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<center><h1>Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry<BR><I>Commentary on the Whole Bible</I> (1710)
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<!-- (Begin Body) -->
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<CENTER>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+3><B>J O B</B></FONT>
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<BR>
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<BR><FONT SIZE=+2>CHAP. XVI.</FONT>
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<HR SIZE=1 WIDTH=50>
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</CENTER>
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<FONT SIZE=-1>
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<P>
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This chapter begins Job's reply to that discourse of Eliphaz which we
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had in the foregoing chapter; it is but the second part of the same
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song of lamentation with which he had before bemoaned himself, and is
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set to the same melancholy tune.
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I. He upbraids his friends with their unkind usage of him,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:1-5">ver. 1-5</A>.
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II. He represents his own case as very deplorable upon all accounts,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:6-16">ver. 6-16</A>.
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III. He still holds fast his integrity, concerning which he appeals to
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God's righteous judgment from the unrighteous censures of his friends,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:14-22">ver. 14-22</A>.</P>
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</FONT>
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<A NAME="Job16_1"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_2"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_3"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_4"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_5"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec1"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>The Reply of Job to Eliphaz.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 1520.</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>1 Then Job answered and said,
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2 I have heard many such things: miserable comforters <I>are</I> ye
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all.
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3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that
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thou answerest?
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4 I also could speak as ye <I>do:</I> if your soul were in my soul's
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stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at
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you.
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5 <I>But</I> I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of
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my lips should assuage <I>your grief.</I>
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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Both Job and his friends took the same way that disputants commonly
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take, which is to undervalue one another's sense, and wisdom, and
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management. The longer the saw of contention is drawn the hotter it
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grows; and the <I>beginning of</I> this sort of <I>strife is as the
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letting forth of water; therefore leave it off before it be meddled
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with.</I> Eliphaz had represented Job's discourses as idle, and
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unprofitable, and nothing to the purpose; and Job here gives his the
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same character. Those who are free in passing such censures must expect
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to have them retorted; it is easy, it is endless: but <I>cui bono?--what
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good does it do?</I> It will stir up men's passions, but will never
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convince their judgments, nor set truth in a clear light. Job here
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reproves Eliphaz,
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1. For needless repetitions
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:2"><I>v.</I> 2</A>):
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"<I>I have heard many such things.</I> You tell me nothing but what I
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knew before, nothing but what you yourselves have before said; you
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offer nothing new; it is the same thing over and over again." This Job
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thinks as great a trial of his patience as almost any of his troubles.
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The inculcating of the same things thus by an adversary is indeed
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provoking and nauseous, but by a teacher it is often necessary, and
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must not be grievous to the learner, to whom <I>precept must be upon
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precept, and line upon line.</I> Many things we have heard which it is
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good for us to hear again, that we may understand and remember them
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better, and be more affected with them and influenced by them.
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2. For unskilful applications. They came with a design to comfort him,
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but they went about it very awkwardly, and, when they touched Job's
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case, quite mistook it: "<I>Miserable comforters are you all,</I> who,
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instead of offering any thing to alleviate the affliction, add
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affliction to it, and make it yet more grievous." The patient's case is
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sad indeed when his medicines are poisons and his physicians his worst
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disease. What Job says here of his friends is true of all creatures, in
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comparison with God, and, one time or other, we shall be made to see it
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and own it, that miserable comforters are they all. When we are under
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convictions of sin, terrors of conscience, and the arrests of death, it
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is only the blessed Spirit that can comfort effectually; all others,
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without him, do it miserably, and sing songs to a heavy heart, to no
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purpose.
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3. For endless impertinence. Job wishes that <I>vain words might have
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an end,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:3"><I>v.</I> 3</A>.
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If vain, it were well that they were never begun, and the sooner they
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are ended the better. Those who are so wise as to speak to the purpose
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will be so wise as to know when they have said enough of a thing and
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when it is time to break off.
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4. For causeless obstinacy. <I>What emboldeneth thee, that thou
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answerest?</I> It is a great piece of confidence, and unaccountable, to
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charge men with those crimes which we cannot prove upon them, to pass a
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judgment on men's spiritual state upon the view of their outward
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condition, and to re-advance those objections which have been again and
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again answered, as Eliphaz did.
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5. For the violation of the sacred laws of friendship, doing by his
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brother as he would not have been done by and as his brother would not
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have done by him. This is a cutting reproof, and very affecting,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:4,5"><I>v.</I> 4, 5</A>.
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(1.) He desires his friends, in imagination, for a little while, to
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change conditions with him, to put their souls in his soul's stead, to
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suppose themselves in misery like him and him at ease like them. This
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was no absurd or foreign supposition, but what might quickly become
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true in fact. So strange, so sudden, frequently, are the vicissitudes
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of human affairs, and such the turns of the wheel, that the spokes soon
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change places. Whatever our brethren's sorrows are, we ought by
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sympathy to make them our own, because we know not how soon they may be
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so.
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(2.) He represents the unkindness of their conduct towards him, by
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showing what he could do to them if they were in his condition: <I>I
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could speak as you do.</I> It is an easy thing to trample upon those
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that are down, and to find fault with what those say that are in
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extremity of pain and affliction: "<I>I could heap up words against
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you,</I> as you do against me; and how would you like it? how would you
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bear it?"
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(3.) He shows them what they should do, by telling them what in that
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case he would do
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:5"><I>v.</I> 5</A>):
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<I>"I would strengthen you,</I> and say all I could to assuage your
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grief, but nothing to aggravate it." It is natural to sufferers to
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think what they would do if the tables were turned. But perhaps our
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hearts may deceive us; we know not what we should do. We find it easier
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to discern the reasonableness and importance of a command when we have
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occasion to claim the benefit of it than when we have occasion to do
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the duty of it. See what is the duty we owe to our brethren in their
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affliction.
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[1.] We should say and do all we can to strengthen them, suggesting to
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them such considerations as are proper to encourage their confidence in
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God and to support their sinking spirits. Faith and patience are the
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strength of the afflicted; whatever helps these graces confirms the
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feeble knees.
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[2.] To assuage their grief--the causes of their grief, if possible, or
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at least their resentment of those causes. Good words cost nothing; but
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they may be of good service to those that are in sorrow, not only as it
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is some comfort to them to see their friends concerned for them, but as
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they may be so reminded of that which, through the prevalency of grief,
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was forgotten. Though hard words (we say) break no bones, yet kind
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words may help to make broken bones rejoice; and those have the
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<I>tongue of the learned</I> that know how to <I>speak a word in season
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to the weary.</I></P>
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<A NAME="Job16_6"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_7"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_8"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_9"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_10"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_11"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_12"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_13"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_14"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_15"> </A>
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<A NAME="Job16_16"> </A>
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<A NAME="Sec2"> </A>
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<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
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<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Grievances of Job.</I></FONT></TD>
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<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 1520.</TD></TR>
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<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
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</TABLE>
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<P>
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<FONT SIZE=+1>6 Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and <I>though</I> I
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forbear, what am I eased?
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7 But now he hath made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my
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company.
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8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, <I>which</I> is a witness
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<I>against me:</I> and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to
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my face.
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9 He teareth <I>me</I> in his wrath, who hateth me: he gnasheth upon
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me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his eyes upon me.
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10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth; they have smitten
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me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have gathered themselves
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together against me.
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11 God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over
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into the hands of the wicked.
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12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder: he hath also
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taken <I>me</I> by my neck, and shaken me to pieces, and set me up for
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his mark.
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13 His archers compass me round about, he cleaveth my reins
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asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth out my gall upon the
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ground.
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14 He breaketh me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me
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like a giant.
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15 I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in
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the dust.
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16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids <I>is</I> the
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shadow of death;
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</FONT></P>
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<P>
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Job's complaint is here as bitter as any where in all his discourses,
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and he is at a stand whether to smother it or to give it vent.
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Sometimes the one and sometimes the other is a relief to the afflicted,
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according as the temper or the circumstances are; but Job found help by
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neither,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:6"><I>v.</I> 6</A>.
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1. Sometimes giving vent to grief gives ease; but, "<I>Though I
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speak</I>" (says Job), "<I>my grief is not assuaged,</I> my spirit is
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never the lighter for the pouring out of my complaint; nay, what I
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speak is so misconstrued as to be turned to the aggravation of my
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grief."
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2. At other times keeping silence makes the trouble the easier and the
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sooner forgotten; but (says Job) <I>though I forbear</I> I am never the
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nearer; <I>what am I eased?</I> If he complained he was censured as
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passionate; if not, as sullen. If he maintained his integrity, that was
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his crime; if he made no answer to their accusations, his silence was
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taken for a confession of his guilt.</P>
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<P>
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Here is a doleful representation of Job's grievances. O what reason
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have we to bless God that we are not making such complaints! He
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complains,</P>
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<P>
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I. That his family was scattered
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:7"><I>v.</I> 7</A>):
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"<I>He hath made me weary,</I> weary of speaking, weary of forbearing,
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weary of my friends, weary of life itself; my journey through the world
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proves so very uncomfortable that I am quite tired with it." This made
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it as tiresome as any thing, that all his company was made desolate,
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his children and servants being killed and the poor remains of his
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great household dispersed. The company of good people that used to meet
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at his house for religious worship, was now scattered, and he spent his
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sabbaths in silence and solitude. He had company indeed, but such as he
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would rather have been without, for they seemed to triumph in his
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desolation. If lovers and friends are put far from us, we must see and
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own God's hand in it, making our company desolate.</P>
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<P>
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II. That his body was worn away with diseases and pains, so that he had
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become a perfect skeleton, nothing but skin and bones,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>.
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His face was furrowed, not with age, but sickness: <I>Thou hast filled
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me with wrinkles.</I> His flesh was wasted with the running of his sore
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boils, so that <I>his leanness rose up in him,</I> that is, his bones,
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that before were not seen, stuck out,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+33:21"><I>ch.</I> xxxiii. 21</A>.
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These are called <I>witnesses against him,</I> witnesses of God's
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displeasure against him, and such witnesses as his friends produced
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against him to prove him a wicked man. Or, "They are witnesses
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<I>for</I> me, that my complaint is not causeless," or "witnesses
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<I>to</I> me, that I am a dying man, and must be gone shortly."</P>
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<P>
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III. That his enemy was a terror to him, threatened him, frightened
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him, looked sternly upon him, and gave all the indications of rage
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against him
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:9"><I>v.</I> 9</A>):
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<I>He tears me in his wrath.</I> But who is this enemy?
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1. Eliphaz, who showed himself very much exasperated against him, and
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perhaps had expressed himself with such marks of indignation as are
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here mentioned: at least, what he said tore Job's good name and
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thundered nothing but terror to him; his eyes were sharpened to spy out
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matter of reproach against Job, and very barbarously both he and the
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rest of them used him. Or,
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2. Satan. He was his enemy that hated him, and perhaps, by the divine
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permission, terrified him with apparitions, as (some think) he
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terrified our Saviour, which put him into his agonies in the garden;
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and thus he aimed to make him curse God. It is not improbable that this
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is the enemy he means. Or,
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(3.) God himself. If we understand it of him, the expressions are
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indeed as rash as any he used. God hates none of his creatures; but
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Job's melancholy did thus represent to him the terrors of the Almighty:
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and nothing can be more grievous to a good man than to apprehend God to
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be his enemy. If the wrath of a king be as messengers of death, what is
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the wrath of the King of kings!</P>
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<P>
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IV. That all about him were abusive to him,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:10"><I>v.</I> 10</A>.
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They came upon him with open mouth to devour him, as if they would
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swallow him alive, so terrible were their threats and so scornful was
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their conduct to him. They offered him all the indignities they could
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invent, and even smote him <I>on the cheek;</I> and herein many were
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confederate. <I>They gathered themselves together against him,</I> even
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the abjects,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+35:15">Ps. xxxv. 15</A>.
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Herein Job was a type of Christ, as many of the ancients make him:
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these very expressions are used in the predictions of his sufferings,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+22:13">Ps. xxii. 13</A>,
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<I>They gaped upon me with their mouths;</I> and
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mic+5:1">Mic. v. 1</A>),
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<I>They shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek,</I>
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which was literally fulfilled,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Mt+26:67">Matt. xxvi. 67</A>.
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How were those increased that troubled him!</P>
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<P>
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V. That God, instead of delivering him out of their hands, as he hoped,
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delivered him into their hands
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:11"><I>v.</I> 11</A>):
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<I>He hath turned me over into the hands of the wicked.</I> They could
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have had no power against him if it had not been given them from above.
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He therefore looks beyond them to God who gave them their commission,
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as David did when Shimei cursed him; but he thinks it strange, and
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almost thinks it hard, that those should have power against him who
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were God's enemies as much as his. God sometimes makes use of wicked
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men as his sword to one another
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(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+17:13">Ps. xvii. 13</A>)
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and his rod to his own children,
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+10:5">Isa. x. 5</A>.
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Herein also Job was a type of Christ, who was delivered into wicked
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hands, to be crucified and slain, by the <I>determinate counsel and
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fore-knowledge of God,</I>
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<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ac+2:23">Acts ii. 23</A>.</P>
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<P>
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VI. That God not only delivered him into the hands of the wicked, but
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took him into his own hands too, into which it is a fearful thing to
|
|
fall
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:12"><I>v.</I> 12</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>I was at ease</I> in the comfortable enjoyment of the gifts of
|
|
God's bounty, not fretting and uneasy, as some are in the midst of
|
|
their prosperity, who thereby provoke God to strip them; yet <I>he has
|
|
broken me asunder,</I> put me upon the rack of pain, and torn me limb
|
|
from limb." God, in afflicting him, had seemed,
|
|
|
|
1. As if he were furious. Though fury is not in God, he thought it was,
|
|
when he took him <I>by the neck</I> (as a strong man in a passion would
|
|
take a child) and shook him to pieces, triumphing in the irresistible
|
|
power he had to do what he would with him.
|
|
|
|
2. As if he were partial. "He has distinguished me from the rest of
|
|
mankind by this hard usage of me: <I>He has set me up for his mark,</I>
|
|
the butt at which he is pleased to let fly all his arrows: at me they
|
|
are directed, and they come not by chance; against me they are
|
|
levelled, as if I were the greatest sinner of all the men of the east
|
|
or were singled out to be made an example." When God set him up for a
|
|
mark <I>his archers</I> presently <I>compassed him round.</I> God has
|
|
archers at command, who will be sure to hit the mark that he sets up.
|
|
Whoever are our enemies, we must look upon them as God's archers, and
|
|
see him directing the arrow. <I>It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth
|
|
him good.</I>
|
|
|
|
3. As if he were cruel, and his wrath as relentless as his power was
|
|
resistless. As if he contrived to touch him in the tenderest part,
|
|
<I>cleaving his reins asunder</I> with acute pains; perhaps they were
|
|
nephritic pains, those of the stone, which lie in the region of the
|
|
kidneys. As if he had no mercy in reserve for him, he does not spare
|
|
nor abate any thing of the extremity. And as if he aimed at nothing but
|
|
his death, and his death in the midst of the most grievous tortures:
|
|
<I>He pours out my gall upon the ground,</I> as when men have taken a
|
|
wild beast, and killed it, they open it, and pour out the gall with a
|
|
loathing of it. He thought his blood was poured out, as if it were not
|
|
only not precious, but nauseous.
|
|
|
|
4. As if he were unreasonable and insatiable in his executions
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:14"><I>v.</I> 14</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>He breaketh me with breach upon breach,</I> follows me with one
|
|
wound after another." So his troubles came at first; while one
|
|
messenger of evil tidings was speaking another came: and so it was
|
|
still; new boils were rising every day, so that he had no prospect of
|
|
the end of his troubles. Thus he thought that God ran upon him <I>like
|
|
a giant,</I> whom he could not possibly stand before or confront; as
|
|
the giants of old ran down all their poor neighbours, and were too hard
|
|
for them. Note, Even good men, when they are in great and
|
|
extraordinary troubles, have much ado not to entertain hard thoughts of
|
|
God.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
VII. That he had divested himself of all his honour, and all his
|
|
comfort, in compliance with the afflicting providences that surrounded
|
|
him. Some can lessen their own troubles by concealing them, holding
|
|
their heads as high and putting on as good a face as ever; but Job
|
|
could not do so: he received the impressions of them, and, as one truly
|
|
penitent and truly patient, he humbled himself under the mighty hand of
|
|
God,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:15,16"><I>v.</I> 15, 16</A>.
|
|
|
|
1. He now laid aside all his ornaments and soft clothing, consulted not
|
|
either his ease or finery in his dress, but sewed sackcloth upon his
|
|
skin; that clothing he thought good enough for such a defiled
|
|
distempered body as he had. Silks upon sores, such sores, he thought,
|
|
would be unsuitable; sackcloth would be more becoming. Those are fond
|
|
indeed of gay clothing that will not be weaned from it by sickness and
|
|
old age, and, as Job was
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:8"><I>v.</I> 8</A>),
|
|
|
|
by <I>wrinkles and leanness.</I> He not only put on sackcloth, but
|
|
sewed it on, as one that resolved to continue his humiliation as long
|
|
as the affliction continued.
|
|
|
|
2. He insisted not upon any points of honour, but humbled himself under
|
|
humbling providences: <I>He defiled his horn in the dust,</I> and
|
|
refused the respect that used to be paid to his dignity, power, and
|
|
eminency. Note, When God brings down our condition, that should bring
|
|
down our spirits. Better lay the horn in the dust than lift it up in
|
|
contradiction to the designs of Providence and have it broken at last.
|
|
Eliphaz had represented Job as high and haughty, and unhumbled under
|
|
his affliction. "No," says Job, "I know better things; the dust is now
|
|
the fittest place for me."
|
|
|
|
3. He banished mirth as utterly unseasonable, and set himself to sow in
|
|
tears
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>):
|
|
|
|
"<I>My face is foul with weeping</I> so constantly for my sins, for
|
|
God's displeasure against me, and for my friends unkindness: this has
|
|
brought a <I>shadow of death upon my eyelids.</I>" He had not only wept
|
|
away all his beauty, but almost wept his eyes out. In this also he was
|
|
a type of Christ, who was a man of sorrows, and much in tears, and
|
|
pronounced those blessed that mourn, <I>for they shall be
|
|
comforted.</I></P>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Job16_17"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Job16_18"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Job16_19"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Job16_20"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Job16_21"> </A>
|
|
<A NAME="Job16_22"> </A>
|
|
|
|
<A NAME="Sec3"> </A>
|
|
<TABLE WIDTH="100%" BORDER=0>
|
|
<TR><TD><FONT SIZE=+1><I>Testimony of Conscience; Job's Comfort in Conscious Integrity.</I></FONT></TD>
|
|
<TD ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT SIZE=-1>B. C.</FONT> 1520.</TD></TR>
|
|
<TR><TD COLSPAN=2><HR SIZE=1></TD></TR>
|
|
</TABLE>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
<FONT SIZE=+1>17 Not for <I>any</I> injustice in mine hands: also my prayer <I>is</I>
|
|
pure.
|
|
18 O earth, cover not thou my blood, and let my cry have no
|
|
place.
|
|
19 Also now, behold, my witness <I>is</I> in heaven, and my record
|
|
<I>is</I> on high.
|
|
20 My friends scorn me: <I>but</I> mine eye poureth out <I>tears</I> unto
|
|
God.
|
|
21 O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man
|
|
<I>pleadeth</I> for his neighbour!
|
|
22 When a few years are come, then I shall go the way <I>whence</I>
|
|
I shall not return.
|
|
</FONT></P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
Job's condition was very deplorable; but had he nothing to support him,
|
|
nothing to comfort him? Yes, and he here tells us what it was.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
I. He had the testimony of his conscience for him that he had walked
|
|
uprightly, and had never allowed himself in any gross sin. None was
|
|
ever more ready than he to acknowledge his sins of infirmity; but, upon
|
|
search, he could not charge himself with any enormous crime, for which
|
|
he should be made more miserable than other men,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:17"><I>v.</I> 17</A>.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
1. He had kept a conscience void of offence,
|
|
|
|
(1.) Towards men: "<I>Not for any injustice in my hands,</I> any wealth
|
|
that I have unjustly got or kept." Eliphaz had represented him as a
|
|
tyrant and an oppressor. "No," says he, "I never did any wrong to any
|
|
man, but always despised the gain of oppression."
|
|
|
|
(2.) Towards God: <I>Also my prayer is pure;</I> but prayer cannot be
|
|
pure as long as there is <I>injustice in our hands,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+1:15">Isa. i. 15</A>.
|
|
|
|
Eliphaz had charged him with hypocrisy in religion, but he specifies
|
|
prayer, the great act of religion, and professes that in that he was
|
|
pure, though not from all infirmity, yet from reigning and allowed
|
|
guile: it was not like the prayers of the Pharisees, who looked no
|
|
further than to be seen of men, and to serve a turn.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
2. This assertion of his own integrity he backs with a solemn
|
|
imprecation of shame and confusion to himself if it were not true,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:18"><I>v.</I> 18</A>.
|
|
|
|
(1.) If there were any injustice in his hands, he wished it might not
|
|
be concealed: <I>O earth! cover thou not my blood,</I> that is, "the
|
|
innocent blood of others, which I am suspected to have shed." Murder
|
|
will out; and "let it," says Job, "if I have ever been guilty if it,"
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ge+4:10,11">Gen. iv. 10, 11</A>.
|
|
|
|
The day is coming when <I>the earth shall disclose her blood</I>
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+26:21">Isa. xxvi. 21</A>),
|
|
|
|
and a good man as far from dreading that day.
|
|
|
|
(2.) If there were any impurity in his prayers, he wished they might
|
|
not be accepted: <I>Let my cry have no place.</I> He was willing to be
|
|
judged by that rule, <I>If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will
|
|
not hear me,</I>
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Ps+66:18">Ps. lxvi. 18</A>.
|
|
|
|
There is another probable sense of these words, that he does hereby, as
|
|
it were, lay his death upon his friends, who broke his heart with their
|
|
harsh censures, and charges the guilt of his blood upon them, begging
|
|
of God to avenge it and that the cry of his blood might have no place
|
|
in which to lie hid, but might come up to heaven and be heard by him
|
|
that makes inquisition for blood.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
II. He could appeal to God's omniscience concerning his integrity,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:19"><I>v.</I> 19</A>.
|
|
|
|
The witness in our own bosoms for us will stand us in little stead if
|
|
we have not a witness in heaven for us too; for <I>God is greater than
|
|
our hearts,</I> and we are not to he our own judges. This therefore is
|
|
Job's triumph, <I>My witness is in heaven.</I> Note, It is an
|
|
unspeakable comfort to a good man, when he lies under the censure of
|
|
his brethren, that there is a God in heaven who knows his integrity and
|
|
will clear it up sooner or later. See
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Joh+5:31,37">John v. 31, 37</A>.
|
|
|
|
This one witness is instead of a thousand.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
III. He had a God to go to before whom he might unbosom himself,
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:20,21"><I>v.</I> 20, 21</A>.
|
|
|
|
See here,
|
|
|
|
1. How the case stood between him and his friends. He knew not how to
|
|
be free with them, nor could he expect either a fair hearing with them
|
|
or fair dealing from them. "My friends (so they call themselves) scorn
|
|
me; they set themselves not only to resist me, but to expose me; they
|
|
are of counsel against me, and use all their art and eloquence" (so the
|
|
word signifies) "to run me down." The scorns of friends are more
|
|
cutting than those of enemies; but we must expect them, and provide
|
|
accordingly.
|
|
|
|
2. How it stood between him and God. He doubted not but that,
|
|
|
|
(1.) God did now take cognizance of his sorrows: <I>My eye pours out
|
|
tears to God.</I> He had said
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:16"><I>v.</I> 16</A>)
|
|
|
|
that he wept much; here he tells us in what channel his tears ran, and
|
|
which way they were directed. His sorrow was not that of the world, but
|
|
he sorrowed after a godly sort, wept before the Lord, and offered to
|
|
him the sacrifice of a broken heart. Note, Even tears, when sanctified
|
|
to God, give ease to troubled spirits; and, if men slight our grief,
|
|
this may comfort us, that God regards them.
|
|
|
|
(2.) That he would in due time clear up his innocency
|
|
|
|
(<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Job+16:21"><I>v.</I> 21</A>):
|
|
|
|
<I>O that one might plead for a man with God!</I> If he could but now
|
|
have the same freedom at God's bar that men commonly have at the bar of
|
|
the civil magistrate, he doubted not but to carry his cause, for the
|
|
Judge himself was a witness to his integrity. The language of this wish
|
|
is like that in
|
|
|
|
<A HREF="http://bible.gospelcom.net/bible?version=KJV&passage=Isa+50:7,8">Isa. l. 7, 8</A>,
|
|
|
|
<I>I know that I shall not be ashamed, for he is near that justifies
|
|
me.</I> Some give a gospel sense of this verse, and the original will
|
|
very well bear it; <I>and he will plead</I> (that is, there is one that
|
|
will plead) <I>for man with God, even the Son of man for his friend, or
|
|
neighbour.</I> Those who pour out tears before God, though they cannot
|
|
plead for themselves, by reason of their distance and defects, have a
|
|
friend to plead for them, even the Son of man, and on this we must
|
|
bottom all our hopes of acceptance with God.</P>
|
|
|
|
<P>
|
|
|
|
IV. He had a prospect of death which would put a period to all his
|
|
troubles. Such confidence had he towards God that he could take
|
|
pleasure in thinking of the approach of death, when he should be
|
|
determined to his everlasting state, as one that doubted not but it
|
|
would be well with him then: <I>When a few years have come</I> (<I>the
|
|
years of number</I> which are determined and appointed to me) <I>then I
|
|
shall go the way whence I shall not return.</I> Note,
|
|
|
|
1. To die is to <I>go the way whence we shall not return.</I> It is to
|
|
go a journey, a long journey, a journey for good and all, to remove
|
|
from this to another country, from the world of sense to the world of
|
|
spirits. It is a journey to our long home; there will be no coming back
|
|
to out state in this world nor any change of our state in the other
|
|
world.
|
|
|
|
2. We must all of us very certainly, and very shortly, go this journey;
|
|
and it is comfortable to those who keep a good conscience to think of
|
|
it, for it is the crown of their integrity.</P>
|
|
|
|
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