mh_parser/vol_split/18 - Job/Chapter 3.xml

<div2 id="Job.iv" n="iv" next="Job.v" prev="Job.iii" progress="2.02%" title="Chapter III">
<h2 id="Job.iv-p0.1">J O B</h2>
<h3 id="Job.iv-p0.2">CHAP. III.</h3>
<p class="intro" id="Job.iv-p1">"You have heard of the patience of Job," says the
apostle, <scripRef id="Job.iv-p1.1" osisRef="Bible:Jas.5.11" parsed="|Jas|5|11|0|0" passage="Jam 5:11">Jam. v. 11</scripRef>. So we
have, and of his impatience too. We wondered that a man should be
so patient as he was (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p1.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.1.1-Job.2.13" parsed="|Job|1|1|2|13" passage="Job 1:1-2:13"><i>ch.</i>
i. and ii.</scripRef>), but we wonder also that a good man should
be so impatient as he is in this chapter, where we find him cursing
his day, and, in passion, I. Complaining that he was born,
<scripRef id="Job.iv-p1.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.1-Job.3.10" parsed="|Job|3|1|3|10" passage="Job 3:1-10">ver. 1-10</scripRef>. II.
Complaining that he did not die as soon as he was born, <scripRef id="Job.iv-p1.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.11-Job.3.19" parsed="|Job|3|11|3|19" passage="Job 3:11-19">ver. 11-19</scripRef>. III. Complaining that
his life was now continued when he was in misery, <scripRef id="Job.iv-p1.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.20-Job.3.26" parsed="|Job|3|20|3|26" passage="Job 3:20-26">ver. 20-26</scripRef>. In this it must be
owned that Job sinned with his lips, and it is written, not for our
imitation, but our admonition, that he who thinks he stands may
take heed lest he fall.</p>
<scripCom id="Job.iv-p1.6" osisRef="Bible:Job.3" parsed="|Job|3|0|0|0" passage="Job 3" type="Commentary"/>
<scripCom id="Job.iv-p1.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.1-Job.3.10" parsed="|Job|3|1|3|10" passage="Job 3:1-10" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.3.1-Job.3.10">
<h4 id="Job.iv-p1.8">Job Curses His Day. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.iv-p1.9">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.iv-p2">1 After this opened Job his mouth, and cursed
his day.   2 And Job spake, and said,   3 Let the day
perish wherein I was born, and the night <i>in which</i> it was
said, There is a man child conceived.   4 Let that day be
darkness; let not God regard it from above, neither let the light
shine upon it.   5 Let darkness and the shadow of death stain
it; let a cloud dwell upon it; let the blackness of the day terrify
it.   6 As <i>for</i> that night, let darkness seize upon it;
let it not be joined unto the days of the year, let it not come
into the number of the months.   7 Lo, let that night be
solitary, let no joyful voice come therein.   8 Let them curse
it that curse the day, who are ready to raise up their mourning.
  9 Let the stars of the twilight thereof be dark; let it look
for light, but <i>have</i> none; neither let it see the dawning of
the day:   10 Because it shut not up the doors of my
<i>mother's</i> womb, nor hid sorrow from mine eyes.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p3">Long was Job's heart hot within him; and,
while he was musing, the fire burned, and the more for being
stifled and suppressed. At length he spoke with his tongue, but not
such a good word as David spoke after a long pause: <i>Lord, make
me to know my end,</i> <scripRef id="Job.iv-p3.1" osisRef="Bible:Ps.39.3-Ps.39.4" parsed="|Ps|39|3|39|4" passage="Ps 39:3,4">Ps. xxxix. 3,
4</scripRef>. Seven days the prophet Ezekiel sat down astonished
with the captives, and then (probably on the sabbath day) <i>the
word of the Lord came to him,</i> <scripRef id="Job.iv-p3.2" osisRef="Bible:Ezek.3.15-Ezek.3.16" parsed="|Ezek|3|15|3|16" passage="Eze 3:15,16">Ezek. iii. 15, 16</scripRef>. So long Job and his
friends sat thinking, but said nothing; <i>they</i> were afraid of
speaking what they thought, lest they should grieve him, and
<i>he</i> durst not give vent to his thoughts, lest he should
offend them. They came to comfort him, but, finding his afflictions
very extraordinary, they began to think comfort did not belong to
him, suspecting him to be a hypocrite, and therefore they said
nothing. But losers think they may have leave to speak, and
therefore Job first gives vent to his thoughts. Unless they had
been better, it would however have been well if he had kept them to
himself. In short, he cursed his day, the day of his birth, wished
he had never been born, could not think or speak of his own birth
without regret and vexation. Whereas men usually observe the annual
return of their birth-day with rejoicing, he looked upon it as the
unhappiest day of the year, because the unhappiest of his life,
being the inlet into all his woe. Now,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p4">I. This was bad enough. The extremity of
his trouble and the discomposure of his spirits may excuse it in
part, but he can by no means be justified in it. Now he has
forgotten the good he was born to, the lean kine have eaten up the
fat ones, and he is filled with thoughts of the evil only, and
wishes he had never been born. The prophet Jeremiah himself
expressed his painful sense of his calamities in language not much
unlike this: <i>Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me!</i>
<scripRef id="Job.iv-p4.1" osisRef="Bible:Jer.15.10" parsed="|Jer|15|10|0|0" passage="Jer 15:10">Jer. xv. 10</scripRef>. <i>Cursed be
the day wherein I was born,</i> <scripRef id="Job.iv-p4.2" osisRef="Bible:Jer.20.14" parsed="|Jer|20|14|0|0" passage="Jer 20:14">Jer.
xx. 14</scripRef>, &amp;c. We may suppose that Job in his
prosperity had many a time blessed God for the day of his birth,
and reckoned it a happy day; yet now he brands it with all possible
marks of infamy. When we consider the iniquity in which we were
conceived and born we have reason enough to reflect with sorrow and
shame upon the day of our birth, and to say that the <i>day of our
death,</i> by which we are <i>freed from sin</i> (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p4.3" osisRef="Bible:Rom.6.7" parsed="|Rom|6|7|0|0" passage="Ro 6:7">Rom. vi. 7</scripRef>), is far <i>better.</i>
<scripRef id="Job.iv-p4.4" osisRef="Bible:Eccl.7.1" parsed="|Eccl|7|1|0|0" passage="Ec 7:1">Eccl. vii. 1</scripRef>. But to curse
the day of our birth because then we entered upon the calamitous
scene of life is to quarrel with the God of nature, to despise the
dignity of our being, and to indulge a passion which our own calm
and sober thoughts will make us ashamed of. Certainly there is no
condition of life a man can be in in this world but he may in it
(if it be not his own fault) so honour God, and work out his own
salvation, and make sure a happiness for himself in a better world,
that he will have no reason at all to wish he had never been born,
but a great deal of reason to say that he had his being to good
purpose. Yet it must be owned, if there were not another life after
this, and divine consolations to support us in the prospect of it,
so many are the sorrows and troubles of this that we might
sometimes be tempted to say that we were <i>made in vain</i>
(<scripRef id="Job.iv-p4.5" osisRef="Bible:Ps.89.47" parsed="|Ps|89|47|0|0" passage="Ps 89:47">Ps. lxxxix. 47</scripRef>), and to
wish we had never been. There are those in hell who with good
reason wish they had never been born, as Judas, <scripRef id="Job.iv-p4.6" osisRef="Bible:Matt.26.24" parsed="|Matt|26|24|0|0" passage="Mt 26:24">Matt. xxvi. 24</scripRef>. But, on this side hell, there
can be no reason for so vain and ungrateful a wish. It was Job's
folly and weakness to curse his day. We must say of it, This was
his infirmity; but good men have sometimes failed in the exercise
of those graces which they have been most eminent for, that we may
understand that when they are said to be <i>perfect</i> it is meant
that they were upright, not that they were sinless. <i>Lastly,</i>
Let us observe it, to the honour of the spiritual life above the
natural, that though many have cursed the day of their first birth,
never any cursed the day of their new-birth, nor wished they never
had had grace, and the Spirit of grace, given them. Those are the
most excellent gifts, above life and being itself, and which will
never be a burden.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p5">II. Yet it was not so bad as Satan promised
himself. Job cursed his day, but he did not curse his God—was
weary of his life, and would gladly have parted with that, but not
weary of his religion; he resolutely cleaves to that, and will
never let it go. The dispute between God and Satan concerning Job
was not whether Job had his infirmities, and whether he was subject
to like passions as we are (that was granted), but whether he was a
hypocrite, who secretly hated God, and if he were provoked, would
show his hatred; and, upon trial, it proved that he was no such
man. Nay, all this may consist with his being a pattern of
patience; for, though he did thus speak unadvisedly with his lips,
yet both before and after he expressed great submission and
resignation to the holy will of God and repented of his impatience;
he condemned himself for it, and therefore God did not condemn him,
nor must we, but watch the more carefully over ourselves, lest we
sin after the similitude of this transgression.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p6">1. The particular expressions which Job
used in cursing his day are full of poetical fancy, flame, and
rapture, and create as much difficulty to the critics as the thing
itself does to the divines: we need not be particular in our
observations upon them. When he would express his passionate wish
that he had never been, he falls foul upon the day, and wishes,</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p7">(1.) That earth might forget it: <i>Let it
perish</i> (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p7.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.3" parsed="|Job|3|3|0|0" passage="Job 3:3"><i>v.</i> 3</scripRef>);
<i>let it not be joined to the days of the year,</i> <scripRef id="Job.iv-p7.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.6" parsed="|Job|3|6|0|0" passage="Job 3:6"><i>v.</i> 6</scripRef>. "Let it be not only not
inserted in the calendar in red letters, as the day of the king's
nativity useth to be" (and Job was a king, <scripRef id="Job.iv-p7.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.29.25" parsed="|Job|29|25|0|0" passage="Job 29:25"><i>ch.</i> xxix. 25</scripRef>), "but let it be erased
and blotted out, and buried in oblivion. Let not the world know
that ever such a man as I was born into it, and lived in it, who am
made such a spectacle of misery."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p8">(2.) That Heaven might frown upon it:
<i>Let not God regard it from above,</i> <scripRef id="Job.iv-p8.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.4" parsed="|Job|3|4|0|0" passage="Job 3:4"><i>v.</i> 4</scripRef>. "Every thing is indeed as it is
with God; that day is honourable on which he puts honour, and which
he distinguishes and crowns with his favour and blessing, as he did
the seventh day of the week; but let my birthday never be so
honoured; let it be <i>nigro carbone notandus—marked as with a
black coal</i> for an evil day by him that determines the times
before appointed. The father and fountain of light appointed the
greater light to rule the day and the less lights to rule the
night; but let that want the benefit of both." [1.] <i>Let that day
be darkness</i> (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p8.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.4" parsed="|Job|3|4|0|0" passage="Job 3:4"><i>v.</i>
4</scripRef>); and, if the light of the day be darkness, <i>how
great is that darkness!</i> how terrible! because then we look for
light. Let the gloominess of the day represent Job's condition,
whose sun went down at noon. [2.] As for that night too, let it
want the benefit of moon and stars, and <i>let darkness seize upon
it,</i> thick darkness, darkness that may be felt, which will not
befriend the repose of the night by its silence, but rather disturb
it with its terrors.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p9">(3.) That all joy might forsake it: "Let it
be a melancholy night, solitary, and not a merry night of music and
dancing. <i>Let no joyful voice come therein</i> (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p9.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.7" parsed="|Job|3|7|0|0" passage="Job 3:7"><i>v.</i> 7</scripRef>); let it be a long night,
and not <i>see the eye-lids of the morning</i> (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p9.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.9" parsed="|Job|3|9|0|0" passage="Job 3:9"><i>v.</i> 9</scripRef>), which bring joy with them."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p10">(4.) That all curses might follow it
(<scripRef id="Job.iv-p10.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.8" parsed="|Job|3|8|0|0" passage="Job 3:8"><i>v.</i> 8</scripRef>): "Let none
ever desire to see it, or bid it welcome when it comes, but, on the
contrary, <i>let those curse it that curse the day.</i> Whatever
day any are tempted to curse, let them at the same time bestow one
curse upon my birth-day, particularly those that make it their
trade to raise up mourning at funerals with their ditties of
lamentation. Let those that curse the day of the death of others in
the same breath curse the day of my birth." Or those who are so
fierce and daring as to be ready to raise up the <i>Leviathan</i>
(for that is the word here), who, being about to strike the whale
or crocodile, curse it with the bitterest curse they can invent,
hoping by their incantations to weaken it, and so to make
themselves master of it. Probably some such custom might there be
used, to which our divine poet alludes. "Let it be as odious as
<i>the day wherein men bewail the greatest misfortune,</i> or the
time <i>wherein they see the most dreadful apparition;</i>" so
bishop Patrick, I suppose taking the Leviathan here to signify the
devil, as others do, who understand it of the curses used by
conjurors and magicians in raising the devil, or when they have
raised a devil that they cannot lay.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p11">2. But what is the ground of Job's quarrel
with the day and night of his birth? It is <i>because it shut not
up the doors of his mother's womb,</i> <scripRef id="Job.iv-p11.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.10" parsed="|Job|3|10|0|0" passage="Job 3:10"><i>v.</i> 10</scripRef>. See the folly and madness of a
passionate discontent, and how absurdly and extravagantly it talks
when the reins are laid on the neck of it. Is this Job, who was so
much admired for his wisdom that <i>unto him men gave ear, and kept
silence at his counsel,</i> and <i>after his words they spoke not
again?</i> <scripRef id="Job.iv-p11.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.29.21-Job.29.22" parsed="|Job|29|21|29|22" passage="Job 29:21,22"><i>ch.</i> xxix. 21,
11</scripRef>. Surely his wisdom failed him, (1.) When he took so
much pains to express his desire that he had never been born,
which, at the best was a vain wish, for it is impossible to make
that which has been not to have been. (2.) When he was so liberal
of his curses upon a day and a night that could not be hurt, or
made any the worse for his curses. (3.) When he wished a thing so
very barbarous to his own mother as that she had not brought him
forth when her full time had come, which must inevitably have been
her death, and a miserable death. (4.) When he despised the
goodness of God to him in giving him a being (such a being, so
noble and excellent a life, such a life, so far above that of any
other creature in this lower world), and undervalued the gift, as
not worth the acceptance, only because <i>transit cum onere—it was
clogged with a proviso of trouble,</i> which now at length came
upon him, after many years' enjoyment of its pleasures. What a
foolish thing it was to wish that his eyes had never seen the
light, that so they might not have seen sorrow, which yet he might
hope to see through, and beyond which he might see joy! Did Job
believe and hope that he should <i>in his flesh see God at the
latter day</i> (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p11.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.19.26" parsed="|Job|19|26|0|0" passage="Job 19:26"><i>ch.</i> xix.
26</scripRef>), and yet would he wish he had never had a being
capable of such a bliss, only because, for the present, he had
sorrow in the flesh? God by his grace arm us against this foolish
and hurtful lust of impatience.</p>
</div><scripCom id="Job.iv-p11.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.11-Job.3.19" parsed="|Job|3|11|3|19" passage="Job 3:11-19" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.3.11-Job.3.19">
<h4 id="Job.iv-p11.5">Job's Complaint of Life. (<span class="smallcaps" id="Job.iv-p11.6">b. c.</span> 1520.)</h4>
<p class="passage" id="Job.iv-p12">11 Why died I not from the womb? <i>why</i> did
I <i>not</i> give up the ghost when I came out of the belly?  
12 Why did the knees prevent me? or why the breasts that I should
suck?   13 For now should I have lain still and been quiet, I
should have slept: then had I been at rest,   14 With kings
and counsellors of the earth, which built desolate places for
themselves;   15 Or with princes that had gold, who filled
their houses with silver:   16 Or as a hidden untimely birth I
had not been; as infants <i>which</i> never saw light.   17
There the wicked cease <i>from</i> troubling; and there the weary
be at rest.   18 <i>There</i> the prisoners rest together;
they hear not the voice of the oppressor.   19 The small and
great are there; and the servant <i>is</i> free from his
master.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p13">Job, perhaps reflecting upon himself for
his folly in wishing he had never been born, follows it, and thinks
to mend it, with another, little better, that he had died as soon
as he was born, which he enlarges upon in these verses. When our
Saviour would set forth a very calamitous state of things he seems
to allow such a saying as this, <i>Blessed are the barren, and the
wombs that never bore, and the paps which never gave suck</i>
(<scripRef id="Job.iv-p13.1" osisRef="Bible:Luke.23.29" parsed="|Luke|23|29|0|0" passage="Lu 23:29">Luke xxiii. 29</scripRef>); but
blessing the barren womb is one thing and cursing the fruitful womb
is another! It is good to make the best of afflictions, but it is
not good to make the worst of mercies. Our rule is, <i>Bless, and
curse not.</i> Life is often put for all good, and death for all
evil; yet Job here very absurdly complains of life and its supports
as a curse and plague to him, and covets death and the grave as the
greatest and most desirable bliss. Surely Satan was deceived in Job
when he applied that maxim to him, <i>All that a man hath will he
give for his life;</i> for never any man valued life at a lower
rate than he did.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p14">I. He ungratefully quarrels with life, and
is angry that it was not taken from him as soon as it was given him
(<scripRef id="Job.iv-p14.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.11-Job.3.12" parsed="|Job|3|11|3|12" passage="Job 3:11,12"><i>v.</i> 11, 12</scripRef>):
<i>Why died not I from the womb?</i> See here, 1. What a weak and
helpless creature man is when he comes into the world, and how
slender the thread of life is when it is first drawn. We are ready
to die from the womb, and to breathe our last as soon as we begin
to breathe at all. We can do nothing for ourselves, as other
creatures can, but should drop into the grave if the knees did not
prevent us; and the lamp of life, when first lighted, would go out
of itself if the breasts given us, that we should suck, did not
supply it with fresh oil. 2. What a merciful and tender care divine
Providence took of us at our entrance into the world. It was owing
to this that we <i>died not from the womb</i> and did not <i>give
up the ghost when we came out of the belly.</i> Why were we not cut
off as soon as we were born? Not because we did not deserve it.
Justly might such weeds have been plucked up as soon as they
appeared; justly might such cockatrices have been crushed in the
egg. Nor was it because we did, or could, take any care of
ourselves and our own safety: no creature comes into the world so
shiftless as man. It was not our might, or the power of our hand,
that preserved us these beings, but God's power and providence
upheld our frail lives, and his pity and patience spared our
forfeited lives. It was owing to this that the knees prevented us.
Natural affection is put into parents' hearts by the hand of the
God of nature: and hence it was that the blessings of the breast
attended those of the womb. 3. What a great deal of vanity and
vexation of spirit attends human life. If we had not a God to serve
in this world, and better things to hope for in another world,
considering the faculties we are endued with and the troubles we
are surrounded with, we should be strongly tempted to wish that we
had <i>died from the womb,</i> which would have prevented a great
deal both of sin and misery.</p>
<verse id="Job.iv-p14.2">
<l class="t1" id="Job.iv-p14.3">He that is born to-day, and dies to-morrow,</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.iv-p14.4">Loses some hours of joy, but months of sorrow.</l>
</verse>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p15">4. The evil of impatience, fretfulness, and
discontent. When they thus prevail they are unreasonable and
absurd, impious and ungrateful. To indulge them is a slighting and
undervaluing of God's favour. How much soever life is embittered,
we must say, "It was of the Lord's mercies that we died not from
the womb, that we were not consumed." Hatred of life is a
contradiction to the common sense and sentiments of mankind, and to
our own at any other time. Let discontented people declaim ever so
much against life, they will be loth to part with it when it comes
to the point. When the old man in the fable, being tired with his
burden, threw it down with discontent and called for Death, and
Death came to him and asked him what he would have with him, he
then answered, "Nothing, but to help me up with my burden."</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p16">II. He passionately applauds death and the
grave, and seems quite in love with them. To desire to die that we
may be with Christ, that we may be free from sin, and that we may
be <i>clothed upon with our house which is from heaven,</i> is the
effect and evidence of grace; but to desire to die only that we may
be quiet in the grave, and delivered from the troubles of this
life, savours of corruption. Job's considerations here may be of
good use to reconcile us to death when it comes, and to make us
easy under the arrest of it; but they ought not to be made use of
as a pretence to quarrel with life while it is continued, or to
make us uneasy under the burdens of it. It is our wisdom and duty
to make the best of that which is, be it living or dying, and so to
<i>live to the Lord</i> and <i>die to the Lord,</i> and to be his
in both, <scripRef id="Job.iv-p16.1" osisRef="Bible:Rom.14.8" parsed="|Rom|14|8|0|0" passage="Ro 14:8">Rom. xiv. 8</scripRef>. Job
here frets himself with thinking that if he had but died as soon as
he was born, and been carried from the womb to the grave, 1. His
condition would have been as good as that of the best: I would have
been (says he, <scripRef id="Job.iv-p16.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.14" parsed="|Job|3|14|0|0" passage="Job 3:14"><i>v.</i>
14</scripRef>) <i>with kings and counsellors of the earth,</i>
whose pomp, power, and policy, cannot set them out of the reach of
death, nor secure them from the grave, nor distinguish theirs from
common dust in the grave. Even princes, who had gold in abundance,
could not with it bribe Death to overlook them when he came with
commission; and, though they filled their houses with silver, yet
they were forced to leave it all behind them, no more to return to
it. Some, by the <i>desolate places</i> which the kings and
counsellors are here said <i>to build for themselves,</i>
understand the sepulchres or monuments they prepared for themselves
in their life-time; as Shebna (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p16.3" osisRef="Bible:Isa.22.16" parsed="|Isa|22|16|0|0" passage="Isa 22:16">Isa.
xxii. 16</scripRef>) <i>hewed himself out a sepulchre;</i> and by
the gold which the princes had, and the silver with which they
filled their houses, they understand the treasures which, they say,
it was usual to deposit in the graves of great men. Such arts have
been used to preserve their dignity, if possible, on the other side
death, and to keep themselves from lying even with those of
inferior rank; but it will not do: death is, and will be, an
irresistible leveller. <i>Mors sceptra ligonibus æquat—Death
mingles sceptres with spades. Rich and poor meet together</i> in
the grave; and there a <i>hidden untimely birth</i> (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p16.4" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.16" parsed="|Job|3|16|0|0" passage="Job 3:16"><i>v.</i> 16</scripRef>), a child that either
never saw light or but just opened its eyes and peeped into the
world, and, not liking it, closed them again and hastened out of
it, lies as soft and easy, lies as high and safe, as kings and
counsellors, and princes, that had gold. "And therefore," says Job,
"would I had lain there in the dust, rather than to lie here in the
ashes!" 2. His condition would have been much better than now it
was (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p16.5" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.13" parsed="|Job|3|13|0|0" passage="Job 3:13"><i>v.</i> 13</scripRef>):
"<i>Then should I have lain still, and been quiet,</i> which now I
cannot do, I cannot be, but am still tossing and unquiet; then <i>I
should have slept,</i> whereas now sleep departeth from my eyes;
<i>then had I been at rest,</i> whereas now I am restless." Now
that life and immortality are brought to a much clearer light by
the gospel than before they were placed in good Christians can give
a better account than this of the gain of death: "Then should I
have been present with the Lord; then should I have seen his glory
face to face, and no longer through a glass darkly." But all that
poor Job dreamed of was rest and quietness in the grave out of the
fear of evil tidings and out of the feeling of sore boils. <i>Then
should I have been quiet;</i> and had he kept his temper, his even
easy temper still, which he was in as recorded in the two foregoing
chapters, entirely resigned to the holy will of God and acquiescing
in it, he might have been quiet now; his soul, at least, might have
dwelt at ease, even when his body lay in pain, <scripRef id="Job.iv-p16.6" osisRef="Bible:Ps.25.13" parsed="|Ps|25|13|0|0" passage="Ps 25:13">Ps. xxv. 13</scripRef>. Observe how finely he describes
the repose of the grave, which (provided the soul also be at rest
in God) may much assist our triumphs over it. (1.) Those that now
are troubled will there be out of the reach of trouble (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p16.7" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.17" parsed="|Job|3|17|0|0" passage="Job 3:17"><i>v.</i> 17</scripRef>): <i>There the wicked
cease from troubling.</i> When persecutors die they can no longer
persecute; their <i>hatred and envy</i> will then <i>perish.</i>
Herod had vexed the church, but, when he became a prey for worms,
he ceased from troubling. When the persecuted die they are out of
the danger of being any further troubled. Had Job been at rest in
his grave, he would have had no disturbance from the Sabeans and
Chaldeans, none of all his enemies would have created him any
trouble. (2.) Those that are now toiled will there see the period
of their toils. <i>There the weary are at rest.</i> Heaven is more
than a rest to the souls of the saints, but the grave is a rest to
their bodies. Their pilgrimage is a weary pilgrimage; sin and the
world they are weary of; their services, sufferings, and
expectations, they are wearied with; but in the grave they <i>rest
from all their labours,</i> <scripRef id="Job.iv-p16.8" osisRef="Bible:Rev.14.13 Bible:Isa.57.23" parsed="|Rev|14|13|0|0;|Isa|57|23|0|0" passage="Re 14:13,Isa 57:23">Rev. xiv. 13; Isa. lvii. 23</scripRef>. They
are easy there, and make no complaints; there believers sleep in
Jesus. (3.) Those that were here enslaved are there at liberty.
Death is the prisoner's discharge, the relief of the oppressed, and
the servant's manumission (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p16.9" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.18" parsed="|Job|3|18|0|0" passage="Job 3:18"><i>v.</i>
18</scripRef>): <i>There the prisoners,</i> though they walk not at
large, yet they <i>rest together,</i> and are not put to work, to
grind in that prison-house. They are no more insulted and trampled
upon, menaced and terrified, by their cruel task-masters: <i>They
hear not the voice of the oppressor.</i> Those that were here
doomed to perpetual servitude, that could call nothing their own,
no, not their own bodies, are there no longer under command or
control: <i>There the servant is free from his master,</i> which is
a good reason why those that have power should use it moderately,
and those that are in subjection should bear it patiently, yet a
little while. (4.) Those that were at a vast distance from others
are there upon a level (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p16.10" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.19" parsed="|Job|3|19|0|0" passage="Job 3:19"><i>v.</i>
19</scripRef>): <i>The small and great are there,</i> there the
same, there all one, all alike free among the dead. The tedious
pomp and state which attend the great are at an end there. All the
inconveniences of a poor and low condition are likewise over; death
and the grave know no difference.</p>
<verse id="Job.iv-p16.11">
<l class="t1" id="Job.iv-p16.12">Levelled by death, the conqueror and the slave,</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.iv-p16.13">The wise and foolish, cowards and the brave,</l>
<l class="t1" id="Job.iv-p16.14">Lie mixed and undistinguished in the grave.</l>
</verse>
<attr id="Job.iv-p16.15">Sir <span class="smallcaps" id="Job.iv-p16.16">R. Blackmore</span>.</attr>
</div><scripCom id="Job.iv-p16.17" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.20-Job.3.26" parsed="|Job|3|20|3|26" passage="Job 3:20-26" type="Commentary"/><div class="Commentary" id="Bible:Job.3.20-Job.3.26">
<p class="passage" id="Job.iv-p17">20 Wherefore is light given to him that is in
misery, and life unto the bitter <i>in</i> soul;   21 Which
long for death, but it <i>cometh</i> not; and dig for it more than
for hid treasures;   22 Which rejoice exceedingly, <i>and</i>
are glad, when they can find the grave?   23 <i>Why is light
given</i> to a man whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged in?
  24 For my sighing cometh before I eat, and my roarings are
poured out like the waters.   25 For the thing which I greatly
feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto
me.   26 I was not in safety, neither had I rest, neither was
I quiet; yet trouble came.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p18">Job, finding it to no purpose to wish
either that he had not been born or had died as soon as he was
born, here complains that his life was now continued and not cut
off. When men are set on quarrelling there is no end of it; the
corrupt heart will carry on the humour. Having cursed the day of
his birth, here he courts the day of his death. The beginning of
this strife and impatience is as the letting forth of water.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p19">I. He thinks it hard, in general, that
miserable lives should be prolonged (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p19.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.20-Job.3.22" parsed="|Job|3|20|3|22" passage="Job 3:20-22"><i>v.</i> 20-22</scripRef>): <i>Wherefore is light in
life given to those that are bitter in soul?</i> Bitterness of
soul, through spiritual grievances, makes life itself bitter.
<i>Why doth he give light?</i> (so it is in the original): he means
<i>God,</i> yet does not name him, though the devil had said, "He
will curse thee to thy face;" but he tacitly reflects on the divine
Providence as unjust and unkind in continuing life when the
comforts of life are removed. Life is called <i>light,</i> because
pleasant and serviceable for walking and working. It is
candle-light; the longer it burns the shorter it is, and the nearer
to the socket. This light is said to be given us; for, if it were
not daily renewed to us by a fresh gift, it would be lost. But Job
reckons that to those who are in misery it is <b><i>doron
adoron</i></b>—<i>gift and no gift,</i> a gift that they had
better be without, while the light only serves them to see their
own misery by. Such is the vanity of human life that it sometimes
becomes a vexation of spirit; and so alterable is the property of
death that, though dreadful to nature, it may become desirable even
to nature itself. He here speaks of those, 1. Who long for death,
when they have out-lived their comforts and usefulness, are
burdened with age and infirmities, with pain or sickness, poverty
or disgrace, and yet it comes not; while, at the same time, it
comes to many who dread it and would put it far from them. The
continuance and period of life must be according to God's will, not
according to ours. It is not fit that we should be consulted how
long we would live and when we would die; our times are in a better
hand than our own. 2. Who <i>dig for it as for hidden
treasures,</i> that is, would give any thing for a fair dismission
out of this world, which supposes that <i>then</i> the thought of
men's being their own executioners was not so much as entertained
or suggested, else those who longed for it needed not take much
pains for it, they might soon come at it (as Seneca tells them) if
they are pleased. 3. Who bid it welcome, and <i>are glad</i> when
they can find the grave and see themselves stepping into it. If the
miseries of this life can prevail, contrary to nature, to make
death itself desirable, shall not much more the hopes and prospects
of a better life, to which death is our passage, make it so, and
set us quite above the fear of it? It may be a sin to long for
death, but I am sure it is no sin to long for heaven.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p20">II. He thinks himself, in particular,
hardly dealt with, that he might not be eased of his pain and
misery by death when he could not get ease in any other way. To be
thus impatient of life for the sake of the troubles we meet with is
not only unnatural in itself, but ungrateful to the giver of life,
and argues a sinful indulgence of our own passion and a sinful
inconsideration of our future state. Let it be our great and
constant care to get ready for another world, and then let us leave
it to God to order the circumstances of our removal thither as he
thinks fit: "Lord, when and how thou pleasest;" and this with such
an indifference that, if he should refer it to us, we would refer
it to him again. Grace teaches us, in the midst of life's greatest
comforts, to be willing to die, and, in the midst of its greatest
crosses, to be willing to live. Job, to excuse himself in this
earnest desire which he had to die, pleads the little comfort and
satisfaction he had in life.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p21">1. In his present afflicted state troubles
were continually felt, and were likely to be so. He thought he had
cause enough to be weary of living, for, (1.) He had no comfort of
his life: <i>My sighing comes before I eat,</i> <scripRef id="Job.iv-p21.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.24" parsed="|Job|3|24|0|0" passage="Job 3:24"><i>v.</i> 24</scripRef>. The sorrows of life prevented
and anticipated the supports of life; nay, they took away his
appetite for his necessary food. His griefs returned as duly as his
meals, and affliction was his daily bread. Nay, so great was the
extremity of his pain and anguish that he did not only sigh, but
roar, and his <i>roarings were poured out like the waters</i> in a
full and constant stream. Our Master was acquainted with grief, and
we must expect to be so too. (2.) He had no prospect of bettering
his condition: <i>His way was hidden,</i> and God had <i>hedged him
in,</i> <scripRef id="Job.iv-p21.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.23" parsed="|Job|3|23|0|0" passage="Job 3:23"><i>v.</i> 23</scripRef>. He
saw no way open of deliverance, nor knew he what course to take;
his way was <i>hedged up with thorns,</i> that he could not find
his path. See <scripRef id="Job.iv-p21.3" osisRef="Bible:Job.23.8 Bible:Lam.3.7" parsed="|Job|23|8|0|0;|Lam|3|7|0|0" passage="Job 23:8,La 3:7"><i>ch.</i> xxiii.
8; Lam. iii. 7</scripRef>.</p>
<p class="indent" id="Job.iv-p22">2. Even in his former prosperous state
troubles were continually feared; so that <i>then</i> he was never
easy, <scripRef id="Job.iv-p22.1" osisRef="Bible:Job.3.25-Job.3.26" parsed="|Job|3|25|3|26" passage="Job 3:25,26"><i>v.</i> 25, 26</scripRef>.
He knew so much of the vanity of the world, and the troubles to
which, of course, he was born, that he was <i>not in safety,
neither had he rest</i> then. That which made his grief now the
more grievous was that he was not conscious to himself of any great
degree either of negligence or security in the day of his
prosperity, which might provoke God thus to chastise him. (1.) He
had not been negligent and unmindful of his affairs, but kept up
such a fear of trouble as was necessary to the maintaining of his
guard. He was afraid for his children when they were feasting, lest
they should offend God (<scripRef id="Job.iv-p22.2" osisRef="Bible:Job.1.5" parsed="|Job|1|5|0|0" passage="Job 1:5"><i>ch.</i> i.
5</scripRef>), afraid for his servants lest they should offend his
neighbours; he took all the care he could of his own health, and
managed himself and his affairs with all possible precaution; yet
all would not do. (2.) He had not been secure, nor indulged himself
in ease and softness, had not trusted in his wealth, nor flattered
himself with the hopes of the perpetuity of his mirth; yet trouble
came, to convince and remind him of the vanity of the world, which
yet he had not forgotten when he lived at ease. Thus his way was
hidden, for he knew not wherefore God contended with him. Now this
consideration, instead of aggravating his grief, might rather serve
to alleviate it. Nothing will make trouble easy so much as the
testimony of our consciences for us, that, in some measure, we did
our duty in a day of prosperity; and an expectation of trouble will
make it sit the lighter when it comes. The less it is a surprise
the less it is a terror.</p>
</div></div2>