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,
1 Why, seeing times are not hidden from the Almighty, do they that know him not see his days? 2 Some remove the landmarks; they violently take away flocks, and feed thereof. 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, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children. 6 They reap every one his corn in the field: and they gather the vintage of the wicked. 7 They cause the naked to lodge without clothing, that they have 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 him to go naked without clothing, and they take away the sheaf from the hungry; 11 Which make oil within their walls, and tread their 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 to them.
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;
though times are not hidden from the Almighty, yet those
that know him do not presently see his day,
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:—
I. Tyrants, and those that do wrong under
pretence of law and authority. It is a melancholy sight which has
often been seen under the sun, wickedness in the place of
judgment (
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,
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 his face. 16 In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light. 17 For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death.
These verses describe another sort of
sinners who therefore go unpunished, because they go
undiscovered. They rebel against the light,
2. Adulterers. The eyes that are
full of adultery (
And, lastly, 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 (
18 He is 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: so doth the grave those which 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 that beareth not: and doeth not good to the widow. 22 He draweth also the mighty with his power: he riseth up, and no man is sure of life. 23 Though it be given him to be in safety, whereon he resteth; yet his eyes are 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 other, and cut off as the tops of the ears of corn. 25 And if it be not so now, who will make me a liar, and make my speech nothing worth?
Job here, in the conclusion of his discourse,
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 (
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 lived and died in the presence of all
his brethren, as we are told,
III. He foresees their fall however, and
that their death, though they die in ease and honour, will be their
ruin. God's eyes are upon their ways,
IV. He concludes with a bold challenge to
all that were present to disprove what he had said if they could
(