are in trouble are wicked; for it is
certain that all who are in prosperity are not righteous.</p>
<scripCom id="Job.xxv-p1.8" osisRef="Bible:Job.24" parsed="|Job|24|0|0|0" passage="Job 24" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Job.xxv-p1.9" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.1-Job.24.12" parsed="|Job|24|1|24|12" passage="Job 24:1-12" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.24.1-Job.24.12">
<h4 id="Job.xxv-p1.10">Outward Prosperity of the
Wicked. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.xxv-p1.11">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.xxv-p2">1 Why, seeing times are not hidden from the
Almighty, do they that know him not see his days?   2
<i>Some</i> remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks,
and feed <i>thereof.</i>   3 They drive away the ass of the
fatherless, they take the widow's ox for a pledge.   4 They
turn the needy out of the way: the poor of the earth hide
themselves together.   5 Behold, <i>as</i> wild asses in the
desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the
wilderness <i>yieldeth</i> food for them <i>and</i> for
<i>their</i> children.   6 They reap <i>every one</i> his corn
in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked.   7
They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that <i>they
have</i> no covering in the cold.   8 They are wet with the
showers of the mountains, and embrace the rock for want of a
shelter.   9 They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and
take a pledge of the poor.   10 They cause <i>him</i> to go
naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf <i>from</i>
the hungry;   11 <i>Which</i> make oil within their walls,
<i>and</i> tread <i>their</i> winepresses, and suffer thirst.
  12 Men groan from out of the city, and the soul of the
wounded crieth out: yet God layeth not folly <i>to them.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p3">Job's friends had been very positive in it
that they should soon see the fall of wicked people, how much
soever they might prosper for a while. By no means, says Job;
<i>though times are not hidden from the Almighty,</i> yet <i>those
that know him do not presently see his day,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.1" parsed="|Job|24|1|0|0" passage="Job 24:1"><i>v.</i> 1</scripRef>. 1. He takes it for granted that
times are not hidden from the Almighty; past times are not hidden
from his judgment (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.3.15" parsed="|Eccl|3|15|0|0" passage="Ec 3:15">Eccl. iii.
15</scripRef>), present times are not hidden from his providence
(<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p3.3" osisRef="Bible:Matt.10.29" parsed="|Matt|10|29|0|0" passage="Mt 10:29">Matt. x. 29</scripRef>), future times
are not hidden from his prescience, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p3.4" osisRef="Bible:Acts.15.18" parsed="|Acts|15|18|0|0" passage="Ac 15:18">Acts xv. 18</scripRef>. God governs the world, and
therefore we may be sure he takes cognizance of it. Bad times are
not hidden from him, though the bad men that make the times bad say
one to another, He has <i>forsaken the earth,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p3.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.94.6-Ps.94.7" parsed="|Ps|94|6|94|7" passage="Ps 94:6,7">Ps. xciv. 6, 7</scripRef>. Every man's times
are in his hand, and under his eye, and therefore it is in his
power to make the times of wicked men in this world miserable. He
foresees the time of every man's death, and therefore, if wicked
men die before they are punished for their wickedness, we cannot
say, "They escaped him by surprise;" he foresaw it, nay, he ordered
it. Before Job will enquire into the reasons of the prosperity of
wicked men he asserts God's omniscience, as one prophet, in a
similar case, asserts his righteousness (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p3.6" osisRef="Bible:Jer.12.1" parsed="|Jer|12|1|0|0" passage="Jer 12:1">Jer. xii. 1</scripRef>), another his holiness (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p3.7" osisRef="Bible:Hab.1.13" parsed="|Hab|1|13|0|0" passage="Hab 1:13">Hab. i. 13</scripRef>), another his goodness to
his own people, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p3.8" osisRef="Bible:Ps.73.1" parsed="|Ps|73|1|0|0" passage="Ps 73:1">Ps. lxxiii.
1</scripRef>. General truths must be held fast, though we may find
it difficult to reconcile them to particular events. 2. He yet
asserts that those who know him (that is, wise and good people who
are acquainted with him, and with whom his secret is) <i>do not see
his day,</i>—the day of his judging for them; this was the thing
he complained of in his own case (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p3.9" osisRef="Bible:Job.23.8" parsed="|Job|23|8|0|0" passage="Job 23:8"><i>ch.</i> xxiii. 8</scripRef>), that he could not see
God appearing on his behalf to plead his cause,—the day of his
judging against open and notorious sinners, that is called <i>his
day,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p3.10" osisRef="Bible:Ps.37.13" parsed="|Ps|37|13|0|0" passage="Ps 37:13">Ps. xxxvii. 13</scripRef>. We
believe that day will come, but we do not see it, because it is
future, and its presages are secret. 3. Though this is a mystery of
Providence, yet there is a reason for it, and we shall shortly know
why the judgment is deferred; even the wisest, and those who know
God best, do not yet see it. God will exercise their faith and
patience, and excite their prayers for the coming of his kingdom,
for which they are to <i>cry day and night to him,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p3.11" osisRef="Bible:Luke.18.7" parsed="|Luke|18|7|0|0" passage="Lu 18:7">Luke xviii. 7</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p4">For the proof of this, that wicked people
prosper, Job specifies two sorts of unrighteous ones, whom all the
world saw thriving in their iniquity:—</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p5">I. Tyrants, and those that do wrong under
pretence of law and authority. It is a melancholy sight which has
often been <i>seen under the sun, wickedness in the place of
judgment</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.3.16" parsed="|Eccl|3|16|0|0" passage="Ec 3:16">Eccl. iii.
16</scripRef>), the unregarded <i>tears of the oppressed,</i> while
<i>on the side of the oppressors there was power</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.2" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.4.1" parsed="|Eccl|4|1|0|0" passage="Ec 4:1">Eccl. iv. 1</scripRef>), the <i>violent perverting
of justice and judgment,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.3" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.5.8" parsed="|Eccl|5|8|0|0" passage="Ec 5:8">Eccl. v.
8</scripRef>. 1. They disseize their neighbours of their real
estates, which came to them by descent from their ancestors. They
<i>remove the land-marks,</i> under pretence that they were
misplaced (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.2" parsed="|Job|24|2|0|0" passage="Job 24:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>),
and so they encroach upon their neighbours' rights and think they
effectually secure that to their posterity which they have got
wrongfully, by making that to be an evidence for them which should
have been an evidence for the rightful owner. This was forbidden by
the law of Moses (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.5" osisRef="Bible:Deut.19.14" parsed="|Deut|19|14|0|0" passage="De 19:14">Deut. xix.
14</scripRef>), under a curse, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.6" osisRef="Bible:Deut.27.17" parsed="|Deut|27|17|0|0" passage="De 27:17">Deut.
xxvii. 17</scripRef>. Forging or destroying deeds is now a crime
equivalent to this. 2. They dispossess them of their personal
estates, under colour of justice. <i>They violently take away
flocks,</i> pretending they are forfeited, <i>and feed thereof;</i>
as the rich man took the poor man's ewe lamb, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.7" osisRef="Bible:2Sam.12.4" parsed="|2Sam|12|4|0|0" passage="2Sa 12:4">2 Sam. xii. 4</scripRef>. If a poor fatherless child has
but an ass of his own to get a little money with, they find some
colour or other to take it away, because the owner is not able to
contest with them. It is all one if a widow has but an ox for what
little husbandry she has; under pretence of distraining for some
small debt, or arrears of rent, this ox shall be taken for a
pledge, though perhaps it is the widow's all. God has taken it
among the titles of his honour to be a <i>Father of the fatherless
and a judge of the widows;</i> and therefore those will not be
reckoned his friends that do not to their utmost protect and help
them; but those he will certainly reckon with as his enemies that
vex and oppress them. 3. They take all occasions to offer personal
abuses to them, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.8" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.4" parsed="|Job|24|4|0|0" passage="Job 24:4"><i>v.</i>
4</scripRef>. They will mislead them if they can when they meet
them on the high-way, so that the poor and needy are forced to hide
themselves from them, having no other way to secure themselves from
them. They love in their hearts to banter people, and to make fools
of them, and do them a mischief if they can, especially to triumph
over poor people, whom they turn out of the way of getting relief,
threaten to punish them as vagabonds, and so force them to abscond,
and laugh at them when they have done. Some understand those
barbarous actions (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.9" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.9-Job.24.10" parsed="|Job|24|9|24|10" passage="Job 24:9,10"><i>v.</i> 9,
10</scripRef>) to be done by those oppressors that pretend law for
what they do: <i>They pluck the fatherless from the breast;</i>
that is, having made poor infants fatherless, they make them
motherless too; having taken away the father's life, they break the
mother's heart, and so starve the children and leave them to
perish. Pharaoh and Herod plucked children from the breast to the
sword; and we read of <i>children brought forth to the
murderers,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.10" osisRef="Bible:Hos.9.13" parsed="|Hos|9|13|0|0" passage="Ho 9:13">Hos. ix. 13</scripRef>.
Those are inhuman murderers indeed that can with so much pleasure
suck innocent blood. <i>They take a pledge of the poor,</i> and so
they rob the spital; nay, they take the poor themselves for a
pledge (as some read it), and probably it was under this pretence
that they <i>plucked the fatherless from the breast,</i>
distraining them for slaves, as <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.11" osisRef="Bible:Neh.5.5" parsed="|Neh|5|5|0|0" passage="Ne 5:5">Neh. v.
5</scripRef>. Cruelty to the poor is great wickedness and cries
aloud for vengeance. Those who show no mercy to such as lie at
their mercy shall themselves have judgment without mercy. Another
instance of their barbarous treatment of those they have advantage
against is that they take from them even their necessary food and
raiment; they squeeze them so with their extortion that they
<i>cause them to go naked without clothing</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.12" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.10" parsed="|Job|24|10|0|0" passage="Job 24:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>) and so catch their death. And
if a poor hungry family has gleaned a sheaf of corn, to make a
little cake of, that they may eat it and die, even that they take
away from them, being well pleased to see them perish for want,
while they themselves are fed to the full. 4. They are very
oppressive to the labourers they employ in their service. They not
only give them no wages, though the labourer is worthy of his hire
(and this is a crying sin, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.13" osisRef="Bible:Jas.5.4" parsed="|Jas|5|4|0|0" passage="Jam 5:4">Jam. v.
4</scripRef>), but they will not so much as give them meat and
drink: <i>Those that carry their sheaves are hungry;</i> so some
read it (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.14" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.10" parsed="|Job|24|10|0|0" passage="Job 24:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>),
and it agrees with <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.15" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.11" parsed="|Job|24|11|0|0" passage="Job 24:11"><i>v.</i>
11</scripRef>, that those who <i>make oil within their walls,</i>
and with a great deal of toil labour at the wine-presses, yet
suffer thirst, which was worse than muzzling the mouth of the ox
that treads out the corn. Those masters forget that they have a
Master in heaven who will not allow the necessary supports of life
to their servants and labourers, not caring whether they can live
by their labour or no. 5. It is not only among the poor country
people, but in the cities also, that we see the tears of the
oppressed (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p5.16" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.12" parsed="|Job|24|12|0|0" passage="Job 24:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>):
<i>Men groan from out of the city,</i> where the rich merchants and
traders are as cruel with their poor debtors as the landlords in
the country are with their poor tenants. In cities such cruel
actions as these are more observed than in obscure corners of the
country and the wronged have easier access to justice to right
themselves; and yet the oppressors there fear neither the
restraints of the law nor the just censures of their neighbours,
but the oppressed groan and cry out like wounded men, and can no
more ease and help themselves, for the oppressors are inexorable
and deaf to their groans.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p6">II. He speaks of robbers, and those that do
wrong by downright force, as the bands of the Sabeans and
Chaldeans, which had lately plundered him. He does not mention them
particularly, lest he should seem partial to his own cause, and to
judge of men (as we are apt to do) by what they are to us; but
among the Arabians, the children of the east (Job's country), there
were those that lived by spoil and rapine, making incursions upon
their neighbours, and robbing travellers. See how they are
described here, and what mischief they do, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.5-Job.24.8" parsed="|Job|24|5|24|8" passage="Job 24:5-8"><i>v.</i> 5-8</scripRef>. 1. Their character is that
they are <i>as wild asses in the desert,</i> untamed, untractable,
unreasonable, Ishmael's character (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.2" osisRef="Bible:Gen.16.12" parsed="|Gen|16|12|0|0" passage="Ge 16:12">Gen. xvi. 12</scripRef>), fierce and furious, and under
no restraint of law or government, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.3" osisRef="Bible:Jer.2.23-Jer.2.24" parsed="|Jer|2|23|2|24" passage="Jer 2:23,24">Jer. ii. 23, 24</scripRef>. They choose the deserts
for their dwelling, that they may be lawless and unsociable, and
that they may have opportunity of doing the more mischief. The
desert is indeed the fittest place for such wild people, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.39.6" parsed="|Job|39|6|0|0" passage="Job 39:6"><i>ch.</i> xxxix. 6</scripRef>. But no desert
can set men out of the reach of God's eye and hand. 2. Their trade
is to steal, and to make a prey of all about them. They have chosen
it as their trade; it is their work, because there is more to be
got by it, and it is got more easily, than by an honest calling.
They follow it as their trade; they follow it closely; <i>they go
forth to</i> it as <i>their work,</i> as man goes forth to his
labour, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.104.23" parsed="|Ps|104|23|0|0" passage="Ps 104:23">Ps. civ. 23</scripRef>. They
are diligent and take pains at it: They <i>rise betimes for a
prey.</i> If a traveller be out early, they will be out as soon to
rob him. They live by it as a man lives by his trade: <i>The
wilderness</i> (not the grounds there but the roads there)
<i>yieldeth food for them and for their children;</i> they maintain
themselves and their families by robbing on the high-way, and bless
themselves in it without any remorse of compassion or conscience,
and with as much security as if it were honestly got; as Ephraim,
<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.6" osisRef="Bible:Hos.12.7-Hos.12.8" parsed="|Hos|12|7|12|8" passage="Ho 12:7,8">Hos. xii. 7, 8</scripRef>. 3. See the
mischief they do to the country. They not only rob travellers, but
they make incursions upon their neighbours, and <i>reap every one
his corn in the field</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.6" parsed="|Job|24|6|0|0" passage="Job 24:6"><i>v.</i>
6</scripRef>), that is, they enter upon other people's ground, cut
their corn, and carry it away as freely as if it were their own.
Even <i>the wicked gather the vintage,</i> and it is their
wickedness; or, as we read it, They gather the vintage of the
wicked, and so one wicked man is made a scourge to another. What
the wicked got by extortion (which is their way of stealing) these
robbers get from them in their way of stealing; thus oftentimes are
the spoilers spoiled, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.8" osisRef="Bible:Isa.33.1" parsed="|Isa|33|1|0|0" passage="Isa 33:1">Isa. xxxiii.
1</scripRef>. 4. The misery of those that fall into their hands
(<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.9" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.7-Job.24.8" parsed="|Job|24|7|24|8" passage="Job 24:7,8"><i>v.</i> 7, 8</scripRef>): <i>They
cause the naked,</i> whom they have stripped, not leaving them the
clothes to their backs, <i>to lodge,</i> in the cold nights,
<i>without clothing,</i> so that <i>they are wet with the showers
of the mountains, and, for want of a</i> better <i>shelter, embrace
the rock,</i> and are glad of a cave or den in it to preserve them
from the injuries of the weather. Eliphaz had charged Job with such
inhumanity as this, concluding that Providence would not thus have
stripped him if he had not first <i>stripped the naked of their
clothing,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.10" osisRef="Bible:Job.22.6" parsed="|Job|22|6|0|0" passage="Job 22:6"><i>ch.</i> xxii.
6</scripRef>. Job here tells him there were those that were really
guilty of those crimes with which he was unjustly charged and yet
prospered and had success in their villanies, the curse they laid
themselves under working invisibly; and Job thinks it more just to
argue as he did, from an open notorious course of wickedness
inferring a secret and future punishment, than to argue as Eliphaz
did, who from nothing but present trouble inferred a course of past
secret iniquity. The impunity of these oppressors and spoilers is
expressed in one word (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.11" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.12" parsed="|Job|24|12|0|0" passage="Job 24:12"><i>v.</i>
12</scripRef>): <i>Yet God layeth not folly to them,</i> that is,
he does not immediately prosecute them with his judgments for these
crimes, nor make them examples, and so evince their folly to all
the world. He that <i>gets riches, and not by right, at his end
shall be a fool,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.12" osisRef="Bible:Jer.17.11" parsed="|Jer|17|11|0|0" passage="Jer 17:11">Jer. xvii.
11</scripRef>. But while he prospers he passes for a wise man, and
God lays not folly to him until he saith, <i>Thou fool, this night
thy soul shall be required of thee,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p6.13" osisRef="Bible:Luke.12.20" parsed="|Luke|12|20|0|0" passage="Lu 12:20">Luke xii. 20</scripRef>.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Job.xxv-p6.14" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.13-Job.24.17" parsed="|Job|24|13|24|17" passage="Job 24:13-17" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.24.13-Job.24.17">
<h4 id="Job.xxv-p6.15">Present Impunity of
Transgressors. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.xxv-p6.16">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.xxv-p7">13 They are of those that rebel against the
light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths
thereof.   14 The murderer rising with the light killeth the
poor and needy, and in the night is as a thief.   15 The eye
also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye
shall see me: and disguiseth <i>his</i> face.   16 In the dark
they dig through houses, <i>which</i> they had marked for
themselves in the daytime: they know not the light.   17 For
the morning <i>is</i> to them even as the shadow of death: if
<i>one</i> know <i>them, they are in</i> the terrors of the shadow
of death.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p8">These verses describe another sort of
sinners who <i>therefore</i> go unpunished, because they go
undiscovered. <i>They rebel against the light,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.13" parsed="|Job|24|13|0|0" passage="Job 24:13"><i>v.</i> 13</scripRef>. Some understand it
figuratively: they sin against the light of nature, the light of
God's law, and that of their own consciences; they profess to know
God, but they rebel against the knowledge they have of him, and
will not be guided and governed, commanded and controlled, by it.
Others understand it literally: they have the day-light and choose
the night as the most advantageous season for their wickedness.
Sinful works are <i>therefore</i> called <i>works of darkness,</i>
because he <i>that does evil hates the light</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:John.3.20" parsed="|John|3|20|0|0" passage="Joh 3:20">John iii. 20</scripRef>), <i>knows not the ways
thereof,</i> that is, keeps out of the way of it, or, if he happen
to be seen, abides not where he thinks he is known. So that he here
describes the worst of sinners,—those that sin wilfully, and
against the convictions of their own consciences, whereby they add
rebellion to their sin,—those that sin deliberately, and with a
great deal of plot and contrivance, using a thousand arts to
conceal their villanies, fondly imagining that, if they can but
hide them from the eye of men, they are safe, but forgetting that
<i>there is no darkness or shadow of death</i> in which <i>the
workers of iniquity can hide themselves</i> from God's eye,
<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p8.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.34.22" parsed="|Job|34|22|0|0" passage="Job 34:22"><i>ch.</i> xxxiv. 22</scripRef>. In
this paragraph Job specifies three sorts of sinners that shun the
light:—1. Murderers, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p8.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.14" parsed="|Job|24|14|0|0" passage="Job 24:14"><i>v.</i>
14</scripRef>. They <i>rise with the light,</i> as soon as ever the
day breaks, to kill the poor travellers that are up early and
abroad about their business, going to market with a little money or
goods; and though it is so little that they are really to be called
poor and needy, who with much ado get a sorry livelihood by their
marketings, yet, to get it, the murderer will both take his
neighbour's life and venture his own, will rather play at such
small game than not play at all; nay, he kills for killing sake,
thirsting more for blood than for booty. See what care and pains
wicked men take to compass their wicked designs, and let the sight
shame us out of our negligence and slothfulness in doing good.</p>
<verse id="Job.xxv-p8.5">
<l class="t1" id="Job.xxv-p8.6">Ut jugulent homines, surgunt de nocte latrones,</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xxv-p8.7">Tuque ut te serves non expergisceris?—</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xxv-p8.8"/>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xxv-p8.9">Rogues nightly rise to murder men for pelf;</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.xxv-p8.10">Will you not rouse you to preserve yourself?</l>
</verse>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p9">2. Adulterers. <i>The eyes</i> that are
<i>full of adultery</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:2Pet.2.14" parsed="|2Pet|2|14|0|0" passage="2Pe 2:14">2 Pet. ii.
14</scripRef>), the unclean and wanton eyes, <i>wait for the
twilight,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.15" parsed="|Job|24|15|0|0" passage="Job 24:15"><i>v.</i>
15</scripRef>. The eye of the adulteress did so, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p9.3" osisRef="Bible:Prov.7.9" parsed="|Prov|7|9|0|0" passage="Pr 7:9">Prov. vii. 9</scripRef>. Adultery hides its head for
shame. The sinners themselves, even the most impudent, do what they
can to hide their sin: <i>si non caste, tamen caute—if not
chastely, yet cautiously;</i> and after all the wretched endeavours
of the factors for hell to take away the reproach of it, it is and
ever will be a <i>shame even to speak of those things which are
done of them in secret,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p9.4" osisRef="Bible:Eph.5.12" parsed="|Eph|5|12|0|0" passage="Eph 5:12">Eph. v.
12</scripRef>. It hides its head also for fear, knowing that
<i>jealousy is the rage of a husband,</i> who <i>will not spare in
the day of vengeance,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p9.5" osisRef="Bible:Prov.6.24-Prov.6.25" parsed="|Prov|6|24|6|25" passage="Pr 6:24,25">Prov. vi.
24, 25</scripRef>. See what pains those take that make provision
for the flesh to fulfil the lusts of it, pains to compass, and then
to conceal, that provision which, after all, will be death and hell
at last. Less pains would serve to mortify and crucify the flesh,
which would be life and heaven at last. Let the sinner change his
heart, and then he needs not disguise his face, but may lift it up
without spot. 3. House-breakers, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p9.6" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.16" parsed="|Job|24|16|0|0" passage="Job 24:16"><i>v.</i> 16</scripRef>. These <i>mark houses in the
day-time,</i> mark the avenues of a house, and on which side they
can most easily force their entrance, and then, in the night, dig
through them, either to kill, or steal, or commit adultery. The
night favours the assault, and makes the defence the more
difficult; for the <i>good man of the house knows not what hour the
thief will come</i> and therefore is asleep (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p9.7" osisRef="Bible:Luke.12.39" parsed="|Luke|12|39|0|0" passage="Lu 12:39">Luke xii. 39</scripRef>) and he and his lie exposed. For
this reason our law makes burglary, which is the breaking and
entering of a dwelling-house in the night time with a felonious
intent, to be felony without benefit of clergy.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p10">And, <i>lastly,</i> Job observes (and
perhaps observes it as part of the present, though secret,
punishment of such sinners as these) that they are in a continual
terror for fear of being discovered (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.17" parsed="|Job|24|17|0|0" passage="Job 24:17"><i>v.</i> 17</scripRef>): <i>The morning is to them
even as the shadow of death.</i> The light of the day, which is
welcome to honest people, is a terror to bad people. They curse the
sun, not as the Moors, because it scorches them, but because it
discovers them. <i>If one know them,</i> their consciences fly in
their faces, and they are ready to become their own accusers; for
<i>they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.</i> Shame came
in with sin, and everlasting shame is at the end of it. See the
misery of sinners—they are exposed to continual frights; and yet
see their folly—they are afraid of coming under the eye of men,
but have no dread of God's eye, which is always upon them: they are
not afraid of doing that which yet they are so terribly afraid of
being known to do.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Job.xxv-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.18-Job.24.25" parsed="|Job|24|18|24|25" passage="Job 24:18-25" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.24.18-Job.24.25">
<h4 id="Job.xxv-p10.3">Ultimate Ruin of the Wicked. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.xxv-p10.4">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.xxv-p11">18 He <i>is</i> swift as the waters; their
portion is cursed in the earth: he beholdeth not the way of the
vineyards.   19 Drought and heat consume the snow waters:
<i>so doth</i> the grave <i>those which</i> have sinned.   20
The womb shall forget him; the worm shall feed sweetly on him; he
shall be no more remembered; and wickedness shall be broken as a
tree.   21 He evil entreateth the barren <i>that</i> beareth
not: and doeth not good to the widow.   22 He draweth also the
mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no <i>man</i> is sure of
life.   23 <i>Though</i> it be given him <i>to be</i> in
safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes <i>are</i> upon their
ways.   24 They are exalted for a little while, but are gone
and brought low; they are taken out of the way as all <i>other,</i>
and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn.   25 And if <i>it
be</i> not <i>so</i> now, who will make me a liar, and make my
speech nothing worth?</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p12">Job here, in the conclusion of his
discourse,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p13">I. Gives some further instances of the
wickedness of these cruel bloody men. 1. Some are pirates and
robbers at sea. To this many learned interpreters apply those
difficult expressions (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.18" parsed="|Job|24|18|0|0" passage="Job 24:18"><i>v.</i>
18</scripRef>), <i>He is swift upon the waters.</i> Privateers
choose those ships that are the best sailors. In these swift ships
they cruise from one channel to another, to pick up prizes; and
this brings them in so much wealth that their <i>portion is cursed
in the earth,</i> and they <i>behold not the way of the
vineyards,</i> that is (as bishop Patrick explains it), they
despise the employment of those who till the ground and plant
vineyards as poor and unprofitable. But others make this a further
description of the conduct of those sinners that are afraid of the
light: if they be discovered, they get away as fast as they can,
and choose to lurk, not in the vineyards, for fear of being
discovered, but in some cursed portion, a lonely and desolate
place, which nobody looks after. 2. Some are abusive to those that
are in trouble, and add affliction to the afflicted. Barrenness was
looked upon as a great reproach, and those that fall under that
affliction they upbraid with it, as Peninnah did Hannah, on purpose
to vex them and make them to fret, which is a barbarous thing. This
is <i>evil entreating the barren that beareth not</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.21" parsed="|Job|24|21|0|0" passage="Job 24:21"><i>v.</i> 21</scripRef>), or those that are
childless, and so want the arrows others have in their quiver,
which enable them to deal with their enemy in the gate, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p13.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.127.5" parsed="|Ps|127|5|0|0" passage="Ps 127:5">Ps. cxxvii. 5</scripRef>. They take that
advantage against and are oppressive to them. As the fatherless, so
the childless, are in some degree helpless. For the same reason it
is a cruel thing to hurt the widow, to whom we ought to do good;
and not doing good, when it is in our power, is doing hurt. 3.
There are those who, by inuring themselves to cruelty, come at last
to be so exceedingly boisterous that they are <i>the terror of the
mighty in the land of the living</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p13.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.22" parsed="|Job|24|22|0|0" passage="Job 24:22"><i>v.</i> 22</scripRef>): "<i>He draws the mighty</i>
into a snare with his power; even the greatest are not able to
stand before him when he is in his mad fits: <i>he rises up</i> in
his passion, and lays about him with so much fury that <i>no man is
sure of his life;</i> nor can he at the same time be sure of his
own, for <i>his hand is against every man</i> and <i>every man's
hand against him,</i>" <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p13.5" osisRef="Bible:Gen.16.12" parsed="|Gen|16|12|0|0" passage="Ge 16:12">Gen. xvi.
12</scripRef>. One would wonder how any man can take pleasure in
making all about him afraid of him, yet there are those that
do.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p14">II. He shows that these daring sinners
prosper, and are at ease for a while, nay, and often end their days
in peace, as Ishmael, who, though he was a man of such a character
as is here given, yet both <i>lived and died in the presence of all
his brethren,</i> as we are told, <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Gen.16.12 Bible:Gen.25.18" parsed="|Gen|16|12|0|0;|Gen|25|18|0|0" passage="Ge 16:12,25:18">Gen. xvi. 12; xxv. 18</scripRef>: Of these sinners
here it is said, 1. That it is <i>given them to be in safety,</i>
<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p14.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.23" parsed="|Job|24|23|0|0" passage="Job 24:23"><i>v.</i> 23</scripRef>. They seem to
be under the special protection of the divine Providence; and one
would wonder how they escape with life through so many dangers as
they run themselves into. 2. That they rest upon this, that is,
they rely upon this as sufficient to warrant all their violences.
<i>Because sentence against their evil works is not executed
speedily</i> they think that there is no great evil in them, and
that God is not displeased with them, nor will ever call them to an
account. Their prosperity is their security. 3. That <i>they are
exalted for a while.</i> They seem to be the favourites of heaven,
and value themselves as making the best figure on earth. They are
set up in honour, set up (as they think) out of the reach of
danger, and lifted up in the pride of their own spirits. 4. That,
at length, they are carried out of the world very silently and
gently, and without any remarkable disgrace or terror. "They go
down to the grave as easily as snow-water sinks into the dry ground
when it is melted by the sun;" so bishop Patrick explains <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p14.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.19" parsed="|Job|24|19|0|0" passage="Job 24:19"><i>v.</i> 19</scripRef>. To the same purport he
paraphrases <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p14.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.20" parsed="|Job|24|20|0|0" passage="Job 24:20"><i>v.</i> 20</scripRef>,
<i>The womb shall forget him,</i> &amp;c. "God sets no such mark of
his displeasure upon him but that his mother may soon forget him.
The hand of justice does not hang him on a gibbet for the birds to
feed on; but he is carried to his grave like other men, to be the
sweet food of worms. There he lies quietly, and neither he nor his
wickedness is any more remembered than a tree which is broken to
shivers." And <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p14.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.24" parsed="|Job|24|24|0|0" passage="Job 24:24"><i>v.</i>
24</scripRef>, <i>They are taken out of the way as all others,</i>
that is, "they are shut up in their graves like all other men; nay,
they die as easily (without those tedious pains which some endure)
as an ear of corn is cropped with your hand." Compare this with
Solomon's observation (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p14.6" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.8.10" parsed="|Eccl|8|10|0|0" passage="Ec 8:10">Eccl. viii.
10</scripRef>), <i>I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone
from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p15">III. He foresees their fall however, and
that their death, though they die in ease and honour, will be their
ruin. God's <i>eyes are upon their ways,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xxv-p15.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.23" parsed="|Job|24|23|0|0" passage="Job 24:23"><i>v.</i> 23</scripRef>. Though he keep silence, and
seem to connive at them, yet he takes notice, and keeps account of
all their wickedness, and will make it to appear shortly that their
most secret sins, which they thought <i>no eye should see</i>
(<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p15.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.15" parsed="|Job|24|15|0|0" passage="Job 24:15"><i>v.</i> 15</scripRef>), were under
his eye and will be called over again. Here is no mention of the
punishment of these sinners in the other world, but it is intimated
in the particular notice taken of the consequences of their death.
1. The consumption of the body in the grave, though common to all,
yet to them is in the nature of a punishment for their sin. The
<i>grave shall consume those that have sinned;</i> that land of
darkness will be the lot of those that <i>love darkness rather than
light.</i> The bodies they pampered shall be a feast for worms,
which shall feed as sweetly on them as ever they fed on the
pleasures and gains of their sins. 2. Though they thought to make
themselves a great name by their wealth, and power, and mighty
achievements, yet <i>their memorial perished with them,</i>
<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p15.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.9.6" parsed="|Ps|9|6|0|0" passage="Ps 9:6">Ps. ix. 6</scripRef>. He that made
himself so much talked of <i>shall,</i> when he is dead, <i>be no
more remembered</i> with honour; his <i>name shall rot,</i>
<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p15.4" osisRef="Bible:Prov.10.7" parsed="|Prov|10|7|0|0" passage="Pr 10:7">Prov. x. 7</scripRef>. Those that durst
not give him his due character while he lived shall not spare him
when he is dead; so that the womb that bore him, his own mother,
shall forget him, that is, shall avoid making mention of him, and
shall think <i>that</i> the greatest kindness she can do him, since
no good can be said of him. That honour which is got by sin will
soon turn into shame. 3. The wickedness they thought to establish
in their families shall be broken as a tree; all their wicked
projects shall be blasted, and all their wicked hopes dashed and
buried with them. 4. Their pride shall be brought down and laid in
the dust (<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p15.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.24" parsed="|Job|24|24|0|0" passage="Job 24:24"><i>v.</i> 24</scripRef>);
and, in mercy to the world, they shall be taken out of the way, and
all their power and prosperity shall be cut off. You may seek them,
and they shall not be found. Job owns that wicked people will be
miserable at last, miserable on the other side death, but utterly
denies what his friends asserted, that ordinarily they are
miserable in this life.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xxv-p16">IV. He concludes with a bold challenge to
all that were present to disprove what he had said if they could
(<scripRef id="Job.xxv-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.24.25" parsed="|Job|24|25|0|0" passage="Job 24:25"><i>v.</i> 25</scripRef>): "<i>If it
be not so now,</i> as I have declared, and if it do not thence
follow that I am unjustly condemned and censured, let those that
can undertake to prove that my discourse is either, 1. False in
itself, and then they prove me a liar; or, 2. Foreign, and nothing
to the purpose, and then they prove my speech frivolous and nothing
worth." That indeed which is false is nothing worth; where there is
not truth, how can there be goodness? But those that speak the
words of truth and soberness need not fear having what they say
brought to the test, but can cheerfully submit it to a fair
examination, as Job does here.</p>
</div></div2>