mh_parser/vol_split/18 - Job/Chapter 16.xml

<div2 id="Job.xvii" n="xvii" next="Job.xviii" prev="Job.xvi" progress="8.60%" title="Chapter XVI">
<h2 id="Job.xvii-p0.1">J O B</h2>
<h3 id="Job.xvii-p0.2">CHAP. XVI.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Job.xvii-p1">This chapter begins Job's reply to that discourse
of Eliphaz which we had in the foregoing chapter; it is but the
second part of the same song of lamentation with which he had
before bemoaned himself, and is set to the same melancholy tune. I.
He upbraids his friends with their unkind usage of him, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.1-Job.16.5" parsed="|Job|16|1|16|5" passage="Job 16:1-5">ver. 1-5</scripRef>. II. He represents his own
case as very deplorable upon all accounts, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.6-Job.16.16" parsed="|Job|16|6|16|16" passage="Job 16:6-16">ver. 6-16</scripRef>. III. He still holds fast his
integrity, concerning which he appeals to God's righteous judgment
from the unrighteous censures of his friends, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.14-Job.16.22" parsed="|Job|16|14|16|22" passage="Job 16:14-22">ver. 14-22</scripRef>.</p>
<scripCom id="Job.xvii-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.16" parsed="|Job|16|0|0|0" passage="Job 16" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Job.xvii-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.1-Job.16.5" parsed="|Job|16|1|16|5" passage="Job 16:1-5" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.16.1-Job.16.5">
<h4 id="Job.xvii-p1.6">The Reply of Job to Eliphaz. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.xvii-p1.7">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.xvii-p2">1 Then Job answered and said,   2 I have
heard many such things: miserable comforters <i>are</i> ye all.
  3 Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee
that thou answerest?   4 I also could speak as ye <i>do:</i>
if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against
you, and shake mine head at you.   5 <i>But</i> I would
strengthen you with my mouth, and the moving of my lips should
assuage <i>your grief.</i></p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p3">Both Job and his friends took the same way
that disputants commonly take, which is to undervalue one another's
sense, and wisdom, and management. The longer the saw of contention
is drawn the hotter it grows; and the <i>beginning of</i> this sort
of <i>strife is as the letting forth of water; therefore leave it
off before it be meddled with.</i> Eliphaz had represented Job's
discourses as idle, and unprofitable, and nothing to the purpose;
and Job here gives his the same character. Those who are free in
passing such censures must expect to have them retorted; it is
easy, it is endless: but <i>cui bono?—what good does it do?</i> It
will stir up men's passions, but will never convince their
judgments, nor set truth in a clear light. Job here reproves
Eliphaz, 1. For needless repetitions (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.2" parsed="|Job|16|2|0|0" passage="Job 16:2"><i>v.</i> 2</scripRef>): "<i>I have heard many such
things.</i> You tell me nothing but what I knew before, nothing but
what you yourselves have before said; you offer nothing new; it is
the same thing over and over again." This Job thinks as great a
trial of his patience as almost any of his troubles. The
inculcating of the same things thus by an adversary is indeed
provoking and nauseous, but by a teacher it is often necessary, and
must not be grievous to the learner, to whom <i>precept must be
upon precept, and line upon line.</i> Many things we have heard
which it is good for us to hear again, that we may understand and
remember them better, and be more affected with them and influenced
by them. 2. For unskilful applications. They came with a design to
comfort him, but they went about it very awkwardly, and, when they
touched Job's case, quite mistook it: "<i>Miserable comforters are
you all,</i> who, instead of offering any thing to alleviate the
affliction, add affliction to it, and make it yet more grievous."
The patient's case is sad indeed when his medicines are poisons and
his physicians his worst disease. What Job says here of his friends
is true of all creatures, in comparison with God, and, one time or
other, we shall be made to see it and own it, that miserable
comforters are they all. When we are under convictions of sin,
terrors of conscience, and the arrests of death, it is only the
blessed Spirit that can comfort effectually; all others, without
him, do it miserably, and sing songs to a heavy heart, to no
purpose. 3. For endless impertinence. Job wishes that <i>vain words
might have an end,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.3" parsed="|Job|16|3|0|0" passage="Job 16:3"><i>v.</i>
3</scripRef>. If vain, it were well that they were never begun, and
the sooner they are ended the better. Those who are so wise as to
speak to the purpose will be so wise as to know when they have said
enough of a thing and when it is time to break off. 4. For
causeless obstinacy. <i>What emboldeneth thee, that thou
answerest?</i> It is a great piece of confidence, and
unaccountable, to charge men with those crimes which we cannot
prove upon them, to pass a judgment on men's spiritual state upon
the view of their outward condition, and to re-advance those
objections which have been again and again answered, as Eliphaz
did. 5. For the violation of the sacred laws of friendship, doing
by his brother as he would not have been done by and as his brother
would not have done by him. This is a cutting reproof, and very
affecting, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p3.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.4-Job.16.5" parsed="|Job|16|4|16|5" passage="Job 16:4,5"><i>v.</i> 4,
5</scripRef>. (1.) He desires his friends, in imagination, for a
little while, to change conditions with him, to put their souls in
his soul's stead, to suppose themselves in misery like him and him
at ease like them. This was no absurd or foreign supposition, but
what might quickly become true in fact. So strange, so sudden,
frequently, are the vicissitudes of human affairs, and such the
turns of the wheel, that the spokes soon change places. Whatever
our brethren's sorrows are, we ought by sympathy to make them our
own, because we know not how soon they may be so. (2.) He
represents the unkindness of their conduct towards him, by showing
what he could do to them if they were in his condition: <i>I could
speak as you do.</i> It is an easy thing to trample upon those that
are down, and to find fault with what those say that are in
extremity of pain and affliction: "<i>I could heap up words against
you,</i> as you do against me; and how would you like it? how would
you bear it?" (3.) He shows them what they should do, by telling
them what in that case he would do (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p3.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.5" parsed="|Job|16|5|0|0" passage="Job 16:5"><i>v.</i> 5</scripRef>): <i>"I would strengthen you,</i>
and say all I could to assuage your grief, but nothing to aggravate
it." It is natural to sufferers to think what they would do if the
tables were turned. But perhaps our hearts may deceive us; we know
not what we should do. We find it easier to discern the
reasonableness and importance of a command when we have occasion to
claim the benefit of it than when we have occasion to do the duty
of it. See what is the duty we owe to our brethren in their
affliction. [1.] We should say and do all we can to strengthen
them, suggesting to them such considerations as are proper to
encourage their confidence in God and to support their sinking
spirits. Faith and patience are the strength of the afflicted;
whatever helps these graces confirms the feeble knees. [2.] To
assuage their grief—the causes of their grief, if possible, or at
least their resentment of those causes. Good words cost nothing;
but they may be of good service to those that are in sorrow, not
only as it is some comfort to them to see their friends concerned
for them, but as they may be so reminded of that which, through the
prevalency of grief, was forgotten. Though hard words (we say)
break no bones, yet kind words may help to make broken bones
rejoice; and those have the <i>tongue of the learned</i> that know
how to <i>speak a word in season to the weary.</i></p>
</div><scripCom id="Job.xvii-p3.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.6-Job.16.16" parsed="|Job|16|6|16|16" passage="Job 16:6-16" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.16.6-Job.16.16">
<h4 id="Job.xvii-p3.6">Grievances of Job. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.xvii-p3.7">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.xvii-p4">6 Though I speak, my grief is not assuaged: and
<i>though</i> I forbear, what am I eased?   7 But now he hath
made me weary: thou hast made desolate all my company.   8 And
thou hast filled me with wrinkles, <i>which</i> is a witness
<i>against me:</i> and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness
to my face.   9 He teareth <i>me</i> in his wrath, who hateth
me: he gnasheth upon me with his teeth; mine enemy sharpeneth his
eyes upon me.   10 They have gaped upon me with their mouth;
they have smitten me upon the cheek reproachfully; they have
gathered themselves together against me.   11 God hath
delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of
the wicked.   12 I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder:
he hath also taken <i>me</i> by my neck, and shaken me to pieces,
and set me up for his mark.   13 His archers compass me round
about, he cleaveth my reins asunder, and doth not spare; he poureth
out my gall upon the ground.   14 He breaketh me with breach
upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant.   15 I have
sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and defiled my horn in the dust.
  16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids <i>is</i>
the shadow of death;</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p5">Job's complaint is here as bitter as any
where in all his discourses, and he is at a stand whether to
smother it or to give it vent. Sometimes the one and sometimes the
other is a relief to the afflicted, according as the temper or the
circumstances are; but Job found help by neither, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p5.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.6" parsed="|Job|16|6|0|0" passage="Job 16:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>. 1. Sometimes giving vent
to grief gives ease; but, "<i>Though I speak</i>" (says Job),
"<i>my grief is not assuaged,</i> my spirit is never the lighter
for the pouring out of my complaint; nay, what I speak is so
misconstrued as to be turned to the aggravation of my grief." 2. At
other times keeping silence makes the trouble the easier and the
sooner forgotten; but (says Job) <i>though I forbear</i> I am never
the nearer; <i>what am I eased?</i> If he complained he was
censured as passionate; if not, as sullen. If he maintained his
integrity, that was his crime; if he made no answer to their
accusations, his silence was taken for a confession of his
guilt.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p6">Here is a doleful representation of Job's
grievances. O what reason have we to bless God that we are not
making such complaints! He complains,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p7">I. That his family was scattered (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.7" parsed="|Job|16|7|0|0" passage="Job 16:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>): "<i>He hath made me
weary,</i> weary of speaking, weary of forbearing, weary of my
friends, weary of life itself; my journey through the world proves
so very uncomfortable that I am quite tired with it." This made it
as tiresome as any thing, that all his company was made desolate,
his children and servants being killed and the poor remains of his
great household dispersed. The company of good people that used to
meet at his house for religious worship, was now scattered, and he
spent his sabbaths in silence and solitude. He had company indeed,
but such as he would rather have been without, for they seemed to
triumph in his desolation. If lovers and friends are put far from
us, we must see and own God's hand in it, making our company
desolate.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p8">II. That his body was worn away with
diseases and pains, so that he had become a perfect skeleton,
nothing but skin and bones, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.8" parsed="|Job|16|8|0|0" passage="Job 16:8"><i>v.</i>
8</scripRef>. His face was furrowed, not with age, but sickness:
<i>Thou hast filled me with wrinkles.</i> His flesh was wasted with
the running of his sore boils, so that <i>his leanness rose up in
him,</i> that is, his bones, that before were not seen, stuck out,
<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.33.21" parsed="|Job|33|21|0|0" passage="Job 33:21"><i>ch.</i> xxxiii. 21</scripRef>.
These are called <i>witnesses against him,</i> witnesses of God's
displeasure against him, and such witnesses as his friends produced
against him to prove him a wicked man. Or, "They are witnesses
<i>for</i> me, that my complaint is not causeless," or "witnesses
<i>to</i> me, that I am a dying man, and must be gone shortly."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p9">III. That his enemy was a terror to him,
threatened him, frightened him, looked sternly upon him, and gave
all the indications of rage against him (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.9" parsed="|Job|16|9|0|0" passage="Job 16:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>): <i>He tears me in his
wrath.</i> But who is this enemy? 1. Eliphaz, who showed himself
very much exasperated against him, and perhaps had expressed
himself with such marks of indignation as are here mentioned: at
least, what he said tore Job's good name and thundered nothing but
terror to him; his eyes were sharpened to spy out matter of
reproach against Job, and very barbarously both he and the rest of
them used him. Or, 2. Satan. He was his enemy that hated him, and
perhaps, by the divine permission, terrified him with apparitions,
as (some think) he terrified our Saviour, which put him into his
agonies in the garden; and thus he aimed to make him curse God. It
is not improbable that this is the enemy he means. Or, (3.) God
himself. If we understand it of him, the expressions are indeed as
rash as any he used. God hates none of his creatures; but Job's
melancholy did thus represent to him the terrors of the Almighty:
and nothing can be more grievous to a good man than to apprehend
God to be his enemy. If the wrath of a king be as messengers of
death, what is the wrath of the King of kings!</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p10">IV. That all about him were abusive to him,
<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.10" parsed="|Job|16|10|0|0" passage="Job 16:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>. They came
upon him with open mouth to devour him, as if they would swallow
him alive, so terrible were their threats and so scornful was their
conduct to him. They offered him all the indignities they could
invent, and even smote him <i>on the cheek;</i> and herein many
were confederate. <i>They gathered themselves together against
him,</i> even the abjects, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p10.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.35.15" parsed="|Ps|35|15|0|0" passage="Ps 35:15">Ps. xxxv.
15</scripRef>. Herein Job was a type of Christ, as many of the
ancients make him: these very expressions are used in the
predictions of his sufferings, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p10.3" osisRef="Bible:Ps.22.13" parsed="|Ps|22|13|0|0" passage="Ps 22:13">Ps.
xxii. 13</scripRef>, <i>They gaped upon me with their mouths;</i>
and (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p10.4" osisRef="Bible:Mic.5.1" parsed="|Mic|5|1|0|0" passage="Mic 5:1">Mic. v. 1</scripRef>), <i>They
shall smite the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek,</i>
which was literally fulfilled, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p10.5" osisRef="Bible:Matt.26.67" parsed="|Matt|26|67|0|0" passage="Mt 26:67">Matt.
xxvi. 67</scripRef>. How were those increased that troubled
him!</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p11">V. That God, instead of delivering him out
of their hands, as he hoped, delivered him into their hands
(<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.11" parsed="|Job|16|11|0|0" passage="Job 16:11"><i>v.</i> 11</scripRef>): <i>He hath
turned me over into the hands of the wicked.</i> They could have
had no power against him if it had not been given them from above.
He therefore looks beyond them to God who gave them their
commission, as David did when Shimei cursed him; but he thinks it
strange, and almost thinks it hard, that those should have power
against him who were God's enemies as much as his. God sometimes
makes use of wicked men as his sword to one another (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p11.2" osisRef="Bible:Ps.17.13" parsed="|Ps|17|13|0|0" passage="Ps 17:13">Ps. xvii. 13</scripRef>) and his rod to his own
children, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p11.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.10.5" parsed="|Isa|10|5|0|0" passage="Isa 10:5">Isa. x. 5</scripRef>. Herein
also Job was a type of Christ, who was delivered into wicked hands,
to be crucified and slain, by the <i>determinate counsel and
fore-knowledge of God,</i> <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p11.4" osisRef="Bible:Acts.2.23" parsed="|Acts|2|23|0|0" passage="Ac 2:23">Acts ii.
23</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p12">VI. That God not only delivered him into
the hands of the wicked, but took him into his own hands too, into
which it is a fearful thing to fall (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p12.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.12" parsed="|Job|16|12|0|0" passage="Job 16:12"><i>v.</i> 12</scripRef>): "<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 (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p12.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.14" parsed="|Job|16|14|0|0" passage="Job 16:14"><i>v.</i> 14</scripRef>): "<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 class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p13">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, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.15-Job.16.16" parsed="|Job|16|15|16|16" passage="Job 16:15,16"><i>v.</i> 15, 16</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p13.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.8" parsed="|Job|16|8|0|0" passage="Job 16:8"><i>v.</i>
8</scripRef>), 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
(<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p13.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.16" parsed="|Job|16|16|0|0" passage="Job 16:16"><i>v.</i> 16</scripRef>): "<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>
</div><scripCom id="Job.xvii-p13.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.17-Job.16.22" parsed="|Job|16|17|16|22" passage="Job 16:17-22" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.16.17-Job.16.22">
<h4 id="Job.xvii-p13.5">Testimony of Conscience; Job's Comfort in
Conscious Integrity. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.xvii-p13.6">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.xvii-p14">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.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p15">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 class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p16">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, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.17" parsed="|Job|16|17|0|0" passage="Job 16:17"><i>v.</i>
17</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p17">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> <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p17.1" osisRef="Bible:Isa.1.15" parsed="|Isa|1|15|0|0" passage="Isa 1:15">Isa. i. 15</scripRef>.
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 class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p18">2. This assertion of his own integrity he
backs with a solemn imprecation of shame and confusion to himself
if it were not true, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p18.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.18" parsed="|Job|16|18|0|0" passage="Job 16:18"><i>v.</i>
18</scripRef>. (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," <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p18.2" osisRef="Bible:Gen.4.10-Gen.4.11" parsed="|Gen|4|10|4|11" passage="Ge 4:10,11">Gen. iv. 10, 11</scripRef>. The day is coming when
<i>the earth shall disclose her blood</i> (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p18.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.26.21" parsed="|Isa|26|21|0|0" passage="Isa 26:21">Isa. xxvi. 21</scripRef>), 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> <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p18.4" osisRef="Bible:Ps.66.18" parsed="|Ps|66|18|0|0" passage="Ps 66:18">Ps. lxvi. 18</scripRef>. 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 class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p19">II. He could appeal to God's omniscience
concerning his integrity, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p19.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.19" parsed="|Job|16|19|0|0" passage="Job 16:19"><i>v.</i>
19</scripRef>. 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 be 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 <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p19.2" osisRef="Bible:John.5.31 Bible:John.5.37" parsed="|John|5|31|0|0;|John|5|37|0|0" passage="Joh 5:31,37">John v. 31,
37</scripRef>. This one witness is instead of a thousand.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p20">III. He had a God to go to before whom he
might unbosom himself, <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p20.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.20-Job.16.21" parsed="|Job|16|20|16|21" passage="Job 16:20,21"><i>v.</i>
20, 21</scripRef>. 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 (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p20.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.16" parsed="|Job|16|16|0|0" passage="Job 16:16"><i>v.</i> 16</scripRef>) 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 (<scripRef id="Job.xvii-p20.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.16.21" parsed="|Job|16|21|0|0" passage="Job 16:21"><i>v.</i> 21</scripRef>): <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 <scripRef id="Job.xvii-p20.4" osisRef="Bible:Isa.50.7-Isa.50.8" parsed="|Isa|50|7|50|8" passage="Isa 50:7,8">Isa. l. 7,
8</scripRef>, <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 class="indent" id="Job.xvii-p21">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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